Just Gloating

O

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Ok, I spent that trust fund my dad forgot to leave me this summer, so I may be panhandling at a resort near you but I completely hooked myself up this summer on closeout gear- as follows-

New board- Neversummer legacy 163! -$280
New Snowshoes- Crescentmoon gold series 10 -$175 (I'm actually getting the 2006 because they made a booboo and were sold out after taking my order-sweet!)
New Beacon- Ortovox F1- $159
BCA-Shovel and probe combo- $80 not much discount here, oh well.
BCA stash rider pack- $76 bucks

Dreaming of snowboarding in August with an empty wallet- $priceless! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

P.S. - Hope my wife doesn't see this list and figure out its me. I only told her about half. I can see the conversation now- "where did you get that?" "Huh, I've had that forever!"
 
Well at least it's canadian dollars!

I always find I spend way too much money when going to any foreign country because it takes my brain awhile to actually compute that I'm spending real dollars!

P.S. - Good show on 41 days- not bad! When do you start over?
 
option_ride":2bizuygr said:
P.S. - Good show on 41 days- not bad! When do you start over?
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Tony's got 9 days to go before he matches my 04-05 total of 50 days...

Heck, at this point it's the only thing left I can gloat about!
 
I think October 1 to Sept. 30 is a ski year. It keeps the core southern hemisphere season in one piece, and usually forms the break between last season's northern snow leftovers and the next season's new snow.

There is some October/November spring skiing down south, but almost none of us northerners are ever there for it. And yes, I've heard the September Rockies new snow stories. But has that snow ever stuck around to build the first base of the new season?

So I will wrap up with 46-48 days and hopefully just over 1 million vertical.
 
I had roomate at college that did 80 days a year, I'm still not sure if he ever graduated! I didn't keep a good count this year but my guess is that I did between 25-30 days this year. I was still hiking the hills here around Santa Fe until late May and I'm sure I could have gotten more days in SOCO. In fact we were camping up above Dolores in early july and there were still mass amounts of snow in spots. Thats what inspired my spending spree on BC gear, so I'm hoping for 2 in a row! I bet I can do 40 next year with a good season-- knock on wood!@ I might try to get the first few in around silverton in october if we get a goot start! I grew up in the 4 courners and can remember september storms but never enough for a base of any kind, maybe in NOCO? I do remember about 5-7 years ago that A basin was only closed the month of August.
 
JimG.":3qww2jnk said:
option_ride":3qww2jnk said:
P.S. - Good show on 41 days- not bad! When do you start over?
Click to expand...

Tony's got 9 days to go before he matches my 04-05 total of 50 days...

Heck, at this point it's the only thing left I can gloat about!
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Let's gloat...

Only 9 days to go to match my year also, 12 days if you count my sand days this month.

53 days with alpine gear on snow or sand. :lol:

(yeah, but his overall destination were definately better than mine)

I always said that quality, not quantity that is the most important. This said, I reached 50 for the first time. \:D/
 
Colorado's snow is the lowest water content of any major ski region. That's great for powder but detrimental to building a base. Even October snow in Colorado rarely sticks around, except at Wolf Creek where there's sometimes a whole lot of it. There's a long list of Colorado areas where it's like Chinese water torture waiting for the steep stuff to become skiable, typically sometime in January.

A-Basin and Loveland both fit the Colorado pattern of steep terrain often not opening until January. They get more snow than most, but also get wind that blows the light dustings away above timberline. In 1995 A-Basin got 80 inches snow in May and was able to stay open until August. The only advantage these areas have for early season is that they are so high that temps are sometimes cold enough for snowmaking by late September. All those rumors about A-Basin becoming a year-round area involve beefed-up snowmaking.

Wasatch and Sierra October snow is not guaranteed to hang around either. Nathan Rafferty of SkiUtah and I use the same criterion with October snow: if it's enough to open the ski area we count it, otherwise we ignore it. Last year November and early December were drier than average in the Sierra, so only well preserved Mammoth (which also happened to be hit hardest in October) had wide open skiing with good cover at mid-December. A friend was at Squaw and my son at Heavenly around Dec. 20 and both reported mediocre conditions and limited steeps open. This was all forgotten after the Sierra got 15+ feet of snow between Christmas and Jan. 15. The Cottonwood Canyons got even more October snow than Mammoth and were consistently good from opening (late October Brighton, November 6 Snowbird) onwards. Last year's October snow totals were the highest in at least 50 years for both the Sierra and Wasatch.

In Southern California even November natural snow often doesn't last. Last year was the most snow we have ever had before Dec. 1. There was 2 feet new snow late October and 4 areas opened for that weekend. By November 18, even with some snowmaking assistance skiing was down to one run at one area. The next 2 feet came Nov. 21-22, and a month later the runs with snowmaking were fully covered but the natural base was down to a foot or so and was not skiable. It wasn't until the 3-foot storm at Christmas that a lasting natural base was established.
 
Admin":1vj1yed3 said:
Tony Crocker":1vj1yed3 said:
ACTUALLY skiing in September for a week with Extremely Canadian
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Speaking of gloating... :roll:
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<gloat>

Monday and Tuesday were epic powder days at Valle Nevado. 8 feet of snow over the weekend and the sun came out at 7:12 AM on Monday. We were both on those SkiVT-L Volkl CMH heli-ski boards and it was still thigh deep on me (I'm 6'2") with face shots on every turn. The road was closed until Tuesday afternoon so there were only a few hundred people tracking it out.

</gloat>
 
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