Regarding late summer/early fall (August, September, October), what's a good strategy if there's no United States?
Outside of Zermatt, it appears Hintertux and possibly Solden? (World Cup Opener) Is it a decent September/October choice? All the European glacier resorts seem to be shuffling their schedules (Saas Fee, Stubai, Kitzsteinhorn, Hintertux (no longer 365 days and closing July 26th), etc.). One interesting option might be Passo Stelvio in Italy, with its summer-only skiing.
If I remove the indoor option and earning turns out West, the US now rarely a solid ski option. The first year I started my streak, there was liftserved in the US for the entire year. Timberline used to closed on Labour day then reopen on weekends in October.
Zermatt and Hintertux are generally open 365 days/year. Solid Alps glaciers summer options are Saas Fee, Stelvio, Deux Alpes and to a lesser extend, Molltaler. There are a bunch of Austrian glaciers that generally open in mid-September: Solden, Stubai, Kitzsteinhorn, Pitztal, Kaunertal.
I see a silver lining here. With the climate demise of late summer Timberline, Big Snow New Jersey has become the only choice for lift served in North America in September, and this year August as well. Plus New Jersey is an easy last minute escape for Octobers that don't work out weather wise.
So in the absence of Patrick's boycott we would likely be seeing more and more NJ days sustaining and watering down The Streak.
It was always, from day one, variety. If you remember, I said I wasn't interested in repeating the small experience every lean parts of the season.
I did 5 trips to the Andes, generally different itineraries. Months 11-12 was on a family vacation in the PNW which included 4 days at Timberline (2006). Timberline trips (not counting June 2012) was repeated when I couldn't really travel do to health concerns (2013, 2014) or busy travel summers (2017, 2019) which both included California trips plus one month in France.
Big Snow: late July 2022 after being hit by Covid earlier in the month.
In Summer 2023, an injury limited at Mammoth on Memorial Day seriously limited my travel option. I was hoping to continuer to crush my Ikon pass with a trip to NZ, but had to force myself to the Akamp in July and Big Snow with 3 trips to NYC for Aug-Oct.
2024: Pre big trip to Europe, I opted for Akamp and one week with Caroline in Oregon in August and one trip to NYC to see the Breeders with a bit of skiing at Big Snow in September. Regardless if I was traveiling to the US or not, Big Snow wasn't going to be an annual thing.
Akamp/Avila: health issues in 2013 and 2014. In July 2015 and 2016, big summer travel plans w 6wks in Europe (2015) and trips to Yukon and NZ.
No camp in 2020 as it was Covid lockdown; skied on leftover snow.
I think that it's pretty decent for an almost 21 year ski streak. I've seen people with long ski streak that have counted sand, grass or dry slope skiing in their streaks, I do not. It has to be on snow, if I would count grass and sand, my streak would have started in August 2005 instead of October.
At extremely high opportunity cost. The clock is ticking on the years left for Patrick to ski the memorable lines in the Alps that ChrisC has posted here. This is the season I've learned when to back off from that kind of terrain I might have skied before.
That can also be said of ski coaching. I've skied some memorable lines, but I don't feel compelled to go all in.
As for the Euro glacier areas, their priorities fit the tough months of Patrick's streak. Skiers with my mindset would say, "I want to ski the corn in June/July." But areas like Pitztal close in May and open in September with the hard snow that race training camps prefer.
When I still had a normal job, I could get away most ski seasons with one trip that would overlap Aug/Sep as I would generally find snow in July and October within a day drive away. Timberline was done in the first season of the streak in Aug-Sep 2006. As I mentioned a long time ago; it's all about the journey and different experience than repeat annually the same pattern and trip every year. I meet many traveling streakers in the Aug/Sept end of liftserved at Mt Hood. Repeated in 2013 and 2014 or big trave
I say that Patrick's definition of a ski day is "on snow" is not unreasonable. So yes indoor is legit for counting a ski day or a ski area. But when it come to a monthly ski streak, it's obvious that many people could routinely ski June-October indoors, which defeats the whole challenge behind what most of us consider a ski streak. There might be quite a few people in Europe who do this, though perhaps the ones who care about it prefer to ski the glacier areas.
As to mention Jason comments about indoor skiing. As a kid, I played hockey, that being said, I played and skated more outside than in indoor rinks. National ski teams now do some training indoor also.
None of us would consider moving on from a partially surveyed area in order to check off another one in the same day. The obvious exceptions are some of Stuart's and WST's ski days where the areas are so small that you can ski 2 or 3 of them completely in one day.
I agree; I could have easier have added a new area or two instead of skiing 4 days at Alta/Bird in 2006.
I recall someone a long time ago (maybe on TGR?) mentioning having skied over 200 areas, but the majority of them were on traveling race teams where the only run he skied was the race course. That poster was sort of apologetic and didn't think he had really skied these places in the way most skiers would define it.
I was coaching across Quebec this Winter, some areas I had never skied in over 30 years, I made sure to find the time or take an extra day to explore.
Definitely the worst place to post ski content. Good luck tracking it down after few months, much less seasons later.
You need to figure it out. Wasn't Patrick the one back when EpicSki Forum shut down who said you should control your own content? I don't demand TRs all be posted here. When Patrick puts them on his own site, they are not difficult to track down, as I did today for the Avila report above. But no, I'm not going to try to search Facebook or Instagram.
Totally agree. I need to the time, energy and motivation to post them on the blog.
I guess I understand it from the ski area's POV. It generates a quick headline and underscores MSS as the late-season king of the Laurentians, but to actually ski it? As my mother would say, "it looks like the itch!"
Per Google: The last time Mont Saint-Sauveur offered lift-serviced skiing in July was 2021 (and previously in 2019). This was not for the general public, but rather for AKAMP, Eastern Canada’s exclusive summer freestyle snowboard and freeski camp, For the regular public, the mountain traditionally concludes its main season in mid-to-late May.
Don't believe Google.
Akamp had no real connection with MSS, except the location.
There was no Akamp in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid.
In the last 25 years Mont St-Sauveur has only made it to June in 2019 opening June 1, 2 & 8.
Akamp started in 2008, it became bigger over the years. iThe first 7 edition of the camp didn't feature a lift. They added a portable ropetow in 2015 and eventually moving to the beginner chair. After a two year hiatus, Akamp returned in 2022. This year dates are June 26 to July 2.
