This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (March 26)
Spring Is Here, Quitting Time? Corn or Mashed? Beech Top-to-Bottom, Diggins World Cup, Ski Art III, Skiing Weatherman.
Spring: Time for renewal. Time for change. New directions.
“It was such a spring day as breathes into a [person] an ineffable yearning, a painful sweetness, a longing that makes [them] stand motionless, looking at the leaves or grass, and fling out [their] arms to embrace [they] know not what.” John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga.
The slightly updated quote [pronouns] brings us to where we are on the calendar: Spring has descended and the “ineffable yearning” is happening as we speak. The sap is running in the sugar bush, maple syrup is boiling (and boiling), and it becomes impossible to ignore the change in the air.
Sign of spring: Tuckerman Ravine, 1938. Credit: Mt. Washington
Especially, this year. We made it through in one way or another, and we “fling out [our] arms to embrace [we] know not what.” We are in that special place called the interim, between the way things were and the way things will be. We know how it was this year—creative adaptations to restrictions and constraints for those who were determined to book time on the snow—but we can only hope the future season will approach normalcy. We can hope, but we don’t know; no one does. Such is the nature of the interim.
However, we know that Vail is doing some bet hedging. The ski resort empire has dropped the price of its Epic pass by 20 percent for 2021-22. That’s $200 off the Epic and about $150 off the local Epic, both sharply undercutting the rival Ikon pass. Season pass sales last summer helped Vail buffer the losses to revenue from the epidemic, and cutting prices dramatically will help ensure more of the same for the upcoming season. Presumably, people who buy passes intend to use them, unless they can’t because of virus restrictions. We don’t know for sure but we can bet a number of last season’s pass buyers—Epic and Ikon—regretted buying a pass when the industry shut down and/or tried to get credit or their money back. Will those who grumbled and who didn’t get the value they expected last season step up to buy a discounted pass when the future is still behind a veil of uncertainty?
Regardless, the season pass is the future. Clearly, Vail has strategically pushed the market in that direction. Forget about buying a walk-up lift ticket, unless you intend to ski just one or two times in a season. Let’s hope this upcoming season finds all those tricky dependent variables clicking into place: people buying, restrictions removed, and snow piling up. At least that’s what we ineffably yearn for.
By the way, the Epic Northeast Midweek Pass for seniors 65-plus has dropped to $271. In the west, the Tahoe Value Pass is $359 for seniors. Pretty tempting.
Good luck, Vail.
——————————————————————————————
Attention Donors: We will start sending premiums from our recent fundraiser this week and next. Please be on the lookout for our mailing to you. And please be patient as the mails aren’t what they used to be.
Holiday Break: SeniorsSkiing.com is taking a break for the Easter/Passover holiday. We wish everyone a peaceful and restoring holiday, hopefully with friends and family. Be safe.
Update on Co-Publisher Jon Weisberg: Jon had been hospitalized since mid-February and is finally in rehab. He is on the mend and is looking forward to getting back in shape. Thanks for all your concern.
——————————————————————————————
This Week
Our Question For You this week asks if when you will call it a season. What’s your criteria? How has this decision been affected by the restrictions/constraints imposed by resorts to keep employees and visitors safe? Click here.
Correspondent Marc Liebman opines on corn snow—when it’s good and not so good—and mashed potatoes. He asks if you know the difference and what to do when faced with both conditions. Click here.
Diggins says experience is teaching her about her capabilities and how to win. Credit: Cross Country Skier
Cross-country editor and XCSkiResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr reports on Jesse Diggins World Cup victory in this year’s XC FIS competition. She’s the first American woman to win a World Cup title in history, and the first American to win gold since Bill Koch’s victory in 1982. International competition at the World Cup level is intense, and her victory is a huge achievement for the US team and for women in sports. Click here.
An almost unworldy mood at the start of a run.
Once again, correspondent/videographer Don Burch has produced a wonderful, expressive video in his Ski Art series. Some of these images would be great prints to mount in your den. Click here.
Our Vicarious Vacation series continues with a run down Beech Mountain, NC, top to bottom. You’ve seen the Alps and the Rockies in this series. Now, it’s time for a more prosaic example of Southern Skiing at a mecca for skiers in the mid-Atlantic. Click here.
Dawn at Round Vally from the grooming team. Credit: Mountain Trails
Correspondent Pat McCloskey takes us to Round Valley, UT, where he fat bikes around a network of trails maintained by a community foundation. Pat took a break from his ski-week vacation at Park City to visit the nearby center for all kinds of winter and summer outdoor sports. Round Valley has trails for fat biking, xc, snowshoeing, and winter hiking/running, with enough space for everyone to stretch out. Pat notes the locals and local seniors are fit and take advantage of the snow, 300 days of sunshine, and the beautiful surroundings. Click here.
Finally, the Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens reports the pattern that continues to dominate the weather this time of year: The West is wild, the East is winding down, although there might be a chance for another dose of snow in the Northeast this week. This pattern of wild West, wimpy East seems to have hung in over the past several seasons. Click here.
Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Tell your friends, and, remember, there are more of us every day. and we aren’t going away.
Skiing Weatherman: West Strong, Last Call East
Bluebird Days. Light Snow.
The weather pattern hasn’t changed much in the past week as the jet stream set-up has continued to feature a cold trough over the western half of the country and a milder to warm ridge over the eastern half. It has been another snowy week in the West, although amounts of fresh snow have been a little less than the prior week. In the Midwest, Southeast, and Northeast it has been a warm week, and both base snow and trail counts have taken a hit. Changes in the pattern are underway, however, as low pressure centers that get ejected out of the western trough head northeast and mount an attack on the ridge. The ridge is formidable though, and it won’t back down without a fight. It will take three surface storms to knock down the ridge enough to cool the atmosphere sufficiently for snow to fall instead of rain. That third storm will impact the Northeast later this weekend and into next week and could possible represent the final opportunity for significant snowfall, as the pattern will shift to a warmer regime right after Easter. Here is a look at a snowfall forecast through Tuesday morning.
You’ll notice that New Hampshire and Maine look like the big winners. That is because one low pressure center will move through Ontario as it weakens with a secondary low center taking shape over Cape Cod before it moves through the Gulf of Maine, strengthening as it does. That track will most benefit the White Mountains and the resorts of Maine. After picking up very little snow in the past three weeks, and with Easter weekend on the horizon, a healthy shot of snow would help sustain quality skiing and riding through the holiday. Some light snow will accompany the passage of another trough and cold front on Good Friday and that will help refresh the surfaces, as well.
In the West, the persistent trough will produce its final shot of snow late this week (especially in CO and WY) setting the stage for a wonderful weekend with bluebird skies dominating as the trough swings out of the region and into the center of the country. A new trough will arrive next week, however, bringing early week snow to the Northwest and midweek powder to the full length of the Rockies. Here is a snowfall forecast through Friday for the West.
The amounts you see are pretty much split between the end of this week and the week of the 29th.
Many of the resorts in the Midwest have closed, but the larger areas are still open. Some light snow amounts will fall across the northern Great Lakes later this weekend. In the Southeast, about a half dozen resorts are still operating, thanks to high base elevations and aggressive snowmaking through the season. That snow can’t hold on much longer against the strength of Old Sol, though.
REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Pac NW/B.C.:
Beautiful weekend on the slopes. Light to moderate fresh snow early next week keeps the powder party going.
Central and Southern Sierra:
Great spring skiing this weekend. Back door cold front turns it a little colder next week, but no significant snow in sight.
Rockies:
Sunny weekend on the slopes. New trough delivers light to moderate snow from MT to NM first half of next week. Light snow next weekend in northern resorts.
Midwest:
Light snow across the far north this weekend. Mild start/colder finish next week with another round of light snow.
Northeast:
Spring conditions rule after mild, damp week. Opportunity for meaningful snow late this weekend/early next week in northern NY and northern New England. Another round of light snow late week.
Mid-Atlantic/Southeast:
Great spring skiing Saturday (3/27). Colder air mass arrives later Sunday. Spring skiing continues next week. Call resort before you drive, though.
Question For You: When Do You Quit?
Stay Till The Final Melt, Or Had Enough Already?
Some are done, some have more to come. Credit: Loveland
We know skiers who save up their skiing days until springtime. Fair weather skier, they are. March is when they go out in earnest, conditions permitting. And there are others who decide to bag the season after President’s Day. Or St. Patrick’s Day. Still others make the weekend trek to the mountains every weekend until their favorite resort closes down.
Several years ago, we read an article in SKIING magazine about a couple of resorts in the West which extended their seasons because the snow conditions were extraordinary. So, they went through the expense of keeping staff on board, grooming, maintaining, and all that as well as advertising their later closing date. Result: Turnout was lower than expected. Skiers had moved on. When you think that the hard-core who show up are probably season pass holders, the net increase in revenue probably wasn’t close to being worth the effort?
So, how about you? Are you putting away your snow stuff? Taking the cover off the boat? Playing “Winter Rules” golf in early spring? Oiling up the bike chain? Booking tennis dates?
Question: When do you quit for the season? What’s your marker/ decider? How was this year different?
Please comment in Leave A Reply below.
[authors_page role=contributor]