Has anyone ever taken the ECO bus from EGE? Their schedules are not the easiest to figure out

[Edited on December 31, 2013 at 11:39 AM. Reason : asdf]

12/31/2013 11:32:00 AM

White out conditions at the top of peak 8 at Breck today. Imperial bowl was open but visibility was about 20-30 feet at times.

12/31/2013 5:14:41 PM

Horseshoe bowl. You can hear the avalanche boom at the beginning.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10101646002689329&l=4227986430492198619

It's great the resort was packed but there were absolutely no lines at the t-bar, 6-chair, or Imperial Express.

12/31/2013 6:53:50 PM

Going up north for work next week and I'm staying an extra day to ski. Okemo or Killington?

1/1/2014 3:16:59 PM

I think I've sadly given up on skiing. I grew up going several times a year...usually Snowshoe with a church trip to the NC mountains scattered about. Got older and made a few trips to the West Coast with my last trip to Breckenridge for Christmas about 4 years ago.

As much as I loved skiing, its become too expensive. And since the wife isn't a ski bum (she's not opposed, but she couldn't come close to keeping up with me), I think we'd much rather spend the money on a tropical or European vacation.

Kinda sad....

1/1/2014 3:33:35 PM

come on, why let marriage consume you like a black hole? why not go without her, or go with her and understand that it'll be a while before she can actually keep up?


Looks like I'm headed to Tahoe in about 3 weeks. Planning on hitting Squaw for a few days, and maybe Northstar for a day.

1/1/2014 5:00:03 PM

If it was more affordable, I would probably do that. But its starting to become one of those elitist hobbies. Maybe if I ball out in the next few years I'll be making enough to take my kids skiing (I'm looking at about 10-12 years). Then I'll be re-learning on creaky knees.

1/1/2014 6:02:18 PM

yeah i haven't really had to pay my way in full for a long time. when i lived in WA, we just did day trips, mostly to Mt Baker (which was super cheap w/ military discount...something like $20/day or something on that order, I think).

For years since then, I've done it in conjunction with training flights for work, where i didn't have to pay airfare or hotel.

i think I've actually had to ante up on my own to go ski maybe once in the last decade. in the last 5 years, though, i've only gotten to ski maybe 2-3 days per year for the most part, though.

1/1/2014 6:41:03 PM

just booked flights/lift tickets for Whistler in March now that i'm back in NC, those low-elevation resorts are easier to handle than Summit County. Now its time to make sacrifices to the snow gods....

1/1/2014 6:53:28 PM

Quote :

"Kinda sad.... "

Am I the only one who skis every week? I think I'm at 15 days already. My pass was $549 so that's $37/day. By the end of the season I'm hoping to be close to $10/day. Skiings cheap when you live close. We make/bring all our own food, don't buy too much at the resorts, and split gas.

Oh and Vail was SICK this weekend. They must have gotten a foot of new powder. I've only got 88mm's right now but I'm hoping to get some wider powder skis soon so I was up to my knees the whole weekend but it was awesome regardless:



Oh and the Clymb has a 70% off sale on Icelantic skis. Made in Denver. Might be my next purchase:

https://www.theclymb.com/brands/icelantic-skis

1/2/2014 2:01:04 PM

where do you get the money to live like dis?

1/2/2014 2:18:47 PM

Yeah...if I lived in Denver or somewhere else close to ski resorts on the West Coast, I'd ski all the fucking time. But I don't...flying is expensive and driving up to West Virginia/Vermont is time consuming.

1/2/2014 2:29:46 PM

As I said I don't think skiing is that expensive. I'm 28 and my girlfriend and I have decent paying jobs and we don't have any kids or anything. Our rent is relatively cheap in Denver and we split a condo at keystone with 10 people. It comes out to be about $173/person per month for the 6 month lease. There's never anymore than 5-6 people there at a time.

Typically us and another couple carpool up in my car. It's only an hour from our apartment in Denver and we split gas. We shop at Costco and make probably 90% of our meals. Driving up early afternoon on Friday and coming back early on Monday eliminates any traffic issues.

I rented demo skis for the entire season for $96 from Christy sports and got my boots last August for 40% off. All things considered skiing is relatively affordable if you are close and do it a lot. It's certainly cheaper than going out and buying dinners every weekend.

With all that being said flights, hotel lodging, and going out to eat are where it really gets expensive so if you can eliminate all that it's much more affordable than some other hobbies.

1/2/2014 2:31:32 PM

We are debating changing our Swiss ski trip and going to Zermatt instead of Davos. We have a little more than 3 months until we ski, but the Davos base isn't great, while Zermatt has been getting a ton of snow...

1/2/2014 2:32:41 PM

^^ Yeah it's very reasonable if you live in ski country. I skied a couple dozen days in the year I lived in WA, and I was 2-2.5 hours away.

^ Swiss Alps (prob Zermatt, although I haven't given it tremendous consideration) is on my to-do list...just a matter of ever finding someone else to go. Same thing with Chile or Argentina.

[Edited on January 2, 2014 at 3:09 PM. Reason : ]

1/2/2014 3:07:40 PM

^^^you are doing it right!

Quote :

"Am I the only one who skis every week? I think I'm at 15 days already. My pass was $549 so that's $37/day. By the end of the season I'm hoping to be close to $10/day. Skiings cheap when you live close. We make/bring all our own food, don't buy too much at the resorts, and split gas. "

If you live in the southeast it's impossible to go skiing weekly unless you make serious bank. Most people on this forum are sadly located nowhere near quality skiing. NC skiing is a huge waste of time and money and Snowshoe gets old after a bit (unless it's really snowy).

I skied all the time when I lived in NYC and could take day trips to VT, but since moving back to NC I just take 1, possibly 2 trips a year. This year it's just one, a nice 6 day trip to Jackson Hole.

[Edited on January 2, 2014 at 4:15 PM. Reason : k]

1/2/2014 4:13:44 PM

Big Sky was fun as hell for New Years. I played it safe with lots of beginner's runs (first time on skis in 4 years). Finally braved up at the end of the day and rode a few intermediate runs and only wiped out twice. My regret was not being a good enough skier to take advantage of the great powder we got on NYE. However, the beer was ice cold and the women were incredibly hot

Got invited to Bridger Bowl this Saturday. Probably should stay home and catch up on laundry, but the devil on my shoulder is telling me to go skiing

1/2/2014 6:26:59 PM

Big Sky was fun as hell for New Years. I played it safe with lots of beginner's runs (first time on skis in 4 years). Finally braved up at the end of the day and rode a few intermediate runs and only wiped out twice. My regret was not being a good enough skier to take advantage of the great powder we got on NYE. However, the beer was ice cold and the women were incredibly hot

Got invited to Bridger Bowl this Saturday. Probably should stay home and catch up on laundry, but the devil on my shoulder is telling me to go skiing

1/2/2014 6:32:46 PM

To hell with that, definitely go skiing at Bridger Bowl. They've been having a fantastic year thus far.

1/3/2014 8:23:54 AM

TheDuke:

I'm finding that skiing in the Alps, and finding that right resort makes you face a good series of trade offs. Not thT we don't have that in the U.S., but seems even more so there. We are fortunate to have Zermattt as a backup. It ranks no 2 in the world right now for upper base.

1/3/2014 11:19:36 PM

Got a season warm-up in at Wintergreen on Dec. 30th and conditions weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be...lines weren't terrible either, which blew my mind.

Next stop, my annual Snowbird trip in February .

I also just picked these monstrosities up (Von Zipper Fishbowl). Supposedly they have the best peripheral vision of any goggle.

1/4/2014 12:36:22 AM

neodata686, you're definitely doing it right w/ the condo setup. i have gone up 20-40 days every year for the past 6 years, this is the first year my wife and I didn't get a pass.... but it's also the first year we have a newborn (7 months) and my wife works on Saturdays making it daddy day for me.

I'll probably still sneak up there 2-3 days on various sick-days from work, but not much more than that this year I'm afraid.

Back tree runs in Keystone, back bowls of Vail and groomers at BC are my favs. We'll be back in full force in 2-3 years when we can put ski's on our little one.

[Edited on January 4, 2014 at 11:37 AM. Reason : .]

1/4/2014 11:34:16 AM

Q: what's white, 15 inches deep, and fun as hell to play in?

1/4/2014 10:39:58 PM

nothin on the east coast


OOOOOOHHHHH

1/4/2014 10:52:53 PM

A:

1/4/2014 11:21:50 PM

Giving Copper Mountain a try tomorrow. I'll report back.

1/5/2014 12:23:32 AM

Trying to figure out where to go this Friday for a night session with the lady friend.

Anyone have any good recommendations? 3-4 hour drive is tops.

Sugar or Wintergreen top the list so far.

1/5/2014 5:18:57 PM

Not a fan of Sugar for many reasons. I'd go to Wintergreen.

1/5/2014 7:11:01 PM

So yeah it was about -8 with a "feel" of -29 at Copper this morning. We skiied the morning but it was just incredibly cold. They did have about 8" of new powder on the ground which was nice. Seems like a great mountain.

1/5/2014 7:19:59 PM

3^ Wintergreen

1/6/2014 9:16:28 AM

Got back from Summit Co. last night. My flight out of DEN was about an hour late due to the de-icing line, and I barely missed my connector from DEN to RIC. Then US Airways grounded the remaining flights due to the weather in Charlotte. So I fucking rented a car and drove the 5 hours to RIC.

Flew in on New years day, got some legal ganja, and skiied 1/2-4. Breck fucking blew (as far as skiing out west can blow). It was overcrowded, and no matter where we were on the mountain, the lift lines were obnoxious.

We did Copper the second day, and it was far better, although some of the back bowls were still closed.

I finished up at Keystone, and had several inches of fresh powder to boot. First order of business was getting to the tram to take us out to the summit where the back bowls and tree runs are.

The pole cam mount for the go-pro worked out better than expected, but I have a whole day's footage ruined. I was changing out the battery at Keystone, and i guess some snow got into the housing, melted, and condensed on the lens, leaving a "worst instagram filter ever" effect on the video. ah well.


tl;dr: doesn't matter, had skiing.

1/6/2014 9:59:09 AM

Quote :

"come on, why let marriage consume you like a black hole? why not go without her, or go with her and understand that it'll be a while before she can actually keep up?"

Hubs and I compromise... he goes on snowboard trips without me during the winter, and I can do extended girls' weekends during the warmer months. But we always vacation together throughout the year. Win-Win!

1/6/2014 10:11:06 AM

Got back yesterday from Vail. 5-6 inches in New Years Eve, another 4 inches three nights ago. I had to spend a lot of time skiing with my family who isn't off the greens yet, but the last day I had all to myself so I spent most of the day in Blue Sky trying to hurt myself. Even coaxed myself to go over one of the smaller ledges on Skree Fields.

Also, and this was really special, while dressing for the first day I found I had left my snow pants in the dryer at home, so I was forced to buy in Lionshead. Luckily I found a pair that fit on sale for the low low price of $132. First store I went in and asked, "What are the cheapest pair of snow pants you have?" Dude looked at me and said, $200, that's not something we have on sale. That's something you should probably buy before you come to the mountain". NO SHIT SHERLOCK, but hey, the fact that I'm standing here at 8:15 AM with my own board, helmet, boots, and jacket shouldn't give you the indication that maybe I just forgot something?

1/6/2014 10:34:52 AM

Quote :

"Flew in on New years day, got some legal ganja, and skiied 1/2-4. Breck fucking blew (as far as skiing out west can blow). It was overcrowded, and no matter where we were on the mountain, the lift lines were obnoxious. "

We skied Breck the 28th-30th and it was great. I don't think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for a lift (when there were actual lines). Where did you ski on the mountain? The T Bar NEVER had lines. Peak 6 (Zendo and Kensho) were rarely crowded either. The Imperial Chair and 6-chair also rarely if ever had any lines. Breck got waaaay more snow than Keystone and has a lot better expert terrain than either Vail or Keystone. I spent a lot more time waiting in line at Vail and Copper this week then I ever have at Breck.

[Edited on January 6, 2014 at 11:15 AM. Reason : s]

1/6/2014 11:12:54 AM

It's looking like Wintergreen

The only thing I am concerned with is we will be getting there about 8pm...Wintergreen just says that they are open from 6-close...anyone know how late that is?

the only one I can tell that is open till midnight is Appalachain

1/6/2014 2:50:10 PM

Unfortunately not going to get to ride this year A week in the Dominican Republic come March and then a week in Cabo in September burned up all my vacation.

1/6/2014 4:39:19 PM

^^for some reason I thought it was about 9pm last time I was up there. but I'm not 100% sure since we left around 8-8:30.

1/6/2014 7:18:24 PM

I called up today and had to get forwarded to about 10 different people but finally found out they close at 10.

appalachain is the only one that stays open till midnight.

so what we are doing is going that night and gonna get up and do a morning session.

1/7/2014 12:46:50 AM

Quote :

"We skied Breck the 28th-30th and it was great. I don't think we ever waited more than 5 minutes for a lift (when there were actual lines). Where did you ski on the mountain? The T Bar NEVER had lines. Peak 6 (Zendo and Kensho) were rarely crowded either. The Imperial Chair and 6-chair also rarely if ever had any lines. Breck got waaaay more snow than Keystone and has a lot better expert terrain than either Vail or Keystone. I spent a lot more time waiting in line at Vail and Copper this week then I ever have at Breck. "

I was there on jan 2, and we spent most of the day on peaks 9/10, and the t-bar, but the snowboarder with us kept bitching about the t-bar so we only went that way twice. There wasn't much of a line there. Also, all the blacks/double blacks on peak 6 were closed, so that was disappointing-- I was looking forward to skiing the new stuff.

I left out that they had mechanical problems with several lifts, and had to shut a couple down (i forget the names of which ones) which exacerbated the waits. My previous trips to breck were not nearly as crowded, so i'm guessing it was a combination of a holiday weekend and problem lifts that made it less fun than Copper or Keystone.

1/7/2014 1:24:27 PM

Yeah it sounds like you had a couple bad days there. I believe they're still doing avalanche control in a lot of the higher double black areas so hopefully those will open up soon.

I need to go back to Copper when it isn't so damn cold.

Quote :

"I also just picked these monstrosities up (Von Zipper Fishbowl). Supposedly they have the best peripheral vision of any goggle."

So I ordered some of those too. It was about time to get some more and you inspired me. (Also after reading some great reviews). Get them Wednesday and try them out this weekend!

[Edited on January 7, 2014 at 1:32 PM. Reason : s]

1/7/2014 1:27:24 PM

Sweet! Post a review after you've tried them out

1/7/2014 8:58:58 PM

Decided to do a morning session in boone..

Anyone know of any good things to hit up in that town the night before and afternoon after?

1/8/2014 1:49:16 AM

So don't know if anyone got the Epic Local this year but they're still doing the Epic upgrades and I'm highly considering it. Just to ski more than 10 times at Vail and Beaver Creek.

1/8/2014 1:55:51 PM

70 degrees this weekend

1/8/2014 3:31:56 PM

North Carolina skiing just really isn't worth a shit.

1/8/2014 3:46:11 PM

These things are HUUUGGEEE. I was worried they wouldn't fit between the space of my helmet and nose but once I readjusted my helmet they were snug. They came with the free yellow lens installed. I put the frost one back in:



Will ski with them this weekend and report back. They definitely have more visibility than my old Oakleys.

1/8/2014 8:20:54 PM

Quote :

"Am I the only one who skis every week? "

Nope I go 3-4 times per week. We're FINALLY getting some great snow here (Idaho) so conditions should improve drastically!

1/8/2014 10:02:08 PM

Hitting Targhee this Sunday.

I went from zero skiing in 5 years to making 4 separate day trips over the past 2 weeks. Dammit I love living out here sometimes

1/9/2014 1:59:31 AM

Quote :

"North Carolina skiing just really isn't worth a shit."

1/9/2014 9:24:14 AM

Well, with an entire day's footage ruined, I had about 4 minutes worth of usable footage. The pole cam view worked out better than expected. This is my "rough draft" I need to fix some more shit and may or may not get to it anytime soon.

Summit County Shenanigans from Bobby Thekkekandam on Vimeo.

1/9/2014 12:54:52 PM