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A NYT article reports on life for many ski-industry employees in Frisco, CO.

A sad story about a skier who didn't clear the road on Highway 40 near Winter Park: link

You may have noticed that I'm a big fan of skiing alongside bodies of water. I lined up these pix a couple years ago during off-season and never got around to posting them but since Tseeb seems to be throwing down the gauntlet above to jimk above, maybe now's the time. Following are mine taken...

While the previous four days on this trip were at new-to-me places that finally pushed my count over 200, to close out this visit I opted for a return to a locals area on the south edge of picturesque Lake Lucerne that I skied on a powder day nine years ago. Starting out at lake-level 754m, I...

Before I get started with the proper trip report, here's a perfect opportunity for a minor grumble about European skiing, the dreaded hyphenated resort name: Engelberg-Titlis, Warth-Schröcken, Silvretta-Montafon, Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Damüls-Mellau, Mundaun-Obersaxen, St-Luc-Chandolin...

As this high-pressure system continues, I had to make up my mind whether to hit another big name in the Swiss skiing pantheon despite the lack of recent snow. I decided to go ahead with it because the following two days will likely have some level of cloud cover. Composed of the renowned Titlis...

I mentioned in the Europe 2024-25 thread that the Magic Pass -- which is basically made up of what Tony refers to as "James areas" (I've already skied at 19 of them) -- will be growing and they just announced a number of new mountains for 2025-26, in yellow below. I was surprised that the Gstaad...

It was certainly great to go to Andermatt yesterday and a) see why it's such a well-known ski area, b) get a first-hand impression of how much excellent offpiste there is under better conditions. Still, being one of several thousand other customers always makes me a bit squeamish, so I got back...

With sunny skies forecast for today and tomorrow, I went to one of the high-elevation circuits around here that Tony has visited several times. We've already discussed at length that most parts of the Alps could use new snow and it was certainly the case here. I spoke with some locals in the...

I find that hard to believe given how much you've traveled in Africa. I've only been to Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, and the Congo, and the roadside/hillside trash I've seen there is, well, significant.

I didn't understand the recent paywall challenges as any links that I post from WP or NYT are always gift articles. Does the javascript fix only apply to WaPo? I mentioned in a different thread a workaround for virtually all paywalled articles: plug the URL into archive.is.

Beach turf wars! When I lived in Chicago 30 years ago, people on the pleasant North Side used folding chairs to stake claims for parking spots in front of their apartments. The practice apparently continues.

California fires happen frequently and there have been other discussions here about those affecting ski areas. Since this event is hitting the state's biggest metro region, I'll start a separate thread. I've been reading coverage from several sources (but not the LA Times, which is still...

I'm always amazed by the amount of business that rental ski shops do in the Alps compared to the U.S. We've discussed that there's always been a significantly higher casual-skier demographic in Europe and that the Vail Resorts/Alterra duopoly has exacerbated the situation -- putting last-minute...

A very useful aspect of Google Maps over the years was the overlay of ski areas' lifts and trails like this one for Aletsch Arena in Switzerland: I believe that they stopped adding new ones a long time ago; however, that feature seems to have been completely removed since last winter. Here's a...

After seeing these quotes ^^ in the BC Snowcat discussion, I wasn't able to find a dedicated thread about this topic: What's the percentage of skiing that you do solo? Do you enjoy it or do you try to avoid it?

I ran into this series of well-done articles from the Skipass site that cover a mixture of lift-served and earned-turns days at locations to the south/southwest of Briançon and Montgenèvre. I plotted the seven stops on the map below, which provide a nice itinerary for when I return to that...

From Weather to Ski: Today in the Alps... Friday 13 September 2024 – Potentially unprecedented September snowfall for parts of the Alps Winter has arrived early in the Alps, bringing serious quantities of snow in places this week, and potentially ‘record-breaking’ falls for September in the...

How long does it take to begin feeling comfortable?

Apparently, it opened mid-season, which is great news. While living there in 1990-93, I only downhill skied Sandia Peak once but enjoyed the five-ish miles of nearby cross-country trails numerous times. At only a half hour from Albuquerque, it's a convenient feeder hill, perfect for families...