Die Traversers Die!

**tone capone** · 02-09-2009, 06:12 PM

Wouldn't one traverse track work? It seems to at Alta/Bird.

Exactly. I'm not talking about traversing to get back to the lift or across mellow slopes or ones that access lines that don't have any other way to get to.

I'm talking about traversing down and across hundreds of feet across gnarly terrain and then fanning out into 50 traverses in the best north facing fall line terrain we have so that after an hour on a pow day it is all ruined by endless traverses.

This is whack.

I'm sure someone will take me out of context again like always happens here and tell me I need to go to the backcountry every day because expecting the bare minimum of ettiquite from people at the ski hill is elitist.

**powderpyg** · 02-09-2009, 07:14 PM

Kinda like my pet peeve of bootbackers (skiers&snowboarders) fucking up a perfectly good skin track, drives me crazy. Can't you make your own bootpack that goes more directly up...no let's just follow this skin track that meanders up the slope and completely pooch it for further skin use. Doesn't seem to matter how many different skin tracks are put into an area, they'll certainly be a bootpack on everyone of em!

**khyber.pass** · 02-09-2009, 07:36 PM

Oh yeah, I should leave on a sick powder day because the 800 people that bought a beacon just to ride this new lift can traverse in 5 places across all the good lines that used to be "beyond the boundary rope".

Yah I'm in on this one. That's the story of Whistler sidecountry with Flute.

I had so many sick days out on Blackcomb Glacier, Harmony and Peak before they OPENED them this season. As soon as they did, the Glacier became nothing but one huge traverse, with hundreds of tracks cutting a perfectly good, open fall line slope, and Harmony... geezus it's a mess: nothing but traverses across the Horseshoes until people keep traversing UPHILL for crissake's because they are THAT freaked of turning down a moderate slope. Ditto with Symphony.

And the trees? Crimminy, I hate to pick on boarders, but it's fucking mindboggling going out on a pow day and riding down in the trees to find NO SNOW because some asswipe boarder has slid the entire chute. Fuck me.

So yah, I'd prefer to be in the backcountry too. But this doesn't mean I shouldn't enjoy the mountain I've also paid to ride. These areas are black/double black for a reason. If there are SLOW: FAMILY ZONE signs on every grommer so I can no longer haul ass back home, there should be FAST: NO TRAVERSING signs at the entrance to every bowl, couloir, and glade.

What pisses me about Whistler is that the mountain IS hardcore, but the Management seems to think the best solution is to grommerize it.

Fuck, keep the hard terrain hard. Keep it looking nasty enough so that idiots who can barely link turns stay OUT from sheer fear. This is what it used to be like, and still should be.

**sparkletarte.** · 02-09-2009, 07:40 PM

^until I got a splitboard I had no idea how bootpacking fucked up a skin track. However I never really did much bootpacking anyways.

My traverse issue is with one that we have here that snowboarders really have to go fast on in order not to have to unstrap half way through. You get people that just stop right in the middle of it and stand there. If you fall off you are unstrapping and wading back up to it. Even when you yell at them to move over as you are getting close they still stand there all duh.

The other day there was a pack of 12+ Swede tourists that stopped on the traverse right around a blind corner. I almost took some of them out, then was worried that I was going to get smashed by the next person coming. The next time they figured it out though and when they heard us yelling they knew to get off the track- we used the universal Euro hup hup hup hup hup! We were all pretty nice about it though and thanked them for figuring it out.

The sometimes you yell on your left to a group and a couple will step down and the next couple step up. Duh. We have had some nasty close calls on it, knocking people off who are stopped in the wrong place- don't fucking stop on a traverse, or if you must look behind you a lot and move to the edge.

We did have a bad incident with a new cat track put in that T's onto another high speed traverse. Someone from out of town flew down the T and slammed someone going along the bottom- collapsed lung, broken bones, etc. Dude who hit the guy actually took off. Patrol only found him when he went in later in the day for his own injuries. They fixed that one, good thing, it freaked me out everytime I had to haul past it.

And the trees? Crimminy, I hate to pick on boarders, but it's fucking mindboggling going out on a pow day and riding down in the trees to find NO SNOW because some asswipe boarder has slid the entire chute. Fuck me.

Yes! If I see that from the chair sometimes I tell people to stop grooming. I've thought about making a sign for the backside- of you can't ride X trees without sideslipping, turn around and go back in bounds. But my current backside rant is don't leave your fucking empties and garbage at the shrine! It's a shrine! Have some respect, and if you carried it in you can bloody well carry it out. Idiots.

**ill-advised strategy** · 02-09-2009, 07:41 PM

I regularly put in the low traverse on evergreen at solitude. I think if anyone tries to "buzz" me they're going to find that I'm 250 lbs and play a lot of hockey.

that is all.

**Gripen** · 02-09-2009, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by hutash

I agree about chilling out, one traverse is not a big deal, but how about places like Mammoth under Dave's, Face of Five, Wipe Out/Drop Out Chutes, Dragon's Back where there are literally thousands of traverses? When that shit hardens up it rattles your teeth out when you try to ski the fall line. Wouldn't one traverse track work? It seems to at Alta/Bird.

This is in part what I am talking about. One traverse line? Fine, no issue with that, but when the entire fan, literally 1/4 of the skiable fall-line is traverse lines its killer. There is nothing gained by traversing the entire bowl. I ski all the way to the bottom, then take the high traverse out of
Fuez (that doesnt go below open terrain) and still get more turns then the traversers.

One traverse line? No problem. Thousands? Problem. Still doesn't solve the issue of people being clueless in blind area/coming out of trees into things/not looking uphill when they traverse, but it's a start. Patrol has tried to control this for years, with little success.

If people think I am being an elitist prick, fine. I know I am a good, well liked guy and that's good enough for me. You're all welcome to your own opinions. Just trying to raise an issue thats been bugging me as of late.

Keep this going, there are some good points being made.

As for sideslippers, yea, annoys me as well, but as a big mtn coach for little guys my kids have been guilty of that. Just try to educate them about it, show them that skiing the line is, in almost all circumstances, easier then sideslipping it. The traversing scares me from a safety aspect as well an an etiquette one.

**Eldo** · 02-09-2009, 07:54 PM

I agree with Gripen, as would anyone who has skied at Kicking Horse a lot. The bottom half of most of the best terrain can become like a flight of stairs from people traversing. It's not one traverse going somewhere specific, it's up to dozens of separate traverse tracks as people cut across at various stages down the slope. I've never seen it so bad anywhere else.

As DougW mentioned, the ski patrol has put up ropes down the falline and signs that traversing is not allowed, so this is a real issue, not some spoiled local rant.

**tone capone** · 02-09-2009, 08:02 PM

the Glacier became nothing but one huge traverse, with hundreds of tracks cutting a perfectly good, open fall line slope, and Harmony... geezus it's a mess: nothing but traverses across the Horseshoes until people keep traversing UPHILL for crissake's because they are THAT freaked of turning down a moderate slope. Ditto with Symphony.

Exactly.

One traverse line? No problem. Thousands? Problem.

Word.

I agree with Gripen, as would anyone who has skied at Kicking Horse a lot. The bottom half of most of the best terrain can become like a flight of stairs from people traversing. It's not one traverse going somewhere specific, it's up to dozens of separate traverse tracks as people cut across at various stages down the slope. I've never seen it so bad anywhere else.

As DougW mentioned, the ski patrol has put up ropes down the falline and signs that traversing is not allowed, so this is a real issue, not some spoiled local rant.

Right fucking on man. Thank you.

Maybe people wouldn't be in such a rush to ski the sidecountry in sketchy conditions if all the morons that should be on a groomer stayed the fuck out of terrain they can't ski. What a waste of a perfect fall line when that shit is staircased out in one hour. I mean, farming turns is not what I'm talking about but jeez, it boggles the mind how people are traversing to shit the beautiful natural terrain that ski areas are opening up for us. It's a travesty.

**Blurred** · 02-09-2009, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by alto

re: Hardcore inbounds skiers

You are the most despicable type of skier I know. You are the bad attitude ruining the vibe on the playground. You are so blinded by how rad you perceive yourself to be that you can't possibly see the bigger picture. You are skiing at a ski resort, yet complain when someone else skis your line, doesn't do it the cool way, or lacks the skills and knowledge that only someone blessed enough to ski everyday could have. If you yourself were really so much more enlightened, you would just laugh knowingly at what you see below you and drop off the other side of the proverbial ridge into a perfect line, meeting your friends waiting below. But instead you buzz by the person wanting to know more about the mountains, who, until your outburst of aggressive profanity was probably having a great time. You are no better than that novice, in fact you are much worse. Perhaps you should hang up the sticks for something more fitting like being a used car salesman or meter maid, where you are offered a daily opportunity to attack the needy with your malicious, pathetic personality.

/rant

Pot, meet kettle.

**ill-advised strategy** · 02-09-2009, 08:18 PM

despite what I said earlier, I am totally sympathetic to those seeing good terrain ruined by the traverse-band of 10 traverses. that is whack.

**tone capone** · 02-09-2009, 08:23 PM

Perhaps you should hang up the sticks for something more fitting like being a used car salesman or meter maid, where you are offered a daily opportunity to attack the needy with your malicious, pathetic personality.

Perhaps you should teach the "needy" how to ski with your enlightened and engaging personality.

despite what I said earlier, I am totally sympathetic to those seeing good terrain ruined by the traverse-band of 10 traverses. that is whack.

Totally understood.

**RootSkier** · 02-09-2009, 08:33 PM

Originally Posted by alto

You are so blinded by how rad you perceive yourself to be that you can't possibly see the bigger picture.

Fuck you you stupid fuckhat who took money from maggots to go be a "professional skier". No seriously, I think I donated $20 to that cause. I must have been drunker than I am now.

FUCK YOU you spoiled FUCKFACE.

**RootSkier** · 02-09-2009, 08:34 PM

Now give me my $20 back or at least write me a personal thank you, you fuckhead.

**Bart T** · 02-09-2009, 08:35 PM

funny to read about a bunch of guys calling out traversers for having no skiing skills, when they apparently can't ski crud for shit. take some lessons, jeez.

**Blurred** · 02-09-2009, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by RootSkier

Fuck you you stupid fuckhat who took money from maggots to go be a "professional skier". No seriously, I think I donated $20 to that cause. I must have been drunker than I am now.

FUCK YOU you spoiled FUCKFACE.

Don't forget he skis for Praxis.

More of a liability than a selling point?

I'll let you be the judge.

**tone capone** · 02-09-2009, 08:42 PM

funny to read about a bunch of guys calling out traversers for having no skiing skills, when they apparently can't ski crud for shit. take some lessons, jeez.

Hey douchebag, we're talking about staircase traverses across runouts and multiple traverses across quality fall line terrain, not skiing crud.

I love it when people criticize without even reading what your talking about.

Man, this is going to be a fun thread.

Anyone else want to stir the pot?

**Name Redacted** · 02-09-2009, 08:44 PM

They are probably all on fat skis anyway, and we all know that's the true cause of inbounds avalanches, so you better watch out yo.

I think this argument is like the people who were pissed about the imperial chair at breck a few years back. Made the hike shorter and gaped out the bowl and lake chutes. THey were still skiing breck so they were all gay anyways.

Moral of the story, if there's a lift going to it, it probably is gonna get gaped out. ( I have no idea where you are talking about and haven't really read this thread much) (oh, and I'm really drunk,,,,,, and in flatsville usa)

**tone capone** · 02-09-2009, 08:45 PM

Moral of the story, if there's a lift going to it, it probably is gonna get gaped out.

Sadly, this seems to be the case, even if you require a beacon to ride the lift.

**Telemarketeer** · 02-09-2009, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by tone capone

Sadly, this seems to be the case, even if you require a beacon to ride the lift.

I could bitch all day long about Zuma bowl at the basin being gaped to hell when it used to be our own little playground but you know what? It just made us ski elsewhere and find new shit.

THat's a cool idea though, bacon to ride the lift, feed the lifties.

BSS · 02-09-2009, 08:50 PM

Is it annoying? Yeah. Does it really matter? No.

The gapers paid the same money as you and have the same right to the same terrain - good, bad, or indifferent. If you don't like it buy some skins or a sled, or at least find a new inbounds stash somewhere else with a little less gaper traffic.

**2turntables** · 02-09-2009, 08:52 PM

I always greet any "buzzing skiers" with a nice accidental gaper pole flail. That being said I hate traversing side-effects as much as anyone else who likes to ski better lines. I also know that any downhill skier has the right of way and any blind spots below me are dangerous areas that I need to be willing to give up my line on at a moments notice.
I wish everyone knew how to treat these areas, but they don't. They paid their $ for priveledges to ski just as we do, when it comes to ANY inbounds or sidecountry skiing.
Entitlement is one of mankinds' most harmful, shameful and ridiculous traits. Get over it and integrate into the world you try to put yourself above. Sure you know how to treat certain terrain properly when others don't, but even the gapers are entitled to enjoy their gaper-lives in the land that we are all entitled to.

One day, some of those retarded gaper newbies will be outskiing you and a lot of the mags here on TGR. That's what happened with me and most of us on this thread who now ski well and have ettiqutte & knowledge.

doughboyshredder · 02-09-2009, 08:55 PM

Originally Posted by tone capone

Hey douchebag, we're talking about staircase traverses across runouts and multiple traverses across quality fall line terrain, not skiing crud.

I love it when people criticize without even reading what your talking about.

Man, this is going to be a fun thread.

Anyone else want to stir the pot?

Fuck ya, I am in one of those moods.

First off I am on a snowboard and come in to all traverses hauling ass. If you're a dumfuck and have stopped or are generally lolly gagging and don't move I will hipcheck you. I will not lose my speed or the traverse line to avoid your sorry ass.

Oh, and Alto is a bitch.

Second off, sideslipping should be punishable by revocation of lift ticket / pass for an afternoon with a required tongue lashing by the gnarliest freeriders at your local hill.

Snowboarders especially should verbally destroy any snowboarders you see sideslipping any decent lines.

As far as the traversers you guys are dealin with in Montucky, I would suggest some vigilante justice. Hang out for a run or two at the entrances to the offending traverses and throw down the beat down.

Oh, and Alto is a bitch.