Skiing/Snowboarding

[weterman]

I've never been crazy about jumps ether, did some. Do you have any good ski stories? Wana hear one maybe?
Do you mean screwed on metal edges.


Richard

Susan, We called those Cable Bindings: Break a leg bindings.

Last year one of my skiis fell off at the chairlift. So I had to go down on one ski and get it

it happened again just yesterday.

[tomf]

You want stories I have a few, this is a scary and sad story.
In May of 1986 a church group had climbed to the top of Mt. Hood, on the way down a white out happened. They lost perspective of where they were and were afraid that they may fall off of a large cliff called Mississippi Head, although they were actually on a different side of the Palmer Glacier. The group dug a snow cave, but they did not dig it correctly. One person went down the hill for help and the rest stayed in the snow cave. Nine people died in the snow cave and one student had his lower legs amputated.
The summer ski area on the Palmer was closed during the rescue, as there was fresh snow I went up the day it opened. At that time I did not respect ski area boundaries so I went out to get some fresh snow and see the area where they died. To get there I had to jump over two crevasses that were so deep they were dark toward the bottoms and go down a steep wall. Near the bottom of the wall I saw a big bump sticking out of the wall, I decided to use it as a jump. After landing and look at where I was I saw the flags marking the path to the snow cave they died in, it was the bump I got air off of; this gave me the chills!

[valley]

Tom, That was a horror story! I was thinking more of a happy, fun, exciting yarn.

[valley]

Something like:

Picture this: About 8 or 10 people, early morning, first up the lift, week day , nobody on the mountain yet. Every one brought something, dried fruit, French bread, sandwitch meat, cheese. One guy brought a bladder from a box of wine, Chardonnay. Stashing the food and drink in the trees below, Ridge run, planning to ski for hard for a bit, until people start showing up than come back for a snack and chat. ..........Well, the plastic bag of wine was set on the snow, that would be buried in snow with the rest, also in plastic bags. The wine bag began moving slowly at first,

Better get the wine! I'll get it! ..........The bag moving through the trees over the crusty snow gaining speed. Everyone up and after it now. The wine moving faster and faster with each skier jamming down, trying to gain on it. The bag leaves the tree, touches the Cat track a short piece of Bettie's Run than launches into the air and bursting on Betty's Bumps.

The whole party gathers around the yellow stain looking at what was the wine of the day. One by one they began kneeling round the wine and grabbing a handful of snow, eating the wine like a snow cone. A couple stopped on top the entry to Betty's Bumps looking down ,puzzled, " watching the people eating the wine.

Looking up, one of the adventurers said " We're eating the yellow snow!"





The first thing Eskimos teach their children is: Don't eat the yellow snow!

[weterman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY_OyB43pgM I hope this never happens

[tomf]

Here are some odd things that happened on the mountain.

I was riding up the chair lift when I saw a ski with a boot on it coming down the trail. As I got closer to the top of the run I saw a girl walking down the run carrying her skis and she had one foot with no boot on it.

Before the days of ski breaks I watched a ski fly down the trail hit a car and stick into the door half way to the binding.

I had just finished a race and was standing on the side of the course when a racer lost control and flew at me. His ski went under my boot and stopped just before his bindings hit my boot never popping me out of my ski.

I was jumping off of a cornice and got hit by someone coming off at an angle in mid air.

I came around a blind curve over a roll in the slope to find a man and woman rolling around in the snow making out. After avoiding them I stopped and informed them that were not the smartest place to be doing that.

I accidently cut off a snowboarder and when he cried about it, I said “sorry man blind side”. Now that is funny! Kind of an inside joke.

A friend was just learning to ski and lost control going into the lift line, he reached out for something to grab. It turned out to be a woman’s paints, and he pulled them down.

I was skiing in a white out and saw two guys skiing down near me. I tried to warn them of a big drop off ahead of them but they did not hear me. I followed them and when one disappeared suddenly I knew to make a turn left. He was not hurt to bad and after a time got up and skied off.

Something similar happened on a clear day. There is an area that you go into through control gates; at the top are a big drop off and a very long steep wall below it. I saw a guy headed right at it and tried to yell at him about it but he ignored me. Sure enough he went off of it without knowing. I heard the longest yell as he fell. he was shaken up but not really hurt.

At the same place a snowboarder lost his snowboard and it went down the mountain over a cliff and onward for a half of a mile or more. He had a long steep walk ahead of him.

[tomf]

This may sound a bit crazy.
Years back I used to be into fireworks, the big stuff you see at shows. I did shows and also made the big professional fireworks. I mixed the chemicals in them as well; one of the mixes was stuff in the reports, the same stuff as in firecrackers. It has about twice the power of TNT per pound. At this time we skied out of bounds quite a lot, and one day I triggered a large avalanche, not the everyday kind you just ski through and say no big deal. So I decided it may be smart to bring along something to blast the snow to test it. One day a friend and I were at the top of a steep wall and he tossed one of the devices over it. It overshot the wall and landed in a path in the snow below making a big hole in the path. We were about to go down and fix the hole when someone came over the top of another wall and flew down the path. He hit the hole and did a yard sale. We felt so bad, but he did not get hurt.

[tomf]

Tom, That was a horror story! I was thinking more of a happy, fun, exciting yarn.

Yes it was a sad thing.
The one about you told about the yellow snow was very funny.

[weterman]

Here are some odd things that happened on the mountain.

I was riding up the chair lift when I saw a ski with a boot on it coming down the trail. As I got closer to the top of the run I saw a girl walking down the run carrying her skis and she had one foot with no boot on it.

Before the days of ski breaks I watched a ski fly down the trail hit a car and stick into the door half way to the binding.

I had just finished a race and was standing on the side of the course when a racer lost control and flew at me. His ski went under my boot and stopped just before his bindings hit my boot never popping me out of my ski.

I was jumping off of a cornice and got hit by someone coming off at an angle in mid air.

I came around a blind curve over a roll in the slope to find a man and woman rolling around in the snow making out. After avoiding them I stopped and informed them that were not the smartest place to be doing that.

I accidently cut off a snowboarder and when he cried about it, I said “sorry man blind side”. Now that is funny! Kind of an inside joke.

A friend was just learning to ski and lost control going into the lift line, he reached out for something to grab. It turned out to be a woman’s paints, and he pulled them down.

I was skiing in a white out and saw two guys skiing down near me. I tried to warn them of a big drop off ahead of them but they did not hear me. I followed them and when one disappeared suddenly I knew to make a turn left. He was not hurt to bad and after a time got up and skied off.

Something similar happened on a clear day. There is an area that you go into through control gates; at the top are a big drop off and a very long steep wall below it. I saw a guy headed right at it and tried to yell at him about it but he ignored me. Sure enough he went off of it without knowing. I heard the longest yell as he fell. he was shaken up but not really hurt.

At the same place a snowboarder lost his snowboard and it went down the mountain over a cliff and onward for a half of a mile or more. He had a long steep walk ahead of him.

lol. I have a few more.

I was going to go down a straight black diamond run. But there was someone that was going reall slow infront of me. He was snow plowing the whole way down, and going exactly perpendicular to the hill, back and forth. I waiting a bit, but He was going to take 10 minutes to get down, so I just went. I choose to go on the right side of him, but by the time I get near him he is going right, and I have to go to the edge of the hill to not hit him, and I was about a foot away from his skiis. He must have been scared, but no big deal. Later in the day, I'm on a green run. I am at the beginning of the run, I see the same guy on the chairlift above me. And, he spits at me. I think he might have just been spitting for fun, but I saw something white come down. Maybe snow? But ya. I wasn't sure if it was directed to me, so I just ignored it. (this just happened Saturday)



Last sunday, It was night time, close to closing time, (around 7:30 or so) So only one chairlift was open. And all there were were green runs, and a jumps park. So I just keep going down this one jump. (I'm not good at jumping so I'm just trying to get better) there is also a cute girl on a snowboard hanging around the jump park. So I think I'm impressing her, going over this jump, getting 1ft of air. Well, then I see her go on a pipe and do a 360 spin off of it. so....... yea.


Once I wasn't paying attention on the chair lift, and I forgot to get off at the end. I had to jump off when the chair was starting to turn around.


Oh yea, I once saw 2 little girls going down a straight black diamond on their backs. Like they were doing limbo on their skiis. I didn't see how it turned out, but I assume they were okay.


I might be getting a go pro camera someday so I'm hoping I can get some video of skiing.

[tomf]

Do not get a Go Pro, they are crap, get a Contor. I edit video from both a Contor and a Go Pro, the Contor Is so much better, the difference in video and sound quality is very noticable. My freind wants to get rid of his Go Pro and get a Contor like I have.

[tomf]

Oh, the girl walking down the slope only had one ski.
Look on Youtube for the international guild of pyrotechnicns to see some of the fireworks making I used to do, I was apart of that group.

[weterman]

Oh, the girl walking down the slope only had one ski.
Look on Youtube for the international guild of pyrotechnicns to see some of the fireworks making I used to do, I was apart of that group.

don't think they have any contours in stores around me.. id rather not have to buy online.

[mikeabraham]

Always wanted to try skiing, a work colleague has just been to Austria for a week and said it was fantastic, so seeing as I have never tried it yet, I'm going to look for an artificial ski slope, will let you know how I get on..................

[tomf]

I met a guy from the UK in Utah last week, he skied all over the world, nice guy and he road raced as well.


Skiers and egos.

You know the guy on the chair or in the bar that tells you how good of a skier he is, and goes on and on about himself. Then when it comes time to ski they often talk better than the ski. Even if you are the best and brag too much, I am not impressed. It is one thing to talk about what you like and have done and be enthusiastic about something and also be interested in what others have done or like to do, and another to hog the conversation bragging about you. One of the sayings we have for this kind of guy is “watch what you say or you may find yourself going down some place you wish you had not”. I know a lot of good skiers and know better than talk BS, besides who cares, right?
One guy I worked with was one of those guys that always talked about himself and it was a constant brag. He told me he was on the race league and how he was so fast, he told me he was so much faster than all his friends, he told me he would give me ski lessons. I did not even try to get much of a word in as he just ran on and on. I managed to get a few words in and told him I was also on the race league on a different night and some of the people I ski with are a lot better than me. He then offered me race lessons and told me how he came in 58 out of 150 skiers. I said that is good, my wife is about at that same place. He got a look on his face and then he asked me where I came in, I told him 4 out of 150; he never came around anymore .Maybe he had figured I needed lessons from him as I was not running my mouth off. I know it is bad of me but the smack down felt so good.
Some of the guys at work wanted to go skiing with me one day, I told them I would be there with my wife. They acted disappointed and said something about skiing with a wife, like that would mean skiing slow and on the easy runs. When we got together they were unable to keep up with my wife. Never think for a moment because someone is a woman they may not be able to do something well. There are woman I have a hard time keeping up with.
Then there is the snob; I was on a night race team and we needed someone to fill a spot, a friend of ours wanted to try racing. When he got to the area we were racing on he looked scared and told us he had never skied anything that steep and to do it through gates was scary. I and another guy helped him until he got comfortable with it. One of the guys on our team was a bit of a snob and gave our friend the cold shoulder all season. The snob never had as much fun as the rest of us as he was so serious. At the end of the year the new guy who was scared won the most improved out of hundreds of racers, he got a new set of truck tires as a prize. To me the whole reason to do most anything is because you enjoy it, you do not have to be the best at it to be having fun. So who do you think had the best time fast guy or guy who improved and it was new and exciting to?
I feel that whatever one does may define one somewhat but what really defines one is how they feel and how they treat others. Enthusiasm is good; having to be better than others is not. JMHO

[rainbowgardener]

One would think that watching the women athletes at the Winter Olympics would have cured everyone of thinking that" skiing with a wife, like that would mean skiing slow and on the easy runs." !!

Those women might not be able to beat all the men Olympians if they just had events, not men's and women's events, but they sure could beat almost all the rest of us, men and women, at whatever it is they do. And they do it SO beautifully and look like they are having fun!

[tomf]

So true, my wife's nick name on the mountain is GS jude as she likes to go fast.
One late spring I rode up the chair lift on the Palmer Glacier with one of the coaches to the woman's Olympic team, he introduced me to some of the woman on the team. I watched them ski and run gates wishing I was that good. When a person skis well it is like a dance and a joy to watch, there is such a smooth fluid motion to their movements.

[weterman]

How long are the runs where you guys ski? Just wondering, cause at Asessippi, most are about 2 minutes to get down.

[tomf]

The time it takes one to get down is relative due to the speed one is going, I would never be able to ski the same speed on a crowded narrow trail as a wide open trail midweek. Out west the ski areas are way bigger than in the east, on the east coast anything getting near 1000 acres would be gigantic, where that would be small out West. My local hill is 2100 acres, plus a bunch more if you want to hike. It has 2777’ of vertical and another 1700’ that you can hike up to, or as I like to do take the snow cat. One run is 3 ½ miles long, you can add a bunch to that if you hike up to the top of some steep bowls. This is considered just an average ski area out West; some areas are over 5000 acres. The expert trails at most areas out west are usally harder tails than the east, and we have double blacks that truly are expert only, some you go into through control gates. On some a fall could be a very bad thing, we call some places “no fall zones”; if you like adrenalin. There are tons of easy runs as well, Park City is a good place for lots of people who want nice easy runs. The area you ski has 400’ from one source and 498’ of vertical from another source, and 200 acres, so you can add up the difference, if you have not done so take a trip out west, you will love it. I skied the ice of NE as a kid and the open bowls, powder skiing, and wide trails of the west are so different than what I grew up skiing.

Cool video by the way.

[tomf]

The older I get the less I like bumbs, at Alta there were less bumbs than Snowbird and they fit my skis better, are the short choppy bumbs made at most places due to snowboards?

[weterman]

The time it takes one to get down is relative due to the speed one is going, I would never be able to ski the same speed on a crowded narrow trail as a wide open trail midweek. Out west the ski areas are way bigger than in the east, on the east coast anything getting near 1000 acres would be gigantic, where that would be small out West. My local hill is 2100 acres, plus a bunch more if you want to hike. It has 2777’ of vertical and another 1700’ that you can hike up to, or as I like to do take the snow cat. One run is 3 ½ miles long, you can add a bunch to that if you hike up to the top of some steep bowls. This is considered just an average ski area out West; some areas are over 5000 acres. The expert trails at most areas out west are usally harder tails than the east, and we have double blacks that truly are expert only, some you go into through control gates. On some a fall could be a very bad thing, we call some places “no fall zones”; if you like adrenalin. There are tons of easy runs as well, Park City is a good place for lots of people who want nice easy runs. The area you ski has 400’ from one source and 498’ of vertical from another source, and 200 acres, so you can add up the difference, if you have not done so take a trip out west, you will love it. I skied the ice of NE as a kid and the open bowls, powder skiing, and wide trails of the west are so different than what I grew up skiing.

Cool video by the way.

I see, what are bumbs though?

[weterman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2ghjyhqO5c

this is a video of my skii hill btw. I'm not in the video I just found this.

[tomf]

Bumbs are bumps typed when sleepy.

[weterman]

How steep are black diamonds in your guys ski hills?

sort of hard to explain how steep it is, but I read something that said the rating of a run is relative to the other runs in the resort. so a black diamond at one place would be a blue at another place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_mw5nvkWQo

this is a black diamond at asessippi. the hill looks different on a video than while skiing.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFSQEIJcPJE this is another black diamond. it looks allot less steep in the video than in real life. but maybe find a video of a black diamond at your local resort, so we can compare?

[valley]

weterman, How you doing? I couldn't play the 1st video, the second didn't look like a black. Maybe it was just the way it came out in the video. We have a pretty good choice of steeps. Gun Barrel also called The Face offers a lot. At Heavenly your ski two states, California and Nevada, and can enter from ether side. Killabrew Canyon and Mott Canyon offer even more, you can ski or ride there alone, not many people go in there. There are several other blacks I haven't mentioned. Mammoth is good, bit of a drive from here.

Kirkwood not far from here has many blacks, cornices and chutes. There are several places around here, Squaw Valley is also nice.

Richard


Just saw the Ostrich on skis, that bird can link some turns

[tomf]

Richard I have wanted to go to Squaw for two years in a row but the snow has not been there, it takes a bit of snow to ski the good stuff, so we went to Utah. Squaw looks fun

Weterman you are right, at some places a black from one area would be a blue run at another, some of the blacks may even be a green on some places. There are some green runs at Sun Valley that are steeper than the black ones you had in your video, I did adjust for steepness by looking at the angle of the trees and chair towers. Some runs here are 35 to 50 degrees for a sustained length. Look at my videos this is just a black run not a double black run, and yes the video makes it look flat.
Some places are so steep that the first turn is a drop in the air. In some areas if you turn sideways to the hill your uphill arm hits the snow, most places like that are through control gates that warn you that it could be dangerous ahead. There are trails for everyone’s ability; you do not have to jump into something you would get hurt on.
Kind of funny but says it all; on my first trip to Snow Bird I was with the guys from a racing team I was on, there were some adventurous guys on the team, so we skied all the most challenging terrain. We were at a control gate getting ready to go into some steep stuff, and watched an intermediate skier come to where we were standing. He asked Mike if we liked what was below the control -gate, Mike said “yes”. The guy said " I think I will give it a try", he then asked Mike what it was like down there. Mike told him it was steep with lots of cliffs and narrow shoots, and if you messed up you could die. The guy wisely chose not to go that way.
Take a trip out west, you will find something you like and lots of it. Just be careful of going into some place you have to go into via a control gate, as the warnings posted there may be for your own good.

[tomf]

I would think twice about going this way.

[valley]

If you can turn and stop, you can ski anything. On a killer steep, it's amount to a series of linked recoveries. Ski where you're comfortable,work on your skiing, eventually you'll be comfortable anywhere.

Richard

[tomf]

Weteman I am just giving you this information as you asked what other areas were like. When I retire I plan to spend more time traveling to different ski areas, I have a list of ski areas I want to go to, and I want to get to Europe some day as well.

If you can turn and stop, you can ski anything. On a killer steep, it's amount to a series of linked recoveries.

You could not ski a lot of things that way, but some places it would work fine. Will you have fun if you just trying to survive, and by cutting back and forth you will piss of the locals as it wrecks the snow. I am not trying to scare anyone but being smart does not hurt.

Ski where you're comfortable,work on your skiing, eventually you'll be comfortable anywhere.

There is nothing wrong with skiing trails that you feel comfortable on. I see people in areas where they are struggling to get down and they do not look as if they are enjoying it. It is good to challenge yourself, but when you feel like a challenge step it up a little at a time. Working on control is the key.
Here is some one that got in over their head, from the video I am thinking it would be a bit for most people to go down this area.

[weterman]

I see, thanks for the words.

[tomf]

Weterman what I like about you is that you are enthusiastic about skiing.

[weterman]

Weterman what I like about you is that you are enthusiastic about skiing.

lol am I?

[weterman]

Hey, how do gondolas work? Do you have to take off your skiis and stuff? How long would the trip up be, the lift having to stop whenever a car picks up some people?

How long are your resorts open till? Asessippi is open 9 - 8 on weekends, and 9 - 4:30 on weekdays.(or 5:30)

[tomf]

Gondolas are like the high-speed detachable chairs they come off of the cable to let you load and unload, they are spaced out enough to make this work well. From what I see out West gondolas are not as common as trams, you take your skis off for both, but they go a long ways up the mountain and go fast. Gondolas hold 4 to 6 people; trams can hold a lot more people some I think over 100 people. Where I ski is open 9 to 9 everyday until spring then midweek nights closes, in late spring they are only open on weekends. Over at Timberline they have skiing all year long and summer skiing is on the Palmer Glacier.
Yesterday I was skiing along the bottom of a cliff to get to some fresh powder when a guy came flying off of the cliff, it was a big drop and he was going very fast. If he had hit me I could have died. At the bottom of the run were a bunch of guys watching him, if he was going to jump blind off of a cliff why the H did he not have his friends act as spotters to keep people out of danger. Dumb people are everywhere and they don't know they are dumb.

[weterman]

Gondolas are like the high-speed detachable chairs they come off of the cable to let you load and unload, they are spaced out enough to make this work well. From what I see out West gondolas are not as common as trams, you take your skis off for both, but they go a long ways up the mountain and go fast. Gondolas hold 4 to 6 people; trams can hold a lot more people some I think over 100 people. Where I ski is open 9 to 9 everyday until spring then midweek nights closes, in late spring they are only open on weekends. Over at Timberline they have skiing all year long and summer skiing is on the Palmer Glacier.
Yesterday I was skiing along the bottom of a cliff to get to some fresh powder when a guy came flying off of the cliff, it was a big drop and he was going very fast. If he had hit me I could have died. At the bottom of the run were a bunch of guys watching him, if he was going to jump blind off of a cliff why the H did he not have his friends act as spotters to keep people out of danger. Dumb people are everywhere and they don't know they are dumb.

I see. I just went skiing today. I'll try to put together some video of it. I used a go pro.

[weterman]

Here is the video on my youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6C94CTQ ... e=youtu.be

You might not be able to see it yet, it's not done uploading at the time I post this.

[weterman]

The video is up.

Sorry if you don't like the music.

[tomf]

Remixed Mr. Postman with a bit of Dub step, it's ok. I have done some Dub step myself.

[weterman]

Remixed Mr. Postman with a bit of Dub step, it's ok. I have done some Dub step myself.

Really? Care to show some?

I made a few songs, not dubstep, but techno like.



And this is the first song I made:




There are a few others on the youtube channel, not as good. Bust still.

[weterman]

No edit button for my post... So here:




Just so the video is on the forum thingy.

[tomf]

This is considered the hardest run in the USA, I have not yet to gone to Jackson Hole, at my age I am not sure if I will do this when I go, but I may.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYcgruURzQg