2008-09 Ski Day Count

[Tony Crocker]

I'm too lazy to dig up the other thread.

There is a broad consensus that Southern Hemisphere skiing belongs to the prior northern season. For most skiers the frst southern day is closer to the end of the previous northern season than the beginning of the next one (true in 4 of 5 cases for me). Also, is northern July-October skiing on the prior year leftovers or new snow? September is the debatable month here. October 1 is the best choice IMHO to set an arbitrary date, but I could live with Sept. 15 (or the equinox), which is probably an average tipping point for leftovers vs. new. Labor Day is most often a streak-extending trip to Timberline or the Southern Hemisphere. Also it could vary with some individuals depending on whether the Aug/Sept/Oct snow was leftovers or new.

 

[Patrick]

I'm too lazy to dig up the other thread.

There is a broad consensus that Southern Hemisphere skiing belongs to the prior northern season. For most skiers the frst southern day is closer to the end of the previous northern season than the beginning of the next one (true in 4 of 5 cases for me). Also, is northern July-October skiing on the prior year leftovers or new snow? September is the debatable month here. October 1 is the best choice IMHO to set an arbitrary date, but I could live with Sept. 15 (or the equinox), which is probably an average tipping point for leftovers vs. new. Labor Day is most often a streak-extending trip to Timberline or the Southern Hemisphere. Also it could vary with some individuals depending on whether the Aug/Sept/Oct snow was leftovers or new.

A good friend of mine used to teach-for-time and live in Whistler for the Northern season (October-June) then move to NZ for their Winter (June-October) and he wasn't alone in going this. I can also be stated that, I don't think he ever keep tracks of his ski days.

He did this for 2 years then stayed at Whistler year round.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I don't think he ever kept track of his ski days.

If I ever start putting up serious numbers (50+), I'm sure I'll stop counting too. Until then, what can I say... it keeps me out of trouble.

 

[Tony Crocker]

it keeps me out of trouble.

While married I only broke 30 twice. Since divorce I'm averaging 40. I should be able to push it over 50 when I retire.

Notwithstanding this year's time on the DL, the numbers Patrick usually puts up given his situation are impressive.

 

[EMSC]

Interesting stuff.

My max ever is 134, but then I lived in and worked on-mtn in Tahoe back then. Heck, I used to be grateful for the extremely rare day OFF of skis in order to get stuff done - which only happened about one day per month (until April).

As a working stiff career man I used to target 50, sometimes breaking that mark, sometimes not. Now as a Married and working stiff guy I target 40. I suspect it'll go down even more, at least for a few years, if kids enter the picture.

 

[Anthony]

Not counting X country , currently at 25 ( over 30 with X country ) alpine trips . Just had 2 great spring afternoons . Outside of 2 overnight trips to VT, spent the winter in my Laurentian neighborhood skiing and hiking. Accomplished my own objective of skiing six months without artificial snow.

 

[Geoff]

The Killington season pass scan database has me up over 100 days. I'm a familiar face so there are lots of slow midweek days where I don't get scanned. I'm not counting so I have no idea how many days I've skied this year.

I'm eyeing buying a $339.00 2010 A-basin season pass and making a trip or two out in May & June this year. I have near-infinite frequent flyer miles on United and a free place to stay 45 minutes away so my cost is renting an econobox at DEN using a dirt cheap corporate rate in my Hertz profile. The A-Basin pass gives me 4 Keystone/Breck days and a Vail/Beaver Creek day next winter so I can ski a few days with my Killington retiree friends who get Epic passes and rent places at Breck and Vail for a month.

 

[Tony Crocker]

After the accident in late May 2005, A-Basin has become very gunshy about Pali and now closes it in early May. Anyone who is flying to ski after that should be looking at Mammoth or Snowbird IMHO in terms of having both quantity and quality of terrain to justify spending air $$ or FF miles.

The $339 for A-Basin alone does not impress me vs. the $429 for the Colorado Pass, or the $576 for Mammoth's MVP for that matter. The 2010 MVP is usable starting April 24 for the rest of this season.

 

[EMSC]

After the accident in late May 2005, A-Basin has become very gunshy about Pali and now closes it in early May.

Very true. Abasin in a typical year is worth flying in for through the first weekend in May when there is usually a good chance of still skiing winter snow or powder. This year A-basin has barely hit the '60" rule' considered good to hit it (and is back below it again even now - it's prime time of year). For that matter A-basin has settled into a pattern of closing down the first weekend in June for the last several years - no matter how much snow they have. Hard to say if they will change back to staying open till the snow runs out in the future.

The $339 for A-Basin alone does not impress me vs. the $429 for the Colorado Pass

Agree with this one as well. For only $90 more you have so many more options. However, not sure if they will sell you a colorado pass on the internet. Historically you can re-new on the internet, but not buy for the first time over the internet. The Vail inc pass that you can buy no matter where you live is the Epic pass. No idea on being able to buy the A-basin pass from far away. But probably as they are probably desperate for pass holders and direct cash of their own.

FYI found out you can buy the 'Rocky Mtn Super pass plus' (aka the Intrawest Colo pass good at Copper, Winter park and 6 days at Steeamboat) on the internet as well, for $399 through next weekend. So they are getting more liberal with the passes than in the past. Economic conditions and fierce competition leading this trend.

 

[Lifty@50]

I had a total of 6 days before contracting pneumonia (twice). Out of order for January through March.... Cancelled a trip to JHWY / Targhee and Silverton, CO. Upside.... saved money? Downside.... too many to mention....

 

[rfarren]

I had a total of 6 days before contracting pneumonia (twice). Out of order for January through March.... Cancelled a trip to JHWY / Targhee and Silverton, CO. Upside.... saved money? Downside.... too many to mention....

Abdominal surgery and subsequent complications took me out for the end of jan, whole of feb, and the start of march. I had a free trip to Whistler, and had to cancel, so I feel your pain. Oddly enough, last winter I got walking pnuemonia twice. Luckily both times happened between trips.

 

[EMSC]

Decent season for me, though I did get briefly sick a couple of times and had to work a couple Saturdays in January which chopped a few days off what could have been. No new-to-me places this year. I need to fix that in the future!

41 days total with the following several breakdowns:

By resort:
Eldora 18
Copper 9
Steamboat 6
Steamboat powder cats 1
Breckenridge 1
Squaw Valley 1
Heavenly 1
Kirkwood 1
Winter Park 1
Loveland 1
A-basin 1

By month:
Nov 2
Dec 10
Jan 6
Feb 9
Mar 8
Apr 4
May 2

Misc:
20 days with my wife (8 Eldora, 6 Copper, 4 Steamboat, 1 Breck, 1 Winter Park)
17 days where my brief 'tracking notes' mention powder of some sort (at least 9 were 'big' pow days of ~12"+)
6 days working for/with the ski team
3 days snowboarding
Avg ticket/pass cost - $27/day for me, $37/day for my wife (and yes that includes paying for my cat day)

 

[q]

A bit disappointing count for me this year bearing in mind I was in the USA for 4 whole weeks. Anyway, I had fun.

I managed to ski one new state(Oregon) and 8 new resorts in total but only skied 20/26 possible days. This was due to a combiniation of one day of rain/high winds/late night drinking ion Philipsburg, one day of travel from Philipsburg to Seattle, one day off to wonder round SLC and then had 3 days off at the end to travel back to Philipsburg and jst lounge about at my friends up there to end the trip nicely.

Next winter I am lookign to book flights soon as they are cheap and I think I will buy a seasons pass for Discovery, as it will be good effectively for the next 2 seasons for me, and spend the rest of the trip in Utah with a day on route somewhere. Probably been to most of the places I want to go to now with a few exception and they are hard to get to. Utah is the best so why bother going anywhere else.

Anyway, break down below including one very embarrassing admission......

Discovery 4
Montana Snowbowl 1
Crystal Mountain 1
White Pass 1
Summit 1
Mt Hood Skibowl 1
Hoodoo 1
Willamette Pass 1
Mt Bachelor 1
Anthony Lakes 1
Snowbird 2
Solitude 1
Powder Mountain 2
Brighton 1
Snowbasin 1

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I will buy a seasons pass for Discovery, as it will be good effectively for the next 2 seasons for me

How will a season pass be good for the next two seasons?

I would've liked to see a photo TR of Discovery and Snowbowl. :evil:

 

[J.Spin]

I would've liked to see a photo TR of Discovery and Snowbowl.

I'm not sure if you wanted a specific photo TR of those areas from this season by q, or were interested in a more general sense, but we've got a couple of trip reports with images from those areas when we visited them a few years back. You may have already seen them, but here are the links:

Montana Snowbowl, MT, December 7th & 8th, 2001

Ski Discovery, MT, March 16th, 2002

The initial Snowbowl link is for the pictures, but you can click to get to the text from there.

-J

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Thanks! Those two places (along with Maverick and Club LT) have been on my to-do list for a while, but I've yet to step foot in MT.

 

[q]

How will a season pass be good for the next two seasons?

I would've liked to see a photo TR of Discovery and Snowbowl.

A season's pass will be good for 2 seasons for me as if I take up the deal to purchase a seasons pass on March 1st 2010 at midnight as per Discovery's deal you get to ski the remainder of 2009-2010 and 2010-2011. As I only get there mid March it is perfect timing. I'm trying to write the words to effectively describe it but it comes down to the fact I am there only each March/April so in theory I need only purchase a cheap seasons pass every 2nd year(years 1, 3, 5...) and fail to renew before the end of each 2nd year(2, 4, 6...) You only need to ski about 7 or 8 days to save money as the deal is so good.

As for a trip report, watch this space..... I write a novel each year but I am now in a position to also have picture trip reports to go along with those. I am too busy and too lazy at the minute to get this done but it will get done.

 

[Tony Crocker]

From JSpin's reports I would think Montana Snowbowl's southern exposure would be a poor bet in March, especially since the place doesn't get a lot of snow. Discovery, with easy south facing frontside and steep north facing backside, is probably OK in March most years.

I'm paying close attention as I might end up on an abbreviated "q" tour next year between my Iron Blosam week and the NASJA annual 2 weeks later in Sun Valley.

 

[q]

From JSpin's reports I would think Montana Snowbowl's southern exposure would be a poor bet in March, especially since the place doesn't get a lot of snow. Discovery, with easy south facing frontside and steep north facing backside, is probably OK in March most years.

I'm paying close attention as I might end up on an abbreviated "q" tour next year between my Iron Blosam week and the NASJA annual 2 weeks later in Sun Valley.

Pretty much spot on Tony. I've been going to both pretty much every year since 2002 and get better conditions at Discovery on almost every visit.

The best skiing is by far and away on the front side at Snowbowl which gets a lot of sun and is prone to freeze/thaw. Its still worth a visit and I guess if you hit it on a pow day then the pitch would be superb.

Discovery I think has more for all levels and the groomers on the sunnier aspect of the hill have enough pitch that even in spring as long as its been a reasonable snow season will have good cover and offer flat out fun. The backside is where its at and on only one visit where there had been really warm weather followed by freezing temperatures did I have terrible skiing over that side. Generally it keeps the snow fairly fresh.

Two excellent local mountains and I cannot wait to get back in 10 months time.

 

[J.Spin]

Since people seem interested in these mountains, I pulled up a few other reports that I could recall/find. I'd actually forgotten that Leigh wrote up his Snowbowl experience in a piece for First Tracks, so that's right here for those that haven't read it

Leigh Daboll - Montana Snowbowl first impressions etc. - January 2001

Leigh Daboll/First Tracks - Montana Snowbowl: Hardcore Hospitality

Steve Kijak - Discovery - March 2003

Steve Kijak - Montana Snowbowl - March 2003

Paul Terwilliger - Montana Snowbowl - January 2006

In line with this thread, people might like to check out Steve Kijak's reports from his 2003 ski trip around Idaho/Montana/Washington, since he did a q-style trip and hit many smaller areas. He didn't provide any pictures and his entries are very short, but he visited Big Sky, Discovery, Blacktail, Big Mountain, Turner, 49-Degrees North, Schweitzer, Silver, Snowbowl, Lost Trail, Great Divide, and Bridger Bowl.

Steve intersected with Leigh on that trip, so some might be interested in Leigh's report where he covers Steven's Pass, Turner, 49 Degrees North, Schweitzer, and Mission Ridge in a bit more depth and rates them.

-J