February 2022 UT, CO Skiing + UT National Parks

[jimk]

mid-Feb, took a little break from skiing and went to San Diego (83 degs) and Las Vegas for about a week. Returning to SLC I took a short pit stop at Kolob Canyon, part of Zion National Park and not far off Interstate 15 near Cedar City, UT:

in mid-Feb I picked up some new Daleboots from their shop in SLC. Custom shell, liner, and foot bed. Paid over a grand for them, but my 9 year old langes were really killing me so I guess it was worth it. So far no pain with the new boots after about 50 days, performance is decent, and they are especially easy to take off even on the coldest days. This photo was taken while riding the little cloud chair at Snowbird.

Feb 23, 2022, looking right up the heart of Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude, UT. One of the most beautiful lift served spots in Utah.

In late Feb I drove from SLC over to CO for a couple days of skiing in the Aspen area and one day at Steamboat. On the drive over I stopped for about 90 mins to do some hiking and have a picnic at Arches National Park. This is Double Arch about a month before the seasonal swarm of tourists arrive.

Feb 27, This is a friend carving up The Big Burn. It had been about five years since I'd skied Snowmass and I'd forgotten how indulgently fun the long, wide intermediate cruisers are there.

Feb 28, 2022, a friend in Highland Bowl. I'm too old to make the full hike up Highland Bowl for fear of getting totally trashed. But I like to take the Snowcat and drop in to get a little taste of it. 30% of the experience for 2% of the sweat

On Mar 1, 2022 I returned to SLC via Steamboat and skied there for about 3 hours. Conditions in Aspen had been great, packed powder due to about 2-3 feet of snow 5 days before I arrived there. But conditions at Steamboat were significantly worse, I guess they must have missed the more southerm storms Aspen got? But I enjoyed the Hypnotic Chicken fast food joint in Steamboat Springs.

to be continued...

 

[Tony Crocker]

I'm too old to make the full hike up Highland Bowl for fear of getting totally trashed.

You might be selling yourself short. We skied together at Snowbird in January and seemed fairly similar. I've skied Highlands Bowl 3x though admittedly the last time was in 2015. The immediate entries near the snowcat dropoff face E to SE and had unpleasant snow conditions all 3 times I was there. You have to hike to the top to get a N or NE exposure along with the long sustained fall line. But you probably had better snow conditions.

But conditions at Steamboat were significantly worse

Steamboat has primary SW exposure. March 1 is definitely late enough for that to be a problem unless there has been a recent dump.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Good to see a fellow Kästle skier -- we're few and far between. My previous encounter was two years ago at Sunlight (scroll to the bottom).

 

[jasoncapecod]

Good to see a fellow Kästle skier -- we're few and far between. My previous encounter was two years ago at Sunlight (scroll to the bottom).

my buddy paul just bought a pair this season..loves them

 

[Tony Crocker]

Kästle is always at the Mammoth industry demo each February after SIA and we always try at least one pair each with very favorable impressions. I’ve been skiing Blizzard Bonafides as a daily driver since Dec. 2012 but that ski was redesigned not for the better in 2021. I would lean toward Kästle when the my 2015 and 2020 Bonafides wear out. Kästle is a premium ski, not cheap though.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Kästle is a premium ski, not cheap though.

Correct. Despite being big fans of Kästle, my nearby ski shop in NJ stopped repping them five years ago because the price differential scared people off. Like most things, you can sleuth out deals during end-of-season fire sales -- I've had three pairs and never paid more than $300 including bindings.

During my 2019 road trip through Austria's Salzburgerland and Steiermark, I mentioned not seeing one pair of Kästle skis the entire week, including no presence at a demo day in Hinterstoder -- which I found shocking.

 

[jimk]

I see a fair amount of Kästles at Snowbird, often being used by strong, well-heeled skiers. I got mine 3 or 4 years ago on SteepandCheap for $149 new. I believe the LX85 (85mm underfoot and mine are 176cm long) is considered a unisex model. It's very friendly and easy to ski, which from what I understand is not a typical characteristic of the brand. I refer to them as Kästle-lites. I use them on groomers and light duty offpiste days, usually earlier in the season and they can be quite fun and easy for an older guy to bend. I find they don't have quite enough beef to give me optimal confidence at faster speeds on big, steep, firm groomers. But that could be a personal problem

Like Tony, I'm more often on a version of the Blizzard Bonafides. Additionally, I have two other wider skis and can also borrow occasionally from my son's quiver. Incidentally, this wasn't the snowiest winter in UT and my son skied a new pair of Bonafides 98% of the time this season.

I get the sense that Stöckli (and tons of little boutique brands) has stolen some of the high end ski market from Kästle in the last couple of years.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Stöckli is another brand we always test at that Mammoth demo and like. These demo events seem to happen after it hasn’t snowed for 2 or 3 weeks, except for 2017 and 2019 when they were cancelled to raging blizzards. Stöckli makes great firm snow/groomer skis which keeps us coming back to them under the usual demo conditions.

$300 is what I paid for 2015 Bonafides with about 15 days of use on Jan. 3 this year. So I’m impressed that James can get that kind of deal on Kästles.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

the LX85 (85mm underfoot and mine are 176cm long) is considered a unisex model. It's very friendly and easy to ski, which from what I understand is not a typical characteristic of the brand. I refer to them as Kästle-lites.

Same deal with my LX82s, which are often referred to as unisex skis.

$300 is what I paid for 2015 Bonafides with about 15 days of use on Jan. 3 this year. So I’m impressed that James can get that kind of deal on Kästles.

In 2019, I got those 2017 LX82s for $300 after haggling with some guy in Florida who posted them on eBay. Skis and bindings were still in the plastic.