Powder Mag: A Skier Goes East

[crank]

Yes way more variety and overall better conditions. I am a fair weather skier. I don't ski when it's raining or when it is "firm". Last year I got in 27 days and they were all in the western US.

This year is going to be more balanced.

I can't think of any reason a skier would travel east to ski unless it was to ski with friends or family. Maybe to attend a race school like Burke. For snow and terrain - never. There are plenty of steep and narrow trails out west if that's you bag. Plenty of tight trees if that's your thing. I find that western trees stay untracked a little longer then the eastern variety - especially the tighter ones. Them cowboys are used to wide open spaces doncha know.

 

[SkiFanE]

Way more variety out west. Not sure what would give you the impression otherwise

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For variety I was thinking not only terrain but weather and seasons and such. I usually ski 6-7 months (8 months 2 years ago). Usually start on WROD in October and finish with slush in Apr. never know what you are going to get day to day. I love that (I never found out baby genders before birth with all 3 - I like surprises). Remember - with no personal experience it seems like every day conditions are just packed powder. But this isn't a post I should ramble in much more without the knowledge (not that stops me often lmao).

Im also afraid skiing out west is like flying 1st class...so hard to go back to coach after that. Best I don't know what I'm missing - but I can't imagine loving skiing any more than I do now.

 

[snoseek]

I've got a total of 11 winters out west plus some trips and many years (born and raised) back east as well. On any given day I can ski pretty much anything in and around a mountain like Kirkwood, Alta or Abasin without hesitating all that much. I can't say that on some of the techy stuff back here...I'm not taking the trails but the sideshow adventures. The east breeds resilent all mountain skiers no doubt...coming back here for a winter will sharpen my skills. I guess if a eastern skier went west for the first time and got on some high angle stuff for the first time it might intimidate them but its a lot easier to master that terrain that tight rocky icy trees IMO.


Overall the western experience is better and more consistent that's obvious but eastern skiers are tough as nails

 

[deadheadskier]

For variety I was thinking not only terrain but weather and seasons and such. I usually ski 6-7 months (8 months 2 years ago). Usually start on WROD in October and finish with slush in Apr. never know what you are going to get day to day. I love that (I never found out baby genders before birth with all 3 - I like surprises). Remember - with no personal experience it seems like every day conditions are just packed powder. But this isn't a post I should ramble in much more without the knowledge (not that stops me often lmao).

Im also afraid skiing out west is like flying 1st class...so hard to go back to coach after that. Best I don't know what I'm missing - but I can't imagine loving skiing any more than I do now.

I like surprises too. We kept our son a surprise until birth and will do the same if/when we have a second child.

I guess I don't get bored with months of consistent packed powder. I mean that was the case two seasons ago from late January until early April. I thought that was a fantastic year and never found myself getting bored with the great conditions.

You can get icy conditions out west. Maybe not the boilerplate we get here, but I've skied plenty of ice in Colorado, crud, windblown and corn. It's not always straight out of a Warren Miller movie.

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[Brad J]

No sympathy for anyone pissing and moaning about New England skiing. It's the frigging bomb compared to mid-Atlantic skiing.

I am a sloppy, non-technical skier and not good for astute observations on style, but one difference between East and West I've noticed is Eastern skiers are very turny, great in tight spaces and know how to deal with firm/icy surfaces and crap conditions. Out west the great skiers don't turn much, they do 5 GS turns down 750" vertical of steeps. They gobble up terrain in big swoops and don't sweat the small


stuff because they blow right by it.

I totally agree, we make a lot of turns here for speed control on mostly firm surfaces, if western skiers took the same approach here their life expectancy would be dramatically shorter.

 

[snoseek]

I like surprises too. We kept our son a surprise until birth and will do the same if/when we have a second child.

I guess I don't get bored with months of consistent packed powder. I mean that was the case two seasons ago from late January until early April. I thought that was a fantastic year and never found myself getting bored with the great conditions.

You can get icy conditions out west. Maybe not the boilerplate we get here, but I've skied plenty of ice in Colorado, crud, windblown and corn. It's not always straight out of a Warren Miller movie.

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I've skied some of my very iciest turns in Tahoe. Its not the norm but sometimes things can be awful there too...and when that happens the only ones getting after it are the tourist from back east or the transplants.

Also when things don't happen, like say 14-15 in California or 09-10 in Colorado a lot of the resorts don't have the ability to compensate for that. WROD on xmas week or even MLK...it happens-I've experienced it

 

[SkiFanE]

I totally agree, we make a lot of turns here for speed control on mostly firm surfaces, if western skiers took the same approach here their life expectancy would be dramatically shorter.

. I have a one ski quiver (never use my midfats anymore it seems) - 155 SLs - I can turn on a dime and get through about 170cm spaces lol. Keeping in control takes tons of energy. If it's a cruiser day - with no bumps I don't even feel warmed up by end of day. So boring. I do hate ice and have a fear of losing control and going to fast on it. But there's the rare icy day when I can't find a tight line of bumps along the edge. I have an instinct that measures the steepness and width of snow when next to edge, that keeps me safe. If my instincts tell me - I won't go - I think 47 years of East skiing will give you that lol. (47 years and not one injury knock knock).

 

[SkiFanE]

I like surprises too. We kept our son a surprise until birth and will do the same if/when we have a second child.

I guess I don't get bored with months of consistent packed powder. I mean that was the case two seasons ago from late January until early April. I thought that was a fantastic year and never found myself getting bored with the great conditions.

You can get icy conditions out west. Maybe not the boilerplate we get here, but I've skied plenty of ice in Colorado, crud, windblown and corn. It's not always straight out of a Warren Miller movie.

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Isnt that the most amazing surprise ever?! I swear the 9 months was worth waiting - wouldn't have been as exciting knowing. Always had a boys name ready but never a girls name. We would spend Labor Day figuring out girls name, just in case. Lol. After 2 girls I thought for sure #3 was a girl, but surprise, a boy. Thank goodness - because we couldn't think of another girls name we liked.

 

[Smellytele]

For variety I was thinking not only terrain but weather and seasons and such. I usually ski 6-7 months (8 months 2 years ago). Usually start on WROD in October and finish with slush in Apr. never know what you are going to get day to day. I love that (I never found out baby genders before birth with all 3 - I like surprises). Remember - with no personal experience it seems like every day conditions are just packed powder. But this isn't a post I should ramble in much more without the knowledge (not that stops me often lmao).

Im also afraid skiing out west is like flying 1st class...so hard to go back to coach after that. Best I don't know what I'm missing - but I can't imagine loving skiing any more than I do now.

A-basin and loveland open early and close late with the sketchy conditions you like.

 

[witch hobble]

A-basin and loveland open early and close late with the sketchy conditions you like.

Those are really "East coast of Colorado" resorts.

 

[Smellytele]

Those are really "East coast of Colorado" resorts.

Hmm? they are some of my favorite in CO.

 

[snoseek]

Hmm? they are some of my favorite in CO.

Same here. More snow-less people.

 

[deadheadskier]

Isnt that the most amazing surprise ever?! I swear the 9 months was worth waiting - wouldn't have been as exciting knowing. Always had a boys name ready but never a girls name. We would spend Labor Day figuring out girls name, just in case. Lol. After 2 girls I thought for sure #3 was a girl, but surprise, a boy. Thank goodness - because we couldn't think of another girls name we liked.

Absolutely the best. It amazes me the vast majority of people find out the gender before birth. For what? Nursery room paint colors and clothes the baby wears for three months?

I wouldn't have had it any other way

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[dlague]

A-basin and loveland open early and close late with the sketchy conditions you like.

I would not be so sure about that we skied Loveland and A Basin in early season and during late spring and we had one firm day at Loveland and that was better than mid season last year. A Basin and Loveland were awesome this past spring.

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[Jully]

Those are really "East coast of Colorado" resorts.

Care to explain what you mean by that?

 

[dlague]

Care to explain what you mean by that?

At Loveland take Chair 1 and combine it with Chair 8 you got all that Eastern resorts offer - ok throw in Chair 2 for some beginner terrain. At A Basin take Black Mountain Express and Pali lift and once again you have the same.

Those lifts at both offer really good bumps on some really good steeps, trees that rival most anything back east, drops that you can really get excited about and cruisers that a whole lot of fun. Difference - no ice.

All the other stuff is extra - stuff that does not exist back east.

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[SkiFanE]

A-basin and loveland open early and close late with the sketchy conditions you like.

. I will keep that in mind if I'm so fortunate.

 

[witch hobble]

Care to explain what you mean by that?

Don't overthink this, but if you think of Colorado as our country, with Denver/Kansas as the Atlantic Ocean, and Utah/desert as the pacific, with the Continental Divide playing the role of the mighty Mississippi, that makes those Easternmost ski areas (Loveland, Abasin, Eldora) East coast of Colorado.

Those also are not big destination resorts, they are daytripper places, similar to most of our ski areas around here.

 

[BenedictGomez]

That is the lamest statement i have ever heard...........Personally I am not a fan of tight trees

I believe you.

 

[MadMadWorld]

@dlague the East Coast doesn't miss you either!

What's the matter you couldn't get over your son leaving the nest and had to follow him to CO?

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