Tag Archive for: Question For You

seniorsskiing

Question For You: Buy Now Or Wait?

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To Buy Or Not To Buy (Yet): That Is The Question.

It should be clear by now that if you intend to ski more than two or three times a season at mid-large resort, a season pass is required. Basically, walk-up tickets are major resorts are in the $15o to $200+ range which is fine if you have limited interest, time, or abundant resources.

Now we learn that Vail’s Epic pass will be sold at a 20 percent discount from last year’s. Vails chief executive Rob Katz clearly states that the strategy is to “move ticket buyers to a pass.” Dropping the price is certainly one way to do that. It’s also a way to add to the revenue line after a year of increased expenses for COVID.  So the push is on to buy a pass.  For example, 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.

Predictable consequences: More people showing up, crowding parking lots, longer lift lines? Or, more darkly, not being able or wanting to ski at a resort because of ongoing virus restrictions which still may be a factor in 2021-22? Unpredictable consequences? Who knows?

Question For You: Given the bargain prices for season passes, do you plan to purchase one as soon as you can (i.e., now), wait and see, or skip it because of…what? Will you be looking forward to heading to bigger resorts with your new pass? Will you continue to be content with “mom and pop” hills where you can ski mid-week for cheap?

Please comment in Leave A Reply below.

 

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Question For You: The Best Of The Virus Year?

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One Year On, It Is Time For Reflection.

Breckenridge lift line in Dec 2020 when the resort had “significantly reduced capacity.”

This year of sudden shut down when everything about lives has changed has thrown a lot of plans out the window. While many readers have found a way to get out in the snow, others have given this season a bye, and still others have taken up alternative snow sports, like cross-country, snow shoeing, and even fat biking.

Whatever path readers have taken, this entire year has been a significantly different experience, so different that many folks think it is the most distinctive experience of their entire lives, except perhaps war, injury, or spiritual enlightenment.

While we have all grumbled about what has been taken away, we might have also noticed that some changes and adjustments brought about by this virus have been a gift. Perhaps that gift had to do with how we enjoy the outdoors in winter, or what we’ve learned about your local ski area or fellow skiers or your skill level and pursuit of improvement.  Or how you’ve managed to maintain fitness cooped up and socially isolated.

Question For You: On this COVID close down anniversary week, what’s the gift you have been given this year? Were you surprised? Can you keep this gift going into the future?

Please make a comment in Leave A Reply below.

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Question For You: Risk Rating

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Are You A Hucker, Ripper, Park Rat, Or Just A “Sick” Planker?

This you?

Sorry for the jargon.  This week, we’d like to explore on which end of the risk spectrum our readers reside. We have a sense that some readers have slowed down, taken down the speed a notch or two, search for corduroy on on sunny days, and switched to Blues and Greens. On the other hand, we know for a fact that some readers regularly race, seek double Blacks, huck off jumps, go outside the ropes, and generally find fire in their skis.

Question For You: So which are you?  Use this scale to rate yourself:

       1 is risk lover, jumper, fast, ski whatever, go-go-go, chute flyer.

       5 is graceful carver of the wide, groomed Blues and Greens, nice, rhythmical arcs, slow-ish, and in control.

Since this is an unscientific and statistically insignificant survey, make up your own criteria for 2-3-4 on the rating scale.

It will be interesting to see how our readership sees itself.

Or is this you?

 

seniorsskiing

Question For You: What Lessons From Racing?

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Have You Raced? When? What Did You Learn?

Billy Kidd making his move.

We are curious how many of our readers have actually been involved in ski racing in the long arc of their skiing careers. Did you race in college? High school? World Cup circuit? Olympics?  Or just the odd NASTAR race at the local hill? 

Regardless what level you raced or your degree of success, what did you learn from the experience? How has what you learned changed your skiing experience, or, for that matter, your life and your outlook? If you didn’t race, what do you think you might have missed? Or, if you didn’t, why not?

What did you learn from your racing career that still sticks?

Please write your comments in Leave A Reply below.

 

 

mikemaginn

Question For You: How Did You Learn?

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Did How You Learn Help Or Hinder Your Current Technique?

Hannes Schneider brought Austrian “technique” to the US in early 30s.

I remember taking couple of lessons when I started skiing in the mid-60s. Lessons were based on the snow-plow, stem christie, christie school.  Very Austrian. It served me well over the years I skied up to the time my Alpine career went on hiatus.

When I came back to skiing about 15 years ago with new short skis, new boots, I was trapped in the world of my early technique: still stem christies from time to time, narrow stance a la Stein Ericksen, actually trying to “wedlen” under the lifts. Boy, that didn’t seem to work. And actually still gets in the way.

So I took a lesson and tried to adapt. Better but not easy; old habits die hard.

Which leads us to our question for you this week:

What ski school method was used when you learned to ski? Or did you even take a lesson? How has your “Ur-technique”—the fundamentals from decades ago—impact how you ski today? Help? Hinder? What did you have to unlearn? How did you do that?

Please let us know what your experience has been. Make a comment in Leave A Reply in the box below.

Ski School, Austria, 1930s.

 

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Question For You: Was Your Investment In A Pass Worth It?

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Or, Do You Regret Shelling Out The Bucks?

Here we are in mid-January.  The Northwest has seen abundant snowfall, the West needs more, the East, well, there’s been some uneven days, and trail counts are down. And we have COVID restrictions in place, changing the experience for lots of visitors from getting to resorts to the hill experience. Even Pitkin County, CO, —home to Aspen—has just cancelled indoor dining and moved to 50 percent capacity on lodging due to a high incidence rate of the virus. Out of state visitors need to quarantine and/or show a recent negative test for traveling to Vermont, and New Hampshire, for example.

We know that many SeniorsSkiing.com readers have bought season passes.  Ikon, Epic, resort specific, etc., there are myriad options available, all not inexpensive (unless you’re a veteran who can get awesome deals).  And here we are: An okay snow year, constraints and restrictions, and about three-four months to go for this season, depending on where you are.

Question For You: Are You Glad You Bought A Season Pass?

Are you getting the value you expected? Do you anticipate getting more use out of your pass as the season goes on? Please write your comments in Leave A Reply below.

 

 

 

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Question For You: Dispatches From The Snow Frontier

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Let’s Try Again: What Is Your First Visit To A Ski Resort In COVID Times Like?

Restrictions: Help, hinder, hopeless? What is your experience? Credit: USNews&WorldReport

A few weeks ago, we asked our readers to tell us how their first visits to a ski resort went in this unusual year.  We wanted to hear reactions to constraints, regulations, and policies designed to keep visitors and staff safe.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get many responses, presumably because it was a bit too early for resorts to open and our readers to visit.

When we received a detailed report from a reader on a visit to Wolf Creek, CO, we decided to ask our question again. Reader John Farley described his visit to the moderate-size Colorado area—the first in North America to open—and how his strategy for parking and getting to the lifts worked out for him. Click here to read his dispatch.

Take two: If you’ve been out for your first day of skiing this year, how did it go? How did you manage the COVID rules? Were there karmic differences between this year’s first run and other years? More important, how will lessons learned on your first day impact how you approach the rest of the season?

Please write your comments in the Leave A Reply box below.

 

 

 

mikemaginn

Question For You: Groomed Or Au Naturel?

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What Is Your Preference? 

Appleton Farms, Ipswich, MA. Trails are groomed by a volunteer group. Credit: SeniorsSkiing.com

We live across a little country road from a 900-acre conservation property. For years, we’d walk across the road, stumble over the stone wall bordering the street, and plod our way about 20 feet through tree-falls and heavy brush to a trail where we’d put on our xc skis. And then we’d break trail around our favorite loop, eventually meeting up with trails already made by skiers who made it out earlier than us.  Then we’d follow those.

In recent years, North Shore Nordic, a local, volunteer-run non-profit, regularly runs a trail-maker snow mobile around the property, creating perfect, groomed grooves for classic skiing and a corduroy path for xc skaters.  Now, we have the best of both worlds.  To get to the groomed track, we break trail from a remote corner of the property to the main area. We like the groomed trails.  But then, there are the walkers who are enjoying the beautiful snow-filled fields by walking on—and disturbing—the groom. So, hmmm.

And, here’s our question for you:

Do you favor going to a cross country ski area with groomed trails or on a local trail that is not maintained? Do you have a place that is cross country skiing close to home? Is it au naturel or groomed?

“Au naturel” trail across Appleton Farms field. Credit: SeniorsSkiing.com

mikemaginn

Question For You: Preparing

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What’s On Your Agenda?

Last week, we noted that Warren Miller’s new movie Future Retro has hit the internet. For many, the premier of a Warren Miller film has been the starting gun of the season. Which got us to thinking about routines we have developed to start our own personal snow sports season. As we mentioned, perhaps it’s something like: Watch the Warren Miller movie, go to the ski show, get your gear cleaned up, visit the ski shop for a sharpening, watch the weather, etc.

Maybe you have a ritual that you follow every year. Buy a new hat or gloves? Put on snow tires? Start working out? Put away the summer toys? What is it? Share with your fellow senior snow sports enthusiasts.

How do you prepare for the upcoming winter snow sports season? Is there a set of activities you follow yearly? Something special you buy? Let us know.

Write your comments in Leave A Reply below.

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Question For You: Early Birders

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Yes, It’s Early Days, But How Is It Out There?

Wild Mountain is open in Minnesota (Oct. 19). So is Mt. Norquay (Oct 24) and Lake Louise (Oct. 29) in Alberta. And Wolf Creek, (Oct. 28) Arapahoe Basin, (Oct. 9th!), Killington, VT (Nov. 6th), and perhaps a few others are spinning lifts by the time you read this. Perhaps we are pushing this a little, but inquiring minds want to know how it goes in resort-ville?

Mt. Norquay early birders on opening day.

If you’ve been out for a run or two, please let us know what your personal opening day was like. Was anyone there besides you? How about COVID rules; did they help or hinder?  Could you detect karmic differences between this year’s first run and other years? If you skinned uphill at a not-quite-open-yet resort, what was that like?

You early adapters are canaries in the cage for the rest of us.  Okay, bad metaphor, but you’re ahead of a lot of us, so do tell.  What’s happening?

Write your comments in the Leave A Reply box below.

 

 

resort card
mikemaginn

Question For You 16: The Right Thing To Do

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Let’s Do Some Scenario Planning.

We all realize that the snow season we are about to enter—or which has already started in some places—is going to be the most remarkable in our entire lives.  We’ve asked what you were going to do about heading or not heading to resorts, and it’s clear everyone has a plan or at least an opinion.

But, here’s a different slant. Let’s take a situation that you can bet is gonna be happening out there. Based on the situation, you game out the best moves.  Yes, it’s scenario planning and the stuff of off-site meetings and consulting gigs. But, we can do it in our online community.  All you have to do is think of the optimal response, optimal meaning the best that can be done, given the situation. Optimal doesn’t mean ideal, it’s the best possible in a particular situation.

So here you go. The season has been progressing nicely at a moderately-sized mountain resort. Skiers are cooperating with the various restrictions, and the snow has been fab for great skiing.  Mid-week crowds are up, everyone is having a manageable time, getting good runs in and coping in general with the changes. Then, ka-boom. We learn that 20 of the core staff—instructors, lifties, food service people, maintenance—have been infected by the virus.

Credit: David Zalubowski

What should happen now? What should management do? What are the options? What is the most likely, optimal outcome?

Write your thoughts in Leave A Reply below.

Note: several readers have written to us about their entries being labelled as SPAM. When that happens, you can bet our very robust SPAM filter has caught a word or phrase that is typically used in SPAM messages.  If your post gets rejected as SPAM, check your verbiage for SPAM-like language, edit it, and re-submit.

 

seniorsskiing

Question For You 14: How Do You Decide What To Buy?

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Shopping For New Stuff?

Now is the time of the year when thoughts of pulling out the plastic and splurging on gear and clothing permeate our waking hours. After all, those old bindings are past their sell-buy date, and those cracked boots don’t quite fit the way they did seven years ago. And that dirty parka is simply falling apart.

And retailers are hanging out the discount signs.  Although there won’t be ski shows this year, there might be some online versions thereof to entice those with a hole in their pockets.

Bob Skinner’s Ski And Sports, Newbury, NH.

We’ve often wondered how you, dear reader, makes decisions about what to buy. Do you look for articles in the magazines and blogs to guide you? Are they helpful? Do skiing friends tell you about what works for them? Do retail sales specialists guide you through choices? How do you judge? Do you know what you’re looking for at the start of your search? Or, are you working from some impressions gathered on last year’s lift lines? Share your thoughts.  We’d really like to know.

As you know, we’ve been publishing ski and boot recommendations for since we started SeniorsSkiing. Has that made a difference in your buying decisions?

 

If  you are considering buying new gear for the new season, how do you decide what to buy?

Please respond in the Leave A Reply box below.

 

seniorsskiing

Question For You 6: Next Season

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How Is This Going To Work?

Everyone in the ski business has been puzzling about next season and how it will unfold. Uncertainty brings with it lots of speculation about if, when, and how the ski industry will re-open. Even if it does re-open, whatever that means, will people show up? So our first Question For You this month is asking for specifics from your point of view.

Please write your response in the Reply Box below.

What will you need to see ski resorts do to make you feel comfortable about coming back next season?