My Retirement Year: An Ongoing Skiing TR

[Djongo Unchained]

Fantastic goal and how fun after the grind. Having spent 10 seasons at Beaver I think you’ll find out why it’s a somewhat hidden gem. Highly recommend.

Where were you coming from, down Logan way?
Driven that canyon plenty but never in a storm, how's that go?
I wonder how nice it'd be to live over by Bear lake and ski the Beav all winter...

[Aldo]

Congratulations B. Well deserved season coming up, and here's to many more. Looking forward to buying you a multitude of beers after one of those 60 or so days!

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

And so....the giddiness of a new season kinda wore off on day 2.

Day 2 at Killington on 11/11. This is a day I always ski at Killington because it's free for vets. Apparently there's a metric shit ton of vet skiers that have caught on 'cause today was truly the WROD.

Goniff and I caught an early gondola up and skied a couple of runs before it got nutty


By 9:45, the hordes had descended and the skiing went from pleasant to frightening. Hundreds of kids on twin tips and no poles screaming down the 1 trail that was open and launching off of every pile of scraped-off manmade snow only to crash in ignominy, often missing mayhem by mere centimeters. We tried to stay out there but we thought that a season-ender could happen at any moment.

At around 11:15 we started hiking back to the Peak Lodge for some lunch. Now, I'm no fan of ski lodge cuisine, but the Peak Lodge at Killington is actually catered by the Killington Grand Hotel. The food is quite excellent if a bit on the pricy side. Followers of the ECRC will appreciate this:


We decided that discretion was the better part of valor and called it a day after the fine lunch.

One of the best parts of Killington is the tailgate scene. In the parking lot the TGR/K-Zone crossing of the streams is led by Goniff. The K-Zone folks we hang with are the best and we got to spend some time in the latest iteration of the 802 Bus. After determining that everybody was safe, we headed home.

Overall, I would rate this day a 4/10. If not for the lunch and the safety meeting with the K-Zoners, it would not have scored nearly that high [see what I did right there?].

For now, day 3 is in limbo. Going to get a crushing rain tomorrow but at least some snowmaking windows early next week.

[babybear]

I like this thread. A fellow barre-ite and strong work getting day 2 in already.
I look forward to skiing with you and Goniff during your time in Wydaho. Goniff is kind of my hero- seems like he's skiing all the time!

[Peruvian]

Assuming you already ate the celery, pickled bean, and shrimp, that appears to be the thickest Bloody Mary I've seen yet from the Peak Lodge.

[singlecross]

Let me know when you’re coming to Saddleback… I’d be happy to show you around.

[Dromond]

Way to live out my ski retirement dream! Enjoy it!

[mtnbiker/boarder]

Subscribed ….. best of luck with ur goals but most of all enjoy ur retirement and skiing.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

I like this thread. A fellow barre-ite and strong work getting day 2 in already.
I look forward to skiing with you and Goniff during your time in Wydaho. Goniff is kind of my hero- seems like he's skiing all the time!

Goniff is my role model...he truly is skiing all the time unless he's biking, sailing, or golfing. Looking forward to linking up with the JH crew.

Let me know when you’re coming to Saddleback… I’d be happy to show you around.

Absolutely. Going to follow the snow but definitely looking at a road trip including Wildcat (Epic), Saddleback (Indy), Sugarloaf (50% off with my Targhee pass), and BMOM to sample the tasty glades that Cat in January has been buffing. Ideally, just after MLK weekend as Mrs. MNIAW will be sick of me after spending 14 uninterrupted days with me on her birthday trip to the Valley Isle.

Assuming you already ate the celery, pickled bean, and shrimp, that appears to be the thickest Bloody Mary I've seen yet from the Peak Lodge.

You forgot the lobster claw....

Way to live out my ski retirement dream! Enjoy it!

Don't just dream it, .....

Subscribed ….. best of luck with ur goals but most of all enjoy ur retirement and skiing.

Yeah, not going to let the goals ruin the enjoyment. They are just there to set the structure for my season. This will be mostly about skiing new places and meeting new people.

[Gman]

Let me know if you're going to make it out to California at all. Would love to link up for turns.

[ticketchecker]

Let me know when you’re coming to Saddleback… I’d be happy to show you around.

In for the Maine segment


Sent from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Just updating....

I had hoped to have 10-12 days under my belt by 12/1 but that's just not going to happen. Watching the webcam at the top of Killington's North Ridge quad yesterday (Wednesday) damn near every chair had 4 people on it...to ski 1 600' vert trail. After our experience there last Thursday, that option is most definitely out.

Looks like the EC is not much worse than west o' the Mississippi. Lots of places delaying opening day. Right now, the EC has exactly 2 trails open (1 at Killington and 1 at Sunday River). That's not much terrain to spread out the pent up demand.

Hoping that the early season is not a foretelling of real winter.

[m2711c]

https://www.snow-online.com/open_ski-resorts/north-america

https://www.skiresort.info/snow-repo...n-ski-resorts/

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Dat first link is not accurate...Sunday River was open today and it show only Killington in the NE.

[Vt-Freeheel]

K looked pleasant today

[Buzzworthy]

Where were you coming from, down Logan way?
Driven that canyon plenty but never in a storm, how's that go?
I wonder how nice it'd be to live over by Bear lake and ski the Beav all winter...

I lived in North Logan and later moved up to Cove to enjoy 11 acres of land for our Great Danes.
Storm driving up the canyon was never an issue. Just gotta take the drive slow or you’ll slide into the drink. You’ll likely see cars getting pulled out of the river when it gets cold and frozen in the low light parts of the canyon. Black ice is VERY real all winter.

Trackhead lived on the lake side. But he was never a lift guy. But man did he know that bc area really well. It’s just real cold out there in the winter.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Dry (and warm) spell is over. The EC got some plowable snow Friday/Saturday followed by a big blow. Didn't get out to harvest any pow but did get out for Day 3 today at Stratton. Just an update to my pass situation: when I started doing the math on what it was going to cost me to ski 5 days at Jackson in Feb/Mar and Big Sky for a couple of days for BBI/MT coupled with the fact that Ikon offers a pretty significant retired military discount, I broke down and got a Base+. To keep it simple, it would have cost me more to use my Targhee pass to get 50% of for those 7 days at Jackson and BS than to buy the Base+. And, the Base+ gives me unlimited at Stratton (20 minutes from my house) and Sugarbush (minutes from VT-Free's couch). Anyhow...

Met up with non-mag Les who is also the president of our Village HOA at Magic...comments on that should go in the appropriate thread in the Padded Room. It was a raw cold but virtually no wind so things looked promising. Les had to work this morning so he was good for just 5 runs.

We grabbed the 2nd Ganjala and headed up. Summit was a bit foggy but not as bad as the webcams made it look


I've never been a fan of Stratton but my view was jaded by only having skied there on weekends or holidays. They have a good amount of terrain open including 4 ways down from the summit (although 2 of them end about 2/3 of the way down the mountain). Stratton will never make it onto any of those BS lists of the "scariest", "gnarliest", or "steepest" resorts but when the trails look like this

you can make your own fun. The mountain has natural rolls and if you go fast, it's actually interesting.

Had an unplanned meetup with slatham. Dude always has a positive attitude and he's one of those guys you just like to ski with.

After Les left to go to work the trails looked like this

Had to be back to Magic by 12:30 so wrapped it up with about 15K vert.

Thinking Okemo tomorrow (Tuesday) and then back to Stratton on Friday.

[Peruvian]

Jeezum - Epic, Ikonic, Independic, and Magic!

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Jeezum - Epic, Ikonic, Independic, and Magic!

And Targhee. Still spent way less than a $teaux pass cost prior to Vail buying them out. Had flashbacks of that hellish late April skin we did up and down Spruce when you crossed that creek and soaked your skins.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 4: Okemo in Ludlow, VT. Epic Pass used.

Okemo and Stratton (and to a slightly lesser extent, Mt. Snow) all share the same malady for experienced skiers: they're flat. While they may advertise black diamond or even double black diamond trails, at least at Okemo and Stratton, those same trails would be green circles at Magic or Mad River. Mount Snow's North Face trails are legit but the main mountain is as flat or flatter than Okemo and Stratton.

But when your choices are limited, you have to make your own fun. Ripping down the rolling pastures of Okemo can be fun when you have a pair of groomer zoomers on your feet and thanks to iriponsnow, that's exactly what I had today. Laying trenches into the early morning corduroy can be fun too. Especially when there's really no other options within 100 miles.

Okemo has the most effed up lift system I've ever been exposed to (worse than Solitude). From the base area you have to ride up a deathly slow quad that caters to never-evers, then ski halfway back down to the base to get on the Sunburst 8-pack

It was a brisk 11* when I left Magic this morning so the sun felt pretty nice. Add in no wind at all, and the weather was definitely favorable. Not gonna lie, the heated seats on the bubble chair were pretty sweet.

Even though there weren't any clouds overhead, we were getting "humidity snow" from the start. In fact, by the time I got to the summit, it almost got cloudy and the snow was more steady.

That trend continued all morning but the snow was neither a nuisance nor did it amount to anything. Just real nice crystals that even Snowflake Bentley would have been happy to study. Although there were slightly more people at Okemo than Stratton yesterday, ripping down the rolling 2 trails from the top did not cause any alarm from other skiers or the patrollers I saw (and passed).

Had hoped to link up with buttahflake but a text exchange confirmed he's only skiing Ikon mountains this year.

Ended up doing 10 laps of the 1,700' vert serviced by that chair with each lap being nonstop...gotta build the legs back up from the cycling hiatus I've been on since October. 4 down, 96 to go.

[Brownski]

Nice. The only time I skied Okemo was the year I bought Max Passes. I agree with your take. The coolest part was a fire tower a few hundred yards back in the woods above one of the lifts on the other side of the hill. It’s probably not open over there yet. If you go back on a clear day, I recommend climbing the tower.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Nice. The only time I skied Okemo was the year I bought Max Passes. I agree with your take. The coolest part was a fire tower a few hundred yards back in the woods above one of the lifts on the other side of the hill. It’s probably not open over there yet. If you go back on a clear day, I recommend climbing the tower.

Climbed that tower (the first time) in 1977. Today would not have been a good day for it as the visibility went way down a couple of runs into my day.

[ex-powderbroker]

stoked for you!

eta: glad you’re almost done with the shitty places

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Day 5...Stratton, Vermont

Forecast was for high winds early so I decided to wait until noon to venture out. hoping they would subside. Gondola (only lift to go top to bottom) was on wind hold so it was 2 detachable 6-packs to get to the top. Pic above is from the lower chair. Lift to the summit was well-protected from the wind so a pleasant ride. That was about the only pleasant thing about skiing today (except maybe the views)

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic but that's looking NE from Stratton. Mt. Moosilauke was clearly visible (not in the picture though) and I could just make out the Presidential Range on the distant horizon.

The skiing...if you can call it that. Yesterday's warm rain followed by a temperature crash overnight (we had thunderstorms last night) led to a surface that made it seem like Stratton traded in their Prinoths and Pistin Bullys for Zambonis.

Still nice to get outside even though I was solo.

[Peruvian]

The old joke that Stratton puts the Gondy on wind hold when someone at Bromley farts, is only partially a an exaggeration.