So far he's been to China Peak, Dodge Ridge, Lee Canyon, Arizona Snowbowl, Sipapu, Santa Fe, Wolf Creek, Purgatory, Crested Butte, Powderhorn, Vail, Aspen, Sunlight, Loveland, and Eldora.
China Peak and Dodge Ridge are areas I have ignored. Even though they are in California, they and Bear Valley are not accessible from Tahoe and involve two hour one-way drives from the Central Valley. When corporate ski areas shut down March 15, 2020 I headed for these still open areas, also chasing a 4-foot Sierra dump after about 6 weeks of drought. I got in some powder at
China Peak on the last day before Newsom ordered all ski areas to close, and thus missed Dodge Ridge. Project101 guy thought China Peak was the more interesting of the two areas.
He said snow was good at Lee Canyon but old and beat up at Arizona Snowbowl. Arizona got way more snow in November but the Christmas Sierra storm did not get that far so it must have refreshed Lee Canyon.
I have no sympathy for his being in the Southwest at this time of year. He's an expert skier and commented (surprise!) about Taos:
- Kachina, which probably serve the most challenging runs - and which unfortunately are currently not running...........
The area initially impresses with its chairlift, but then loses its appeal due to closed bowls, tree runs, and groomed slopes. In the end, we're not sure how good Taos really is; the runs are rather undemanding, and there's not enough snow for off-piste skiing.
This is the 11th year since Kachina chair was built. Its median opening date is Feb. 9 and earliest opening was Jan. 13.
Then there's Crested Butte:
After fortunately hitting a rope drop I enjoy a beautiful powder run down to the Gold Link lift. After two hours, we've pretty much exhausted the area: The front lifts to the base aren't particularly exciting, leaving us with the impression that Crested Butte is best enjoyed when the Double Diamonds are open.
In the past 20 years, the North Face lift has been open before January 1 twice and sometime during the first week of January 5 times.
If he wants to visit family in Santa Fe and ski on the same trip he should be doing that in March, not at New Year's.
He got somewhat lucky in the context of this season with the rest of Colorado. He was there during the week it snowed average 1.5 feet so surfaces were nice. It still astounds me how Aspen can open so much terrain including places like Temerity in low tide conditions. But he was very unlucky to have no Back Bowls open at Vail. Aspen was an outlier getting 29 inches that first week of January, second only to Steamboat's 34.
He's pretty hard set on which ski area on what day for the most part even if they literally have no snow.
James:
I'll ask him if that's his actual MO.
It's obvious to me that the highest priority is skiing places he has not been before, based upon skipping big areas in the Sierra with abundant new snow and he explicitly mentioned having skied the Summit County CO areas on another trip. Yet he managed to ski Loveland at 19% open. I love the comment he elicited about Eldora.
Eldora is more like Boulder's local mountain. It's nice enough, but nothing really big. There are definitely a few day-skiing areas like that in Ikon Pass, though. Snow Valley and Bear Mountain immediately come to mind in California
James, ask him if he's skied most of the places in western Canada already, since that was the way to chase better snow. You might want to quote those Kachina and North Face CB stats. He should understand that via the obvious analogy to Zermatt: very gradual accumulation of snow but superb preservation. How often could he expect to ski Hohtalli/Stockhorn off-piste in early January?
And what's his total ski area count, likely well beyond ours and approaching Jimmy Petterson/Arnie Wilson?
My upcoming solo road trip armed with Indy Pass and Powder Alliance along with Ikon has been intended to knock off a few places I have not skied before. But the ones in Oregon and some in the interior Northwest are not yet ready for prime time, so I may have to modify that plan.
