USA Road Trip From A Swiss POV

[ChrisC]

I use the trip reports more as an "evergreen" resource to identify new (to me) places to go, where they don't need to be recent. As noted above, up-to-date conditions is one of the areas where Alpinfans is definitely the better ski forum. It's German-language so of course you'll see those regions more often. As far as France, someone is posting about his current road trip to follow up the one he did a year ago.

This dynamic plays out on the Austrian Ski Reporting site Bergfex as well.

Similar to OpenSnow, it appears that ski resorts submit reports for publication on Bergfex. Again, the German-speaking Alps all submit timely reports for their country-specific snow conditions page. The French resorts always lag, especially for new snow. Bases seem to get reported accurately, but never 24-hour snowfalls.

I'm not going to cross-examine him. The culture at the German ski forums is decidedly not to publicly discuss the planning of destination trips (and certainly not to second-guess them afterward!) as is done here.

A lot of us would get moderator-removed from these sites, and we would have to start Alpin-American.com to continue with commentary.

I politely asked him why he chose that route and his reply is toward the bottom of page 2 -- confirming that the itinerary was more or less set in stone.

I am a little surprised that a skier with such extensive travel and prior visits to the USA/Canada did not notice that the American Southwest (SoCal/AZ/NM/SW CO) is generally a poor choice for December & early January skiing. Most of the time, these resorts are <50% operational over the holidays - especially in New Mexico, AZ, NV, and natural snow SoCal (non-Big Bear). SW Colorado can be OK most years.

To me, this trip seemed doomed from inception. New Mexico has not really had a decent early season in many, many years.

Even Tahoe is iffy until its first big storm, which can happen anytime from early December to late January - or not at all some winters.

A lot of Americans who ski in Europe can pick up on the following after a few visits:

• The Dolomites typically have poor snowfall/off-piste,
• The Southern Alps are always iffy, and
• Expert terrain at Zermatt/Saas Fee takes a while, and
• Eastern Austrian resorts are low and snowmaking dependent
• Low elevation resorts <1500m base/ <2000m summit should be avoided in Spring/March-April.

But even Americans who want Global Skiing to be their careers make these mistakes: PeakRankings called Zermatt the "best mediocre ski resort in the world" in a popular YouTube video due to a less-than-perfect snow/challenge balance. However, paying attention, one might have noticed that very little off-piste is available before February, but a lot in April. Seems rookie for a professional.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Since this is no longer a western-only USA visit, I've moved the thread to the general forum and retitled it slightly. He's currently hitting some midwestern (including Illinois!) mounds that would barely rate as toboggan hills around here. To us, this seems masochistic given the abundance of riches where he's based; however, it appears that the trip has become more about winter cultural anthropology than skiing.

FYI: Google Translate often strips photos out of the translation when there are dozens of pix. Maybe look at the original German version first and then translate it to read his descriptions.

 

[Tony Crocker]

A lot of us would get moderator-removed from these sites

You mean like yours truly and SkiTalk?

All of ChrisC's points make sense, and he probably knew them before he became active on FTO. Still we are probably a well informed bubble in the big picture of recreational skiers.

I am a little surprised that a skier with such extensive travel and prior visits to the USA/Canada....................

Nonetheless how can someone with a level of travel that probably blows away everyone on this forum be that ill-informed????

 

[ChrisC]

Since this is no longer a western-only USA visit, I've moved the thread to the general forum and retitled it slightly. He's hitting some molehills that non-locals wouldn't even consider visiting.

No comments. Multi-hour drives to ski a bunch of random molehills (nice euphemism). Seems insane. It's like an American taking an early-season trip through Germany (minus Garmisch/Zugspitze), hitting all its small resorts. And observing that they all have poor snow conditions or limited operations.

No indication of trying to ski Mount Bohemia (so far from everywhere). I guess he will get to Lutsen.

I had a business partner in Wausau, WI, near Granite Peak, but never required a winter visit. Did visit Cleveland, OH, in January, but was unmotivated to bring skis to ski Boston Mills/Brandywine (most lifts closed until night-skiing during the week). Instead, I only visited the Cuyahoga National Park. I have been visiting National Parks for 20+ years, and this was one of the worst. More like a State Park or Rec zone. Only Hot Springs, Arkansas, ranked lower for me. I have now been to all the Lower 48 NPs except Voyageurs and Isle Royale in Minnesota and Michigan, respectively. Not interested in the expense of remote Alaska NPs outside of my ski-focused visits. Eventually will get to Hawaii, Big Island, for mantas and Volcanoes NP (was to visit Hawaii proper for a destination wedding/groom's home, but the bride and groom broke up a few weeks before).

Also, I am definitely not allowed to discuss the itineraries below on this forum.

After a night in Oshkosh (!), I started the first full day of this second half of my trip well-rested and drove to Granite Peak. This area had given me quite a headache during the trip planning, as it's one of the best ski areas in Wisconsin, but it's located right in the middle of the state and therefore involves some extra effort. Initially, I wanted to approach it from the north, essentially on my way back from Minnesota, but then I decided to include it from the south right at the beginning of the trip. Since I also want to "include" Iowa and Illinois, this adds up to quite a bit of driving.

 

[Tony Crocker]

This is a good summation:

The snow sports area feels like an indoor ski slope without the building.

The weather and often snow surfaces are better inside the building.

I also see a high-speed rope tow for the first time, something I've seen only before. Stormskiing Podcasts I've only heard about it so far. This rope tow has pylons with pulleys over the only return rope is guided, while the uphill rope lies free in the snow or is higher in the air. Other differences to New Zealand are: The distance is shorter, and the rope runs faster.

Implies he's skied a New Zealand club field. James, you HAVE to ask his total ski area count; he mentioned hitting the 100 mark in the US. And try to work in the Taos/CB/Zermatt inquiry. You can leave out the about the Midwest itinerary.

FYI here are our FTO ski area counts for US only: ChrisC 190, Lonnie 157, TonyC 121, Liz 108, MarzNC 98, Jimk 88, James 71, Patrick 54.

No wonder Project101 guy likes Stuart; they have the same MO: no days off (see his daily itinerary in post #2) with some serious driving, sometimes multiple ski areas in one day, obscure places running up the count.

Before we throw too many , recall that Glen Plake and his wife took an extensive motorhome trip through Midwest ski areas a few years back.

And as for the time of year he is doing this, maybe he knows the skiing at home is better in March and wants to be around for that.