2018-19 Season Recap

Tony Crocker":11fyqyw5 said:
Patrick":11fyqyw5 said:
I can't wait to see your reaction when I ski at Tiffindell and Afriski in South Africa/Lesotho.
Winter is an attractive tourist season in southern Africa, the best season for safari camps. So spending one day to claim the 7th continent is a likely scenario for me if I'm there anyway sometime for 2-3 weeks. (...) Since that part of southern Africa has a summer wet/winter dry climate, it is 100% WROD skiing on about 700 vertical.
There would also be Matroosberg near Cape Town that I would curious to check out if there is snow.

Tony Crocker":11fyqyw5 said:
Patrick":11fyqyw5 said:
I definitely preferred Perisher and Hotham over Thredbo.
Patrick has often stated a preference for long continuous fall lines. (...) So it's hard to see why he was impressed by Perisher's barely 1,000 vertical which sbooker from Brisbane describes as flat.

Perisher is huge and they are some steep parts which you can lap with certains lifts. Anyway good enough for the Canadian and French Freestyle team.

Tony Crocker":11fyqyw5 said:
Patrick":11fyqyw5 said:
I knew that Australia was having their best season in a generation
As a Northeaster, Patrick should know that rain can turn a previously great season to crap in short order. Last weekend was Exhibit A. Nonetheless it was great to see Patrick catch a break in Australia considering he skied New Zealand in a very bad year.

I wouldn't call it a very bad year, I had a great time. Skied 7 days, travelled 4400km across two islands over 3 weeks. Australia was somewhat the same idea, but I had less time. Same amount of ski days, 2600km over 2 weeks (I couldn't manage more time).
 
Patrick":1l8mt3iy said:
I wouldn't call it a very bad year,
The people who live there did. It was the worst year on record for the Canterbury areas near Christchurch, which includes nearly all of the club fields. Fortunately if you're going to a region when the skiing is bad, NZ is a good choice because there is so much else to do. Three of my four ski trips there were on average mediocre for snow conditions, better than Patrick's NZ trip but not as good as his Australia trip.
 
Looking increasingly like I won't ski again this winter so I'll drop my current #'s in here and update if necessary. Part of it is that unlike some, I have little interest in spending 3-4 hours in the car for ~2-3 hours of corn skiing before things get to be heavy slop. Not a good value proposition for me.

Anyway, a solid season and my first back over the 30 day mark since Jr was born. Also several first time visits for me (** below). 36 total days. A bit surprising since Jr had surgery in Feb, but he hit 29 days (2 of them when I was not there). My wife had 14 days, enough to justify her Ikon pass, though she's not a big skier.


By Resort
Eldora 16 44%
Copper 4 11%
Winter Park 6 17%
Whistler** 4 11%
Taos 2 6%
Breckenridge 1 3%
Vail 1 3%
Cypress** 1 3%
Angel Fire** 1 3%

By Month
Nov 2 6%
Dec 6 17%
Jan 6 17%
Feb 7 19%
Mar 12 33%
Apr 3 8%
 
EMSC":a6pcqo1e said:
~2-3 hours of corn skiing before things get to be heavy slop
Out here you can often get a good full day skiing groomers early on and moving by noon to the steeps, where gravity overcomes the spring snow resistance. I'm consistently skiing 20+K per day over Memorial weekend even though I'm usually done by 1:30 - 2:00PM.

Unfortunately A-Basin's window for those conditions is typically about 2 weeks before the steeps are shut down for wet snow instability. It will be interesting to see how Breck handles that. A-Basin's strength is that winter conditions with some powder days often extend all the way through April into early May like this year. We had that experience ourselves when we chose to wrap up the terrible 2014-15 California season in Colorado.
 
The Pali shutdown came on May 17 but only lasted two days before the winter weather returned. I don't think EMSC's ski season should necessarily be over with the ongoing weather, conditions and open terrain.
 
Pali finally closed for good on June 2. That's remarkably late given A-Basin's stringent monitoring of the spring snowpack and a testimony to the high quality of May skiing in 2019. A-Basin will be open at least 3 weekends in June but limited to the blue terrain from the Black and Lenawee lifts. There will be significant steeps skiable at Mammoth for at least another month.
 
Well, since the one month break between April 14 to May 11, I've scored 5 straight weekend at Mont St-Sauveur plus one earned turns day 15km away from home at Camp Fortune.

Kudos on making late season great which finished with a closure of skiing and opening of waterpark on the same day, Saturday June 8. No worry, the ski season is never over, I'm taking a break next weekend for Morgane's university graduation, but I should be back on snow the following weekend.

Updated numbers below:

Patrick wrote:
Anyway here is my current count, I've been stuck at the same count since April 14, my longer break from skiing since November. There are still one month left of skiing within a day drive and beyond in the East, so I'm hoping to get a chance to go, but a few important issues are still in the way.

Days 86 (72 Days / 14 nights)

Local Ottawa - 60miles/100km or less:
Edelweiss: 53
Ste-Marie: 6
Calabogie ON: 1
Fortune: 2* earned turns
Cascades: 1

Not local
Killington VT: 6
Mad River Glen VT: 3
St-Sauveur QC: 8
Smuggs' VT: 1
Cannon NH: 1
Burke VT: 1
Owl's Head QC: 1
Bretton Woods NH: 1
Middlebury VT: 1

Before someone gets on me, I've been being paid with 66 of those outings (I managed to pay for my NZ 2016 and Australia 2018 trips for those 2 seasons of coaching), so my actual out of pocket cost is $165 US or under $2CDN/day.
 
Patrick":2hgdiyxz said:
Well, since the one month break between April 14 to May 11, I've scored 5 straight weekend at Mont St-Sauveur
How much skiable terrain is left at MSSA from mid-May on?
 
jamesdeluxe":2vw4hns4 said:
Patrick":2vw4hns4 said:
Well, since the one month break between April 14 to May 11, I've scored 5 straight weekend at Mont St-Sauveur
How much skiable terrain is left at MSSA from mid-May on?

Well they had all of Hill 70 and Nordique open plus the Silver Creek(?) park for a few weekends.


Pictures from May 11:
Open terrain
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxcdyqlBuUn/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Closed terrain (Hill 71):
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxgtRwOhD_P/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pictures from May 18 (May Madness):
Day
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxqkZh_BdM8/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Night
https://www.instagram.com/p/BxtJ9rUhq8N/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pictures from May 26:
They sacrificed the bottom of the Nordique trail to push snow for the base of the lift. Hill 70, Upper Nordique and park were still opened.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bx8nBval2sN/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pictures from June 1:
Hill 70 and Upper Nordique. Silver park is done. They moved some of the snowpark features on Nordique.
Part 1:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByMadp0Fg8z/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 2:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bybzi5gF_j2/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pictures from June 2:
Part 1:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByPDW-Lln14/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 2 to be posted soon (waiting for a video).

Drive back:
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByTUNeMlDuS/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Pictures from June 8:
Only Hill 70 left...walking required to reach the lift.
Part 1:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byd5_ZXFM3X/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 2:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Byg8GoPl_ef/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Part 3 to be posted soon. Waiting for a video.
 
Area Sum of Days Sum of Vertical Sum of Powder
Mt. Baldy 4 67.8 9
Mammoth 18 425.4 24
Snow Summit 0.5 12 0
Bear Mt. 0.5 8.1 0
Snowbird 4.5 74 29
Alta 1.5 24.9 8
Taos 3 53.1 0
Deer Valley 1 24.8 2
Killington 1 16 0
Telluride 3 68.5 0
Purgatory 1 26.8 0
Crystal Mt. 2 33.9 2
Fernie 1 19 6
Apex Alpine 1 20.6 3
Castle Mt. 2 43.4 5
Arizona Snowbowl 1 28.1 0
Wolf Creek 1 16 1
Ski Santa Fe 1 13.2 2
Revelstoke 1 16 0
Mustang Powder Snowcat 3 54.5 49
Andermatt Gemsstock, Switz. 2 37.4 12
*Stratton 2 19.4 0
*Sunday River 1 14.7 0
*Sugarbush 1 21.1 1
*Arosa, Switz. 0.5 8.4 3
*Lenzerheide, Switz. 0.5 10 1
*St. Moritz: Corvatsch, Switz. 1 18.6 3
*St. Moritz: Corviglia, Switz. 1 18 1
*Diavolezza/Lagalb, Switz. 1 18.3 4
*Engelberg-Titlis, Switz. 2.5 49.8 14
*Brunni, Switz. 0.5 4.6 0
*Andermatt-Sedrun, Switz. 1 24.8 2
*Morzine/Les Gets, France 1 14.5 5
*Avoriaz, France 1 22.1 8
*Chatel, France 1 16.3 6
*Stevens Pass 1 19.3 3
*Pajarito 1 17.6 12
Totals 70 1381.0 215
* = new area

Now complete after June 21 with Patrick at Mammoth. Liz and I are off to the South Pacific June 25 - July 29. Liz had 50 days. She did not go to Canada but she got a couple of SoCal local days at Mt. High East and Waterman when I was gone.

This was my fourth highest season in day count, second highest in vertical and third highest in powder. Good years in California help, but the early 5 days in the Northeast and the Southwest road trip after Iron Blosam Week were also out of the ordinary.

Those extra trips also contributed to record area counts for one season: 37 total areas and 16 new areas. Liz had 19 new areas in 2018-19 and is up to 170 lifetime, about double what she had when we met in 2011. We were big beneficiaries of the Ikon Pass. I skied 37 days at 12 different Ikon areas. Liz skied 27 days at 10 different Ikon areas. We are cutting back to the Base Ikon for 2019-20 because Liz used no days that would not have been on that pass and I used one (a 6th day at Altabird).

Powder was very much in bits and pieces rather than concentrated in big days like last year. From Jan. 9 to Mar. 15 I skied 35 days and only two of them with no powder. Both of those were abbreviated days skiing just groomers in anticipation of powder to come.

The Euro trip delivered high quality skiing as in the previous two seasons. The "Big Five" off piste routes in Engelberg were my highlight of that trip. Canada was getting into its lean phase of 2018-19 while I was there but my timing was lucky. Mustang got 8 inches new snow upon our arrival and we got to ski a lot of Mustang's best terrain. The 4 feet of new snow during Iron Blosam Week was a record for the 20+ years I've been going there. Our timing was good for New Mexico too, with bell-to-bell powder at Pajarito, good slackcountry in Santa Fe's Big Tesuque and excellent conditions on Taos' Kachina Peak. I always get some good spring skiing at Mammoth, but June 8 makes the short list of "as good as spring skiing gets."
 
An impressive season with so many different regions: SoCal, Mammoth, BC, Wasatch, southwest, New England, CH, FR,

All those numbers running together after each ski area make my head spin.
 
Patrick":mozuk3rs said:
I can't wait to see your reaction when I ski at Tiffindell and Afriski in South Africa/Lesotho.
Here you go, Patrick:

Yesterday someone posted a TR from Lesotho on Alpinforum with pix on both pages (here's a Google translation so you have an idea what he's talking about). It's 4.5 hours south of Johannesburg and the ski terrain (basically a WROD) is 3,030 to 3,222 meters, which surprises me. I would've never guessed that type of elevation there.
 
jamesdeluxe":2efocy7k said:
(basically a WROD)
imageproxy

No kidding. I've told people here that Afriski/Tiffendell have a summer wet/winter dry climate (what one would expect at latitude 29), but that pic is the perfect illustration.

jamesdeluxe":2efocy7k said:
3,030 to 3,222 meters, which surprises me. I would've never guessed that type of elevation there.
Most of eastern Africa from Ethiopia through the northern half of South Africa is a plateau typically in the 3,000 - 6,000 foot range. This region was popular for European settlement because many insect scourges, notably the tsetse fly, only live in the tropical lowlands. The high altitude tropical climate is quite pleasant; thus many low latitude capitals are at 4,000+ feet: Mexico City, Bogota, Quito, La Paz, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Harare, Pretoria.

The Drakensberg Mountains top out at 11,340 along Lesotho's eastern border. The two ski areas are on the northern and southern borders, both around 9,700 feet. They are the highest mountains south of the partially glaciated mountains in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
 
^^^^^^^^
Seeing that I can safely keep South Africa off my skiing bucket list.
Looks a little uninspiring.
 
Sbooker":10oin2t7 said:
Seeing that I can safely keep South Africa off my skiing bucket list. Looks a little uninspiring.
Agreed, not really much different from skiing indoors in Dubai. I was in South Africa 1.5 years ago and didn't even consider going there.
 
I'm probably done as Mammoth sounds like it is more limited this week than last, but another day or two is always possible.
No new ski areas for me, will try to change that next season.

Season total = 65 days which beats previous high of 56 last season (and 52 the two preceding years).

Almost 1.4M vertical. If I’d known I was only 1,700 short, I might have taken a couple of quicks laps on Mammoth’s chair 3 on 7/3. Three days over 30K; two at Northstar plus a powder day at Snowbird. Monthly totals: Nov 3, Dec 6, Jan 10, Feb 14, Mar 19, Apr 10, Jul 3

Tahoe Local Pass 34 days - Kirkwood 14, Heavenly 13 (includes 2 days that I also skied Mammoth), Northstar 5, Park City, Stevens Pass gave me half-off

Ikon Base Pass 27 days - Mammoth 6 (2 with Heavenly), Altabird 5, Squalpine 4, Big Sky 3, JHMR 3, Crystal 2, Brighton 2, Deer Valley and Revelstoke

Mustang Powder 3 days catskiing

Day tickets at Ashland (OR) 1/2 day PM on President’s Day, Apex (BC)

Free ticket from ski show used at Sierra-at-Tahoe
 
Hot on the heels of my greatest ever season at Discovery in 2017-2018 with record snow and amazing conditions the early long range forecasts were not looking all that great for 2018-2019 but it turned into a stonker!

I flew out last year to celebrate Opening Day, Thanksgiving and hunting in November. I flew out on November 14th but Discovery got early storms so for the first time I remember they moved opening day forward and I missed it! 6am on my first day ever hunting I sat drinking coffee with the old timers and by 8am I had fired 1 shot and had my mule deer buck in the bag. Never did get my antlerless deer in the other district but I didn't mind.

I got 8 days skiing(7 Disco, 1 Big Sky) and had some of the best turns on Limelight I could ever have imagined. Thigh deep powder one Sunday afternoon after a buddy in patrol told us to be at the top at 1pm. Sure enough by ten past I was having a ball. I finished 3rd in a local 5k race despite being severely hungover.

Fast forward to February and I flew out on the 27th meaning I would get to ski my first ever Feb days at Discovery and would ski right through to closing day on April 7th.

I have never ever seen consistent cold like that in all the years I have been coming over. -30f with windchill and mounds of snow in town for the duration. It never felt all that cold on the hill. I skied every day with the exception of 16th March when I headed to Bozeman to run in the Run to the Pub 1/2 marathon. I got back to the bar at the bottom of the Discovery access road at 3pm but couldn't be arsed fighting my way to the hill for 1 run so drank beers with friends.

I landed up on that trip skiing 38 days.

TOTALS

Discovery 45
Big Sky 1
 
q":15562gxw said:
Discovery 45
Big Sky 1
Fascinating how q takes a polar opposite approach to overseas ski trips from me, becoming a quasi local at one location/ski area.

Two months of holiday/vacation time per year -- as I've said before, must be nice! Are you planning to retire there?
 
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