Who's booked 12-13 trips already?

EMSC

Well-known member
As we all know, it is less than ideal to book a big trip prior to seeing where the snow falls. Yet due to many constraints on our lives we all seem to book many of our biggest trips in advance anyway... So who is booked, or at least almost ready to pull the trigger?

My only confirmed trip is to be back east over the holidays; assuming Greek Peak even makes it open this year. Tons of things in flux this year, so I could end up with several additional trips or none. I have to see how a few things shake out over the next 2 months.
 
Mustang Snowcat (you generally won't get in unless you reserve a year ahead) Feb. 23-25. I'll probably spend ~2 weeks in interior B.C. as in 2010 and plan the rest of the trip later.

I pushed the above dates later than in the past so I could go somewhere in the Alps late Jan/early Feb just before the Euro holidays. But nothing committed there yet.

Iron Blosam is March 9-16. I may hang around Utah after that as Liz has some NYC friends coming out the next week. The ensuing week March 25-29 is the Epic Ski Gathering at Big Sky. I'll make a late call on whether to drive up there from Utah.

The NASJA annual meeting is at Mammoth April 7-12. I can only hope it will duplicate the epic conditions of my first NASJA meeting there in 1999. http://173.193.223.192/~bestsnow/19990409mmthtc.HTML , still my #1 day of lift served skiing. This TR was originally posted on the Southland Ski Server, which has been reorganized and recently appears to have lost its archives. :evil: Fortunately at the time of the reorganization I contacted the original webmaster and salvaged my own reports. :)
 
Mt Bachelor Jan 3-10. I was pushing for Altabird but got overruled so that we could try somewhere new and also somewhere that doesn't have any difficult terrain.
 
Staley":145gl6hi said:
Mt Bachelor Jan 3-10...... somewhere that doesn't have any difficult terrain.
You will probably be disappointed if the Summit stays closed during your week. OTOH if you get fresh snow and 2,400 vert Northwest is open you'll be skiing fresh powder a lot longer than you would be at Mammoth.
 
Are we going to need a 4WD/AWD car to get to the mountain if it snows?

Yes and no, I was there last year Xmas week. We had all kinds of weather. Ice , rain and heavy snow. We rented a AWD SUV and it was nice to have. The road to Bachelor is not very steep or narrow. We drove back to Portland in a full on snow storm. The AWD was a life saver..
 
The road from Bend to Bachelor is straight and climbs at a steady moderate grade. If you're flying into Redmond most people with snow driving experience will be fine without AWD. If you're coming from Portland the passes over the Cascades are steeper with more curves. That said I've gotten by on nearly all my Canadian trips in rental cars with FWD.
 
Destination plans slightly revised:
As noted in the Euro thread that trip with Richard is now:
Arlberg Jan. 19-26 staying in Lech
Klosters Jan. 27-29
Laax Jan. 30-31
Andermatt Feb. 1-3

I'm doing another month-long road trip Feb. 15 to Mar. 18 or so. Liz is with the Diamond Dogs in Sun Valley Feb. 10-17. I'll drive up there at the end of that week. We are likely to work our way north to Whitefish, Fernie (Castle?), Kicking Horse and Revelstoke. Liz will stay/ski in Revy and/or the Okanagan while I'm at Mustang Feb. 23-25. We will both ski Valhalla Feb. 27-28 (thanks socal for the TR recommendation last year), then Whitewater and Red Mt. The next week we'll be mostly in Montana (destinations still tentative), needing to arrive in SLC Mar. 8 or 9 for Iron Blosam week.

NASJA meeting in Mammoth April 8-12 is still on.
 
Tony Crocker":2pye7icn said:
Destination plans slightly revised:
As noted in the Euro thread that trip with Richard is now:
Arlberg Jan. 19-26 staying in Lech
Klosters Jan. 27-29
Laax Jan. 30-31
Andermatt Feb. 1-3

I'm doing another month-long road trip Feb. 15 to Mar. 18 or so. Liz is with the Diamond Dogs in Sun Valley Feb. 10-17. I'll drive up there at the end of that week. We are likely to work our way north to Whitefish, Fernie (Castle?), Kicking Horse and Revelstoke. Liz will stay/ski in Revy and/or the Okanagan while I'm at Mustang Feb. 23-25. We will both ski Valhalla Feb. 27-28 (thanks socal for the TR recommendation last year), then Whitewater and Red Mt. The next week we'll be mostly in Montana (destinations still tentative), needing to arrive in SLC Mar. 8 or 9 for Iron Blosam week.

NASJA meeting in Mammoth April 8-12 is still on.


Sounds like a hell of a road trip, only 30 years or so till I can retire and get a trip like that in.

Enjoy Valhalla, best ski day of my life, also the only non resort skiing day for me too.

I just booked a 4 night trip to Jackson for the end of January, staying in the village for my first time (3 other trips to Jackson). Looking dry the next 10 days so I'm hoping the law of averages works out and it dumps while we are there.
 
yes Tony you are the real deal. Something to shoot for in retirement, if I can make it that long w/o breaking down. so far so good. still skiing to 4:30 each day at 54.
I just got back from 3 days in SLC, no new snow, but skiing was fine. heading to Calgary March 8th and hope to do Revi, KH & LH.
 
SnowbirdDevotee":1lluf2hw said:
for sure tony, you da man, you even have a lady to share it with! (bowing down with reverence)

And on some prior occasions more than one! :lol:

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socal":2j4kwsuv said:
I just booked a 4 night trip to Jackson for the end of January, staying in the village for my first time (3 other trips to Jackson). Looking dry the next 10 days so I'm hoping the law of averages works out and it dumps while we are there.

I echo that sentiment Socal...The next 10 days looks exceedingly meagre for precipitation as the Western half of N. America is going to be dominated by a large and seemingly immovable high pressure system. It looks like some potential pattern change around day 9 or 10 but any kind of forecast accuracy that far out is tenuous at best.
I'm doing my yearly pilgramge to the Southern Alberta Rockies & BC Interior Jan 22 - Jan 30. While other regions in N.A. have had less than steller seasons thus far, these areas have enjoyed almost an embarassment of riches frozen H2O wise. I'm really hoping that the snow hoses are only resting and not taking an extended vacation or it may well be a trip of high speed groomers for me...because after that length of dry spell, even the Cat operations will be scrambling to find fresh lines.
 
longshanks":1z3yyor3 said:
because after that length of dry spell, even the Cat operations will be scrambling to find fresh lines.
Yes. That's why it's worth investigating how much acreage these places have relative to the number of cats skiing the terrain every day. Altitude/exposure of the terrain matters too, although much less so in January than in later months. It's somewhat difficult to get a good fix on these issues without actually seeing the terrain in person though.
 
Just booked RT tickets to Spokane for a trip to Nelson/Rossland from 3/6 to 3/10.

Also just booked a single day with Valhalla for 3/8. (I know 2 days would be a better value w/out the beacon drills on the 2nd day, but I couldn't justify the extra $ this year).

The plan is to stay in Nelson and count on at least 1, maybe 2 days at Whitewater. If the weather cooperates, we may consider a day at Red as well. We'll likely ski Schweitzer on the last day, just to reduce our post-skiing travel time, but should have the flexibility to ski Whitewater or Red on our last day if the conditions are too good to pass up.

I must confess I am stoked.

Anyone have any tips on reasonable lodging/dining in Nelson?
 
flyover":1gbnrglh said:
Just booked RT tickets to Spokane for a trip to Nelson/Rossland from 3/6 to 3/10.

Also just booked a single day with Valhalla for 3/8. (I know 2 days would be a better value w/out the beacon drills on the 2nd day, but I couldn't justify the extra $ this year).

The plan is to stay in Nelson and count on at least 1, maybe 2 days at Whitewater. If the weather cooperates, we may consider a day at Red as well. We'll likely ski Schweitzer on the last day, just to reduce our post-skiing travel time, but should have the flexibility to ski Whitewater or Red on our last day if the conditions are too good to pass up.

I must confess I am stoked.

Anyone have any tips on reasonable lodging/dining in Nelson?

I've got some suggestions. Was in Nelson and skied whitewater, cat at Valhalla , and Schweitzer last winter. I'm in Jackson hole this weekend but I'll dig some stuff up next week or so.

I can't stress enough that if its snowy that drive times are really long. It was a storm and we averaged probably 25-30 for 100 miles from Nelson to Sand Point. Slow going.

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Valhalla seems to be the one place with a good reputation that you can get just a month or two so ahead. I reserved Feb. 27-28 and also took their lodging package for 3 nights as we'll be at Whitewater the next day. With 2 people I'd recommend that, but if traveling alone I'd use priceline, hotels.com, hotwire etc. to get something cheap.

The Hume Hotel where NASJA stayed in Nelson is a historic site, worth checking out. I also had a nice Sunday buffet brunch there on my drive from Spokane to White Grizzly. That trip was in your exact time frame last year, hope you get the snow we did then. Nelson has good restaurants. NASJA had a dine-around night and everyone was quite pleased. Trip Advisor is often a good source for dining, we've been using that in Switzerland.
 
Tony Crocker":2yb9k2ru said:
The Hume Hotel where NASJA stayed in Nelson is a historic site, worth checking out..

That's the one. Stay there 100%. Right on the Main Street with a cool bar inside and good food.

Good food all over the town. Everything's organic and fresh. I thought I'd be eating big game, I asked the hotel person what types of food the town specialized in, thinking it would be moose, elk, etc , she said pretty much anything organic.
 
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