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The Official Skiing / Snowboarding / Playing in the Snow Thread

imatlas

Saucy White Boy
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With my student for the week, a veteran with TBI. He went from never-ever to skiing the bunny hill top to bottom, in one day: crushing it. My boss was so impressed he doubled my pay (from 0 to 00)

(No gap here!)

6B0ED47C-A88C-463B-B98E-B76FD07FEA4F.jpeg
 

otc

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Planning a trip to Toronto in March. Got any recommendations for a good, nearby resort for a first timer? I'd only do a day trip and will take a class. FYI a google search shows multiple resorts so looking for additional thoughts or personal anecdotes.

Never been myself, but Blue Mountain is the big one (and not really that big). But if you are a first timer, then size doesn't really matter too much because you won't be able to ski it all.

If you want to save a few bucks and few hours of driving, Mount St. Louise Moonstone sounds like a nice option. Trail map looks reasonable for a beginner.

Damn, I was hoping that would slip by ?
Sierra Trading Post has a pretty decent goggle selection right now: https://www.sierra.com/ski-and-snowboard-goggles~d~102/
Just shop how I shop...order 50 different pairs, pick the one that works the best, and return the rest.

Properly shopping there takes a little effort if you're not familiar...you sign up for their email list and they send almost daily coupons (I just auto-sort them into a junk folder that I only check when I want to shop there). It isn't as good as it used to be, but you can reliably find 25% off that works on most items...used to see 40% relatively often back in the day.

Then you route your purchase through Active Junky cash back (works for lots of other outdoor retailers too) which is currently paying 11%. (you can use my referral link if you really want, but they are only paying a $5 signup bonus right now). I find that I have to use their "my purchase isn't showing up" support link on occasion, but they have always paid out.

Their selection is totally random, but they actually get a lot of great gear. One of their big sources is European brands that need to dump old product but don't want to drive down local prices...Haglofs, Jack Wolfskin, Asolo...last year I tried out a bunch of different ski poles that were all from european ski brands that use Komperdell as their OEM pole manufacturer and were ~$20 on sale.
 

Numbernine

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I’ve used the same pair of Goodes for at least 25 seasons . I replaced the wrist straps and put some Black Diamond powder baskets on them but they still push my fat old ass up off the snow when I need them to. Same with gloves . I have all leather Hestras with goat skin palms and removable liners .other than an awesome patina they’re good as new after at least 10 seasons. Boots and skis well that’s a whole nuther discussion
 

imatlas

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TFW you realize the person you are following into serious terrain is an Olympic skier, and you are not...

I get pro deals on most ski gear. I have three pairs of goggles (and I’m thinking of upgrading to a pair of Scott Chromapops, having heard really good things about them.

I don’t know how you keep goggles going that long. Usually the foam starts to break down after a while. Maybe I have especially caustic sweat?
 

otc

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Spending a weekend at granite peak in WI and it is surprisingly legit.

Even has some pretty big Cliff drops that are inbounds and trees that are sort of skiable.
1324312


Was snowing all night so way better than typical Midwest conditions, but it was warm today so it all got real heavy by noon. Hope it doesn't go completely rock solid tonight.
 

otc

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So I started playing around with rails a bit and it actually went pretty well.

Last time I tried to grind a rail was probably in about 2007 with some rental skis and I ended up with some large hip bruises as my legs kept shooting out from under me (I believe I was under the mistaken impression that you should literally try to grind away metal from the rail whit your edges and thus would hit it more like a hockey stop...)

Now I come armed with:
  • secondhand park skis where I don't have to care about the edges
  • youtube tutorials telling me to
  • having spent some time messing around on boxes last season (which the youtube tutorials suggested...although I never did great).
This place didn't have good boxes, but it has a progression park with very tiny rails to start with. They were almost too small but they got me used the the motion since unlike snowboarders, we don't get the easy option of starting going straight...we have to commit to going perpendicular to the rail. That gave me enough confidence to try some bigger rails in the grown up park.

This time I didn't slam a single body part into a rail. I fell or knocked off a ski a few times, but most of the time I stayed on my feet. I always slid off the rail after a couple of feet, but I was sticking on longer as the attempts went further. Still couldn't bring myself to commit to any rails that required more than a tiny amount of hop to get on...

I think I will play with this more now that the initial fear is gone...maybe try to find a freestyle lesson too as the nearby Wisconsin hills offer mediocre skiing but often have pretty strong park operations.
 

imatlas

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I've only tried going sideways on a box a couple of times, with the inevitable results, and I quickly realized that I didn't want to destroy my skis learning to do it. I'd love to take a freestyle clinic and be able to teach the basics.
 

imatlas

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That camp sounds pretty amazing. I have no doubt that you'd make a huge amount of progress in a really short time. The group size is small enough that they should be able to put you with students at a similar level, so you don't feel like it's too low-level for you.
 

otc

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Yeah, there's a guy in the comments who has been twice and said he could do 3's before going...he went back a second time, so it must have been good. I cannot consistently land 3's (180s are no problem), but I could probably clean them up in a day or two of real practice if I went somewhere that had a good progression park. Also, a trampoline workshop is definitely worthwhile...

On the boxes...It sounds weird but I actually almost found the rail easier than the boxes. With sharp edges, it seems much easier to hook the plastic and the friction is more variable depending how much ski is touching. So on the rails I mostly just slid off to the side, while when I have done boxes elsewhere, it was usually a split between sliding to the end, or hooking something and getting tossed.
 

UnFacconable

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I just realized I never got around to posting an update on my family's Unf free MLK weekend; hopefully this is helpful to other parents with young skiiers that are considering where to go. TL; DR - we've had our complaints about ***** but will probably never go back to Northstar for lessons (for entirely predictable reasons).

Mrs. Unf took the kids up to ***** and Northstar while I luxuriated at home because I refuse to go up during holidays. The friday before the weekend had gnarly traffic so she showed up to ***** (where the passes were not yet holiday blacked out) about 30 minutes late for their lesson. Because we've been going a bunch, they recognized the kids and knew exactly what groups to put them in, took them to the top of the mountain and they didn't miss much.

Because my younger kid has taken a few lessons, he doesn't really have any peers in his age group and the last few times he's been in a group of 1. That is likely to recur throughout the season as he continues to ski. The older kid is typically in a group of 2 or 3. The group lessons max at 4 kids at ***** and Alpine and the instructors have been great across the board so it's overall been a great experience and we are going to keep at it. Highlights from that day included the younger one getting some solid time working on weight transfer on Big Blue (ironically a beginner lift) and the older one got some pow and complained about having to take the treacherous Mountain Run down (but certainly not for the last time).

Mrs. Unf then took them to Northstar on Saturday (where she had some friends visiting who were putting their 2 kids in ski lessons as well) and it was a total junkshow. Northstar charges more (about $100 per lesson) and has 6 kids per group. They don't have a physical building for the school, so the intake is out in the open and pretty disorganized. Then they need to move them somewhere else to actually get them on the hill. It takes a long time and there is a lot of sitting around. It appeared to my wife that kids under 4 spend at least an hour before they even get their skis on. Fortunately we said my younger kid was 4 and he ended up in the same group as my older kid. The instructor wasn't as good as what we are used to from ***** and it's not clear the kids really got any better in their lesson, but that's in part based on the feedback that said my younger was more advanced than my older (which is definitely not true). Oh also, Northstar's shuttle/parking scene is terrible and even worse when you are lugging kids' gear.

The upside to Northstar was that there were some freshies left 2 days after snowfall and my wife had some fun blasting the (not very) steeps that they had.

We are thinking of going to Alpine soon for ski school because we think the mountain is a bit better setup there and we miss skiing there as well. Now that the kids are comfortable at *****, that's one consideration we are taking into account but some variety will be nice. The only real drawback to Alpine is that it's a bit farther from where we stay but that's not the end of the world. Plus we might have an @imatlas sighting!
 
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imatlas

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I avoid Northstairs at all cost. I used to go on storm days for the backside trees, but the parking situation has only gotten worse over the last few years and I’ve given up on the place.
 

Numbernine

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