This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Feb.12)
Valentine To Our Readers, Loon Visit, Resort Liability-Less, Vicarious Swiss Ski Run, Marg’s Moment, Personal Ski, XC Ski Injuries, Skiing In College In The 50s, Take A Lesson, Herb’s Weather For The Week.
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Here in SeniorsSkiing.com’s New England headquarters, we are feeling very gratified. We’ve been receiving donations from both online donors and through the mail. The notes on little pieces of paper mailed in with checks have been supportive and encouraging. “We love reading your e-magazine,” says one. “Keep it up,” says another.
Thank you very much. Here’s a Valentine picture for you taken on a beautiful blue bird day at Appleton Farms just after Sunday’s snow fall.
If you haven’t made a donation yet, please consider it. All donations go to help defray expenses which are growing as we grow. Click here.
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This Week
Correspondent Tamsin Venn visits Loon Mountain and reports on her ski experience in times of COVID. It’s like a throw-back to the old days, simple, economical, and ski-focused. Click here.
We found an interesting video on YouTube where someone took a run at Nax resort, a small-ish area in the Swiss Alps. It’s an eight and a half minutes from the top of the lift to the bottom. You judge if you would have been comfortable doing what the videographer did. Or whether you think it’s safe. Click here.
The traveling Australian Dave Chambers recounts a 30-day ski journey in France. On day one, a member of his safari has a bad accident. His tale of Marg’s foreshortened vacation and the wonder of travel insurance are a lesson in being prepared for evacuation far from home. Click here.
Correspondent Marc Liebman has done some research on the potential of a “personal ski”, that is, one made just for you. Hey, if Dell can customize computers to your specs, why not a ski? Click here.
XCSkiResorts.com publisher Roger Lohr describes the typical injuries you can get in XC and how to avoid them. Click here.
Jan Brunvand, a frequent contributor from Utah, sent us a reminiscence about skiing in college in the 50s and how his first date with his current wife worked out. Click here.
Ski instructor John Gelb advises readers to take a lesson and reports on the three common flaws he sees in seniors that can be improved with instruction. Click here.
Finally, the Skiing Weatherman Herb Stevens brings us next week’s weather prediction. Coming up to four weeks to spring. Click here.
Thanks for reading SeniorsSkiing.com. Please tell your friends and remember, there are more of us every day and we aren’t going away.
Short Swings!
Last week was the single deadliest avalanche week in the US since 1910. Avalanches claimed 15 lives: five in Utah, four in Colorado, three in Alaska, and one each in California, Montana and New Hampshire. To date, this season, 21 people perished. According to avalanche.org, all but five of the fatalities were skiers or boarders.
Experts attribute the dangerous conditions to the thin early-season snowpack which weakened under the snow from recent storms. That, of course, has been exacerbated by the increase in backcountry skiing, some of which is the result of Covid restrictions at the resorts. An increase in any activity means many novices who are not adequately educated about what they’re getting into.
And, as we all know, there’s the element of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bad luck.
I have several friends whose passion is backcountry skiing. They have the proper gear and know how to use it. They’ve learned how to scope out terrain and how to study snow. They know what they’re doing. That said, one of them was caught in a terrible slide with life-altering consequences.
Whether or not you’ll ever leave the resort, this first-rate 15-minute orientation film from avalanche.org is worth watching.
Sun Valley Expansion
Sun Valley has added 380 acres of expert terrain. Called Sunrise, it’s served by the new Broadway detachable quad. It replaces the Cold Springs chair, until recently the resort’s oldest. Click on the image to learn more.
Lower Covid Risk on Ventilated Gondolas
Swiss researcher measures gondola’s air volume.
Risk of Covid during a 12-minute gondola ride is 1000 times less risky than a dinner in a closed room with eight people. That, according to scientists at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology. Personally, I prefer gondola rides to good terrain far more than restaurants with good terrine.
History of the Chairlift
Early Sun Valley chair
James Curran, who never skied a day in life, invented the chairlift at the request of Averell Harriman who was developing Sun Valley. This article in the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine tells the story of the chair and other lifts. It’s good reading.
Generous Discount for Readers
I’ve reported on a few of the Biofit 360 CBD products. The company’s Deep Sleep CBD drops is the first product — Rx or OTC — to give my wife a full, uninterrupted night of sleep without side effects. It is exceptional. I’ve used its Relief CBD Cream as an alternative to OTC pills, and it really does the job. Now, Biofit is offering SeniorsSkiing.com readers a 20% discount. To enjoy this benefit, click on the Biofit 360 ad on the right of the screen, shop, and enter SKIING in the discount code field when checking out,
90,000+ Vertical in One Day
Jonathan Boblitt
Jonathan Boblitt skied 90,073 vertical feet at Beaver Creek (CO) on January 26. According to Vail News, he was inspired by his late grandfather who told him a good day of skiing is when he could get it down to 10 cents a run. Boblitt did 39 laps on the Birds of Prey lift. Those and the runs he took to reach Birds of Prey helped him get to 90,000 vert. Congratulations, Jonathan!
Kai Jones Skis Targhee
This two-minute video of 13-year old Kai Jones at Grand Targhee brought a big smile. Targhee is a powder magnet and a joy to ski. Watching this kid make his way down slopes, over cliff bands and through the park is a lot of fun.
We Appreciate Your Support
This is a brief thank you to readers who, over the past week, donated to SeniorsSkiing.com. You will be receiving a mailing with stickers. And, if you contributed $50. or more, you will receive the terrific BBQ apron specially imprinted with the vintage skier woodcut (see below). We’re encouraging readers to make a minimum gift of $10 to help defray the cost of publishing SeniorsSkiing.com. To participate, please click here. The fund-raiser will last through February.
Please, Take A Run For Me
I’ll be in the hospital and out of commission for a while. The coming months will require effort, grit and good luck. For the majority of SeniorsSkiing.com readers blessed with good health or who have gotten through rough periods, I hope you remain well. For those facing health issues, I hope you get better soon.
Because of this situation, it will be some time before I get back to writing Short Swings!
For each of you fortunate enough to be on the slopes this weird (now, snowy) season, I ask this favor: Next time you’re on the hill, please, take a run for me.
Skiing Weatherman: The Hits Just Keep On Coming
Busy Storms. Slopes in Good Shape.
As I write this piece at the start of President’s Day weekend, the slopes from coast to coast are in fine to extraordinarily good shape, thanks to a very busy coast to coast pattern of storms that has played out in recent weeks. A push of arctic air delivered by the stratwarm episode that was discussed in last week’s column is providing cold air over the eastern two-thirds of the country. At the same time, upper level energy that supports the stormy pattern continues to be ejected from an upper level trough over the Aleutians. After the holiday weekend those disturbances will continue to favor resorts north of I-70 and I-80 in the West, but as the energy tracks eastward and interacts with the cold air flowing into the center of the country from Canada, storms will bring fresh snow to the Midwest and the East. Here is a jet stream for Friday the 19th that illustrates the snowy “handoff” pattern that is in place now and should stay in place for the next couple of weeks.
With one trough over the Gulf of Alaska and another over the eastern half of the country, combined with a blocking ridge still hanging around Greenland, storm after storm will cross the country, some small, some more significant. Initially, the snow will fall in British Columbia and the resorts of the Pac NW and northern Rockies. The northern Great Lakes will pick up a round of powder as the disturbance heads toward the high amplitude trough that stretches from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. As the disturbance in the northern branch of the jet stream interacts with the larger system, the result could be a storm that could run up the length of the Appalachians late in the week and into next weekend. As I suggested earlier, there will be ample cold air around, as shown by this map of 5,000 foot temperatures for next Friday.
The green and gray colors show where temps will be below 32 degrees aloft, a proxy for snow vs. rain at the surface. You can see that a long-track snow event up the eastern seaboard could indeed be in the cards. Now if you look at the jet stream map above, you will see an extended trough reaching from the waters west of Washington northward to the Arctic region. The counter clockwise flow around that feature suggests that after 10-12 days of domination by arctic air, Pacific air masses will get involved, leading to somewhat milder weather (less cold) by the end of the month or so. In the meantime, enjoy the frequency of flakes and preponderance of powder!
REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:
Pac NW/B.C.:
Big storm late this week followed by more storms from the Gulf of Alaska rolling into the mountains of B.C., Washington, and Oregon.
Central and southern Sierra:
One storm this weekend and another early next week. Glancing blows from storms to the north bring light snow later next week. Heavy snow next weekend.
Rockies:
Weekend snow followed by a moderate to heavy accumulation a couple of days later central and south. Potential for another round next weekend. Moderate amounts of snow next week in northern resorts
Midwest:
Arctic air dominates. Light snow from Clipper systems and some lake effect snow in northern Lakes.
Northeast:
Parade of storms continues to add snow every couple of days. Shot at significant snow middle of next week and again late in the week.
Mid-Atlantic/Southeast:
Two shots at moderate to heavy snow in next week…first one around Tuesday and again a couple of days later.
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