2012 Montana Conditions, Stoke and Whatev Thread

[steviewonder]

Thanks

[undertow2]

Well shit this trip is turning into a trip from hell... Left home Wed and flew into Denver for connecting flight to Kalispell... Plane broke down and stuck in Denver airport for 12 hrs... Had to stay in Denver for 2 days as Friday was the earliest United could get us here... Missed the 9" of blower yesterday and woke up this AM to find out they are closing today due to blizzard like conditions and extreme temps... Looks like I will be drinking my blues away in town... F me...

Pitty party rant over...! On the bright side once I get to ski the snow conditions should be spectacular...

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[Talisman]

Well shit this trip is turning into a trip from hell...
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Vacation flights that "fall apart" are painful.
Rule 1 Don't fly United. Two nights on the couches at ORD cured me of that airline for life.
Suggestion 1 Firmly get a refund and airline miles (if you decide to fly United again)
Suggestion 2 Rent a vehicle and drive it, road trip adventure awaits
Suggestion 3 Road trip to some of the fun little ski areas between DEN and FCA

[Harry]

Website says 2 inches, same as my driveway. Temp +8F.

Bobcat Sig (OP of this thread !) is stopping by shortly to pickup his pass vouchers.

[undertow2]

Vacation flights that "fall apart" are painful.
Rule 1 Don't fly United. Two nights on the couches at ORD cured me of that airline for life.
Suggestion 1 Firmly get a refund and airline miles (if you decide to fly United again)
Suggestion 2 Rent a vehicle and drive it, road trip adventure awaits
Suggestion 3 Road trip to some of the fun little ski areas between DEN and FCA

Tali, any time I can I travel Southwest I do, but for this trip United was the only real option... We tried to fly into Missoula, but no rental companies would allow one way from Missoula to Whitefish... We did ski Loveland on Thursday and caught a plane Friday from Denver to Kalispell... Had fun in Whitefish last night and woke up to this mt report for Whitefish:

6:00 a.m. Report: Dispatch from the Rebel Base on Hoth... It's a full-on blizzard up here. Temperatures are in the negatives across the mountain and we're looking at a high of -9 for the summit today and a wind chill factor as low as -52 with sustained winds at 33 mph. Chair 1 (as well as all the lifts it services) will likely close today. While we'd like to have all normal chairs running, safety is our first concern. Check back with the Snow Report around 7:45 a.m. this morning for updated info on closures and conditions.

I did send a note to United and they gave me two vouchers, but dam did we miss some great skiing...

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[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Had an interesting chat with a patroller up on the HW hike today. Basically, they are getting really fed up with Ikon Pass holders. He said they have pulled a bunch of people out of HW who were gripped in the last couple months and they almost all had Ikon Passes. I think the issue is that most of the Ikon holders have experience at less gnar mountains where a hike/traverse that is inbounds will lead them to a steep bowl at worst. Not super exposed, rock strew, steep, narrow runs with potential to be seriously cliffed out. The new signage is only helping a little. Seen many people out there recently who just shouldn't be in that kind of terrain. People getting in over their heads not only puts them in danger, but also the patrol for having to go in and do unnecessary evacs, etc.

Beacons/gear mandatory should be the norm in there I think. If you need gear to ski the big you should certainly need gear to ski anything off the hike.

Maybe I'm talking out my ass, but it was definitely interesting to have patrol be so obviously livid at the situation up there recently.

Also, it was skiing really nice. Only Firehole, Hellroaring, and Jack Creek were open on the north side. JC was deep and blowery.

[East2West]

Nippy out this morning at Bridger. Place was pretty empty with sweet parking available. One lap on PK and then jetted over to Schlasmans. Sun was out to the south and the inversion made it comfortable up top. We cruised Mundys most of the morning all to ourselves. Boundary Chute and Job 1 were good and not tracked on the way out. The ride out to the base was cold. Lost a screw that holds the walk mode latch of my Hawx XTD. Shout out to the guys at round house on the base for digging out another screw and getting it squared away.

[Bunion 2020]

Had an interesting chat with a patroller up on the HW hike today. Basically, they are getting really fed up with Ikon Pass holders. He said they have pulled a bunch of people out of HW who were gripped in the last couple months and they almost all had Ikon Passes. I think the issue is that most of the Ikon holders have experience at less gnar mountains where a hike/traverse that is inbounds will lead them to a steep bowl at worst. Not super exposed, rock strew, steep, narrow runs with potential to be seriously cliffed out. The new signage is only helping a little. Seen many people out there recently who just shouldn't be in that kind of terrain. People getting in over their heads not only puts them in danger, but also the patrol for having to go in and do unnecessary evacs, etc.

Beacons/gear mandatory should be the norm in there I think. If you need gear to ski the big you should certainly need gear to ski anything off the hike.

Maybe I'm talking out my ass, but it was definitely interesting to have patrol be so obviously livid at the situation up there recently.

Also, it was skiing really nice. Only Firehole, Hellroaring, and Jack Creek were open on the north side. JC was deep and blowery.

I can understand the frustration, but that is a large part of the job.

Requiring beacons etc is very difficult to manage unless you have a patrol station right at the start of the hike ala Bridger.

All the skull and X-bone signage only encourages people. No easy answers.

[regct]

I can understand the frustration, but that is a large part of the job.

Requiring beacons etc is very difficult to manage unless you have a patrol station right at the start of the hike ala Bridger.

All the skull and X-bone signage only encourages people. No easy answers.

I think eventually we’ll be posting at the hike and requiring packs and gear. Just easing into it. Whether that’s in a year or two or three years...?

Curious who told you we’ve been hauling Ikon passers out the headwaters. I don’t feel that’s true. No more coaching and encouraging or retrieving of gear than usual...

Ikon pass holders make for long lines at the base but IME they aren’t skiing special access terrain unless they’ve already been skiing here. I see some of them come through the penalty box but not many, and almost no first timers.



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[detuned]

Well shit this trip is turning into a trip from hell...On the bright side once I get to ski the snow conditions should be spectacular..

sorry to hear about your travel issues, man. you got here just in time for the weekly closure! - same thing happened last sun/mon, high winds, below zero temps, nasty weather.

by some magical stroke of luck i had friday off, i won't bore you with the details but will say its a huge bummer to have had that day followed by an incredible turn in weather so bad the hill shuts down completely.

not gonna hold my breath for today either, it's currently -11 in town and of course no data from the hill station (internet down apparently)

pm me if you wanna meet up for a beer/juicebox/whatever....

[undertow2]

Thanks detuned and I hope for my sake and sanity at least the park opens up for my little homie... We are into 4 days of our 5 day trip and only 1 day of skiing...

I heard Friday was absolutely stellar...! We left the kids at the house and went to the Bulldog Saloon and there was a group of people from Calgary drinking like there was no tomorrow... I ended up wrapping with one of them and they said Friday was some of the best skiing they ever had and were celebrating since they were leaving today...

If it closes today and we hit the town I will def PM you... Appreciate the offer... Like you said no update as of yet so it is looking sketchy...

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[Bunion 2020]

I think eventually we’ll be posting at the hike and requiring packs and gear. Just easing into it. Whether that’s in a year or two or three years...?

Yeah I was told about the start of that cat fight last year. IMHO, anyone doing that hike without a pack is being sort of an idiot. We had enough time & peoplepower to maintain an easy and flat tread during the MLB days. I used to enjoy spending an hour with a Hazel Hoe cutting on that thing. Times change.
Currently the hike is no easy stroll in the wind, even with the hand lines.


Maybe take out the HW lift and make everyone hike from Challenger? It would make for longer lap times and reduce the crowding.

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Not gonna throw anyone under the bus. The patroller was just doing their job and there weren't many people skiing off the hike yesterday. Buddy and I put our skis on at Jack Creek and patroller was right there working. Was super friendly, but kinda tiptoe'd around the "So, you guys just visiting?" question. Once we told him we lived in Bozeman and down in the meadow his next question was one of relief....."Oh, so you guys don't have Ikon passes?" lol.

I did a second lap to Jack Creek and waited a while for my buddy. In that time 4 or 5 other people walked up, saw that the hike was closed beyond JC and were puzzled. Two people (with no packs) said, "Oh man, didn't realize the hike was closed at this point. I didn't look at the sign, etc."........"Does this one cliff out?".....trail maps were taken out of pockets.

I'm all for exploring and it's great seeing people want to push themselves, but blindly walking a hike in poor vis and having no idea if the terrain they are about to ski "cliffs out" is just idiotic.

[ODHGABFE]

PBR tickets go quickly too.

Don't give your hard-earned $$ to the YC

[Fritz]

Curious who told you we’ve been hauling Ikon passers out the headwaters. I don’t feel that’s true. No more coaching and encouraging or retrieving of gear than usual...



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Thanks for clarifying. I don’t have an Ikon pass but just spent over a week around Jackson/targhee/big sky and all the generalizations about Ikon passholders from Colorado are getting pretty tired. Apparently we’re all hacks who have never skied rowdy terrain before . News flash: we aren’t all beaters in CO. It sucks that a few of them give us all a bad rep. I do feel bad that your lift lines are longer however, that would piss me off too.

That being said, I love your mountain it’s retarded fun

[regct]

Not gonna throw anyone under the bus. The patroller was just doing their job .

Oh yeah man didn’t mean it like that. Just blindly typing my thoughts...





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[Bunion 2020]

Thanks for clarifying. I don’t have an Ikon pass but just spent over a week around Jackson/targhee/big sky and all the generalizations about Ikon passholders from Colorado are getting pretty tired. Apparently we’re all hacks who have never skied rowdy terrain before . News flash: we aren’t all beaters in CO. It sucks that a few of them give us all a bad rep. I do feel bad that your lift lines are longer however, that would piss me off too.

That being said, I love your mountain it’s retarded fun

Easy there Butch. There is a lot of latitude in the IKON/MC/Epic gene pool. A big segment cannot seem to grasp the fact that you don't stand in front of the openings to the mazes. That is my pet peeve.

Aside from that there is a sizeable % who are good skiers and because of that they gravitate to Expert terrain. I have chatted up a fair # of these folks and they are for the most part nice, friendly and interested in skiing.

Part of the whole Colorado thing here in particular is that a lot of people moved here from Colorado to get away from that scene. In the past 5 years or so (well before IKON was a dirty word) there has been an influx of Green Plates from Colorado.

Again not a big deal but a % of them would want to tell you how fucking great Colorado is and all that making you want to ask them, well, why did you move here then?

Bozeman is growing fast, this is just another symptom along with more crowded roads and less affordable housing.

Anyway, glad you had a good time here, please tell everyone else it sucks but you are welcome back anytime.

[regct]

If the influx hadn’t happened literally from one season to the next it wouldn’t be so noticeable.

Ive been here less than 10 years and watched it become busier over my short time here, but the Ikon influx is crazy, it’s hard not to talk about. I bet our daily skier visits are double the number of skier visits over the same day last season, and I’d make that bet for over 75% of total days of operation. Maybe more.

I think it’s great, come here, spend money, and I’ll figure out how to get some of it.

Just drive the speed limit and maybe don’t buy a second home.


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[Fritz]

I believe it. I would way rather live in Bozeman but my wife can’t move her business. I’ve been traveling north to ski since I moved to Colorado in the early 90s. Don’t get me wrong, parts of Colorado are great, there’s just nothing near the front range that can even come close to big sky. If the decision was purely about skiing I would have moved a long time ago. Instead I have to travel to get to really good skiing, unfortunately there are a lot of other coloradoans in the same boat. Don’t worry I tell them all that it’s too rocky and cold up there.

[Harry]

don’t buy a second home.

[Bunion 2020]

but the Ikon influx is crazy, it’s hard not to talk about. I bet our daily skier visits are double the number of skier visits over the same day last season, and I’d make that bet for over 75% of total days of operation. Maybe more.

That is a phenomena being repeated all over the big Ski areas, from Colorado to Utah to Wyoming to Montana etc. I think these Pass Aggregators may totally change the way people pay for skiing. I could see a pass that is good at every ski area in the US/CA/SA/JP & Europe in the not too distant future. Just a matter of the ski areas deciding what a day at their area is worth if you buy in Bulk. Kind of a Costco model.

maybe don’t buy a second home.

However you are free to build one as long as I can get a small bite of the action.

BTW Fritz, are you somehow connected to the CAIC?

[Fritz]

^^^ nope, just a supporter/user.

I really feel your pain up there. I stopped buying a pass in Colorado about 9 years ago because the influx made it too painful to ride lifts while living on the front range. Just been touring ever since as it’s the only way to avoid people around here.

[Talisman]

Don't give your hard-earned $$ to the YC

I said the tickets went quickly, not that I buy them and somehow usually end up with a few. Yellowstone Club and Pabst Blue Ribbon, who would have thought?

[Whiteroom_Guardian]

Thanks for clarifying. I don’t have an Ikon pass but just spent over a week around Jackson/targhee/big sky and all the generalizations about Ikon passholders from Colorado are getting pretty tired. Apparently we’re all hacks who have never skied rowdy terrain before . News flash: we aren’t all beaters in CO. It sucks that a few of them give us all a bad rep. I do feel bad that your lift lines are longer however, that would piss me off too.

That being said, I love your mountain it’s retarded fun

Didn't say anything about Colorado.

[yeahman]

Went through Marlboro Country today for the first time. I'm not a hucker but if a feller were so inclined this little zone could provide some amusement. I came down the cliffline and stopped at all the likely launch pads. Cool stuff for lil ol' Andesite Mountain.