The drive from Monarch to Frisco and Copper Mountain was the most intense 104-mile drive of my life. It took three hours. During the trip I probably saw about five total miles of bare pavement, the rest was all ice-encrusted. I’ve been living in Oklahoma for the last three years; this was not an environment for which I’ve had a lot of recent experience. My goal for most of the drive was…
Read more
From the greater Phoenix area, I headed back the way I came, up that one highway that probably has a number toward Holbrook. It was still pretty: Although it also spat snow somewhere in those mountains, a true harbinger of the two weeks to come. Which is good, since I cannot abide a false harbinger. I spent New Year’s Eve sleeping at an Air B&B place. It was like a casita at…
Read more
It seems like a long time ago. I was there longer than usual due to airfare insanity. Skiing primarily. A lot of family things. Thanks to Caitlin and Mark for letting me stay with them and RKD for driving up, I think, mostly just so I could spend a day or two with Ammon. Here are a bunch of photos. They’re in chronological order. Eh, good enough. Also went to an RSL…
Read more
Went to Colorado for a quick (three-day) weekend back in February as sort of a proof of concept. The concept being the reasonableness of going to Colorado to ski for a weekend. I flew in on Thursday night after class, rented a mid-size SUV (Ford Escape as it turned out) “at” the airport, then headed west on I-70, stopping at a pretty awful Super 8 ($89/night!) in a windy, very cold town whose…
Read more
If you’re unaware, the Mountain Collective is essentially a season-long ski pass that: Gets you two free days at each of six (high end, mostly huge) ski resorts, namely: Alta-Snowbird, Aspen (all four areas), Jackson Hole, Mammoth, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, and Whistler-Blackcomb Plus half price for any additional days. Of course, with a set-up like this, one feels naturally challenged to go to all six resorts. I therefore did that this winter…
Read more
Switzerland: Fog and ice patches. PNW: Depending on the day, but fog and ice patches also. Tahoe: Drought! Was at Alpine for the first time ever on Wednesday. It looked like this: The terrain looks awesome; shame not to be able to ski it — it’s amazing that they’ve kept the place skiable at all I guess. The groomers were nice and satiny until 9:45 or so. Unfortunately there was really only…
Read more
Here are some things I did at Whistler that I’d never done before: Skied a glacier. Unless I did that in Switzerland and just couldn’t see it well enough to recognize that it happened. Rode a T-bar. Hiked up a hill to get to a put-in spot. Skied in Canada. All these posts are magnum opuses until I start typing. Skied there January 9th and 10th. The majority of people with whom…
Read more
This blog is apparently now mostly about chronicling my experiences of skiing badly in as many places as possible. OTOH, at least it has a theme. I grew up in the Seattle area, but had never been to Mt. Baker before (for skiing). I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that what I saw yesterday was not Mt. Baker at the peak of its powers. Paid: $56.10 for some…
Read more
Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ski in the Swiss Alps so, naturally, this: Was at a conference in Milan and have a friend who lives in Bern who had invited me up to his place for a couple days. Bern was great, his place was great, the food was great, people generally great, just that the skiing was: Unfortunately only had two days to choose from for skiing and this was for all appearances…
Read more
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…
Read more