Yeah, just don’t let the state bird, the mosquito, fly off with ya
I grew up on skis at Tahoma on the West shore near South Lake Tahoe. Spent my grade school through high school days dry land training and races on weekends. Once I turned 18 my senior year I signed myself out to go to the ‘dentist’ a lot to ski half days. Moved to Snowbird stayed 4 years and once I left only skied ~5 times since. Not too many options to make a career on the hill. I guess I’d had enough and for me I loathed having to travel to ski. Either I lived there or I didn’t do it. Well over 1000 days by the age of 24.
I was even closer at the base of LCC in Sandy and lived (mostly) in a friends place on Snowbird property for most of a year. Not sure why I paid rent down the hill.
I would often hitch up the hill as would many others. There is nothing besides 'Bird and Alta at the end of the road. Though Ted Bundy was doing evil things around there just a few years before…
Waah! Now you guys make me want me to move to the USA
RE: racing season, not great to watch for so many injuries but the season has also given opportunities for young skiers to make their marks. There are new names popping up so let’s hope some of them can take this opportunity to up their game and make their presence known.
I’m particularly impressed by James Crawford. He’s been around a while but this season has been very good for him. That SG run at the combined event in Cortina was brilliant. I like the smooth and fluid skiing of his. There are a few others like that, also on the women’s circuit. Seems very efficient.
Alta was closed yesterday due to too much snow! Avy mitigation, is the truth.
Been trying to wrap my head around 1,000+ days in the LCC.
I love bumps, and grew up on Mary Jane (“didn’t we all?”… Winter Park joke). The talk about iced over bumps sounds pretty good to me right now. Nothing like blower powder…wherever it might be today.
I’d like to become more educated on ski racing. I like going fast, but aside from a few downhill/Colorado greats, my education is lacking. I know more bout the history of Shane McConkey than the Herminator or Bode Miller. Ha!
My days are all before snow making machines and snow boards! Boards were mostly banned about the time I moved away save for one or two runs.
I skied ~400 days at the Bird and the rest at Tahoe ski hills, mostly Sierra ski ranch now known as Sierra at Tahoe in the early ‘80s. I had season passes from age 5-24.
I lived in Sacramento for a few years when I was younger, and got a huge dose of NorCal skiing. My college roommate was pro ski patrol at Alpine Meadows, and was a guide on Shasta. Good times!
My teenage years were in Placerville. 30 mins. to the ski hill.
I won a memorable slalom at Alpine Meadows by more than 1 sec. 8th in the CA state championships for slalom that year, '84 or '85 but I enjoyed GS and SG much more than the quick turns. I was simply too light in weight to ever really compete but I had technical talent.
That’s awesome! It’s always been ONLY about fun for me, but I know what it feels like to be pushed to the brink of disaster while on a pair of skis. It feels weird that it’s been about a year since I’ve skied. First ski-less year in probably 25 years…I’m 44.
Yup. One needs a VPN to the UK and then a subscription to Euro Sport. With a subscription, you get live streams from ES 1 and ES 2 and a ton of recorded events. They show more or less all the skiing, (not only alpine but also cross country, biathlon, ski jumping, etc.), all the major cycling events and lots of snooker.
You can try your luck at cricfree.sc but that takes a bit of mocking about.
My regular skiing buddy used to race in speed skiing. Crazy speeds those guys pull together. At the amateur level, it definitely helps to be heavy. He still likes to carry his GS racing stock skis with him, sometimes even DH. Those things are a major nuisance to haul around and not exactly air travel friendly. Like traveling with a collection of of crowbars over two meters in length.
I would simply take my boots and hire everything else at the hill when flying to ski. Too much work to haul skis and poles around!
I worked in rental shops tuning skis at night. Had access to all the popular brands in each length and style. Like speakers or cables each had its own flavor. A 200cm slolam was quite different than the same in 203cm.
This was all before the narrow waist short evolution.
I best go watch some Teton Gravity Research movies now!
That works or not depending where you are. In Australia the rental stock is awful. In Japan it’s hard to find anything stiff enough, plus they refuse to tune the binding beyond anything DIN7 or so. Need to carry your own screwdrivers.
In Europe it’s easier to find decent stuff but if you are after racing stock it becomes difficult. I did see a pair of 240cm crazy wide Atomic ARC’s for rent somewhere in Les Trois Vallees. I’m sure the marshals would appreciate anybody fine tuning their speed skiing skills at the slopes
Good point, I never had to deal with the chaff and we always kept a special stash of premium skis with a fresh tune for our regular fat cats that would visit every year and tip a week salary. I got many referrals for my tunes, and handsome tips much of the time. I knew what people needed based on what they told me and from sizing them up and knowing where they were from helped too. Detuning is what I mostly did so they didn’t catch edges. They loved it!
When I first moved to Southern California before Utah, I took my 213cm SG to one of the ‘local’ hills 2 hours away. It was a tiny place called Mt. High of all things, still there. They weren’t to keen on me using the stiff boards as they are designed to be used. I was young and fast but listened to the scolding and toned it down.
Did you guys see Max Muzaton in Cortina downhill? Don’t see things like that very often at 120km/h. Unfortunately he did hurt the ligaments of his knee but could have been a lot worse.
