Skiing 2020-21

[tulak]

For the skiers in the forum, I thought it could be fun to share your ski adventures for this season.

I was originally planning on getting an Epic pass that works at a local resort along with Whistler, but with covid, my plans have changed. Instead I bought a season's pass to another local resort. It's the worst of the bunch in terms of runs, but very convenient and will be a nice break over the winter months.

The resort opened this weekend for season pass holders and we went today. This is the earliest opening since I started skiing five years ago. The snow quality was good and towards the end of the day it felt a lot like spring skiing. It rained briefly, but for the most part, it was partly cloudy and sunny at times. It was great to be on the mountain again and we all had fun. It also wore us out. We need to work on our conditioning! I suspect we'll be up again later in the week and probably over the weekend.

Has anyone else started their ski season?

 

[JakeinChina]

We had booked a 4 night trip in Manchester Vermont for this month but we cancelled and I was so sad about it. I have two young daughters and was so looking forward to finally going on a ski trip after 20 years living overseas and not doing a ski trip for so long.

My daughters have never even seen snow so we were super pumped.

We may do a day trip to a more local ski resort in PA instead, but still not the same.

 

[braumeister]

Still on the fence about it. I have an Epic pass (ridiculously cheap for active or retired military) and I would love to get out to Colorado. Missed it last year due to surgery so I'm definitely going to have to work on the old leg muscles before going.

 

[FIREd]

The local ski resorts are shut until at least mid-January 2021 due to COVID, so there is that. We did have abundant snow falls last week so it’s too bad. I guess I could go skiing in neighboring Switzerland, where resorts are open, but it would be quite a bit more expensive.

 

[Bamaman]

My sister owned a condo in Aspen for about 20 years, and she had many friends from "home" that also owned homes there. They'd catch rides back and forth with the friends' private jets, and life was good.

My sister developed a close friendship with one of Aspen's top ski instructors who would ski with her anytime he wasn't booked--for free. And my sister developed into a great technical skier.

They sold their Aspen condo for an incredible amount in 2007--just before the economic blowup. And they bought a huge second home in North Carolina's top golf/equestrian resort. She continued to ski in Aspen yearly with friends and her instructor.

Flash forward and she's 73 years old--and in complete misery with a bad back and a fusion. My brother in law's in great shape after two back surgeries, but he hung up his skis.

I've seen many really good skiers on the slopes in their 70's. But my family's an example that there are just so many moguls and falls in one's body. But we still long for those views from the top of AJAX.

 

[pb4uski]

DW and I are both life-long skiers... in fact our common love of skiing was part of why we ended up together. DW instructed at a nearby resort for a few years. When we spent winters in our native Vermont we skied frequently and when I first retired we had season passes to two nearby ski areas about 40 min and 1:15 drive from home (one pass to two ski areas).

We started snowbirding in 2015 and haven't skied since, but we have a ski trip to Breckenridge planned for early February and are hoping that we get to go.

 

[RunningBum]

I live at a small resort in the east that will probably open in the next week or two, and I'll ski there regularly as I have for 20 years. We also bought IKON passes, but can defer them to next year. We had planned to go out west.

The tricky part is, there's a bigger ski resort in WV we like to go to once in awhile, that's also on the IKON pass. If we use the pass at that resort, no deferral. It's not worth burning the pass just for a few local day trips, but I'd hate to pay for lift tickets and wind up using the pass for a trip out west. We'll probably decide one way or the other after the new year.

 

[Montecfo]

Certainly am glad we have this thread. Since I'm in the mid-Atlantic there is not any really great skiing near (and conditions vary greatly) but if slopes are open I will try to go somewhere.

 

[JakeinChina]

DW and I are both life-long skiers... in fact our common love of skiing was part of why we ended up together. DW instructed at a nearby resort for a few years. When we spent winters in our native Vermont we skied frequently and when I first retired we had season passes to two nearby ski areas about 40 min and 1:15 drive from home (one pass to two ski areas).

We started snowbirding in 2015 and haven't skied since, but we have a ski trip to Breckenridge planned for early February and are hoping that we get to go.

Where in Vermont did you usually ski?

 

[skipro33]

Northern California ski resorts are working this way;

1. No one allowed who doesn't have a reservation. They won't even let you park. Hiring off duty sheriffs to enforce parking.
2. Reservations at least 24 hours in advance. This includes season pass holders. Just because you have a season pass doesn't mean you can come ski any old time you like.
3. No indoor or outdoor dining, at least for now, here in California. some resorts will decide the profit margin is gone and close week days and only weekend openings.
4. All chair lifts to include immediate family only. single skiiers will really slow down the lift lines and most are singles here. a 4 or 6 seat chair with one or two people per will really back things up.
5. Social distancing in lines are impossible. They do a 'ghost' line for parallel lines for separation but in-line queues are still not 6' apart. too many young adults won't distance.
6. If you bought an early pass, they will credit you back to next year if you turn in before December 20th.

I buy a season pass every year, taught skiing for many years prior (my name here is Ski Pro 33) I bought this year's pass early to take advantage of discounts; season pass under $400, fast pass (special lift line goes first) $250, Premium parking pass $140. I cancelled them all after going up 3 times now. The lines are stupidly long waits under these conditions. i can do maybe 2 runs an hour (5,000 vertical feet) where I usually can do 10 to 15,000 vertical feet an hour) Gotta love high speed chairs! I would ski 30,000 vertical feet in the morning and then go home by noon, 3 times a week as both recreation and my workout. No way I'll be able to do anywhere near half that this season. The cost in fuel and drive time is simply not worth that.

So instead, I'm now in the market for a boat. Pontoon boat actually, to take all the grand kids tubing and wake boarding. Fishing offseason I suppose. If next season is as bleak, I'll likely give up season pass skiing altogether.

 

[gerntz]

DS & family are flying to Park City day after Christmas for 5 days. My knee that has bordered on needing replacement for last 5 years has ended my skiing. Now if I get it replaced I could consider it again.

 

[FFC1964]

We have two weeks reserved in Breckenridge in January. We got the EPIC pass with the refunds from last year due to the season being shortened by COVID. We have already reserved our ski days( we get 7) and are hoping we get to go. I am a very slow, cautious blue/green skier due to a ACL tear that I chose not to fix in 2008. My husband is a great skier but does not NEED it as much as I do. The view and the feel on that mountain give me so much joy.



Sue

 

[Big_Hitter]

yep - we're open www.bogusbasin.org got a weekday pass

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

This year, for myself and 2 of the 3 kids, I picked up military Epic passes. Looking forward to getting my money's worth at the local ski areas about 75 minutes away in PA. This will be my first time using the Epic passes.

 

[tulak]

I’m like Sue, I enjoy being on the mountain and stick with blue/green runs. I want to ski for many years, so I go slow and call it a day when I start making mistakes, at least most of the time.

I’ll go up this weekend, maybe both Saturday and Sunday, at least for a few hours.

The lines yesterday weren’t great. We spent about 60% of our time waiting in lines. I’m
hoping as more of the mountain opens, the lines will get shorter. In previous years, we had good luck with smaller crowds for night skiing. Hopefully this year will be the same.

And there’s snow in the forecast for the rest of the week. This weekend should be fun.

 

[EastWest Gal]

We’re just waiting for snow and cold in PA. We can see one of the resorts from our yard. DS has an Epic pass and I’ll go a couple of times on a buddy ticket.

Maybe we’ll see HawkeyeNFO at the central PA resorts. DS live streams his snowboarding. Look for the guy with the phone on top of his helmet.

 

[pb4uski]

Where in Vermont did you usually ski?

Mostly northern Vermont. DW was an instructor at Sugarbush for a few years. And over the years we've had season passes to Glen Ellen (now known as Sugarbush North/Ellen Mt), Sugarbush, Stowe/Spruce Peak, Bolton Valley, Burke, and Jay Peak. Also really like Mad River, Smuggs, et al.

 

[JakeinChina]

We’re just waiting for snow and cold in PA. We can see one of the resorts from our yard. DS has an Epic pass and I’ll go a couple of times on a buddy ticket.

Maybe we’ll see HawkeyeNFO at the central PA resorts. DS live streams his snowboarding. Look for the guy with the phone on top of his helmet.

I'm in South Central PA (lancaster) and new to the area. Where do you suggest we do day ski trips in PA since it doesn't look like we will be going to Vermont this month because of Covid.

 

[HawkeyeNFO]

I'm in South Central PA (lancaster) and new to the area. Where do you suggest we do day ski trips in PA since it doesn't look like we will be going to Vermont this month because of Covid.

Beltway Bandits like myself will primarily go to Whitetail, Liberty, or Roundtop. They can sometimes get a bit crowded during the day on weekends. Of those 3, Whitetail has the highest vertical.

 

[54andchange]

Having recently retired from a blissful, powderful 25-year run of deep Utah powder skiing and riding, looking forward this winter to some more traditional destination trips now that the Wasatch is locally "out of bounds" so to speak. Picked up a mountain Collective passand we have a late January trip to Big Sky Montana and an early March trip to Aspen with the concept being that we're looking for major Resorts without large local populations , in case there are restrictions on capacity. Particularly looking forward to revisiting Bridger Bowl, my old college town in Montana, on the Big Sky trip. also likely to meet up with my University of Utah son for a quick visit and local skiing with him in Utah.

 

[Sojourner]

As an avid skier, I hate the thought of missing the 20-21 season, but honestly I'm not comfortable with the risks.

The biggest one that I see would be the constant need to tend to my runny nose throughout the day, using multiple tissues that I'd have to touch repeatedly with potentially "dirty" fingers. As a pre-pandemic germaphobe, having to touch and put tissues up my nose so often while in and around crowds all day long is a recipe for major anxiety. Obviously, I would use hand sanitizer liberally, but this only goes so far. I actually caught a bad cold back in February midway through a ski trip, even though I was using sanitizer and following "best practices" hygiene the whole time.

Then there's the going in and out of warming huts and restrooms and other crowded spaces while on the mountain. During normal ski seasons, many of those places are crowded and stuffy and nearly shoulder-to-shoulder even during the week, and I'd imagine there still would be a troubling dearth of social distancing and mask wearing inside those spaces even now.

How did you 2020-2021 skiers get comfortable with these types of risks?

 

[54andchange]

Then there's the going in and out of warming huts and restrooms and other crowded spaces while on the mountain. During normal ski seasons, many of those places are crowded and stuffy and nearly shoulder-to-shoulder s?

I've always enjoyed the irony of the username of our beloved PB4USKI member here, because as we all know you "pee while you ski" and never visit those useless shopping malls at the base area. Outside all day, pack a lunch. Nothing like a picnic on a secluded Ridge top featuring sweeping distant mountain views.

 

[53anddone]

For the skiers in the forum, I thought it could be fun to share your ski adventures for this season.



I was originally planning on getting an Epic pass that works at a local resort along with Whistler, but with covid, my plans have changed. Instead I bought a season's pass to another local resort. It's the worst of the bunch in terms of runs, but very convenient and will be a nice break over the winter months.



The resort opened this weekend for season pass holders and we went today. This is the earliest opening since I started skiing five years ago. The snow quality was good and towards the end of the day it felt a lot like spring skiing. It rained briefly, but for the most part, it was partly cloudy and sunny at times. It was great to be on the mountain again and we all had fun. It also wore us out. We need to work on our conditioning! I suspect we'll be up again later in the week and probably over the weekend.



Has anyone else started their ski season?

We also live in VT so have the luxury of skiing within 10 minutes of home. I’ve been twice to Sugarbush this week on our Ikon Pass.

My early impressions are it’s very different this year with Covid. Living close by I never really went in the building much but now I won’t go in at all.

We have a trip planned to Big Sky at the end of February. We’re planning on going unless it gets a lot worse than it is now.

Also planning a hut to hit trip in April in Switzerland (delayed already from last year) but that one is completely up in the air at this point.

Would be nice if we had more snow to spread people out.

 

[LuckBeALady2016]

I live 30 minutes from a small Colorado ski mountain. Beautiful weather with decent snow conditions yesterday (with a few sketch spots). Lines were moderate, worst at the bottom. We’re pretty spoiled up here with regard to waiting for lifts- too far from Denver for a day trip. The lodge is more or less closed to visitors- they erected an outdoor burrito truck at the base.

The majority of people were wearing masks appropriately; the outliers seemed to be mostly teenaged boys.

For me it’s PB4Uski, eat and drink before you ski, and go home when you get hungry. ?

 

[tulak]

We've had some great snow and skiing this week.

I went up Tuesday after a fresh batch of snow and was greeted with clear blue skies. And long lines. It took 30-40 min for a 10 min run. We did three runs and called it a day.

Another trip on Thursday, it was a little icier, but the snow was still good. The resort opened up more runs, which was nice for the variety. Did about 7200 vertical feet and called it a day.

Went again on Friday and skied 10,500 vertical feet. We left late in the day and were stuck in traffic for 30 minutes about 4 miles from the ski resort due to snow. We were lucky though. If we left a little later, we wouldn't have gone since they closed the road behind us due to the snow. On the plus side, lots of fresh snow on the mountain and no lines. I would have skied more, but I was pushing my luck on the last few runs. My conditioning ain't quite there.

I hope this keeps up for the rest of the season. No complaints so far!

As for the experience, most people are good about wearing masks. We usually go when there are less people too, so that helps. Beyond using the restroom, we don't go indoors. The last trip, we saw they had porta-potties in the parking lot and used those instead. As for staying warm, we're only there for skiing and it hasn't been that cold. We usually ski a few hours and then leave. I do miss going to the lodge for a beverage and break to warm-up a bit, but if we have to sacrifice it for this season, that's ok.