Guest Blog: Skiing in China

My father, Jere Leister, is currently living in Beijing, China and has shared some of his thoughts on his experiences skiing in China.

A month ago I went skiing near Beijing with my Taiwanese friend, James. It’s single run of man made snow was far from great, but I had a good time and worked out my old legs for a couple hours. So, when he asked me to go with him to the best ski resort in all of China over the Chinese New Year holiday, I thought why not? On-line I saw that the Yabuli Ski Resort was indeed billed as “China’s largest ski area with over 300” snow/yr and recent investments totaling over 150 million U.S. dollars… In 1996, chosen as the site of the 3^rd Asian Winter Games. …. 700 sets of skis in very good condition. … 9 trails, which are as challenging as any trail in Switzerland or North America.” It all sounded pretty good, and my friend made reservations to fly to Harbin.

The first surprise came after arriving at the hotel when we arranged for transportation to the slopes. They said if we boarded the bus at 7:00 AM we’d get to the slopes by 11:00; leaving only a half day to ski. The bus came half an hour late, but the on-board “tour director’s” cynical commentary on Heilongjiang life (translated to me by James) made the time pass pretty quickly.

There were remnants of old snowfalls in Harbin (more than normal in Salt Lake or Denver) so I hoped I’d see a lot up north. As we got close I realized that it was not to be; there was, perhaps, 6 inches on the ground. This was in-line with another realization when we got to the ski area. Only 4 of us got off the bus to go skiing. Most of the passengers were from the south of China and were just on a trip to see the Manchurian country side.

But my first sight of the mountain again made me hopeful. Even if the snow cover was minimal…I saw two mountains and the far one looked like it might have some decent vertical. Of course there followed another surprise… the upper mountain was off-limits, only for use by government ski team members.

As you can see it was a blue sky day. That was a treat since Beijing is almost always overcast. After another bus to the actual ski area, I went to the rental shop. Their skis all looked like they’d never been tuned or sharpened. (On a side note, you can also rent ski clothing there too.) Oh well, I guess I really wasn’t on this trip for the skiing. But, my friend was psyched because, even though he was restricted to the beginner slopes, they were at the top of the mountain and he could have full time instructor for minimal cost.

I skied the five runs numerous times, despite two them probably (but not clearly) being closed, and joked with my friend each time I went to the top of the single lift. The day was sunny and the people, just like everywhere in China, were all very friendly and enthusiastic. I was glad for a chance to use my Chinese with the people on the lift

and as always in China we had great lunch:

….and I got to see how they made so many huge death cookies… by “mining” instead of making snow:

And then the real reason I went with James… after getting back to Harbin that night he called some friends who happened to live there and they showed us a night on the town… ( no photos I can publish). The next day we toured Harbin’s sights… they are known for their snow sculptures… the second one was the most surprising..

Alta/Snowbird Trip Report

As much as I was complaining about my dad holding me back, I have to give him credit for hanging with me and skiing better as the week went on. Although it hadn't affected him the last two years, maybe his difficulties the first two days were due to the jet lag (flew here from Beijing, China) and altitude. I'm not saying that he transformed himself into an amazing skier beginning on day 3, but he skied much better the last 4 days.
On Saturday, we were greeted with a light snowfall throughout the day. But more importantly, the winds picked up leading to blowing snow. By the early afternoon, this resulted in near white out conditions. Normally, I'd look to see where the snow was depositing. But the wind was fluctuating too much...one minute from one direction, the next minute from another direction. As the afternoon went on, the winds only grew stronger. Like most of the skiers still on the mountain, we spent most of the afternoon skiing the trees off of the Wildcat lift when the top chairs closed. This was perfectly fine with me as the steep chutes through the trees off of the Wildcat lift are some of my favorite slopes at Alta. Unfortunately, by 3:15, the winds had forced the remaining lifts to close. Forcing us to quit early wasn't the biggest consequence of the high winds. More important for my sore back, they closed down the Peruvian's hot tub. So instead of soaking in the hot tub, we spent the rest of the afternoon in the Peruvian's bar. It's a classic ski bar...lots of great local characters, a big fire, ancient couches and lots of dead animals hanging on the walls. If you're up at Alta, I highly recommend stopping there for a drink after skiing. At the very least, it definitely beats sitting in traffic trying to fight your way out of the canyon. If you're there on Sundays, they have great live music.
One of the great things about the Peruvian is that you eat dinner with different people each night. On Saturday night, we ate dinner with Paul, Dick, and Elaine. When I got back from the buffet, I found that dad had enlisted them in his efforts to convince me to put off looking for a real job after I get out of the navy (this August) to allow me to spend a winter as a ski bum. I have to admit that doing that is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will probably never have again. Sooner or later, I'll get married and start a new career. Once I do that, it would be next to impossible to do something like ski bumming. Not sure if that's what I want to do, but it does sound tempting. I never imagined that it would be my own dad who would be the one pushing me to do something like that.
By the time we woke up on Sunday, the winds (max recorded wind speed at top of Mt Baldy 107 mph) had died down. We found a mountain completely reshaped from the day before...with boot deep powder in many spots. The hike out to Baldy Shoulder was definitely worth it. But the highlight was getting some of the first tracks on Stonecrusher and Lone Pine. What was surprising was that we didn't even hit it in any of our first runs. It was probably an hour into the day. The most difficult part was getting there...the traverse into Stonecrusher was very rocky. But once you were in and made your way over to the right side of the slope, it was wonderful...boot deep and a nice steep long pitch. Despite being wary of where I was taking him, even dad enjoyed the run. Shortly after lunch, dad finally cried uncle and I was left to ski by myself. I expected to be really energized now that I could ski whatever I wanted. But by that time, most of the good snow was skied off and a lot of the mountain was wind packed crud. I got bored and was back at the hotel by 3...I guess that I've become a real snow snob...incredibly spoiled last 2 years getting 60" and 42"over 6 and 5 days respectively.
We spent Monday and Tuesday skiing down the road at Snowbird. Although I love Alta for all of its pureness, I must admit that Snowbird is growing on me more and more each time I go there. Monday and Tuesday were two of the best days I had all week. On Monday, the top of the mountain was covered in a thick fog. So we spent the morning skiing on the right side of the mountain off of the Gad 2 chairlift. It was everything I remembered from the year before...great steep, bumpy chutes through the trees. Due to all of the trees and its aspect to the sun, it also seems to avoid a lot of the freeze/thaw cycle that the rest of the mountain goes through. The snow is therefore seemingly better than just about anywhere...what looks like crud is actually very skiable. Besides that, they had some great groomers where we got some first tracks on perfectly groomed corduroy. I must be getting old because I find laying down GS turns to be simply wonderful...albeit a distance second to great powder.

The blooper for the day happened just after lunch. We decided to take the Little Cloud lift up to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately, we didn't see the lift station until just before we reached it. In one of my more graceful moments, my poles got stuck in the chair (sitting on top of the them) and I had to straddle my way over them to get off....got off on two feet, but only pole made it off...the other snapped and fell off a little ways back down the mountain. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. Skiing without poles was a great drill to force me to ski better....never thought it was possible to ski steep bumpy chutes through the trees, but it was actually a lot of fun. Towards the end of the day, we we were able to go through Snowbird's new tunnel, which connects the Peruvian Gulch with the Mineral Basin area.

On Tuesday, we were greeted with warm weather (~40F), blue skies, and soft snow. We made the right decision and decided to spend the morning in Mineral Basin. I highly recommend this as it gets lots of sun in the morning. The snow was particular good in the Bookends area. The second day we bought the "lifts only" ticket. Unless you plan on skiing a lot off the main ridge (great double diamond terrain if there's more snow), a chair only ticket will give you access to plenty of great terrain for $10 less.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to and end and at 3:30 we took the chairlift from Mineral Basin to Alta for our last run of the day. We had enough time at the hotel to spend half an hour in the hot tub and grab a few drinks at the bar before the van picked us up to take us down to valley. For all of you who plan on staying in the canyon and flying out in the morning, my recommendation is to spend your last night in Salt Lake. If a storm hits, its very likely that the Canyon could be closed the night/morning before your flight. (Note: This happened to me 2 years ago)

No Friends on a Powder Day?

...or so goes the old adage. I am two days into the annual ski trip to Alta that I take with my dad each year. Although Alta is pretty bare by their standards (lots of uncovered rocks/stumps that you normally wouldn't see this time of year), we were greeted with 10" of new snow this morning. At breakfast, everyone was talking about what they'd hit first and what their general strategy was to get the most first tracks possible. By the time we got to the lifts (20 minutes before opening), the lines were already huge. The locals were foaming at the mouth to get their first powder in almost two weeks. So I should have been pretty excited, right?

Actually, I felt really torn and it only got worse as the morning went on. On the one hand, I too really wanted to get some of the beautiful pow pow. But on the other hand, I was on vacation with my dad. The vacation is as much about spending time with him as it is about the skiing. The only problem is that he's 57 years old, not in very good shape and doesn't want to take a lesson to learn to ski powder. I still think of him as the person who taught me how to ski and as the skier I looked up to while growing up. To his credit, he will follow me down just about anything...at least until his body just wants to call it quits. While I try to avoid skiing the terrain (when I'm with him) that I really would like to ski, I inevitably take him to some spots that he really shouldn't be trying. After all, there's not a lot of easy stuff at Alta. So I really feel that at times I am putting him in danger.

Of course, I could just ditch him. God nows, I've done that enough in the past. Maybe if it was truly epic powder I would do that. But as I get older, I am coming to value my family more. He came all the way from China to come ski with me. So I would be a terrible person not to spend as much of this time with him as possible. I only see him 1-2x per year. So when he's around, I actually want to spend it with him and can't bring myself to ditch him each day.

So as much as I love Alta, I'm not sure that I can see myself coming back here with him again. Not only is the terrain no longer suited for his abilities, but I do not want to be teased with all the amazing snow/terrain that I am passing up as I ski down another intermediate run. I definitely want to keep taking ski trips with him...its just might have to be to one of those more intermediate friendly mountains that I've always looked down upon.

Ski Porn Review: Warren Miller's "Off The Grid"

Two weeks ago, I met up with a bunch of friends in Laguna Beach to see Warren Miller's latest movie, "Off The Grid." As described in an earlier post, the weekend was a lot of fun. However, "Off the Grid" was a disappointment when compared with his earlier works. I've always considered Warren Miller's movies to be a cut above the rest of the movies in the Ski Porn biz. True to the term ski porn, most movies these days are just a quick fix for not being out on the mountain. They put the focus on loud music, hucking insane cliffs, out-skiing/surviving avalanches and annoying park scenes. Sometimes this is exactly what I am looking for. But while enjoyable, like watching a porn, they generally leave you unfulfilled and empty afterwards.

In contrast, Warren's earlier movies have at least made an effort to get at the soul of the sport, communicating what makes skiing such a wonderful sport. His quirky commentaries have brought us back to Sun Valley circa 1950, taken us on a fox chase (on skis) with the 87 year old Klaus Obermeyer, or introduced us to the Schrab brothers who built a ski jump on their grandfather's farm in Wisconsin. When compared to some of the better surfing movies like "Step into Liquid" or "Riding Giants", even Warren's earlier movies could have worked harder to get at skiing's soul. Unfortunately though, "Off the Grid" was a move in the opposite direction. I want a movie that reminds me of why I love to ski.

The first question that I have to ask is where was Warren? Is he sick? If not, I hope he's going to be back next year. For "Off the Grid", he was replaced as the narrator by Jeremy Bloom, the former Olympic mogul skier and Philadelphia Eagle. I'm sure Jeremy worked really hard on the film and for the most part was just reading a script, but the commentary was lacking. It consisted mostly of brief intros of the skiers and ski areas interspersed with the skiers' themselves making cheesy "off the grid" comments...i.e. "This place was off the grid". Every once in a while there would be a comment by Warren. But it was never more than a sentence and it sounded like it was just a dubbed clip from a previous movie.

My favorite part of the movie was the section covering the expedition to the Indian ski town (if you call it that) of Gulmarg. Gulmarg is a small village in the Himalayas with a few ski lifts. In addition to some great skiing footage, it also introduced us to an area of the world we probably would never think of skiing. This might seem cheesy, but the scenes of them teaching the children in the village to ski really reminded me of the joy of learning to ski. We are so removed from the learning experience we had when we were little that we forget the tremendous rush of excitement we got the first time we slid down a slope with the two sticks on the bottom of our feet. After all, its this rush that kept us coming back and spending thousands of dollars on gear. With all of the great expeditions going on these days, I'd like to see more of this type of footage, which expands our horizons of where we could go skiing.

The Alaskan heli-skiing section at the end had some amazing footage. The terrain was sick and lines they skied left me drooling. But from a cinematographic viewpoint, I'd like to see less zoom and more long range shots. This gives you a better feel for just how crazy the terrain they are skiing is. I just don't think you get a proper feeling for it until you see just small they are compared with the slope/vertical wall that they are skiing down.

The next gripe is with the section on Jamie Pierre's ridonkulous 250 ft cliff jump. I first want to say that its absolutely incredible what he attempted. I say attempted, because it was more like a swan dive than jumping the cliff on skis. He basically did a half flip and landed flat on his back. I hate to chastise them about social responsibility, but do we really want to make people think that you can do something like he did (land flat on your back after falling 250 ft) and walk away. My answer is no. But also, to me, it shouldn't count as any sort of record until he actually lands it. Not that I have the balls to even attempt it (it takes a lot for me to even huck a 5 or 10 footer), but anyone could fall 250 feet off of a cliff and land flat on their back. The trick is landing it. He didn't do it. So why make such a big deal out it.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as a hater...I don't mean to be so negative. I just think they can do better. I would really love to see someone make a great ski movie that really touches at the soul of the sport. Maybe my hopes are just unrealistic. Unfortunately, "Off the Grid" falls short of those expectations. I'm not necessarily looking for the skiing equivalent of a Scorsese flick. I'm just looking for something better. While its enjoyable to watch and will not doubt get you fired up to get some pow this ski season, it's nothing more than a quick fix.

The Return of El Nino

From what I've been reading over the last week, it sounds like El Nino is back. It just remains to be seen how strong its going to be. As of now, it looks like a weak El Nino. The weak El Nino brings causes a split flow through California. The good news is that this means more precipitation for Southern California. The bad news is that it usually means a dryer winter for Central and Northern California. I'm no weather expert and I certainly don't wish a dry winter on the northern half of the Sierras. But it would be awesome to for the SoCal ski seaon to start before March this year. Who knows, maybe we'll be skiing Baldy by the beginning of November.

For more information on El Nino check out these links:
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/09/13/weather.nino.reut/index.html
http://64.29.226.243/dweeb.htm
http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/

Only 3 Months to Ski Season!!!!!!!

I just checked out Telemark Tips this afternoon and saw this beautiful pic on the front page. It made me giddy just looking at the beautiful pow pow! I'm so psyched for this ski season. With all the triathlon training I've been doing, I think I'll be in even better shape than last year and am really hoping for El Nino to come back and give SoCal a winter more like 2005. Well maybe hoping for a bit much, but I would like to be able to ski Baldy or San Gorgornio before March this year.

Here are some of my initial ski season resolutions:
1) Continue training to be in good shape for the start of the season.
2) Do an overnight (freezing your ass off in a tent style) backcountry trip by March.
3) Do the Sierra High Route or Mount Whitney in April or May.
4) Take a couple of lessons at Alta in January.
5) Ski Silverton.
6) Make a trip up to Roger's Pass, Canada to check out all the beautiful terrain my buddy John's been talking about.

What are your resolutions for this year? I'd love to hear what some of your goals are for this year?

More Thoughts on Why We Love Gear

As I was on a bike ride yesterday trying to rationalize why it was absolutely necessary for me to shell out $120 for a heart rate monitor, I inevitably came back to pondering my last entry when I put it out there that men love shopping just as much as women do. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I needed to clarify my thoughts a little more.

First, why is it that it's so much fun to buy gear? The way I see it, gear is the adult version of toys. While it may help professional athletes perform better and earn more money, for the rest of us, it just helps us to play our games better and to one up our friends. Just as getting a supersoaker squirt gun instantly made you a force to be reckoned with in the neighborhood squirt gun battles when you were 9 years old, the $5000 carbon fiber road bike gives you that much more of an edge over the other guys you ride with.

Second, I think the reason that the belief persists that men don't like shopping is that we really don't like the act of shopping. We like spending the money for the new gear. But whereas women will spend an entire day shopping for one shirt, we like to make each shopping trip a quick in and out mission. We research what we want to get, find it, and buy it. We don't try on 30 other jackets or go to 10 other stores to see if we can save $5. Generally, we don't just go to REI just for the sake of seeing if there's anything we're interested in. If we're going to go, its for the purpose of buying one specific thing that we've decided on before we get there.

Women Love Gucci, Men Love Gear

We men are always bitching about women and their shopping. We are flabergasted at how they could spend so much money on shoes and handbags. But I have to admit that the truth is, we men are just as bad. Women's weakness is clothes where as ours is gear. I have to admit that I am very fond of it. I'm in to my hobbies (skiing, bicycling, travelling, etc) and I love buying all the gadgets that go along with it. I often tell my friends that the quality of your bike or your skis only makes a small difference as to how good you actually are. I firmly believe that. However, I still enjoy splurging and treating myself to a new sleeping bag or pair of gloves. Last year was a particular good year as I was updating my alpine ski gear for the first time in 7 years and just buying all of my backcountry gear for the first time. November's credit card bill was absolutely horrific. It's looking like this year is going to be a little easier on my mastercard. The past few weeks have been especially fun as I took advantage of the Sierra Trading Posts' 20th anniversary sale and got some black diamond gloves for $19 and a Sierra Designs Down Jacket for $55. The biggest items I plan on buying this season include a new fleece jacket, GPS device, and altimeter.

Ski Report: Mt Baldy and the Rock Ski Theorem

I spent Saturday up at Mt. Baldy skiing with my friends Christina, Dianna, Tyler and Ben. It was a typical Baldy day...sunny (until clouds rolled in around 3pm) and upper 40's. The snow cover was good by Baldy standards, although there were still plenty of rocks and trees sticking out of the snow to keep things interesting. Due to the daily freeze-thaw cycle, we spent the morning skiing the south/southeast facing terrain off of chair 4 (to the left of the base lodge when looking up). It was already nice and soft by 10AM. We moved over to Thunder Mt around noon. Most of the off-piste terrain there was still frozen. But we were surprised to find that the snow on the north facing terrain(just to skiers right of the ridge the chair lift goes up) was still soft and powdery in spots. With this knowledge in hand, we headed over to South Bowl for a couple of runs before lunch. The snow in the north facing section of the bowl (all the way to skiers left) was good but inconsistent. It would alternate from being soft powder to ice topped with death cookies. All in all, it was good skiing that challenged you to adapt to the terrain and deal with it. We took a few more runs , moving further and further to skier's right working our way towards the lift. That side had definitely received more sun and we were able to find some nice untracked soft snow left over from last week's storm.
What left me really excited about Saturday was that it provided me even more reason to believe that there is strong scientific link between using rock skis and being able to ski over rocks without getting core shots. Like the week before, I was skiing where ever and as fast I wanted to, without really caring whether or not I hit a rock. The snow cover was marginally better than the week before, but there were still plenty of rocks to be found. Most of the day I was pretty good about avoiding rocks. But on the last run from the top, I was going full speed under the Thunder Mt lift. What I failed to notice on any of the rides up the lift that day was that towards the end of the slope, there was one spot where the snow stopped and a 5 yard stretch of gravel began. Unfortunately, I didn't see it until 10 yards before the snow stopped and I was going way too fast to be able to stop in time. So I decided to go with it and ski the gravel. I did jump off the snow a little to try to keep my full weight from being on the rocks. But as I was going over, I still heard that painful sound of base material meeting granite. Even though they were rock skis, a little part of me did die at that moment. I decided to wait until I was at the bottom to look at my skis as I'm a firm believer in the saying "igorance is bliss." Amazingly enough though, when I did look at them, there was nothing but a few long (2/3 ski length) scrapes and none of them were core shots. So it appears that either Dynastar is on to something in their choice of base material or there is a scientific link preventing rock skis from getting core shots.
The other interesting part of Saturday was that it was the first time I'd ever skied with little kids(since I was one myself). Ben brought his three sons along. The rest of us skied with Ben's two oldest sons, Andy (12) and Jake(9), while Ben skied with his youngest son Danny. I was amazed how good Andy and Jake were. Perhaps they weren't quite as good as the phenom kids who make it into the Warren Miller movies. But we took them down steep terrain that in places had really crappy snow. They didn't flinch for a minute and there was never any bitching. They were awesome. Before this I had always thought that it must be tough for a parent to have to give up skiing good terrain to spend years sticking to intermediate terrain teaching their kids to ski. But Saturday made me realize that it must be a great feeling when you finally see your kids become great skiers and develop the love for the sport that you have. The only thing that sucks is that Ben has a really narrow window to enjoy skiing with his sons because within 5-10 years they'll be good enough where they won't want to wait for dad anymore.

The Cougar, The Local, and The Liftie

No, isn't a C.S. Lewis knock off. I actually came across this article in Powder Magazine which touches on the Hardcore Skier Chick topic from February. Thing of it as a how to guide for the single guy to navigate through the ski town singles scene. Enjoy!

http://powdermag.com/features/columns/radar-love/

Ski Report: Sunday at Baldy

Today was my first day this year at Mt. Baldy. Before moving to San Diego last spring, I skied there twice last year over President's Day weekend while I was out here apartment hunting. I was treated to 3 feet of powder both days. I was told that I was spoiled and will never see conditions like that again. I haven't. But ever since then, I've been waiting to go back.

So today I finally made it. I got there around 9. The groomers had already softened up a bit, but all of the off-piste stuff was rock hard. I found a couple of strategies to make the morning off-piste experience more enjoyable. First, try to ski where others haven't gone (i.e. no tracks) yet. Even if its rock hard, you just dig in your edges and it’s just like skiing an eastern groomer. Second, try to challenge yourself by seeking out the worst conditions on the mountain. I’m dead serious! What I mean by this is that you should look for the worst combination of death cookies, rocks, trees and anything else that may be sticking out of the snow. Then you attack it and see who wins. I like to think that if it doesn't kill you, it only makes you a better skier. After a few runs of that, plain death cookies are absolute joy.
On their website, Baldy is reporting a 12-30" base. Although coverage on most of the mountain was surprisingly good, there were numerous places where that 12" was looking awfully generous. In the thinner areas, it was definitely more like 2" of snow intermixed with gravel and pine needles. Unlike my trip to Snowbird in December, I actually used foresight and brought my rock skis...a pair 193 Dynastar Max Zero's. For Baldy, this was the right choice and I would never recommend bringing your good skis there unless it was a year like last year. I don't how you are, but when I'm on my good skis and I really hit a rock and hear that scraping that screams "Core Shot!!!”, a little piece of me dies. But if you're on rock skis, it doesn't matter...they're just rock skis!. Just after lunch, I took a run off the chair to the left as you're looking up from the lodge. On the way down, I got to a section where there were interconnected 3 foot wide snow-covered bushes surround by gravel. With my Atomic MeX’s (my good skis) I would have run like a baby. But on my rock skis, I charged it, picked my way down with jump turns and had a great time doing it. The other great thing about rock skis is their tie in with Murphy's Law. Murphy's Law dictates that if you have new skis, every rock you hit will give you a core shot. But with rock skis, it says that you can purposely ski down gravel without getting a core shot. Sure enough, when I looked at my bases at the end of the day, even with a very sketchy thinely covered run down to the parking lot, they had nothing but minor scrapes.

The last part of today's Baldy rant has to do with high fashion. Baldy is the only place where I, dressed in a 5 year old red Patagonia shell and plain black Marmot bibs, feel like the pinnacle of fashion. It’s an old school mountain and people like to dress the part. I love the fact that you see one-piece suits (never thought I'd ever say that!!), old Descente ski sweaters, stretch pants accompanied by jester hats (always wanted one in junior high), and a woman sporting a white unitard. You got to love it! Oh yeah, one more thing, if you need any other reason to go up there, there was a dude on a hot pink Tua Monoski!

No Mammoth This Weekend

Unfortunately, due to not being able to get out of work until 4 this afternoon and the LA posse deciding to leave early for Mammoth, I was going to be stuck making the drive by myself. As much as I love to ski, doing the drive solo just didn't seem worth it. 16 hours of driving round-trip, dealing with both San Diego and LA rush hour traffic, and storm conditions on the way up were too much for me. Maybe I'm just a pussy, but if I went, I foresaw myself being completely exhausted (and in no mood to have any fun) both while up there and after coming home.

Baldy Awakens From Her Slumber...Well Sort Of!

Ever since I moved to San Diego from the East coast last spring, I've been looking forward to skiing Mt Baldy (great bares bones mountain located just outside LA for those who aren't from Socal) this year. Due to a mild winter and Baldy's near complete lack of snowmaking, I have yet to ski there this year. However, my buddy Tyler made it up there this Monday after they finally opened the Thunder Mountain chairlift. The following is his report:

"It was a typical day at Baldy; they didn't open the summit chair until noon. A few folks hiked to the summit out of frustration. Dianna decided to join along. She had brought her skins and climbed up the groomer to get some time in on her skins before this coming weekend's trip to Pear Lake.

We spent most of the morning doing laps on the beginner chair. When they finally opened the summit chair, I took a run on the one groomer that was open from the top. On the second run down, I ducked the ropes and got to ski an untracked run from the top. The first half of the run was fun. There was actually dry powder if you can believe it. The second half was rock and snow covered ice. My skis will never be the same...

At the bottom, Dianna and Laura skied on and finished out the day while I read the paper.”

Note: Tyler fails to fully explain why he finished the day out sitting in the lodge, drinking beers and reading the paper. Besides being greeted on the second half by rocks (which were ever so kind to his skis), he was also greeted by the ski patrol who took away his lift ticket. So it appears that the good luck we had at Snow Summit on Saturday had ran out.

Ski Report: Surf N' Ski

As I said two posts ago, I've been going through some difficult times recently due to not skiing the previous two weekends. So by the time this past week came around, I was pretty much desperate. I was going to go out and get some turns in no matter what. Unfortunately, none of my friends were up for any real trips. Girlfriends, visitors from out of town, or side jobs tracking wolverines took precedence. So I resorted to pimping myself out on Telemark Tips (www.telemarktips.com) to find someone who was interested in doing some backcountry skiing in the Eastern Sierras. "Single white male, AT skier, 22 years experience downhill, 5 days backcountry, enjoys steep couloirs and long walks on the beach, willing to do anything to join party of experienced backcountry skiers for weekend in E. Sierras." Amazingly enough, my post got lots of looks but no offers.

Rejected by all of the free-heelers on Telemark Tips, I turned to my next best option. My friends Tyler and Dianna were planning on going to Snow Summit for some night skiing on Saturday with Dianna's cousin, who was in town visiting from Massachusetts. After getting spoiled by all of the great early season skiing at Alta, Snowbird and Vail, I told myself I wouldn't sink to the level of skiing at Snow Summit. But like I said, I was desperate for some turns. So it appeared that this was to be my fate for the weekend.

Sitting in my office Thursday, I remembered one of the important life lessons I've learned in the Navy. While I was a Midshipman, I spent 5 weeks one summer on the Los Angeles class attack submarine USS Houston. While on board, we were lucky enough to pull in to Pattaya Beach, Thailand for a port call. I had only been on board for 2 weeks before we pulled in. But they had been out for a few months already and really needed to blow off some steam. I won't go into any details. But I will just say that I was scarred, yet utterly amazed at what great use they made of their time. While there, the junior officers let me in on their informal liberty rules: 1. Always seek to elevate. 2. When you crash and burn, regroup, and elevate. What they are basically saying was live life to the fullest. Find a way to squeeze the most fun into whatever you are doing...even if it involves skiing at Snow Summit.

What relevance did that have to this weekend and how was I going to elevate? The title of the entry pretty much gives it away. But one of the life-goals I said I was going to accomplish at some point this ski season was to surf and ski in the same day. That is a quintessential Socal experience. There is probably no other place in the world where doing that is so easy. So I met Tyler and Laura (Dianna's cousin) at San Onofre at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. The waves were a little on the small side (2-3 ft and mushy). But we all managed to catch some good waves and have a great time. I've got to give a big hand to Laura. It was her first day ever on a surfboard and she actually stood up and rode a wave on the second one she tried catching.

After spending 2 hours surfing, we took off for Tyler's place in Laguna, picked up Dianna, and headed up to Snow Summit. The drive up there was actually a real pain. It took us 3 hours to get there and the roads weren't even that bad. I attribute this to a combination of typical LA traffic on the freeway and LA drivers not having a clue how to drive in snow once we were in the mountains. If there were any snow on Mt. Baldy at all, the drive alone is reason enough to go there. We arrived at Snow Summit around 5 PM. Snow Summit has a $40 ticket that is good from 3-9 PM. So as far as ticket prices go, it’s not outrageous.

Once we were on the mountain, we actually had a fun time. It's small and the terrain isn't all that interesting. But it did have good snow and moderately pitched terrain that was good for cruising. The mountain was nice enough to groom in between the jumps in the terrain park. So we enjoyed ripping big turns in between the teeny boppers playing in the park. Truth be told, the whole experience reminded me a lot of the Friday and Saturday night ski club trips we used to take to Greek Peak and Holiday Valley when I was in junior high and high school. Back then I was one of those kids lining up to hit the jumps trying to pull the biggest daffy or backscratcher. I have to admit that things have changed a bit since then. The jumps in the park are now man-made and much bigger than the ones we had. When I was that age, you were the king of the mountain if you could successfully land a helicopter or a double daffy. Nowadays, even as a kid, you have to get inverted to really impress your friends. On the positive side, instead of eating overpriced cardboard pizza in the cafeteria, we treated ourselves to pints of Sierra Nevada.

But just like in high school, the biggest thrill came from breaking the rules. Shortly after we got there, they closed all of the slopes to the skiers' right of the East Mountain Express chairlift in order to blow snow and to groom. We were eyeing it all night, salivating over the untouched corduroy, and decided to cut the gate leading to that section of the mountain at 9:15. We figured that if they caught us and took away our lift ticket, it would be no big loss. The mountain closed at 9:30 after all. About 100 yards after cutting the gate, we came around a corner and saw a snow cat blocking our path. So we turned back and hiked up into the woods to see if we could make our way around him. But just as we were approaching the edge of the woods to cross the slope up above the snow cat, we saw two guys in the middle of the slope adjusting the snow guns. So we turned back in retreat thinking that this wasn't to be our night. However, as we were nearing the gate that we had cut only 5 minutes earlier, we heard the snow cat start up and head up the hill. We immediately turned back around and made our way along the path as fast as we could. As we were passing the slope where the snow cat and the guns were, we didn't even look to see if they saw us.

The run was gorgeous...for Snow Summit standards. We were skiing on a layer of fresh, soft, untouched corduroy. Adding to the thrill of breaking the rules were the snow guns that were still going at full blast the whole way down. We really couldn't see very well and were praying that they didn't have any hoses crossing the slope. We never would have seen them. Thinking we hadn't been detected, we came across 2 snowmobiles coming up the hill on the last pitch. Luckily they really didn't care as we both kept going and they didn't turn back. We took one more run that night. But that run was definitely the highlight. What I feared was going to be a sub par weekend turned out to be a lot of fun.

In Search of the Elusive Hardcore Skier Chick?

Being Valentine's Day, I thought it would be appropriate to devote this entry to man's other obsession...women. So I was up in LA this past weekend visiting my buddy Carl. We were out with his girlfriend, Teahnna, and were walking back to my car after eating a wonderful meal at very nice Italian Restaurant (Dolce) in Hollywood. As we're walking down the sidewalk along Sweetzer Ave past a car (I don't remember what kind of car it actually was), both Carl and I were struck by its roof rack. It was covered with stickers from a whole slew of resorts including Alta, Snowbird, Kirkwood, Squaw, and Jackson Hole to name a few. Carl turns to me and says, "I almost want to leave this dude a note suggesting that we get together for some skiing." I nod my head in agreement. Teahnna's response to this is, "What makes you think this car belongs to a guy, it could be a girl's car!" Carl and I turn to each other and just start laughing. I reply that girls like that don't exist. Carl adds fuel to the fire, saying that if she did exist, he'd be out with her right now.

Needless to say, Teahnna didn't find our comments very funny. But it does raise an important point for those of us who are addicted to skiing or any other sport where the participants are mostly dudes. How do you balance the relationship you have with your girlfriend/wife (who expects you to be home on the weekends) and that with your love of the sport (that takes you out of town seemingly every moment that you have off)? As a sub-question, should you look for a woman who shares your interests or a woman who doesn't share them, but can respect your passion for them?

I'm not even pretending that I have the answers to these questions. God knows that I am a complete mess when it comes to women! But from observing a number of relationships (friends and family, some ideal and others less than ideal) and thinking quite a bit about what I value in a relationship, I have at least developed my own opinion.

Of course, the ideal situation is to find a woman who would be driving the aformentioned car with the nicely decorated roofrack. That way she can share in your passion and you both can go skiing every weekend. As a side note, I would hope that she is either roughly as good as I am or is totally understanding if I want to ditch her on a powder day. When I get onto the mountain, I know that I become a completely self-centered asshole. I am a firm believer in the "no friends on a powder day" rule. (Sorry Dad for ditching you at Alta!) But it hurts me to wait for people while I see beautiful powder getting tracked up. So she'd have to either be good or understanding. (Note: If she'd be into skiing steeps and hucking cliffs, I would consider that a major turn on!) If she was a crappy skier who expected me to hang with her on a powder day, it probably wouldn't work. She'd probably hate me by the end of the day.

That being said, I have gradually become more realistic and have come to realize that the odds of meeting a woman who is a smart, hardcore skier chick are pretty slim. Just finding a single girl like that is tough. Every dude who skis wants to meet her. On top of that, you also have to have some chemistry-which further reduces the odds. Then you need to prevent yourself from acting like a moron and screwing it up-for me the larger concern and one which reduces the odds yet further. I know this all sounds incredibly pessismistic. So in the end you're left holding out for something you're not likely to find. So like most normal people, I think the answer is to find a woman with whom you just enjoy hanging out with and can understand your passion for skiing. Naturally there's going to have to be some compromise on both sides. So you can give up going out of town some weekends when the snow is no good. But hopefully she'll understand that skiing is a part of who you are. If she's cool and a little adventurous, maybe she'll take up the sport herself.

PS: If anyone who reads this knows if that roofrack did belong to a woman who is single, I'd indebted if you could get me her number.

Withdrawl Symptoms

I've spent the last 2 weekends away from the mountains hanging out in LA and San Diego. I was sick the first weekend and just didn't want to make 6-8 hour drive necessary to find decent skiing. This weekend, I originally had plans to go to Tahoe and ski Squaw and Sugar Bowl. Then I got a call from my buddy James on Tuesday night. At first, he said that the snow wouldn't be that great and it would be mid 50's and sunny. My answer to that was fine, we'll just approach it with the attitude that it would be spring skiing. We'll be wearing T-Shirts and skiing lots of bumps. Although far from powder, that can be a lot of fun if you go into it with the right attitude. That didn't sway him and eventually it came out that he wanted to stay in San Francisco for the weekend and go out on a date with a girl that he met recently. Not being a powder weekend and the fact that he spent the last 6 weekends at Tahoe, girls naturally won out over bumps and sun. Although disappointed not to be going up there this weekend, I clearly understand. Given the same choice, I probably would have made the same decision.

I am really hurting to get back out and get some turns in. Although I'm interested in going for a tour next weekend, what I really want is some lift serviced skiing. The backcountry is a great experience in that you have to work for each turn and that you're usually the only ones out there. But the tradeoff (versus lift service) is that you really don't get a lot of turns in and you don't ski as steep of terrain.

On the positive side, this past weekend was a lot of fun. I visited my buddy Carl in LA, got my butt kicked surfing and brewed my first batch of beer since last July. It will be a Belgian Red Ale in the style of Rodenbach and should be available on draft here in San Diego in another 3 weeks.

Ski Trip Report: You Win Some and You Lose Some

The old saying goes that you win some and you lose some. As ski days go, Saturday was one of the worst ski days I’ve ever had. Temperatures were only in the low 30’s. But there were high winds that made it feel far colder and turned most of the snow to absolute crap. Yes, I know that I sound like a complete west coast weather weenie and you might say that I’ve forgotten my northeastern roots. If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re absolutely right. I’m soft and I’ve been spoiled by great weather and snow conditions. But you’d be spoiled too if your ski season had gotten off to the kind of start that mine has. Anyways, now back to how the day actually went. Winds were coming from the west. When we actually got smart about figuring out where the wind was depositing all the blowing snow, we did find some good snow in East Greeley, Greeley Bowl, Gunsight and Glory Hole. But by then, I was mentally out of it (didn’t really want to be out there) and was skiing terribly. I was leaning back on my skis the whole day and had no energy in my legs.
(Lone Pine on Ridge, looking up from East Greeley)
The only highpoint in the day was meeting another one of Alta’s interesting personalities on the chairlift. I hope all who go to Alta have the pleasure of one day meeting Rob Rowley (Rob, sorry if I messed up on your name, I’m going from memory of what I saw on your pass). Rob is an absolute riot! Like Red Man, Rob looks a bit disheveled. He’s in his mid 40’s, is slightly overweight, had gloves but wasn’t wearing them, has long hair, and has a pair of fairly new Fischer skis with 25 year old bindings. According to Rob, his mission in life is to get the POW POW and to the ride the first chair every day he’s there. Like Red Man, he does not actually live or work anywhere in Utah. He’s from the great skiing state of Virginia. Within the first few minutes talking with him, he will proudly tell you that last season he got 37 first chairs, 2 seconds, and 1 third. Probably more impressive, is the 22 double double’s that he got the year before that. The double double involved first chair on both the old Collins and Germania lifts (both replaced last year with the Collins High Speed Quad). According to Rob, the difficult part wasn’t being first in line on the old Collins double. It was surviving the Chinese downhill, with some of Alta’s best skiers behind you, to the Germania lift. Legend has it that one day Rob rode up with a former US ski team member who characterized the aforementioned Chinese downhill as the scariest run of his life.

Another story Rob shared with us was the time he met the guy he was on the chairlift with. It was 10 years ago and they were both staying at the Goldminer’s Daughter Lodge. Rob checked the weather forecast at the front desk and saw that 6-8 feet of snow were predicted. He thought it was a typo. But no, it wasn’t. It was the storm of all storms. They ended up with 99” of 4% moisture content (really dry) snow. The road coming up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Alta was closed for 2 of the next 3 days due to avalanches. On one of those days, they did try opening the road. But after 4 cars made it up, another 4 were buried in an avalanche and it was closed for the rest of the day. Despite all this snow, Alta did manage to keep the lifts running. I jokingly asked Rob if it was deep enough to necessitate the use of a snorkel. His response was that it was it was too deep for a snorkel. It would just clog up with snow. In that depth of snow, he prefers the filtered breathing mask. He said that it’s pretty weird to be standing at the top of a slope and to see the top of the powder chest deep, 12” below your goggles. It must have been absolutely incredible. I wish I was there. But breaking first tracks on the high traverse must have really sucked!

The National Weather Service predicted 4” of new snow Saturday night with another 4-7” on Sunday morning. At 4 in the morning, I woke up and was stoked to see blizzard like conditions outside. When I woke up again at 7, I was disappointed to see that the blizzard conditions had given way to blue skies and had left only 4” of new snow. But I figured that the 4” would significantly improve conditions from yesterday and a bluebird was always good. Dad and I made it over to the lifts by 8:45. The lifts were running, but were only taking ski patrol up at that point. There was one person waiting in line before us. At first I thought it was a liftie. Then I realized it was Rob. He had just arrived at Alta the week before. So this was first chair number 4 for the season. Dad and I got chair number 3.

Shortly after getting on the lift, it started snowing again. It turned out to be another great powder day. We got first tracks on Greeley Bowl and North Rustler. At that point, we put the no friends on a powder day rule into affect and split up. Next I took a run off of the high traverse. To my delight, I again got first tracks on Stone Crusher and Lone Pine. The next run I met up with Red Man and we hit High Rustler and took a bunch of runs in Eagle’s Nest. Before taking me into Eagle’s Nest, I again had to sign one of his iron clad confidentiality agreements promising not to show anyone his secret stashes. By 11:00 (when the original forecast called for the storm to let up), the storm only intensified. With much regret, I decided to meet up with Dad at the Peruvian for lunch.
(Wildcat Lift in Snowstorm)
After lunch, we took one run before we were forced to go our separate ways, me for maintaining my sanity (I hate to wait) and him to keep from having a heart attack(trying to keep up with me). I originally meant to head out to East Greeley. But not seeing any tracks going towards Glory Hole, I hiked out there and again got first tracks. Next, I moved over to the Supreme lift and had an excellent run in Catherine’s area and got first tracks in 2 chutes in Supreme Bowl. I was elated that at 2:30 in the afternoon, I was still getting first tracks. Granted, both chutes had sketchy entrances that probably discouraged most skiers, but anyone with a little ingenuity could have skied them. By that time, there was at least a foot of fresh powder in the untracked areas. So it was real good. I finished the day with a couple more runs in Eagle’s Nest before heading back to the Peruvian to get cleaned up before catching the van down to the valley. To top that all off, the perfect day ended with one of those perfect moments. Before I caught the van down, I headed up to the Peruvian bar for a beer. I was sitting in a big soft leather chair, next to the fire, drinking a PBR, and listening to a Dead cover band. I was just sitting, smiling, and thinking that it doesn’t get any better than this.
(Grizzly Dad in Snowstorm just after skiing Eagle's Nest)

Ski Trip Report: Back At The 'Bird

I skiied the 'Bird today. I had the honor of skiing with John "Red Man" Reif, a local legend. Red Man is a 54 year old professor of Nanoscience at Duke who calls the the bunkroom at the Alta Peruvian Lodge his second home and manages to average 50-60 days per year at Alta and Snowbird. He is a living library on the history and locals' stashes at Alta and Snowbird.

When we got to Snowbird, I got the unpleasant news that the Gad 2 Lift was broken. Apparently the bull wheel cracked 2 weeks ago and a new one is being manufactured in Canada. It will be several weeks until it will be open again.

Despite that bit of bad news, the day overall was excellent. We were treated to another bluebird. Temps were in the mid 40's. We started off skiing Mineral Basin, which was in the sun in the morning. Unfortunately it took the first 2 hours of the day for the snow to really soften up. So we were skiing on frozen crud and death cookies. We should have just stuck to the groomers. Around 11, we headed for the main ridge under the tram. Red Man swore me to an oath that I would never show anyone else his secret powder stashes. So sorry, all I can do is tell you the trails we went down. (Not that I have a chance of remembering where they are next time I come back since I was just trying to keep up with him as we were constantly ducking in and out of the trees and down chutes.) Almost every run we did off the ridge, we started off going down Great Scott. Its the 45 degree slope right under the tram with a bunch of people standing looking over the edge. The entry involves a ~5' drop in. The cover was a little spotty today. So you really had to pay attention to the rocks sticking out of the snow. Once you were in, the snow was absolutely fantastic. After skiing down the main part of Great Scott, we would then traverse over to the nose of the main ridge at Snowbird. From there, we took runs down the Wilbur Chutes, Lone Pine, and Dalton's Draw. They were all very excellent and uncrowded. The only issue was the entry which involved skiing over rocks. Luckily I only ended the day with one core shot. Somehow Snowbird just doesn't agree with my skis.

Red Man might be 54 years old. But I have to admit that he skis faster than me. I prefer taking lots of short agressive turns down the fall line. He generally just makes big fast GS turns through anything. We didn't stop for lunch and skiied together until 2 when he headed back to Alta. To be honest I was kind of glad that he left because my legs were just about out of gas and I would hate to admit that I had been beaten by a 54 year old.

When we got back to the Peruvian we were greeted with the news that Alta had opened up the Baldy chutes today. I was disappointed to hear that I had missed it because they look fantastic. I've never skiied them but plan on hitting them tomorrow.

Ski Trip Report: First Two Days at Alta in 2006

Life doesn't get any better than this! First, I do New Year's in Vail. Then I join my dad for 5 days at Alta. Like the last couple of times I've come up here, I'm staying at the Peruvian. I came the same week as last year. Its amazing! Apart from a few new faces, its almost the same people staying here. Every conversation begins with something about you looking familiar. This sure says something for customer loyalty and what a great place the Peruvian is.

So now on to the skiing. Dad and I got up here around 8AM on the 4th. There were 4" of fresh light Alta powder to go on top of the 10" they got the day before. This presented me with an ethical challenge. On the one hand, its a powder day and we all know that there are no friends on powder days. My dad is 56 years old, a smoker, and severely out of shape. So skiing with him would mean missing out on a lot of good turns. On the other hand, he did fly all the way from Taiwan to go skiing with me. The decision wasn't made any easier when on the 2nd run when dad lost a ski almost as soon as we hit the powder. Not having powder cords, Murphy's law dictated that his ski burried itself in the snow. We spent a good 30 minutes digging for it. We were just about to write it off and I was about to leave him when he stepped on it with his boot. Damn!!! So dad had his ski and we were back to skiing together again. (Note: Our first stop after finding his ski was to visit the ski shop and get him some powder cords. He has been bitching about them being a pain in the ass every since.)

So what was good on day one? While waiting for dad to buy powder cords, I found some fairly untracked snow in Greeley bowl and Greely Hill. We spent the early afternoon on the Supreme lift. The areas to skier's right and left of the lift are littered with amazing chutes. The snow cover was good. I didn't hit any rocks. Although very steep, the entries to most of them do not involve jumping any rocks. Catherine's opened while we were in at lunch. But after getting back out, I made the hike out there around 1:30. Everything that was easy to reach was already tracked up. So I hiked all the way to the outer edge of the area boundary. To my delight I was treated to a nice moderate pitch (Note: Most of Catherine's is moderately pitched) with only 4 other tracks through it. Although only a spray, I got this season's first face shot on that run. Shortly thereafter, I split with dad and made laps off the Collins lift until closing. To get back to the lodge, I took Wildcat Bowl and Blackjack back to the Peruvian. That whole face off of the Wildcat lift is one of Alta's best kept secrets. Even though it was the end of the day, it was only mildly tracked and the shade kept the snow nice and light.

Today they opened up Ballroom just after 9AM. So instead of the normal groomer for our warmup, we warmed up on the Ballroom traverse. Since it was the warmup, we stopped about midway and then skied down. I didn't make dad do the whole traverse. I let my dad go down first and was amazed. The old man was skiing powder and making nice looking turns. I was so happy for him. Every other time I've taken him into powder he's always looked really uncomfortable and I've felt guilty for taking him down those runs. But today he got it! You da' man dad! Just after lunch as we were getting off the Sugarloaf lift, they opened up Devil's Castle. So of course we followed the mass of waiting local powder addicts through the gate. Getting into Devil's Castle involves a good hike. So don't go there unless you're willing to sweat. I wasn't willing to wait for dad to deal with his powder cords, so we immediately got split up. It was beautiful powder down the first pitch. After that first pitch I followed a few tracks towards a knowl. One of the things I love about Alta is all the suprises you find. For me, this was a cliff band on the other side of the knowl. Not being the huckmeister, I opted for a narrow chute instead of the 15' cliff with the mystery landing. The chute was quite an adrenaline rush. It goes with out saying that it was steep. But to start off it was only 2 ski length wide. So at first you could make hop turns. Then it narrowed to less than a ski length wide and to get out you had to do a straight line and duck under a pine tree before it let you out into this awesome powder field that almost no one had been in. This brought me to face shot number two for the season. I love face shots! After that I got another two runs in Devil's Castle. Again Dad and I split up at the end of the afternoon. I took a number of runs down West Rustler. But the best runs were in Eagle's Nest. The chutes were narrow, the entries sometimes a bit hairy, and the snow was tracked but dry.

So now that I've been here for two days, how does Alta compare with Vail? First, the people at Alta are here for skiing the skiing as opposed for the social scene. They wear functional clothing that often doesn't match instead of one piece Bogner suits. They all have a burning passion for skiing and are intensely devoted to Alta. Second, besides a few ski shops, there is no shopping up here. So if you're looking to buy a new fur coat, its probably not the place to go. Third, Alta is much smaller than Vail. You could fit Alta into Vail's back bowls. Lastly, Alta is much steeper than Vail. I didn't ski a run at Vail that is as steep as any of the chutes or most of the bowls at Alta.

Ski Trip Report: New Year's in Vail

I just finished my 4th day of skiing at Vail. While it lived up to some of my negative expectations, it has also surprised me in a lot of good ways. I’ll start off with the good. The skiing has been better than expected. While the mountain lacks a lot of the rocky steep chutes that Squaw, Alta, or Jackson have, the terrain is actually decent. The front side of the mountain is pretty much entirely traditional tree-lined slopes. There are a few good runs through the trees and the bumps by the Highline lift are enough to give your thighs a real fun for their money. But I wouldn’t spend too much time on the front side of the mountain.

Vail’s real treasure is the back bowls. They are HUGE. By themselves, they are over 3000 acres. I was treated to the joy of a foot of fresh powder on New Year’s Day. The combination of the back bowl’s expansiveness and the fact that everyone was too hung-over to ski, meant that I was getting fresh tracks from 0830 to closing. It was one of the best powder days of my life. Early on in the day when the visibility sucked, I was mostly sticking to the trees in China and Siberia Bowl. While in some areas the trees are pretty close together, most of the trees are very skiable as long as you go slow. Once the visibility improved, a local pointed me to the Mongolia pomma. I hate to spoil a good thing. But there was absolutely no one over there. I had a number of fantastic runs in Bolshoi Ballroom and Inner Mongolia Bowl. The only downside to heading over that far is that the pitch becomes more moderate in Inner Mongolia Bowl and the catwalk at the end is fairly long. But if you’re looking for fresh tracks, it’s well worth it.

To finish off New Year’s Day, I went with some locals on the Mintern Mile. It’s a backcountry trail that takes you from the ski area boundary at Lost Boy in Game Creek Bowl to the ski bum town of Mintern. It was awesome! The first part was moderately pitched untracked powder, alternating between open meadows and glades. Then we had a half hour down a fairly flat narrow trail through the woods. Although flat, you can get going pretty fast and it’s too narrow to turn. Because of that, the trail is affectionately called the Luge. After getting to Mintern, we spent the next hour drinking Margaritas in a real classic ski bar. The inside entrance was filled with skis and snowboards. The walls were lined with old ski pictures. It was absolutely packed with locals who had just finished up their day of skiing.

The snow quality was also very good. Despite temperatures being in the upper 30’s to mid 40’s, the snow was pretty dry. Vail was reporting a 51” mid mountain base. Although this was less than what was Snowbird had 3 weeks ago, I didn’t hit a rock until the last day. This was due to the mountains here being generally less rocky than in Utah. So the important thing to remember is that the cover at Vail could be excellent compared with Utah even though its base might be less.

The biggest surprise was the cost. I wasn’t expecting Vail to offer a good military discount. But even on New Year’s weekend, the ticket only costs $45 for active duty military. Sorry for you non-military types. You still have to pay the outrageous sum of $82. If you know that you may be coming here at some point next season and you are ever in Colorado on business, you might want to get a Colorado ski pass. It covers unlimited skiing at A-Basin, Breckenridge, and Keystone and 10 days at Vail/Beaver Creek. All this for only ~$320. The only hitch is that it isn’t good at Vail over Christmas and the first time you get it, you have to buy it in person. After that, you can renew online.

We flew into Denver International and used the Colorado Mountain Express Shuttle to get to Vail and back. In good weather, plan on the drive taking 2.5 hours. On the day we went to Vail, with some snow from the night before and heavy traffic, it took us 3.5 hours. It costs $68 each way. So factoring in the time and the cost, it makes sense to fly into Vail/Eagle airport if you can get a good deal.

Now onto the part of Vail that met my expectations. The last two resorts I’ve taken trips to have been Jackson Hole and Alta/Snowbird. Vail is definitely on a completely other level on the ritzy scale than they are. We were staying at the Vail Cascade Resort and Spa. Although a 4 star hotel and one of the best hotels in Vail (normally $460/night), we got it on hotwire for $150/night. It’s a nice place with a swank bar for Après Ski. But they really try and nickel and dime you. I was disappointed that you actually had to pay to get internet access. Even most budget motels include that free of charge. The women who come here are dressed to impress. Fur is definitely big here. So expect to see them decked in designer clothes, fur coats, and fur boots. Along with that, people come to Vail as much for going out at night as for the skiing. So if there’s bad weather (ex. Snowstorm) or it was a big party night the night before (like New Year’s), expect to see the mountain pretty empty for the first part of the day. At first it kind of pissed me off that no one wanted to come out for a great powder day. But then I realized that it just meant more powder for myself and it didn’t both them that they were missing out on some skiing.