sibhusky

You're right, I don't remember this at all. But then, I'm getting really old and there's a lot I don't remember......

So you're telling me that since I have very little manmade snow here, I'm stuck? We've been having about 10 days of slush-ville and by 2 PM it's the grabbies. I leave. Still haven't tried the "spring skis" with the coarser structure. So far I've had to wax DAILY and I can't take it much longer.

The problem is, more than likely, when the day starts, everything is frozen hard as freezer ice and it rips off the soft wax. So by the time the slush shows up, that nice soft wax you put on is all gone. The open structure is important. I'm still trying to find the perfect solution myself. I was happy all day today. Dr. D's Universal wax, fresh structure in the ski (albeit a normal linear winter structure), still gliding nicely in the slush. Left when the crowds came, got back to the locker room, took one look at the bases, no way IN HELL I'm going to get another day out of the wax job. The AM was hard and fast ripping the heck out of things, so I bet if I'd stayed on until 3 or so, I'd have been increasingly unhappy. The "spring skis" I have I have yet to test drive because they have a sharper edge on them and I need to take them out on a day I don't need to be pleasant to anyone... I don't like to make others miserable when I'm adjusting to something new. I'll get back to you if I actually use them. They have the sharper edge and a more aggressive structure to them for spring conditions, but after I had it done last year we never had spring conditions. I had to spend a little time on them after they came back from the shop because I just wasn't happy with the work they did overall last year, they were in and out several times, etc., and I finally gave up and decided I'd do everything myself except the base structure, long story. I don't know if they'll go out tomorrow or not. As it is, I have to wax my normal skis AGAIN tonight with something that'll last more than one day and still glide in the slush....... Obviously the "universal" won't cut it, and I know yellow is even worse. I guess I'll go back to red, but then I won't have the glide in the PM. Maybe red and universal or red with graphite......? I HATE SPRING WAXING!!!!!

Macro? Wrong term perhaps? Macro is for closeups.

I guess when I said Aspen, I meant Ajax, wasn't including Snowmass.

Really nice shot of Johnny. Looks like a great trip. So, after this, where you got lots of fresh powder because the clientele doesn't attempt what's available, and leaving aside the actual snow experience (which is always a matter of timing anywhere you go), would you pick Aspen or Jackson in the future? I'm thinking Aspen MIGHT be pricier which might be a consideration. And it might be smaller in terms of terrain, but it was all new this time which was nice. But, if you had to go to the same place 5 years in a row, which would it be? Assuming it was your money paying for it. Just curious.

I'll be curious to hear how they are doing. They are the other side of the divide from me, I heard complaints about ice about a week ahead of our complaints. BUT they are higher and get different weather from us. IT SUCKS HERE IN WHITEFISH. Inspo was like a bowling alley with marbles today. Almost like being back in the Poconos. Thank god we have the "back".

More snowghosts: Jeff can tell you most of my pictures this year have been fog days. Ice crystals flying in the air: A somewhat-worse-than-normal day:

Just to illustrate, we don't need falling snow to "grow" a base. Here is a picture of rime forming over the groomed run. The same thing that forms our "snow ghosts", also forms on groomed runs. Rime on groomed run: Snowghosts and rime all over everything:

It's been really dense snow this year, not light and fluffy. We only had the light and fluffy stuff back in December. Since then a lot of it has been more like falling fog.

It's an El Nino year. Historically, it's bad for this mountain. We need La Nina.

Interesting. Just checked Whitefish's stats. I think we are having a lousy year as well here. And they say 151" to date with a 78" base (summit). And we don't have boulders to cover. Even the base area supposedly has a 54" base. The biggest problem here has been day after day of FOG. And I mean really dense stuff, not the 4 chair stuff, this is the one chair stuff. Today was the first day in a long time you could actually see.

Even Sibby does her own tuning. Hates doing it, but in the long run, it costs less if you ski as much as I do. The goal is to wax every 60,000 feet. I admit I skied too much this past week.... it went to closer to 75,000 this time, bad Sibby.

I've been enjoying your trip reports and am jealous of the amount of snow you DO have.

Enjoyed your report.

I of course read posts from you, JollyJake. Of course, it's not only a matter of politeness, but also safety to remove polestraps from your wrists so that the poles don't get lodged in the snow and yank you from the lift as you leave the station, etc. Simple common sense. And of course, any good skier in reasonable shape should be able to use their stomach muscles to simply stand up and ski off the lift without using their poles like some old woman. I mean, if Sibby, broken wrists, bad knee, big butt, etc., can do it, why can't these young studs do it???? If you don't have the stomach muscles, simply placing your one hand on the chair seat and pushing upwards should do the trick EVEN WHEN the darn chair seems to be down at ankle level because they haven't shoveled sufficiently. Seriously. If I can do it, anyone should be able to do it. And it's always these young MALE idiots who chose to plant their damn poles in between my skis to push off. Fortunately, I usually can spot these gapers before I get on the chair and I just don't get on the chair with them if I can avoid it. I achieve this because I usually ski week days and not holidays and there is usually no one around to care. And yes, I usually give an earful to those idiots who block the singles corral while they rearrange themselves prior to getting in line. Jake, all I can tell you is that these people have paper tickets. Where they hail from I don't know. Probably Texas...... Latest incident here - New Year's Day - Three of us locals getting on the lift. Last possible instant. OUT OF NOWHERE some snowboarder zings up, sits on the chair as it rounds the bend, not a word out of him, right before the guy on my left is about to sit down. Guy-on-left is already in the process of sitting as this happens and ends up in the kid's lap, now I have legs all over the place, I am jettisoned into the pit in front of us, along with guy-on-my-right. Two foot drop, then another one foot drop. I narrowly avoid the chair stanchion. Guy-on-right is cursing and this is a guy in his 30's, normally the super mellow type. I was fine, but I tell you, visions of more knee operations had passed in front of me. And what was this kid's problem? The line was like a two minute wait. All he had to do was ask if he could join us at any point and we'd have let him. Or if he'd found out he was odd man out in the group behind us he could have ridden alone no big deal, this is Montana. Instead, let's knock everyone over because you can't just SPEAK UP. He's saying you're supposed to do that. Everyone should just be standing up and skiing off. This isn't a race out of a starting gate. That's why you have accidents and the chair keeps stopping. If everyone would behave civilly and learn manners we wouldn't be having all these lift interruptions.

Yeah, I miss the old stats page where you could view all the stats at once without having your own stats in the way. There was more info for one thing. Also, the new stats page has some bugs in it: Top 10 Avg Runs/Day JVert88 26 JVert88 26 SERCH 24.5 aderrick 20 pcklein31 18 Timeless 18 sarasnow16 15 george 13.9 OutCold 12.5 snoskier 12.1 Why is JVert88 listed twice for instance? I saw that on Timeless as well in another table. I looked in the list of users in the upper right of the page and they are not listed twice there, just in the statistics area..... Seems like it's really buggy, so not sure why it got changed when the last one worked just fine.

Siblet uses the Fiberlene because it helps remove the excess wax. She has the clip on her iron to hold it. I don't however and don't want to burn my fingers, so I end up scraping more. I guess it's worth the money if you've got the money. I use the crayoning method on hard wax because there is where I really really hate the scraping, but on softer wax I don't worry about it as much. I have so much wax I got from a special Dr. D was running at one point that reduced use of wax isn't as big an issue to me as thoroughly protecting my bases from the hot iron.

Maybe it reflects the fact that many people were in fact arriving late and buying that half day ticket. I remember that 11 AM using to be sort of peak time, and then again at 2 PM. I'm thinking if everyone was finding themselves finally out of the rental line at 11 AM it was worth waiting one hour to get the lower lift ticket price. Making it an all day price takes that incentive away. Now you have to get there earlier to "get your money's worth".

And the place is suffering (aside from some of the fights) because of it.

Finally show my daughter Austria like I've been promising forever. Take a month to do it so we don't miss anything. Wouldn't blow it on pricey hotels, but the dollar's so weak I don't think I'd have that much left.

All I can say is I spent 21 years trying to find some jacket to keep Siblet warm in the winter, finally did it last year with a system from Eddie Bauer, the 365 system that had a down layer to choose from. First time she didn't bitch when I wanted to stay outside.

I used to be a huge fan of Thorlos until I found the Lorpen Merino Superlite sox for skiing. Go to http://www.lorpen.com/lorpen-na/ and click on Winter Sports products to see them. I got them at Backcountry, but don't see them there at the moment. I've really become a fan of merino wool lately. These socks are thin enough to give good feedback for skiing, but keep you warm. I don't believe in thick socks as it cuts off your circulation around your leg. And I think that my feet are warmer since I switched to wool instead of the Thorlo man-made fibers.

Well, I care, but I think it's about time. For that matter, I think it's time for Bode to give up. Unless, of course, he actually accomplishes something this season.

Hire a limo or a friend or a one way car rental and you've got that covered. I used to get a corporate rate on limos, $30 each way for the family, held all our ski gear in a stretch, not a bad price for door-to-door service. Probably more these days but get a buddy to do it for you and owe him a return favor. Then at the other end, depending on where you go, there is also similar stuff available, either through hotels or publicly. If you fly in here, I know the hotels will come to the airport to get you. In CO, there are buses to many of the resorts. I've taken buses in UT as well.