I'm pretty sure that the people who get fast pass don't give a shit what anyone else thinks of them.
I'm pretty sure that the people who get fast pass don't give a shit what anyone else thinks of them.
I thought I saw somewhere that they are capping fast tracks pass sales at 2% of the total daily capacity. Can anyone confirm if there really is a limit and roughly how many? I mean it's fun to get all up in arms about this but how much would 2% be noticed, especially up on the mid to summit lifts?
Go that way really REALLY fast. If something gets in your way, TURN!
Powder Corp is the Death rattle of the Powder Day for sure. Between fat skis, High Speed Lifts, late starting lifts, broken down lifts, and now the super special Richy Rich lines... the myth of the POW DAY is just about extinct. As it is, if you are lucky, you only get a couple of runs before the pow is shredded. So much for the "life fully lived, life in a blaze of reality". RIP Delores! We will miss you.
Readily affordable skiing is becoming as rare as rational republicans. The fact that management can charge as much as $169, plus slope side parking fees, plus a special "I am better than you" fast track, shows just how bad this situation has become.
Well climate change and other economic factors pushed hundreds of mom and pop ski hills on to bankruptcy/retirement. Spoils to the remaining victors with near monopoly control in some areas.. I'm lucky, the six ski areas within a four hour drive are still completely independent of the rest of the mega monsters.. I can still get walk up tickets for under $100 on a weekend and private lessons under $75/hr. It's only a matter of time though..
Go that way really REALLY fast. If something gets in your way, TURN!
Heck, I had those days in the early 2000's. Some of them were on weekends.
I agree with what old goat posted up thread; people who buy a Fast Track Pass could care less what anyone thinks. In fact, you will probably be able to smell the condescension coming off of them.
"We don't beat the reaper by living longer, we beat the reaper by living well and living fully." - Randy Pausch
Oddly enough, the best one that comes to my young mind was actually opening weekend at AZ Snowbowl in October or November of 2019. They had received two 40+ inch storms over the course of a few days and had the mountain closed for avy control work from the Agassiz lift to the north.
The remaining open portion of the mountain was tracked out by 10-10:30am and people started peeling out heavy around noon. 1pm rolls around and patrol drops the rope on the entire other side of the mtn. Myself and a few others enjoyed top to bottom untracked pow laps for the remaining 3hrs of the day.
KT in the afternoon on a big storm day. Most of the folks will have burned out and left. If it's Sunday might as well keep skiing--you aren't going home anyway.
Steamboat. Feb 20th, 2012.
Valentines day, Wolf Creek…99 drove up there after work, woke up the next morning in the back of my truck to 12” new and power nuking. Didn’t see anybody else in the base area, didn’t see anybody else on the lift, didn’t see anybody skiing, didn’t see a non-me track in waterfall until like 11, didn’t cross anyone else’s tracks until 2 or 3. Didn’t even buckle my boots tight all day.
I’d had a little dating trouble, felt heartbroken going up there, shook it all off wallowing in lap after lap of untracked lift served pow. Didn’t even know it was Valentine’s Day till I heard it on the radio driving home that night.
I can think of several days in the mid 80s that were amazing.. Lapping Breck Horseshoe bowl on the T-bar.. Highlands.. Also Taos West Ridge in the late 90s.. on a Saturday... plenty of good lines all over the place. It's really only this century that things are always a total shitshow every weekend, not just holidays.. and even a shitshow on weekdays when it's dumped. You kids missed it..
Go that way really REALLY fast. If something gets in your way, TURN!
I had many days like that last season. Midweek is key. Let me know if you’re out this way, I’ll give you a room to sleep and a ride to the hill.
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Heh - we did a day at Wolf Creek back in *very* early November many moons ago... they got some shit like 4 feet over a couple days. That was WAY too much snow for Wolf Creek. We were getting stuck all over the place 'cause they really didn't have any of the goods open yet.
Good times...
My first legitimate powder day was at Vail in the mid-90's... probably the winter of '95/'96 perhaps? Caught the opening of the Back Bowls for the year - there was a big, rowdy throng of people at the Patrol Shack at the top of 4, but it wasn't enough to make much of a dent in the bowls. That was a good day...
Homewood, 2011. Got a ride ahead of the leading edge of a huge storm to my Dad's cabin at Alpine Meadows. Got left there with no vehicle on a Tuesday night. Had a friend come and pick me up the following morning. Alpine Meadows was basically shut down as the storm was raging. We went to the much more sheltered Homewood and it was basically deserted. Must have been less than 100 people there all day. I did lap-after-lap up Ellis Chair, getting coated in 1-2" of snow on the chair, riding the cat track down and dropping in about 5 feet to the right of my previous track on every lap. The next two days at Alpine Meadows were also phenomenal as they got more and more terrain open. Probably the best three consecutive days of skiing I've ever had.
((. The joy I get from skiing...
.))
((. That's worth living for.
.))
Back in the day feels like anytime before the first season of The Bachlorette.
Ahh, the memories. Knees (covered in tight pants for style) glued together, trying to squeeze out any sort of float from those toothpicks we would have on our feet.
While the fat skis have resulted in the good stuff getting jonged out almost instantly now, at least they make charging through tracked-up crud relatively painless. That shit was always a bitch in the afternoon on the old 'straight' skis.
Ah yes, the good old days.
Straight skinny 210s, shitty boots, explodomat bindings and fixed grip double chairs.
A veritable paradise compared to today
Mother Karen's Power Bibs FTW.. As for float.. Just go faster..
Go that way really REALLY fast. If something gets in your way, TURN!
March 1st 1989 Bridger bowl. Ridiculous amount of POW. Watched my buddy dave jump into psychopath and actually disappear leaving an unbroken layer of snow until he re-emerged. I called in sick to my first day of work at the bike shop and managed to keep my job
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I rip the groomed on tele gear
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