2023-24 Season Recap

[tseeb]

I didn't see anything from @jamesdeluxe who started it last year so I'm doing it. I didn't want to admit that May 15 was my last day of the season as I said I could be doing some hike-to on Carson Pass, but I was mostly saying that to not jinx myself and get hurt.

Days: 47 vs. 46 last year. Getting closer to my goal of 50, but may have to try for 70 in couple years when I'm 70 like @jimk did.
Vertical: 1,072,100 which is about 10K more than previous season although I dropped from a little over 23K/day to a little under even with 3 days over 30K plus 15 more over 25K.

Days on $415 Senior Tahoe Value Pass: 31 - Kirkwood 22, Heavenly 5, Northstar 4. First day of season I skied both Kirkwood and Heavenly as I did in Dec 2022, but I counted it as Kirkwood where I had 15K in 3 1/2 hrs. vs. 11 in a little over 2 hrs. at Heavenly.

Days on $1049 Full Ikon: 17 - Palisades 9 (Alpine only 3, both sides 1), Altabird 6 (one day was only Snowbird), Mammoth 2
I counted as day on Ikon when Alpine shut down after I'd ridden three chairs due to power failure and I relocated to Northstar.

By month
Dec - 5
Jan - 5
Feb - 7 (All but one day was on my powder skis and I skied some powder on that day.)
Mar - 14 (Deepest day was 16" at Alta. The up to 10' in early March in CA was mostly a bust.)
Apr - 13
May - 3

 

[jamesdeluxe]

My injury-shortened season: two trips to the Alps on a broken leg. The least number of days since I started downhill skiing in 2000-01.

11 Days
2 Corviglia, CH
1 Corvatsch, CH
1 St. Moritz, CH (x-c)
1 Savognin, CH
1 Toggenburg, CH
4 Val d'Isère/Tignes, FR
1 Courchevel, FR

 

[Tony Crocker]

My injury-shortened season: two trips to the Alps on a broken leg.

I have a list of 12 season ender and usually surgery requiring accidents among my ski acquaintances over the past 3 seasons. This is far beyond anything in my prior decades of skiing. It is debatable whether James should be added to that list as his injury was a breakdown of prior femur surgery 22 years ago. While the fall on Tour de Charvet aggravated his pain, I suspect his ski season would have been over after that trip anyway.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Area	Sum of Days	Sum of Vertical	Sum of Powder
Lee Canyon	1​	13​	0​
Mt. Baldy	3​	44.3​	5​
Mountain High (West)	1.5​	21.5​	0​
Mt. High East (Holiday Hill)	0.5​	14.8​	0​
Snow Valley	1​	16.8​	0​
Mammoth	9​	233.5​	0​
Aspen Highlands	1​	12.2​	3​
Snowmass	1​	23.9​	1​
Snowbird	4​	72.7​	13​
Alta	2​	31.7​	3​
Beaver Creek	2​	44.3​	14​
Vail	1​	24.4​	5​
Powder Mt.	1​	20.7​	0​
Crested Butte	2​	41.6​	0​
Island Lake Snowcat	3​	35.8​	22​
Fernie	1​	19.1​	0​
Snow Basin	1​	26.3​	0​
Castle Mt.	1​	17.6​	0​
Monarch	1​	14​	0​
Courmayeur, Italy	1​	22.7​	0​
Verbier, Switz.	2​	38.7​	1​
Val d'Isere, France	2.5​	50.9​	1​
Tignes, France	1.5​	25.2​	0​
Courchevel, France	1​	25.5​	0​
*Grimentz, Switz.	1​	17.2​	1​
*Crans-Montana, Switz	1​	15​	0​
*Aletsch Arena, Switz.	1​	8.3​	0​
*Lauchernalp, Switz.	1​	13.3​	7​
*Kleine Scheidegg-Wengen, Switz.	2​	28.6​	1​
*Murren-Schilthorn, Switz.	1​	16.9​	0​
*La Thuile, Italy	0.5​	17​	0​
*La Rosiere, France	0.5​	11.3​	0​
*Beaver Mt.	1​	20.8​	0​
Totals	54​	1039.6​	77​

Quantity of skiing is always reduced in slow start seasons, and Jan. 13 in the Alps was Liz' first and my second day of the season.

Powder was on the low side, lift served 5.5% vs. long term average 8.7%. The Canada trip including cat skiing was below average in 2023-24. The Alps areas we visited had excellent coverage but some variable surfaces and just one rather problematic powder day. In retrospect Liz and I had a run of 5 Alps trips from 2014-2019 with consistently outstanding snow. Iron Blosam and the ensuing 2 week road trip had the most powder and overall best conditions of our 2023-24 season. Being at Beaver Creek on what Joel Gratz pronounced his best powder day of the season was a highlight.

The altitude sensitivity I noticed in Dec. 2022 persists at 10,000+ feet but is not much different than last year. During 2023 I had varied cardiac and pulmonary tests which found nothing alarming. The proportion of my time on groomers is way up, though some of that is due to conditions of the day, notably in the Alps and Mammoth's spring season. It is likely that the 1 million vertical benchmark of my retirement seasons is no longer routine. At the end of Iron Blosam week I had skied 608,200 vertical in 35 days, an average of 17,400. But the 11 days of the road trip averaged 20,700 and the final 7 days at Mammoth 26,000.

The 33 different areas in 2023-24 is tied for third highest and the 9 new ones brings my total to 285. There were also 3 areas I had visited before but only skied a small part of terrain: Courchevel, Courmayeur and Lee Canyon. Liz skied 48 days with 12 new areas, now totaling 225.

I had 19 days on Ikon. The average price of an Ikon day was $55 vs. a range from $24 - $36 per day in the prior 5 seasons. I got an Indy Pass from NASJA this year and used it 2 days plus I had 2 days on my free age 70 Mt. High pass and one free age 70 day at Monarch. I note from this year's NSAA summary that the average US weekend window price is $182, which is about what I was paying for my 5 days at Epic ski areas, mitigated by cheap or free lodging those days.

 

[Patrick]

My injury-shortened season: two trips to the Alps on a broken leg. The least number of days since I started downhill skiing in 2000-01.

11 Days

Broken collarbone end of January 1983 = 10 days in 1982-83.

 

[Sbooker]

25 days for me. All in Europe. Mainly in France. The most days on skis for a season ever. Hoping to beat that next season.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Broken collarbone end of January 1983

You broke it while skiing? I broke mine on a bike, very painful.

 

[Sbooker]

Broken collarbone end of January 1983 = 10 days in 1982-83.

Dislocated mine at the sternum after a crash skiing in the Dolomites in January 2019. Broken at the shoulder end. Suspected it was busted. Skied the following three days. Totally stupid.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Suspected it was busted. Skied the three days.

How much pain were you in? When I broke my clavicle, there was absolutely no question what had just happened and went straight to the hospital.

Totally stupid.

I have even less of an excuse last season. I knew that my leg/hip were messed up and that I had no business going on overseas trips -- went anyway.

25 days for me. All in Europe. Mainly in France.

You're supposed to list the ski areas and number of days at each!

 

[Harvey]

Here's my season, clearly not as worldly as most here, but a decent season for me. Fewer days then normal as I expected, building a house and getting ready for retirement have limited my free time. Next year I should put up a significantly larger total.

Harvey's 2023-2024

• Day 01 - 11/26/23 - Belleayre with Stefan and Scott. Deer Run and Peekamoose all day.
• Day 02 - 12/16/23 - Plattekill with Scottski63, buckethead, Goniff and Dean. Good trail skiing and a timely poach.
• Day 03 - 12/23/23 - Gore Mountain with Duck, the summit opens with huge Chatiemac whales
• Day 04 - 12/31/23 - Gore Mountain with Michele. Uncas all morning. Never went to the top.
• Day 05 - 01/06/24 - Plattekill pre-storm 1/2 day warmup
• Day 06 - 01/07/24 - Plattekill NYSB 11th Annual Meeting Scottski63, Robert and Dean. Ridge Run Nirvana
• Day 07 - 01/08/24 - Belleayre with Armon and Ripitz. Rippin! groomers, Cathedral Brook and dinner at Peekamoose
• Day 08 - 01/20/24 - Hickory Magic with Jason, Jonathan, Ian and Anna
• Day 09 - 01/21/24 - Gore with EDeO, Rochester Mark, EPIC. Ice cold trees all day long
• Day 10 - 02/02/24 - Plattekill with Dean and Jason. Snowed all day, some trees, dicey and fun Friday
• Day 11 - 02/16/24 - Gore, 6 inches of new, no trees for the prudent, excellent groomers with pow. Armon, @Big Dave, Gail and crew.
• Day 12 - 02/17/24 - Historic Snow Ridge, North Chair spins and the snow pocket opens with @Robert, Evan and Tiffanie
• Day 13 - 02/18/24 - Gore Mountain groomers, excellent skiing with Gail and Ted Ligety and family.
• Day 14 - 02/25/24 - Plattekill The FACE was FAT all day. Roman, Chris Scott and more.
• Day 15 - 03/02/24 - Plattekill Rocking Block with Scottski63, Dean, Laz, Nick and Matt
• Day 16 - 03/10/24 - Eating a big Gore Donut POW Scottski63Mark and John Armon BigDave Gail
• Day 17 - 03/23/24 - Gore Mountain POW with Cork,Scottski63 and lemmecaution
• Day 18 - 03/24/24 - Ski Bowl
• Day 19 - 04/06/24 - Gore with Neve
• Day 20 - 04/07/24 - Gore am with Neve, PM with Brian Conway. KILLER DAY.
• Day 21 - 04/08/24 - Harvey Woods!
• Day 22 - 04/21/24 - Gore Mountain Closing Day

 

[jimk]

Jim's ski days in the 2023-24 ski season:

The most notable statistic for me this season is that my ski days matched my age in years. I'm 70 years old and I skied 70 total days, 69 lift-served and 1 skinning. I don't believe I'd skied my age since my 30s. Although I had a few skiing-induced aches and pains this season I was fortunate that no ailments kept me off the slopes for extended periods. My first ski day of the winter was December 8, 2023 at Massanutten Resort, VA. My last day was May 11, 2024 at Snowbird, UT. Doing the math, I skied ~45% of days during that five month period. I didn't set out to ski 70 days, but I have skied 60+ the last two seasons, so reaching 70 was not too big of a stretch over my recent pattern. I don't aspire to ski 71 days next season, I'll just let things unfold organically and be grateful for anything I get.

I have a Snowbird senior season pass and an Ikon base pass. I live near Washington DC, but I spend the bulk of my ski season in Utah staying at my son's house. As in recent years, I stayed in Utah from mid-January to mid-May 2024. In late April of 2024 my wife and I arbitrarily decided to finish my skiing and plan on leaving Utah on May 13, this date coincided with the termination of weekday skiing at Snowbird. By late April I had skied 63 days and that's when I began to think about trying to ski 70 days before I called it a season.

Ski areas and days at each:
Massanutten, VA - 4 days, Monarch, CO - 2 days, Copper Mountain, CO - 2 days, Snowbird, UT - 40 days, Deer Valley, UT - 1 day, Solitude, UT - 9 days, Alta, UT - 2 days, Brighton, UT - 2 days, Palisades Tahoe/Alpine Meadows, CA - 1 day, Palisades Tahoe/Olympic Valley, CA - 2 days, Diamond Peak, NV - 2 days, Solitude-Brighton combo - 1 day, Snowbird-Solitude combo - 1 day, skinning in LCC, UT - 1 day.

By month: Dec - 3, Jan - 12, Feb - 19, Mar - 17, Apr - 13, May - 6

Other tidbits:
- I enjoyed six free ski days this season at ski areas where age-70 skis free, four at Massanutten, VA and two at Monarch, CO. This was the first time I'd taken advantage of age-related free skiing.
- Dividing my pass fees by all my ski days, including freebies, it cost me roughly $18.80 per day to ski.
- I don't really keep close track of "powder" days, but I noted nine days on my winter calendar as exceptional powder days. My guesstimate is that these were days with ~8-18" new snow. I experienced an 18" day at Alta, UT on February 7th. I experienced another day close to 18" at Snowbird on May 6th! The early May storm dropped ~three feet at Snowbird from May 5-7. This was the biggest snowfall I'd seen that late in the season in the last six years of my skiing Utah in the month of May (I did some skinning in May of 2020).
- I ski a lot of partial days in Utah, going for quality over quantity. It's a wonderful perk as a result of living 20 mins from AltaBird and SolBright. I like that the mountain is my gym! There were two exceptionally short days when I only skied two runs; one day because of crowds and one day to attend an urgent off-slope matter.
- The day I went skinning skiing (March 28) entailed only a small amount of vertical ascent/descent, but included a rugged four hours of on-snow avalanche training exercises (beacon searches and pit digging) with my son in cool temps and heavy snowfall.

Dec 21 at Massanutten, VA, first day of ski operations for their new Peak Express quad chairlift.

Took this photo on Jan 14 at Monarch:

My son on Feb 7 at Alta:

March 7 at Diamond Peak, NV, I skied with this hard-charging 84 year old.

A friend on April 6 at Solitude. This guy's only a few months younger than me, he's a great tele-skier!

A friend took this photo of me on May 6 at Snowbird.

 

[Sbooker]

How much pain were you in?

It wasn’t that bad. It disclosed outward. Apparently it’s much more serious and painful if dislocating inward. I broke my thumb in the same crash and it was more painful.

 

[Patrick]

You broke it while skiing? I broke mine on a bike, very painful.

1983 broken collar bone : Gym class. Last year of High School. To make matters worst, I sprained ankle playing soccer in May(?) and ended up in a leg cast until the day prior to my prom. Found out it was broken decades later.

1987 broken collarbone > that one was skiing.

 

[Patrick]

Ski season with a slow start due to my dislocated elbow and lack of medical green light.

Ski outings : 76 (Day 66, Night 10)
Oct : 1
Nov : 4
Dec : 7
Jan : 19
Feb : 17
Mar : 18
Apr : 6
May : 3
Jun : 1

+Edelweiss QC : 39
+Mont Ste-Marie QC : 7
Mont Édouard QC : 6
St-Sauveur QC : 5
Mad River Glen VT : 4
+Calabogie Peaks ON : 3
Sugarloaf ME : 2
+Camp Fortune QC : 1
+Mont Cascades QC : 1
Sunday River ME : 1
Sugarbush VT : 1
Killington VT : 1
Big Snow NJ : 1
*Okemo VT : 1
*Mont Bélu QC : 1
*Mont Orignal QC : 1
*Massif du Sud QC : 1
+Local
*New areas

Local : 51 (QC 48, ON 3)
Non-local : 25 (QC 14, VT 7, ME 3, NJ 1)

Not sure where my season will continue?

 

[jamesdeluxe]

*Massif du Sud QC : 1

How's it possible that you, the King of Quebec, hadn't skied MdS before? I had a nice day there in March 2010.

 

[Patrick]

How's it possible that you, the King of Quebec, hadn't skied MdS before? I had a nice day there in March 2010.

King of Québec? Lol
It’s been on the bucket list for over 20 years, but it always came down to choosing NoVT over MdS. Vermont made it a shorter drive.

 

[ChrisC]

Didn’t know Jay preserved snow. Has Patrick tried to ski that patch for July?

 

[Patrick]

Didn’t know Jay preserved snow. Has Patrick tried to ski that patch for July?

This is a first at Jay and it was only a Saturday event. I believe it was the length of the magic carpet.
And no, I didn’t go.
Tuckerman snow might not make feasible for July? They are some other options.