It’s the beginning of another work week, and the mountains finally have some fresh new snow. Do you feel a sick day coming on?
Snow totals in the western part of the state over the weekend range from a whopping 81 inches at Silverton Mountain (pictured) to 48 at Wolf Creek and 34 at Telluride. Resorts closer to Colorado Springs can celebrate, too – Monarch got more than 17 inches; Breck, 8; Keystone, 5; Vail, 19; Ski Cooper, 9; Copper, 6; Loveland and Winter Park, 7; and Arapahoe Basin, 5.
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Most three-year-olds can put on their shoes, throw a ball overhead, hop on one foot, walk on tiptoes, pedal a tricycle and walk on a line.
Now, with new programs at Monarch and Winter Park, your three-year-old can add “ski” to that list.
Monarch Mountain is offering group skiing lessons for three- and four-year-olds. The program is called Caterpillars, and the resort says it’s designed to have lots of play time.
Winter Park also has a program for three-year-olds. Just Because I’m Three is a full-day program that starts on a tiny indoor hill and ends on the snow.
That indoor concept is smart.
I watched a snowboarding class for four-year-olds at Copper Mountain a while back. It, too, included play time, but a huge chunk of time was devoted to keeping mittens, goggles and hats in place.
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The New York Times has compiled a list of “31 Places To Go In 2010.” These aren’t weekend jaunts. Instead, they are adventures in far-flung places: Sri Lanka, Seoul, Mysore (India), Koh Kood (Thailand), Damascus, Antarctica.
And there, on the list between South Africa and Montenegro is No. 23: Breckenridge.
The Times writer chose Breck partly because of its recent passage of an ordinance to decriminalize possessions of small amounts of marijuana, calling Breck “the party capital of the Colorado Rockies” and saying the town was striving to be Amsterdam. It also points world travelers to Breck for the BreckConnect Gondola and the improvements to Peak 7 and Peak 8.
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This week another person was found dead in a tree well at a ski area. It is the 2nd death in Colorado this ski season from skiers falling into a tree well.
According to Steamboat Today, Grace Lynn McNeil was 23 and a ski instructor. She got separated from her friends while skiing at Steamboat Ski Area on Tuesday.
She was found the next morning heard first in a tree well. Most likely she suffocated. An autopsy is being performed to determine if that’s the case.
In December a 22 year old died at Wolf Creek Ski Area. Alex Singer was training to work on the ski patrol at Copper Mountain. He was skiing inbounds but was skiing in an ungroomed area. He was found by a snowboarder the next day. He died of suffocation and hypothermia.
Tree wells are areas of less packed snow around the base of trees. Evergreen trees cause snow to accumulate on the branches and then fall away from the trunk. Since it often falls off in big clumps when the sun comes out or the wind blows, it is more packed.
Snow may blow in close to the trunk but it won’t be as packed. Also several feet of the tree may be burried. This can leave pockets without snow between the branches. It may not be easy to spot that there’s a tree well.
Skiers that aren’t experience skiing where there’s deep snow may not be aware of tree wells. Because they aren’t easy to spot, even experienced skiers may ski too close. When the skier goes over the soft snow, they may fall in.
According to studies done by the NW Avalanche Institute, 90% of skiers that fell in a tree well couldn’t get out on their own. If the skier has fallen head first, they can suffocate fairly quickly. If they can breathe but no one is around to help, they can die from hypothermia.
I’ve fallen into several tree wells while skiing in the backcountry. Although friends have helped me out sometimes, I’ve never felt like I couldn’t get out on my own. Since I telemark ski, my heels are free so I can move more to get my skis off. Even so I’ve spent 15 minutes getting out.
Want to know even more about tree wells? Tree Well and Deep Snow Safety has more great information.
– UltraRob
Related Links
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We’ve all seen it – the meltdown on the slopes as one person (usually a husband or boyfriend) teaches another person (usually a wife or a girlfriend) to ski or snowboard. It’s never pretty. It’s always entertaining.
But I never thought it might be someone defrauding the resort. The Denver Post reported yesterday that many resorts have started sting operations to catch renegade ski instructors who are offering their services for pay without being employed by the resort.
Vail employees joined with the U.S. Forest Service to sniff out the illegal instructors – those were caught could face federal charges and hefty fines, but most caught for the first time were fined $525 and they lost their ski privileges at all five Vail resorts for life.
The Post reported that most of those caught were former Vail employees trying to make a buck on their own.
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We all know our porn names, right? (Take the name of your first pet and the street where you grew up.) Call me Buffy Main.
And our pirate names? Mine is Hester the Black (not sure why).
But I digress. Let’s talk skiing. Copper Mountain is helping us waste more computer minutes with their Ski Patrol name generator. The resort has launched a goofy site, http://www.yoursnowday.com/, to celebrate its theme of “Everybody Deserves a Snow Day.”
You can generate your Ski Patrol name (I’m Deb Fancy Feet Acord, Official Ski Patrol Member), print out “authentic” doctor’s excuses to use at work, watch video instructions for making paper snowballs, snowflakes and paper skis, and enter a contest for best white lie (winner gets a Copper vacation). You even get a snow day excuse soundboard with authentic sounding coughs, hacks, sneezes and groans.
Click on the “Unemployed” button, and you can enter a contest to win a free snow day.
Click on the “I’m the Boss” button, and check out the downloadable employee memos, award certificates and “World’s Greatest Boss” mug wraps.
My favorite part of the site? “You cannot spell Colorado without the word ‘rad.’” (Spoken wisely by Capt. Fred on the intro video.)
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Yet another reason to keep your cell phone or PDA handy for those chairlift rides:
Colorado Ski Country USA has launched a new mobile web site. The new site, m.coloradoski.com, contains updated information on each of the 22 ski resorts that are CSCUSA members, and access to Twitter and Facebook postings from the group and its member resorts. Snow totals, road conditions and special events and deals are also available.
Users can click on a Twitter link that displays the four most recent tweets from CSCUSA. Other links to Twitter feeds directly from the member resorts offer up-to-date information on the resorts. There are also links to each resort’s Facebook page.
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Here’s something for Colorado resorts to consider: A sauna gondola.
That’s right. In Yllas, in Finnish Lapland (600 miles from Helsinki), you can sweat it out in a sauna on your trip up the mountain.
The ride covers 2.5 miles in about 20 minutes; the windows of the specially appointed gondola are tinted so you can see out but nobody can see in. “During the ride, you can admire the beautiful landscape of Yllas-hill. If you start feeling dizzy, just open the window and get some fresh air,” says the official Finnish travel web site.
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If there’s a moment that stands out in “Warren Miller’s Dynasty,” it’s this: Mono Skier X. Yeah. That’s right – insane Skier X featuring disabled athletes on mono skis at the Winter X Games. This sport is crazy anyway, but these adaptive competitors take it to the next level. Their slogan says it all: “If there’s nothing you can do about it… you either get busy living, or you get busy dying.”
This year’s ski film hits the Pikes Peak Center Friday and Saturday, and it features all the powder-filled shots of years past. The film’s director and producer Max Bervy says the film’s showing “is like a family reunion, held in neck-deep pow, with mandatory air required for entry. It leaves no snowball unturned.”
That said, “Dynasty” won’t disappoint those who make a yearly pilgrimage to see the newest Warren Miller film.
It has the usual amount of jaw-dropping stunts and scenery, and sweeps from Lake Tahoe to British Columbia, Washington to Colorado and Alaska to Michigan. Chris Davenport travels to northern Norway to ski above the Arctic Circle. Chris Anthony and Austin Ross look for the birthplace of skiing in the wilds of northwestern China, and find a culture where homemade wooden skis are standard equipment. And favorites from the past – Lucas and Adam Schrab (remember the farm boys jumping over mountains of hay?) return with an aging school bus and wooden ramps.
In the recent past, Miller films have celebrated the rise of the snowboarder. This one is different, with snowboards showing up in only three segments. This film appears to be dedicated to new schoolers and backcountry stars.
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If you’re a Winter Park fan, check this out: The resort is offering free lift tickets from its opening day, Nov. 18, to Christmas Day, and will hand over the tickets when guests book a minimum of two nights of lodging during that time.
Check out the “Ski Free at Winter Park” lodging package at www.playwinterpark.com or call 800-979-9874.
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