Initial Entry Etc

This is the inaugural entry for my ski blog. So before going into any details, I'll tell you all a little about myself. I'm 28 and have been skiing since I was 7. I grew up in upstate New York skiing at Swain, Bristol, and Holiday Valley. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, they range in vertical from 600-1200 ft and are covered with something known in northeastern ski reports as frozen granular. To most of you, that means boilerplate ice! When I was in grade school, I thought that Killington was the ultimate. I wanted nothing more than to become good enough so that I could tear it up on the bumps of Outer Limits. Family trips to Vail in 8th grade and Whistler in 10th grade showed me what real mountains were. After those trips, I kept on skiing in upstate NY, but it was only to stay in shape until the next trip west.

After high school, I had the good fortune to spend a year as an exchange student in Austria. I really lucked out. I lived in a region called the Vorarlberg, which lies right on the Swiss-Austrian border. That was a fantastic year for skiing. I got to go backcountry skiing a few times. Wonderful experience! During a weeklong vacation in Lech, my host family put me in a lesson. At first, I felt a bit insulted. I considered myself a pretty good skier and hadn't been in a lesson since 8th grade. But that was the way they did it there (they put all their kids in lessons) and it was the best thing that could have happened. During that week, for the first time, I learned to properly ski powder. Up until then, I had still adhered to the common east coast misconception of gaining flotation by leaning back on my skis. It was like night and day. It went from being endless work to utter bliss. More importantly, I learned that no matter how good I thought I was, I still had a lot to learn. After coming back to the states, I went to Tufts University where I was on the ski team my first two years. (42) I had never raced before and never really became a very good racer. I was mostly there just to go skiing every weekend. But again, it was a great learning experience. I realized just how technically strong you have to be to make it down an icy GS course. Those skills definitely improved my free skiing.

During my junior year, I spent the spring semester in Grenoble, France. If any of you are still in college and are looking for a place to study where you will maximize your skiing, Grenoble is the place to go. Meribel, Courchavel, Val Thorens, Tignes, Val D'Isere, Les Deux Alpes, and La Grave. They were all within 1.5 hours from Grenoble. For poor college students, the more important factor is that they are cheap for students. Day bus trips out there were $25 for most of the resorts. Lifts tickets to Les Deux Alpes were only $7. 7,000 vertical feet for $7. That was an incredible bargain. I remember a French ski magazine making fun of Aspen charging $70 for lift tickets to a place that was only a fraction of the size of Les Deux Alpes. That year (1999) was also an incredible winter for snow. Shortly after arriving there in January, a cycle started where it would snow Monday through Friday and then be sunny on the weekends. This continued for close to 2 months. Every weekend was thigh deep powder. I though I had died an gone to heaven. In fact, I was pretty lucky not to have died that winter. If you're not aware, European ski areas don't carry out any type of avalanche control off piste. You go off piste at you're own risk. In fact, they make you buy separate insurance to cover rescue costs if you get injured while skiing. Being stupid college students, we adopted the 4-track rule. If we saw 4 tracks going off piste, we figured that if the slope would have slid, it would have already slid. Luckily, we never got caught in an avalanche. But I now realize just how stupid that was.

After college, I joined the Navy and have spent the last 5 years in the submarine force. I spent most of the time stationed in Groton, CT on the USS Toledo. I got to do some skiing, but unfortunately never more than a few times per year. We were out to sea too much and when I was in port, the finicky northeastern weather never seemed to cooperate. Truth be told, two years ago, I got bored of skiing in the northeast. For one season, I did what I had earlier said I would never do. I took up snowboarding. The learning process was painful. Don't even ask me how badly my ass hurt. But it was a lot of fun. It was like being a kid again. I once again felt like I was on top of the world just because I could make it down without falling. I got just as much satisfaction at the little ski area an hour away (Watchussett MT) as I did if I drove 4 hours to ski at Sugarbush or Jay Peak.

Last Spring, I moved from Groton to San Diego where I'm on shore duty. Despite being in San Diego, I plan on doing a lot of skiing this winter. First, I want to take up backcountry skiing. I tried it a few times while I was in Austria. I had a great time and really liked the idea of having to work for your runs. Second, I hope to supplement that with the occasional trips to Tahoe and Salt Lake City. You might ask me what about Mammoth? Well I went there last weekend. It’s a pretty good mountain. But to get there, you have to drive through LA. That sucks. So I'll gladly spend $150-$200 to fly to Salt Lake or Reno than spend 10 hours battling traffic on my way to Mammoth. If any of you are in the military, Squaw Valley is offering free lift tickets to active duty for the entire winter excluding holiday weekends. Finally, if it’s a good season, I hope to hit Mt Baldy outside of LA quite a bit. Not many people in Southern California seem to know about it. Well I hope it stays that way. It’s a pretty bare bones mountain. It doesn't have much in the way of snowmaking. I'm not aware of any real beginner terrain. And the time I was there, it didn't look like they had put in a new lift in the last 40 years (I apologize if that is inaccurate). Basically, it’s a real skiers mountain. Those who go there love skiing. I've been working out quite a bit the last 3 months and I just got an AT setup and a new pair of Atomic MeX's. So I think its going to be a pretty good season. The weather just needs to start cooperating and giving SoCal some snow.

I'm actually writing from Salt Lake City where I'll be hitting Snowbird for two days of early season skiing. Just read that tomorrow will be the first day they're opening Mineral Basin, so maybe there will be a little POW POW left over from the last storm.