Ski Report: The Future of Skiing?

Yesterday, I went with Carl and Tyler to Mt High. I was greeted to a glimpse of the possible future of skiing. Judging from the number of people paying to ski in decidedly mediocre conditions, ski areas will definitely still be in business in 50 years. But they might not look anything like you remember them and I felt a bit uncomfortable. So what did I find so disconcerting? Well, you see, Mt High is the anti-Alta. Just as there are no snowboarders at Alta, there are almost no skiers at Mt High. Although only a rough estimate, I would venture that there were at least 100 snowboarders for every skier on the mountain. While Mt High doesn't discriminate against skiers, the mountain is clearly geared towards snowboarders. Unlike other mountains, which have a terrain park, Mt High is a terrain park that has a few traditional trails.

Currently, only the west half of the resort is open. They are reporting a 12-18” base with a cumulative total of 1-2” of natural snowfall this year. From what we saw, that appears to be pretty accurate. The only snow there is what they have made. I did remember to bring my rock skis. But surprisingly, the 12-18” base was much easier on my skis than I expected. In fact, they came out much better than they did after two days on Snowbird’s 50” base.

Overall, the mountain was pretty crowded. The wait on the Blue Ridge Express averaged about 10 minutes. (The Exhibition double chair on the other hand was empty) But getting from the slopes to the lift was treacherous. All the snowboarders decided that it would be a good idea to sit down and get out of their bindings between the end of the trail and the entrance to the lift. It never occurred to them that people might actually want to get to the lift. The mountain itself could have done a better job regulating that and educating them on proper etiquette. Once on the slopes, it was definitely crowded. So if you like making big fast GS turns without having to worry about cutting people off, you probably wouldn't like the place. I decided to make the best of it and to look at all the people as moving slalom gates. No I didn't crash any gates. But I do apologize to all the people I cut off!

The other big downside to the mountain was buying a ticket. Normally the mountains are pretty efficient at getting your money. But it actually took us a good half hour waiting in line to purchase our tickets. On the positive side, they do offer a good military discount. ($36 for an all day lift ticket)

At first, we weren't too psyched about the fact that the whole mountain was a terrain park. But after some prodding from Carl, Tyler and I gathered our courage and started hitting the jumps. What was it that made us so hesitant to jump at first? For me at least, the answer is very clear...fear. I admit that when I look at a jump and consider whether to really hit it with some speed, I think about what could go wrong. I see visions of wipeouts and torn ACL’s. Getting big air introduces a degree of uncertainty into skiing that you just don’t have to deal with when your skis are on the ground…no matter how steep the slope is or how fast you are going. If you ski with proper technique, you won’t fall. And if you do fall, it surely won’t be as bad as if you were twisting through the air before you fell. The funny thing is that after jumping a little and landing successfully, I realized that I had been psyching myself out the whole time. Yes, I could get hurt. But that was only one possibility. The more likely outcome is that I would launch off the jump and land it fine. In instances like this, peer pressure can be a good thing. It encourages you to try stuff, that although you are capable of, you wouldn’t try on your own. So hopefully Carl keeps giving me shit about not jumping and maybe by the end of the winter, I’ll be doing helicopters and inverted aerials. Okay, so maybe inverted aerials are going a bit far. But I'd be stoked to do a helicopter by the end of the year.

Besides getting us to give jumping a try, the best part of the terrain park was the entertainment. For any of you going there, I recommend carrying up a set of lawn chairs, a case of beer and setting up shop under the Exhibition double chair to watch the clown show taking place on Lower Chisholm. In this place, they have put together the wonderful combination of big jumps and morons who have no business hitting them. What you are treated to is a wonderful display of snowboarders destroying themselves that rivals the best crash scenes from your favorite ski porn. Most of the time, they walk away. But unfortunately, we did see one person being taken down the hill by the ski patrol. Note: I did see one skier pull a half twisting back flip.

Am I going to back? Probably not. The mountain is nothing compared to Mt Baldy. The sheer number of snowboarders annoys me a great deal. But if it doesn't start snowing down here by mid January and Baldy isn’t open, maybe I will go back to do a little jumping.