sibhusky

As it turned out, did not get much skiing in. The days were in the mid to upper 50's, the nights well above freezing. Snow was sloppy. Way more people in some areas them I'm used to (well, the last 18 years anyway) and then there was a sand storm from the Sahara which did not improve conditions. Never go somewhere to ski in March, it's too unpredictable. Below are three little videos from the trip. Not much skiing, but plenty of food for Doug.

Closing day at Whitefish. 10 inches of fluff. Tele skier on Inside Road.

Another inversion day

It's been a while.

Safe in terms of them not opening or maybe closing again? Well, that's why I didn't reserve for September. Background: We were supposed to go for a touring trip last September but Europe was "closed". I got all the hotel money back, but United only gave me a credit, which must be used by March. So, the farthest out I can go is March. I think the EU wants to open by July, but things are so up in the air, I decided to abandon the trip (probably forever) we had originally planned and do a ski trip instead. I am now having issues with travel insurance which I hadn't anticipated. United will insure the full price of the air tickets but not against Covid. The place I went through before won't allow me Cancel for Any Reason because you must do that within a certain number of days of the FIRST payment and the travel credit means I have to count the first payment as back in November 2019. And that's the only way they will cover Covid. Now the initial policy was CFAR, so I'm going to try and get them to extend that policy to new dates. We will see. I never realized that darn credit was going to be such a problem.

I read the other Ski Arlberg thread, which is why I put a year on this thread (thanks for fixing).

I just booked a trip to Lech in the Arlberg region of Austria. We picked Lech because of its central location and quieter atmosphere. As it turned out, prices were comparable to St. Anton. Will post a trip report when we go. In the meantime, I'm looking for any tidbit of info from anyone who has been.

I'm thrilled you posted this trip report, it's been very helpful. Athough one might thinking skiing at Whitefish might have me prepared for fog, I know the resort and we do have trees, so I'm hoping for less snowy days than you had. My daughter and I are booked for March 2022 in Lech. I plan to stay on piste and at this point I'm planning to pack my old skis which are K2 AMP Rictor 82xti's with an 82mm waist. I have newer replacement I'm also considering, but they are stiffer and make me have to be on them more aggressively. I'll decide right before we go, I guess. My daughter's sole skinny skis are her OLD race skis. Hopefully she buys herself a new pair by then as she really doesn't enjoy her normal skis on groomers. (I have the same skis almost as my powder skis and agree with her.) So I found the discussion about what people were on to be helpful. She also wants to go touring and off piste, so she has a big dilemma. I don't want to derail your thread about my trip, so will start a new thread.

FYI, that run used to be a blue. And in fact the only reason it isn't still a blue is that last, dished, pitch needed a helicopter to just be stationed there because there's so many accidents. And it was my one fall of the season this year. Hardpack, dirt on the center, trees sticking through on the left. I tried to stay on the right third and then make a left turn on the lip. Apparently I don't belong in a half pipe. Slid 200 feet. No damage and fortunately no witnesses. There's plenty steeper around but for some reason that section is a mess. It's like a shallow half pipe with obstacles. Especially this winter where the snowpack wasn't that great.

WEST COLORADO Steamboat Aspen Beaver Creek Copper Snowmass Vail Telluride Winter Park/Mary Jane Breckenridge Arapaho Basin UTAH Deer Valley Canyons Park City Alta Snowbird CANADA Lake Louise Sunshine Whistler/Blackcomb MONTANA Whitefish Red Lodge Big Sky Montana Snow Bowl Bridger Blacktail EAST VERMONT Stowe Mt. Snow Pico Killington Jay Peak Mad River Glen Okemo Stratton NEW HAMPSHIRE Cannon Wildcat Waterville Valley Loon Dartmouth Skiway CONNECTICUT Mohawk NEW YORK Greek Peak Gore MASSACHUSETTS Butternut Basin Brodie Jiminy Peak Bousquet PENNSYLVANIA Shawnee Camelback Elk Seven Springs Tanglwood Blue Mountain Doe Big Boulder Jack Frost Oregon Hill Denton Blue Knob Black Moshannon Spring Mountain Sawmill NEW JERSEY Mountain Creek/Great Gorge Peapack EUROPE Fieberbrunn

https://www.skimag.com/ski-resort-life/whitefish-mountain-resort-montana

This was just posted over on Pugski. I don't see it anywhere else online yet. Guy got the issue in the mail, you'd think you'd see official announcements online. Overall Top 10 in West:1) Aspen/Snowmass2) Sun Valley3) Whitefish4) Steamboat5) Deer Valley6) Whistler/Blackcomb7) Telluride8) Beaver Creek9) Breckenridge10) Park City

Got caught up a little with him tonight, going to continue our conversation tomorrow. Thanks for the shove. He's now big on running and does it at night time (clearly he doesn't live in grizzly and mountain lion country).

We're friends on Facebook and touch base occasionally, but since he's always posting team pictures, senior pictures, etc. for his clients, I don't "follow" him anymore. I don't have a good grasp of whether he's even skiing.

You mean Siblet. Me too.

I guess I was thinking of the old Camelback site. I know I met skimom at a race through a forum. Thought it was this one. I was already in Montana by 2004.

Still seeing him. Pics of her riding and after reaching the top of some touring climb. Hard to believe when I first joined this board she was 11 years old and on the Camelback team.

Wait until you see the prediction for El Niño/La Niña around October-ish. We are very much affected by those events, with the best seasons being La Niña (in my records kept since 2005, we get well over 100 inches more snow during La Niña). Total Last Day Snow Depth 304.5 110.1 weak or neutral average 359.6 134.8 La Niña average (best year was 426"/142") 246.0 82.4 El Niño average (worst year was 173"/79") 311.7 113.3 average overall Failing that, I'd say the best week to be here for snow is the LAST week of February, not President's week, the next one. That's based on my notes about particularly good days in the last ten years. Any later and you risk spring conditions. If you can't make that week, then earlier is better, but you don't want to be here President's week.

I hear Bumble is the place. I don't know how to get rid of that empty quote.

Almost 32. Not married yet. Seeing a guy who is into mountain biking and back country skiing, tho, so you never know.

I use a real camera. I still own a flip phone. I take plenty of pictures over the course of a season, but as we all know, not every picture is a keeper. So the goal is to pick the picture that either embodies the day, is a real stunner, or somehow stands out. The reality on foggy days it's the one that looks like something, anything. 😰😇😱👿🤓🤓😠😝😧.... Hmm, emoji window came up, never got populated with anything, Chrome froze, now I've got all these stupid emojis and can't delete them?..... You've got a bug here. The pictures posted above have been pulled from Facebook, which does a lot of processing, downloaded to an Android tablet, and reloaded here, so they've suffered a bit. Siblet's pic was probably taken with an iPhone. It was taken by a skiing companion, certainly not by me.

I'm thinking Big Face. That gets some cupping due to wind, but the really dangerous tree wells, that appear to be solid snow right up to the trunk, appear in truly treed areas. The snow surrounding the tree might appear level, but it's not consolidated, so it's this invisible pit where snow keeps cascading down on you the more you struggle. There's a lot of these areas on the back, around Evan's, and off Bigfoot T-Bar. Those areas don't get so wind blasted so the snow stays fluffy and loose. Great skiing until...

I go through periods when I do, but it hasn't lasted long. It's pretty mellow here compared to a lot of other places. We getting more popular though, and I hope it stops. 🙂 Plus, starting next year, Super Seniors won't be free. One of my goals had been to ski at least until I could ski for free, so that stinks.

Testosterone is a big help. 😉

Thread drift: Siblet hits the back country down in the Bitterroot: