2011-2012 Was the Worst Ski Season in 20 Years - Page 2

IMO the attitude about the season being bad was far worse than the skiing. I skied 58 days, mostly in the East at Waterville Valley, NH and then finished the season at Mt. Bachelor, OR. I can only recall a couple of days when the skiing was bad.

...and high wind was an issue in January. But overall, good numbers:
http://www.bigskyresort.com/Media/Press%20Releases/2012/Big_Sky_Resports_Record_11-12_Season.asp

Yes, that's the thing about snowfall, it has relatively little to do with the quality of skiing at resorts here in the East. These places are small, compared to western resorts, and have very good snowmaking so lack of natural snowfall mainly affects number of skiers visits, not the actual skiing. If there is a snowstorm in the suburbs of Boston then the ski areas up here will be jammed otherwise the areas will be uncrowded. Mainly the bottom line for ski resorts must have suffered. Snowmaking is expensive and skier visits had to be way down. The March thaw closed the ski areas down early but I don't think they normally make much money on Spring skiing even in a good year because when the grass is green in Boston and points South people just don't go skiing even though it maybe the best skiing of the year.

In a word I'm calling the 2011-2012 ski season anticlimactic!

You could also go with anti-climatic (at least in the East with 4 inches of total snow in PA and four 82+ degree days in March in VT)

Some sweet skiing this year in Ontario with a total of 14 inches this year (although we did have a sweet 10 inch weekend).

 

Obviously most of us feel that a bad day of skiing is better than a good day at work. Beyond that, it depends on what you are looking for in your skiing. If you're content with a whole season of more or less nothing but skiing man-made indoor-outdoor carpet on groomers, you're right: it wasn't a horrible season. I like those conditions, but they're not enough to make a good season for me. I always hope to get a significant number of days in on natural snow terrain (trees, soft bumps, powder). Since these days were limited at best this year, I stick to my assessment that it was a poor season ... at least in Maine.

...And California

it was undoubtedly the best season to blow an ACL.    that's how bad it was.  Hey no point in lamenting its onto the next season and it doesn't have to end, head south and get a few days in in SA. Chile, Argentina are easy to get to and surprisingly reasonable.  There are a lot of deals to be had down there but you have to dig to get them.  Nothing like carrying your boots through TSA in August. they give you that "what are you doing with ski boots" look.  

That's what I thought in 04/05.  What a good year to rupture my spleen.

Hackett has been wonderful. He fixed my wife's messed up miniscus last October and my knee in December. The knee/leg recovery continues. I can flex the knee almost as much as my other one (I have really tight joints everywhere), I can go up AND down stairs fairly normally. I used a push mower the other day to cut the grass in the 400 or so feet of steep ditching along the front of our Michigan house. My tibia plateau fixation included cutting off the muscle where it attaches on the outside just below the kneecap so they could get room to install the plate. For some reason, they either don't reattach or, as in my case, only partially reattach the muscle. This is the one that moves if you feel the outside of your knee while raising your toes. Anyway, that part of the leg has given me more discomfort than any other, and continues to feel "tight". They say it'll grow back eventually.

THE BAD...

From a business perspective it was dismal for most any US ski area outside the PNW and northern Rockies. Skier visits down 15.7% year-on-year? That suggests they were down 20% or more in the harder hit areas (CA, anywhere in the East). That's a severe financial hardship for everyone involved in the industry, whether directly or indirectly. A 15-20% downturn on the heels of the severe economic contraction in 2009 suggests that many ski area businesses and people must be under severe financial stress. One must feel for them.

 

THE UGLY...

Living in CT, I often ski in VT. Sadly, the Green Mtn State took two major hits in 2011-12. Devasting floods in August wiped out hundreds of roads, bridges and buildings, including a chunk of the Killington base lodge. Hundreds of millions in damage. Vermonters, tough as nails, made heroic efforts to rebuild before Winter hit, no doubt counting on a robust ski season. Unfortunately, Winter never arrived and neither did the skiers...

 

THE GOOD...

Despite all that and despite skiing only 10-11 days, I personally had a memorable year. New boots (Lange RX 130s) radically improved my skiing and I enjoyed highly productive coaching from two Level III instructors, one at Okemo for a half-day private, the other at Taos for one of their famous ski weeks. I haven't made so much progress so rapidly since I was a beginner/low intermediate and building new skills by the hour.

 

My memories of a generally dismal season will include:

• dancing at high speed down a ridiculously narrow ribbon of snow at the bottom of Sel's Choice at Okemo; it was such fun to make those six turns EXACTLY where I had to (or be skiing on dirt) that I yo-yo'd it four more times, going faster each time; I was on brand new boards and had to dance around exposed rocks and pebbles; checked my bases later and there wasn't a mark on them, not bad for a line that was never more than a ski length wide and narrowed to a foot or so in two spots
• the great runs I had chasing a Taos instructor down their famed bumps, trees and steeps; whooping it up at speed down North American, a run where I'd normally be picking and choosing my turns; it was like skiing that ribbon of snow at Okemo, except for being steep, 1500 vertical and hugely bumped; the narrowness was imposed not by lack of snow - there was plenty -  but by the massive tree trunks, which looked even less forgiving than Okemo's dirt!

I skied 22 days (sad I know), at 14 different mountains, and I only recall 1 "semi" powder day.  Lookout Pass right after Christmas.  No Mas for Snowbird, Alta, Snowbasin, Park City, China Peak, 49 Degrees North, Alpine Meadows, Squaw Valley, Homewood, Mt. Rose, Diamond Peak, Kirkwood....wait scratch that!  I had a real pow day at Kirkwood!, and also not at Sugar Bowl.

 

So Kirkwood and Lookout Pass are my two big winners out of 22 days.  The rest were pretty much ice.

What? Huh? Sorry, didn't notice any problems. Well, actually, we only reached 482" by closing day, and the base was only 12 feet, so we weren't nearly as "good" as Baker...

 

 

 

The above was taken in early March.

 

Life is hard everywhere...

 

When I was at Mt. Bachelor the first week of May they were at 512" for the season, still had over 12 feet at the base of the mountain, and were staying open until the end of May. Then they were grooming everything out and opening back up for a private race camp the last 2 weeks of June, but not open to the public. They are planning to open back up for the public the first weekend in July, as a last hurrah.  

i actually had one of my best seasons in 20 years.  january wasn't terrific but i rarely found myself complaining about a lack of snow.  we only received about 250" in northern New Mexico but the early base that accumulated Oct/Nov set us up for a solid year.  no complaints here.

What'd ya think of Lookout?  My earliest ski days were at that mountain - back then they had a single Poma lift.  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platter_lift)  One memorable event was as I was poling across from the lodge to the lift, all I could do back then, some kid expert local (about 10 yrs old) wasn't watching where he was going and bumped into me after heroically slowing down, and snapped his fibula I believe - the poor kid was done skiing for the year.  They put in the first chairlift a couple of years after that and I haven't been back since.  

Well they got 3 lifts now and it was most excellent.  Actually probably one of my better ski days this year and that was in December!
 

We had slightly above average snowfall for the season, but it was a very slow start. Then we got plenty of snow the rest of the season, and Snowbowl didn't close until April 15th.

 

My son and his mother were in town for most of the winter, which lead to fewer days on the mountain than I've had since I was only skiing weekdays. Sorry to hear others had it worse snow wise, but they didn't have my son's mother to deal with, so I can't feel too sorry.

SoCal actually hit average snowfall but the warmer than average weather is what messed us up.  However, I had many great days of "no crowd" skiing so I'll take it.  Either way, snow falls, the amount is unpredictable.  I plan to ski and ski either way (as long as there is snow).

Big Sky Resort has just put up a video review of the 2011/12 season here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DYOgCkEa1Q

Nice movie.  I just looked at our latest promo video and it is a total snore.  Yours makes you want to SKI.

Wow, the magic of film, to look at it, one might think Big Sky was almost as good as Snowbowl.

Hmmm. When I was there (late Feb) snowed almost everyday, but seldom more than a few inches. Nothing knee deep like the video. But then, I've literally never hit the big dump on a trip, after 40 some years of trips. I will be taking orders this season for copies of my travel plans, so you can make sure not to go when I am. 

Well, we are a place that gets a few inches a few inches a few inches as well.   BUT you can always find the deep stuff if you know where to go.  And it's not the groomers and it's not necessarily marked on the map.  Doesn't mean it's not readily accessible.

^^^^ Yeah, did some great tree skiing there, found a few stashes, am sure there were many more I missed. But even the locals were saying that the snow was so-so, between the last storm and the next one. It's my karmic burden...

This just in...Some of the best tree skiing is about to be "found".  They are dragging an old plan out of the closet to put another lift on the back side:  http://skiwhitefish.com/future_projects.php

 

Amen!! KSL's answer to everything, put more bad skiers on the mountain. Screw the actual skiing experience that doesn't matter, let's see how many people we can get into the Rocker bar, and then give poor service to. That is the new model. I know a bunch of you people don't want to hear this, but pass prices need to go up.