Category : Skiing
And… it’s 2019. I had a Mountain Collective pass this year, which included two free days (I mean, free once you buy the pass) at each of Snowbasin, Snowbird, Alta, Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Squaw Valley, Mammoth, Taos maybe?, somewhere in Alberta, probably a couple other places, and Sun Valley. I’d never been to Sun
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
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.
Went to Monarch for the first time yesterday. That place is awful. No one should ever go there. Location First off, Monarch is far from everything. It’s not even in the middle, but rather on the outskirts of nowhere. The town of Salida (pronounced Sa-LY-da as if the Spanish language isn’t even a thing) is
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
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
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
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
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
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
