2008 Apocalypse Revisited: Skiing vs. Work/Family Obligations

Tony Crocker

Tony Crocker

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Both of the "Apocalypse" threads to which tseeb referred were from 2008.

Skidog's Future: 50+ Day Ski Seasons or Apocalypse?

All of us are vicariously enjoying Skidog's last weeks of pre-fatherhood freedom.
www.firsttracksonline.com

The Apocalypse in the Kitchen

Perhaps many of the "serious skiers" who really want to ski powder, steeps, trees, bumps, etc. have moved West. :P Leaving the FTO New England hardcore a minority so small that eastern ski managements choose to ignore it. Except for MRG of course :wink: .
www.firsttracksonline.com
It's interesting to see how those situations turned out.

Kingslug wanted to move west but had a spouse with less interest in skiing who adamantly refused. He is now with Jackie, who was the organizer for the Diamond Dogs' Zermatt trip that Liz and I enjoyed in 2014. Kingslug and Jackie are still in the East but they have a vacation home in Stowe.

Our former admin's spouse still has no interest in skiing but enjoys the new RV aspect of their lifestyle, which is full time for 7 months per year and includes at least a week in Arizona in the winter.

From a ski perspective, Skidog was the big loser. Not only did he fail to get his pipe dream 50 day ski seasons after having kids, his non-skiing wife made him leave Utah and move back to the East in 2016. Skidog has been absent from these boards since then.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
Skidog was the big loser. Not only did he fail to get his pipe dream 50 day ski seasons after having kids, his non-skiing wife made him leave Utah and move back to the East in 2016.
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Tough crowd!

Tony Crocker said:
Skidog has been absent from these boards since then.
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So he's not a total loser.

Dude if my skiing wife makes me move to Utah from the East, I give you full permission to call me the big loser.

🤠
 
Harvey said:
So he's not a total loser.
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If you read that thread from 2008, you'll see Skidog was warned by several of us that his expectation of 50 day ski seasons with a baby or toddler was unrealistic. Leaving Utah was not even discussed then.

And if you read former admin's TR's from that era (infamous example here) you'll see that Skidog was in the BobbyD/big mountain/hard charging camp of skiers. So in that context I think it's a safe view that Skidog personally viewed the move back East as big loss from a ski perspective, and he would never have done it if it was his call. Skidog was not bashful about posting ski stoke. If he's been getting much of that since he moved, I haven't heard about it.

I would guess that Skidog made a choice that his marriage was more important than his skiing. I made the opposite choice in the late 1990's so the ensuring divorce in 2004 was not a surprise. I thank Liz and my lucky stars every day that I've been able to have my cake and eat it too since 2011.
 
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Skidog is very active on Facebook. He spent a few days at Iron Blosam in late February this season. When asked on FB how the skiing was, he replied,
"Pretty good, got between storms sadly but can't win em all, still better than the least coast can ever be."
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He lives in Goshen, NY, not so far from James and Harvey, but clearly has little interest in skiing near his new home. Not so different from James in most seasons, but James probably skis more. Skidog has zero ski content on Facebook in 2022-23 other than that long weekend at Iron Blosam, aside from FB anniversary posts from when he lived in Utah.
 
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Tony Crocker said:
not so far from James and Harvey, but clearly has little interest in skiing near his new home. Not so different from James in most seasons, but James probably skis more.
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This is continuing the off-topic departure but as mentioned before, I'm not pro-actively boycotting "local" skiing like Skidog. It's just that given my parental time constraints, I have to give priority to the Alps twice per season and West once per season.

The good news is that starting in the 24-25 scholastic year, my son will likely be living full-time at a specialized school so my skiing in the northeast should increase to get me back to a more respectable number of total ski days, i.e. in the upper 20s.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
This is continuing the off-topic departure
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Tseeb segued this thread from "Fear of injury" to "Fear of having one's quantity and quality of skiing compromised by work/family obligations." :icon-lol:
I interviewed for a job in Concord, NH in 1993. If I had moved there, I would have been giving up Mammoth's ski quality, but in most seasons Concord is a more attractive location than L.A. for daytrip skiing. But there's no way to spin SkiDog's move from SLC to metro NYC as anything but a massive hit to both quality and convenience of skiing. However, if you want to get your kids into skiing, the convenience factor is way more important than the quality of the daytrip ski hill. Some of Adam's Iron Blosam buddies grew up 20 minutes from Mountain Creek and developed similar level ski skills.

I have no idea if or how much Skidog's kids (now in 6th and 9th grades) ski.

jamesdeluxe said:
I'm not pro-actively boycotting "local" skiing like Skidog. It's just that given my parental time constraints....
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During my family years, it was mainly the Mammoth weekends that took the dip in ski day count vs. earlier and later in life. It's very difficult to block out a whole weekend during the school year, especially on short notice the way I manage my Mammoth trips now. But we could always get a full week destination trip during Adam's spring break. So Adam's ski day count had some sensitivity to how good the daytrip skiing was in SoCal. His first and second grade seasons were excellent here. The 422K vertical he skied in first grade was not exceeded until 9th grade and the 24 days that season were not exceeded until 12th grade.
 
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Plattekill is around 1.5 hrs from Goshen.. It's not SLC , but it's good fun skiing.. Like James mentioned the MTB is world class..
 
jasoncapecod said:
Plattekill is around 1.5 hrs from Goshen..
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What, and give up all that is the newly rejuvenated Holiday Mtn less than 30 min away? :icon-lol:

Just kidding. They each have their place. Holiday is probably the ultimate cheap place to teach little ones to ski for a couple years. Patrick would think it's ideal for gate bashing (except for the far more horrible weather vs his Ottawa molehills).
 
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Harvey said:
I think you should break it out brah
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This thread needs a more click baity title!

I like the original or any of these:

Fear of Having Quantity and Quality of Skiing Compromised by Family

Fear of Compromised Skiing

:bow:
 
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