Justo8484

I was at boulder. Gaper trails were packed. Parks were pretty empty.

What kind of terrain are you into? This is the first season I haven't been to Killy in probably 15 years? There's a ton of varied terrain there, and pretty good nightlife if you're looking for that. Also make sure to hit up long trail brewery in bridgewater, it's like 10 minutes from the access road.

what time of the day are you playing skiing, approximately?

there's enough slow for the 'glades' to be in play? was not expecting that...

granted i have not been up since sunday, but as of then, they were not even close to being able to open it with a fully built park. regular trail, sure, but that's not gonna happen.

Trying to be in for Friday evening and Saturday. Sunday's looking like a washout.

quoted for accuracy of powmow sucking. those summit series people ruined the place, not worth going to anymore. and yeah, canyons and PC rates that are on their sites right now are for early season. they don't have enough open yet to warrant full price. you know, since $85 is a great deal... i think we paid $60 last year for brighton tickets at a ski shop in cottonwood heights? and $58 for powder if i remember correctly? cat laps off lightning ridge went up in price too, they're not just an extra $5 on top of your lift ticket anymore.

lots of misinformation going around in here. i think i've paid over $300 for a flight to ski out west once, ever. Sure, you can theoretically get a direct flight from philly to utah and ski for free the same day you land. we tried to do it last year, but logistically, unless you have like a 5am flight, are somehow not checking bags, and taking a shuttle service to the mountain, it's pretty near impossible to do. we landed before noon, but by the time luggage came, we got our rental car, and got everything loaded up, we would have been able to get in like an hour of skiing, maybe. not worth it to drive up to canyons for an hour when it wasn't at all on our way to our condo. regarding lodging, i've either stayed with friends, or gotten a condo up in eden near powder and basin. if you can get a group of people together (6+) it'll be considerably cheaper and way nicer than staying in an econolodge or something down in sandy. the issue that brings up is transportation. with 6 people, you need a midsize SUV or minivan, and they book up quickly mid season. we've been fortunate to have friends that live out there, so we could get away with renting 'less vehicle' than we really need, because we could spread gear/people between two cars. there were also times when we didn't need to get a car at all, if there were 4 or less of us going, since we could all fit in friends' cars. stuff like that keeps the cost down for us considerably. i took a gamble last year and booked a rav4, and then upgraded at the counter when i saw they had a bunch of SUVs sitting around unaccounted for. i was only charged $100 more for the week for than the rav4, and we got a baller ford explorer. the rental car ended up being more than $100 a person, but i think it was pretty nice to not be super cramped when piling 6 people plus gear into the thing every morning. lift ticket prices: i've never used liftopia, but i'd definitely check it out if you want to ski any of the big name areas. snowbird tickets are not the most expensive. while snowbird is up to $92 a day for a regular priced adult ticket, deer valley is $108 and i believe park city will break $100 this year once their full rates go into effect. utah is just as expensive as elsewhere if you want it to be, but i don't really give a crap about skiing park city or deer valley. we have always had some luck getting hookup tickets at basin and snowbird, and getting vouchers for powder at the grocery store or ski shop in eden, which all have saved us a lot of money.

Good

might have to go poach a few laps tonight...

My parents got me on skis at 3 at camelback. Skied there for a season and I've been a blue mtn local every year since. My parents would take my brother and I out of school and do mid week lessons in the skiwee (now explorers) program a few times a year and then teach us on their own aside from that. My dad being a former racer, (and school teacher) knew proper technique and how to teach kids. During college I worked in explorers for a season and definitely have a good appreciation of what it takes to teach a kid to ski. As someone mentioned, morning half day at least, and then ski with them in the afternoon. Unless you're a very experienced skier with a good amount of formal training, don't try and teach them yourself. No offense, but you've probably got some bad habits that could lay the groundwork for those same bad habits in your kids. Put then in a program with their peers designed to teach them the basics in a fun way. It's amazing how easy it is to get a kid to sidestep his or her way back up hill just by playing simple rhyming games with them, and they have fun with it, learn how to balance with skis on their feet, and will talk your ear off about it for the rest of the day.

ah cool. I was the lanky guy with red pants.

glad I took 309 also were you the dude who rode the Main Street chair with Jeff? I dunno if I ever actually met you in person before

Got about 4" in Philly right now. Took almost 2 hours to get down here on 309 the whole way. It looked like 476 was crawling due to an accident by landsdale so we took the scenic route through north Philly. I actually passed some people on xc skis in the streets!

It'd be nice if more parents had their kids' safety in mind and taught them proper skiing etiquette like you did. Good job, sir. I, and all other park rats, thank you.

Glad you enjoyed your day at blue, but I'm gonna be that guy... PLEASE don't take a small child in a crowded park on the weekend and use the lips onto rails as jumps. I get that it's early season and may not be super crowded yet, but doing that mid season on lower park or sidewinder when it's crowded is going to result in someone getting hurt. I can't even count how many times I've seen parents bring their little kids through the park, let them ski up over jumps and then almost get landed on. Not trying to ruin anyone's fun, it'd just suck to see another kid get hurt by something so easily avoided.

In order of importance: Cheese fries - they're slightly above average, on par with blue's old brew city fries, but pretty much all the other food i've had there has been pretty good. kinda has a home made feel to it, in that the cafeteria menu switches up daily. terrain - i think over the past few years that i've been out to ski there, i've explored a pretty good portion of what's there and have a pretty good idea of what the place has to offer, with the exception of powder country. I've skied off the ridge where that first shot was taken, maybe not that exact line but the same area, and there's nothing that skis as steep as that looks. definitely a good camera angle at work on that shot. there's a couple spots where you'll get a steep little chute here and there, but there's really no sustained steepness like you'll find in the cottonwoods or at snowbasin. that said, if you don't need to point it (or hop turn cause you're actually in over your head) and claim best skier on the mountain status, the place is a lot of fun if you know where to go. ski it with 2 feet of fresh and you can not cross over your own tracks, or anyone else's, the entire day. hit the wrong areas with 2 feet and you're going to be poling or hiking your way out if you don't keep your speed up. i love the place, lightning ridge terrain is some of the most fun stuff i've ever skied, but i wouldn't go to utah and ski only at powder unless you're getting snow every day.

pretty sure i saw all of those things with the exception of sunglasses within my first run last night

Waxing entails little more than essentially using a crayon and coloring within the lines and ironing a shirt. But you make a good point, that's pretty tough sometimes

if you're set on that binding going forward, hunt down a jig and just mount your own skis. You're a mechanically minded individual, it's not that hard to do at all if you can follow a manual. You'll save yourself lots of money over the years if you're getting new skis every year or two.