method9455

Thanks, when it gets sunny up here the pictures come easy. Last night we got a surprise 5" at WP, but I had planned to go to Steamboat today. Steamboat only got 1" though. Not sure what I'm going to do yet.

Johnny Law - It was an eye opener for sure. Got my heart racing for the first time outside of the park in I really don't know how many years. Ecto - I should have given you my number but glad you had fun. With the crazy wind a lot of the mountain was closed that day, I stayed on Mary Jane and over on the Pioneer lift in the trees all day so you didn't miss out on anything by staying on MJ. Doug - As for night life, it was pretty evident the first two weeks of January with the college trips up here, but now things are pretty quiet. We went out Sunday night to the Pub for both football games and it was packed/could barely get a table. We ended up sharing our table with some people and had a good time. That seems to be the best place in town, we've been to a few other bars but nothing sticks out in my mind. I haven't seen a dance club but honestly we're not looking for that crap. Nightlife definitely doesn't compare to Tremblant which had the best apres-ski of anywhere I've been, and even Mount Snow had some places that we knew about. We didn't go out when we were in Stowe at all so I can't compare the two. Tuesday - January 26 Bluebird, relatively warm, emptier than any day we've been up here. There were more employees than patrons. Really surprising because there was definitely still powder to be found from the weekend and two inches more fell last night. I didn't expect powder so I was on my skis, first time in powder on them and it was very strange. It makes the snow feel deeper than it is because you sink a lot more than on a snowboard (even on 100mm waist skis) which is cool, but I missed just slashing the crap out of it and it seems like a lot more effort to get around in compared to a board. In the afternoon we lapped some real bump runs on Mary Jane which we have avoided so far on skis, did about 8 or 9 runs through and made significant progress on learning how to do them without just skidding around like a noob. Fresh tracks were still around with about 6" of powder, here Clay laid a few new ones before I dropped in behind him.

The part you are missing is that the condos did NOT pay for the lifts. If the condos paid for the lifts Fortress wouldn't be so fucked. They planned for the condos to pay for the improvements but it didn't work out. There just are not that many people who will buy 2nd homes. And sure as hell not at a place like MC, hell even Stratton. The villages suck at Stratton, Mountain Creek, and Winter Park. I was OK with the village at Tremblant because it seemed to fit better. I hear Whistler is the same way as Tremblant. The problem for day skiers is that the village gets between you and the mountain. At least at Tremblant the cab lift goes from the parking lot to the base area and by passes the village. At WP the cab lift goes from the parking lot to the entrance to the village and you have to trudge through for 2 or 3 blocks in your gear on cobble stone. WTF? (Or do a 40 foot climb up a fairly steep slope and get on a trail and ski to the base, thats what I do but it doesn't make sense). And at Mountain Creek they pushed all the parking across the street so you have to climb a big stair case and cross a bridge in your gear - WTF? I've only been to Stratton once and it didn't seem good there either. You can only screw people so much before it comes back to bite you. There are lots and lots of places to buy a ski house. I would never ever own one at Stratton in VT. If you don't buy a ski in ski out place you are a second class citizen at an Intrawest resort. Why not go to one of the competing mountains?

The last week up until Friday we were stuck under a high pressure system. It meant plenty of bluebird days in the 20-25F range for a high with little wind. Great days except without snow and the with a holiday weekend leading into it the surface was pretty hard all week. Not icy but certainly hard pack. I was on my skis for most of the time, except for a day of park and NASTAR on my snowboard. Didn't really get any pictures or any major updates, just 4 days of learning a lot on skis. I'm enjoying skiing a lot more than snowboarding right now, probably because it is novel after so many years of snowboarding and my snowboard boots are shot to hell. I have probably 150 days on them and they bit the dust although I'm still using them. I have to be the only person with ski boots that are amazingly comfortable all day but own snowboard boots that hurt like hell and are packed out beyond repair. I'm not going to buy new boots out here though, I want to use my discount at home and save 60%. So for now I only use the snowboard on powder days and I'm skiing the rest of the time. On Friday the weather started changing for the better. It has snowed a lot over the last few days, not as much as forecast but certainly a lot. It came with a lot of wind so the snow report is basically meaningless. I think more than a foot feel but with 45-60mph winds you have areas with 0 new and areas with more than knee deep. You just have to play the mountain right. Because of the wind a lot of the lifts were closed over the weekend (unlike Camelback, they run their lifts in decent winds but when you start talking 40 mph+ on exposed lifts, I'm not getting on them even if they run). The upside was that today they ran a few lifts for the first time since the snow storm and we got fresh tracks without any crowds. Starting on Friday - January 22nd Clay ripping a bit before the storm started. This picture came out fuzzy but I don't care I think its funny. This is me on a blue groomer, this is about as bad as the groomers got and its still a lot better than home. I'm having a hell of a good time ripping on the skis, if only I could learn how to do bumps. Saturday - January 23rd The forecast said 7-11 on Saturday, but it was late afternoon. We got a few inches Friday night though so while not a powder day it was fun. Sunday - January 24th Powder fell but the wind was brutal and so was the cold, definitely below zero. It snowed all day. The lifts were having a lot of issues with wind and several were closed. It was too damn cold to take off my gloves so I only have two pictures. Knuckle dragging for the camera Monday - January 25th Today was freaking epic. Wind was over, snow was still falling and we got a few inches over night. No crowds what so ever. I grabbed the first civilian chair. I figured since the lifts were opening and there were going to be a lot of untracked snow there would be a lot of people so I showed up at 8:30 but apparently not. First chair is at 9 and nobody else showed up until 8:50. 25 people total. By lunch time it got to be a normal crowd but I was really surprised by that. We had fresh tracks on mary jane, they groomed out some of the runs last night and then a few inches fell and they were so silky smooth. I got 5 or 6 laps in on the groomers in the first hour and still was getting fresh tracks on them at 10 - that is rare. Then I started working the bumps and trees and was getting knee deep fresh tracks right under the mary jane lift until about 12. Glenn and his girlfriend showed up around 12 so we started riding with him. There was still plenty to hit on mary jane but they finally opened up the panoramic chair that accesses the bowl at about 12:30. Glenn led us through a nice set of trees with completely untracked powder to get to the pano chair. We met up with some more of his friends and went up the pano lift. The top of the bowl was completely wind scoured as expected but as soon as you dropped below tree line it was awesome. Knee deep and much more on the wide open trails, plus a lot more in the trees. It was nice that the lifts opened in a staggered manner because normally you'd have to choose bowl or mary jane, but today I got fresh tracks for a long time on both. Glenn wanted to do some side country stuff. I know of three gates, there are probably more that I don't know about. Only one of them is open right now, and I think nobody has gone through in a while because there were no tracks before us at all. Glenn, his girlfriend, one of his friends, and myself went for it. Everyone else continued inbounds. Glenn prefaced the drop in with, don't go too far right there is a 40 foot cliff that will kill you and don't go too far left because there is a creek you have to climb out of. The three of them dropped in and I lost them almost immediately. I followed close to their tracks as much as possible but it was tough terrain. Steep, tight trees, and completely untracked snow easily waist deep. More snow than I have ever been in. It got hairy at points with some pretty good drops and some logs to ride on/over, not to mention the standard tree wells. I got stuck a few times and thats honestly the scariest part, if you are floundering in a tree well alone in the side country its pretty sketchy. I thought that we would drop down and meet up with the resort maybe 500 feet below. No. I realized the name "40 gate" means it goes all the way down to route 40, which is a good 2,000 vertical foot below the gate. It took me a long time to get down, maybe 20 minutes or more. They were waiting for me down there and we walked back about a half mile to the access road for the resort and took a shuttle back to the base area which is a few hundred feet higher than the road. It was about 10 degrees today and when I got to the bottom of that run I took off all but my base layer I was so damn hot. It was by far the hardest, scariest, snowiest, most fun line I have ever taken. I actually was tapped out after that, it was about 2 so I met up with Clay and headed home around 2:30. What an epic day, definitely was great to have a guide today. I would have found a foot of powder, but without Glenn definitely not the bottomless powder in the side country. Today - January 25th This is how I like my lift lines on powder days. Clay laying some tracks near the Pano Just 2,000 more feet of trees like this, except a hell of a lot steeper. This was the entrance.

Quiet week. Did a lot of skiing practice and did NASTAR one day. Started snowing Friday and hasn't stopped yet. High winds have blown it all around though so hard to tell how much actually fell. On the windward areas there is basically nothing new, but on the lee sides it is knee deep. The bowl and eagle wind (the most advanced area) were not open today because of high winds which I'm kind of happy about. The wind is blowing in the direction to fill up the bowl and now tomorrow when the lift actually runs there will be far fewer people to compete with for tracks. We got up for first tracks today and had a great time. Haven't been updating becuase it was a quiet week and without Danielle getting action pictures is a lot harder. We were a lot better coordinated so all the pictures came out pretty well. Clay and I are not and so all the pictures from this week kind of suck. I took some today but haven't looked at them maybe some came out.

Yea thats pretty busch league. I change out of my boots at my car and theres not enough room under the driver seat for me to do it in the car - I need to have the door open. It's not just that people are trying to protect the car from scratches.

When is it?

The soft snow that is grabby - if you use warm temperature wax instead of all-temp you can get through it at normal speed. I don't know how much your tune your gear but I do it often enough that come March I switch waxes and I actually really enjoy those warm weather days.

Your timing is awesome. Snowbird was stuck at like 144" for like 2 weeks up until yesterday, and now it looks like the faucet is open. I'm not a big NOAA fan for mountain forecasts but undoubtedly you will get some.

It's been a busy few days. Pulled an all day 9-4 session on Monday, snow flurries and 2-4" that came overnight made conditions much better than the holiday weekend. Crowds were high on Saturday and Sunday - not like a Saturday at Camelback, Mountain Creek, or Mount Snow etc - but compared to skiing onto every chair without a line like it has been midweek it was noticeable. Monday crowds were not bad at all. Danielle left today (Tuesday) so we spent last night packing and today we did a few things in town before her car came for the airport. The rest of the trip will undoubtedly be less fun for me but her college already started their spring semester and she can't play hookie to ski any longer. Here are some pictures from Monday. Snowy at times, this was around 12:30 and some tracks could still be made. 2-4" of snow fell, not exactly a powder day but helped soften up the surface a lot. Danielle hiking out further on the bowl traverse for some fresh tracks Danielle dropping into the bowl Riding it out Clay ripping it through the bowl, me in the background watching My day didn't go as well, this one came after trying to gap over a cat track, I came up a few feet short and bounced down the landing, felt that in my neck this morning but it was funny at the time. I do have a video of the attempts but haven't posted them yet This one was after I tried to cut around a bush to fast and it caught my toe edge square, everyone else thought it was hilarious because it looked like I got nutted Looks like some more snow is on the way. Utah just got hit and our forecast is for about 20" in the next few days.

What vacation does to your reading comprehension skills

When are you guys getting out there?

So what is really wrong? Did you break a bone or twist your ankle? Sucks to miss a skiing day on vacation but at least it won't end your season.

We climbed up to the top of Winter Park today, maybe an extra 100 feet above the top lift. The views were amazing. Everything in this pictures is inbounds, but not currently open And this is why, the entire area has slid

Got a little jacked up yesterday (Thursday). Went boarding, my boots are giving me a bit of trouble. I lost control and fell, unfortunately I only had 1 foot in and landed with my heelside edge down but my chest to the snow. Somewhere near 90 degree rotation on my knee. It was not good. I ended my day then after that, so only got about an hour of riding in. I iced the knee for the better part of the day and took a lot of advil. It's black and blue today and pretty sore but no pain so I think I'm ok. Went skiing today to avoid that snowboard boot issue. We got up there at 10 and stayed until close at 4. We got about an inch of snow last night, could use a hell of a lot more though. I'm pretty confident on groomers now pretty much no matter what the pitch/condition/speed. Bumps are another story, I can barely make it down a trail with bumps so I need to seriously work on that. On the plus side I was airing off of rollers and drop offs today and it was a hell of a lot of fun. On the down side, I kind of hucked an 8 foot cliff today. I intended to drop like 4 feet and land on the bottom run out, but I took too much speed and cleared the whole damn thing to flat. It was pretty funny, at least there was a lot of powder at the bottom. Forgot the camera at home, but I will bring it tomorrow. We are certainly hurting for snow, the average snowfall for January is 80", and as of the 15th we've gotten 16". But what that really means is that some of the glades are not skiable. All the groomers are fine and all the bumps runs that don't face south or west are fine. It's not icy, we could just use some powder. A lot of the locals are unhappy but I'm still having a good time. I just hope it snows again before Danielle goes home on Tuesday, we've only had 2 powder days so far.

Actually the other day I was snowboarding after skiing for two days, and I was totally jonesing to be back on my skis. I like them both but skiing is more rewarding right now because I can feel progress every day. At the start of this trip I couldn't link more than a few turns together on a blue and now I'm ripping down the blacks at about 80% of my snowboarding max speed. Next stop bumps and trees.

Thanks man, its worth every penny even in the relatively bad snow year. I don't know exactly how much money I've spent so far but I'll account for it at the end and I don't mind sharing that info. Honestly the time is the far harder part to get together than the money. -Season pass was $329 each (cheaper than anything in PA, NJ, or VT would have been) and I bought mine and my girlfriends, so say $700 -The house was $1200, our 3rd will pay some portion of that but just say he isn't -The airfare was less than $400 each after you include taxes, fees, and baggage charges, but like Doug said we didnt pay for it becuase we had frequent flyer miles -Transport from the airport to the mountain was $240 round trip for 2 -Food I'm budgeting about $500 for the month So 700+1200+240+500 = 2640 for 2 people. It will end up costing less than that because we aren't making it to $500 for food and our roomie will give me some amount of money for his room. Say you didn't have the frequent flyer miles but were only paying for yourself instead of for 2, it would be $1470 for the month per person. That is not bad. $49 a day. Totally worth it. The first key for a long stay is to cook for yourself. We've eaten out three times - average price for 2 was about 30-40, and we did burgers, chinese, and pizza. Not exactly steak and wine. The second key is to negotiate the housing. The place we are staying in is like $150 a night, but he was having trouble filling it for the month so he gave it to us cheap for that whole time. I got quotes from 1200-3000 for basically the same 2 BR 2 bath condo. The one we are in was actually our first choice because we like the location and the view. Check out vrbo.com and just try a bunch of people. The final key was season pass price. I'd rather be in Utah, Jackson Hole, or Whistler (except for the olympics), but at those passes would add 400 or more each, so almost a thousand bucks more for me. Considering the snow conditions everywhere I'm very happy with my choice. As for what I do - I save and don't blow my money on stupid shit. I'm a senior in college and I only work in the summer. But I paid for this trip, a car, and all of my expenses of living at school (food, beer, pretty much the only 2) other than rent. It meant not buying everything I wanted the last 2 years but this year its all coming to fruition and its totally worth it. I work a lot of hours, more than most people my age, but really it comes down to spending more than making money at my age. //End aside Today's TR Took Clay up for his first day. Very warm, 40s. Snow was not spring soft but certainly good conditions for carving. Danielle and I had lessons from 12:30 - 3. $98 total for both, so sweet. 35% off by booking early and having a season pass. Both of our lessons were "group", but both lessons only had ourselves and 1 other person. Danielle took Steeps & Trees on a snowboard and I took the top level skiing before bumps. We did like 30-45 minutes on carving but there wasn't much to cover for me, just some minor tweaks. Then we started doing some intro to bumps and thats what I really needed. I can rip fast on a groomer but trying to get through bumps I suck on skis. It was a great lesson and at that price I'm going to take some more. Danielle's was good too but since there was less to learn because she doesn't really struggle with anything on a board. THe 1-2" of snow we were supposed to get today didn't materialize. They keep saying "big snow next week" in the forecast but it hasn't happened yet, I'm a little nervous. I'd like to get a big storm by Tuesday because that is when Danielle has to head back to school, shes already skipping the first two days of class to ski so she can't delay anymore.

Didn't ski much today, maybe 3 hours. Spent most of it in the park. The features are well groomed except the superpipe was icy, there is decent flow but everything is very standard, nothing unique or imaginative. There actually aren't that many features per run either, Sidewinder definitely has more hits because the non-huge park is only about 2/3rds of the length of the mountain. The snow was good, it was about 40 and bluebird so it felt very much like spring although coverage is still good, we don't seem to be taking a bit hit on the snowpack melting away despite the temperatures because most of WP faces north and east. Checked out NASTAR - $10 for unlimited runs in a day, they run it 7 days a week. I'll have to do it one day, I wonder how I will score. My friend Clay flew in today so now there are 3 of us. Tomorrow should be good showing him around WP for the first time. Danielle and I have lessons in the afternoon, her for bumps on snowboard and me for skiing, I have to start carving more than washing the tails around. We'll see if they are worth it, but at $49 each for 2.5 hours it was tough to beat the deal - 35% off usual rates because of season pass and booking early. Actually went out to a restaurant tonight - Pearl Dragon for some chinese food and it was decent. Came home and Danielle had baked some desert and then we hit the hot tub which is always a good way to end the day.

All pictures from Sunday The bowl a few days after the storm The trees below the bowl A sweet shot of Mary Jane, pictures never do the view justice but this one was pretty good Trailmap

Sunday was good as well. We ended up riding a lot of the trees under the Panorama lift, they seem to be the must filled in of any trees and there aren't any rocks or stumps poking through. I forgot my phone so missed Nick/Dan/Glenn which was disappointing, though at one point Glenn saw me from the lift and called me out, but we never met up after that. Not sure if they lapped us in the trees (likely) or headed off to another lift, we waited for them at the bottom for a while but we never met up. I busted out my skis again today but left early at about 1 because we thought my friend was flying in today. Whoops, he is actually coming in tomorrow. Thats what happens when you haven't looked at a calendar in a week. It's nice to be on vacation and not even count the days left in it. So that was a waste of time but we went into town for a bit and made up for it. Tomorrow I'm probably going to ski again and maybe grab a group lesson in the afternoon. I'm starting to remember what to do but I spend the whole time yelling at myself as I go down the trail, I don't lean forward consistently and need to keep my shoulders more square to the hill. It's funny I can't actually do the pizza thing either, I tried to just scrub some speed in a lift line the today and almost died. We went through the park today but didn't hit anything. It is pretty immaculate and they have a nice range from mini to huge with every size in between. I'm not too interested in doing park except for some time in the superpipe because there are so few pipes near home, but not yet. Dont need to get hurt halfway through the trip. Tonight we went snowshoeing in the dark, it was really cool. We've been hopping in the outdoor hot tub Jersey Shore style the last few nights, but we haven't actually made it out to a bar yet except for the avi class. This Friday I'm sure we will hit a bar and Saturday/Sunday maybe a sports bar for football, but I don't have an opinion on the nightlife in town yet.

Nice! So did you request that room or just a coincidence?

Wow, been a few days since I really went on my laptop so here is a 3 day TR. Wednesday - went up there 11 to 4, snowed the whole time. We rode Mary Jane the whole time, it was awesome. Really enjoyed the Sluice Box trees and some off the right side of Sleeper. The pictures above are from wednesday. That night we went to the Friends of Berthound Pass avalanche safety class. It was primarily about the recognizing avalance conditions/route planning and the like, not so much about beacon finding or digging pits. They have a field day where they teach you that stuff but it is 2 days after I leave, bummer. We don't plan on doing anything backcountry this year but there are not many opportunities for a good class like that and it was free with a $5 donation recommended, so I threw them a bit more than that and they gave me some sweet maps and posters. The guy teaching it was really good too. About halfway between your average store avy class and a Level 1 class. Thursday - powder day. 10" of snow overnight. We got there for first chair, did a few runs on Mary Jane and then headed over the bowl. We made some runs there, but the wind had reduced it to like 6" of fresh and the rest had moved into the trees. After the bowl was tracked we headed to Mary Jane and the trees were full of snow. Danielle took a break and I rode a few runs with Glenn. No way in hell I can keep up with him in the bumps/trees, maybe on a groomed run but he moves through the trees and bumps at a speed that I didn't even know was possible. We got a bit off the beaten path and got some nice powder in the woods that he knew about. After Glenn wore me out we split up and Danielle and I did some more Mary Jane. Aside from getting stuck in a tree well at one point it was a great day. Friday - took the day off and slept a lot, did some laundry and then went to a restaurant for dinner and walked around the town for a while, then ended up back at the hot tub in our condo complex for the night. Saturday - Decided to slow it down because we figured there would be clouds so I took out my skis for the first time this season. Started out on green trails but remembered pretty quick and ended up working up through blues/blacks and then onto bumps over on Mary Jane (first time hitting bumps on skis). We did the looser trees over at the bottom of the bowl and I did OK, but we hit Eagle Wind which they dropped the rope on this afternoon and the trees were too tight/powder too deep for me. I struggled really badly and ended up falling about a dozen times and one time I was struggling to get up and started moving, and went about 5 feet before slamming into a tree. We forgot the camera but it was a gorgeous day, 37F and bluebird. We stopped at the lodge on the top of mary jane, it was sweet. They had beach chairs out facing the bowl and we hung out in the sun for a while, what an unbelievable view and an unforgettable day. Thursday the powder day, forgot to mention it became bluebird and no wind in the afternoon.

No time for a TR right now, we went to an avy class for the last few hours and are getting up for first chair tomorrow. Much better day today as you can see from the pictures.

Quick TR: Weather was 20s, overcast, medium wind at 15-20mph. Flurries in the afternoon. Snow was choppy today. Not bumps like moguls, but bumps enough that they would buck you when you tried to go all out. They don't groom much of the mountain each night so there were 3 or 4 trails today I was like damn it if only they groomed this out last night I would be blasting down here. Sounds like I'm bitching for home but honestly nobody enjoys that condition between moguls and smooth. Groomed trails were great though. We stayed off the Vasquez Ridge (mostly blues), the Winter Park main face, and the area in between. Tomorrow we're going to hit Mary Jane/Parsenn Bowl/The Cirque which are the marque areas, we haven't actually headed over there yet. It is supposed to snow about 10" tonight, but high winds tomorrow might throw it all into the trees. Long range, they keep saying the jet stream will change but they said it would this week, now they are saying next week. I really hope it comes south to Colorado before Danielle has to head back to school on the 19th. It's my girlfriend and I on the trip. Apres-ski is not a concern. Agreed, but I'm aware of that. Yesterday was really good - the night before it snowed 5", if we had been in Colorado for first chair instead of getting to the house at 12 it would have been almost a powder day. Today was quite different and I would say it was like an afternoon at Camelback.

Porn first, TR later Weather for the day - overcast, mid 20s, 15mph winds. My girlfriend Danielle Me