Just leaving park city, great week of fun spring skiing. Corn and mash in a t shirt.
Now driving back to Houston, get on to I80 and the GPS says , “turn right in 411 miles”
Going to be a long day.
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But we did get some epic passes for next year so should get a few more trips in for 2018
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Heading out to Beaver Creek next week. Looks like we’ll be skiing in shorts and shirt-sleeves! 
Wasatch snow forecast is calling for storms wednesday and next weekend
From the map colorado could be seeing some powder.
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I got lucky! I stripped the bases off of both x-c skis, prepped the surfaces (heat-gunning out the dents, ultra-fine sanding, quick torching, acetone scrubbing) and then re-attached them in a kluged press (eight big clamps and sections of shimmed 2x4s) with West System’s G-Flex epoxy, which is a flexible variant of it’s marine epoxy, and is a lot better (but not perfect) than most at adhering to polyethylene. Today I did my very best to kill the repaired skis at the ski hill. I couldn’t. Yay!
Just in time, too. We’re set to go x-c after lift area skiing tomorrow.
I’ll try the stuff on a few other types of polyethylenes (a ski boot with a hole in it, a railed set of skis, a punctured HDPE ww kayak) to see what it can and can not do.
Today was a smorgasbord at the hill. It just kept getting better and better!
Reliant Robin: x-c rec skis, free heel SNS (power plow!)
Jaguar E Type: GS race skis, free heel telemark
BMW M6: GS race skis, fixed heel alpine
Alstom TVG: Super-G race skis, fixed heel alpine
You know you had a good day when your quads are twitching in the evening (no worries – minerals and hydration OK, just hammered it for about seven hours after the x-c trial).
Went yesterday. Real nice day, but the wind came up pretty good in the afternoon. Got in 28 lifts and 28k vertical.
Found a ten-spot under the chair!
Gettin’ paid to ski! Second only to gettin’ paid to drink! 
Maybe…
Only got 25k today. Off my game! (got a late start)
The Dummy Downhill at my home hill today was a lot of fun. One actually made it to the finish.
The biggest cheers were when the Trump dummy busted apart.
A friend and I did some urban xc skiing in town after work yesterday on tree-shaded walking trails. There won’t be much of that left in a few days. Sniff 
Went yesterday, racked up 35k, but I suspect Heavenly has some kind of issue with it’s RF readers. Error in my favor, for a change! I don’t think I did over 30! But conditions were great, and I *was *really rippin’…
Forecast 3 to 5 feet of snow coming between Thursday and Saturday.
Haven’t checked into this for a while but I am back out for another two weeks of skiing in the
Austrian alps. Not a stealth brag, I fully realise how lucky we are and remember we do try to do this as cheaply as possible.
We bought season passes when we came at Christmas and New Year so didn’t have to lay out for that again and of course we drove from the UK and the apartments out here are very good value.
The one we have this time is about £80 a night and is cavernous.
Anyway, we aren’t as extreme as some of the other posters here so don’t necessarily seek out the deep powder and back bowls but we’ve had some great weather and it has snowed enough to top up the pistes whilst remaining warm enough down in the valley to be t-shirt weather. Sure, it can grain and slush-up later in the afternoon but we tend to get out early and get the best of the cold and the snow conditions and ski our legs off and call it quits soon after lunch. The benefit of the season pass and two-week holidays is that we don’t feel the need to squeeze every last bit of skiing out of each day. When the conditions deteriorate and legs are tired is when the accidents happen. A rescue helicopter came low over our heads as we finished up today so some poor soul had obviously taken a tumble. We don’t scare the kids by making a huge deal of it but we always make sure they understand the risks.
Had a great day today on the near deserted pistes of the Schmitten in Zell am See and rounded it off with a lazy spa session and beer in the pool.
Tomorrow is a little warmer at low levels so we’ll head up onto the glacier where it is snowing as we speak and we’ll have a bit of fresh powder to play in and the ice bar to drink in.
Weather for the week ahead is changeable (it is spring, what do we expect?) but we do have several mountains to choose from all within a 10-20 minute drive so I’m sure we’ll find good conditions. It’s just great to be back out and up high again.
As expected, the “three to five feet” forecast was optimistic to say the least. However, an honest 18" at the highest peak was reported at Heavenly. I’ll see for myself tomorrow morning.
Looking for a few really good days as the season winds down. Wishing I’da done more…
As I speak I’m sitting out on our veranda, sipping a chilled prosecco (2.99 euro a bottle, a ridiculous bargain) and the sun is out and it is 21C. Glorious. We ski’d up the top of the glacier this morning until lunch time and the snow remained squeaky and smooth on the top slopes but started to slush below 2200m and the crowds started to gather.
That isn’t normally a problem on these slopes but the German, French, Italian and Austrian Easter holidays have just started and with the glacier slopes offering certain snow and it being a weekend, that’s where everyone heads. Luckily we are only a 5 minute drive and can get up there early and miss the rush.
When we came down we also visited the memorial to the Kaprun funicular disaster, 155 people died in November 2000. A sobering experience indeed. It is one of those tragedies that seems to fly under the radar. The kids were very quiet on the drive back to the apartment but it does them no harm to appreciate these things.
Finished my season yesterday…
The hills and trails in my neighbourhood are closed, but a two day ice storm kindly laid some happiness down, so skiing here ain’t over 'till it’s over, although it won’t be long now.
Unfortunately, the freshie was the result of an unintended sacrifice of a couple of pairs of cross-country skis and assorted backcountry gear Ullr (including the set of which that I had recently fixed the delaminated base – surprisingly, West G-Flex worked). I had checked out an abandoned ski area last summer, so I thought it would be nice to ski it at the end of this season. As I was parking, faithful Rosinante immolated. I’m glad that I was not snoozing in the back (I use a bed in the back when skiing out of town). Best guess is the catalytic converter. The insurer has put the manufacturer on notice. (A police officer kindly took me into town – an hour’s drive – where a bank kindly released some money to me despite my having no ID/bank/credit cards at all, and also permitted an on-line Visa transaction so I could hop the bus for the four hour drive home – it only accepts online payments.)
All in all, a crappy ski season. Four major thaws. Didn’t use my pass in the USA due to instability at its border and my disgust with it stochastic terrorist in chief. Buggered my knee (and it’s still buggered) due to a force distribution plate delaminating. Lost a couple of sets of skis and my dream vehicle. I’m looking forward to next year being better.
On the good side, I got comfortable with Super-G skis in alpine set-up, my local hill cut a very nice new run, and the U-16 Alpine Nationals went off without a hitch. At different ends of the spectrum, I got a never-ever skier into cross-country (first session just trying to walk about, last few times properly tucking modest hills), and an alpine racer into proper carved GS tele turns at speed. So despite my whinging, it was not that bad a season. Just chatting with the usual cast of characters in the chalets made for some good times.
This weekend, I printed off some GPS tracks of a closed world class nordic facility and went over the points of interest with the new office manager of a neighbouring alpine facility who is into hiking in the off-season. It’s nice that there is someone who is staying year 'round and is into the land rather than doing the Canada-Chile shuffle. Welcome to the ski community, for it really is a community here.
It was white water canoeing on Saturday, telemark skiing on Sunday. Might as well get some use out of the melting snow.
2018 – time to resurect last year’s ski thread.
What’cha all up to this season? Any grand adventures in the works?
For me it’s going to be a rebuilding season. Fortunately, my knee is pretty much recovered – fully functionaly and only a bit of pain. Unfortunately, my jeep burned (probably a catalytic coverter fire, but not certain) east of Lake Nipigon where I was about to have a last ski of the season in the backcountry. A few days previously, I had cleaning out my ski locker, but still had the gear in the vehicle and in its ski box and cargo carrier, so I lost eight sets of skis, some bindings, poles, tools, pack, sleeping bag, sleeping mats, etc.
My niece, who tried cross-country skiing half a dozen or so times last year, wants to do more skiing this year, so I’ve set her up with seasons’ passes for lift area and cross-country skiing, and outfitted her with cross-country, telemark and alpine gear. The weather has not cooperated so far (little snow and a lot of deep-freeze), but we’ve been out together a few times, having a lot of fun and developing some skils along the way.
It has been so cold that the main lift has only operated occasionally, so I’ve only been able to open the throttle fully on a couple of occasions, and it wasn’t pretty either time – golf ball to fist sized ice cookies. Cold snow is slow snow (sharp, pointy snow crystals poking into the ski rather than rounded snow crystals letting the ski pass freely), so even cross-country has not been as zippy as one would like.
The good thing about the deep-freeze is that I don’t have to worry about traffic on the hill, so I’ve been able to spend a lot of time grokking my super-g skis. I’m tinkering with the alpine binding placement on them by gradually moving the bindings forward to get the edge in earlier when initiating turns. There’s a trade off between responsiveness and sudden hooking, and I sure as hell don’t want to hook a tip on those things, so I’m making a single small advance in the binding placement, skiing for a day with it, then reverting back for comparison, then advancing again, and then advancing a wee bit further. Eventually, I’ll find an optional placement. I’m patient. Eventually (next season perhaps), I’d like to mount my tele bindings on a pair of Super-G skis, but right now I’m having too much fun with them in alpine rig.
Just back from Xmas and new year in the mountains. We were in our normal place, Kaprun/Zell am see in Austria which has the benefit of three main mountains on the same ticket, Each with a thousand metre vertical but each covering different ranges so that you can normally find weather and terrain to suit.
Wonderful conditions. There has been plenty of snow early on and temperatures were low enough that any freeze/thaw cycles were avoided and the snow remained in tip-top nick with a few dustings while we were there to freshen up the pistes.
We are not off-piste skiers and much prefer big, wide, fast, steep and crispy reds. Big carving turns for me and the kids with the wife pootling along behind at a reduced speed.
Two things new for this year, My wife and I were thinking that, as the kids are getting older and will soon be left to their own devices, it might be nice next time to try out some cross country skis. There are some nice circuits down by the river in the village and it appeals as an activity for those days when the weather up the mountain is less friendly. We’ve never tried it so would welcome any observations from the experienced on moving from alpine to cross-country set-ups.
Also, we found what may be our favourite mountain hut yet. It was tucked away off a piste we’ve skiid many times but we just haven’t gone to it.
Here’s the TripAdvisor linkand it really is as good as the reviews suggest. The views on the days we went were stunning. It is so Austrian it is almost a cliche but by god what a view!
Skiing is skiing is skiing, so your alpine skiing skills will directly apply to cross-country skiing.
There are two types of cross-country skiing: classic/diagonal stride and skate. - YouTube
Classic/diagonal stride skiing is like alternate leg bounding with lots of gliding between each bound: kick and gliiiiiiide-gliiiiiiide-gliiiiiiide, kick and gliiiiiiide-gliiiiiiide-gliiiiiiide. (Diagonal stride means that when you are kicking on your left you will be polling on your right, and when you are kicking on your right you will be polling on your left, as if you were a soldier marching with diagonally opposite arms and legs swinging together.) On groomed trails you ski in tracks cut into the snow so you don’t have to worry about your skis wandering off in odd directions. Most folks start with classic, for you can go as fast or as slow as you like, and you don’t have to worry about edging. Cross-country skiing technique: Classic diagonal - YouTube
Skate skiing is just that – imagine instead of wearing ice hockey or figure skates, you are wearing skis. The skating action is similar to the action you make when skiing a giant-slalom turn: roll the edge of the ski into the snow and apply force to the edge through extension of your leg. You will be using your poles (usually in unison) to assist in propelling yourself forward. It takes more effort and technique than classic, but that will translate into greater speed TUTORIEL : Skating - Le 2 Temps Vitesse ou Combiné - YouTube.
Going downhill on cross-country skis is challenging because cross-country skis:
(1) almost never have metal edges to help you carve your turn or ski on ice because (a) metal on snow is slower than polyethylene on snow, and (b) metal is heavier than polyethylene;
(2) are less flexible than alpine skis so they do not form an arc as easily;
(3) are a lot lighter than alpine skis resulting in you bouncing about a lot more;
(4) are a lot more narrow than alpine skis giving you a much less stable base.
That being said, the mechanics of turning remain the same, regardless of which type of skiing you are doing – just realize that it will be a lot more difficult on cross-country skis, be it on a groomed trail GoPro: XC Skiing Downhill Session - YouTube or off at the back end of beyond Backcountry XC Skiing - Alaska - YouTube.