VIDEO: Deer Valley, UT camping & skiing - March 2019

[Admin]

This is a new video for my other project, Grand Adventure, that combines winter camping with skiing. With warmer spring days and spring nights that are still quite cold, we bring our RV travel trailer to winter camp amongst three feet of snow at Jordanelle State Park and ski at the adjacent Deer Valley Resort near Park City in Utah's Wasatch Mountains. It's boondocking only, as Jordanelle's campground is still closed for the winter, but you can't beat this location if you're a skier heading to Deer Valley.

[Tony Crocker]

my other project

FTO is admin's "other project," barely.

I'll preface comments with the caveat that FTO's readers, and skiers in general, are not the intended audience of this video.

For skiers, this was not 13:39 of productive use of time.

There is no actual date shown anywhere I can see of when this ski day occurred. How recent was there new snow? There's a long distance shot of skiers spraying snow at high speed in Daly Bowl, but none of the usual action shots admin used to post back when he was actually interested in promoting skiing. We can see the heavy overcast, but it's the Wasatch Back in March. Were any spring conditions developing? Skiing comprised about 1/3 of this video. There were a couple of minutes of food porn, which is certainly appropriate for Deer Valley, plus some from downtown Park City. The first 6 1/2 minutes were from the campsite, which I respectfully suggest was way too long.

One of the reasons I ask about the date with whether it was weekend or midweek. Skiers also might like to know whether the Jordanelle base can handle the Ikon Pass or Wasatch Benefit tickets. The ticket line at the main base is a big cluster on weekends, so Jordanelle could be a smart place to base to avoid that.

So for skiers, this format is consuming more time and providing less useful information than "FTO Classic." For more skier relevant details about Deer Valley, see my TR from March 9: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12843

[Admin]

<endless predictable drivel> highlighted by: "For skiers, this was not 13:39 of productive use of time."

You didn't even bother prefacing that with, "In my opinion..."? Because something doesn't suit your needs, you automatically presume (and assert to others as fact) that it doesn't suit general skier needs? You're now the arbiter who takes it upon himself to decide what's best for everyone else? Now, where's my shocked face? I'm sure that a 13:39 video micro-examining snow surfaces and scrolling through spreadsheets would've been positively riveting. Someone notify the Academy!

For skiers, this was not 13:39 of productive use of time.

For me, responding further to a statistics-obsessed actuarial who's incapable of displaying any grace or tact whatsoever is not a productive use of my time.

[berkshireskier]

I don't want to get into the middle of a feud here, but, I, for one, enjoyed the video! Thanks so much for taking the time and making the effort to take, edit and produce the video. Great aerial shots from the drone. One thing you can't help but notice from the video is just how much real estate development there is at Deer Valley. There are certainly many ski areas in this country that have real estate developments attached to them but I've always thought DV was a real estate development project with a ski area attached to it!

Thanks again and please keep posting your GA vids!

[Admin]

I don't want to get into the middle of a feud here

LOL, you're not! Tony's arguing with himself again, and I stupidly let his utter lack of grace get under my skin again. That's my bad. I'm really losing my patience with that whole situation and am poised to finally do something about it.

I, for one, enjoyed the video! Thanks so much for taking the time and making the effort to take, edit and produce the video. Great aerial shots from the drone.

Thank you! Yep, it's time consuming -- editing alone averages about an hour for each minute of produced video. Add getting the rig to Jordanelle, setting camp, breaking camp, actual filming, etc. and each week's episode can be an enormous undertaking. Last summer we were even doing two episodes a week from the road while trying to build the channel, so I spent a lot of time sitting in front of a laptop inside the RV. Plus finding an effective way to upload a 6 GB file while roadtripping isn't always an easy task, either.

One thing you can't help but notice from the video is just how much real estate development there is at Deer Valley. There are certainly many ski areas in this country that have real estate developments attached to them but I've always thought DV was a real estate development project with a ski area attached to it!

Yes, it feels that way to me, too, especially near the bottom of the Silver Strike lift. I've often said the very same thing myself. Likewise, the whole center of PCMR between Tombstone and Dreamcatcher also feels that way to me.

[Tony Crocker]

I'm sure that a 13:39 video micro-examining snow surfaces and scrolling through spreadsheets would've been positively riveting.

A 13:39 ski day video is in general too long regardless of content, especially when over half of it had nothing to do with the skiing whatsoever. A couple of sentences mentioning the date and conditions would have consumed maybe 30 seconds maximum.

There are other subjects about Deer Valley this season which are of strong interest to skiers, like the impact of the Ikon Pass and the ticket logistics. The questions and responses to my March 9 TR referenced above indicated the interest in those topics. I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like an answer to the question about starting the day at the Jordanelle base.

But as I said originally, this video was made for RVers not skiers. That's a valid explanation for the video but does not change its gaps in basic information for skiers.

I listed my TR as a counter example (also included a few pics of Deer Valley real estate) because it was of the same ski area just a couple of weeks earlier. But we all remember and many of us miss the excellent TR's and pics admin used to post here. A weekly summary would take a small fraction of the time of one GA video as well as maintaining admin's profile on the Utah ski scene. But I realize that ship sailed a while ago.

It's a free country and admin has compelling reasons to devote his time/resources as he is doing. But as both producer and consumer of ski content, I'm also free to express my opinion of how best to serve the skiing community.

[Admin]

<more drivel>

<ignore>

[tseeb]

I wondered how long @Admin was going to stay at exactly 10,000 posts.

I thought I heard Deer Valley has changed (and not for the better) with the Ikon pass. See https://www.parkrecord.com/news/park-ci ... -lift-line

[Admin]

I was there on a Friday. I can't think of anywhere, though, where locals are happy about Ikon.

[tseeb]

I’ve heard that Aspen and Jackson Hole (corrected as it does not appear to also be Big Sky as some on TGR said) are including Ikon passes with their full passes, but UT Ikon resorts are not.

When I has at Alta last month, I heard people saying at the top of Wildcat that there was free beer at Snowbird for Ikon passholders. Then the following was supposedly posted at Alta on Monday. (Note what the date was on Monday)

[Tony Crocker]

I wondered how long @Admin was going to stay at exactly 10,000 posts.

That would be exactly one month, Mar. 4 - Apr. 4. But nothing much happened during that time, only 130 inches of new snow at Alta for example.

Monday was April 1. Alta and Snowbird patrols are known to get creative with each other that day.
https://www.skimag.com/adventure/punked ... s-snowbird
Since that Snowbird patrol invitation was posted at Alta, I'm a bit suspicious. And given the local view of the Ikon, that's a logical subject matter for this year's prank.

[jamesdeluxe]

It's a free country and admin has compelling reasons to devote his time/resources as he is doing. But as both producer and consumer of ski content, I'm also free to express my opinion of how best to serve the skiing community.

I knew that something was missing from this ski season.

Tony is yearning for a previous version of Online Admin, who's moved on to other passions. Maybe BobMc can be persuaded to post his Snowbird reports here too. Tony: offering him a few cases of Keystone beer in cans every month during ski season would be a cost-effective way to close the deal.

[Sbooker]

I wondered how long @Admin was going to stay at exactly 10,000 posts.

That would be exactly one month, Mar. 4 - Apr. 4. But nothing much happened during that time, only 130 inches of new snow at Alta for example.

Monday was April 1. Alta and Snowbird patrols are known to get creative with each other that day.
https://www.skimag.com/adventure/punked ... s-snowbird" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Since that Snowbird patrol invitation was posted at Alta, I'm a bit suspicious. And given the local view of the Ikon, that's a logical subject matter for this year's prank.

I'm concerned I may have to resort to asking you to email me trip reports if this 'banter' persists.
I'm here mainly because I can't find your trip reports on pugski anymore......................

I personally appreciate people with 'strong opinions'. It's good for entertainment. But not everyone is as fond of said strong opinions.

On a different topic can you suggest which ski area I can take my family to just before Christmas this year? We really want to get our flights and lodging booked as early as possible.

[Tony Crocker]

I can't find your trip reports on pugski anymore

My trip reports have always been here, since 2001 or so. I want FTO to stay alive so that can continue. I back them up on the home computer at the end of every season. During the past couple of summers I've uploaded a few highlights to my website: http://bestsnow.net/TRsFTO/triprpts.htm Expansion of that process will be gradual.

Patrick started his backup process nearly a decade before I did. He now mainly posts to his blog https://madpatski.wordpress.com/ with occasional links to the blog posted here, notably the annual eastern closing thread which just started for 2019.

[ShiftyRider]

Okay, hmmm, lessee. I'd like to point out that the other Grand Adventure vids I've watched didn't suck LOL.

BTW are the Deer Valley skiers accustomed to gourmet dining? They're putting their wet gloves and sweaty helmets right next to their food while they eat, cracks me up everywhere every time.