Category: Resort Skiing

Revelstoke Mountain Resort 2.26.10

Posted by Frank – March 11, 2010

From Roger’s Pass, Brittany and I made our way down to the town of Revelstoke. Meanwhile our friends Jon and Susan headed our way from Pemberton, so we’d be a foursome for Revelstoke. Revelstoke Mountain Resort (RMR) opened just recently, in December 2007, and boasts North America’s biggest vertical drop at 5,620′. A number of additional lifts and other developments are currently planned which will make RMR North America’s largest ski area.

The current “feel” at RMR is definitely one of a work in progress. Ever been in a half finished house sporting insulation and unfinished subfloors? That’s what RMR feels like right now- a work in progress. The trail layout is really strange, but with more lifts, some of the many traverses currently necessary to navigate the resort may be a thing of the past.

Without a guide, the 4 of us were left finding our own way around in the fog and light snow that was falling. We found some fun areas, but also found some heinous creek gullies funneling us to the other lifts. On to the pics…

Susan and I checking things out:
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Brittany at the top of a short hike:
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Brittany:
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Sweet visibility in the ping pong ball:
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Jon:
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One thing for sure at RMR is that they had fun naming things, with chairs called The Stoke and The Ripper. But I liked this trial name best of all:
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While RMR may boast a lot of vertical, the bottom half of the mountain was thin and icy, and not worth skiing. We had to ski this pitch right under the gondola, which was humorously dangerous and difficult given the icy condition it was in:
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Originally, we planned to ski RMR another day, or go sled skiing with Jon and Susan. Avalanche conditions were pretty bad, however, and the ski area wasn’t skiing that well. Perhaps most importantly, Brittany and I had been hitting it pretty hard, always skiing and driving without a single day off. So we adjusted our plans and left Revelstoke a day early so we could hit up some hot springs and ski an unplanned day at Whitewater outside Nelson. Jon and Susan went to check out the sled access skiing and reported back that even approaching low angled slopes would cause them to avalanche on the surface hoar layer that is plaguing the area this season. Meanwhile, Brittany and I were enjoying our sightseeing tour. Our route required a ferry across Arrow Lake:
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It was a beautiful day:
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We had lunch in the scenic town of New Denver, which sits at the base of some nice looking peaks:
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We stopped at the Ainsworth Hot Springs, which were notable for the caves you could walk through.
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Eventually, we rolled into the picturesque town of Nelson, more on that later…
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Other Montana-Canada Road Trip Blog Posts
Road Trip Update
Itinerary
Bridger Bowl
Whitefish
Fernie
Kicking Horse
Roger’s Pass

TR: Whitefish, MT 2.21.10-2.22.10

Posted by Frank – March 5, 2010

After our excellent day at Bridger Bowl, we got in the car and went straight to Whitefish, a tiring five and a half hour drive after a day of skiing, but necessary to get another day of skiing in. Whitefish is known for being cloudy, but our two days there featured a complete lack of clouds, perfect for checking out the nearby peaks of Glacier National Park.

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7 Hours of the Banana

Posted by Frank – January 25, 2010

I thought I should spread the word about this event for anyone who is interested. It is, afterall, a fundraiser.

The banana is the steep chute right under the peak at Crested Butte, as seen here (green line):

Whether as a team or flying solo, the goal is to make as many laps as possible from bell to bell (9 to 4), hence the 7 hours of the banana. I think it’s about 2500′ of vert and it’ll hurt. A lot.

Should be a lot of fun for you enduro types, plus lots of parties and prizes and stuff. The date is Feb 27 and it’s a fundraiser for the adaptive sports center and the Cb ski club.

More info HERE

Top Ten Ski Areas in North America

Posted by Frank – January 19, 2010

Brittany and I are hoping to head up to interior B.C in about a month to do some touring and some lift riding as well. One of the reasons I’m excited about this trip is that we will hopefully visit some of the areas I have not been to, but have wanted to visit for years, such as Fernie, Kicking Horse, and the new Revelstoke resort. I may need to adjust my top ten list once I visit those areas, but for now, of the areas I’ve been to, here’s my top ten list in no particular order:

1: Crested Butte
2: Whistler/ Blackcomb
3: Red Mountain
4: Jackson Hole
5: Snowbird
6: Alta
7: Snowbasin
8: Squaw Valley
9: Bridger Bowl
10: Big Sky/ Moonlight

That’s my list, what’s yours?

Crested Butte Two For Ones are Back

Posted by Frank – January 16, 2010

One of the best deals in skiing is back. Buy at least an 18pack of Coors in Gunnison, ask for the 2for1 voucher, and get two tickets for the price of one at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. Plus you’ve got a bunch of beer to drink :) The deal has a few weekends, like President’s Day, that are blacked out, so be sure to check things out first. Hopefully some front range skiers will be able to take advantage of this deal next week, when a series of storms are forecast to hit the area. It won’t take a ton of snow to get the steeps open, and the packers have seemingly hit everything on the mountain, so it could get real good, real fast. Fingers are crossed.

Contact a liquor store in Gunnison to make sure the deal is available…
Wet Grocer (970) 641-5054
Gunnison Liquor Store (970) 641-1717
High Mountain Liquor (970) 641-6304

Vail Resorts- Broomfield, CO

Posted by Frank – December 21, 2009

The headquarters of Vail Resorts are located in Broomfield, CO, a suburb of Denver. I kind of find it sad that these ski areas are being run from some office park in a city. Perhaps it is a romantic notion that a ski area should be run by someone local and involved in a community, or perhaps it’s a real problem with today’s resort conglomerates.

When I was younger, my dad pointed out someone in a lift line in Winter Park and said, “That’s Jerry Groswold.” He went on to tell me that Mr. Groswold was the president and CEO of Winter Park, but still made it a point to ski every day Winter Park was running. Legend has it that he never missed a day. So what, you say? Well, if a lift operator reeked of booze and the bathroom was dirty and the hamburger seemed more like a hockey puck, Jerry knew it. Maybe I was just young and impressionable, but I’ve always thought that that is exactly how a ski area should be run.

I wonder how often the president/CEO of Vail Resorts visits Keystone/Breckenridge/Vail/Beaver Creek/Heavenly, and puts himself in the shoes of a customer. Perhaps it doesn’t matter. Or maybe the business of skiing has become so disconnected with plain old skiing that resorts forget what business they’re really in. As the baby boomers keep retiring from skiing, skier visits keep going down- and I’m not sure what ski areas are doing about it. Maybe they should start by skiing themselves, every day, and keeping their headquarters located in the ski areas they run.

Crested Butte Storm

Posted by Frank – December 15, 2009

A few photos from the last few days:

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Brittany’s car:
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Crested Butte Mountain Resort received roughly three feet out of this storm system. Some new terrain opened, including some of the steeps like West Wall. The base isn’t quite there, but at least it’s on its way now. Patrol should have enough snow to work with and get everything but the “extreme” terrain open once they run boundary ropes.

The backcountry is still unbelievably touchy. Reports indicate that more like 5 or 6 feet fell at places like Irwin. The good news is that the weather this week looks dry and relatively warm, and even the lows aren’t going to be way below zero like they were earlier this month. Hopefully that will really settle things out for a more stable snowpack as we move forward this season.

Crested Butte Mountain Resort Denied on Snodgrass

Posted by Frank – November 10, 2009

The forest service has decided to really throw a wrench in CBMR’s plans to expand onto Snodgrass Mountain. Their letter to CBMR can be found here:

CBMR’s reaction is here:

Update 11.12.09: 2 more articles in the local paper that are well worth reading for those interested…
Official Story
Local Reactions

It will be interesting to see where CBMR goes from here. They will almost certainly appeal, but who knows where that will get them. Snodgrass is the only logical place to go for more intermediate terrain, and the resort could use more intermediate terrain for families. I have a feeling this is far from over…

Soul Sessions and Epic Impressions

Posted by Frank – November 4, 2009

That’s the name of Matchstick Production’s first movie back in 1993. OK, technically they were known as RAF, not MSP back then, and a few people still have a copy of 1991’s “Nachos and Fear”, which wasn’t released, but Soul Sessions is what put MSP on the map. I watched it again for the first time in a long time and remembered just how much I love that movie. It has never been re-released on DVD, and searches on ebay were fruitless. Heck, I couldn’t even find a clip on youtube. Still, if you can find this movie, or know someone who has it, you might want to give it a look and here’s why.

The movie starts with this: “Ski bums are ski bums and always will be. All abandoned establishment lifestyles to recreate all day, every day in the mountains. This movie is dedicated to them.” And the movie starred ski bums. Dave Bluestein, one of the skiers, was washing dishes at The Slogar back in those days. The movie then says this: “1,000 years in the future, archaeologists will excavate ski towns, and their findings, along with the history books, will lead them to the conclusion that skiing was just a sport. They’ll never know that life is skiing and skiing is life.” The voice-overs are rounded out with some Clint Eastwood movie quotes (”Alive or dead, it’s your choice”) and some Kerouac.

I was 19 years old when this movie came out, and I ate that stuff up. Someone else who was 19 at the time of this movie was a Western State College student by the name of Seth Morrison, who made his film debut in this movie. The footage of Seth airing most of “The Edge”, one of Crested Butte’s steepest runs, is timeless. I have yet to see someone try the same thing on modern fat skis. Seth made this movie, and MSP made Seth. To see inbounds runs at places like Crested Butte and Taos actually make a movie, sometimes even in springtime conditions (rather than powder) is virtually non-existent these days. I think that the occasional segment outside of the park at a ski area wouldn’t be a bad thing at all, in fact it would let people understand just what these top-notch athletes are actually doing.

Lots of skiers say that the “Blizzard of Ah’s” had a huge effect on them, but for me “Soul Sessions” probably had an even bigger effect. A lot of things led me to this place called Crested Butte, and this movie is a big part of that. It just seemed like the place to be at the time. I wish I had a clip to show, but I don’t. So seek this movie out, then learn it, love it, and live it :)

Crested Butte Post-Season 4.19.09

Posted by Frank – May 19, 2009

Sorry for yet another late post– In this case, I was hoping for more photos from the other participants, but that’s OK. I’ll just dedicate this TR to the Denver Nuggets and their first Western Conference Finals playoff game in 24 years :)

A last minute change of plans had Ben, Tom, Rob and me unloading our sleds at the base of the ski area a little over a week after they closed. Why on earth would we go ski our home ski area when we could ski elsewhere, you ask? Well, for one thing, we knew we would be able to ride tandem up all the access roads at the ski area, so we could be lazy and ski laps without any hiking. For another, Ben and I have had our eyes on some permanently closed areas since we each arrived in Crested Butte in 1996. Skiing them after the area is closed is the only way we could ski them.

We weren’t the only ones out that day, but there was still plenty to go around. We started off with a warmup lap on the headwall, which had received a fair bit of snow since the area had closed, which had the effect of eliminating all the bumps which usually clog up the runouts. Ben was the first to go, hitting the “diving board” variation of Angle gully:
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Tom went next, on the McConkey Memorial Spatulas. He chose to boost it off of box rock:

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Rob and I skied the next lap together, so I don’t have any photos of either of us. Next we went to the area we really wanted to get to, the forbidden zone known as “Lookout”. This area was open one season long ago, but patrol had to rope out so many people, they had to shut it down. The dominant route in this area is an exposed diagonal chute that empties back into Spellbound bowl. Ben got first dibs on routefinding. Here he is, safely coming out the bottom:
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To enter the diagonal, we each had to find a line and straighline a short rocky section, and the first turn was crucial, or else we would send it off the large cliff below. Coming through the crux, my tracks are looker’s right and Ben’s are looker’s left:
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Rob was next:
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We had all been standing on an alternate line, and Tom somehow mustered up the courage to give it a go. He nailed it. Here are the photos:
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We made another lap in another closed area, Teo2 bowl to end the day. Hopefully this area will be open as early as next season. It is a fun but short/sweet area that should offer up a lot better skiing than the (what I consider to be) boring Teocalli bowl. I didn’t get any great shots in this area.

Meanwhile, Matchstick Productions were up to their own thing after the area closed. Snowcats had taken all the snow from the park and sculpted a huge booter for their jibber athletes to hit. Coming soon to a Matchstick movie near you (notice how small the snowcat seems in comparison):
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