John LaPlante

What do you do when you wake up to 6 to 10 inches of snow, but know that it’s all going to be groomed into submission by the time you reach your local micro-hill? Go for a walk on snowshoes, of course.

Powder seldom lasts long on the ski area hills around here. The traffic is a killer, of course, but grooming machines can do a number on the good stuff, too. Yes, I’ve actually witnessed a grooming machine pounding fresh powder into submission–during business hours. With customers on the hill. It was enough to make me think of crying.

Rather than seek out powder I couldn’t find–or powder that would last about an hour, I took a pair of  snowshoes to a nearby park. I had two goals for my outing. The first was to stomp a mountain-bike trail that I have ridden a few times this winter. It was a small repayment to the people who have packed the trail before me. The second goal was to break a trail with the shoes. The last time I went out with snowshoes under feet, the snow was like frozen mashed potatoes. It was so unpleasant that I ended up carrying them with me.

The technique for using snowshoes appears to be pretty simple: Walk. There’s a bit more to it than that, but compared to snowboarding or skiing, it’s not something you spend a lot of time thinking about. You don’t have to worry about falling, since your feet rest on a stable piece of equipment. Even if you do fall, you will probably be moving so slowly that it won’t matter. A casual skier or snowboarder, by contrast, can easily exceed 15 – 30 miles per hour, enough to cause serious injury or death if you hit a hard object.

Any recreational activity that requires equipment could mean hassles. So how do snowshoes stack up? They’re smaller and lighter than skis and snowboards, so they are easier to transport. At least for a recreational shoer, your snowshoes should weigh less than a single snowboard boot. They’re also cheaper than a snowboard or skiing setup.

Snowboard boots are generally more comfortable and easier to use than ski boots, but footwear for snowshoes can be even more comfortable and easier to slip on. Waterproof hiking boots will work. Even tennis shoes will do in a pinch, as long as you’re not out long. (Beware of frostbite!).

While “shoe” is in the word “snowshoe,” putting them on is slightly more complicated than putting on shoes and starting to walk. For one thing, you’ve got to use bindings to secure the boots to the snowshoes.
The bindings on my cheap snowshoes (warehouse-club special) required threading some plastic ladders through ratchets, much like snowboarding bindings. (For the record, I hate ratchets on snowboard bindings.) Since my feet are not attached to a common object (as is the case with a snowboard), it was easier to get the ratchets to work for buckling in. The first binding was easy enough: Drop on one knee and work the binding. Getting into the second binding was somewhat more involved (requiring a straight-knee bendover), but not as difficult a task as putting on traditional snowboard bindings.

Once I was ready to set out on my hike, I took a large step to climb onto the top of a snowbank. It was a great feeling to not sink in. Quickly I learned enough to depress the toe plate (normal walking) rather than lift up my whole shoe (Frankenstein walking). While walk on the bike path, I took some satisfaction in knowing that I was helping out, but the shuffling movement that I used to uniformly compact the trail wasn’t that satisfying. But once I got into untracked snow, the quality of the experience increased dramatically. Walking on compacted snow may be easier, but plunging through powder is more enjoyable, similar to the pleasure that I get from making first tracks at a downhill ski area. Breaking a trail was so fun that when heading down the small hills in the park, I occasionally ran, after a fashion. 

Some of the pleasure that comes from snowboarding can come from simply being in the woods and taking in the beauty of it all. At least that’s the way it works in many venues I have been to in the Rockies. Around the Midwest, the visual appeal may more compelling in forests–going at low speeds–than on snowboards running down wide-open slopes.

When I got back to the car, I encountered those ratchets again. They came unbuckled on one shoe well enough, but it took me a few minutes to figure out how to undo the ones on my other foot. Better luck next time?

If you are interested in snowshoeing, you can rent them from some retailers or some park systems. Or you can do what I did, and buy some cheap ones for under $100.

If you’re interested in trying out snowshoeing, much of the advice that you read about snowboarding or skiing will apply: Wear wicking fabric, apply sunscreen, and stay hydrated.

Is snowboarding at all like climbing Mt. Everest? They both involve snow, but most importantly, they require determination.

David Breashears was on Everest during the disastrous 1996, in which a number of people died on the mountain. He wrote about it in High Exposure. and the story was then made into the film Everest. Along the way, Breshears offers a look at various people in his expedition. Here’s one thing that Beck Weathers, one of the survivors, had to say:

“All I knew was, that as long as my legs would run, and I could stand up… I was gonna move toward that camp. And if I fell down, I was gonna get up. And if I fell down again, I was gonna keep moving, until I hit that camp… or I walked off the face of that mountain.” 

Many snowboarders will tell you that in learning, perseverance was the key. Did you fall down? Fine. Get back up again. Kevin, an older snowboarder, wrote this: “if you ever feel like giving up, don’t; get back on that board and practice.”

Ever going out snowboarding and at some point wonder how amazing it is that you’re alive out there in the cold? Mark Helprin recently wrote about the wonder–and horror–of winter in a piece called “The fire we tend against winter.” It’s flowery in spots, but perhaps that just adds to its value.

Without proper equipment and clothing, winter is deadly. As Helprin points out, Napoleon lost 98 percent of his troops when he invaded Russia. Many of them died not from enemy gunfire, but from the cold. Today the average citizen may be more equipped, at least as far as clothing goes. But we’re still vulnerable. People can and do die from hypothermia, and on a less dramatic scale, snowstorms can still wreck havoc with our commerce when they shut down airports and roads. Helprin himself nearly suffered hypothermia on a few occasions, including a hazardous walk home from the school bus stop. ” lay there, almost asleep, thinking that I was going to die. And I would have had not my dog refused to stop barking, which led to my discovery.” Scary stuff.

Helprin warns that simple thinking about winter can be life-threatening (fair enough), but the challenge is part of the game. “The world changes as snow and cold test one’s fiber and ingenuity, something that brings far more satisfaction than just living easily.”

Finally, there’s a beauty to the snowy world that cannot be denied. “What could be more lovely than the sound, just above the threshold of hearing, of falling snow?”

Indeed.

What do you do when you’re not snowboarding? Trying out a different sport, such as mountain biking, can have benefits in their own right, such as getting some exercise and enjoying the scenery. They can also offer some lessons for snowboarding. While doing single-track bike riding through the woods, for example, don’t look at the trees. Look at where you want to go, instead, as the video below demonstrates.

After going a few years without skiing, I have made it a practice to get back on my skis at least once a season. Today, I had planned to go snowboarding with a friend. Since she bailed out at the last minute, I decided to make today the day for this season.

These days always get me thinking. How do the two kinds of tools differ, and what are their comparative advantages? How will I adjust to being back on skis? Can my time on one tool somehow help me become better on the other?

One obvious difference is that skiing requires carrying more stuff to the car. How much more? I decided to take the scale out of the closet. Of course, boards do come in different weights, as do different skis, so as they say, your mileage may vary.

The biggest adjustment in packing for a day skiing is carrying the boots to the car, followed by taking the skis to the car. Though both ski and snowboard boots are a bit unwieldy, there’s a substantial weight difference.

My snowboard boots weigh less than 2 pounds. On the other hand, my ski boots weigh 7 times as much.

Skiing also requires poles, though their weight is so inconsequential I did not bother to weigh them. Still, they’re a hassle in packing. One more thing to carry. Or rather, two more things to carry.

The skis weighted almost as much as the boots, but not quite. Due to where I live, they could have weighed more. I bought these to use primarily on the local bump hills. Had I bought them expecting to log a lot of time in the mountains, they would have been longer, and heavier. As it is, though, they are 13 pounds.

To my surprise, the snowboard weighed almost as much, though it’s 8 centimeters shorter than the skis. Partial blame goes to the Flow NXT-AT bindings that I use. They’re heavy.

Going skiing does have one less hassle factor when it comes to equipment. I always wear knee pads when I go snowboarding. One reason is that it’s a piece of protection in case I crash, but the larger reason is that they serve as something I can put my weight on should I need to rest, adjust a binding, or otherwise stop.

Once I got to the ski hill, I decided to make two trips from the car. One trip might have worked, but given the short distance from the lot to the lodge, I decided to take it easy. Snowboarding, by contrast, could easily be a one-trip experience. It could, but it usually isn’t; instead, I carry in a large bin with boots, gloves, helmet, goggles, and sometimes, protective padding, in the first trip. The second trip is for the snowboard.

Booting up in skis was a modest hassle, but not nearly as much as I remembered it to be. It took 5.5 minutes to boot in. It would have been shorter had I been quicker to remember to check the settings on the back of each boot. It’s easier to get get my feet in when the settings are turned to “walk” rather than “ski.” Getting the buckles secured, though, was the most difficult part of the experience, and it required more bending over than I would have preferred.

There was no foot pain to speak of (unlike, say, the too-tight snowboard boots I rented while at Killington), so the biggest challenge of the boots was, you guessed it, walking around in them. I planned a couple of short descents and chair rides just to get to a building with a first-floor restroom. Had I been on a snowboard, I could have walked it without any trouble.

I love easy-entry snowboard bindings, and hate using traditional bindings that require threading ladders through ratchets. Well, there’s nothing more convenient in the world of bindings that stepping a ski boot into a ski binding. Not having to take one boot out of its binding at the end of a run is a pleasure, as is not having to fiddle with a binding at the top of the chairlift. The equivalent in skiing–removing the poles from your hands and then putting them back at the start of a descent–is trivial in comparison to the trouble of snowboard bindings, especially ratchet/strap bindings. On the plus side for snowboarding, you ride the chair lift with much less weight hanging in the air from your feet. (Adding skis and boots to my feet increases my weight by over 10 percent.)

As far as moving on skis, I picked it up a lot better than I did last time out, which in turn was easier than the time before that. So while practice does not make perfect, it does make for less time shaking off the rust. The right-hand turns have bedeviled me before came easily.

But snowboarders, if you take your skis back out for a day on the slopes, take a good hard look at them when leave them outside to enter the lodge, and remember where you leave them. I parked them outside to change from boots into shoes. When I went back outside, I thought that both skis and poles had been stolen. It’s possible that someone moved them, but more likely, I simply forgot what they looked like.

So there you have it, the 2013 edition of “snowboarder on skis.” If you have skis in the closet, take them out of the closet once in a while. At the worst, you’ll appreciate snowboarding even more, and you may end up being pleasantly surprised.

Are you a speed demon on a snowboard? Then get ready for the NASTAR national championships, which will be held on March 20-24 at Snowmass, Colorado. Snowmass, one of the largest ski areas in terms of acreage, has something for everyone, especially intermediate skiers and riders. It’s also a short drive or bus ride to Aspen.

It may be easier for you to participate than you think. Here’s a description from the NASTAR website: “NASTAR racers must earn a top ten National Ranking or a top five State Ranking. Participants can also qualify by earning a top five Resort Ranking in their age and ability category by February 18, 2013.

That is, NASTAR divides the downhill population into a lot of difficult categories. There’s men and women, for starters. Then everyone is broken out into five-year age brackets. Telemark skiers and snowboarders are teach treated separately from people on “alpine” skis. There are even categories for people with different sorts of disabilities.

So, for example, you’ve got to be in the top 5 female snowboarders in the 40-44 age bracket at any particular result. Depending on where you are, that’s not a difficult feat. I should know. I have qualified for the national event for two years now, as a snowboarder, among men my age. How? I finished second at a local resort. Impressive? Not necessarily. I was second out of two.

You’ll find a similar situation at many other resorts. I pulled up the snowboard rankings for men ages 40-44 at a number of resorts. Some were destination areas, while others you might drive to as part of a beer league. There were 20 individuals who raced at Breckenridge and Vail, and 18 at Park City. But being a high-volume resort doesn’t necessarily translate into a lot of racers. There were ZERO snowboarding racers at Mammoth and ZERO at Aspen Highlands.

As they way, your mileage returns and past performance does not predict future results.

Are there any “old” snowboarders competing in the upcoming Winter X Games? Given the demanding nature of the games (and freestyle snowboarding, especially), being”old” is relative. In reviewing the official list of invited athletes, I found two snowboarders aged 30 and up. Both are women who compete in the halfpipe. They are Gretchen Bleiler of the United States, and Kjersti Oestgaar Buaas of Norway. Both are the ripe old age of 31.

“Ease of use” is one factor that can differentiate one product from another. It’s their ease of use that makes me appreciate Flow bindings, which I have used throughout my snowboarding career.

But on this trip to Killington, I left my Flows (and snowboard and boots) behind. Why? Again, ease of use: I had free rentals available to me. “Should I haul my snowboard and everything else in an unwieldy 6-foot long snowboard bag, or should I pack a regular suitcase and rent?” That was an easy question to answer–or so I thought.

My rental board (Burton Custom X) has some sort of Burton bindings. I don’t recall which model, but really, it doesn’t matter: A traditional binding, no matter the brand, is a pain in the as—wait, no; it’s an exercise in aggravation.

How so? Consider the following:

1. When getting into them, it’s easy to step on both the ladders and the straps.

2. Threading the ladder through the strap can be difficult when wearing thick gloves or mittens.

3. Attempting to thread the ladder while standing up and leaning down can be uncomfortable, especially if doing so takes several attempts.

4. The alternative to the “bend over” position is sitting down, leading to “Snowboarder wet butt syndrome.”

5. Getting the heel into the heel cup, while sitting down, is another bothersome task.

6. My ski companions don’t like waiting the two or three minutes it takes me to strap in. They want to go.

7. I’m not sure how  relevant this is to the design of traditional bindings, but after a few runs down the mountain, I couldn’t get the ladder and ratchet on the capstrap to engage. So I put the strap on the top of my toes, losing whatever benefit the capstrap has.

Now, I understand that traditional bindings rule the market, and younger and more agile riders may not have these difficulties. But they’re real for me, and from talking with older snowboarders, I know I’m not the only one.

So Flow, could you do something to get your bindings into rental shops? I realize it may not do much for your image, but then again, Burton floods the shops and does just fine, at least in market share of the retail market.

Bottom line: If I had to put up with this every time I went out to a hill or mountain, I would give up snowboarding and go back to skiing. 

In news that is NOT from the Onion, Vail Resorts has announced that it will purchase two ski areas in the Midwest: Afton Alps, outside the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul, and Mt. Brighton, outside Detroit.

Honestly, I’m stunned. Vail Resorts holds a number of big-name properties, including Breckenridge, Heavenly, and of course, Vail. It has certainly bought ski areas before, including Northstar-at-Tahoe (2010) and early this year, Kirkwood, another Tahoe-area resort.

But there’s a big difference between, say, Beaver Creek, and Mt. Brighton, and it isn’t just the vertical drop or acreage. For the most part, Vail Resort properties have been destination areas, with a heavy emphasis (Vail, Beaver Creek) on expensive real estate development. By contrast, Afton (where I have held a pass for several years) and Brighton are commuter businesses. In other words, think of beer leagues and fried hamburgers, not spas and menus fit for foodies.

It will all be interesting to watch. Customers of Afton and Brighton will benefit from ugprades Vail Resorts will make to the snowmaking systems, and perhaps they’ll see spiffed-up day lodges as well.  (Nicer restroom facilities and parking lots would be a great start, at least at Afton.)

Both Afton and Brighton operate in highly competitive local markets. For example, in Afton’s market, Welch Village has likely been stealing customers since it introduced a no-blackout season pass of $99 in 2008. (The price of an early-purchase season pass has gone up to $149, but that still undercuts Afton as well as the four other ski areas in the region.) To help build an advantage for the two Midwestern areas , Vail Resorts has announced that season pass holders of both Afton and Brighton will receive a 25 percent discount on the window price of tickets at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Northstar and Kirkwood.

There are many interesting questions going forward. Why did Afton and Brighton sell out, aside from the opportunity to make a bundle of cash? Did they see competitive pressures making a big dent into revenues in the coming years? Did pending changes in health care laws and regulations, as well as tax rates, play a role? (Deep-pocketed Vail Resorts, like any large business, is better situated to respond to increasing government regulations and tax rates.) What will happen to Afton and Brighton’s competitors? Will they attempt to step up their game? Can they? Or will they hope that VR will boost ticket prices such that they can claim the low-budget market?

Your thoughts?

When winter comes to an end, there are worse places to spend it than Vail. Two ski/snowboard organizations are holding an event that offers a great chance to ski or ride, socialize, and indulge in the history of alpine snow sports.

The cost for the program is $350 to $595, depending on the package you select. You’ll get some decent rates on lodging ($137 + tax per night) and lift tickets ($12.50 to $30 per day, depending on what lodging you select). Expect a heavy emphasis on skiing rather than snowboarding, but the week will honor Craig Kelly, among others. Here’s the text of the announcement; you can also click through to read it and then register.

It is a pleasure to send you this invitation to join with The International Skiing History Association (ISHA) & The U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame (HALL) for this year’s SKIING HERITAGE WEEK taking place in Vail, Colorado April 8-14, 2013.

This year’s event – titled “50 YEARS OF MOUNTAIN FUN AND MEMORIES” – is a special celebration of the 50th anniversary season of America’s Premier destination ski resort – Vail, Colorado. Since it opened in 1962 Vail has witnessed a number of great milestones in the growth of the sports of Skiing & Snowboard both in the world of Competition as well as on-mountain development. More important it is where millions of skiers and snowboarders, over the years, have experienced the joy and camaraderie one gets from being in the Mountains in the winter time; where so many have moved and built a year-round mountain community and where to this day people from around the world have flocked to experience the best skiing and snowboarding in the world right in the heart of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. If you want a reminder of all the things that make Vail so special check out this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=355iSzj9Y_g.

This once-in-a-lifetime gathering will be full of skiing, parties, entertainment, reunions with old and new friends, snowboarding, film showings, etc. There will also be a number of special events and activities taking place throughout the week as part of ISHA’s annual gathering including ISHA’s Award Banquet. The week will also be the site of the 3rd Annual Ishpeming International Film Festival of classic ski films. The weeks highlight will be The Hall of Fame’s Annual Induction Ceremony, on Saturday evening, April 13, 2013, where we will be inducting some great Ski & Snowboard legends into the Hall; to see who they are click here.  The evening will also include a special tribute to the “Pioneers of Professional Ski Racing”.

The following link will give you information on all that is planned along with what the costs are: One can participate in most of the events for only $350 or in all the events (including all ISHA activities) for only $595. You can print a registration form or you can sign up right online for this special week. Lastly, you’ll also find information regarding booking your accommodations at the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort, at Lionshead (at the super rate of $137 per night + tax). To reserve call 877-622-3140 or go to this link.  Attendees will also have access to some truly fantastic rates on lift tickets! All this information can also be accessed at www.SkiHall.org/Vail where you can also sign up for any of the week’s events. Questions please email SkiingHeritage2013@skihall.com.

Please feel free to pass this invitation and related information on to anyone, and everyone! (and post on your website or social media links; check out our Facebook event!); I’ve got a funny feeling that there are a lot of folks out there who will want to be part of this most special week of MOUNTAIN FUN AND MEMORIES.

Until we all connect in Vail, best wishes for a great season.