Skiing and Snowboarding

Mary Jane is part of Winter Park. Worked there for two years in early 90's.

 

Mary Jane is attached to Winter Park with its own base and parking.

 

After last season was cut short, I'm on season two of my Burton Step On experiment. I loved my old Switch bindings, so I got the Step Ons last Christmas and shelved the Burton P2s.

Still undecided. My wife is waiting. She's the slowest off the lift.

 

All the snowboard trails around me smell of Mary Jane

My wife skis and I board. We were hitting Mountain High every weekend for a few years. Its only really good after a storm, other than that its ice-ice-baby. We occasionally hit Big Bear and went to Mammoth twice, I get jealous when I hear people are headed there.

Action shot sliding by her


There is a dude doing the scorpion behind me if you look close here.

Unfortunately my wife has had surgeries before the season this year and last year so we haven't made it out since 2018/19 season.

 

The Scorpion?

My wife had rotator cuff surgery 7 weeks ago so she is unable to ski at all this year. But she did a great job of taxiing us to the slopes! And cooking great dinners for when we got done for the day!

 

Scorpion = eating shit on your toe edge so you do a face plant down slope with your legs and board arching up over your head like a scorpion’s tail.

Done hard enough, it can turn into front flips using your upper body as the plant... don’t ask me how I know

 

Have been on the slopes since I was 4 (29 now). Switched from skis to a board when I was 12 and never went back. Competed in college in freestyle park and halfpipe (D1 schools had "clubs" that had unofficial competitions and tournaments). Haven't been out in two years since we had our first born. Been all over the East and most big name Western mountains in CO and WY. Itching to go back but until my girls are old enough to board, I doubt I will. My goal is to make it out to Europe and hit Courchevel and Zermatt one day.

 

OUCH!! I've seen wipeouts like that but didn't know they had a name! The only thing similar I know about with skiing is a "Garage Sale" which is when you wipe out so much you leave your skis and poles upslope as you tumble down.

 

Have been snowboarding since 1993. Raced, coached, instructed, and did 'ski' patrol up here in Maine. I only go literally maybe once or twice per year now, the luster wore off for me after doing it so avidly for so many years. I've been hang gliding for 20 years now and would much rather travel to a warm place and do that in the winter than deal with the throngs of people at the ski areas. My husband and I call it 'chasing the dragon'- doing progressively more extreme sports to get our fix.
The mtns up here are absolutely inundated with out-of-state tourists to the point where we won't even go near them unless it's mid-week and below freezing temps/windy (they usually stay away if it's 'too cold'). Waited almost an hour to get on one of the damned lifts last year at Sunday River and the mountain hadn't been groomed in two days and was a mogul shitshow, took two runs and left.

 

I've been itching to snowboard for the last few years, it's been too long since I've surfed the mountain.

The costs this year are insane to get a condo/cabin out at any of the mountains, so I may have to wait another year. Kind of killing me inside.

 

LOL - when hiking, a "Garage Sale" is when you have to pull everything out of your pack to get to the one thing in the bottom. It looks like you've spread all your gear out like a garage sale around you.

Yeah, the scorpion is probably the most prominent (and most painful) beginner move. An extreme version of it is how I broke my collarbone on my first day on a real mountain. Broken wrists are also common from that one, because people want to put their hands out to break the fall.

 

Tuck and roll, baby!
The instructing was always fun. I typically taught the kids ages 5-10, volunteered to teach them where most of the instructors didn't want to. They listened a million times better than the adults and bounced when they fell for the most part. I had more collisions with adult students that other instructors were trying to teach who would see my bright yellow INSTRUCTOR jacket and target fixate their asses right into me while I was teaching my kids.
Had one of the kids I taught a couple years prior blow past me in the park while I was patrolling one night, do a backflip and a half off a 10' kicker, land on his head, yardsale.. by the time I got to where he piled in the little shit had already got up and took off down the mountain. Resilient little things.

 

i am about 1-1.5 hours from the poconos in pa and I drive up 2-3 times a week after work. I love night snowboarding but oh man are you so right. Lol ice, ice, and oh look more ice. I actually have grown to like it lol
Planned to go out west to CO this year and canceled because of covid.

 

Jackson Hole is our home mountain. My 28th season here.

 

I understand completely about the kids listening better. When I was learning, I would ski down to where the instructor was and while waiting for the other skiers, I would try all kinds of things while either standing still or moving slowly. I fell A LOT, but each time I learned more about the feel of the skis and how to control it. The instructor told me that I was doing what little kids do, but just more slowly than they do. He said that kids are ALWAYS trying and failing at new things - that's how we all learn - so they were more "practiced". He encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing. I'm a lot more stable on my skis now, even on the first ski day in a year or more, because I know how it is all supposed to feel. And again, this is with less than 60 ski days TOTAL experience over 10 years. My problem now is that I overanalyze the risk when I am in new terrain that is challenging to me. I'm going to take some more lessons so an instructor can push me through that overanalysis.

I have only hurt myself on blue slopes when I was overconfident, NEVER on a black slope where I am more careful. I just need to find that perfect middle where I am not paralyzed to try something new, but am not overconfident.

 

I want to go to Jackson Hole, but my understanding is that it is only for advanced skiers. My kids and I might like that, but my wife's skills are just not there yet. What's your take on that?

 

I've been snowboarding and skiing for 20+ years, I haven't been everywhere yet but last year I rode Silverton CO ! By far the most amazing place I've ever ridden

Just perfect !

 

JH does have that reputation and it’s well deserved. Many of the blue runs at JH are solid black at other resorts. It’s all about snow conditions here. If we’re not getting snow it gets very challenging Luckily it’s been good lately There is a good amount of intermediate terrain that would keep her busy. The best thing would be to get her a lesson. Great instructors here. It’s usually more fear and lack of confidence than skill. Having someone take you down runs that challenge your skill level is key. And let me say from experience a husband is not the one to do that

 

Thanks for the info. And for what it's worth, I don't even instruct my wife on how to operate Outlook, Word, or Excel, and I'm an electrical engineer with an IT background!

 

Can't decide between taking a long, long drive from the east coast to grab a cabin on the mountains for two weeks in Feb. Can't decide between Colorado due to the sheer diversity of mountains within an hour or so or JH/Grand Targhee.

 

I manage and soon to own a ski/bike shop in Breckenridge, CO. It's the life for sure!!

Anyone feel free to message me if you want a tundra forum discount. You can find our inventory at Slopestyle-ski.com

 

Diversity is ok but JH is better. Seriously though I’d base it on who’s got the most snow and who’s gonna get more. Happy to answer any questions about JH & Targhee

 

Very nice!

 

Funny, like you I grew up on the gulf coast (Fairhope) and moved to Sun Valley, Idaho. I'm a boarder and and splitboarder and get about 45ish days of riding in on the mountain. Maybe more this year with working remotely.

 

Lol if you’ve never used a chairlift Sliverton may not be for you

 

I have lived in Colorado most of my life and I don’t ski or snowboard. I leave the mountains to the tourists during snow season. I do snowmobile from time to time.

 

I want this shirt! Even better would be to replace School with Work!

 

If you're in the neighborhood, I will be at Steamboat skiing between 2/7 and 2/12. Flying in and out on the Saturdays.

 

Sweeeeet! I'll be taking advantage of this for sure! And we have never made it to Breckinridge, though I have heard great things about the mountain. When we do, I'll look you up!