Klaus Obermeyer is a 100-year-old beast
Apologies if you woke up this morning and hoped for a day in which you didn’t feel lame. Because this isn’t going to help: Klaus Obermeyer just turned 100, and he has been celebrating the way a ski legend should, with a daily half-mile swim, long stints in the gym and, of course, skiing. Warned...
Ski North Korea! Also, Again: Climate Change
Yes, climate change is an existential threat to the planet, so you can’t really belabor the point. Yet, there are other things going on in the world. Since we’ve mentioned climate a number of times in the past month (including our last post), it’s probably time to move on. But we aren’t done just yet,...
When obsessions collide: Pensions, skiing and climate change
This will be of limited utility but we find it difficult to ignore a set of stories that tickle three—count ‘em—three of our current preoccupations. To begin: workers in France are in a major state of whip-up-idness over proposed changes to their pension system. Pensions…for younger American readers who don’t work for the government…were a...
Vail Speaks! Vail Speaks! (And More About Crowds)
On Wednesday, we complained about the poor communication from Vail Mountain concerning last weekend’s hideous lift lines; shortly thereafter, we got a statement from Beth Howard, the resort’s chief operating officer. It was too long a’coming but it did cover the bases: we’re sorry; here’s what happened; not our fault; safety first; we’ll try to...
Ski Passes Suck But Also Don’t
Let’s begin by noting what was all over the news in recent days: the lift lines at Vail were appalling last weekend. Does it feel a little good to see a horde of wealth-signaling skiers at America’s most wealth-signaling resort being forced to line up like refugees fleeing a war zone? No, no, it shouldn’t....
A mid-season reminder that (some) seniors ski free (or cheap) in (some) places
Ski resorts are expensive to operate. Leases, insurance, lift maintenance, lift-operator maintenance, those groomers high up on the mountain with their lonely headlights casting shadows across steep runs as you stumble back from dinner and drinks. When you factor in all that’s required to keep everyone safe and happy, those shockingly dear lift tickets are...
Every ski hill is Disney-fied
Most ski villages—that space at the base as you approach the lifts—can be divided into three starkly different subgroups: places that look like a municipal building with swanky pretensions, places that look like they were a sleepy town before skiing boomed, and places that look like they were dropped in whole by crane over a...
Old dogs. Better tricks.
The typical drill here is to pick stumble on a topic, do the minimum of research, then pass it along to you with enough information so you can dig deeper into source material. Every so often, though, we’ll glom onto a single story that offers particularly good insight and just refer you to it. Seniors...
Skiing. Still cool?
Some decades ago, a well-meaning mentor advised me to give my kids skiing lessons. “As they get older, they won’t want to hang out with you. But if you say you’re going on a family ski trip, they’ll be all in.” It worked out for my wife and me, sort of, especially when they were...
Snowmaking Won’t Save Recreational Skiing
“The ski resort claimed they had six feet of snow,” a disappointed friend said. “I assumed they meant deep.” Welcome to the 21st century, where old passions (skiing, reef-diving, cuddly koala bears) go to die. Maybe the object of your desire will outlive you, which is lucky. (Sort of.) The point is, thanks to climate...
An avalanche of avalanche reportage
The New York Times has weighed in mightily on last February’s fatal Tunnel Creek avalanche, which took three lives near Washington’s Stevens Pass ski resort. Over six months, a handful of writers and graphic designers and web gurus assembled text, videos, maps, slide shows and sound files. The result is a gorgeous package, by turns...
Is skiing an old person’s sport?
Young snowboarders were once considered the saviors of the ski industry. Without that influx of stoked shredders (the reasoning went), the mountains would have reverted to empty, windswept wastelands. Abandoned chairlifts rusting in the thin mountain air. The Boomers who had built the industry in the 60s and 70s were now too old and feeble....
