Tag Archive for: Arches National Park

Jon Weisberg

Short Swings!

/3 Comments/in /by

I’ve always believed in working with a competent car mechanic.

The same applies to a well-trained bootfitter. Many older skiers experience boot issues, and a good fitter can help overcome them. Masterfit is in the business of training people to fit ski boots. Their instructors include pedorthists, professionals with specialized training to modify footwear and employ supportive devices to address conditions which affect the feet and lower limbs. Graduates of Masterfit University populate ski shops around the nation and abroad. They can be located at bootfitters.com, which lists elite ski shops specializing in bootfitting.

Recently, in Masterfit’s typically low-key manner, the organization trained 275 REI employees in the skill of fitting ski boots. Most of them work in REI stores throughout the West, but employees from REI’s Soho (NYC), Framingham (Mass.) and Minneapolis stores also participated. Clearly, REI is upping its game when it comes to professional boot fitting. It will help them provide more complete service to REI members (Is there anyone reading this who is not an REI member?).

I remember being in a chain sporting goods store in midtown Manhattan several years ago where a salesperson with ZERO experience fitting boots was “helping” a customer with ZERO ski experience purchase ski boots. My tongue still hurts from biting so hard.

With this new development, boot shoppers can go to REI, seek out one of the people who went through Masterfit training, and proceed to get fitted with confidence.

Southern Utah Redux

Bear’s Ears. Courtesy: Chicago Tribune

Reader Alan Cort commented on last week’s piece about Patagonia‘s position against the administration’s reduction of Bear’s Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments:

In regards to Bear’s Ears, also a shout out to Black Diamond, maker of a lot of really good outdoor equipment.  The following is from their latest customer email: Nearly 60% of our country’s climbing areas lie on federal public lands. We repeat, over HALF of our nation’s beautiful, wild crags are on public lands. That’s just one reason why we, at Black Diamond, believe that public lands should stay in public hands, and also why we strongly support the designation of Bears Ears as a National Monument.  Think how many ski areas, especially in the West, operate on federal public lands; ones that I’m sure every SeniorSkiing reader has a special attachment to.

Thanks for making that point, Alan.

One of the issues in southern Utah, where these monuments are located, is that county commissioners and state officials are opposed to Federal land ownership. They think they can manage these vast areas more effectively. Among other goals, they want to create a handful of jobs by opening these beautiful wilderness resources to the extraction industries (A uranium mining company is reported to have pressured the White House to reduce Bears Ears.) Last weekend, we visited Goblin Valley State Park, a wonderful area filled with human scale hoodoos. The State of Utah manages the park. Trails are ill-defined, people can walk wherever they choose, signage is virtually non-existent. By comparison, we hiked Arches National Park the day before, where all systems and operations were efficient and well run. The Utah locals seeking control of Federal lands are amateurs who don’t accept the idea that their backyards belong to all citizens.

CALIFORNIA

Santa-costumed skiers and boarders will participate in Mountain High’s annual Santa Sunday this weekend. The event raises funds for Protect Our Winters (POW), the climate change advocacy group for the snow sports community. Registration requires minimum $20 donation to POW. Receipt can be exchanged for a day ticket. Visit Santa Sunday for details.

COLORADO

Aspen Highlands opens Saturday with limited terrain. Pray for snow!!!!

MAINE

Maine resorts received 21″ of natural. Time to head north!

New York

Many upgrades at Whiteface and Gore (lodge expansions, upgraded snowmaking/grooming, etc.).

Lake Placid hosts World Cup Luge this weekend, FIS 2018 Freestyle World Cup aerials competition (Jan. 19-20), Empire State Winter Games (Feb. 1-4), USCSA Ski & Snowboard Championships (March 4-10), Lake Placid Nordic Festival and Loppet (March 18), and ECAC Hockey Men’s D1 Championships (March 16-17).

If you’re in the neighborhood the weekends of Jan 19 and 26, drop by The Sagamore Resort‘s (Bolton Landing) and hoist one at its Glacier Ice Bar & Lounge, featuring nine tons of carved ice.

The Saranac Lake Winter Carnival is Feb. 2-11 and features a massive Ice Palace. The palace tradition dates to 1898. They feature tunnels and mazes and are decorated with flags, ice furniture and sculpture.

New this year is the Adirondack Snowshoe Fest ,Feb. 24 -25 in Saranac Lake. Races are scheduled for all levels. Lots of surrounding entertainment to take off the chill.

QUEBEC

Mt Tremblant reports recent snowfall and perfect snowmaking temps resulting in opening of all 4 sides of the mountain by end of weekend. 60 runs to be available! If you’re planning to visit over the holidays, don’t miss La Famille Grelot (December 23 -31), a feisty family of singing, dancing and acrobatic elves in the pedestrian village.

UTAH

Salt Lake City is promoting itself as an “apres cultural mecca” while skiing the state’s nearby iconic resorts. There’s theater, dance, classical music, jazz, professional sports, and art and natural history museums. More at Ski City USA.

VERMONT

Some resorts received as much as 24″ of fresh this week. Current trail conditions and weather alerts at SkiVermont.com; resort information, deals and events at Resort Finder.

OTHER

 

R.I.P. Bruce Brown, the documentarian who brought us The Endless Summer and On Any Sunday died earlier this week in Santa Barbara. He was 80. For many of our generation, his surfing films and motorcycle films stirred a fantasy of the possible.

 

 

Free, Last Minute, Online Gifts for Senior Skiers

These magazine subscriptions are available free to SeniorsSkiing.com subscribers:

  • One year (six issues) subscription to SKI Magazine (U.S. residents only).
  • One-year (six issues) digital subscription to SKIING HISTORY Magazine.

To register, click the Subscriber-Only Content at the top of the SeniorsSkiing.com Home Page.

  • For SKI Magazine, go to bottom of form and click on: Click Here For Free One Year Subscription to SKI Magazine and follow directions.
  • For SKIING HISTORY go to bottom of form and click on Click Here for Your Free Subscription to SKIING HISTORY Magazine, scroll to Digital Membership, select 1 Year-Digital Only, add to cart, enter coupon code SENIORSKI17, checkout, then set up your account.

 

seniorsskiing

This Week In SeniorsSkiing.com (May 20)

/0 Comments/in , /by

Spring Survey Responses A Wow, Fling Golf, La Nina Coming Soon, More Cycling Series.

La Nina is next year's weather maker. Here's what happens in a typical La Nina year. Credit: NOAA

La Nina is next year’s weather maker. Here’s what happens in a typical La Nina year.
Credit: NOAA

We are truly awed and grateful for the incredible, enthusiastic responses we’ve been getting to our Spring Subscriber Survey 2016. If you’re familiar at all with surveys, you know that response rates are often in the single digits. So far, we’ve received fantastic 27.5% response rate. To us, that means our readers (you) are engaged and interested in what we are trying to accomplish. Thank you so very much. We will report results after we dig into the data.

Our stories this week venture into the world of golf, well, sort of. Fling Golf is a new take on the old game. Check out the video in the story. Flinging is really different. Will golfers like it?

We’ve been watching the weather lately as the spring and summer months are when winter patterns start to emerge. Right now, the El Nino we’ve seen create unusual snow amounts both east and west is fading away. In its place comes La Nina, cooler sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Pacific. This change will definitely play a role in next season’s snow predictions. Check out the story and resources for further study.

Our Northwest correspondent John Nelson has sent a really neat article for the Cycling Series about Arches National Park in Utah. We have learned from our survey that many of you cycle in the non-snow season and Moab, UT, home base for Arches, is a center of activity. Some amazing pictures, too, from John.

Next Week

We will be updating you on the attempt to eliminate free skiing for seniors at Cannon Mountain, NH. We’ve heard that there has been resistance to making that change. We’ll see.

We will also continue our Cycling Series as well as the usual fun stuff.

Finally, we plan to give you a first peek from the highlights of the survey. A quick glance shows there are so many wonderful ideas we can use. Once again thank you so very much for your terrific response.

And remember, there are more of us every day, and we aren’t going away.

Tower of Babel watches over Arches National Park, UT. Credit: John Nelson

Tower of Babel watches over Arches National Park, UT.
Credit: John Nelson

John Nelson

Cycling Series: Rolling Among The Rocks At Arches

/0 Comments/in , /by

Once Past The Crowds, Another World Opens Up.

Landscape arch in the Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park. Credit: John Nelson

Landscape arch in the Devils Garden Trail in Arches National Park.
Credit: John Nelson

Looking out the window of a car just can’t capture the otherworldly beauty of Arches National Park in Utah.

In this stark and dramatic landscape of towering spires, delicate arches and balanced rocks, I chose to bike and hike on my pathway to discovery.

John Nelson along the Fiery Furnace Trail. Credit: John Nelson

John Nelson along the Fiery Furnace Trail.
Credit: John Nelson

I visited Arches in Fall 2015. I pulled into the nearby town of Moab in the evening and found that things were hopping among a diverse crowd of cyclists, hikers, river-runners, ORV enthusiasts and vacationers, all with plans to recreate in the rugged region.

I decided to start early the next morning to get a jump-start on the crowd.

So much for solitude. My outdoors-loving brethren had the same idea, and we all got stuck in a long backup at the Arches entrance gate. Arches National Park is a popular place with nearly 1.4 million people visiting last year.

Once through the entrance, I parked a couple of miles from the visitor center, climbed aboard my bike, and happily left my car behind. The roads were initially busy, but after a few miles, things calmed down and traffic dispersed, leaving me to pedal among the wide-open vistas.

What I saw over the next few hours was mind-blowing.

The National Park lies atop an underground salt bed. Over millions of years, the salt bed became unstable, eroded and shifted, leaving dramatic rock features carved by wind and weather that remain today.

My ride along the main road passed some of the very best sights in the park to its end at Devils Garden 18.5 miles from the entrance gate. Some side roads take visitors to other arch locations, but I wanted to go as far as I could inside the park and return later to see the other attractions.

The ride to Devils Garden takes place on rolling terrain between elevations of 4,500 and 5,500 feet. Once at Devils Garden, I slipped on hiking shoes to visit some of the park’s most famous arches along a 7.2-mile loop trail.

After a picnic lunch, I climbed back on my bike to head back. In some ways, the return ride was even better than the ride out. The light had changed, giving me a different view of these amazing formations.

Back at the car, I was exhausted from the ride and hike—and utterly satisfied. I had seen the park in way that author Edward Abbey, a former park ranger at Arches, would certainly appreciate.

“A (traveler) on foot, on horseback or on a bicycle will see more, feel more, enjoy more in one mile than the motorized tourists can in a hundred miles,” Abbey wrote in Desert Solitaire.

If you go:

Where to start the ride: Don’t park at the visitor center, which is usually swarming with tourists. Instead, drive 2.5 miles inside the park to the La Sal Mountains Viewpoint parking lot. By doing so, you’ll get out of the high-traffic area, and you’ll also avoid a 1,000 vertical foot climb.

When to visit: Spring and Fall, with more moderate temperatures, are the best times to see Arches. Summer temperatures can soar above 100 degrees.

Fitness concerns: At about 30 miles, the ride is difficult, but has only a couple of climbs. Much of the terrain is rolling and pleasant. Carry ample water, and you can refill at Devils Garden.

Safety: Even with traffic, I never felt unsafe riding at Arches. The roadways have good shoulders, and I found that drivers were mostly courteous and careful.

Food: Arches has no food concession, so pack along anything you want to eat. Moab has a wide array of restaurants and markets where you can stock up.

Highlights: Almost too many to count. The Courthouse Towers Viewpoint, The Great Wall, Balanced Rock, Panorama Point and Fiery Furnace all are along the road. If you have the energy, consider a hike around Devils Garden to see some of the park’s best sights.

Accommodations: Moab is the place. You’ll find a wide selection of condos, motels, resorts and bed and breakfasts.

Camping: The Devils Garden Campground inside the national park has 52 spaces, but these fill up very quickly. Don’t arrive thinking you’ll get lucky. Reserve a spot ahead by clicking here or by calling (877) 444-6777. Outside of Arches, there are several other options, including Willow Flat Campground in Canyonlands National Park and Dead Horse State Park, as well as primitive BLM campsites along the Colorado River. Click here for details.

Click here for maps of the area.

Tower of Babel watches over Arches National Park, UT. Credit: John Nelson

Tower of Babel watches over Arches National Park, UT.
Credit: John Nelson