Author Topic: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.  (Read 19036 times)

Poundwise

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #100 on: February 02, 2019, 11:46:03 AM »
Wonder if we could rig a combination pulk and trail groomer?  Give a little kid a ride in a sled and groom a trail at the same time!

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #101 on: February 05, 2019, 01:03:00 AM »
Wonder if we could rig a combination pulk and trail groomer?  Give a little kid a ride in a sled and groom a trail at the same time!

Yes, maybe. THis is a way you can add quite some weight to the pulh. You will still have to add weight to the trail groomer as well. But I am afraid it might swing a lot while you are skiing. More connections mean more options for sledges to swing sideways. But maybe this is solved by putting in enough weight in both.

I learned on Saturday that having a dog pulling a pulk is not as controlled as a person pulling the pulk. Dogs don't take it easy when the pulk is in a difficult part. We collected water in a large water tank in a plastic, slippery pulk.

Yesterday afternoon we drove home from our cabin. We left a bit early, but found out that the weather was too nice to only drive the car. We didn't have skis in the car, but made a trip on snowshoes on a snow scooter trail. We had a really nice view of the good weather, the mountains and the dramatic cloud formations.

When home, we found out that exactly where our house is, there was a lot of snow, about 50cms fresh snow. DH used the snow blower to clear the parking place. I shoveled the path to the front door. A lot of work, but the snow was hard needed for the CC skiing conditions.

Jonno1

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #102 on: February 05, 2019, 08:56:46 PM »
The mustachian way is backcountry skiing.  Here on Mt Shasta once you've got your gear it is essentially free.  It has risk but is incredibly beautiful pastime.  I connect to other skiers through a facebook group and we share space all over the state to keep costs down.

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #103 on: February 06, 2019, 12:37:17 AM »
@Jonno1 I hope you investigate for risk of avalanches and carry searching equipment.

Here in Norway in the North, there is a city called Tromsø, which is very popular for skiing off piste. I heard yesterday that in that area more people die from mountain-related winter accidents than from traffic. Often foreign tourists get caught in avalanches, because they take bigger risks.

Jonno1

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #104 on: February 06, 2019, 01:22:45 PM »
@Linda_Norway Yes, thanks.  Good to mention.  I've been going in the backcountry for a while and am well trained (Avy 1) and very conservative and carry a beacon shovel and probe as do my ski partners.  We have an excellent avalanche forecasting center her in town and with a maritime snowpack it is generally very stable (very rare that you see a persistent weak layer in the snowpack unlike Colorado).  It's really good except potentially during and immediately after storms and during intense warming spells where you can choose safer terrain or just go for a hike instead.   The spring corn skiing is the best with virtually zero avalanche danger in the spring.  10000 people attempt the climb, some ski off the top. So far so good. :)

Askel

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #105 on: February 06, 2019, 07:34:12 PM »
So I'm a midwest skier and have zero real experience with avalanches, but my gut feeling is that skiing in avalanche terrain is sort of like riding a motorcycle. Sure, lots of people die doing it, but there just a few simple things you can do to massively mitigate the risk of such down to near zero. 

Cue that time we had enough interest locally to hold an Avy 1 course and it made the front page of the paper (check out that 4" deep snow pit! :D ):


mountain mustache

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #106 on: February 06, 2019, 08:15:17 PM »
another way to save money while still getting to ski as much as you want is to uphill at resorts. In CO where I live, as a poster above mentioned, the snowpack is super unstable and honestly until late Spring I don't really think backcountry skiing is worth the risk. I uphill at our local resort instead during the winter, it's $20 for the season, which is totally worth it to ski in safe terrain. I get 2-3k of climbing in, enjoy skiing freshly groomed, empty runs before the mountain opens, and save about $400 from a regular lift ticket.

Jonno1

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #107 on: February 06, 2019, 10:14:48 PM »
Yes Askel, like that.  You can ski less than 30 degree slopes which are still fun all the time and never see an avalanche.  Lot's of things have risk, but  really great friendships are formed in the mountains.

jeninco

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #108 on: February 07, 2019, 03:50:35 PM »
Yes Askel, like that.  You can ski less than 30 degree slopes which are still fun all the time and never see an avalanche.  Lot's of things have risk, but  really great friendships are formed in the mountains.

We've had a couple of people caught in avalanches in CO this year, who thought they were on 30 degree or less slopes... (Most turned out to be around 35 degrees, which is kind of the "sweet spot" for maximal avalanche danger.)

We had enough snow in hippistan yesterday that the nordic club groomed a track in a local park.  Cheap skiing is taking the skating gear I just bought (used, cheap) over to the local park and racing around in circles for a bit. Too bad it was a balmy zero degrees F, and I couldn't get my hands to stay warm despite being in rather heavy downhill skiing gloves!

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #109 on: February 08, 2019, 12:28:37 AM »
Yes Askel, like that.  You can ski less than 30 degree slopes which are still fun all the time and never see an avalanche.  Lot's of things have risk, but  really great friendships are formed in the mountains.

We've had a couple of people caught in avalanches in CO this year, who thought they were on 30 degree or less slopes... (Most turned out to be around 35 degrees, which is kind of the "sweet spot" for maximal avalanche danger.)

We had enough snow in hippistan yesterday that the nordic club groomed a track in a local park.  Cheap skiing is taking the skating gear I just bought (used, cheap) over to the local park and racing around in circles for a bit. Too bad it was a balmy zero degrees F, and I couldn't get my hands to stay warm despite being in rather heavy downhill skiing gloves!

We learn that if you take a CC ski pole and keep it straight up, and then take the other pole and hold it to the middle of that pole in a 90 degree angle, and hold this against the snow, you make a 30% angle. If the slope is steeper than that, stay away from it.

https://www.yr.no/artikkel/slik-sjekker-du-skredfaren-1.12215728

We have a cabin in a place where it often snows in really cold temperatures. Sometimes the snow make avalanche-like sounds, those deep thuds. And this can happen on slopes < 30 degrees and even on flat surface. It sounds scary having these noises around you.

DH always assures me that a 30% angle is so steep that I wouldn't dare to ski it down anyway (I am not good at downhill skiing).

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #110 on: February 08, 2019, 02:25:05 AM »
Today I am in the office, because I changed my normal Friday off for Monday this week. Now the sun has broken through. It is 0 degrees C and there is about 70 cms snow. I brought sports clothes and skis and intend to leave work really early and ski on my way home, while the weather is still good. Tonight it will start to rain :-( and continue to do so the whole weekend. I am going to a symposium both Saturday and Sunday and will be sitting inside both days.

DH cleaned our best CC skis last night, as there is now enough snow to use the good skis. He found there was straw sitting in the sticky wax. We don't remember what we did last year that caused straw to be there...

This is my main motivation to FIRE: not have to spend the day inside an office, if is one of those seldom sunny winter days with perfect snow conditions.

Daisy

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #111 on: February 18, 2019, 09:56:46 PM »
Perhaps someone should start an MMM ski meetup. Perhaps it could be me after I return home from my current ski trip.

I will be skiing in the Salt Lake City area using my IKON pass in late March/early April. Lots of good mountains there on the IKON pass.

Ooooh, yes. This.
There's also great nordic skiing and snowshoeing around the SLC area. Future meetup for all snow lovers?

@Askel  I live in a winter wonderland and yet your posts still make me want to move wherever you are ;-)

So Dr Kidstache and I are in for a ski meetup in Salt Lake City at the end of March.

I'd like to ski all of the mountains on the IKON pass: Deer Valley, Solitude, Brighton, Alta/Snowbird.

We could possibly rent a house together to pool costs in the Cottonwood Heights area to share while skiing the Solitude, Brighton, and Alta/Snowbird mountains.

Who's in?
« Last Edit: February 18, 2019, 10:53:10 PM by Daisy »

big_slacker

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #112 on: February 19, 2019, 06:31:22 AM »
Just got back from a trip to CO. Having been a pass holder for years I hadn't bought an actual lift ticket in forever. OMG, Vail is over $200 for a 1 day. :-0

What I did to defray costs:

Points for airline tickets.

Brought my own gear, rentals are $$ and they suck too. :D

Brought our own beer. Pre-ride warm up beers in the parking lot, take a couple in the backpack and enjoy during the day.

Brought lunches/snacks in the pack. Eat breakfast in the parking lot, sandwiches in the backpack.

Night skiing. First day was a warmup at keystone, cheaper tickets and really excellent, well lit, LONG runs.

Buddy tickets! My friend had the Epic pass so the ridiculous ticket price was less. But still ridiculous. At winter park we stood in the main drag and asked passholders to use their buddy tickets. We found someone, paid her $20 and saved a boatload. 

Lodging and food, I stayed with my friend. If you don't have a friend within an hour of a kajillion epic resorts I'd say go with friends and split the cost of an AirBnB. You'd have to run the numbers to see if staying in a village at a resort was cheaper than renting somewhere within driving distance and also renting a car.  Food, cook your own.

It wasn't free, but I'm sure I paid 1/2 or less what a lot of people were spending on similar trips. I had sticker shock at the costs of lift tickets, foods, drinks, etc. It's gotten insane. It was also EPIC riding. Winter park Eagle Wind area especially was magic. Untouched pow in the trees, even after lunch we were finding powder caches.

jeninco

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #113 on: February 19, 2019, 09:05:06 AM »
similar to Big_slacker, we just got back from a long weekend of skiing. Three powder days in a row!

We live on the front range of Colorado, so we drove and took our own gear.

This time, we were hunting for snow (rather than big mountains, necessarily), so we skied at smaller (and much less expensive -- about $70/day/person) areas.  We also did some within-area hiking (it's a bad year for avalanches, and it's February -- I consider it money well spent to have someone else to avalanche control). Did I mention we kept finding powder?

We rented an Air B&B (which was  ... a weird layout, but had a working kitchen and a big enough table, so it was all good) and cooked all but one of our meals. (And the one we didn't cook? Meh. We should've cooked.)

We drive a van with a pop-up table inside, and got to the area early enough to park close in (another advantage of small areas) so we picnicked in the van (or the sun, one day) for lunch. We realized years ago that we could literally bring any food (including caviar, though we haven't yet done that) we wanted to a ski area and come out ahead over buying food there and settled on going to the in-town grocery store the night before and picking up 1-2 lbs of fried chicken tenders and having them for lunch with various other things. So the parents lounged in the van and set up lunch, the kids came in and ate (we also had thermoses of hot tea), and then we packed up and all went back to skiing.

bognish

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #114 on: February 19, 2019, 09:15:32 AM »
Daisy, let me know if you are skiing Alta on a weekday and want to do a few laps with a local. I don't check in here very often anymore since I am either on a chair lift or catching up on chores, but I'm home sick today.

Daisy

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #115 on: February 19, 2019, 09:23:14 AM »
Daisy, let me know if you are skiing Alta on a weekday and want to do a few laps with a local. I don't check in here very often anymore since I am either on a chair lift or catching up on chores, but I'm home sick today.

Sure sounds good. I will PM you.

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #116 on: February 19, 2019, 10:57:10 AM »
It looks like our winter is mostly over now. It took a long time before we finally had a thick pack of snow here around Oslo. I have been skiing one day on my newest skis, before that only on my old pair, because of stuff sticking through the snow.. Then it rained for a whole weekend. Last weekend it was quite icy in the trails and not really fun to ski. We only skied for two days, instead of three.. This weekend it will be springtime temperatures. We are considering to visit our cabin which is in one of the colderst areas in the country and has currently good snow.

roboskier

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #117 on: March 01, 2019, 07:10:37 PM »
The two things that have saved me a lot of money are volunteering to coach at a local race team, and usually refusing to pay for any new gear:

-The volunteer gig gets me a significantly reduced seasons pass and free tickets at the mountains we travel to for races. The obvious catch on this, is that I'm working a fair amount of the time (but happen to find this equally enjoyable to ripping around on my own).
-I almost never buy new gear (unless it's through some sort of sponsorship or deal with the team, or heavily discounted in spring). If you haven't been, check out your local ski swaps in the fall. At least where I am, it's not hard to get a solid pair of skis for ~$100 depending on what you're looking for. Yocals buy fancy pants stuff all the time then drop it off a year later when it goes unused.

I also carpool and do all my own tuning. When the race season gets going, I average 3 days a week (1 night, Saturday and Sunday). All in this season, I'm at $800. Certainly not cheap, but not going to break the bank account either... And more and more, I've become a big fan of the mom and pop type areas. Depending on how you buy, you can usually get cheap tickets when deals come up, you don't have to deal with lines, or finding a place to sit in the lodge, or parking or any other nonsense.

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #118 on: March 02, 2019, 07:40:47 AM »
Today there was a freshly prepared cc skiing trail. We drove towards the free parking place we tend to use. Turned out there was a children's ski competition on the other side if the road, which wouldn't have bothered us. But for the occasion, we were charged 10 dollars for parking!

Then we turned around and drove to the other end up the trail where we could park for free. We had really nice weather, quite warm. The trail was partly a bit icy. We used zero skis, which were partly good, partly as hopeless as other skis. But we did some 18 kms anyway.

Dropbear

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #119 on: March 03, 2019, 03:15:10 AM »
Here in Australia it's still bloody hot, so I'm envious of those of you who are enjoying winter in the deep north!

Skiing is a big part of my FIRE plans too.

Since I was young I've been a member of a cooperative ski club.  Our club's ski lodge is inside the boundary of a ski resort, and has a popular link ski run running passing about 10m from our back door.  In winter, it's completely snowbound, so it's ski-in/ski-out, or otherwise catch a snowcat.  We usually try and stay with the same families each time, so it's very social, too.

Apparently in Australia we have the most marginal skiing conditions in the world.  You'd think that'd make it cheaper, but no, it's actually super expensive... Like most things are here.  Still, on the right day, the conditions are as good as anywhere!

Do any of you Europeans or North Americans have ski clubs with accommodation to help make for cheaper and more social snow trips?

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #120 on: March 03, 2019, 07:49:26 AM »
Skiing is a big part of my FIRE plans too.

Do any of you Europeans or North Americans have ski clubs with accommodation to help make for cheaper and more social snow trips?

Nice to hear that Australians also like skiing. But we are half a year apart from each other.

About your question. We typically have cross country ski trails everwhere where people live and where there is snow. So we can sleep at home and drive for 15-30 minutes to a trail. There are also local, small alpine ski hills all over the place, as long as there is a hill available.

If we want to ski somewhere else, we need to book accommodation. Many people, like us, have a mountain cabin, so with guaranteed snow from November to May or so. At home, in the south of the country, we typically have snow from December to the end or March.
Mountain cabins can also be rented for all sorts of prices, depending on the location.

Ski clubs often ski locally. But if they travel somewhere else, they would typically book a large cabin for a good member price. But as said, mst members sleep at home most of the winter.

Dropbear

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #121 on: March 04, 2019, 03:25:45 AM »
Skiing is a big part of my FIRE plans too.

Do any of you Europeans or North Americans have ski clubs with accommodation to help make for cheaper and more social snow trips?

Nice to hear that Australians also like skiing. But we are half a year apart from each other.

About your question. We typically have cross country ski trails everwhere where people live and where there is snow. So we can sleep at home and drive for 15-30 minutes to a trail. There are also local, small alpine ski hills all over the place, as long as there is a hill available.

If we want to ski somewhere else, we need to book accommodation. Many people, like us, have a mountain cabin, so with guaranteed snow from November to May or so. At home, in the south of the country, we typically have snow from December to the end or March.
Mountain cabins can also be rented for all sorts of prices, depending on the location.

Ski clubs often ski locally. But if they travel somewhere else, they would typically book a large cabin for a good member price. But as said, most members sleep at home most of the winter.


Men er norske barn virkelig født med ski redan på?

Good point about skiing locally, thanks, I hadn't considered it that way...  In Australia the snow is about 6 hours south of Sydney, or about 5 hours north of Melbourne.  Hence we have lots of ski clubs full of members who live far away from the "Snowy Mountains".

For ski accommodation, there seems to me a distinct affordability difference between what 'insiders' have access to verses the mass tourism market luxury places (both here and around the world).  At our lodge, for example, it's just a biggish house in the snow with comfortable bedrooms, shared bathrooms and living spaces, and our one luxury: a sauna.  We all bring our own sheets and towels, bring our own food to cook for ourselves, and share the cleaning when we move out.  Hotels charge at least double (and often a lot more), although they those guests wouldn't do-it-yourself like we do...

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #122 on: March 04, 2019, 04:21:04 AM »
Men er norske barn virkelig født med ski redan på?

Nei, det gjort for vondt for moren.

Most children start skiing when they are 2 years old. Until that time, they are dragged along on ski trips in a pulk/children's sledge.

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #123 on: March 07, 2019, 01:11:04 AM »
After a couple of weeks with very warm springtime weather, we now have snow falling down very fast. I think it is slightly above zero Celsius.

I find it a little difficult to switch my mood from beginning springtime to back into winter. But I guess it is the normal way. You can't expect it to be spring permanently in the beginning March.

At Easter, we have the whole week before Easter off. This is the week that we traditionally go skiing at our mountain cabin, in warm, sunny weather. At least, the weather can vary enormously, as Easter can also be a month earlier.

This year Easter is extremely late, at the end of April. If there is enough snow and it is not completely rotten, we will go to our cabin and do a tenting trip on skis in that area for a couple of days (plan A). If there is only snow left in the highest mountains, we will do to a national park that is higher, a little further and do a tenting/ski trip there (plan B). If the snow if completely gone or completely rotten and there is no hope for a good ski trip, we might go on a canoeing trip in Sweden (plan C). We have done that before several time, in May. It is not so far driving (2 hours) and easy to organize for us, as we have our own canoe.

Dropbear

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #124 on: March 07, 2019, 03:20:03 AM »
This year, by coincidence, we have the Easter long weekend running immediately before the ANZAC long weekend.  This means we can take 3 days of annual leave and get a total of 10 days away from work.  So I'm planning on making a trip to the mountains.  (Still way too warm for snow here though).

As to mustachian mountain adventures - another way to enjoy cheap skiing and snowboarding is to do it powered by kite.  It's super fun.  In Australia we have great terrain for it (flattish mountain tops), but our winds are often a bit too strong, and access into good kiting areas away from the ski resorts can be tricky.

I've heard Scandinavia is amazing for snow kiting, though.  Big open expanses of great quality snow, decent winds, and easy access from mountain huts or mountain roads...

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #125 on: March 07, 2019, 04:39:54 AM »
I've heard Scandinavia is amazing for snow kiting, though.  Big open expanses of great quality snow, decent winds, and easy access from mountain huts or mountain roads...

Yes, I often see people snowkiting on Hardangervidda. This is a big mountain plateau with several tourist huts on and around it.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Hardangervidda+kiting&rlz=1C1GCEV_en&oq=Hardangervidda+kiting&aqs=chrome..69i57.5623j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #126 on: March 10, 2019, 06:05:51 AM »
Nice CC skiing conditions today. Yesterday it snowed the whole day. Today it is sunny, but coldish. The tracks are very good and pink/violet wax did a very good job today. We started a bit late, 10:30 AM, and had to share the tracks with many other skiers. That is to be expected in this type of weather on a Sunday.

35andFI

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #127 on: March 10, 2019, 09:01:51 AM »
I was racing a friend yesterday and caught a toe edge then flipped onto my stomach and slid into a tree head first.

I have a bump and a little cut on my head and pressure in my ear but I don’t think I got a concussion.

I wasn’t wearing a helmet and got very lucky.

Be careful out there everyone.

HenryDavid

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #128 on: March 10, 2019, 01:46:05 PM »
In “other non motorized winter sports” news:
SNOWSHOES.
Let me say that more quietly.
Snowshoes.
Go where you like,  cross frozen lakes, follow frozen streams. So quiet and beautiful. Even logged-over woods are nice in deep snow.
There’s no adrenalin factor. Also few injuries.
And . . .. .  Cheeeaaaap. Get ‘em used.

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #129 on: March 11, 2019, 02:00:39 AM »
In “other non motorized winter sports” news:
SNOWSHOES.
Let me say that more quietly.
Snowshoes.
Go where you like,  cross frozen lakes, follow frozen streams. So quiet and beautiful. Even logged-over woods are nice in deep snow.
There’s no adrenalin factor. Also few injuries.
And . . .. .  Cheeeaaaap. Get ‘em used.

We use these to walk from the car to our cabin, about 150 meters.

In deep snow, also snowshoes can make you sink away deeply.
We sometimes like to walk around on snowshoes a bit to follow animal trails near our cabin. And last time, the snow and the ski trails were very icy, and outside the snow did not carry. Then we walked on snowshoes up a mountain in a former ski trail.
But if it is flattish and you want to cover some distance, skis go so much faster. Uphill there is hardly any distance.

What snowshoes also can be good for, that is for tramping a flat tent place in the snow. If we go on a winter camping trip, with skis, we often bring snowshoes as well, to use around camp. Skis are long and impractical.

clarkfan1979

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #130 on: March 11, 2019, 03:05:40 AM »
I buy the Keystone/A-Basin pass for $329 and typically get around 12-15 days/year. I think I spend another $170 in gas/year, so I'm all in for $500/year. It's not free, but I think it's cheaper than many other activities/hobbies. I have 3 snowboards that are 13-15 years old. I'm buying a new pair of boots for next season. They are 15 years old.

Askel

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #131 on: March 11, 2019, 03:41:41 AM »
In “other non motorized winter sports” news:
SNOWSHOES.
Let me say that more quietly.
Snowshoes.
Go where you like,  cross frozen lakes, follow frozen streams. So quiet and beautiful. Even logged-over woods are nice in deep snow.
There’s no adrenalin factor. Also few injuries.
And . . .. .  Cheeeaaaap. Get ‘em used.

Snowshoes are such a regular fixture in my life, I barely consider them as specialized outdoor gear anymore.  Heck, I even use them at work several times a year. This year we've had so much snow, it's literally impossible to get around without them. 

That said, firing up the coleman lantern and going for a nighttime snowshoe is one of my favorite things. 


Dropbear

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #132 on: March 11, 2019, 05:17:39 AM »
My quiver of snowboards:

1 - A rockboard that cost $50 ex-hire, just to get me on the mountain.

2 - A 15+ year old carve board that I bought new (end of season special), and it provided wonderful service for years, but ended up being too stiff and heavy...

3 - A kite-specific board that was given to me by a very generous kiter.

4 - A 5+ year old super-playful park board that I bought new (end of season special again) and only expected to use for learning freestyle stuff, but turns out to be almost perfect for absolutely everything!  This board carves better than my carve board!

Now I'm wanting to buy a pair of skis - on the condition that they can go everywhere and do everything.

I think I'll get some playful park skis!

dude

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #133 on: March 11, 2019, 07:42:09 AM »
Just got back last Tues morning from 9 days in Utah, where it snowed all 4 days I was in the backcountry (and we got some great resort days too). It was so good, and they just got another 38" the past 4-5 days (BCC) that I said "fuck it" and bought a last-minute ticket to go back later this week. Can't wait. I'd post the video from the backcountry excursion but it would vitiate my anonymity, so I'll have to withhold it.

HenryDavid

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #134 on: March 11, 2019, 08:57:52 AM »
In “other non motorized winter sports” news:
SNOWSHOES.
Let me say that more quietly:
Snowshoes.
Go where you like,  cross frozen lakes, follow frozen streams. So quiet and beautiful. Even logged-over woods are nice in deep snow.
There’s no adrenalin factor. Also few injuries.
And . . .. .  Cheeeaaaap. Get ‘em used.

jeninco

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #135 on: March 11, 2019, 01:25:55 PM »
Just got back last Tues morning from 9 days in Utah, where it snowed all 4 days I was in the backcountry (and we got some great resort days too). It was so good, and they just got another 38" the past 4-5 days (BCC) that I said "fuck it" and bought a last-minute ticket to go back later this week. Can't wait. I'd post the video from the backcountry excursion but it would vitiate my anonymity, so I'll have to withhold it.

Glad to hear it was fun, and that the snow was great!

We're headed out at the end of the month for the middle of spring break week -- the expensive part is driving out there (about 8 hours): we're renting a VRBO in east SLC where we'll do most of our own cooking. And lift tickets to Snowbird were surprisingly cheap (ish, @$74/day) We have friends along the way, so we may stop and ski with them either on the way our or on the way back. I wish we could go for longer, but it's soccer season, so the kids have games the weekend before and the weekend after.

dude

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #136 on: March 12, 2019, 07:46:13 AM »
Just got back last Tues morning from 9 days in Utah, where it snowed all 4 days I was in the backcountry (and we got some great resort days too). It was so good, and they just got another 38" the past 4-5 days (BCC) that I said "fuck it" and bought a last-minute ticket to go back later this week. Can't wait. I'd post the video from the backcountry excursion but it would vitiate my anonymity, so I'll have to withhold it.

Glad to hear it was fun, and that the snow was great!

We're headed out at the end of the month for the middle of spring break week -- the expensive part is driving out there (about 8 hours): we're renting a VRBO in east SLC where we'll do most of our own cooking. And lift tickets to Snowbird were surprisingly cheap (ish, @$74/day) We have friends along the way, so we may stop and ski with them either on the way our or on the way back. I wish we could go for longer, but it's soccer season, so the kids have games the weekend before and the weekend after.

jeninco (assuming you're in CO as your name implies), I'll be headed out to CO in early April for a week. Annual trip to a friend's place at Breck. I have an Epic Pass, so no need to purchase lift tix for Breck, Vail, Keystone, A-Basin. Enjoy Utahhhhhhhh!

dude

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #137 on: March 12, 2019, 07:47:51 AM »
P.S. -- check out Liftopia deals for Sundance. Usually around $45. And I love that place. Very cool, with probably my favorite après-ski bar anywhere (the Owl Bar).

jeninco

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #138 on: March 12, 2019, 04:47:04 PM »
Just got back last Tues morning from 9 days in Utah, where it snowed all 4 days I was in the backcountry (and we got some great resort days too). It was so good, and they just got another 38" the past 4-5 days (BCC) that I said "fuck it" and bought a last-minute ticket to go back later this week. Can't wait. I'd post the video from the backcountry excursion but it would vitiate my anonymity, so I'll have to withhold it.

Glad to hear it was fun, and that the snow was great!

We're headed out at the end of the month for the middle of spring break week -- the expensive part is driving out there (about 8 hours): we're renting a VRBO in east SLC where we'll do most of our own cooking. And lift tickets to Snowbird were surprisingly cheap (ish, @$74/day) We have friends along the way, so we may stop and ski with them either on the way our or on the way back. I wish we could go for longer, but it's soccer season, so the kids have games the weekend before and the weekend after.

jeninco (assuming you're in CO as your name implies), I'll be headed out to CO in early April for a week. Annual trip to a friend's place at Breck. I have an Epic Pass, so no need to purchase lift tix for Breck, Vail, Keystone, A-Basin. Enjoy Utahhhhhhhh!

Cool! The snow at A-Basin and Breck should still be lovely: Breck had to close down the upper mountain last week for reasons of too much snow (I heard they had an in-bounds avalanche).  I also recommend Loveland, but if you have an Epic Pass, they're not on it. (Spring skiing is about $50/day or less there.)

dude

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #139 on: March 13, 2019, 06:07:46 AM »
I *heart* Loveland!

Daisy

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #140 on: March 13, 2019, 11:11:40 AM »
Just got back last Tues morning from 9 days in Utah, where it snowed all 4 days I was in the backcountry (and we got some great resort days too). It was so good, and they just got another 38" the past 4-5 days (BCC) that I said "fuck it" and bought a last-minute ticket to go back later this week. Can't wait. I'd post the video from the backcountry excursion but it would vitiate my anonymity, so I'll have to withhold it.

Glad to hear it was fun, and that the snow was great!

We're headed out at the end of the month for the middle of spring break week -- the expensive part is driving out there (about 8 hours): we're renting a VRBO in east SLC where we'll do most of our own cooking. And lift tickets to Snowbird were surprisingly cheap (ish, @$74/day) We have friends along the way, so we may stop and ski with them either on the way our or on the way back. I wish we could go for longer, but it's soccer season, so the kids have games the weekend before and the weekend after.

I'll be heading to Utah soon myself. Good to hear the snow is good.

dude

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #141 on: March 13, 2019, 11:14:05 AM »
16-24" more today through tonight.

bognish

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #142 on: March 13, 2019, 05:32:24 PM »
12" at our house in the last 12 hours. Hoping I am not too sore tomorrow cause its going to be good up the street at Alta. Day 44 for me this season and counting. Right now the family season pass is costing us about $31 per person per day. Should be under $25 by the end of the season.

waltworks

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #143 on: March 13, 2019, 06:11:26 PM »
We're at something like 330" for the season here in Park City.

Skiing can be pretty cheap, really. I probably have 60 pairs of skis in the basement and I'm positive I haven't made it to $1000 in total spending. People dump perfectly good stuff with a bad binding, or just because they want this year's gear, and you can pretty much have it for free.

If you know how to tune and wax skis (ah, my wasted youth) it gets even easier. Lots of people ditch skis (literally) when they get dried out and slow and all they really need is a tune and wax.

At this point in my life I much prefer (and so does the rest of the family) nordic skiing so as the kids (6 and 4) get bigger I will have to spend some more money on decent skate and skin-classic skis (because no F'ing way am I maintaining a fleet of waxed classic skis for them) so it won't be quite as cheap, but that's ok. It's still going to be <$500 a season all in.

-W

sixwings

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #144 on: March 13, 2019, 07:08:32 PM »
It snowed here a few weeks ago and I waxed up my old cross country skiis and did some laps around the local golf course. Had a hoot!


jeninco

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #145 on: March 14, 2019, 01:29:20 PM »
We're at something like 330" for the season here in Park City.

Skiing can be pretty cheap, really. I probably have 60 pairs of skis in the basement and I'm positive I haven't made it to $1000 in total spending. People dump perfectly good stuff with a bad binding, or just because they want this year's gear, and you can pretty much have it for free.

If you know how to tune and wax skis (ah, my wasted youth) it gets even easier. Lots of people ditch skis (literally) when they get dried out and slow and all they really need is a tune and wax.

At this point in my life I much prefer (and so does the rest of the family) nordic skiing so as the kids (6 and 4) get bigger I will have to spend some more money on decent skate and skin-classic skis (because no F'ing way am I maintaining a fleet of waxed classic skis for them) so it won't be quite as cheap, but that's ok. It's still going to be <$500 a season all in.

-W

You so do not want me to say this, but your kids may enjoy hanging out in the basement with you waxing skis.  (Says the person who nordic patrols on barely-waxed equipment, because I dislike screwing around with it... Mostly I skate, and we just iron on glide wax.)

Ironically, skins are around $100/pair, used, in places with a reasonable Craigslist market. (You can get away with narrower older ones for a bit while the kids are on smaller skis.) For backcountry skiing, over here in CO we get away with Extra Blue (applied at the trailhead) for 80% of winter skiing...

waltworks

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #146 on: March 14, 2019, 02:19:26 PM »
Even the 4 year old knows how to wax skis. In fact she burned her knuckle on the iron helping me the other day and I thought I was going to get in trouble at her preschool when she told them what happened.

I have a picky wife and want the kids to enjoy themselves, so while I ski on dried-up p-tex all the time, I tend to just maintain 2 or 3 pairs of skis for each of them for different conditions. Kids are easy on wax, though, so it's not that big of a deal to keep up.

FWIW, if you're going to do a lot of waxing in the basement, spend the $40 it costs to get a decent half-face respirator.

-W

M5

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #147 on: March 15, 2019, 11:48:56 AM »
If you are active (I am!) or retired military, Vail Resorts (Epic pass) did a $99 pass this year for all Vail owned resorts and no blackout dates. Next year they upped the price to $129 but still a killer deal.

So far this Winter I've skied 17 days on my Epic pass which comes out to $5.82/day. I'd say that's about as mustachian as you can do resort skiing!

Linea_Norway

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #148 on: March 16, 2019, 01:56:14 AM »
Today might be the last day with good snow conditions in my local area. Tomorrow it will rain a lot and after that, we will have a period of second springtime. (We had some weeks of springtime earlier this year).

Askel

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Re: The mustachian skiing (and other non motorized winter sports) thread.
« Reply #149 on: March 16, 2019, 05:12:48 AM »
Winding down here too.  Still plenty of snow on the ground, but it's going to start getting sloppy/crusty as we go through the early spring temperature swings.  I'm looking forward to getting the fatbike out on the crusty days and the road bike out when it warms enough to clear the roads. 

Skiing specific expenditures this year:
New skis: $300
New boots: $135
Downhill pass: $205
XC pass:  $225

Total:$830
Plus a good bit of gas driving around to all these places.