Is opening day a madhouse at your mountain? - Page 2

I went to opening day at Vail once - that's a never-again! experience.  "Madhouse" does not begin to describe the travesty that is Vail on opening day.

Round these parts, it's like bumpfreq explains - not very crowded, mostly ski patrol, some teeagers, and a couple of old farts like me and bf.  Opening day is basically whenever they can manage to lay down enough manmade to cover the grass and they often only give an hour's notice or so - the website will say "opening today at 3pm" or whatever and those of us crazy enough to check the website every day head over to the hill.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LiquidFeet 

Now I've done my very own opening day on a narrow WROD.  Disconcerting was the number of racer kids zooming past everyone at mach schnell (also a few "adults").  They don't have the judgment to realize a slower skier in front of them navigating the bumps cautiously might just decide to bail-out-traverse, nor the vision to see what the blood and chaos might feel like if they crash into that person.  Hazardous.

 

The bumps were soft and sweet, however, and I did get to enjoy the ribbon.  I'll do it again.   

Often times they don't have a good example to follow either. The entitlement extends into the older set too.

My friend and went up there from Wenatchee this last Friday ( the day after Thanksgiving)... What a zoo it was... I guess every single skier in the state was watching the forecast and was up at Stevens first thing in the morning! Regardless of the crowd we enjoyed the snow and the terrain. I guess our best day at Mission looks like the day after thanksgiving at Stevens! 11 inches of new snow was nice, and the 7th heaven opened later in the day was nice too.. It was the first "real" skiing day of the season! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Posaune 

Absolutely!  It was crazy and dangerous.  I was interested to notice that it was closing in on being 100% boarders as well.  There were VERY few skiers visible.  This is in comparison to the usual amount of about 60% boarders.

 

I went back two days later on Sunday, the skiing was great and the crowd was small.  I skied right onto the chair most of the time.

 

Crowds for East coast Vermont skiing will be worse than previous early December weekends.  There are no ski areas opened here in the Catskills, PA, and CT this year.  It does not look like ski areas south of Vermont will be opening anytime soon.  This means all those people that would have been sking south of Vermont will be skiing and riding on limited trails in Vermont, Whiteface, and maybe Gore. 

I have found skiing with intermediate skiers early season on limited trails is extremely dangerous.  Just way too many people on limited intermediate trail(s).  It gets worse after 1:00pm because people start skiing faster because they are tired.  If your an expert skier that can ski a steep trail with some limited bumps its not as crowded and is much safer.   Here again it can be dangerous if getting to the expert trail and back to the lodge from the expert trail requires skiing with the intermediates.

BE SAFE OUT THERE THIS WEEKEND

This guy has his priorities right! Farmer Dick says Hi. That's what I call him anyway. See ya on the hill.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by dawgcatching 

Not at Bachelor it wasn't.  There were a few people on the hill, maybe 2500 at the most, and that went away by noon (Thanksgiving). The following days, the hill was dead.  Everyone was in town, wasting their time standing in line at Black Friday events, so they could save $25 on a $50 hair dryer, or get a $5 package of socks.  I would rather ski any day, thank you very much!  I only did 9 alpine setups all weekend!  That is slower than the average random off-weekend in January.

 

Not being a "shopper" but merely someone who goes shopping when they need something, I don't understand the draw of waiting in line for hours to purchase something I really didn't need in the first place. What is one's time worth?  Wouldn't you rather be spending time with friends and family, perhaps going snowshoeing, or in this case, skiing? In 10 years, are you going to remember that great deal on the laptop you got, or are you going to remember a fun day on the hill with your kids?  

Wow, 4ster - I've been at Snowbasin on many busy days, including the day that was allegedly the busiest ever (according to your former GM) and it was nothing like that picture!  Of course, all the lifts except Porcupine were running, so that has a lot to do with it.  If everyone has to choose only Needles or Little Cat it puts major pressure on Needles, that's for sure.

But coming from SoCal, any line less than 45 minutes is great.  The longest I've ever waited at Snowbasin is 12 minutes.  We'll be there in 24 days, CAN'T WAIT.