Tuesday, April 24th my ski season ended at Palisades Tahoe skiing KT22 on a new pair of Salomon Stance 90’s. Yes, I know not the right tool for spring condtions. My Moment Countach 104’s got a lot about 35 days worth of love this year.
The season started on the White Ribbon of Death at Big Bear in November, went to Chamonix, Crested Butte for the Blister Review Summit, and back to California for lotsa days at Mammoth and Palisades.
Total days are about 41, and I will not think about the cost. Which was worth every penny in this mid life crisis.
I bought my 25/26 Ikon pass. With plans to ski Mammoth and Palisades and maybe a trip to Revelstoke.
Skis: Day 1 was on my Atomic Maverick 95ti, which I sold to make room for the Salomon Stance 90’s. The Stances are awesome in icy moguls and old crusty snow in tight places off piste. My Daily driver is the Moment Countach 104. Which is a perfect 1 ski quiver.
A few pics on the journey.
How did everyones season go?
I got a whooping 3 days of “meh” on two week old snow, back in Jan. Not exactly the best season of my life. Hopefully next winter will be better. Planning another trip to Whistler, might also hit Revelstoke or Sun peaks. I’ve always wanted to go to Red mountain in southern BC, but it’s pretty inconvenient to get to.
My only downhill skiing all season was a week long trip in Western Canada with my son, where we both went heli-skiing for the first time. As a resort skier all my life it was a big adaptation that uses different technique but once you get the hang of it then it was pretty awesome and highly recommend.
My sister and husband retired to red mountain. They love it. Excellent snow this year for them.
You should skip Whistler and give Big White a try. I lived and worked there for almost 20 years… it has its own small town vibe that is really appealing.
I’ve considered it but isn’t big white notorious for bad weather? Hence the nickname “Big White Out”.
I’m not opposed to mixing it up. But whistler is so close, and when the skiing sucks you can still enjoy some nice (although hilariously overpriced) restaurants, there’s always something happening in the village etc. And the advanced terrain is near endless.
I also have a friend who moved close to RED. They were paying something like $2800/mth for a basement suite on shelborne. They bought 10 acres with a huge fixer upper chalet on it for like $400k a couple of years ago. They did a great job remodeling it and now have a pretty sweet spot set up, and are building some modular housing on their property to rent out to the outdoor tourists (skiiers, fishers, hunters etc) that are increasingly coming through the area.
Long weekend in France at a small place called Les Contamines in Jan, followed by another long weekend in Verbier in Feb, rounded off by two weeks in Whistler just before April.
Excellent. Some properly brilliant days, and I enjoyed myself more than I have for a few years.
I skied in Whistler on some Volkl Mantra 88s which were warranty replacements for Kendo 88s. The Kendo’s delaminated behind the binding last year after 16 days. The Mantras did the same after 5 days. Pretty shit really. I’ve patched them and relegated them to second string skis. I’ve got some Stormrider 88s lined up for next year…
This is what happens (left of shot is the back of the rear binding) and this is my fix. I had a chance to try a few solutions last year, and marine two part epoxy, clamped, with a countersunk epoxied screw seems to be holding. I put screws in the other three bits of the tail prophylactically.
ETA I am stupidly excited about trying the Stöcklis. Chances are they will be VG rather than mind blowing. The annoying thing about the Volkls is that they are absolutely fantastic - as long as you’re on it 90+%. You can’t switch off and let them drive you home.
LC is a sweet little place but you do need to move around a bit to get the best out of it, I found.
The snow in CO was only ok, not great. But, I had lucky timing in that every trip (some planned long in advance) coincided with good snow. Never waited in a long lift line.
I hit 50 days this year. Worked on mountain at CBMR and had a blast. Did 3 days at Vail and Breckenridge, 2 at Wolf Creek and Copper and one at Monarch. The travel days were all for kids big mountain Freeride Comps. For as much as people bitched about how bad the snow was in CO this winter I found that we hit most resorts at the exact moment they got a good dump (complete coincidence since we have to sign up for the comps months in advance). Best day of the last many many years was at CBMR on a sneaker pow day that was only supposed to be about 4-6 inches but was feet deep in the extremes. Vail was phenomenal - lived there for 6+ years (a long time ago) and got to take all 4 of my kids and show them the goods (they had just gotten like 6 feet). Then the kids showed me up by jumping off all the crazy shit at the top of Lover’s Leap - not the wimpy cornice 95% of people “leap” off of😜. 100% of my kids who did the pond skim got soaked but they loved it. Ended the year with costumes and a gorgeous sunny day. How many days until opening day???
Mediocre for me. Only 11 days over three trips this season. Still stuck at the intermediate level which I’m OK with for now. Did have some good days at Snowbird and Snowbasin where I was able to do laps with no lift lines. Already have my Ikon pass for next season and plan to schedule better around my job.
Just got back today from Mammoth. Three days of great skiing. Start at 7:30 am with temps in the low 30’s and the snow flat, hard, and fast. No one on the slopes until about 11 when the snow started getting softer. Demoed some Stockli’s for carving on the hard fast snow. I now want a pair.
The season was decent for me. Had a bunch of bluebird days and some powder heaven days. Mammoth should stay open until Memorial Day. It was snowing when I left this morning. I think next year I will golf more though.
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