Skier's Ultimate To Do List
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Frankontour
New member
LOL Yep, in the 90s in the next days here too... a chance that we have air-conditining. On my side, I would like to go... North !!!! Torngat !!!! <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT="
"> <BR> <BR>But for now, I think eating ice cubes will be enough to refresh my brain a little bit. lolol
"> <BR> <BR>But for now, I think eating ice cubes will be enough to refresh my brain a little bit. lolol
This is belated, but I happened across the June 1982 Mammoth pics recently:
I'm the little speck on the left side in Hangman's narrowest part. Note how wide it still is on June 20 of a 500-inch snow year.
Coming into Saddle Bowl after Hangman's.
At noon I attempted my first pond skim, captured here in mid-wipeout.
Here I am after retrieving my equipment (snow skis sink) and crawling out the slushy edge of the pond. With the low humidity and no shirt I warmed up quickly and headed back up Chair 3. This time I remembered that you lean BACK on water skis and successfully skimmed the pond. Unfortunately there was no more film in the camera.
I'm the little speck on the left side in Hangman's narrowest part. Note how wide it still is on June 20 of a 500-inch snow year.
Coming into Saddle Bowl after Hangman's.
At noon I attempted my first pond skim, captured here in mid-wipeout.
Here I am after retrieving my equipment (snow skis sink) and crawling out the slushy edge of the pond. With the low humidity and no shirt I warmed up quickly and headed back up Chair 3. This time I remembered that you lean BACK on water skis and successfully skimmed the pond. Unfortunately there was no more film in the camera.
Frankontour
New member
Nice pics, Tony ! It's really amazing to see Hangman's skiable so late in the season with still so much snow !
Did the mountain opened up to august, that year ?
Never tried pond skimming. It's not exactly my kind to try this neither, I must admit.
Hmm... if I win to lotto "Super 7" next week (25 millions... (this is quite big in Canada)), I pass a contract with La Réserve to make a huge amount of snow into the Loup-Garou canyon, so we'll have some skiing (and may be pond skimming) up to june 20... or july 4 may be <IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""> lol
Did the mountain opened up to august, that year ?
Never tried pond skimming. It's not exactly my kind to try this neither, I must admit.
Hmm... if I win to lotto "Super 7" next week (25 millions... (this is quite big in Canada)), I pass a contract with La Réserve to make a huge amount of snow into the Loup-Garou canyon, so we'll have some skiing (and may be pond skimming) up to june 20... or july 4 may be
<IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/clipart/happy.gif" ALT=""> lolTony Croc ker
New member
I have no personal knowledge of operation past July 4 holiday weekend other than 1983 and 1995. Late season snow depths were higher in 1983 and 1995 than in these pics.
1981-82 was record season for skier visits at the time, and they built the 2 key expert chair lifts 22 and 23 that summer. You can see at the top of the pic of me wiping out in the pond that chair 23 is is not there. It took a few minutes to hike up to Wipe Out and Drop Out then (similar to Paranoid now). I had never skied from Lincoln Mt. (chair 22, Avalanche Chutes in this April's pics) as it was a 20+ minute hike. But the real reason that summer's construction was cause for celebration is that mid-season gondola lines to reach Mammoth's expert runs were routinely 30-45 minutes in 1982 and prior seasons. My first lifetime 30K vertical day was on May 1, 1982, and would not have been possible at Mammoth then during the winter due to lift lines.
1981-82 was record season for skier visits at the time, and they built the 2 key expert chair lifts 22 and 23 that summer. You can see at the top of the pic of me wiping out in the pond that chair 23 is is not there. It took a few minutes to hike up to Wipe Out and Drop Out then (similar to Paranoid now). I had never skied from Lincoln Mt. (chair 22, Avalanche Chutes in this April's pics) as it was a 20+ minute hike. But the real reason that summer's construction was cause for celebration is that mid-season gondola lines to reach Mammoth's expert runs were routinely 30-45 minutes in 1982 and prior seasons. My first lifetime 30K vertical day was on May 1, 1982, and would not have been possible at Mammoth then during the winter due to lift lines.
Frankontour
New member
Thanks for the precisions.
Just another question... 30k vertical is not very big, but it *looks* to be less frequent in the west, according to what I hear. Any idea why ? I guess the fast conditions that we have here "help" us to pass over 30, 40 and even 50k vertical in one day, without working to reach it especially. (I must say that 50k may not be possible without some HSQ or extreme steepness).
Just another question... 30k vertical is not very big, but it *looks* to be less frequent in the west, according to what I hear. Any idea why ? I guess the fast conditions that we have here "help" us to pass over 30, 40 and even 50k vertical in one day, without working to reach it especially. (I must say that 50k may not be possible without some HSQ or extreme steepness).
It is certainly possible to pump up the vertical by running repeated laps on an uncrowded chair with fast runs. I have never really tried to do that. I always like to move around the mountain and not ski the same runs (unless I find a powder stash). Skiing tough terrain takes longer than groomed runs, and sometimes even now you often have to wait awhile for marquee lifts like the Snowbird tram.
In the late 70's early 80's I had little vacation time so all the Mammoth skiing was on weekends. If you wanted to ski the top, you had to use the gondola and on a busy weekend you might not even do 20K. The best weekend days (pre-Christmas or April) were around 25K. So when we had the big year in 1982 and everything was still open May 1 I finally managed 31,600.
In March 1984 I had a rare (for then) trip when I drove up Thursday night. On Friday March 2, 1984 I opened and closed the mountain with just candy bars on the lift for lunch and skied 39,250. I believe this was close to the best one could do at Mammoth without high speed lifts.
That record held up for 12 years. In 1996 Mammoth had just 2 high speed lifts (one at each base lodge), but on April 6 Adam (then age 11) and I skied 43,000 on a similar open-to-close eat-on-the-lifts day. Adam was a little bit slower than I was then. Now Mammoth has 8 high speed lifts (including a speeded-up gondola), so I believe 50,000 is now within reach with the right conditions. Adam is now 18 and would likely exceed anything I did by 10-15% if he's having a good day.
Some areas are very amenable to racking up vertical. Sun Valley and Mt. Bachelor are the most conspicuous examples. At NASJA Mt. Bachelor in 2000 Adam and I skied 43,900 on a day when we arrived 45 minutes after opening, indulged in a half-hour free gourmet lunch at Pine Marten Lodge, and came into the base area 3 times to swap demo skis, including the first Salomon Pilot prototypes. We skied 20K in 2.5 hours just on the Pilots. 8-10K per hour is possible at these areas, and I read that one Sun Valley patroller was let on the mountain at 7AM one day so he could do 100K.
But there is the tradeoff of quality and challenge vs. quantity. And therefore I regard my 2002 Olympic day of 41,250 at Snowbird as my best endurance effort. Here I also arrived 45 minutes after opening and had a half hour lunch. But with Snowbird's terrain I needed the break.
Most of my skiing now is on multiple day trips. It doesn't make sense to burn out one day and possibly degrade the quality of the rest of the trip. Snowbird 2002 was the last day of that trip, so when I saw the unique lack of crowds I decided to go for it. But I was pretty stiff the next day in Las Vegas.
In the late 70's early 80's I had little vacation time so all the Mammoth skiing was on weekends. If you wanted to ski the top, you had to use the gondola and on a busy weekend you might not even do 20K. The best weekend days (pre-Christmas or April) were around 25K. So when we had the big year in 1982 and everything was still open May 1 I finally managed 31,600.
In March 1984 I had a rare (for then) trip when I drove up Thursday night. On Friday March 2, 1984 I opened and closed the mountain with just candy bars on the lift for lunch and skied 39,250. I believe this was close to the best one could do at Mammoth without high speed lifts.
That record held up for 12 years. In 1996 Mammoth had just 2 high speed lifts (one at each base lodge), but on April 6 Adam (then age 11) and I skied 43,000 on a similar open-to-close eat-on-the-lifts day. Adam was a little bit slower than I was then. Now Mammoth has 8 high speed lifts (including a speeded-up gondola), so I believe 50,000 is now within reach with the right conditions. Adam is now 18 and would likely exceed anything I did by 10-15% if he's having a good day.
Some areas are very amenable to racking up vertical. Sun Valley and Mt. Bachelor are the most conspicuous examples. At NASJA Mt. Bachelor in 2000 Adam and I skied 43,900 on a day when we arrived 45 minutes after opening, indulged in a half-hour free gourmet lunch at Pine Marten Lodge, and came into the base area 3 times to swap demo skis, including the first Salomon Pilot prototypes. We skied 20K in 2.5 hours just on the Pilots. 8-10K per hour is possible at these areas, and I read that one Sun Valley patroller was let on the mountain at 7AM one day so he could do 100K.
But there is the tradeoff of quality and challenge vs. quantity. And therefore I regard my 2002 Olympic day of 41,250 at Snowbird as my best endurance effort. Here I also arrived 45 minutes after opening and had a half hour lunch. But with Snowbird's terrain I needed the break.
Most of my skiing now is on multiple day trips. It doesn't make sense to burn out one day and possibly degrade the quality of the rest of the trip. Snowbird 2002 was the last day of that trip, so when I saw the unique lack of crowds I decided to go for it. But I was pretty stiff the next day in Las Vegas.
Frankontour
New member
It's enough amazing, for the vertical "speed" at Bachelor and Sun Valley ! My target is not to accumulate the vertical, neither (I generally don't spend a single run without doing bumps or powder in one day). For the runs, I used to try to ski all the trails of one mountain, in a day, so it was very diversified, but now, I pass quite more time in the trails I like (not groomed). Just like on march 6 at Orford last season. I only skied on the main side in 6-7 trails on the whole day. But finally, even without HSQ, arriving late and taking 143 photos, I almost did 30K vertical.
I've just done once a 2-day ski trip, so I'm quite far of a week of skiing. I wonder how I would feel. The max ski days in a row I did was last season, on december 28,29,30. I must say that they were some crazy days, though, especially the 28th at la Réserve (my 1st report of La Réserve on FTO, 2nd overall). I was completely exhausted after those 3 days, so I guess I would be better to relax a bit, if skiing 5-6 days in a row, in some big mountains
(I think to that... not surprising to be exhausted after the 3rd day in the steep t-bars all day long !)
Hey !! wednesday night (9h) is the monthly chat on FTO. See you all there !!! <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/chat2.shtm" TARGET="_top">http://www.firsttracksonline.com/chat2.shtm</A> <BR> <BR>I hope so much that it doesn't break at 10PM, this time...........
I've just done once a 2-day ski trip, so I'm quite far of a week of skiing. I wonder how I would feel. The max ski days in a row I did was last season, on december 28,29,30. I must say that they were some crazy days, though, especially the 28th at la Réserve (my 1st report of La Réserve on FTO, 2nd overall). I was completely exhausted after those 3 days, so I guess I would be better to relax a bit, if skiing 5-6 days in a row, in some big mountains
(I think to that... not surprising to be exhausted after the 3rd day in the steep t-bars all day long !)
Hey !! wednesday night (9h) is the monthly chat on FTO. See you all there !!! <BR><A HREF="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/chat2.shtm" TARGET="_top">http://www.firsttracksonline.com/chat2.shtm</A> <BR> <BR>I hope so much that it doesn't break at 10PM, this time...........
I do need to pace myself on a multiple day trip. Starting in 1979 I would take one 5-6 day trip per season and I was almost always burned out halfway through until about 1986. I even got sick in Aspen 1980 and Sun Valley 1983.
I still overdo sometimes, but now a slightly shorter day with more groomed runs will allow a suitable recovery. Highest vertical on multiple day trips were 135K at Whistler/Blackcomb in 1998 and then 147K at Bachelor in 2000. The Whistler trip was preceded by 2 days and 47K of heliskiing at TLH (HIGHLY recommended) and one day off. Bachelor was part of a 9-day trip with 217K and one day off. Both trips were late March/early April spring breaks.
Given your age (both current and when you began skiing) your limitations like Adam's are probably well above mine. I will turn you over to him if you ever come out here. His vertical/age ratios are interesting and tough to beat:
18.0K, Feb. 19, 1990, 3.48 x age 5 yrs 64 days
27.6K, Apr. 11, 1992, 3.77 x age 7 yrs 116 days
43.0K, Apr. 6, 1996, 3.80 x age 11 yrs 111 days
I still overdo sometimes, but now a slightly shorter day with more groomed runs will allow a suitable recovery. Highest vertical on multiple day trips were 135K at Whistler/Blackcomb in 1998 and then 147K at Bachelor in 2000. The Whistler trip was preceded by 2 days and 47K of heliskiing at TLH (HIGHLY recommended) and one day off. Bachelor was part of a 9-day trip with 217K and one day off. Both trips were late March/early April spring breaks.
Given your age (both current and when you began skiing) your limitations like Adam's are probably well above mine. I will turn you over to him if you ever come out here. His vertical/age ratios are interesting and tough to beat:
18.0K, Feb. 19, 1990, 3.48 x age 5 yrs 64 days
27.6K, Apr. 11, 1992, 3.77 x age 7 yrs 116 days
43.0K, Apr. 6, 1996, 3.80 x age 11 yrs 111 days
Frankontour
New member
I'm not sure of the meaning of your formula, but I'm sure his stats are quite good.
It's sad that I just began to calculate my vertical skied in april 2002 when I skied with a guy who had an altimeter counting the runs and the total vertical skied in a day (avocet altimeter). I had the informations to go back in the time a bit, but in the late 90s, I used to only put the % of lift taken in the day, not saying the real numbers... so I can't know exactly the vertical I skied those days.
It's also tough to have a good measure of vertical here, as I discovered (got the confirmation) that many ski areas in the Montreal region were exaggerating their vertical, to attract skiers. I will only talk of Mt Blanc which exaggerates its vertical of not less than <B>58%</B> When my friend (with altimeter) skied the place for the 1st time, he told me that according to the ski areas official stats, he had skied 50000' vertical in the day, with a good break for lunch and without HSQ and not skiing particularly fastly and he's in the 50s years. LOL (in reality, it was 30K)
It's sad that I just began to calculate my vertical skied in april 2002 when I skied with a guy who had an altimeter counting the runs and the total vertical skied in a day (avocet altimeter). I had the informations to go back in the time a bit, but in the late 90s, I used to only put the % of lift taken in the day, not saying the real numbers... so I can't know exactly the vertical I skied those days.
It's also tough to have a good measure of vertical here, as I discovered (got the confirmation) that many ski areas in the Montreal region were exaggerating their vertical, to attract skiers. I will only talk of Mt Blanc which exaggerates its vertical of not less than <B>58%</B> When my friend (with altimeter) skied the place for the 1st time, he told me that according to the ski areas official stats, he had skied 50000' vertical in the day, with a good break for lunch and without HSQ and not skiing particularly fastly and he's in the 50s years. LOL (in reality, it was 30K)