Tag Archives: skiing

Friday — Diamond Peak

  By bkdunn | 15 March 2013 - 545 |
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I wrote all these up on the plane ride home. FYI.

Paid: $49 (Reno Sports Authority)

Quality of Random Lift Strangers: 9/10

Weather: Overcast with some eventual light snowfall.

Would Return?: Definitely

I’m probably just a sucker for ski resorts with lake views, but I loved Diamond Peak, despite its shortcomings and quirks. I liked the laid-back vibe. The unpretentiousness caught me off guard (I figured Incline Village’s hill would be  more uppity), parking was easy, and the random lift strangers were friendly and engaging. The skiing was also pretty good. Spent most of the day on Crystal Express sampling the diamonds with occasional forays on Lakeview. Snow was chopped powder most places, with some fun in-tree, un-tracked around Eagle Bowl and a few other gladey places elsewhere on the mountain

A little fog at the top of the express lift.

A little fog at the top of the express lift.

Looking up-run (this was "Lightning", I think).

Looking up-run (this was “Lightning”, I think).

View from the ridge.

View from the ridge.

View from the sort-of untracked.

View from the sort-of untracked.

I took these using my goofy video cam:

diamond-peak-eagle-bowl diamond-peak-liftline diamond-peak-view

  • Diamond Peak’s biggest shortcoming was pretty obvious: south-facing and with a lower elevation than some of its competitors, there were a lot of bare spots and some closed runs.
  • The views of the lake were fantastic; the lake is more than occasional scenery here, it’s a constant companion.
  • Visibility was tough up on the ridge before about noon, but got better during the day. Everything coming down off the ridge offered good visibility (even at the top).
  • I bought a sandwich at Wal-Mart in Reno on my way up so I have no idea how the Diamond Peak food is. However, I now know that the sandwiches at the Reno Wal-Mart are bland.
  • Crystal Express doesn’t ski as weird as it looked like it would from the map.
  • I liked that there was always something easy to bail out onto and something harder to bail back into on just about every run and gladed middle-ground.
  • The conveyor belt on-loading on Lakeview (and Lodgepole) was a new experience for me.

The place would probably start feeling small after a couple visits in a season, but I liked Diamond a lot.

Wrap-Up (for the Whole Trip I Guess)

The trip turned out to be phenomenal. I like spring skiing days and I liked getting to experience powder conditions that I haven’t seen since I decided to start skiing again last season. At the risk of igniting an east coast-west coast debate, by Monday afternoon I’d decided my next year’s ski trip destination wouldn’t be Vermont again after all. Even if Squaw wasn’t as transcendent as hoped, the trip overall was generally very nearly euphoric. I was mad when the lifts closed down every day and when I skied my last off Diamond on Friday, it felt like I was, I dunno, being sent back into some sort of dungeon or something.

Chained,

bkd

Tuesday – Mt. Rose

  By bkdunn | 12 March 2013 - 931 |
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Paid: $49 (weekday full-time student price at window)

Quality of Random Lift Strangers: N/A

Weather: Sunny with high winds at the top.

Would Return?: Probably

Mt. Rose was exactly as advertised: unpretentious, locals-centric, solid vertical and elevation, and windy (although I think everywhere was probably windy that day). In terms of attitude and vibe, Mt. Rose was night-and-day compared to Heavenly (and Squaw) and, ceteris paribus, I preferred Rose’s relative easy-goingness – not that ceteris ever *is* paribus. Conditions were pretty firm (not icy) on-trail and off-trail was cruddy (this included the tree areas unfortunately). Mogul runs were carved deep with pretty inconsistent snow (thanks to the warm weather, lack of recent significant snowfall, and wind I’m sure). Spent all day on Northwest Magnum 6 (heckuva lift name) after hearing that the east-side runs were more scraped.

mt-rose-base mt-rose-northwest-express mt-rose-view

It was exciting to be able to see our hotel from the top.

It was exciting to be able to see our hotel from the top.

mt-rose-tahoe-run

Also:

  • Wish they’d had some better snow, obviously. The chutes looked like they’d be fun, but we saw (from a distance) one person who ventured in there all day and, based on his form, he didn’t look too happy.
  • Was also sad that the trees down the lift-line weren’t more skiable (I tried twice).
  • Didn’t understand why they wouldn’t run the little triple chair off to the right of us. There’s not a ton of skiing at the very top and the triple looked like it would at least be out of the wind. (I’ve been told by a local, however, that it’s not actually any less windy on the triple, just a lot slower.)
  • Not very crowded – we didn’t share a lift ride all day.
  • I liked that the ticket booth woman barely even blinked when I requested the student rate (I’m 41; yes, I’m a full-time student with the ID to verify it).
  • It’s cool that there’s one resort around Tahoe that offers such intense discounts.

Conditions were definitely a little firm that day. That said, it was hilarious listening to locals complain about how terrible the “ice” was. At Blue Knob that’s called straight-up powder.

bkd

Monday – Heavenly

  By bkdunn | 11 March 2013 - 1749 |
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Paid: $93 (bought at Sports Authority in Reno the night before)

Quality of Random Lift Strangers: 5/10

Weather: Absolute Bluebird (my bro’s thermometer read 42 degrees on our way up Sky Express the one time)

Would Return?: Definitely

Given the advice I’d read on EpicSki, we chose a side and ended up spending almost the entire day skiing Dipper Express (we took a couple of runs on the California side since it seemed obligatory). No complaints about traverses. I think they’d had some snow the day before, so things weren’t too scraped and, in the trees at least, conditions could be described as soft. Our favorite run was in the trees alongside Big Dipper and Meteor – left us with a long, blue run-out, but I like hard-packed bombing runs, so all was good by me.

Heavenly-Dipper

View of the lake from the California side.

View of the lake from the California side.

Ski-Heavenly

This is what the snow looked like in the trees (on the Nevada side).

This is what the snow looked like in the trees (on the Nevada side).

Other observations:

  • The pulled pork sandwich at East Peak Lodge was huge, but otherwise merely okay. Barbecue baked beans were generous, but I would have preferred a sweeter sauce with a little more vinegar and somewhat less chili powder. #yelp
  • To me, the oddest thing about the layout was that we were kind of “trapped” on the upper mountain. If any of us had left anything down at the car (we parked at Stagecoach), it would have been a blue square-and-slush hassle trying to retrieve it.
  • Stopped at the Red Hut (Kingsbury Grade) on the way up the hill. The bacon there is something to write home about.
  • Plenty of people there, but the Nevada side was pretty roomy and lift lines were close to non-existent (things were decidedly more crowded California-side).
  • People here had a somewhat disturbing penchant for making high-speed, lane-shifting entries into the lift lines. I imagine they learned that on the 880 somewhere around Hayward.
  • The ski patrol dude who rode up the lift with us should probably be friendlier toward people who paid $93 just to be there for the day.

In the net, I loved Heavenly. The price is silly, but the views were awesome, the tree-skiing was fun, and there were plenty of places to roam even without entering California. Just for the price, I can’t imagine going there more than once a year, but next time I’m in Tahoe to ski, it will be on the itinerary.

Crystal Mountain Resort (Report from Yesterday)

  By bkdunn | 17 January 2013 - 1904 |
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Headed up skiing to Crystal Mountain with my dad yesterday. I’m guessing I hadn’t been there since some time before 2000 (the year). Um.

Crystal Mountain

Here are some facts so that I can list here in order to break up the photos:

  • It was a beautiful, sunny day.
  • Got up to maybe the mid-30′s, warm enough to soften the snow, cold enough that it never turned to slush.
  • Even though it hasn’t snowed up there in a week or whatever.
  • It was really clear, no clouds in any direction. You could see Adams, St. Helens, the Olympics, and even Rainier.

IMG_4268

It feels like the top of the world up there. It’s also a little windy.

So then I spent most of the day skiing Green Valley. There weren’t crowds anywhere on the mountain, but there were especially no crowds in Green Valley. They have an express lift there now. I don’t know how long it’s been there. I could probably find out on the Internet.

green_valley_bowl

green_valley

crystal_mtn_caution

Presumably the caution was due to the presence of snow, a slope, and good visibility.

  • It’s sort of funny what constitutes an Intermediate run here vs. Pennsylvania. A lot of Crystal’s blues are steep enough to be double-black at Seven Springs (probably just black at Blue Knob).
  • And I sort of forgot how steep Crystal was just in general. Eastern skiing has already Stockholm Syndromed me I guess.

There’s also a gondola there now. It starts at the bottom (by the ticket booths, kind of below the lodge) and ends essentially next to the old #2 (Rainier Express to those living in the now). Here are three photos that include the gondola:

crystal_mountain_gondola

crystal_gondola_high

I’ve always been fond of those photos that make the gondola look like it’s flying at 30,000 feet.

middle_ferks

The view looking up Middle Ferks.

The gondola seems kind of under-utilized from a skiing perspective. It makes for a very long run, though, going top-to-bottom. Plus it costs an extra $8 on the lift ticket. I dunno. Neither Stowe nor Whiteface charged extra for their gondola. It doesn’t seem like the resorts’ cost-benefit analyses should actually be different.

  • I remembered Crystal having a lot more signs telling you what run you were getting on. There aren’t very many of them, which is probably fine, just that there are a few places where a person might get himself in trouble through lack of knowledge.
  • It was fun re-visiting sites of childhood trauma (top of 2, middle of Deerfly).
  • The walk in from the parking lot is still punishing.
  • Not to say that Crystal is some sort of great vlue or anything, but it’s kind of surprising that this place costs so much less than Stowe ($74 w/ gondola vs. $92).
  • The pizza slice was pretty small for $4.50 and $6.50 for a cup of chili seemed exorbitant. The $3 fries were a relatively good value though.

That’s probably good enough.

bkd

Skiing White Pass

  By bkdunn | 31 December 2012 - 1241 |
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Went to White Pass for the first time in my life on Thursday. Snow was PNW-great, visibility was interesting and variable, with a freezing fog making Couloir Basin kind of useless and about a 60-second sun break in the early afternoon. I didn’t take many photos, but among them were these…

1000

Chair 4

 

1000

Mach V to the right, Chair straight ahead.

 

1000

Hourglass, I think.

  • Mach V was probably my favorite run of the day.
  • Locals were very nice, lifties were politely ambivalent.
  • Arrived a little after 9 and the ticket line was a half-hour long.
  • The day lodge at the base was way too small, but their chili was excellent.
  • The best visibility was on the two middle lifts, which is probably not the optimal place for the best visibility.
  • Fresh snow available on or near every run until some time in the afternoon.
  • There are some HARDCORE 6-year-olds that ski this place. Absolutely fearless.
  • Impressed by how many people apparently own cabins in Packwood.

Really enjoyable day, though. I was envious of the folks from Yakima for whom this is a convenient drive (I’m staying at my parents’ house in NE Tacoma, from where it took 2:40 to get there). Would like to get back some time when conditions were better on Couloir, which looked like it had a lot of potential.

bkd

Mad River Glen: Skied It Because Could

  By bkdunn | 18 March 2012 - 1519 | ,
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This is the last one of these for a while probably.

Mad River Glen kind of takes Smuggler’s Notch’s approach of “mostly locals” and pushes it a little further into something akin to “locals only”. It’s a little odd showing up at a ski resort where everyone else seems to know each other because they’re all part of the collective and you’re not. I spent most of the day feeling like I was doing it wrong. Whatever it was.

They only have four lifts, two of which seem mostly superfluous. The lift going up the big mountain is a single chair (see first photo above). They take significant pride in that anachronism. The resort also keeps the mountain “natural”, which was interesting. Good-interesting. Very little grooming or snow-making, the runs seem to fit the mountain (whatever the means), a couple of creeks running down the hill, and a waterfall adjoining one of the routes down. The natural situation also results in some more challenging terrain than you usually see. A lot of black diamonds, none of which get cat-tracked. At least a couple of the green circle trails had significant mogul fields on them.

All-in-all, it’s a compelling place. Not a lot of people and a very different attitude. I got the impression that the customers there sometimes take turns running the lifts. (It is, seriously, owned and operated by a collective.) I’d like to go back some time if only to see what it’s like when the conditions are better (the night before it had rained for several hours, then froze, then early in the morning it got a couple inches of new snow, then it warmed up into the 30s during the day resulting in a rough mixture of ice and slush with occasional puddles). There was a lot of good-looking terrain here that just needed some snow.

And I only paid $30 for the lift ticket (via Liftopia). So there was that.

bkd

(Their tag line is “Ski It If You Can”, which is a pretty good tag line I think although it’s not like they don’t have any beginner or intermediate terrain.)

Smugglers Notch Ski Resort Review

  By bkdunn | 14 March 2012 - 814 | ,
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My hotel was located about six miles away from the Smuggler’s Notch ski resort going by way of Highway 108. The state of Vermont closes Highway 108 between Stowe and Smuggler’s Notch during winter. Ergo, it took me about an hour to get there via the great circle route. Not a bad drive, just a little silly.

From the top of Smuggler’s Notch you can see Mt. Mansfield and some of the runs at the Stowe resort 4 miles or 70 minutes away.

So anyway. As a ski resort, Smuggler’s Notch is kind of a locals-oriented place. Not that I didn’t meet plenty of French-Canadian snowboarders, but still, it doesn’t try to be a big destination resort. Which is sort of a good thing. One of its charms, though, is that it only has old-school, slow double chairs:

On the other hand, at least it’s not a single-chair, right? ‘Cuz nowhere would have one of those any more.

The day I was there was warm (50+ degrees) and sunny. Snow conditions ranged from spotty to slushy, though it should be noted that in the continuum that exists in my mind there’s some decent snow between spotty and slushy. Maybe just not a lot of it.

Also, this is the friendliest resort I’ve ever been to. Maybe it was the weather and the fact that the lifts are slow enough that lines develop at them resulting in no one being allowed to go up the lift solo, but whatever: everyone I sat next to on the lift wanted to talk. I met:

  • A guy who sold his landscaping business in Massachusetts to move to Vermont and now works for the parks department somewhere.
  • A guy who told his boss, who’s from Tennessee, that he shouldn’t bother trying to keep his car clean in the winter and that he better get used to employees coming in late whenever there’s a decent overnight snowfall.
  • A woman whose best friend lives in Pittsburgh and who regrets the fact that USAir no longer flies non-stop from BTV to PIT.
  • A French-Canadian teenager who has been to more major league ballparks than I have and who takes joy in hating on the Canadiens.
  • A guy whose daughter is big into whitewater kayaking and is taking a month-long trip down the Colorado River this month.
  • A guy who denigrates Jay Peak (another ski resort) because it’s too close to Canada and, thus, draws too many Canadians (he refers to it as “Eh Peak”). I’m still not sure as to what the appropriate number of Canadians at a ski resort would be.
  • Other people.

It was a fun day. Tried skiing in the glades a little bit, which was kind of different. A few of the decent slopes had enough snow on them to go down. The atmosphere was as laid back as I’ve experienced at a ski resort. Cool place I’d be happy to check out again some time.

bkd

Skiing Stowe (with the Other Tourists)

  By bkdunn | 12 March 2012 - 1014 | ,
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Skiing Stowe was expensive and nice. Great weather, they take care of the mountain well, tons of parking right next to the lifts (!!), lifts go to useful places, many (long) runs of varying description, etc. Locals seem to dislike it because it doesn’t offer them any in-state discounts. Fair enough, but the discounts for out-of-staters aren’t great either, but I got over it.

Top of Mt. Mansfield (Vermont’s highest point!) from the top of the Stowe quad.

Looking up the gondola lift-line.

Chute full of moguls somewhere at the bottom of the hill.

I think this run (“Hayride”?) is less flat than it looks.

View across the top of the ski hill from the quad to the gondola.

So that’s what it looks like. Sunny weather and the snow was surprisingly good everywhere. What else?

  • I think the locals also don’t like it because Stowe doesn’t let skiers ski in the woods. That’s usually sort of a thing in the northeast.
  • Stowe moves a lot of people up the hill, but the slopes never seem crowded and there were never any serious lines. The place feels smaller than it is. IMHO. In a good way.
  • A lot of French-speaking Canadians. Again.
  • The resort has two different sides to it with a gondola connecting the two sides (by crossing the parking lot and the highway). The other side is kind of lame though.
  • Although it seemed odd to me that the lame side is the one with all the condos and shops.
  • The lodges on the non-lame side seem a little more rustic than you’d expect at a ski resort that charges $92 a day.
  • Skiing on the quad is more challenging/interesting than skiing on the gondola.
  • The bacon cheeseburger in the cafeteria was overpriced. That probably would’ve gone without saying.
  • At the top of the gondola they have a waffle stand, but I did not buy a waffle.

Had a great day here. Would gladly return. $92 (or $78 pre-purchase through Liftopia) is steep, but if you’re going to drive 12 hours to go skiing, I mean, you know. May as well.

Your pal,

bkd

 

Whiteface Mountain Has an Appropriate Nickname

  By bkdunn | 10 March 2012 - 2026 | ,
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I suppose it’s a good thing it was icy, otherwise I’d feel like I hadn’t had the true Whiteface Mountain experience. “Iceface” being the nickname. It rhymes (sort of) and, therefore, is true. Also it’s icy there.

New York, Adirondacks. Near Lake Placid. It’s where they did all the skiing events for the 1980 Olympics. Steep, stupid pretty, stunningly cold, and firm.

Whiteface summit. The olympic downhill course started here. I tried it. It was steep. And icy.

Heading up-lift toward the summit.

Whiteface summit (highest point in New York!) taken from the top of the gondola.

Lake Placid taken from the top of the summit lift.

Inside the Gondola with French-speaking Canadians. The French-Canadians seem to need to talk (to each other) a lot.

Au Sable River at the bottom of Whiteface Mountain. You cross this to get from the parking lot to the lodge.

I guess that’s enough photos. Whatever. Some bullet points because they’re easier than paragraphs:

  • -2 at the bottom, -12 at the top. Degrees Fahrenheit.
  • Firm at the beginning of the day, firm at the end of the day.
  • “Firm” means “icy”.
  • Just about had frostbite from driving there. Switched hands on the steering wheel every 30 seconds so I could keep the other one inside my coat. Apparently it takes more than half an hour for my car’s heater to start working.
  • I had never skied from a gondola before. It’s warmer than the normal chair lift.
  • Tons of French-Canadians.
  • The cafeteria chili wasn’t very good.
  • I got my lift ticket for $25.75 off of Liftopia. Regular price is $79. BKD ftw. For once.
  • I caught an edge on the downhill course and ended up sliding on my belly for about half a mile. It was steep. And slick.

I imagine a little snow and about 15 degrees warmer would make this place great. If only.

bkd

Ski Blue Knob

  By bkdunn | 1 March 2012 - 742 | ,
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Went to Blue Knob a couple weeks ago, which some Web site (not mine) says is arguably the second best skiing in the state (first is some place in the Poconos, which isn’t very close to here). Haven’t had much snow this year, the place is out near Altoona, so it was a 2:15 drive (hours and minutes). The place is basically the same as Whistler.

As evidence:

Green circles mean GO!

Top of the hill. This is taken from the parking lot. I mean, the *parking lot*.

Do the tops of these lifts sort of look like the at-at walkers from Empire Strikes Back to anyone else? Maybe it’s just me.

See? From the parking lot.

This elevation is within 50 feet of being the highest point in Pennsylvania. (Srsly. I was surprised there were elevations in PA that were this high.)

This is the interior of the lodge. The sushi chef had the day off, so I stuck with the cheesesteak.

Experts only.

I’ve never actually been to Whistler.

Condescending photo captions aside, this was a very fun day and a great place to go skiing.

  • Unlike Seven Springs (the other PA ski resort I’ve been to), Blue Knob has more and colder snow. By the end of the day nothing had turned to ice.
  • It’s also higher, steeper, and has longer runs.
  • Also, since it’s primarily pulling people from Altoona and not mighty Pittsburgh (let alone Philthadelphia), there aren’t a whole lot of people up on the hill. I.e., there are no lift lines and most runs you have all to yourself.
  • The expert terrain was closer to being expert-like terrain (although a lot of it is on the bottom half of the mountain, where there’s less snow).
  • It isn’t actually green circles as far as the eye can see. The intermediates are fun, fast cruisers. There was only one black diamond-ish run that was worth taking (it’s been a warm, dry winter), but it had fresh snow and fun moguls on it. (With more snow, the black diamonds at the bottom of the hill looked like they’ be a good time.)
  • Relatively speaking, the place is *cheap*. $38 for all day or $32 for a five-hour pass (any five hours, the clock starts when you buy the ticket).
  • It’s cool to be able to park 100 feet away from the top of the hill. No mile-long slogs back to the car at the end of the day. If you decide you want to change from mitts to gloves, I mean, your car is just *right there*. It’s like parking at a bowling alley rather than parking at Disneyland. Maybe I have unusual car-separation anxiety, but it’s nice to be able to see your vehicle every time you get off the lift.
  • Because, seriously, the parking lot is at the top of the hill. That’s how we roll here.

Totally worth the 2.25-hour drive.

bkd

(PS, Curiously, as with Seven Springs, Blue Knob has a situation where there are two different lifts that start in the same place and end in the same place. As with Seven Springs only one of these two lifts was operating.)

(PPS, If you’re curious, here’s a trail map. Only four lifts, two of which are redundant and one of which is about 200 yards long and intended for beginners ONLY. The bottom-to-top lift has a midway station, which would be useful especially if you wanted to focus on the more advanced terrain at the bottom of the hill.)