Worldskitraveller's USA Road Trip

[Tony Crocker]

He hid the fact that he was a "Lift Junkie". Took me months to figure out it was a priority. Thought it was one more random metric to count, not a priority.

I'll disagree with this. Whenever I found out, it was on his website somewhere. ChrisC and I Iikely "didn't get it" as WST's trip was unfolding because:

It had not even occurred to me that someone would do this [prioritize lift count over area count]

We may have reasons to critique WST's ski priorities but I'll admit it wasn't entirely fair before we actually knew what they were!

I'd argue that this [Patrick's streak] is the most egregious tail-wagging-the-dog situation of all (in some ways even nuttier than WST).

That's an interesting argument and I can see the point. When WST answered my questions earlier in this thread, I get the impression that when he's on his own turf in the Alps, he leads a fairly conventional ski life. On repeat visits to his favored areas he doesn't have to check off lifts and can presumably ski what he likes best in terms of snow and terrain. It's only the far flung travel priorities to new places that look so weird to most skiers. And lot of that home turf time in the Alps is in January and March, when he might actually experience major league ski areas (or their James' under-the-radar counterparts) in full operation with favorable surface conditions and even the occasional powder. By contrast, Patrick for going on two decades has placed himself in a position where he can't be in western North America, the Alps or Japan anytime January-March.

Harvey hates flying

Yes, I know that. But if he drives to Mt. Bohemia, he's halfway to Montana. Again, I only see this as a possibility in a truly egregious eastern season like 2012 or 2016, and I'll bet James would be as interested as I am in showing Harvey some of the places out there he would enjoy.

FYI Mt. Bohemia snowfall is slightly more correlated (120 months of data) to the East (Killington, 47%) than the West (Jackson, 36%).

 

[jamesdeluxe]

When WST answered my questions earlier in this thread, I get the impression that when he's on his own turf in the Alps, he leads a fairly conventional ski life.

I'd agree with that but conventional in a European sense. As I understood it, either he and his wife don't own a car or they own a car but generally take trains to ski resorts. For Americans, that's not conventional. As big a train geek as I am, I'm even more of a geek about the flexibility that a car offers.

Any comments about the six highlights in WST's Instagram reel? When we were chatting on the lifts at Shawnee, it was pretty clear that he had a great time in the Midwest and Northeast while for obvious reasons the West was mostly a big disappointment.

 

[Tony Crocker]

But my absolute favorite is Scuol. That’s my second home. I worked there as a ski instructor, many close friends live there, my godson grows up there, and my family loves it as well. I try to be there two to three times each winter and another one or two times without skis. It’s a bit of a hidden gem right next to the Swiss National Park. Probably not the first place I would put on an international ski traveler’s bucket list – but home is where the heart is.

Of course I had to look it up and it hit one of my prejudice buttons being heavily south facing, like Crans-Montana and Flims-Laax. I asked Jimmy and he said he likes it much more than those places. Scuol is also quite remote from big population centers and thus I suspect not crowded. So it goes on the "keep in mind for the right circumstances" list.

flexibility that a car offers

If you live in Zurich you can take the train to one ski area for a few days on short notice. We Americans are locked into our dates by air travel and are usually there for a longer period of time choosing multiple destinations a few days ahead.

Any comments about the six highlights in WST's Instagram reel?

The six areas were Waterville Valley, Nub's Nob, Sunapee, Granite Peak, Sugarloaf and Westendorf. I recall at the time that when he was at Sugarloaf, key upper mountain lifts and terrain were closed for severe weather.

 

[jimk]

Probably already addressed, but If it was lift count WST was after - why not go to large resorts with many lifts and ride all 25 in a day or two, then move on to another large resort??

 

[Tony Crocker]

Probably already addressed, but If it was lift count WST was after - why not go to large resorts with many lifts and ride all 25 in a day or two, then move on to another large resort??

His more detailed answer earlier in this thread:

I’m not primarily a collector of ski areas – I’m a collector of lifts. Ski areas are simply the framework in which lift systems exist. Most ski challenges and media coverage focus on counting ski resorts, because that’s easier to communicate. Lift statistics are far less headline-friendly. It’s a niche perspective – but having studied business administration, I learned that niche strategies can be surprisingly successful.

WST recognizes that the broad ski public and media relate more to counting ski areas vs. ski lifts, and so ski areas are a secondary objective. WST averages 8.4 lifts per area skied, identical to Oliver Kern and substantially more than Peter Landsman (5.0). This makes sense because Peter (liftblog) is exclusively in North America, where "small" ski areas are a LOT smaller than in Europe.

This exercise, however defined, is far more difficult for North Americans due to our spread out distances and a whole bunch of very small areas that aren't worth the time and $ to non-locals. If James spent 3-4 full seasons in the Alps, I suspect at the end of that time he would leave ChrisC's and my ski area counts far in the rearview mirror.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Worldskitraveller's home page has a reference to Marko Schuster, who has skied 751 ski areas in 28 countries.
This quote on Schuster's page caught my eye.

Note: Italy has been boycotted since August 2025, as they have introduced a general helmet requirement when skiing -> there will be no more skiing days from me here!

Italy has Schuster's highest ski area count at 186.

I came prepared for the crossing from Zermatt into Cervinia, here at top of Plateau Rosa.

The shell mountaineering helmet I needed for Antarctica fits in my day pack so I can be ready for this situation. There are signs in Zermatt warning about Italy's new helmet law.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Worldskitraveller's home page has a reference to Marko Schuster, who has skied 751 ski areas in 28 countries. (...) Italy has Schuster's highest ski area count at 186.

Innsbruck-based Schuster has been posting for years on Alpinforum under screen name Starli, whom I've cited here as the source for the large majority of my off-the-beaten-path visits in the Alps.

His website -- which works fine but looks like it's from the early 2000s -- has every report he's ever written and that 186 count for Italy is a testament to how he's skied the most obscure areas imaginable there, all the way down to Mount Etna. When I start skiing there, I'll use his site as a planning tool.