Photo(s) of the day...

[silverback]

My old 69 year old ski buddy and my new 7 year old ski buddy. My line was closest to the trees and the little guy took the line to my left. Dude rocks.

 

[Jim Kenney]

Fav photo from 27 Feb 2023, Alta, UT:
@Stephen

 

[silverback]

Alta today.

 

[Mothertucker]

Trees around my 420 spot yesterday.

 

[Mel]

My 13yo at the bottom of Delerium Dive at Sunshine Village.

 

[Lauren]

A few favorites from the Arlberg

 

[Mothertucker]

Thursday was country club day @ Snow Summit.

 

[slowrider]

 

[AtleB]

View from office window.

 

[Uncle-A]

View from office window.
View attachment 195226

Nice view, it must be tuff to keep working with that just outside the door.

 

[Jim Kenney]

solitude village, 5 March 2023

 

[James]

Looking down from the top of Mt Fort, Verbier Switzerland. The path under the tram. It’s dicier than it looks, especially with random rocks. A low snow period, I’ve never seen so many moguls down there.

Top of Mt Fort tram. (Tram =Téléphérique) Above photo taken from tram exit level. They added these stairs that go above. Used to be a rope with steep snow steps. Nfw was I going up that. It’s bad enough now, that one side of the top platform has a glass railing. I suppose to avoid mass hysteria, one by one, there’s black vertical lines on it. Still didn’t like it. I prefer railings in ski boot resistant galvanized steel.

View from top platform with tram coming up. I think I was too scared to get a shot from the glass side.

The zipline goes from maybe 10m below tram level down to that platform by the arrow. 383m vert, 1257ft, 1.4km long. Scariest part is getting on it. You have to step up onto a small painted wooden platform to get attached. There’s hand holds, but really?? We scoped it out a couple days before, which made it worse thinking of everything that could go wrong stepping on wood with alpine soles.

You do about 60mph. But everything is so far away it’s hard to sense speed. Very quiet and smooth, I tried not to think about what exactly was holding me on the cable. I waved to people on the tram, which immediately initiated a rotation, so I had to raise the other hand. After stabilizing, you could change your direction of view just by sticking the fingers of one hand out.

 

[dbostedo]

View attachment 195304
Looking down from the top of Mt Fort, Verbier Switzerland. The path under the tram. It’s dicier than it looks, especially with random rocks. A low snow period, I’ve never seen so many moguls down there.

View attachment 195293
Top of Mt Fort tram. (Tram =Téléphérique) Above photo taken from tram exit level. They added these stairs that go above. Used to be a rope with steep snow steps. Nfw was I going up that. It’s bad enough now, that one side of the top platform has a glass railing. I suppose to avoid mass hysteria, one by one, there’s black vertical lines on it. Still didn’t like it. I prefer railings in ski boot resistant galvanized steel.

View attachment 195299
View from top platform with tram coming up. I think I was too scared to get a shot from the glass side.

View attachment 195303
The zipline goes from maybe 10m below tram level down to that platform by the arrow. 383m vert, 1257ft, 1.4km long. Scariest part is getting on it. You have to step up onto a small painted wooden platform to get attached. There’s hand holds, but really?? We scoped it out a couple days before, which made it worse thinking of everything that could go wrong stepping on wood with alpine soles.

You do about 60mph. But everything is so far away it’s hard to sense speed. Very quiet and smooth, I tried not to think about what exactly was holding me on the cable. I waved to people on the tram, which immediately initiated a rotation, so I had to raise the other hand. After stabilizing, you could change your direction of view just by sticking the fingers of one hand out.

I would LOVE to do that zipline! (Or ski that groomer in the pics too! Looks like fun.)

 

[James]

(Or ski that groomer in the pics too! Looks like fun.)

Well to get to that groomer…it can be a bit hellish depending on conditions.
First is the ridge. It’s easy, but it’s usually wind scoured ice, with rocks on the left and a drop off on the right. I hate it, especially skiing with one eye now.
Then the trail starts, it’s steep and moguled. But it’s the first 10-15m that this year really were terrible. They’re not shaped, rounded, moguls at entry, but little Mt Everests. Then there’s ice between, and random rocks that are hiding under light wind drift. You can’t go across those little Everests. Guy I ski with the day after speared one, list a ski and went sliding a good

Once you get past that, then it’s pretty good. When there’s snow, the off piste is quite good.

When we were in the tram going up, there was a young guy, early 20’s, with some friends. He didn’t look all that competent skiing wise, I felt like it was a bad idea for him to attempt it.
So we’re up in the moguls past the dreaded entry, some turns down, and stopped. We then hear this yelling from above, look over, and maybe 50ft from us, this guy is tumbling down. He’s going feet over head, head over feet, slightly corked. It’s the guy from the tram! He’s big, maybe 6’2-3” and built. He’s slamming into the mogul, then being flipped over to the next one. It’s boom!, boom!, boom! Must have been five or six since we started looking. Never seen or heard anything like that in moguls.

The guy was ok apparently, at least in the way a 20 year old can take an absolute pounding, walk away, and be “ok”. He was lucky there had been 4-5in of snow the night before.

 

[dbostedo]

especially skiing with one eye now.

One eye? What happened?

Once you get past that, then it’s pretty good.

Oh... well it looks good from afar!

At the last Jackson Gathering, I went to ski a short black bump run (really could have been blue even I think) - maybe 200 vertical feet. As I collected myself at the top, I noticed someone else who'd taken off their skis and was sitting down... I said "you probably don't want to do that" but too late just as they started to slide down on their butt... and promptly picked up a lot more speed than they expected and smacked off/over a couple of moguls, their skis they were holding getting left behind. I finally skied down and helped him get his skis back, and someone he knew (I think) caught up to us and was talking to him. He seemed shaken but OK - but I bet he was sore the next day.

 

[Mothertucker]

They're going to have to dig out chair #7.

 

[silverback]

 

[Uncle-A]

View attachment 195614

First tracks, sure make all of us jealous.

 

[silverback]

First tracks, sure make all of us jealous.

That was in the afternoon too. Turns thanks to 188 Praxis proTests. Found fun, untracked snow at Alta all day today without any terrain opening. Tomorrow should be good if the snow settles. Now if I can just stop dragging my inside pole…
I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be disappointed with an “average” season going forward.

 

[Andy Mink]

Now if I can just stop dragging my inside pole…

When it's that deep, where else are you going to put it?

#metoo