Patrick's Streak, Ski Travel Priorities
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
Obvious snow ice boundary here in Norway when Liz got her first September ski day:
The suncups Liz is skiing here look a lot like the ones in ChrisC's Muir snowfield post. I observe that suncupping varies by latitude. The lower the latitude the more overhead the sun is, gouging deeper suncups. It's the hard sides and points of suncups that makes skiing them unpleasant. The suncups above are more rounded, can soften easier IMHO.
When you get to very high altitudes (4000+M) but very low latitudes in Chile the sun is almost vertical in spring/summer and the troughs melt out completely, leaving Penitentes.
The peaks lose their snow more gradually by sublimation, which keeps them cooler than the troughs which melt into water.
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EMSC
Well-known member
I would love to see someone trying to ski that. Not that I would want to try to ski that, but I think it would be fascinating to see someone make the attempt. Is it even possible?
Patrick's June and July were at the usual suspects.
This was his 6th June at St. Sauveur and 8th July at Avila.
This was his 6th June at St. Sauveur and 8th July at Avila.
Patrick
Well-known member
The last 13 months…. One picture per month.I cannot comment any more on this; it's just not rational.
From June 2026 to June 2025 these pictures only [the ones I can figure out, TC) - Added the missing info PC)
June 2025, Riksgransen, Sweden, Summer Solstice, picture taken around midnight.
| July 2025: Galdhøpiggen, Norway (we were there late August 2022 when it had closed prematurely) |
Aug 2025, Remarkables, New Zealand:
Sept 2025: 50 cm of fresh at Porters' NZ
Oct. 2025, Netherlands: Biggest indoor ski area in Europe (that is the claim).
Nov. 2025, Zermatt:
Dec 1st, 2025: Zermatt
Definitely Lake Louise, April 2026:
May 2026: Eagle Chute, ER-6 I believe.
No question in 2026 April/May 2026 in Banff was every bit what Mammoth usually is in that time frame.
June 2026, St. Sauveur:
Orford: late March powder 2026
Feb 2026: Pin Rouge in the Gaspé Peninsula. Biggest Eastern Canada vertical (except Newfoundland's Marble Mountain) I hadn't yet skied (450m) 3rd consecutive powder day
Jan 2026: home hill powder, Edelweiss
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Patrick
Well-known member
This year it happened to be St-Sauveur and Avila, last year it was Norway and Sweden.
If I remove Covid/Lockdown 2020 & 2021: 19 seasons
June:
I also have 6 (32%) out West, California plus Hood/Bachelor.
Mt. Washington 5 (26%)
St. Sauveur/Avila 4 (21%) - incl Covid years: 6
Killington 3
July:
Avila 7 (37%) - incl Covid years: 8
California plus Crystal/Rainier. 5 (26%)
Mt. Washington 5 (26%)
ChrisC
Well-known member
Why don't you pursue this type of strategy more?
Since there are no set definitions of a ski day, why not double up 2 Summer Months more often in the Pacific NW (BC/WA/OR)? Seems more efficient and could be done over a long weekend. Weather is generally stable over the summer.
Sometimes the skiing just sucks on the Euro glaciers or Southern Hemisphere. And it seems to align with the nature of The Streak rather than a tour of global indoor ski areas.
noahzadventures.com
noahzadventures.com
Since there are no set definitions of a ski day, why not double up 2 Summer Months more often in the Pacific NW (BC/WA/OR)? Seems more efficient and could be done over a long weekend. Weather is generally stable over the summer.
Sometimes the skiing just sucks on the Euro glaciers or Southern Hemisphere. And it seems to align with the nature of The Streak rather than a tour of global indoor ski areas.
Skiing in a High Place: Summer Turns above Cascade Pass
Herds of mountain goats, incredible sweeping views, and quality summer skiing. All three were found deep in the North Cascades National Park, but not without many miles spent on the trail. It doesn…
noahzadventures.com
Muir Snowfield – September Skiing on Washington’s Highest Volcano
I’ve skied practically every month of the year, with plenty of help from Oregon’s Palmer Glacier and the October opening days at Copper Mountain, Colorado. With that said, September has…
noahzadventures.com
Patrick
Well-known member
PNW in Summer?
Like this?
2006: 2 wks from the Oregon coast to Port Angeles w time in Seattle, Portland, Mts Rainier, St Helens and Hood.
2012: 1wks from Bachelor to Crystal and Rainier.
2013: one long weekend for Hood and one concert.
2014: 1wk, Portland, Crater Lake, Oregon coast
2017: 1wk, Portland, Ocean
2019: 2wks, Cannon beach, Rainier, St Helens and Hood, Portland, Seattle.
2024: 1wk, Cannon beach, Rainier and Hood, Portland.
Global indoor? Landergraaf is the biggest in Europe and I was going to be next door in Belgium for 10 days. I didn’t go to Europe to specifically ski indoor.
More gaslighting. It was a one+ month trip with his wife and Patrick was going to be in the Alps on the back end. She wanted to be in Denmark and the Low Countries on the front end so that's where October's skiing had to be.
He did in many of the early years of the streak. Overall Patrick has responded to evolving conditions since 2006.
Aug/Sep in first 9 years: 3 Timberline, 5 South America, 1 surveying I think 8 glacier areas in the Alps. Those South America trips like most had their TISA factors, but the first 4 of them definitely had highlights. The last trip was in 2012 with poor conditions after the current megadrought was underway and Patrick hasn't returned since then.
The next 5 years before COVID: 2 Timberline, 1 Austria, first trips to New Zealand and Australia.
+1 In order to get Liz her 12-month season, we took a relatively expensive (flights/rental car during peak post-COVID inflation of 2022) 4-day trip to ski Timberline in June/July. We had much more expansive skiing from top of Palmer down to Timberline Lodge than what I call (from pictures) the "postage stamp" of snow skied there mid-August. I won't argue it was worth the price but we are suckers for new experiences and I had tried to ski Timberline in late spring/summer 4x before but wind or rain had closed Palmer. Those other trips were mainly skiing at Bachelor but I wanted to check out Timberline on the way to or from Portland airport.
Now Timberline can't stay open until September anymore. So it's not really worth it to go there from outside the region for August if you can't get September on the same trip.
The difference between early and late summer ski quality also applies to the glacier skiing in the Alps. Availability is becoming an issue there too. Patrick skied 8 areas in 2011, now you have only Hintertux and/or Zermatt as Aug/Sept combination options.
The hotter northern summers in both Europe and North America push Patrick more to the Southern Hemisphere. The streak timeframe is actually optimal for a normal southern winter. But all of the southern ski regions are deeply flawed in reliability by the standards of northern destinations. Analogies:
Australia = SoCal
New Zealand = southern Vermont with more rugged topography
Portillo/Valle Nevado/Las Lenas = Arizona Snowbowl/Taos with 1.5x the volatility
Argentine Lake District = Drier version of New Zealand
Chilean Lake District = lower altitude PNW
Chillan and Corralco = maybe mid altitude PNW?
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Patrick
Well-known member
I was responding to Chris comment…
We left for Denmark after our Zermatt bday skiing on December 1st.
We had planned to finish our 2024 trip Belgium before flying back from Amsterdam (where we had landed), but my mother-in-law’s hospitalization while we were skiing in the Tirol forced to modified everything like date and left now from Lyon.
Last year we were started in Brussels (plus took advantage to go see a concert on Nov 3rd). Last trip included 3.5 weeks of family stuff.
Easier to break it with my personal situation, health and job wise.
2006-2012:
PDX: 1
SA: 5
Europe: 1
Timberline the 1st year.
Next 5 of 6 years in South America.
1 trip in France in 2011 to see wife’s family. I extended my trip East of France: total skiing 7 days on 6 glaciers (France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria). Trip also included trips up L’Aiguille du midi and La Meije.
2013-2019:
PDX: 4
Oceania: 2
Europe: 1
Health issues, sick leave & departure from work place. Health issues might have started with the Buenos Aires robbery in 2009 followed by my mom’s sudden passing. Suffering from severe mental health issues that I couldn’t even get out of the house thus the Avila situation as there was no wait I could go to Tuckerman. I had suffered a panic attack in the middle of the night alone in my room in Chillan. Next few years, started slowly. Portland was the easiest, just one long weekend in 2013.
Return in 2014 then return in my wife’s family in Europe. 2016: NZ had been on my bucket list since 1984.
Also since 2016, we were taking big family trip without skiing.
2016: Yukon, NZ
2017: Banff, California, Iceland thus PDX that year.
2018: Australia
2019: California, France/Italy w day in Zermatt then PDX.
Since 2020:
Canadian Rockies first 3 years. I also added Australia for Sep 2022.
Tony’s witness my 2023 injury. I had hope to return to NZ, but wasn’t technically allowed to ski, so did NJ indoor.
2024: August in Oregon. Sept trip yo NYC for sightseeing, concert and turns at Big Snow.
2025: Alas, finally returning to NZ.
Nothing is decided for the next few months. We were initially hoping for France this summer with a side trip to see the Solar Eclipse in Spain, but stated numerous times, I don’t like the heat. We hit a couple of days above +40c the last summer trip we did to Europe plus a few in 2011 thus my reluctance to go.
There that should be enough on this subject.