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Yes, and it's not rational. Many people riding chair 23 look down and think, "OMG I really need a safety bar!" Yet chair 25 remains without one. It's not like you wouldn't get injured falling 20-25 feet off 25 but it doesn't scare people like 23 does.

Good tip for future reference. If weather or full booking derails a Vallee Blanche objective, keep Vallee Noire in mind as a backup plan.

Today FTO readers can truly have a head-exploding moment following Project 101. So here you are, about to ski "the best ski resort in the Midwest" on a powder day, and you skip it because you HAVE TO BE in Ironwood that night to stay on track for running up your count of molehills...

I love the stat focus. It shows that there are ski nutcases worse than Patrick and I are! We are dissecting one of those in this thread. If you look down at the 366 day ski matrix, you can see he (188 days) has a long way to go to catch me (266) or Patrick (282 I think). Another fascinating...

Yes, I've already reearched that Willamette and Hoodoo are not worth adding to my list under current conditions.

His Alpinfans page shows him at 717 as of today.

The Vail article refers to SWE this year now being less than at the same time in 2012, 2013 and 2018. In 2011-12 Vail was 30% open on 73 inches snowfall Jan. 15. Still only 44% open Jan. 21, but 3 feet of snow later got Vail to 84% Jan. 31. In 2012-13 Vail had a dry November but decent...

The skiing is steep and south facing. You have to be lucky to get it in good conditions. I know ChrisC scored it once, and I think he was guided. The off piste in Courmayeur nearly all involves long runs to the valley floor where conditions can be extremely difficult. Don't do it unless...

I've already skied Mt. Ashland. With the less than ideal conditions, there will be only one pit stop in that general region as I head north.

This is a good summation: The weather and often snow surfaces are better inside the building.:icon-lol: Implies he's skied a New Zealand club field. James, you HAVE to ask his total ski area count; he mentioned hitting the 100 mark in the US. And try to work in the Taos/CB/Zermatt inquiry...

You mean like yours truly and SkiTalk? All of ChrisC's points make sense, and he probably knew them before he became active on FTO. Still we are probably a well informed bubble in the big picture of recreational skiers. Nonetheless how can someone with a level of travel that probably blows...

It's rare but it can get warm enough in January for the west and east exposures at Targhee/Jackson to be affected. Notes from 1/25/2006:

Snowbird has probably even more north facing steep chalk than Mammoth, which can ski nicely even after a month with no new snow. It's quite clear that these two areas (including Alta of course) have the clear cut best conditions in the western US for the rest of January at least.

Me neither. Those are far more interesting than Shasta and were on my agenda but unfortunately are in extremely marginal condition now with the historically awful start to Oregon's season and that they are all lower than Bachelor/Hood Meadows. I'll be pleasantly surprised if Bachelor's Summit...

Funny you should mention that. It's on Indy Pass and I'm moderately likely to ski there early in the upcoming February road trip. ChrisC and tseeb have covered the flaws well, #1 being the south exposure. The new area tops out at 7,500 feet, while the old one had a base at 7,800. When Andrew...

Small potatoes compared to our last day in Zermatt in 2014. But Liz was a happy camper because This was before Iceland 2015 or Japan 2016.

Any rain at Whitefish early this week as in Washington and much of B.C.? Summit shows no increase in season-to-date since last Saturday. Schweitzer (still only 52% open) reports one inch new snow since Saturday and I think we can read between the lines here: None new at Brundage (Snowave?)...

They may not have to worry about airfare but they do have to decide when to lock in lodging. I'm sure James would agree that an advance booked locked in week at an average Alps resort has at least double the odds of being an as a locked in week in western North America. I would construct the...

Utah is the warmest ski region of the Rockies, and the Wasatch Back is obviously warmer than the higher Cottonwood Canyons. AFAIK no one in western North America has more than about 700 acres with snowmaking pipes. This is not the Dolomites, SkiWelt or Saalbach. I'd guess that with the...

Minneapolis....Ground Zero for law enforcement excess in 2020 and 2026.