Snow Sports and/or Surfing

The snow gods blessed our local hills with a couple of feet of snow on Wednesday through Friday, re-setting the snow sliding season for a final push. Unfortunately, it did rain on top of that new snow, so the conditions were less than ideal.

I ventured up to Mt. High today. 1 hr and 13 mins from a gas station in Laguna to the parking lot at Mt. High. Plenty of time to have a bacon and egg breakfast croissant at the lodge while casually preparing for the lifts to open. The snow was rock hard corduroy to begin with. I wasn't even going to bring skis today, but I am glad I did. I am much better on skis than a snowboard, and I needed those skills for the first few runs. The wind was gusting to 30 mph and the fog at the top made visibility near zero - prompting a bit of vertigo.

Still, 9 runs on skis, then I switched to the single plank. Another 10 or 11 runs on the Never Summer. What a great board! I was home by 2 pm. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to go sell my Tracer.

Oh - 20 runs, 20,000 vertical feet.

 

Thanks for the report, I was thinking of going up tomorrow but now I’m thinking later in the week.

We had planned to fly to Bozeman tomorrow to hit up Big Sky, but with the rules changing daily, we decided to stay put. JetBlue has one flight Sunday, one flight Thursday. I can totally see getting up there, finding out the mountain is closed, having my Airbnb canceled, and then driving home in a rental.

update: never mind, Summit is closed effective tonight.

 

Holy crap, all of Alterra resorts are shutting down indefinitely. Vail resorts shutting down for a week, while they decide what to do beyond that. What a huge financial impact that will be on the towns.

 

After the infected person at aspen, it was probably bound to happen

 

Aspen is a town. Did the town close?

 

If Mt. High can buck the "abundance of caution" BS trend, they will be the only snow sliding in So Cal. And with a week of snow predicted, they could clean up! By the looks of it, They could open their East ski area with a bit more snow or snowmaking. East has long runs (1600 vertical in one high speed chair ride).

But my hunch is some conservative parent company will not want to "risk" looking like they don't care as deeply as all the other benevolent parent companies and their irrelevant (to the virus) and misguided closures.

 

Almost...

As you are likely aware, there have been a number of presumptive positive tests of COVID-19 in Aspen in the past 36 hours. While these cases are all tied to a single visiting group from Australia, it is likely we will see additional cases in the coming days. You should know that the state is advising anyone over 60 years old and those with compromised immune systems or respiratory issues not travel to the Colorado high country.

 

Just sayin'

 

Give it 24 hours, they’ll be closed too...

Time to split board.

 

I fear you may be correct, for the reasons I posted above.

 

Sounds like a solid day. I haven't donned a pair of skis in a couple decades now, but they're definitely a tool better suited to ice than a snowboard. I find riding ice, or even firm hard pack on a snowboard to be just miserable. Not even worth going out for me. Actually, losing an edge at speed on ice is how I tore my first rotator cuff 10ish years ago.

 

Sometime overnight, Big Sky decided to close effective immediately. I feel vindicated, I guess...

Disney has offered its pass holders an extension based on however long the shutdown lasts. I wonder if Ikon could do something?

 

Mt. High is offering half price lift tickets for Ikon and Epic pass holders as well as any season pass to any Southern CA amusement park (Disney, Universal, etc).

 

Yeah, I'm not expecting any sort of refund, but with 20/21 passes just going on sale I hope they'll offer a nice credit for next year's pass.

 

As it stands, I’m better off taking 2020/2021 off from the pass, then buying a 21/22 pass next March and backloading all of next season’s riding into next April.

 

Not a bad plan. We usually get a disproportionate amount of our days from March until the end of the season.

 

And here we are...

 

Work Buddie just got from heli-skiing Alaska

That's about 4K ft of 55% , landing on knife edge , heli just sticks a skid in.. fall backwards... That's it.

Scariest part ... Putting on you skiis balancing on that edge.

He is the real deal... said it amazing was but was relieved when done...

One of the group "Tomahawked" head over heels... Surgery on destroyed leg / knee..this week.

We had a chat.. thinking he will be scaling back....

 

Seems like the kind of thing you only do once...

I once read an interview with a mountaineer of some repute, who had taken up sailing, and described himself as a “5.7 sailor.” He meant that he was content to be a moderately competent sailor, with no ambition to “progress.” He said that at the height of his climbing prowess, he had disdain for the masses of climbers who would/could not lead 5.8 or beyond, but that he understood it now. As a 5.7 climber myself, it stuck in my head...

maybe suggest sailing to your buddy

 

That's a serious piece of topography right there. What's worse is it gets harder towards the bottom. And the consequences? Yeah, there's that. I can ski just about anything, but my desire to survive beats my desire to prove my bravery to someone (or even to myself) - so I would have to pass on that. If/when I go heli-skiing, I want to be disappointed that it's over, not relieved!

Good job and congrats to those who put down those tracks!

 

I forgot to mentioned they ran that about ~20 times.

funny when we chatted we used the climbing adage... ( I am not one but I can appreciate)

There are old climbers and there are bold climbers...but there are no old bold climbers

 

To my eyes- the lines through those chutes look about as “the real deal” as it gets. Very impressive

 

Seriously, that sh!t gives me the heebie geebies just thinking about it. 9:20 in this vid seems so sketchy I just can't even wrap my head it. I remember the first time I saw this scene I got a quick sensation of vertigo just watching it on a computer screen.

 

I hate this for folks like yourself, but selfishly I sure picked the right year to go and break myself off. Other than a really solid December, it has seemed quite mediocre right up to the March Miracle that everyone has had to watch from the bleachers.

 

I was holding out some slim hope California might re-open in time for some late spring Mammoth turns. The curve is actually bending...keep it up California, stay home and do nothing, and be proud of it!

Then I read the WSJ article about the National Brotherhood of Skiers event in Ketchum last month, and there’s no way I’m going in to a ski lodge until the vaccine drops.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-fest...ae53ef3663cd6fee&reflink=share_mobilewebshare

For now, skiing and climbing are prohibited in Inyo County and strongly discouraged in Mono.

 

I’m looking at my Ikon renewal form. Waiting to see if Alterra throws us a little sweetener to help with the short season first. Of course they might still be closed all next season. and they have to be hurting for cash. I can’t imagine the 2020-2021 signups are going well for them. I have to think they will extend their renewal discount cutoff past 4/22.

 

Yeah, I'm holding out too. Someone on the Mammoth forum posted this week that they called to find out what would happen if they renewed, and the resorts didn't open next year. This person was told that no refunds would be given. Hard to imagine it actually playing out that way, but apparently that's their official position as of now.

 

If they don’t open next season, they won’t open the season after that either.

maybe the Ikon Pass should be sold as a convertible bond, that can be redeemed either in lift tickets or debtor-in-possession financing?