ChrisC
Well-known member
I was at Keystone for Rocky Mountain On-Snow Demo 2008 http://www.wwsra.com/ViewShow.aspx/15
Both days were very cold, windy and snowy -- in a bad, hard to withstand the elements way. (In fact some head sales reps could not be bothered to come out of the warm lodge for 2 days to their demo booths - like Volkl. I guess they just take orders -- not sell, talk or converse with users.)
Keystone - and the Mountain House lodge - was a rather poor location for the event. The only lift open from this base was the Argentine - an almost 10 minute HS Quad that stops a lot and offers very little terrain. Do you take the Montezuma to the summit (another 7 min) and try for North Peak (more time)? Or do you try to maximize the number and types of skis - especially from some smaller manufacturers like Movement, Stockli, Icelantic, Line, Blizzard, etc? How do you judge skies in the All Mountain category when it takes an hour plus to find some semi-suitable terrain? This did not impact me as much as some others, since my goal was to sample skis appropriate for a different demographic than Alaska Big Mountain.
For an event like this, you really want to be at a base of a mountain with a high-speed lift serving a variety of terrain. Multiple lifts/transit time means skis get cut. The Utah location at Snowbasin is optimum for this type of event.
Both days were very cold, windy and snowy -- in a bad, hard to withstand the elements way. (In fact some head sales reps could not be bothered to come out of the warm lodge for 2 days to their demo booths - like Volkl. I guess they just take orders -- not sell, talk or converse with users.)
Keystone - and the Mountain House lodge - was a rather poor location for the event. The only lift open from this base was the Argentine - an almost 10 minute HS Quad that stops a lot and offers very little terrain. Do you take the Montezuma to the summit (another 7 min) and try for North Peak (more time)? Or do you try to maximize the number and types of skis - especially from some smaller manufacturers like Movement, Stockli, Icelantic, Line, Blizzard, etc? How do you judge skies in the All Mountain category when it takes an hour plus to find some semi-suitable terrain? This did not impact me as much as some others, since my goal was to sample skis appropriate for a different demographic than Alaska Big Mountain.
For an event like this, you really want to be at a base of a mountain with a high-speed lift serving a variety of terrain. Multiple lifts/transit time means skis get cut. The Utah location at Snowbasin is optimum for this type of event.
