I ended up with 56 after 46 two of the last three years and 47 the other. Is 80% a good effort or barely a B- grade?
I commented before the season started that 70 was unrealistic unless the Sierra had an extended season like 2017, 2019 or 2023. Tseeb's record is 65 days in 2018-19. However, his 56 days is the only time he has exceeded my total since we met in 2011.
| Area | Sum of Days | Sum of Vertical | Sum of Powder |
| Mountain High (West) | 1 | 15.7 | 0 |
| Mammoth | 17 | 415.5 | 8 |
| Heavenly Valley | 1 | 21.7 | 0 |
| Squaw Valley | 1 | 15.4 | 1 |
| Snowbird | 3.5 | 46.8 | 0 |
| Alta | 1.5 | 32.5 | 0 |
| Sierra-at-Tahoe | 1 | 21.7 | 14 |
| Island Lake Snowcat | 3 | 44.6 | 37 |
| Fernie | 1 | 17.4 | 0 |
| Castle Mt. | 2 | 38.1 | 0 |
| Big Sky | 1 | 20.5 | 1 |
| Yellowstone Club | 1 | 18.1 | 9 |
| Kicking Horse | 1 | 10.1 | 1 |
| Panorama | 1 | 19.0 | 0 |
| Mt. Rose | 1 | 14.7 | 0 |
| Bridger Bowl | 1 | 13.6 | 0 |
| Moonlight Basin | 1 | 13.3 | 1 |
| Chatter Creek Snowcat | 3 | 32.2 | 30 |
| Brundage | 1 | 15.6 | 2 |
| Zermatt, Switz. | 1 | 19.4 | 2 |
| Klein Matterhorn, Switz. | 0.5 | 15.5 | 0 |
| Cervinia, Italy | 0.5 | 4.0 | 0 |
| Avoriaz, France | 2 | 41.8 | 5 |
| Chatel, France | 1 | 21.5 | 3 |
| *Fairmont Hot Springs | 1 | 5.5 | 0 |
| *Showdown | 1 | 14.9 | 0 |
| *Saas-Fee, Switz. | 1 | 17.1 | 0 |
| *Ovronnaz, Switz. | 1 | 16.5 | 5 |
| *Champery/Les Crosets, Switz. | 1 | 16.7 | 0 |
| *Flaine, France | 1 | 38.4 | 3 |
| *Samoens/Morillon, France | 1 | 21.6 | 0 |
| Total | 55 | 1059.4 | 122 |
2025-26 was almost exactly average for my post-COVID retirement seasons in terms of days, vertical and powder. The positives and negatives offset. Key factors:
1) I only had one day in SoCal's worst ever season, that being to keep my grandfathered Mountain High pass alive. This is not an anomaly. I had zero SoCal days in 2005-06, 2012-13 and 2017-18 and just one in 6 other seasons. But Mammoth had some worthwhile skiing in December and was not far off typical quality in April/May, so I had 17 days there.
2) The 3 days in January was my lowest day count for a core winter month since January 2007. Part of that was no destination trips with Liz leaving for Africa Feb. 7. I hit the road the next day and so the 21 days I skied in February is a record high for one calendar month.
3) This was probably my worst overall week at Iron Blosam, but really only for two days where it did not warm up and most of the hill stayed frozen. I took one of those days off as I was tired from the month long road trip. Bridger Bowl during the prior week was the only other day this season that I would classify conditions as bad. And surely a powder day at the Yellowstone Club 3 days later more that offsets that. Plus the front end of the road trip included those 6 days of excellent powder cat skiing in Canada.
4) While the US West was melting down in late March, we had 10 days of nearly all winter conditions in the Alps. The last 7 of those days were chosen on short notice to locations with recent new snow.
31 different areas and 7 new ones area return to the high standards of my retirement years. That puts my area count at 297, but The "Skitistics" page referenced by worldskitraveller makes it clear that I could claim 3 more. Val di Fassa and Les Menuires have separate lower priced lift tickets within their huge complexes. Also in the Dolomites, Ortisei-Seceda is separated from both Alpi de Suisi and Val Gardena by transport lifts with no ski terrain.
I skied 27 days on Ikon and 5 on my NASJA comp Indy Pass.
And now for the elephant in the room?
Jimk:
However, I definitely felt my age (70+) with more muscle fatigue than in the past. It also seems to take forever to get into "ski shape". Until April in fact.
This is the first time I've read that type of comment from him. I find it quite inspiring that he and MarzNC seems to be at their peak ski levels past age 70. That is when I first needed the conspicuous "suck wind breaks" on strenuous runs at altitude. It's easy to notice in my case because it's on the exact terrain that I had been skiing for 40+ years at Mammoth. Now it can happen on any ski run that requires what was maximum sustainable effort before age 70. The road trip of 28 out of 33 days reinforced this situation and by the end of it at Iron Blosam I was not skiing at 100%. I don't think I've been to Snowbird for multiple days and never set foot in the Cirque before. And after the 500 foot slide on Monument at Mammoth Feb. 4 I've become a real princess about demanding superb snow conditions to ski anything 35+ degrees. One run in very sheltered wind blown powder in Macaroni/Upper Silver Fox was the only run in that category I skied during Iron Blosam Week.
So my next ski days after that were in Zermatt where I inflamed my knee and had to visit the doctor there. The next 5 days in the Alps were very good but mostly on groomers and/or weather constrained aside from the Ovrannaz powder day. At this point I had skied 44 days, 779K vertical and had an undiagnosed knee injury. But the next 3 days at Avoriaz and Flaine I skied 85K in great weather and conditions including some powder. Those days plus the final 8 at Mammoth averaged over 25K.
As I've noted in other recent seasons, the vertical/day is not changing that much but the proportion of time on groomers is way up past age 70. On good days at Mammoth I'm skiing no more than half as many ungroomed steep runs per day as before.
While ski season was on, I was very conservative about any activity that might inflame the knee. I have not hiked the Verdugo Hills a block from my house since January, but the March heat wave has made my pool swimmable for exercise. The knee was not good the day after a 5 mile brisk hike with a lot of stairs in Pasadena's San Rafael district. There are now some yoga poses I can't do without pain in the right knee, notably pigeon stretches which are very good for my lower back and glutes.
The MRI was April 20 with results April 28, same knee doctor Liz saw from 2015 up through her 2023 knee replacement. The diagnosis is a torn meniscus and bone bruise, with the latter most likely causing the pain. I've been lucky to go 72 years with zero chronic joint pain and all of the skiing. Those days are evidently over. The doctor doesn't like meniscus surgeries, as they tend to be temporary and the more you take out the sooner you get the bone on bone situation. The ultimate fix these days is a knee replacement, though for now I would probably be a partial rather than full replacement candidate. He also said the golden ages for knee replacement are between 65 and 75, due to older patients being more infirm and less likely to have full recoveries like Liz did (she was 64). I'm interpreting that recommendation to mean that if the knee pain prevents normal exercise and conditioning, best to go for surgery rather than have a decline in fitness.
The doctor wants me to have shims in the heels of my right shoe to relieve stress on the inner knee for any extended walks or hikes. With a sample size of one, that seems to have been effective for the 5 mile round trip hike to Wapama Falls yesterday vs. that San Rafael hike a month ago. I did not use the knee brace for any of this week's activities. The Zermatt doctor gave it to me so I could continue skiing if I had a slight MCL strain, which the later MRI showed I do not. It seems that ligament strains or recoveries are the specific injuries where a knee brace is helpful.
My knee does not hurt during activity like skiing. It is mainly painful when weight bearing with the knee bent more than 90 degrees. There can be mild pain getting up from a sedentary position like the original pain in Zermatt or if I sleep on it in an awkward position. So far it seems very minor compared to what I observed with Liz, but time will tell if it affects my overall fitness.
(seven is my favorite number)
