Where did you learn to ski?

[Eastern Sierra Skier]

Stevens Pass WA. The legendary “Daisy” chair seemed long & steep to me at age seven. I thought it was normal to ski in the rain and fog all the time. My kid and I skied there last year on the way up to visit my folks. It had been 35+ years since I last skied it. Lots of changes. They still had the rope tow. Memories.

[Andyski]

Waaaa wa wachusset, Mass.

[m2711c]

Snow Ridge, way up on the Tug Hill Plateau. 50 fuckin' years ago...............

[that dude who did that thing]

Kitzbuhel.

Sounds better than it was. Dad was career army, we were stationed in Germany. Winter vacation one year we spent a week learning to ski. Stayed in a rather modest lodge on a military discount. Following summer we got sent to CA, and learned much more the next few years skiing the Tahoe resorts, especially Heavenly.

[Mr. Mike]

GTFO...I (sorta) learned there. Originally from Kenosha, I grew up skiing at Wilmot, Playboy/Americana, and Majestic. But, my grandmother had a house in Savannah, Illinois. Every winter, we'd vist g-ma and ski Chestnut 5-10x year.

In fact, here I am...in the middle...with my brother and sister. I guess that would be like '83-'84 or thereabouts:
Attachment 214464

man, all those years reading TGR posts requesting pics of sisters, etc., and we finally get one. Serious let down.

Beech Mtn, NC for me.

[creaky fossil]

Fairfield PA, 1968 -- Charnita (now going by the grandiose name Liberty Mountain Resort).

[schindlerpiste]

I wants stayed at a place close to kitzbuhel in Sankt Johan that was right next-door to slaughterhouse. I remember standing outside at 7 o’clock in the morning while the workers would drag push and pull cattle into the house for slaughter. They were having a difficult time getting one of the cows into the slaughterhouse, So they picked it up with the back hoe and lifted up for its impending doom. Skiing was good. I worked for two years in Bamberg Germany as a civilian lawyer doing military criminal defense and military contract work. I married a girl from Fulda. I tried cases throughout Germany from Frankfurt, Grafenwoehr, Nürnberg, Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Munich, Wildflecken, Hof, Fussen and everywhere in between. Where was your dad stationed?

Kitzbuhel.

Sounds better than it was. Dad was career army, we were stationed in Germany. Winter vacation one year we spent a week learning to ski. Stayed in a rather modest lodge on a military discount. Following summer we got sent to CA, and learned much more the next few years skiing the Tahoe resorts, especially Heavenly.

[Timberridge]

Where was your dad stationed?

My guess would be somewhere near here.

[thebrucemac]

Mission Ridge near Wenatchee, WA.

[noflyzone_allstars]

Nashoba Valley, MA. Just like Doug Coombs. Also Boxboro Hill and weekend day trips with Dad to NH.

[uglymoney]

When it comes to learnin', "I may not be fast, but I sure am slow." I'm still in process but spent a fair amount of time at multiple places since we moved around a bunch:

Kansas City MO: 1st place and where I got hooked: back yard
Minnesota/Wisconsin: Afton Alps, Cedar Ridge, Mt Frontenac, Birch Park, Trollhagen, etc
Western NY: Kissing Bridge Glenwood, Chestnut Ridge
New England: Sunday River, Stowe, Wildcat, etc
Colorado: Eldora, Winter Park/Mary Jane, Telluride & Purgatory

Always makes me sad that Mt Frontenac closed. It was a fun place with good pitch and more vertical than Afton/Welch. Looks like it is the future home of an FIS summer rated ski jump. I guess that will be cool.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota...ump/437365413/

[pipedream]

Hyak, Washington. Still skiing there.

It'd certainly be a different ballgame there now that Easy Gold is gone and you'd have to ski from the top of the mountain. I guess that's why most folk now learn at Central or West ('cept a few at Alpental now that they've got a carpet).

I grew up skiing in WV. I probably first skied on snow at Winterplace. I don't remember because I was 18 months old at the time - my dad decided when I could stand I could ski so he'd put me between his knees with his poles crossed in front of me and I'd hold myself up with them as we cruised the greens. My elementary school had a consecutive weeknight skiing thing there - from what I remember, there were very few kids at my ability level, we weren't allowed to ski by ourselves (which I blatantly disregarded and got away with anyways) and you were required to take lessons (my last year in the program the "resort" bumped me into a private lesson because they saw some glimmer of potential or something in me). I used to make a game out of bee-lining to ski the most difficult run there, Turkey Chute, before its 4:30 closing time and our 5pm, mandatory lesson. In high school my buddy Nick & I would drive down there after school some days and ride. We got to know the park crew pretty well and they let us set-up features, build stuff and hike laps without paying for lift tickets. IIRC, the park crew was just a subset of the younger snowboard instructors.

My dad used to like to take the family to Silver Creek, back when it was a separate resort from Snowshoe. I didn't actually ski Snowshoe until I was in high school. The HS ski club did trips to various resorts in the area, so I'd persuade my parents to let/pay for me to go on the one there every winter (again, skiing alone wasn't allowed but nobody else wanted to go destroy their knees bashing the moguls on Cupp's Run & Shay's Revenge except me). I had a friend in high school who had grown-up at Snowshoe before her parents moved into the city and her dad was still a full-time patroller there so we'd stay at their condo a few times a season, too. I recall a few epic New Years Eve celebrations up there in my late teenage years...

My folks built a vacation cabin in Canaan Valley, WV in the mid-90s so I honed my skills at Timberline, with the occasional trip over to Canaan for variety, but we preferred the terrain, easy parking and lack of an uphill climb to the chairs at Timberline. I remember right around 2000 the Burton crew came to town for a demo day and put on a show in the hand-dug stunt ditch. I first slid sideways at T-line sometime around 1997 and gave-up skiing to drag knuckles full time around 2001 or 2002 - whenever it was that the hand-me down skiing gear from my older brother dried-up.

This was my first season pass. Yes - that's a USA Soccer World Cup 94 shirt I'm wearing. Cute, ain't it?

[wyeaster]

tl:dr

just kiddin' nice story!

[downvalleytrash]

Tussey Mountain. Boalsburg, PA

5 runs, 500' vertical. 100% awesome.

[wyeaster]

mt hood meadows spring pass at age 39. i rode my ass off and beat myself to death that first spring.

[Alpinord]

Always makes me sad that Mt Frontenac closed. It was a fun place with good pitch and more vertical than Afton/Welch. Looks like it is the future home of an FIS summer rated ski jump. I guess that will be cool.

http://www.startribune.com/minnesota...ump/437365413/

IIRC, I think Frontenac was the big 25 second downhill vs the 13 second downhill (or whatever it was) at places like Birch Park, etc. I don't miss the 65 below wind chill there.

[ZomblibulaX]

Chapman Hill, Durango, CO. Like a little slice of the midwest in the southwest. Two rope tows and one sheet of ice. We lived in the trailer park across the street, and my brother and I cleaned the warming hut twice a week for season passes. Pretty freaking sweet deal.

I came home one day when I was 3 or 4 and told my mom I made it all the way up the rope tow by myself, and she took me out of ski lessons the next day. Guess that was all the learnin' I needed.

[miahw2828]

Bristol Mt in upstate NY night skiing in ski club. School bus ride from Hammondsport to to a cold ass night of bumps and icey side hits off galaxy, repeat weekly

[Alpinord]

Chapman Hill, Durango, CO. Like a little slice of the midwest in the southwest. Two rope tows and one sheet of ice. We lived in the trailer park across the street, and my brother and I cleaned the warming hut twice a week for season passes. Pretty freaking sweet deal.

I came home one day when I was 3 or 4 and told my mom I made it all the way up the rope tow by myself, and she took me out of ski lessons the next day. Guess that was all the learnin' I needed.

The deal got sweeter. Now Chapman has snowmaking!

[Marshall Tucker]

My dad used to like to take the family to Silver Creek, back when it was a separate resort from Snowshoe.

Spent the week after new years 1983 (i.e. first week of 1984) in the condos above powder chimp / monkey whatever. College trip. they were pretty new completely trashed one. I showed up with a $40 ounce of stinkweed. Remember we each bought corn cobb pipes at the store down in marlinton and we'd jam our pipes full of stinkweed, in the morning put on our walkmans....good times....

[that dude who did that thing]

I wants stayed at a place close to kitzbuhel in Sankt Johan that was right next-door to slaughterhouse. I remember standing outside at 7 o’clock in the morning while the workers would drag push and pull cattle into the house for slaughter. They were having a difficult time getting one of the cows into the slaughterhouse, So they picked it up with the back hoe and lifted up for its impending doom. Skiing was good. I worked for two years in Bamberg Germany as a civilian lawyer doing military criminal defense and military contract work. I married a girl from Fulda. I tried cases throughout Germany from Frankfurt, Grafenwoehr, Nürnberg, Wurzburg, Schweinfurt, Munich, Wildflecken, Hof, Fussen and everywhere in between. Where was your dad stationed?

We spent two years in Wurzburg, one in Kaiserslautern. Dad was a JAG officer, and in K-town was assigned primarily as a judge. We got to Wurzburg in '71, I think. I was all of 6 years when we took that trip to Kitzbuehl. We had punchcards for lift tickets. The ticket had numbers printed on it. Each time you rode the lift they'd punch out a number. The rope tow/poma cost one punch, the chairs ranged from 2 to 4 punches. The day that skiing finally "clicked" I remember I kept going up the rope tow again and again (I wasn't allowed to go anywhere else because my folks were worn out and drinking in the bar, and my older bros had disappeared to go do their thing), I ran out of punches, but the lifties just smiled at the little American kid who was obviously getting his "stoke" on, and waved me through again and again.

[schindlerpiste]

Wow. I worked in Germany from '77-79. Did a lot of work at Conn and Ledward in Schweinfurt, but did some work at Leighton in Wurzburg. I remember representing a guy on an aggravated assault charge at Leighton. The Judge was a full bird colonel. There I was in my suit (civilian). He had a big boar head on the wall behind his desk. I know that he didn't even want me in his office. Placing his arm across the door as I tried to enter was the obvious give-away. Atlas I kept the soldier from spending time at Leavenworth...although Mannheim was no bargain.

[Pukesno]

Split my time between Stoner and Hesperus in SW Colorado back in 79-80. I remember it snowing so much that year and trying to ski deep powder on skinny rental skis.

[snyderc4]

Ski Denton and Montage Mountain, PA

[reckless toboggan]

Ski?

I thought this was a dental forum.