The season is almost upon us! Who's going where, and when?

I might just be taking one trip this year, as other things are going to be eating into my budget this winter. But that's okay because that trip is going to be 5 days in Jackson Hole!

Probably going late February. Right now flights to JAC are low as $300 (from RDU) with 2 stops, and around $480 with one stop. I can't remember ever seeing flights this low in the past.

10/9/2013 8:54:16 AM

Looks like we're headed to/staying in Deer Valley this year. Are there public buses that run between there and Park City throughout the day/night?

Also any advice on lift ticket deals? We'll be there for 7 days, will probably ski up to 5.

10/9/2013 9:47:33 AM

^when I went to Deer Valley back in 2009 there were shuttles during the day. Can't comment on at night though.

10/9/2013 11:59:19 AM

I bought a season pass last year for Snowshoe for $199. So I'll be making several trips. The season can't get here soon enough

10/9/2013 12:31:50 PM

Vail New Years Eve through the 5th

Jackson the last week of February

Got some fucking kickass miles tickets: Flying directly into Vail from NYC on New Years Eve for 12,500 miles (will probably fly out of Denver), roundtrip direct to Jackson, Sunday to Sunday, for 25k miles

10/9/2013 3:08:37 PM

Snowbird, UT has been getting snow for a couple of weeks now. I hope it keeps up all season!

10/9/2013 8:56:07 PM

We're headed to Snowshoe in January for about a week. Looking forward to it since I didn't go boarding at all this past year.

10/9/2013 9:09:04 PM

Quote :

"Probably going late February. Right now flights to JAC are low as $300 (from RDU) with 2 stops, and around $480 with one stop. I can't remember ever seeing flights this low in the past."

Totally looked at the wrong thing when I said $300

10/10/2013 8:28:20 AM

Anyone even taken the ECO bus from Eagle Airport?

I'm trying to avoid paying $50 for a 45 minute ride, but if I'm reading the schedules right, it looks like I would need to take two different ECO buses to get into Vail if I'm arriving into EGE @ 8:30 PM. Anyone know for sure?

http://www.eaglecounty.us/transit/schedules/

10/18/2013 10:54:41 AM

since I suck at skiing, but I'm looking to get better, I see no need to drop thousands on a pass to Jackson Hole, Bridger, Big Sky, etc

thinking about going this route:

http://www.grandtarghee.com/the-mountain/rates/season-passes.php

10/18/2013 3:19:50 PM

^maybe I'm looking at it wrong, but that looks like a $999 season pass for just Grand Targhee. Also I dunno how far away Bridger Bowl is for you, but skiing there is dirt cheap.

Anyone know of a good vacation rental website other than VRBO? VRBO's search filters are just Godawful.

[Edited on October 23, 2013 at 11:46 AM. Reason : k]

10/23/2013 11:41:42 AM

airbnb and homeaway both have much better search filters than vrbo, but usually not as many listings

10/23/2013 1:36:59 PM

^^ Bridger is ~4 hours. Targhee is 1.5 hr.

I'm looking at the student season pass for $399. I think it's a good slope for me to get out and work on becoming a better skier. As shitty a skier I am right now, my slow ass would be getting in the way of real skiers if I went to popular resorts like Bridger, Big Sky, or JH. That's my rationale for getting a pass at Targhee at least

10/23/2013 11:07:59 PM

just about any old mountain out west will be plenty to keep a novice skier busy, Tim. You will benefit a lot more at this stage in the game from spending a few dozen days on whatever no-name place you want than you will spending a small fraction of that amount of time going up and down the hill at Jackson Hole (mostly on your face).

[Edited on October 23, 2013 at 11:53 PM. Reason : ]

10/23/2013 11:51:46 PM

Who's Tim? I'm trying to figure out who you're patronizing.

10/24/2013 12:32:25 AM

Don't you ever shut the fuck up?

10/24/2013 1:14:42 AM

I agree with Duke. Also, a place like Bridger, while cheap, is over 50% challenging terrain (IIRC). And about 1/2 of that additional terrain requires you carry an avalanche transponder and shovel

I really don't see how it's patronizing, since we actually have known him for 15+ yrs.

Booked my flight for Jackson Hole this morning $485 seemed like the best I was gonna do for a flight.

[Edited on October 24, 2013 at 10:24 AM. Reason : wahoo!]

10/24/2013 10:23:35 AM

Y'all are all dudes so I doubt any of you care. But repeating back to someone what they've just said (while adding your own condescending twist) is extraordinarily patronizing, regardless of how long you've known someone. I can quote the exchange if that would help you to see, but it's like a few posts up and hilariously transparent.

10/24/2013 10:51:17 AM

Quote :

"Y'all are all dudes so I doubt any of you care."

Yeah, we don't

10/24/2013 12:45:17 PM

FWIW, I don't feel patronized or condescended-upon

10/24/2013 1:02:13 PM

I'm very offended by this goings on

10/24/2013 1:48:55 PM

^^^^^ I don't think it's patronizing if I'd never met him. It's simple statements of facts. Why pay more and go to more trouble to ski somewhere that, at best, you aren't yet good enough to realize any benefit from, and at worst will be a hindrance and less well-suited for the purposes of a novice who wants to improve?

10/24/2013 7:14:40 PM

Yeah, and he already acknowledged all that multiple times before you posted your "advice." And I agree that whether or not you've met him is irrelevant.

Obviously, I don't expect anyone to confirm my interpretation because nobody ever does.

You can all suck it though.

10/24/2013 10:11:30 PM

am I the "he" in this circumstance?

10/24/2013 10:22:13 PM

Yeah, prepare to be condescended upon.

[Edited on October 26, 2013 at 6:12 PM. Reason : by bridget, who thinks you cant fight your own pretend battles.]

10/26/2013 6:12:07 PM

haha. The ol' implicit condescension. Ain't that a bitch.

10/26/2013 6:20:22 PM

ncstatetke get the pass to Jackson Hole. It'll make you a superstar.

http://www.swiftsilentdeep.com/trailer

(Someone with premie embed the Youtube vid plz!)


[Edited on October 26, 2013 at 9:35 PM. Reason : l]

10/26/2013 9:34:14 PM

Killington, VT opened this week

10/26/2013 10:50:59 PM

10/27/2013 12:11:56 PM

thinking about checking this out:

http://www.deervalley.com/WhatToDo/Winter/FISWorldCup


figured why the hell not? it's free to the public

11/3/2013 4:17:42 PM

Best seattle area ski resort for a day trip out of seattle around New Years? Skiing only, can only be a one day trip from seattle.

11/3/2013 9:18:54 PM

I've day tripped Whistler from that area. It's probably on the order of 4 hours from Seattle. It's nice, but I frankly wouldn't make the trip if it's just a day trip--save it for sometime when you can spend a week or at least several days there--half of the appeal of Whistler/Blackcomb is that it is HUGE and you can ski it for a week and not wear the mountain out.

If you want something closer, there's Mt Baker or Stevens Pass. I'm gonna guess that Stevens is maybe an hour-ish closer from Seattle, but both easily day-trippable. Just guessing, I'd say 1.5 hours to Stevens, and 2.5 to Baker (I lived on Whidbey Island, which was a similar drive to both...maybe a little closer to Baker).

If I remember right, Baker was a little cheaper, and I liked it maybe marginally better, but probably mostly because I went there more and knew it better. Baker gets more snow, but during peak season, that's academic--Stevens still gets a bunch (Baker holds the world records). There really isn't a meaningful difference between the two; I'd just go to whichever one had fresh snow and a clear day. Baker might have a little more extreme terrain, but if you just want to ski blues and blacks, they're pretty much the same. Neither mountain is particularly steep or difficult for the most part. Neither has much in the way of après-ski (particularly Baker; there ain't shit there but a place to ski). Everywhere out there has generally heavy, wet snow compared to the Rockies.

There's also Mount Hood down to the south in OR, but it's probably a little more of a drive. I've never skied it, so I can't tell you much about it.


[Edited on November 3, 2013 at 10:18 PM. Reason : ]

11/3/2013 10:13:05 PM

Started my ski workouts the other week. The goal is to get the legs strong enough to handle the descent down Corbert's Coulior.

11/4/2013 1:20:19 PM

Targhee already has a 39" base. Almost 4 feet of new snow over the past week

11/8/2013 8:57:28 PM

What do you guys think of a pre-Christmas trip to Winter Park? Right now they only have three trails open, but a month can make a huge difference obviously. Is there a site that tracks the number of trails open each day at the major resorts? I can see how it might be beneficial when planning a vacation. Every year is different, but if I saw that historically 95% of the trails were open by mid-December it would make me feel a lot better about booking a trip for that week.

I went to Steamboat around the same time last year and we really lucked out with a huge storm hitting the whole week we were there. Conditions were terrible until about a week or two before I went and I almost canceled the trip as a result, but a huge storm moved in and virgin powder was opened up every day while I was there. One of the guys I spoke with said that if we had arrived two weeks before we would have been better off with a mountain bike than a snowboard.

11/14/2013 7:48:57 PM

Damned if I'm gonna be condescending enough to give you any advice.

11/14/2013 7:59:28 PM

huh?

11/14/2013 8:07:23 PM

LOL

I'm still right though.

11/14/2013 8:22:28 PM

lol...I forgot about that whole conversation up above.

Historical data here:
http://bestsnow.net/

[Edited on November 14, 2013 at 8:35 PM. Reason : l]

11/14/2013 8:29:03 PM

So my group is between Park City/Deer Valley and Big Sky. Can you all give your pros and cons for each please?

11/14/2013 11:33:15 PM

Big Sky is fucking massive, and so is Moonlight Basin. Combine that with the fact that far fewer people go there than most other resorts, and you'll end up on plenty of runs where you don't see a soul. The gondola or whatever it is to get to the top of Big Sky gets a long line, so that's a pain, but there's plenty other mountain and other opportunities to try and kill yourself.

I went early season to Park City and got fucked by the conditions, so I'm a bit jaded there. It was pretty cool how there are so many resorts so close together there, and I wish more had been open when I was there, so it's difficult for me to give a really fair account.

That said, I love Big Sky

11/15/2013 11:43:45 AM

For those that listen to music and wear a helmet, what do you use? I have a basic Bern audio setup with volume control on the cord, but I was thinking of trying to upgrade that this year.

I'm not sure I want to spend over a hundred for a bluetooth setup, but this idea is pretty badass:

http://www.bergsskishop.com/-p29275c2699.html?gclid=CPX73aLbgrsCFQbNOgodGUMAbQ

Play/Pause/Change songs control by pressing on one ear, volume on the other. Made me think that maybe someone could make an auxiliary audio cable with inline remote that's easier to use with gloves than the traditional tiny one that most headphones come with. Turns out there's not, in fact, there are very few aux cables with an inline mic period...or I just suck at google, which is a possibility to.

Anyways, any of you have better setups than the standard audio kit?

11/26/2013 10:00:26 AM

^^ Looks like we've decided on Big Sky.

How early in the season did you go to Park City? Why did you go early? We went in Feburary 3-4 years ago and the place had been dumped on....6+ft of snow walls in lots of places.

11/26/2013 10:08:36 AM

We went in December for like 4 days. Already had a trip to Vail planned for February so we were just taking advantage of a some really good flight prices. I think I paid around $350 r/t from NYC, and we stayed in a nice 2 br condo in Park City for something like $200 a night. It was a gamble that didn't pay off, but it's hard to say I didn't at least get my money's worth. Skiing Killington 90% of the time, even the half open resorts there were much better.

Also if you remember two years ago was a terrible year almost everywhere (that's when this was)

[Edited on November 26, 2013 at 10:27 AM. Reason : asdf]

11/26/2013 10:21:56 AM

Going for most double posts in a single thread title...

So it turns out I was just bad at google. This looks like a pretty decent option:

http://www.buyijet.com/top-products.html

Would still like to hear if anyone else has other ideas though

11/26/2013 10:47:36 AM

Already skied about 6 days this season. We're renting a condo at Keystone for 6 months with some friends so we're going up almost every weekend. We've been skiing A Basin, Breck, and Keystone. They're slowly opening stuff up.



Can't wait until some of the bowls open up.

11/26/2013 1:13:44 PM

Pretty decent conditions today despite being so early in the season. Beautiful day as well.

12/1/2013 3:05:03 PM

booked my flight to DEN for a few days in summit county the first week of Jan.

Last year was the first in probably 10 years that I didn't make it out west.

I'm gonna be getting new boots this year. my current pair are 16 years old. I think i'm due.

12/2/2013 2:07:02 PM

i think i'm gonna sell my skis and boots and just demo gear for a while.

i kinda have my eye on the Tahoe area this year...i've skied CO and UT numerous times, a bunch in WA, Whistler a couple of times, and once to NM, but I've yet to try Tahoe.

12/2/2013 10:18:17 PM

this week's storm is going to rock the Intermountain West

12/2/2013 11:10:26 PM