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What makes you a local?

post #1 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:15am
Thread Starter 
What is the unwritten rule at your local ski area that distinguishes between the locals and the weekenders, tourists, transients and other infringers? Is it distance from the hill? Regular attendance at the local bar? The barmaid knows your name? First name basis with the mountain owner? Three season passes (that are still hanging off your mirror dresser)?

Are you a local, or do you just wannabe? And what makes you so?
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post #2 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:33am
Well as long as you ask, I have a place 45 min from where i have a season pass. Not my work home but my ski home. I consider myself a local once removed.:
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post #3 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:41am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry_Morgan View Post
Is it distance from the hill?
there's a pretty good chunk of mammoth "locals" who are at least a five-hour drive away.
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post #4 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry_Morgan View Post
Are you a local, or do you just wannabe? And what makes you so?
I'm a local at Bridger Bowl because the lifties recognize me. (They might not know my name but they recognize me.) Even though I'm fairly close to Big Sky & ski there 5 to 10 times a season the lifties can't tell me from someone that skis there once a year so I don't feel like a local.
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post #5 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:49am
Living in Massachusetts automaticaly eliminates me from being considered a local at Cannon (in New Hampshire).
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post #6 of 127
3/9/07 at 10:57am

Three attributes of a “local”…

· Cares enough about the hill to actually stop and pick up someone’s garbage and properly discard.

· Takes the time and maps out some runs for a first time visitor.

· Properly informs and follows-up with Patrol regarding a slope hazard.
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post #7 of 127
3/9/07 at 11:02am
A local lives in the immediate area (or closest affordable housing area) and is around all year. If you own a second home your a tourist.
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post #8 of 127
3/9/07 at 11:19am
My personal definition: If the lifties and the patrol recognize you then you are a local, even if you don't live there all the time. If not, then you have not skied there often enough or long enough to call yourself a local.
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post #9 of 127
3/9/07 at 11:22am
Lives nearby, visits the mountain very frequently, knows some of the workers, can help visitors scout out the mountain, and knows all of the secrets- powder stashes, steeps, trees, etc.
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post #10 of 127
3/9/07 at 11:50am
I have quite a few friends who come to town almost every weekend. Many own homes, they know the mountain, they know all of us...they are NOT locals.
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post #11 of 127
3/9/07 at 12:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mudfoot View Post
...My personal definition: If the lifties and the patrol recognize you then you are a local...
hmmm...would recognizing Paris Hilton make her a local? Besides, from another point of view "lifties and patrol" think we all look alike anyway:
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post #12 of 127
3/9/07 at 12:33pm
When you are on a first name / nick name basis with other "locals" on the hill purely by being there a lot. After 3-4 seasons with a pass and 1-2 days a week at my nearest hill, I am finally starting to feel like a local just because I know some of the other folks on the hill. And that's where you start tapping into and sharing the local's knowledge.
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post #13 of 127
3/9/07 at 12:58pm
I live 5 blocks from the Gondola.
I rarely drive a car (walk or bike)
I live here 12 months a year
Work with in the city limits as does my wife
Own property
Know plenty of lift ops and patrol (those employees change every year)
Active in city council
Vote locally
Ski 5 days a week
Know someone at every bar/restaurant
over 10 years here

Some would say that is not enough, feels good to me.
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post #14 of 127
3/9/07 at 1:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lloyd braun View Post
I live 5 blocks from the Gondola.
I rarely drive a car (walk or bike)
I live here 12 months a year
Work with in the city limits as does my wife
Own property
Know plenty of lift ops and patrol (those employees change every year)
Active in city council
Vote locally
Ski 5 days a week
Know someone at every bar/restaurant
over 10 years here...
I was going to say you are Kevin Costner…but I know that is wrong. Can I have another clue please…
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post #15 of 127
3/9/07 at 1:15pm
You wear black shorts, beat up tourists, rip fins off thier boards and throw thier alternator in the water.
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post #16 of 127
3/9/07 at 2:36pm
There's a saying ...
A visitor doesn't know where the dump is
A second homeowner has been to the dump a couple of times
A local knows the front-desk folks at the dump
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post #17 of 127
3/9/07 at 2:40pm
Good except that doesn't apply to those of us that have full service for our houses or apartments?
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post #18 of 127
3/9/07 at 4:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew R View Post
Good except that doesn't apply to those of us that have full service for our houses or apartments?
Yeah, but sooner or later, every local has to go to the dump. Our's in rather attractive, refilling a hole in a mountain next to a quarry, lots of gulls, interesting smell, sleepy old guy at the weigh station. Idyllic.

In Colorado, I hear you're not considered a local until you've been there thirty years. (yawn) in Utah, the day you buy your first season pass, you are a local.
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post #19 of 127
3/9/07 at 4:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by wasatchskier View Post
Lives nearby, visits the mountain very frequently, knows some of the workers, can help visitors scout out the mountain, and knows all of the secrets- powder stashes, steeps, trees, etc.
Lives nearby, is on the mountain several days a week, is one of the workers, ignores the visitors, get shown the stashes, especially the huts/shelters.
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post #20 of 127
3/9/07 at 5:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Crab View Post
Yeah, but sooner or later, every local has to go to the dump. Our's in rather attractive, refilling a hole in a mountain next to a quarry, lots of gulls, interesting smell, sleepy old guy at the weigh station. Idyllic.
Ours has got a view of the backside of Northstar and is just down the road from Squaw. Above it are some snow mobile trails and stashes. The front-desk girls keep dog biscuits for the customary passengers. In the good old days we used to visit various sections of the dump to dispose of different materials. Now it's just a transfer station All our garbage gets shipped out to Nevada California's smoking section :
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post #21 of 127
3/9/07 at 5:16pm
If you can see the Mts from your house you might be a local.
When the Mt changes owership more than 3 times since you've skied there you might be a local.
If you've hiked the lifts during the summer you might be a local.
If you've skied that Mt. from Oct. to July you might be a local.
If you have more than 20 season passes from that Mt. you might be a local.
If you have your own parking space you might be a local.
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post #22 of 127
3/9/07 at 5:34pm
acceptence of other locals makes you a local.
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post #23 of 127
3/9/07 at 5:36pm
Your Great great grand parents killed all the natives and stole their land, fair & square. Otherwise, you are a freakin touron.
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post #24 of 127
3/9/07 at 7:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by TruckeeLocal View Post
Ours has got a view of the backside of Northstar and is just down the road from Squaw. Above it are some snow mobile trails and stashes. The front-desk girls keep dog biscuits for the customary passengers. In the good old days we used to visit various sections of the dump to dispose of different materials. Now it's just a transfer station All our garbage gets shipped out to Nevada California's smoking section :

Your dump has a front desk? : Talk about upscale! Is there a concierge and a spa too? In my good old days we would go to the dump at night and sit on the hood of the car with the headlights on with a box of beer and a rifle and shoot rats! Still skiing the same little "podunk" hill I learned at 35+ yrs ago.... guess I'm a local.
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post #25 of 127
3/9/07 at 7:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mkevenson View Post
Well as long as you ask, I have a place 45 min from where i have a season pass. Not my work home but my ski home. I consider myself a local once removed.:
Yep, I would say that there would be more than one person that would say this definately isn't local.
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post #26 of 127
3/9/07 at 7:35pm
Howabout, great great grandpa built cabin at turn of the century,
had passes to everywhere enough times to not have passes anywhere anymore because they are full of tourists and weekend residents who think they are local. Lives in a neighborhood where dog's can still sleep in the middle of the road all day. Know's the beaches that they don't really give tickets out for having your dog there. Doesn't put chains on their audi or SUV. Owns a truck just for cutting firewood. Only drives the same old truck because it has a bench seat for girls and said dogs. Doesn't have a girl sitting in the seat because there really aren't many girls in ski towns. Doesn't stand in a line at Cherries for coffee (this one is for truckeelocal, and if you don't know cherries, you better change your name ), has a breakfast named after them at local breakfast spot, and
has an account at town hardware store. Also, owns own snowblower, and has had to fix it at least once.
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post #27 of 127
3/9/07 at 7:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by DonDenver View Post
hmmm...would recognizing Paris Hilton make her a local? Besides, from another point of view "lifties and patrol" think we all look alike anyway:
Which is exactly my point. If the patrol and the lifties know you well enough to distinguish you from everyone else, know your name and turn you on to what is happening, then you are "one of them" and not one of the faceless masses. You don't have to live on the hill to be privy to local knowledge and customs. If you are accepted by the locals as an equal then you are a "local." I think it's Prankster Rules: Either you're on the bus or you're off he bus.

As for Paris, I believe she is a "local" everywhere she goes, at least in her own mind.
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post #28 of 127
3/9/07 at 7:45pm
In Vail, its 20 years of working and residency. You have your own seat at your favorite watering hole. And you don't take any $h1t from the young punks who think they are locals as soon as they get a PO Box.
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post #29 of 127
3/9/07 at 8:20pm

True local

I would say the definition of a true local is someone who was essentially raised in their area or was a "low budget" tourist some years back that couldn't afford to leave. In any case a local resides there year - round and drives a pickup truck or something like a Subaru that is probably at least 3 years old. IMHO (H is for hillbilly) anybody that owns a 2nd/3rd/4th home (4,000 s.f. "cabin") that they visit occasionally driving a Hummer/Navigator/Escalade will NEVER,EVER,EVER, BE A TRUE LOCAL ! ! !
Not saying their not nice people though. I live outside a very well engineered little "tourist trap" - we like tourists! Especially the cute skiing type!
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post #30 of 127
3/9/07 at 9:20pm
if you live in Fernie and can bitch about RCR you are a local....whether your grandfather worked in the mines or you just got off the bus from quebec....
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