Montezuma Bowl Expansion Causes Parking Troubles at A-Basin

Arapahoe Basin expanded their terrain this season with the Montezuma Bowl. According to the Summit Daily News, success causes problems:

A-Basin is headed for a record skier-visit season, said spokesperson Leigh Hierholzer. March was a record month for A-the ski area in terms of skier numbers, she said.

There have already been several weekends this season when the available parking at A-Basin filled up completely, leading to traffic backups on Highway 6. Historically, the parking crunch peaks in the spring when the rest of Summit County's ski areas close down.

In the works are plans for a new parking lot to add more parking space, a pedestrian tunnel to go under US 6, and a shuttle service to nearby Keystone.

Later Opening Date, Later Closing Time

Since we're in the days when just a few lift-served areas are open, I'm sympathetic to the argument advanced by Scott Willoughby in today's Denver Post.

He notes that most ski areas in Colorado are now closed, despite having record snowfall. For example, "Despite ample remains of the second-snowiest winter of all time in Vail and the deepest ever next door at Beaver Creek, those two areas are shut down until summer, with resort officials citing a lack of staff and interest to keep lifts running even on weekends."

I suppose if you've had the opportunity to ride and ski all winter, and especially if you live within driving distance of the mountains, you're going to say after a while "No, I think I'll go golfing today," no matter how much snow is left on the mountains. For you see, feeble customer demand closes many lifts before lack of snow cover does. For those of us who travel to the mountains for a visit, that is an especially sad state of affairs.

Though he may be--to toss in a summer metaphor--swimming upstream, he suggests that ski areas address their staffing problems by starting their seasons later, and running the lifts later in the spring.

"If," he says, "the large ski resorts are in such a bind to find even a skeleton crew to man the mountains while there still is so much snow on the slopes, they should consider providing what most ski resort employees seek in the first place — more skiing, not less."

The problem, he says, is that the calendar is out of whack.

"Ultimately, it amounts to timing, and a bit more flexibility on the corporate skiing front. As it now stands, the big-league resorts are all about opening days surrounding the Thanksgiving holiday — when snow is unreliable at best. It makes more sense to push the opener back into December — as Mother Nature forced many to do this season — and target a conditions-warranted closing date for at least a few lifts of, say, Cinco de Mayo, that will send employees off to mud season in Mexico with a bona fide fiesta. If the snow arrives early, skiers and staff will only be champing at the bit."

I detect an anti-corporate feel to the article, which highlights the love/hate relationship that is easy for riders and skiers to have: deep pockets such as Intrawest and Vail Resorts install plenty of high-speed lifts to get us to the top of the mountains, but the accounting department rules the roost: not enough profit? Shut down the lifts.

Should there be a calendar shift? I'd like to see it. But unless "the market"--that is, the collective decisions of millions of riders and skiers--expresses an interest and more importantly buys the late-season tickets that are available, it won't happen.

Late Season Riding

Think it's too late in the year to go snowboarding? Not if you know where to look.

As of today, 38 ski areas tracked by the site Snocountry.com are still open.

A good number of those are in Europe, but in North America, riders still have 14 choices for riding, ranging from Sugarloaf in Maine to Whistler in British Columbia.



I haven't checked the anticipated closing dates of each of these areas, but do your homework and you should find somewhere to ride for at least another month. Granted, spring conditions require a different attitude and challenge your skills in ways that, say, late January snow does not. But late-season riding is another way to grow as a snowboarder.

An Incredible Descent

Think you're been on some steep slopes?

Terje Haakonsen, a legendary snowboarder, puts the "extreme" into "extreme sports." Here's a 3-minute clip of him riding down an ultra-steep slope in Alaska. Click and be amazed.

Snowboarding in Japan

With my own riding in the Midwest over, it's time to travel to other places for some snowboarding. And if that doesn't pan out, at least think about snowboarding somewhere else.

That somewhere else lately has been Japan. No, I've never been there, but it offers riders plenty of opportunities. Lots of resorts. Lots of snow. And lots of options.

So where do you start reading about what's out there? One place is Snow Japan. It's a hobby site that has grown a lot over the years, with forums, maps and other features I have yet to explore.

Snowboarding and Golf in the Same Day

This year I didn't get the chance to snowboard and golf in the same day. But one ski area in Pennsylvania offered customers the chance to do both.

Larry Walsh wrote for the Pittsburgh Press-Gazette on April 4:

Hidden Valley and Seven Springs are offering snow sports and golf at reduced rates today and tomorrow. Guests can hit the slopes in the morning and the links in the afternoon. [snip]

A round of golf at Seven Springs 18 hole, par 71 public course will cost $32 this weekend, including cart. Skiers and snowboarders who present their lift ticket or season pass will receive a $10 discount for the 6,560 yard course.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to experience great skiing, snowboarding and golf on the same day or the same weekend," said Dick Barron, the resort's director of ski and snowboard operations.

Sounds good to me!

Ski Museums and the History of Snowboarding

Some chip-on-my-shoulders snowboard riders don't like to be lumped in with skiers. Even so, snowboarding is a cousin of skiing, which has a much longer history than snowboarding. A few museums around the country keep track of that history.

These museums include the New England Ski Museum, the Colorado Ski [and Snowboard!] Museum, the Mammoth Ski Museum, and the U.S. National Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, which is, can you guess? Ishpeming, Michigan.

There's a new page on ski museums on the GraysOnTrays web site. At this point it doesn't have much more than some commentary on the sites listed above, but there may be more in the future.

The Loon Choo Choo

In late March I visited Loon Mountain, New Hampshire. I just received some photos from their marketing department to supplement the ones I took. I'll be rolling out a few of them here in this space.

There are three different base areas at Loon. You can of course plan your time on the mountain so that you ski from one to the other. But if you've got kids who aren't interested in snow-time-all-the-time, you might entertain them by taking a small train between the Octagaon Lodge and the Governor Adams lodge. As a bonus, it's got a steam-powered engine.


(Photo courtesy Loon Mountain)

During the summer of 2007, Loon was clearing some land for new trails on South Peak. What happened to the wood? Some of it ended up powering the train.

You can get an even better view of the engine at New England Trip Planner.

Most Difficult, Least Difficult

One thing I enjoy about visiting different ski areas is seeing how the mountain management does things. Usually they observe the same practices, but sometimes you'll see something different.

I'm used to seeing signs in Aspen/Snowmass that say "Easiest Way Down." That makes sense; you don't want a beginning snowboarder or skier to plunge down a steep blue if he is still working on the basics.

But when I was at Loon Mountain, New Hampshire, I saw something different. Some signs said "More difficult." Some read "Most difficult way."



Maybe it's a way to boost the egos of intermediates? It doesn't matter much, I suppose, and it serves a similar purpose to the "Easiest Way Down" signs. It helps beginners to know where to go, though unlike the case with Aspen, indirectly.

It's that Ugly Time of the Year

Around here, it's that ugly time of the year. The lifts are closed. Soggy ground has replaced snow. Instead of white, you see a blanket of brown. Snow showers have given way to rain showers, and the skies are overcast more often than usual.

The ground is much too soft for golf and wind makes cycling unappealing. As for water skiing or wakeboarding? Don't even think about it yet. The water is just too cold.

But Colorado, Utah, BC and other places Beckon. Even New England resorts remain open for another couple weeks.

Expect posting to become less frequent in this space from here on out. Maybe twice a week. Maybe once a week. At the least, once a month. There is plenty of material in draft form, but some of it will wait until the next season.

Holy Chocolate, Batman!

As part of a media junket, I visited several ski areas in New Hampshire and stayed in two different hotels.

Each night I received a few goodies in my hotel room after dinner. In writing up notes about the trip, I called these experiences "What's in the swag?"

The idea of swag, of course, is for companies to place their products with journalists in hopes that they might in turn mention them to their readers.

We're not talking new snowboards or jackets or anything expensive like that. Most of the stuff we got were small packets of skin care products or food.

Now that I've given you the disclosure, I'm going to talk about one specific item of swag: a hot chocolate powder (just add water) called "Holy Chocolate."



Drinking a cup of hot chocolate after a few hours on the slopes is a standard of winter activities. You could use your standard products from the big boys such as Nestles. Or you could try Holy Chocolate, sold by Mar Toma Enterprise of Campbell, California.

Holy Chocolate is, roughly speaking (I don't pay much attention to these things), an organic product. It's also very good.

The story behind it is interesting. As the company's web site says: "Father Stan loves God. He also loves chocolate. He combined his two great passions, and Holy Chocolate is the result. Holy Chocolate supports Father Stan and his ministry."

So while some monks support themselves by making beer, Father Stan supports himself by peddling chocolate.

And it is good chocolate. I received a 12-ounce can of "American Chocolate," which you can buy on the web site for $13.95 (plus shipping, I imagine). The can will give you seven servings. That's expensive. But it's good. You can choose from six flavors, which also come in 4.5-ounce bagss.

Unfortunately I can't give you detailed notes like a wine taster might. But try it.

Alas, I was able to enjoy only one cup. Blame the demands of air travel. I left the can in my hotel room when I checked out. I didn't dare risk having chocolate powder spill all over either my checked bags or my carry-on.

The Value of a Binding Leash

Ask your typical snowboarder what he thinks about leashes, and he may say "They're stupid. I don't see why I should wear one."

A leash can be useful for several reasons. The most common one is that it lets you drag the board behind you as you walk towards the lift. "Walking the dog," as this is called, is a useful alternative to carrying your board.

But there's reason why a leash can be useful: it can keep the board attached to you during the ride on the lift.

The particulars of the story I'm going to tell depend in part on the type of bindings I use--Flows have a releasable highback, as seen on this page--but if you change a few details, the story could apply to other riders.

When I descended the exit ramp, I locked my back finding into place. But I also discovered that I had not snapped the highback on my front foot into place before I got on the lift. During the lift up, the board was hanging in space, secured only by the fact that there was a single (though large) piece of very stiff fabric (I believe Flow calls it the "I-strap") on top of my foot. The whole concept of Flows depends on being able to recline the highback for an easy entry to the bindings, and then pushing the highback back into place. Instead, I had something different--something roughly akin to wearing a backless sandal while hanging in the air.

I was horrified at what might have happened on the lift. The binding did fit pretty well over my boot, so it was unlikely to go anywhere. To shed the bindings--and hence the board--I would have had to point my toes toward the ground and shake my foot a few, or many times. I don't normally do that, and I'm not sure that I even could. But consider what would have happened if that highly unlikely event would have happened: My board would drop 30 feet to the ground. At the least it would land with some force and slide a ways. At worse, it could land on someone.

That's where the leash comes in. Had the board fell off my foot, the leash would have arrested the fall.

Maybe this is all belt-and-suspender stuff, or maybe two pair of suspenders. No matter. The cost of using a leash is trivial, and the benefits (potentially) substantial.

Do you have a screw loose? The importance of binding maintenance

One of the good things about being a snowboarder is that you can do simple maintenance on your gear. Most skiers don't--and shouldn't--adjust their own bindings. But snowboarders can adjust their bindings all the time.

A lot of these adjustments simply involve changing the alignment of the bindings on the board. Are they pointing straight across the width of the board in a "zero-zero" stance? Are they pointing towards the tip of the board? Or maybe they're at a "duck" position (think of reversed pigeon-toed). How far apart are the bindings, and thus your feet, from each other? These are just some of the adjustments that a rider can make.

But there's a more simple task that you should make as a rider: make sure that you don't have a screw loose. I'm not talking about your mental state, but whether or not your bindings are actually snugly stuck to the board. That's really important because the binding is what keeps you from flying off the board when you make a turn.

In a less severe situation, if your bindings have a couple of loose screws, your control of the board and where it goes will be sloppy. It's like driving a car with wheels that wobble from side to side. Not good.

How often should you check the binding screws for tightness? In theory, before every time you go riding. In practice, some of us don't follow through with that rule, and depending on how fast you ride, where you ride, and how long you ride in a day, that can work out just fine.

But if you've been riding long trails at high speeds and it's been "a while" (you be the judge of what that means) since you've looked at those bindings, it's probably time to check them again.

By the way, it's very useful to have a pocket tool with you on the mountain. Think of them as the Swiss army knife of the slopes, equipped with screwdrivers and wrenches of various sizes.

You can usually find a bench somewhere at your favorite ski area, provided by the patrol. But sometimes the necessary screwdrivers aren't there, or they're on the lift on the other side of the mountain and you just realized that your bindings are wobbly. Time to bring out the pocket screwdriver!

If you're traveling on an overnight trip, be sure to pack a long-handled screwdriver in your bags. That way you can give the bindings a good once-over in the lodge before heading out to the slopes.

It's Snow Joke: New Snow on April 1

Here in Minnesota and in neighboring states we have lots of new snow on April Fool's day. If you're a Midwestern resident and you have the opportunity to get out to a ski area today, do it. This may be your last chance for some local snowboarding until November or later.