This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (Apr. 19)
Tell Us About Your Season, Pondering The Last Turn, Mystery Horse, Snowbasin Report, E-Biking Coming Up.
Signs of the season winding down include ads and promotions for next year’s season passes. The time is now to get the bargains. One development to note is that Arapahoe Basin COO Al Henceroth said that the resort is ending its 22-year relationship with Vail and the Epic Pass. Reason: Crowded slopes and packed parking lots. A-Basin will also not be joining IKON as an option, nope, no way. The only way to get unlimited skiing at the venerable resort is to buy a $399 A-Basin-only pass. Unintended consequences, friends, are catching up to what some might call an “oversold” market. Anyone been up Little Cottonwood Canyon on a Saturday morning in the last few weeks? How’s that parking situation working out for ya?
Another sign of the season ending is some stock-taking of what 2018-19 has meant for you. For us, we didn’t get as much skiing in as we’d planned, nor did it snow enough in the Boston area to really do extensive xc-skiing in local conservation land and parks. Poor planning, low snow. But the good news for us is we spent quality time with good friends, met new ones, explored new places, and know where to get started next year.
How Was Your Season?
How about you? How was your season? What were the highlights? The lowlights? The bad news? The good news? Happy with your IKON/Epic? Unhappy with too many people in your space on the lift line? Did you invite your grandkids to come ski with you? Did you try a new area? Did you learn something new? Did you stop doing something you used to do? Write your summary of the year in the Comments section below, and we can all get a sense of how the SeniorsSkiing.com community made it through this incredible snow year. Yes, sure, we know there are still lots and lots of you skiing out West. How’s that extra long season treating you guys? Let us know.
This Week
Speaking of winding down, Marc Liebman offers a thoughtful piece on his Last Perfect Turn, a conspicuous part of everyone’s last run of the season. Our Mystery Glimpse offers a picture of skijoring somewhere out West. Can you guess what’s up? Tamsin Venn visits Snowbasin and, unlike the crowds at A-Basin, finds lots of room to swing as well as beautiful views. Finally, Pat McCloskey looks ahead to non-snow activities with an interesting introduction to e-bikes. As someone who has pedaled many a mile on road bikes in charity events and cross-country rides, the very idea of an assist-pedal bike was anathema. Now we are not so sure. Looks pretty interesting.
Next week will be our final weekly edition until next fall. We will continue to publish monthly through the non-snow months. Coming soon will be our 2019 Spring Survey. Watch for it. We promise it will be short and sweet, and the information we gather really helps us steer SeniorsSkiing.com.
Once again, please tell your friends about us. Remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.
Credit: Alf Engen Museum
Short Swings!
There’s a difference between skiing and a skiing experience.
Confused? Let me explain.
With just a few exceptions most of my 65-seasons have been spent skiing. I can’t remember every day or every run, but riding up and skiing down so many places and in so many conditions has been wonderful. Small areas, enormous areas: in retrospect they were variations on a similar theme. Travel to resort. Lift up. Ski down. Repeat. After a while, memories blend.
1930’s Italian trade card for broth company
Over the years, I’ve had some standout skiing experiences. Some, in resorts; others, far from lifts. All were memorable.
One week with an instructor and a group of Aussies at Jackson Hole, we skied deep powder, jumped into Corbett’s, drank gallons of beer, and shared a lot of laughs.
Another time with a guide and three other skiers, we took off in a fixed wing ski plane from a slope in Verbier, landed on a glacier near the Italian border, and spent the rest of the day skiing snow-covered pastures, though tiny summer villages, and down into a valley, where we had lunch and hopped on a train to return to Verbier. Memorable!
The week many years ago with Great Northern Snowcat Skiing in Canada’s Selkirk range was another hard-to-forget skiing experience. The snow was so deep that only the tops of 20’ trees were showing. I often think of how wonderful that week was and wonder if I’m past the shelf life to try a week of hell-skiing.
In many ways, memories of skiing are like memories of raising a family. There’s the quotidian background noise of events punctuated from time to time by the more memorable skyrockets. I always told my kids stories when they were going to sleep but I don’t remember every night or every tale. I do, however, remember some of the big events. It’s how we’re wired. Common memories are like snapshots; uncommon ones are like videos; more detail, more recall.
Skiing has its similarities. With some exceptions, the daytrips and the regular ski holidays tend to blend. But the more unusual skiing experiences stand out.
Pam and I will never forget being on ski safari in the Dolomites with Inspired Italy or ski exploring the world-class resorts in the Aosta Valley with Alpskitour.
She, who delights in reminding me, after every day of skiing, that she’d be happy never to ski again, is now asking when we’ll be able to return to the Italian Alps for another great skiing experience.
1930’s Italian trade card for broth company
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Lake Tahoe: More to Go
Lake Tahoe snowpack is currently at 245% of average with more is forecast. More good skier news: temps are cold, so conditions are expected to hold.
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Brighton: Right On!
Brighton Ski Resort, at the end of Utah’s Big Cottonwood Canyon, is a major snow magnet. Many storms favor it over Alta, a short distance away at the end of adjacent Little Cottonwood Canyon. As I write this, Brighton is reporting yet another 24″ dump, reporting 10″ in the past 24 hours, 15″ in the past 48 hours, and 54″ in the past seven days! To date this season, Brighton has received 634″!!!! If past is prologue, Brighton will continue to be catching flakes well beyond its April 21 close.
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Snowbird Closing Date?
The resort has 650″+ and a 176″ base. It announced it will continue daily operations through May 12, then stay open Fridays through Sundays “for as long as we can.”
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Rick Kahl Receives Major Ski Journalism Award
Rick Kahl
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NoSweat Helmet Liners
NoSweat is a brand of self-stick, disposable liners for use with hats, visors, and helmets. I intended to use NoSweat this spring on warm ski days but never got around to it. The product is well designed and relatively inexpensive. It keeps perspiration from cascading into and stinging your eyes. Google “No Sweat Helmet Liners” for many purchasing options or visit the company’s site.
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Earth Day
Monday, April 22 is Earth Day. Visit the official Earth Day site to see how you might support the organization’s many efforts to improve the environment. Then, put on your sneakers or boots and give our collective Mother a visit. She’s been taking a beating for a long time and needs to know we still love her. In other words, dear readers, time to Take a Hike!
Ötzi the Ice Man: Three Millennia Older Than Mel Brooks
Reconstruction: Alfons & Adrie Kennis © South Tyrol Museum Archaeology/Ochsenreiter
He may not be the world’s oldest skier, but at more than 5000 years, he is the world’s oldest and best-preserved wet mummy. Given his advancing years, Ötzi is in particularly good shape.
Named for where he was found in 1991 by two hikers on the Italian-Austrian border, Ötzi now resides in the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology in the lovely small Northern Italian city of Bolzano. If you find yourself in the general vicinity, I strongly recommend paying him a visit.
© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology
One of the many effects of global warming is the discovery of ancient things thawing their way out of the ice: thousand year old skis in Oppland County, Norway; a 500-year-old girl with perfectly preserved hands found in the Andes; an almost intact wooly mammoth found in Russia’s Arctic Lyakhovsky Islands. To learn more watch this brief “Secrets of the Ice” video.
But Ötzi stands apart, for his age, his superb condition, and the extensive science applied to understanding who he was. His genome has been mapped, his stomach contents carefully analyzed, and his belongings extensively interpreted.
He is thought to have been a traveling shaman dispensing medical treatments. Evidence for that is in the form of fungi with antibiotic properties found in a sack. He also had dots and lines tattooed on either side of his lower spine at known acupuncture pain relief sites. Interestingly, even today, similarly located tattoos are found on people from primitive cultures.
Ötzi also had no hand callouses and underdeveloped upper body musculature, suggesting he was not engaged in agriculture or other physically demanding activities. Indeed, his animal skin clothing was finely put together and his axe decorative and showing little wear, possible signs of status and respect.
But respected or not, Ötzi was murdered. A 21st Century police detective examining the evidence concluded he was murdered a day or two following a violent fight. A cut on one of his hands suggests he had defended himself during the recent altercation. An arrowhead found in his body had severed an artery and caused his death. Detective work showed it was shot from a distance of about 100’. Because he was found with all his belongings, the possibility of theft has been ruled out.
© South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Ochsenreitr
Visitors to the museum view Ötzi’s gnarled flesh and twisted frame through a window in the freezer room where he’s on display.
A reconstruction based on everything known about him stands in an adjacent gallery, created with the help of police forensics.
Some of you may remember that long before Ötzi came out of the ice, Mel Brooks was considered to be the world’s oldest man. He and Carl Reiner drew upon his longevity in their classic comedy routine.
The South Tyrol Museum isn’t large, but it is one of the most fascinating places I’ve seen. If you’re planning a trip to the Dolomites, it’s a place you’ll want to visit along the way.
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