No-Bull Ski Reports

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Now that the lifts have started spinning at a select few North American ski areas, it's probably time for me to describe our No-Bull Ski Reports for the benefit of the many new users signing up at Liftlines. Forgive me if some of these comments are a compilation of some comments that I've made today in several other topics here.

The primary purpose of the Lift Corral forums at Liftlines (Eastern North America, Western North America, Midwestern North America, Europe and Asia, and Down Under) is two-fold:

1. Discussion of ski resort and backcountry locations, and
2. Reporting of snow conditions by our users.

It is the focus on snow condition reporting that makes Liftlines at First Tracks!! Online unique on the Internet.

Acknowledged snowfall statistician Tony Crocker became more involved in this project by becoming a Moderator because of the potential for our Lift Corral forums on Liftlines to become the nationwide (worldwide?) forum for user-submitted snow condition reports, and I deeply share this vision. In past years (see our archives of the old Liftlines BBS system) the No-Bull Ski Reports in the Lift Corral forums at Liftlines have been very, very active, although primarily in the Northeastern US and Quebec. We now turn to you, our user base thus far at the new Liftlines system, to help us develop that concept by submitting reports after each day on the hill. Folks are hungry to get the "real scoop" of what's going on at their favorite ski areas. Chances are that you're emailing the details to a buddy, anyway, so it doesn't take much effort to copy and paste the body of that email and make some minor changes to suit the readership here.

We ask that you submit your reports with the following subject line format for the ease of use of our readers:

Place Skied, State or Province - MM/DD/YYYY

For example, the subject line might read:

Jay Peak, VT - January 30, 2004

Simple, huh? :wink:

Tell it like it is. If the snow was a dream come true, say so. If it was rock hard boilerplate following a rain event and subsequent deep freeze, say that, too. If you're in the area and the snowfall is pounding at 10pm, let our readers know that it's likely to be a powder day in the morning. If it's one of those regrettable weather events where the rain/snow line reaches you at 9pm, let our users know that the changeover just occurred.

The Internet is a wonderful resource with great potential for our sport thanks to the immediate mass dissemination of information. Some of these potentials have been already capitalized upon, but some have yet to be realized to their fullest. Please join us in our attempt to make Liftlines the premier resource for honest, forthright snow condition reporting!

This information is memorialized for posterity in our Liftlines FAQ.
 
It is surprising in the Internet era that eyewitness ski reporting has not progressed much since the late 1990's. FTO's No-Bull Ski Reports is the most active site of this nature, but highly concentrated in the Northeast so far. Southland Ski Server was very active in the 1990's in Southern California, but use has declined since then. Northwest Ski Reports similarly peaked in the late 1990's and is still pretty good for Washington State. There are also a couple of sites for Calgary skiers covering the areas within driving distance. All of these are bookmarked on my Snow Reports page: http://bestsnow.net/snowrpts.htm.

The U.S. Rockies remain almost untapped in this regard, and I hope FTO fills the void soon.
 
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