Skiing with Nintendo Wii!

I know I’m not the only one out there, but I’m curious how many adult would really like to cave in and go buy a Nintendo Wii. Seriously, this things has become pretty big and the fact that they have an interactive game for skiing makes it that much cooler. Yes, I have an old Nintendo that has a skiing game, but it’s obviously very outdate and far beyond the help of just a new video card. Besides, with the Wii skiing game you use your whole body and not just a controller. Yes, I think it would be a poor choice to buy one just for that game, but I’ve heard that there re other cool ones as well. Perhaps after the ski season I’ll think about it.

More to life than ski forums...

In life, we take the good with the bad and sometimes we need to step back and take some deep breaths. This became apparent to me recently when I had decided that I’d had about of a particular individual on a ski forum that I’ve been posting on for some time. Now you’d think that a ski forum would be just that, but skiers and riders are very passionate people and our opinions can sometimes get the best of us. We have our choices for mountains and trails that we like better, or think are better, than others and quite frankly, we’ll tell you. That being said, every now and again things get out of hand and thus was the case with me and this gentleman. So I decided to step back and not take part for a while. My passion is still their and my love for many of the board members remains, but things got a little destructive for me and some others and I think that my decision will be good for me. Besides, everyone wants to be in good spirits when the ski season starts and in case you haven’t noticed, the temps have been dropping and overnight temps in the mountains have even slipped below freezing!

Rating ski areas by their chili!

Although I’ve never mentioned it here before, I used to have a test that I put to every ski area I visited. Sure, the mountain’s terrain, size, and snow quality have always been and always will be hugely important to me, but when I was younger, I used to joke about how I rated mountains or resorts for their chili recipes. To most, this would sound strange, but to skiers and riders, chili is a staple food. While many larger resorts use food service chili that’s pretty generic, the best mountains for the best chili are often the mom and pop ski operations. Take for example, the Camden Snow Bowl in Camden, Maine. This 900’ vertical mountain might not offer much to entice skiers or riders aside from the fabulous views of the Atlantic Ocean, but inside their rustic a-frame lodge you’ll find real homemade chili that is a little different everyday, but always pleasing. Further up the road, Sugarloaf, used to have a fabulous chili before the days of ASC, but now it’s like the other bog mountains. So next time you decide to take a break from the larger resorts, try the chili at your local mountain; if it’s not some of the best you’ve had, I’ll be very surprised.

Heavenly's Biggest Little Project!

For decades, skiers and snowboarders alike have complained about trail in particular at Heavenly Mountain resort – The Skyline Trail. This very long cross-cut style trail is the only route to get from the top of the Sky Peak in California, to the Nevada side of the resort.

After a slight downhill start with a couple of turns, the trail actually turns uphill slightly, leaving skiers and boarders have to push their way to the border. If you’ve done it, and if you’ve skied Heavenly, you have; you know that while the views from the trail are unreal, the poling aspect is a pain. Granted, there has always been the option to drop into the Ski Ways glade that it accessible from almost any point along Skyline, but this is only an option for experts and brings you back down to the California side. Of course on a powder day, Ski Ways is pure glade heaven!



Now I don’t know why it took so long for the folks that run the mountain to do the math on this one, ‘cause let’s face it; the complaints about Skyline have been flowing for years, but finally Heavenly has regarded the trail. This past summer, crews blasted rock on two sections of the trail and have regarded the trail to have a constant 10 percent grade from California to Nevada. Cheers to Heavenly for listening!

To watch or not to watch - ski films!

Many people consider ski films a rite of fall. While some of us prefer to get on the snow as soon as possible, some people need to get out and see that new flick by Warren Miller Entertainment (Note: Warren Miller is no longer involved) or Teton Gravity Research. I understand the need for a little on screen stoke, but what can be better than actually sliding on the snow?

Part of the problem is that while many ski films come to Portland, they come after the season has started and if I’m in the mountains for the weekend, I’m not coming back to watch a movie. Luckily, Meathead Films shows their flicks at Sunday River and although I haven’t been in the past, I’m hoping to this year after watching their previous titles recently and enjoying the East Coast backcountry vision they pursue.

Regardless of whether you like to wait for the first film or the DVD option is your choice, the temps are falling and the leaves are turning. Summer is officially over so put away your boat and start thinking snow!

It's all part of the journey!

In recent years I can't say as though I've done as much day skiing as in the past. With my fiancee's family having a place on the mountain, I've spent most weekends there and haven't had the need to get up early and make the trek to wherever I was to be skiing that day, but while that is something I don't take for granted, it should be known that the ride in the car to the ski mountain can be just as satisfying as skiing itself.

I suppose it's hard to explain if someone isn't a skier or snowboarder, but that trip to the mountains with the hot coffee in one hand, music blaring, and the drivers' side window down, can be part of the overall experience. Personally, I often found these trips as a time for me to be by myself and reflect on things in my life, but also to think about skiing, the people I ski with, and just to take in the beauty that too many people never slow down to appreciate as they cruise from their metropolitan areas to their mountain of choice.

The ski trip includes the journey in the car and it can be solitary or with a group of friends, but it's never an experience to be taken lightly. If you consider it a hassle to drive to a mountain, there's a good chance you shouldn't be there to begin with. And while it's nice to be able to wake up a little later and jump on the lift, I continue to have my days where I go off by myself in the car and head to some ski area I haven't been to in years. It's all part of the adventure and for me, it adds to the reward.

A new way to fight the wildfires - ski resort style!

Just last month, a huge wildfire threatened Sun Valley Resort in Idaho. Site of the first chairlift in North America, Sun Valley isn't only full of history, but in the winter it's full of celebrities who come from all over the world to ski Dollar Mountain and some on the best bowl skiing anywhere.

The bowl and tree skiing got a little more vast with the recent fire, as 48,520 acres around the resort town burned. What I found particularly interesting about this fire wasn't the size or magnitude. Fire like there are fairly common during a dry summer, but it was how the resort itself attempted to protect the lifts and trails as the fire neared. As most of you know, almost all ski resorts in North America have extensive snow making systems. Of course these are operated in the winter to make artificial snow by mixing compressed air and water through miles of piping. As it turns out, someone at Sun Valley was quick on their feet and decided to turn on the resort's snow making system in the hot summer months. What this did was sense millions of gallons of water up the mountain and was sprayed out of tower guns mounted on the sides of trails. Luckily, the fire was stopped before actually reaching the resort, but if it had, the resort's ski lifts may have been saved because of the excess water being pumped out of the snow guns. Amazing!

Keep track of all your assets with GPS tracking!

It wasn’t too long ago that GPS tracking was something only for the technologically advanced, like the military, but times have indeed changed and thanks to LiveViewGPS, you too, can track any of your family members or perhaps some of your company vans. Their GPS Tracking allows you to monitor with the use of a LiveView device. Simply put the device in your company trucks and watch them as they scatter across town. Want to make sure your teenage driver isn’t on his way to Mexico, you can monitor him too, and all of this can be done from your computer monitor. This is one of the coolest inventions to come onto the market in a long time.

Can't we all just get along???

We must live in one of the most competitive societies in the world. I mean it seems to me that we are always trying to outdo each other in every aspect of life. Sure, competition is great for many things, but often this leads to unnecessary arguments and worse. What I’m trying to say is that we all have opinions and often times, parody is okay.

My reason for writing that has to do with people feelings on ski resorts. Much like professional sports teams, people have home ski areas and they will seemingly do anything in defense of them. I like to browse some message boards and am a member of a few and what annoys me to no end is that people always bring up the topic of which mountain is better, which mountain is bigger, which mountain is better terrain, and on and on… Does it really matter?

Sports like skiing, snowboarding, hiking, and the like, are meant to be enjoyed by all in a natural setting. While I may prefer one place and you may prefer another, it doesn’t mean that either is better. What it means is that we have differing opinions on what we like, we have pride in a particular area, and we may prefer certain aspects of said area. It would seem to me that if people spent more time out there enjoying these things they could spend less time complaining and arguing.

Installing a ski lift = really hard work!

While I’ve talked about detachable lifts and the technological advances we’ve seen over the past few decades, one thing remains the same and that is that it’s really hard to install a lift. From surveying the lift line, clearing trees, blasting rock, digging holes for foundations, and then actually installing the lift, the task can be daunting and costs millions of dollars. Regardless, it’s a pretty cool series of events that have to happen in a particular order for everything to work out properly. Check out this video of the Sunday River Chondola installation as they get the line ready for the massive helicopter to come in for some of the more heavy and dangerous work.

Technological advances in ski lifts equal faster and safer rides!

Ski lift technology has evolved by leaps and bounds over the past few decades. While tradition mono-cable gondolas first utilized the technology to detach from the haul-rope (Overhead cable) back in the 1960s, the lifts were still pretty slow in comparison to today’s standards. It wasn’t till the early 1980s that the first Doppelmayr high-speed detachable quad chairlift was installed at Breckenridge, Colorado.

While the purpose of the traditional gondola was to detach from the haul rope for ease of loading and unloading, today’s detachable lifts are meant to come off the line for the haul rope can retain a high rate of speed while the chairs slow down and make it easy for people to load. When a detachable chair’s grip releases from the haul rope, the chair is carried about the terminal on a conveyer, which travels at a speed of less than a quarter of the lifts speed. After the skiers or rider load the chair, the chair continues to move along the conveyer, but gradually speeds up until it reaches the same speed as the haul rope. It is at that point that the chair reattaches to the haul rope and makes its’ way up the line.

The advent of high-speed lifts was not only about getting people up the mountain faster, but more importantly, it has allowed for less congestion in high volume base areas and has allowed for shorter lift lines. Less time in line and less time on the lift means more time on the trail. People don’t go to ski resorts to wait in line or sit on lifts; they go to slide down the mountain on two planks or one and lift technology has made this a better experience for all.

Seasons Passes Can Save You a Lot of Money!

As we head into the last couple of months before the ski season begins, resort will be sending out numerous notifications about season pass prices. This is indeed their big last push for pass sales, but folks, you’re not being sold a bill of goods by buying a pass. Having had a pass at various resorts for most of my life, I can say that I think passes are the best bargains anywhere. Hell, I can go to Lake Tahoe for a week and save money by purchasing a seasons’ pass except for at one ski resort. Granted, many of their visitors are from away or overseas and don’t have a clue that this is such a great option, but really folks, look into this.

Now I understand that budgets are tight and right now you might be saying that you’ll just buy day tickets, but have you seen the cost of these? Upwards of $80 depending on the resort. With passes going for as little as $350 at a lot of resorts, you don’t have to ski many days to pay for your pass. Another benefit can be discounts at resort stores and services and even a discount on next year’s pass.

Camden Snow Bowl Finally Seeks Upgrades!

During the November elections, residents of Camden, Maine will get the chance to have their say in a proposal that could breathe new life into the town's ski area. Already a rarity in the industry, the Camden Snow Bowl is town owned and operated and thus rarely sees the funding needed for improvements, yet even as my family and I took breaks from the cold this past winter, it was clear that the beautiful yet cramped A-frame lodge needs expansion. Additionally, planners have decided that along with the expansion of the base lodge, the area is long-overdue for an upgrade to the lift system, which may be the oldest in the state. With a classic Hall double chair as the main lift and two vintage 1960's Hall t-bars, the lifts are showing their age and the highest lift is the main t-bar, which is the only way to access 4 of the 10 trails from the summit. And while a new lift is unnecessary, a good used double or triple chairlift to replace the summit t-bar could keep a lot of families happy and possibly increase revenue.
The main problem to all these ideas is that the Snow Bowl as an annual operating budget of around 300k. The improvements all told would come to about 6 million over 2 years. While this is a drop in the bucket to most ski areas, a town owned ski area can't come up with such funds. So the town is turning to the voters to approve tax appropriations for a quarter of the costs, with the other costs coming from fund raising and private donations. This is an exciting time for Camden. With the town showing that they are willing to raise most of the capital and a town itself having deep pride in this skiing gem, I look forward to a positive news article the day after the vote!