Snow Sports and/or Surfing

The inside people are going outside everywhere. The SoCal avalanche center reported record crowds in our local backcountry.

First tracks aren’t worth dying for.

it doesn’t really help to have an avy beacon if you die in the slide.

 

Mt. High today with my brother Tom who lives in Truckee. Yes, he had to travel to LA County to get some REAL skiing in!

Unfortunately my day was interrupted by a tragedy at work that had me alternating ski runs with emails and phone calls. But the snow was hero-quality groomers. I got in 6 at West while Tom got 9, then we drove down to East, parked about 30 yds from the slopes and skied another 4 long runs, before heading home around 1:30. Home by 3:00. 0 lift lines.

Tom was smiling all day and said it's been a long time since he skied runs that consistently fun - or fun for their consistency. Either way, we were both grinning. Not the stupid smiles of a powder day, but still feels like cheating. It's one of those things that hours later feels like - wait, did that really happen?

Unfortunately reality set in and back to dealing with an emergency staff meeting tomorrow.

 

One more bad experience at Big Bear.

-arrived at 8:20, got in line for paid parking.
-Waited in the line 45 minutes.
-Got to the front and was told the lot was now full, and to u-turn back to the remote lot.
-did as I was told. this put me at the end of the line of people just arriving. The remote lot was now full, and we were directed to the remote remote lot.
-left Big Bear. I now have all day to write strongly worded emails and to sit on hold.

they could easily have anticipated the lot filling, and have directed us to the remote lot that we drove right past while in line. But wasting customers’ time is what these guys are paid to do, I guess.

 

That sucks for sure. I had heard about the "pay parking" but figured that was just for those wanted to be up front like the Main Lodge at Mammoth and not the entire lot. Paying to park would be a non-starter for me for sure, especially for what they are charging for lift tickets nowadays....it's flipping scary. next year, we're going to Park City for 2+ weeks and buying a season pass as it will actually be more cost effective that way.

 

They only charge to park Friday-Sunday. And remote parking is free for pass holders even then.

they are victims of their own success with the passes. They are an amazing deal. And I’m not grumbling about the crowd—it’s a holiday weekend and Mammoth is blacked out for the majority of us cheap pass holders. I knew there would be plenty of people. But that’s the point—Alterra knew there would be a crowd, and jerked around me and the 100 cars behind me.

The parking attendant was a jerk, told me to get there earlier. He said the lot was full by 7:30.

so I arrived almost an hour after he said the lot was full, be he still had me sit in line 45 minutes before telling me.

big bear isn’t responding to my emails but the mothership at Alterra is.

 

Why people. Why? Just keep going there though. More room for me elsewhere.

 

Well, I told Alterra they’ve talked me out of renewing. That seemed to get their attention.

 

That's great and all, but does it help you get on the slopes?

 

Nope.

I’ll figure out how to spend next season’s pass budget when the time comes. Alterra got this season’s.

 

I went to Bear Mtn yesterday for my first try at snowboarding. Had a ton of fun.

But reading these posts has me thinking that maybe I should not consider investing in any equipment.

 

Snow Summit fun with the family yesterday really nice conditions with no lift lines
Geared up for another day of fun today

This mid week trip has been pleasant
Our condo is walking distance to the lifts so we have avoided any of the weekend crowds, parking hassles and issues so many have complained about.

 

You have read nothing but positive reports from me regarding one local ski area.

 

I’m just over crowds. I live 2 blocks from trails that I haven’t ridden in 15 years due to crowds. The mega pass companies have destroyed their product with their success.

I took advantage of one last week of coronacation to get up to Summit Wednesday as well. First time in 2 months that I’ve been able to park.

After a scrum for first chair, I was able to do a bunch of quiet laps on 7. By the time the lift line got four chairs deep, the snow had softened just a little, so I lapped 6 until that got boring. 10 was spinning at that point so I did a couple laps.

Alterra knows too much about me...

 

Blah blah blah

The inbounds people are chasing pow out of bounds and bad things are happening.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/18/...?action=click&module=Features&pgtype=Homepage

The improvements in backcountry equipment over the past 10 years are parallel with the improvements in bike tech. Dynafit touring bindings and splitboards have created the snow equivalent of the modern long travel trail bike.

what is not improving is people’s risk assessment capacity. From the Lotto to corona to backcountry travel to street racing to ebikes—people are showing themselves to be bad risk evaluators.

 

I got enough laps in yesterday that I’m ready to review the Burton Step-on binding.

The good:
-Does well as a binding.
-really speeds things up. For the multiple short runs we do in SoCal, it’s perfect.
-eliminates the ab workout from sitting down and getting back up every lap.
-No fiddling with strap tension every run.

The less good:
-the release motion is opposite of a bike pedal—heel turns in, not out. I don’t have the muscle memory dialed. Strap binding exit is actually easier IMO.
-I can’t step on while sliding yet. I need a flattish spot to stand—but not so flat that I can’t slide away when I’m ready. Otherwise I still have to sit down.
-if I don’t feel or hear the click, I have to do a small easygoing toeside turn to check the engagement. Not a big deal, but it’s a new thing I didn’t do with straps.

Strap bindings are still better for park. And I think better solutions will emerge. Phantom is certainly trying hard to come up with one. But for now, this boot/binding are the way to go for resort riders that don’t want to hold up their companions on skis, and they are worth considering by all other riders.

 

I never sit down to latch my rear foot to my snowboard with standard bindings. Am I doing it wrong?

 

Show off.

 

Nope. I'm barely an intermediate who is too lazy to sit.

 

Well, I sure screwed this up!

Evidently my positive reporting about Mt. High encouraged them to raise prices 33.3%. Now $400. Hmmm that's 4 low season lift tickets. I think I'll go ahead and pull the trigger. And for you newbies - if you buy now, the rest of this season is free. Yup. You could have it paid off before summer, making all of next season free.

You're welcome.

Mt. High Season Passes

EDIT: On closer inspection, a new season pass is $499, so you would have to go five times this season for next season to be free. My renewal is $399.

I lied again - current Ikon or Epic pass holders can get one for $399.

 

I’m pretty sure it was my negative Yelp review of the Snow Summit parking lot attendants...I’m a big time social media influencer.

 

Wait, what was it before?
$399-400 seems like a pretty good deal to me.
I prefer Mt High to Big Bear.
Looks like weekend day rate is $109?
Season pass looks like a total bargain.

 

I believe I paid $299 to renew this time last year - right before the COVID shutdown. I've skied/ridden 8 days up there this year so far. Less than $40 a day.

 

Mammoth today. I forgot to turn the app until I was an hour in to the day, but it looks like ~20,000 feet. So kinda like one of J’s short weekday rides. I quit when my feet decided they didn’t want to be in boots anymore. Advil time.

conditions are...suboptimal, though the grooming is excellent, and the southeast aspects softened up to pleasant-enough spring conditions late morning. The northern aspects were rock hard all day, especially on top.

Morning was not at all crowded, but the weekend is here and so were the people this afternoon.

the wife had to work today. She reports that working from the cabin is not bad. This could cross post nicely with the retirement thread.

 

Another Mt. High adventure with the wee lass this morning. 80 min. drive. Easy parking. 55°.

Not crowded, but interesting snow texture - scratchy with soft slushy - but not too slushy - spots. The inconsistency should have caused a lot of difficulty for my daughter, but she handled it just fine. Truth be told, she couldn't care less about making turns and skiing well, she just likes to hit all the little - and I mean little - jumps, drops and rollers. She does make turns and controls her speed well, but mostly what used ot be called stem christie or perpetual wedge.

Conquest lift for her first time and she handled the steeper blue run with the weird snow just fine. She's timid by nature, so I was proud of her for not panicking and just making it down the hill. No drama.

10 runs including lunch after run 6. A stop at Village Grind on the way home, and home by 2:45.

Ruby at the top of Conquest with Baldy in the background - the mountain. not me.


Oh - and that $300 season pass hanging around her neck is good for the rest of this season and all of next year.


Snow sliding is fun!

 

Awesome!

 

I should slow down and take a photo or two. It was beautiful all weekend. The Lakes Basin from Chair 25 is an awesome sight.

Saturday was windy, so we were stuck down low with everyone else. No lines right at 8:30, but up to 15 minutes by mid morning. We left around 12:30. One of those days that would have sucked if it was my one day of the year.

Today was “early ups” for pass holders. Parked right in front of Chair 2 at 7:30, and started sliding. Hard snow all morning, but no lines. At 11:00 we realized that we hadn’t stopped for water, and it was time to clean up the cabin anyway. Home by 6:30, including a 40 minute jam in Cajon Pass.

The wife is now looking into an n+1 pair of skis. Her current pair is actually a backcountry touring ski. Super lightweight for going uphill, and great downhill in softer snow. less fun on hard pack. But it looks like all the skis are on the same boat as all the bike parts.

 

@tick Your wife sounds smart in her N+1 ski desire. "Front side" skis aren't popular. The bike analogy is that everybody is buying 6" plus travel 29ers and no one is buying bikes for where they actually ride and how they actually ride. Skiers have been gobbling up ultra-wide rocker (reverse) camber skis like they are heli skiing the Canadian rockies or dropping the chutes on KT-22 every day. But then they try to make the pontoons work on groomed "front side" snow. Makes for some real drifty skiing and no carves. There's a reason that race skis are still 65-68mm underfoot and have a strong standard camber.

The bike trend is reversing with "downcountry" or underbiking (like the Spur, Ranger, SB 110, etc) but the ski trend is still in full-on denial of where people actually ski and the conditions they ski. Or maybe I'm doing it wrong. But my World Cup race stock Fischer RC4 WC sure do carve!

 

Nice to see your ski posts.
So, this year's pass is good for 2 years? Sounds like a bargain.

 

As far as I can see, skis that get advertised as “front side” are all rental grade beginner skis with integrated bindings.

her current skis aren’t crazy wide (88 is pretty modest these days), and they work great in many conditions. But they’re so light weight that imperfections in icy corduroy and lumpy mashed potatoes can throw them off much too easily.

the step-in bindings came into their own this weekend. My wife takes longer getting her poles set up at the top of a run than in I do stepping in...got lots of questions about them from other riders too.

 

Actually, there are many top performing frontside skis. Every brand has a solid contender in the high-performing carving category. Now whether you can find them at local shops who carry what sells - that’s a different matter.

Something like this:



https://www.head.com/en_US/supershape-e-magnum-25.html


Glad your step in snowboard bindings are working for you!