2024-2025 Ski season Thread

[qg_omega]

[Boston Bulldog]

Pretty awesome that MWAC added new zones to their observations coverage. Looked like some shooting cracks and major wumphing all around Smugglers Notch last weekend. Did anything big end up sliding in VT?

[bwt3650]

Killington to take a break from World Cup as it builds a new chairlift

I think they’ve been blowing the canyon to do late season.


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[amarshall]

Final musings sitting in the CDG airport on the way home from Meribel. For an entire week I didn’t see one lift breakdown . They have 183 lifts of all shapes sizes and makes . While watching social media at home all I saw was lift break downs and missing ski days . The stat I read is that the Les 3 vallees system serves 265k people a day. We never waited more than 10 minutes . There are zero lifties. It takes some getting used to but everyone gets on the lift chaotically but fast .

The crazy thing for a first time European skier was the lack of safety. It really slowed me down knowing that if I were to wipe out at 50+ mph I could end up down a ravine and off a cliff . My 12 year old terrified me all week who is sowing his oats with speed trying to keep up with his 15 yr old brother . The sledding at night on the mountain would get an American mountain sued into the Stone Age. Everyone gets drunk and sleds on the mountain and it’s encouraged. Absolutely amazing .

The drinking in general on French mountains is 100100101x worse than American mountains . People staggering drunk trying to get down the hill. The lunches at Michelin star restaurants were mind blowing . I have no idea what we spent on food but it certainly negated the lift ticket savings .

The grooming blows away American mountains. Europeans never do first chair and if you could temper your apres you could get absolute corduroy perfection for an hour before a European showed their face .

There’s no roof rack on a hearse and my kids can skip college. I don’t think I can ski at Attitash in -10 ever again.

No one wears masks in Europe . First masks we’ve seen in a week in the Delta line coming home to Boston.

My son and I hiking (with a guide) .







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[snowgeek]

Final musings sitting in the CDG airport on the way home from Meribel. For an entire week I didn’t see one lift breakdown . They have 183 lifts of all shapes sizes and makes . While watching social media at home all I saw was lift break downs and missing ski days . The stat I read is that the Les 3 vallees system serves 265k people a day. We never waited more than 10 minutes . There are zero lifties. It takes some getting used to but everyone gets on the lift chaotically but fast .

The crazy thing for a first time European skier was the lack of safety. It really slowed me down knowing that if I were to wipe out at 50+ mph I could end up down a ravine and off a cliff . My 12 year old terrified me all week who is sowing his oats with speed trying to keep up with his 15 yr old brother . The sledding at night on the mountain would get an American mountain sued into the Stone Age. Everyone gets drunk and sleds on the mountain and it’s encouraged. Absolutely amazing .

The drinking in general on French mountains is 100100101x worse than American mountains . People staggering drunk trying to get down the hill. The lunches at Michelin star restaurants were mind blowing . I have no idea what we spent on food but it certainly negated the lift ticket savings .

The grooming blows away American mountains. Europeans never do first chair and if you could temper your apres you could get absolute corduroy perfection for an hour before a European showed their face .

There’s no roof rack on a hearse and my kids can skip college. I don’t think I can ski at Attitash in -10 ever again.

No one wears masks in Europe . First masks we’ve seen in a week in the Delta line coming home to Boston.

My son and I hiking (with a guide) .







.

Wow, great summary. I’ve never skied in Europe, but hope to in the next winter or two. There’s lots to learn I guess about ski trips out there. So from what I gather, skiing is cheap and food is expensive? How are lodging costs compared to US?


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[STILL N OF PIKE]

just saw Taos,NM getting steined. 35-40” has fallen on the summits. Their homepage says they average 300”.

[powderfreak]

44 minutes ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

just saw Taos,NM getting steined. 35-40” has fallen on the summits. Their homepage says they average 300”.

That part of the Rockies either gets pummeled or they get nothing.  There’s like no in between.

[amarshall]

Wow, great summary. I’ve never skied in Europe, but hope to in the next winter or two. There’s lots to learn I guess about ski trips out there. So from what I gather, skiing is cheap and food is expensive? How are lodging costs compared to US?


.

Food is actually quite reasonable if you don’t eat out breakfast lunch and dinner . Euro is almost on par with the dollar . In meribel where I stayed there were two small grocery stores within walking distance and unreal specialty food and wine stores where you get yourself into trouble . We ate salami truffles and cheese every meal. My 12 yr old ate boxed Mac and cheese at the condo every meal.

Lodging is expensive. We stayed in the cheapest of the 3 valleys. Courcheval is Russian oligarch money. Gucci stores . Val Thorens high end Brits. Méribel-Mottaret was Dutch and French locals . The higher the elevation the more money lodging is due to snow levels .







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[DavisStraight]

12 hours ago, amarshall said:

Final musings sitting in the CDG airport on the way home from Meribel. For an entire week I didn’t see one lift breakdown . They have 183 lifts of all shapes sizes and makes . While watching social media at home all I saw was lift break downs and missing ski days . The stat I read is that the Les 3 vallees system serves 265k people a day. We never waited more than 10 minutes . There are zero lifties. It takes some getting used to but everyone gets on the lift chaotically but fast .

The crazy thing for a first time European skier was the lack of safety. It really slowed me down knowing that if I were to wipe out at 50+ mph I could end up down a ravine and off a cliff . My 12 year old terrified me all week who is sowing his oats with speed trying to keep up with his 15 yr old brother . The sledding at night on the mountain would get an American mountain sued into the Stone Age. Everyone gets drunk and sleds on the mountain and it’s encouraged. Absolutely amazing .

The drinking in general on French mountains is 100100101x worse than American mountains . People staggering drunk trying to get down the hill. The lunches at Michelin star restaurants were mind blowing . I have no idea what we spent on food but it certainly negated the lift ticket savings .

The grooming blows away American mountains. Europeans never do first chair and if you could temper your apres you could get absolute corduroy perfection for an hour before a European showed their face .

There’s no roof rack on a hearse and my kids can skip college. I don’t think I can ski at Attitash in -10 ever again.

No one wears masks in Europe . First masks we’ve seen in a week in the Delta line coming home to Boston.

My son and I hiking (with a guide) .







.

My cousin and her husband used to take ski trips to Europe a lot, her husband hated Vermont, said it's too cold to ski. I guess they happened to go with single digit highs and below zero at night, so they never went back.

[snowgeek]

Food is actually quite reasonable if you don’t eat out breakfast lunch and dinner . Euro is almost on par with the dollar . In meribel where I stayed there were two small grocery stores within walking distance and unreal specialty food and wine stores where you get yourself into trouble . We ate salami truffles and cheese every meal. My 12 yr old ate boxed Mac and cheese at the condo every meal.

Lodging is expensive. We stayed in the cheapest of the 3 valleys. Courcheval is Russian oligarch money. Gucci stores . Val Thorens high end Brits. Méribel-Mottaret was Dutch and French locals . The higher the elevation the more money lodging is due to snow levels .







.

Paying for elevation with lodging lol. Crazy idea. Thanks for all of the info. I have to do a bunch of research and figure something out.


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[powderfreak]

14 hours ago, amarshall said:

The crazy thing for a first time European skier was the lack of safety. It really slowed me down knowing that if I were to wipe out at 50+ mph I could end up down a ravine and off a cliff . My 12 year old terrified me all week who is sowing his oats with speed trying to keep up with his 15 yr old brother . The sledding at night on the mountain would get an American mountain sued into the Stone Age. Everyone gets drunk and sleds on the mountain and it’s encouraged. Absolutely amazing .
 

As someone who's day lives in the world of liability, the nighttime drunk sledding being allowed or encouraged (but not facilitated) by the ski areas is mind-blowing .  Just such a different litigation culture.  The American legal outcome in court usually says the ski area is liable for sledding incidents if they know sledding is taking place and not actively trying to stop it.

[snowgeek]

Killington was great yesterday. I really enjoyed Devil’s Fiddle (only pics I took). Haven’t skied it since college haha. What a fun trail!! Pretty windy. South sides of trails had great snow, north sides eye originally icy. Trees were great. Lots of silky packed powder. Catwalk was fun. Snow guns were cranking in the canyon. I don’t think they’ll make it to June with this plan but the spring skiing should
be great with more paths down than the normal Superstar.



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[powderfreak]

Devils Fiddle was my favorite spring trail growing up.  I remember having a series of phenomenal days there on weekly trips in high school during March and April 2001.

The rock bands, the sustained pitches, and back then it was alley ways through taller brush.  It was like brush hallways on skiers right, after navigating the rock bands.  Currently those have been cut down to one big wide open pitch... but it's a great trail.

[snowgeek]

Devils Fiddle was my favorite spring trail growing up.  I remember having a series of phenomenal days there on weekly trips in high school during March and April 2001.
The rock bands, the sustained pitches, and back then it was alley ways through taller brush.  It was like brush hallways on skiers right, after navigating the rock bands.  Currently those have been cut down to one big wide open pitch... but it's a great trail.

Such a wide trail that it almost feels like you’re out west.


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[bch2014]

If you’re looking for cheaper lodging, checkout areas in the French Alps like Serre Chevalier, Isola, and La Grave (famous amongst the extreme skiers). 
 

To @amarshall’s comment regarding elevation dictating lodging prices, the French Alps have a particular elevation/snow quality gradient that exists elsewhere, but is less pronounced. Keep in mind that for a storm coming off the Atlantic, the first large mountains are it hits are the French Alps. With that brings warm air… If you go further east, you’ll generally find that snow levels drop. 1600m on the Arlberg is roughly equivalent to 2000m in the French Alps.  
 

 

[amarshall]

As someone who's day lives in the world of liability, the nighttime drunk sledding being allowed or encouraged (but not facilitated) by the ski areas is mind-blowing .  Just such a different litigation culture.  The American legal outcome in court usually says the ski area is liable for sledding incidents if they know sledding is taking place and not actively trying to stop it.

Some vid here


https://www.instagram.com/share/BAgrroLgvS


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[powderfreak]

4 hours ago, amarshall said:

Some vid here


https://www.instagram.com/share/BAgrroLgvS


.

Looks like a phenomenal vacation.  Different culture, skiing, great mix.

[Baroclinic Zone]

Looked like there was some great skiing to be had in the Bernese Oberland. Couple cool footnotes to my trip. I leaned while I was out there that they are constructing a new tramway that will take guests from the base of Schilthorn. The first stage is the steepest left ever constructed on earth. It just opened a month ago. There are 3 total stages to the lift, the last is now in the final stages. Great video series of each and the technological advancement of lift technology.

On the other side of the mountains in Grindewald they build a new tram a few years ago. It’s called the Eiger Express. 
it’s a tri-cable system. Really cool technology.

Across the valley at First they will be going through a similar lift upgrade. The current base terminal will be relocated closer to the train terminal and will provide a more direct route to the summit.

https://www.snowindustrynews.com/articles/2024/december/jungfrau-lift-co-orders-lifts-worth-over-70-million-swiss-francs/

I found that the lifts in the area I went were just another means of transportation. They are used year round. They tie it in with the local rail where you can buy one ticket to ride all.

[Baroclinic Zone]

7 minutes ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Looked like there was some great skiing to be had in the Bernese Oberland. Couple cool footnotes to my trip. I leaned while I was out there that they are constructing a new tramway that will take guests from the base of Schilthorn. The first stage is the steepest left ever constructed on earth. It just opened a month ago. There are 3 total stages to the lift, the last is now in the final stages. Great video series of each and the technological advancement of lift technology.

On the other side of the mountains in Grindewald they build a new tram a few years ago. It’s called the Eiger Express. 
it’s a tri-cable system. Really cool technology.

Across the valley at First they will be going through a similar lift upgrade. The current base terminal will be relocated closer to the train terminal and will provide a more direct route to the summit.

https://www.snowindustrynews.com/articles/2024/december/jungfrau-lift-co-orders-lifts-worth-over-70-million-swiss-francs/

I found that the lifts in the area I went were just another means of transportation. They are used year round. They tie it in with the local rail where you can buy one ticket to ride all.

https://www.doppelmayr.com/en/press/garaventa-secures-largest-order-package-in-the-companys-history/

[mreaves]

I think they ought to do a tram along the Mt. Rd. In Stowe to relieve traffic. Have it run along the bike path up to the mountain.