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ante posted:Yeah, then you're relegated to the rough areas of town, the slalums This gave me quite a good chuckle. Got into a hell of a alder patch yesterday in a new zone we were exploring. We did salvage a good run out of it and sled dropped a cut block for recompense. Back in the states now. Also my GFs border test was negative (3 tests in 4 days didn't surprise us there). Back to ole I-70 next weekend, I hear there are crowds there.
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Jan 2, 2022 17:38
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I'm thinking about a trip up to Jackson's Hole in February but have heard a lot about the crowds, is it really a no go on weekends? Also thinking about Grand Targhee but don't know if I want to spend two days there.
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Jan 2, 2022 18:48
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Unless something is wack, if you're worried about crowds you should definitely choose Targhee over JHMR. Not sure why you wouldnt want to spend two days there.
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Jan 2, 2022 21:06
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Spime Wrangler posted:henceforth all ski town lodging will be assigned based on your performance in the previous year's powder 8's competition This sounds like the plot of an 80s ski movie. The competition will be narrated by a mysterious announcer heard around the mountain, and there will be gratuitous T&A.
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Jan 2, 2022 21:20
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Targhee is great. You can find powder a week after a storm there, and they have one of my favorite hotlaps ever: Toilet Bowl -> Waterfall -> Screaming Cheetah.
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Jan 2, 2022 21:26
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IncredibleIgloo posted:This sounds like the plot of an 80s ski movie. The competition will be narrated by a mysterious announcer heard around the mountain, and there will be gratuitous T&A.  
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Jan 2, 2022 22:30
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Early February is a great time to go to Jackson and Targhee, check out both on your trip if you can.
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Jan 3, 2022 01:55
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Went out touring again today, this time Hidden Peak on the west shore. Hadn’t skied it before but had done peaks just north and south of it. It was all well sheltered from the recent shifting winds an absolutely fantastic 
Steve French fucked around with this message at 02:37 on Jan 3, 2022 |
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Jan 3, 2022 02:34
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Made it up to Palisades and goddamn is it nice to be out skiing for the first time since Feb 20. What’s good around here? I’m staying at Olympic Valley, is it worth checking out Alpine?
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Jan 3, 2022 05:05
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luminalflux posted:Made it up to Palisades and goddamn is it nice to be out skiing for the first time since Feb 20. What’s good around here? I’m staying at Olympic Valley, is it worth checking out Alpine? Alpine is great, definitely worth checking out, but if you're on a shorter trip and haven't gotten tired of the Olympic Valley side terrain (or lines) you might not find it worth hopping over. It's less crowded, smaller, but still plenty of great terrain.
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Jan 3, 2022 15:45
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I feel like Alpine has better intermediate terrain than Palisades, a ton of great blues
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Jan 3, 2022 20:11
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Tour yesterday on Huntsman Ridge above Mc Clure Pass was delightful. Road had been closed for a few days due to avy danger so we were lucky to be heading to a different spot and basically get the equivalent of a backcountry rope drop.
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Jan 3, 2022 22:37
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Jealous of you all. We're having our first snow storm here and it's dumping . . . at the Shore. None of it is reaching our resorts.
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Jan 4, 2022 02:15
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Yeah if I duck any rope anywhere around here it probably means I'm getting new skis!
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Jan 4, 2022 03:19
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Steve French posted:Alpine is great, definitely worth checking out, but if you're on a shorter trip and haven't gotten tired of the Olympic Valley side terrain (or lines) you might not find it worth hopping over. It's less crowded, smaller, but still plenty of great terrain. Yesterday there was no high terrain open, just KT-22 and eastward in the morning so I headed over to Alpine. Definitely some nice blues there and a lot chiller vibe, but the expert stuff off Roundhouse was ... way too expert for me. Only had 2 lifts turning due to winds, and then apparently nearly everything at OV got shut down due to wind so everyone came over to Alpine making the few blue runs open super crowded. Hopefully the winds die down a bit today to open up more high mountain terrain but i'm not super hopeful
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Jan 4, 2022 18:46
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 Only one chair open yesterday, same story today.. They told all of lift ops to stay home yesterday and had supes running the show.
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Jan 4, 2022 19:07
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SeaborneClink posted:
Most of Mt. Hood was closed yesterday as well, or at least closed early. Today all the Mt. Hood resorts are closed.
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Jan 4, 2022 20:32
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This is pretty bonkers (and really loving needed) https://twitter.com/ZachsORoutdoors/status/1478436257763975176
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Jan 4, 2022 21:28
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Yeah even getting blasted over the past two weeks, we're still in a mild drought
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Jan 4, 2022 23:13
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Eejit posted:Yeah even getting blasted over the past two weeks, we're still in a mild drought I like how they still call it a drought... a 20 year drought. at some point isn't that just reality? More snow coming though so not going to complain.
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Jan 5, 2022 01:47
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Finally went snowboarding. Knee still not 100%, so did a handful of runs before calling it. Was a tough call as it started snowing heavily and tracks were filling in!.
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Jan 5, 2022 02:43
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So I have some new skis that came with a slide rail binding system. It is an ELS 11 Shift binding, which is some sort of mix between Elan and Tyrollia it seems. I am having a little bit of a difficult time with the size indicators. I am used to slide bindings having the sole length alternate from markings on either side of the bindings. These bindings have length indications on both sides but the seem to be two separate scales instead. One side of the binding is marked X on both the front and back and one side is marked F on front binding and B on back binding. Am I just not good at reading the size markings or are these two scales to adjust how far forward you are on the ski?
IncredibleIgloo fucked around with this message at 05:28 on Jan 6, 2022 |
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Jan 6, 2022 05:25
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Ok, I figured it out, the range of the sole length just reads left hand as the lowest of the value and the right hand the highest of the value in the range. My other bindings have the markings in a different pattern and it was confusing me!
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Jan 6, 2022 05:34
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https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/01/06/park-city-ski-patrol/ 47 bargaining sessions and vail still refuses to grant what patrol is asking for.
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Jan 6, 2022 18:36
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wilfredmerriweathr posted:https://www.sltrib.com/news/2022/01/06/park-city-ski-patrol/ I would think with the required training, skills, danger, and host of other things it would not be unreasonable to have Ski Patrollers paid in the $25/HR range, if not higher. The $17 they are asking for seems like a great deal for Vail. But I obviously don't know the industry. Is Ski Patrol comparable to people in the Video Games industry, in that since people love to ski/play games they have a large candidate pool willing to work for very little in poor conditions for companies that think very little of them?
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Jan 6, 2022 19:15
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Ski Patrol at big destination resorts ought to be like firefighters in wealthy suburbs: career-track salaried positions with full benefits including a pension. But Vail has near-monopoly power in many markets so they're doing what capital always does.
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Jan 6, 2022 19:18
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IncredibleIgloo posted:I would think with the required training, skills, danger, and host of other things it would not be unreasonable to have Ski Patrollers paid in the $25/HR range, if not higher. The $17 they are asking for seems like a great deal for Vail. But I obviously don't know the industry. Is Ski Patrol comparable to people in the Video Games industry, in that since people love to ski/play games they have a large candidate pool willing to work for very little in poor conditions for companies that think very little of them? you can go be a dental assistant with almost no training for $20/hr. $25/hr for someone risking their life and saving others still seems hilariously underpaid.
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Jan 6, 2022 19:28
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The most hosed up part of being a patroller is you don't get health insurance (usually, I am sure some places with unions maybe get it). You put your life on the line every day for peanuts and you have fight tooth and nail to have a chance to get paid what a mcdonalds employee does today - and you dont even get motherfucking health insurance. It's so far beyond infuriating to me, and I've never even been a patroller. These people put themselves in harm's way daily, handle explosives, hang out of helicopters, etc and you don't even give them health insurance? And yes, people do it because it's a job that a lot of people really want to do - you do get to ski pow runs before anybody else, so there is always a group of younger athletic skiers who want the job. Certainly at the bird there is a bigass waitlist of patrollers from other ski areas around the country just jonesing for a chance to patrol at the bird. But when you let your senior patrollers go because they can't make ends meet, you lose a ton of institutional knowledge, which in places like the wasatch is incredibly important - knowing what slopes slide, how snow collects, where to blast to set stuff off, where to ski cut, etc etc is extremely important for safe operations. The patrollers who stick around the longest usually end up being people who made a ton of money early and then decided to leave their high powered research/lawyer/doctor job to patrol, because they can afford to not make a living wage and can pay for their own health insurance. wilfredmerriweathr fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Jan 6, 2022 |
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Jan 6, 2022 19:42
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I had, erroneously, assumed that health insurance would have to be part of the gig because of the inherent danger. So that is really wild that it isn't.
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Jan 6, 2022 19:48
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Yeah it's absolutely insane isn't it?
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Jan 6, 2022 19:49
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On top of that much of the industry relies on volunteer patrollers, including places like Brighton one valley over from snowbird. Resorts out west are often a mix of pro and volunteers, and it can be competitive to be allowed in at any level. Almost every single patroller in the Midwest or at smaller hills is likely (net) paying for the privilege. My 100% volunteer patrol gets so little support from the hill owner (a public university) that we have to run yearly fundraisers to pay for our own equipment like splints and toboggans.
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Jan 6, 2022 20:05
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My mom makes $15/hour in rural ohio as a checkout clerk at Target. She has a 3 bedroom house that was $250K. I am not actually sure how patrollers exist in the west resort towns. The whole thing is insane.
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Jan 6, 2022 20:53
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Capitalism E for content: my partner was supposed to be a peak season ski instructor this year (had to pass in the end due to her main job) and she would have, with zero experience, been making at a minimum $6/hr more than patrol
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Jan 6, 2022 21:31
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there's also not a lot of gigs that'll let you river guide all summer and ski 100 days a year just gotta be ok bunking up with 7 other dirtbags to make it work
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Jan 6, 2022 22:03
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Don't forget that if you're on the snow safety/explosives team you have to get an ATF license which precludes one from partaking of jah's blessing. So let's review: -make less than instructors -no health insurance -no job in the summer -can't blaze one not to mention having to deal with dipshit rope duckers and the like. They are easily the hardest working folks on the mountain and I agree that this should be a legit career with job security and benefits, but whoops sorry I guess we'll just treat them like disposable summer camp counselors because think of the shareholders!!
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Jan 6, 2022 23:20
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Eejit posted:Capitalism I can't imagine being responsible for saving lives on the hill for the scraps you get. I used to make $10 per group lesson taught (not per hour you're at the mountain). Sure you get a meal card for discounted food, and you can usually go free ride when you're not teaching, but you have to hope to get private lessons and tips to make any actual money. It's a fun life but after a few years I realized this was dumb and only retired people and kids in high school are meant for it.
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Jan 6, 2022 23:25
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Varg posted:Where are they actually paying instructors well? Aspen I would guess. Or Sunlight but probably Aspen.
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Jan 6, 2022 23:48
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Right now Glassdoor has Aspen ski instructors making ~$30/hour, and Aspen charges $250/person for group lessons (5 people/group). So if the lesson is 5 hours Aspen gets $1100 and a senior instructor gets $150. Private lessons are similarly ~$1000. At Vail it's even worse, GD says average of $13/hour and the lessons cost almost as much as they do at Aspen.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:04
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Speaking of lessons, what's an appropriate tip for a private lesson in the midwest? Assuming the cost is ~$100.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:20
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I'm absolutely certain that it's not the $2 an hour more that is causing Vail to lowball the patrollers. I'm sure they could pay that easily. I suspect it's to discourage other employees and resorts from unionizing.
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Jan 7, 2022 00:38
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