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?
Skiing Solo: + and -
- Thread starter jamesdeluxe
- Start date
jimk
Active member
I probably ski with at least one other about 75% of the time, the main motivation is for friendship/camaraderie. In the East, it's also often because it's quite beneficial to have a carpool buddy for the 2-3 hour drive to the ski hill. In the west, I'm typically starting out much closer to the ski slopes, but the mountains are bigger and wilder and having one or more partners adds a very beneficial safety factor and/or local knowledge.
Sometimes going solo is preferential if I'm in poor ski shape and just need to log some slope mileage, or if I'm just going for two hours and it's inconvenient to meet with another.
Sometimes going solo is preferential if I'm in poor ski shape and just need to log some slope mileage, or if I'm just going for two hours and it's inconvenient to meet with another.
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If I had to guess I’d say about 40% solo if I include when I agree to meet my wife down the bottom of a sector of a mountain which happens often. Actual solo full days is less. About 10% I guess.
I enjoy both solo runs and solo days but would prefer to ski with someone and if that someone is a better skier that’s a big bonus.
I now hate skiing alone.
But the thing that really changed my approach was a concussion I got in the woods at Plattekill. If I wasn't with Ed, I might be dead.
But the thing that really changed my approach was a concussion I got in the woods at Plattekill. If I wasn't with Ed, I might be dead.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I am a little all over the map regarding how many people I want to ski with.
1. New Area: Generally, there are certain areas/runs/lifts I want to cover, so I am happy to be on my own. I want to cover lots of ground/vertical.
2. Guided Days (Europe): Generally, I am more than happy to ski with others since I cannot find places on my own or things are unsafe.
3. Heli/Snowcat Skiing: Very happy to ski with groups. Most are highly skilled.
4. Day Trips: Like the companionship, shared driving, etc. However, I have done solo Boston-to-Sugarloaf/Sunday River/Stowe...or SF-to-SugarBowl/Palisades
5. Regular Places I lnow well. Prefer to ski with company to keep things interesting. Telluride, Palisades, Heavenly, Whistler, Crystal Mt, Killington, etc
A lot of my European is alone by necessity - extensions of business trips.
Some skiing in Colorado is just dependent on others work schedules - usually never a full day.
1. New Area: Generally, there are certain areas/runs/lifts I want to cover, so I am happy to be on my own. I want to cover lots of ground/vertical.
2. Guided Days (Europe): Generally, I am more than happy to ski with others since I cannot find places on my own or things are unsafe.
3. Heli/Snowcat Skiing: Very happy to ski with groups. Most are highly skilled.
4. Day Trips: Like the companionship, shared driving, etc. However, I have done solo Boston-to-Sugarloaf/Sunday River/Stowe...or SF-to-SugarBowl/Palisades
5. Regular Places I lnow well. Prefer to ski with company to keep things interesting. Telluride, Palisades, Heavenly, Whistler, Crystal Mt, Killington, etc
A lot of my European is alone by necessity - extensions of business trips.
Some skiing in Colorado is just dependent on others work schedules - usually never a full day.
My spreadsheets contain some but not complete info about who if anyone else was skiing with me. For the most outstanding ski days there's usually enough to jog the memory. So I sorted those out and went through them.
The first 5 categories are all lift served. Guided is nearly all cat/heli, a couple AT from Shasta/Antarctica, a few with Euro guides. "Guided all day" means I was not skiing with anyone who came with me on the trip, and on most of the Canada trips I was also traveling alone.
These best days are not necessarily representative of my total 1,820 ski days. Guided days are only 9% of my total but 53% of the top group and 18% of the second group. I'd guess the other 82% of the second group is somewhat representative of the overall. That's still about 1/3 of ski days primarily by myself.
| Top 5% of | ski days | Next 12% of | ski days | |
travel solo | 13 | 14% | 17 | 8% |
ski all day solo | 4 | 4% | 15 | 7% |
ski >1/2 day solo | 10 | 11% | 29 | 13% |
ski <1/2 day solo | 13 | 14% | 42 | 19% |
ski all day w. friends | 5 | 5% | 78 | 35% |
guided all day | 29 | 31% | 22 | 10% |
guided w. friends | 21 | 22% | 17 | 8% |
95 | 220 |
The first 5 categories are all lift served. Guided is nearly all cat/heli, a couple AT from Shasta/Antarctica, a few with Euro guides. "Guided all day" means I was not skiing with anyone who came with me on the trip, and on most of the Canada trips I was also traveling alone.
These best days are not necessarily representative of my total 1,820 ski days. Guided days are only 9% of my total but 53% of the top group and 18% of the second group. I'd guess the other 82% of the second group is somewhat representative of the overall. That's still about 1/3 of ski days primarily by myself.
+1 on this. In the Alps most of the days with Liz are in the ski <1/2 day solo category because she shares the "cover ground at new area mentality" but there are some runs that I want to ski but she won't.
In both of these cases you aren't really skiing alone if you are not with friends. Overall I don't see a reason some people are reluctant to do this because the social aspect with fellow avid skiers is usually great. However my ability profile has usually been in the mainstream of these groups or at least there's a group where I will fit if my first assignment is not right (first day Wiegele in 2006 for example). I realize that for skiers like ChrisC and EMSC at the high end of the ability scale they are concerned about being slowed down and are most comfortable if they can assemble a group at their own level.
I'm solo on a lot of my Baldy days including nearly all of the best powder days there, which usually involved taking a day off from work on short notice. In retirement I've made a fair number of Mammoth trips solo when I've had a short notice lodging connection. On the Canadian cat/heli trips I came to know some of the lift served places well when I was doing half of those trips solo before 2015.
That's the opposite for me. Two trips were with guided groups (NASJA, Extremely Canadian), one with my friend Richard and the others with Liz. I was planning solo in 2020 after Liz was injured and that's why I reserved the Club Med Val Thorens for part of that pandemic-aborted trip. My first Japan trip was completely solo for the Hakuba/Niseko ski part (two ski days were guided) though I did have company for the scuba diving week in Palau on the front end of that trip. It's the non-skiing parts of the exotic trips where I much prefer to have company, and any extended trip to the Alps is likely to have a weather blip where I want to do something else.
This is where Iron Blosam Week is evolving. In the 1990's/2000's there was a core group in my age bracket that skied together most of the time (Leader's motto was "Cirque till it hurts!"). The rest of them are now skiing only part time and all on groomers (That's why I'm impressed at jimk's ski evolution in retirement). Then there's Adam's crew, whom I would now slow down most of the time. So I'm skiing bits and pieces with different groups, rarely the same people all day long. Powder days are increasingly solo because I'm still interested but I don't want to hold up the younger or more fit skiers.
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