Links about Europe + a poster

Where to go in Europe
More on Gstaad
How to Ski Gstaad
More Gstaad reviews
Gstaad fights image

Skiing in the Northeast

It looks like December is going to be a lost month for skiing for me, btw.

This might make you dizzy

Okemo opened over the Thanksgiving weekend, with extremely limited terrain, basically just the upper part of World Cup. Someone cheerfully strapped a helmet camera on and made this video, which is linked here. It can make you dizzy.

Opening Day on World Cup via a Helmet Cam

Heh.

A good deal on ski magazines

A couple of years ago I heard about a discount ski magazine offer from a ski club I was a member of. This person offers pretty heavily discounted subscriptions to various ski magazines. For example

Ski $7.95
Skiing $7.95
Powder $8.95

Just drop an email to Sean O'Brien seaneobrien@msn.com and tell him I sent you his way. I stopped subscribing to Powder personally, but still get the other two, even though Skiing is kind of lame. The reason these subscriptions are so cheap is that the mailing lists for these magazines are worth a lot to direct mail marketers, who want to sell you package ski deals or slopeside condos. The magazines subsidize the circulation to get names to sell to marketers (yes, nearly every single kind of magazine does this).

Also Okemo has been blowing snow for the last few days, with hopes of opening a few advanced trails for Thanksgiving weekend. Here's a picture from Monday, Nov 21.

AKR

Honeymoon to Gstaad booked

We just got our honeymoon hotels and train passes booked. Jenn and I are going to go skiing in Gstaad in March. Neither of us have been there before but we've (individually) been to some of the other resorts in the Swiss Alps. I'm looking forward to the trip; it's a place I've long heard read about.

The plan is to fly out the day after the wedding. We fly to Geneva, connecting through Milan, and then hop a train to Gstaad. I've taken the train from the airport before when we went to Zermatt and it went pretty smoothly. The Swiss have taken a fairly comprehensive approach to mass transit in their small nation, so it felt pretty seamless. After all the hullaballoo of the wedding ceremony and associated events it will be nice to get some quiet time to ski and relax with each other.

Around the Mountains from the Summit daily news

Around the Mountains: Park City plants seeds for diversity

BY ALLEN BEST
summit daily news
November 12, 2006

PARK CITY, Utah - Park City's government continues to plants seeds in an effort to diversify its economy from its tourism and real estate moorings. The latest such seed is a $10,000 grant being given to the Oquirrh Institute, a think tank that takes on issues of interest to state governments.

The plan is for the Oquirrh Institute to relocate from nearby Salt Lake City, open an office, and then hold conventions twice a year. Next year, for example, a conference about oil shale is planned. Organizers project an attendance by 200 people, with an injection of $80,000 into Park City's economy.

The leader of this institute is Jim Souby, who was executive director of the Western Governors' Association for 13 years, reports the Park City Record.

Whistler hopes to get authority to cut trees

WHISTLER, B.C. - Whistler municipal officials may have a larger hand in managing the adjoining forests by next year. The forests belong to the provincial governments, but the municipality is applying to manage the forests under the Community Forest Program.

Officials believe there is enough wood in the forests to fill approximately 200 logging trucks, reports Pique. However, while the city may make some money, the greater benefit is that it will have a larger say in ensuring that aesthetics, recreation and tourism are taken into account in the management decisions.

Steamboat booking shoot past last year

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS - Bookings for ski vacations continue to be well ahead of last year's pace in Steamboat Springs.

Bob Milne, whose company manages 875 units, reports phone call volume of 30 percent and bookings of 20 percent ahead of last year. He tells the Steamboat Pilot & Today that a 10 percent increase over last year will be realistic when all is said and done. Milne also reports an increase in visitor days, up to 5.7 days per visit, compared to 5.5 days last year.

His report jibes with others from elsewhere in Steamboat Springs, which had uncommonly good snow early last year. Both trends - earlier bookings and longer stays - are also in sync with what is being reported elsewhere in the ski industry this year in Colorado, and the travel industry even more generally.

Steamboat also is benefiting from an expanded program of direct flights that was announced last spring. The number of booked passengers is up 7.8 percent compared to last year, and 20 percent ahead of two years ago.

Winter Park and Fraser sharing courts, more?

WINTER PARK-FRASER - The towns of Fraser and Winter Park, which are located cheek by jowl, continue to explore how they might become more like one. So far, the courtship amounts to little more than a peck on the cheek.

This year the two began sharing basic court functions. Two judges can remain, but the idea is to have two court operations that are not significantly different. Another intergovernmental agreement is being prepared that will combine building departments.

Three scenarios are being explored: additional sharing, Fraser joining Winter Park, or complete unification of the two towns. In addition, there's the do-nothing option.

Fraser is the older of the twin towns. It was created in 1904, when railroad tracks from Denver arrived, although not formally incorporated until 1953. Winter Park was first a railroad camp called West Portal, and in time Hideaway Park, after the ski area was created in 1938. It was incorporated in 1978.

'Biggie-size' is no longer home mantra

PARK CITY, Utah - The 1990s were the decade of "Biggie-size" applied to everything from French fries to homes. Now, that trend is ebbing.

"People were going bigger, bigger, bigger," says Scott Jaffa of Jaffa Group Architects in Park City. "Now I see a trend where they want to go smaller and more efficient."

Another Park City architect agrees. "The mega-home is going to become more rare, but people are still going to spend on what they consider quality items," says Bill Mammen.

Both architects detect a stronger demand for "green building," in which homes reduce their needs for energy, water and other resources.

"One of the trends I see now is more clients are asking for green building materials and tankless water heaters," Jaffa told The Park Record. "We are retrofitting a client's heated driveway with a solar hot-water system versus using a boiler."

Mammen said he has been trying to improve operating efficiencies of homes in Park City since he arrived in 1978. "In the '90s, people didn't care at all," he said. "Now people are asking for it."

Added Jaffa, "Whether you believe in global warming or not, we need to conserve. We just can't keep throwing away everything."

Jackson joins climate protection agreement

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. - Add the Town of Jackson to the list of municipalities that have committed to taking action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Like Frisco, Park City, and several other mountain towns in the west, Jackson is joining the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Initiative.

The town, in the words of public information officer Shelley Simonton, has been "dribble-drabbling along" in efforts to become more energy efficient. It has, for example, converted to the more efficient compact-fluorescent light bulbs, even if they cost more money up front.

But town officials were energized to do more after attending a conference in Aspen devoted to global warming. Jackson Mayor Mark Barron says what he heard in Aspen convinced him that Jackson is on the right course in trying to densify the existing town footprint, curbing rural sprawl.

One of the first steps in its commitment to the mayors' pact will be to create an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to reduce emissions below the 1990 baseline.

Mayors who sign the agreement commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their own cities and communities to 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 through actions like increasing energy efficiency, reducing vehicle miles traveled, maintaining healthy urban forests, reducing sprawl and promoting use of clean, renewable energy resources. The agreement also calls for Congress to pass legislation that sets meaningful timelines and limits on emissions through a flexible, market-based system of tradable allowances among emitting industries.

NYT has a piece on Ludlow, Okemo's town

Hey how bout that? The NYT writes up a little article in the real estate section about Ludlow, home to our beloved Okemo mountain.

Also a few other articles in other papers, which are more recent.

NYT Article on Ludlow
Boston Herald on Okemo
Stamford Advocate on Okemo

Lift Tickets

As expected, lift ticket prices are still going up, especially in areas without competition for the ski dollar, and in areas which know they are true destinations. There are enough deals out there that only 10% of people really pay the walk up , full freight price. One thing to note - many lift ticket deals are specifically not on the internet. They are advertised locally, or in print media, because resorts don't want to cannibalize their full price sales to tourist traffic. In general, for our Western trips, I have had minimal success in getting lift pass discounts. Vail gave us a mild discount for buying a multi day ahead of time but Aspen, Sun Valley, Targhee, Lake Louise, Whistler etc..... nothing beyond the walk up window multi day discount (which may be $1 - $2 per day off, which is weak).

Sun Valley Ticket Prices = Ouch!
Lift Ticket Deals
More lift ticket packages
More deals
Why prices go up

White Lies (from WSJ)

White Lies

Forget who has the fastest lifts or the coolest runs. What really matters to skiers is more basic: Who can make the best -- and most -- fake snow.

By CONOR DOUGHERTY
November 4, 2006; Page P1

Colorado's Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has no hotel, no spa and it costs nothing to park in the dirt lot that sits at the base of the mountain. Last month, it claimed bragging rights that eluded bigger players like Aspen and Vail: It was the first resort to open for skiing this year. That wasn't a gift from Mother Nature -- most of the snow was manmade. The single open slope stood out like a racing stripe on an otherwise green mountain.

As ski season gets underway, there's a battle brewing in some key regions over who can make the best fake snow. From California to Maine, resorts are installing new tower-mounted guns designed so the fake snow descends in a trajectory more like the real thing. They're laying pipelines and building huge reservoirs to ensure a steady supply, and blanketing top-of-the-mountain runs once covered mainly in real snow. These massive systems now make snow so good that some hardcore skiers say they prefer it -- and resorts are starting to brag about it. Vermont's Killington, for instance, touts its "Signature Snow."

More is on the way. Some resorts, worried about how climate change could shorten their season, see manmade snow as a form of insurance. But faking it is costly -- up to $10,000 a day. There are also environmental concerns. Installing or upgrading systems can change the terrain, some critics say. Others worry it's a drain on water supplies; blanketing a big resort can use millions of gallons of water each year.

A lot is riding on the quantity and quality of a resort's manmade snow. Private-equity firms are snapping up ski resorts and looking to boost profits, while real-estate developers are pushing more ski timeshares, condos and hotel rooms. A growing number of terrain parks, popular among snowboarders, are molded out of manmade snow. And the high-speed lifts that reduce lines have an unintended consequence: With skiers taking more runs, the snows gets worn down much faster and needs a fresh coat.

Manmade snow is no longer just a supplement to what Mother nature provides. It is the main reason why some resorts can open as early as mid-October and stay open with good snow until May. Some skiers say the fake stuff holds up better during a day of heavy skiing.
The first thing Nick Ward checks before he hits the slopes is what might be termed the fake-snow report: He goes onto the resort's Web site to see how much snow the mountain made the night before. And when he gets to the mountain, he follows up with ski patrol to get the details on which runs to hit when. "Did they start with the left or start with the right?" he says. "You're always scouting for intelligence."

One of Mr. Ward's favorite runs is a double black diamond at Sugarbush in Vermont called "F.I.S." ("Freaking Impossible Slope"), where last year the resort upgraded its snowguns with new nozzles that make softer powder. The resort says the new equipment allowed it to keep F.I.S. open 153 days last year, about two weeks longer than the year before.

The uncertainly of weather, always a concern for ski resorts, has become an even bigger topic of conversation amid the warming trend. Some climatologists are predicting a temperature change of around two degrees over the next 30 years. Such changes aren't likely to affect larger resorts at higher altitudes, but could hurt ski areas that are already operating in marginal snow conditions, most notably in the Southwestern and Midwestern states.
Some snowmakers are preparing for that eventuality. Jim Horton, general manager of York Snow, which makes snowmaking equipment, attended a global-warming conference in New Zealand last month to learn from Australian and New Zealand resorts that are struggling with less snow. "We're trying to look for ways to make snow more efficiently in higher temperatures," he says.

Snowfall has been up and down in recent years. U.S. resorts got 216 inches of snow last year, the best in a decade. Despite that, though, resorts averaged 856 hours of snowmaking, up 7% from the same period a year earlier, and the first increase in three years. This year, the National Weather Service is predicting a drier-than-normal winter in the Pacific Northwest and Montana, which would mean less natural snow, but wetter conditions in Central and Southern California.
In Vermont, Stowe recently dug out a 111-million-gallon pond that doubles its snowmaking capacity. In British Columbia, Whistler Blackcomb has added 65 snowmaking guns in the past year; 30 of its 225 guns turn on automatically when the temperature gets around 28 degrees. A new $500,000 air compressor at Jackson Hole will allow the resort to make more snow.

Natural snow and manmade snow share the same two ingredients -- water and cold -- but one difference is easy to appreciate: the price. Between labor, water and maintenance, a big resort can spend $1 million a year making snow, says Mr. Horton, of York Snow. Snowmakers are also dependent on the same forces they are paid to defy: the weather. Because snow is easier to make at lower temperatures, a resort can spend about twice as much making snow at 30 degrees than at 20 degrees.

But it's still cheaper than no snow. Killington last year recorded just 186 inches of natural snow, three-quarters of its average snowfall -- and had to contend with 15 inches of rain between December and March. To keep the mountain open, the resort had to exceed its snowmaking budget by 25%. The result was enough snow to cover 3,000 acres of slopes a foot deep.
Beyond the financial costs, there is the environmental price, and snowmaking uses great quantities of the two most-precious resources: water and energy. At Sunday River in Maine, snowmaking accounts for as much as 80% of the resort's energy expenses. Resorts have to buy millions of gallons of water and pump it across many acres and up thousands of vertical feet. In some cases, the removal of water has been shown to harm fish and increase the concentration of toxic metals in mountain streams.

Arizona Snowbowl in Flagstaff, Ariz., has been trying for years to install snowmaking systems, but has been blocked by lawsuits from environmental groups who have expressed concerns over the a plan to make the snow from reclaimed waste water. Native American tribes also object, saying the expansion would defile lands they hold sacred.

Resorts say all snowmaking operations have to be signed off on by regulators. "If somebody has a snowmaking operation in operation today, the appropriate state and federal authorities have reviewed and approved all of the projects," says Michael Berry, president of National Ski Areas Association. A number of resorts have been taking steps to be more environmentally friendly. Vail, Crested Butte and others have started paying extra for wind power to run their resorts, while Aspen powers its Snowcats on biodiesel.

Nationally, snowmaking has increased 57% over the past decade, according to the National Ski Areas Association. But snowmaking, like the mountains and the weather, has its own set of regional differences. Eastern resorts tend to make snow throughout the year and on a majority of their slopes. Stowe, in Vermont, makes snow on 80% of its mountain, while about 90% of the runs at Maine's Sunday River have manmade snow.

The smaller resorts in states like Maryland and Pennsylvania likely wouldn't exist without artificial snow: Camelback Ski Area in Pennsylvania's Poconos Mountains has made snow on all of its runs for more than a decade. Western resorts use snowmaking mostly to ensure they open on time and to freshen up the most heavily skied runs. Vail, for instance, makes snow on about 7% of its mountain, Utah's Deer Valley, about 30%.

But even in the West, early openings are a potent marketing tool, especially for small resorts like Arapahoe Basin. "You get energized for the season," says Jonathan Hurthle, a computer-equipment salesman. Mr. Hurthle in September bought a $400 five-mountain pass that includes Arapahoe Basin and Vail. When A-Basin opened a few weeks later, he drove two hours from his home in Boulder, Colo., to ski a single run for one hour.

Manmade snow is also a concern to the private-equity firms that have started snapping up ski resorts in deals that often include hundreds of millions in debt. In the past year, private investors have purchased resorts including Whistler Blackcomb and Mammoth Mountain. Marc Perrin, a managing director with Starwood Capital Group Global LLC, says snowmaking factored into his firm's decision to buy Mammoth, which sold for $365 million.

"Mammoth had huge investment in snowmaking equipment," he says. "We felt comfortable that in years that when there wasn't a lot of snow we could make snow and break even, or be profitable."

There are a handful of U.S. companies that make snow gear, and several dozen worldwide. The latest technology are guns mounted on 30-foot towers that allow resorts to make snow that's more powdery because the extra air time gives the water more chance to freeze.

Recently, as winter temperatures have trended warmer, snowmaking companies have moved toward equipment that can function in those conditions. Charles Santry, president of Snow Economics in Natick, Mass., says his company's first models worked best at temperatures below 23 degrees; today's models work efficiently at 28 degrees.

To make snow, snow guns spray water into the air, first hitting it with a jolt of compressed air that breaks the stream into tiny droplets that can freeze in just a few seconds. To speed this along, many snowmakers add a protein-based compound known as "Snowmax." Some resorts have switched over to "fan guns" that use less compressed air (instead they break up the stream with a higher-pressure water gun and a specially designed nozzle).

Ski resorts experimented with snowmaking in the 1940s, and it was embraced by the broader ski industry after a drought hit many Western resorts in the late 1970s. Despite the many leaps snowmaking technology has taken, artificial snow still tends to be harder under your skis. Some skiers, including racers, prefer manmade snow because it can be more consistent. "It stays glued together," says Eric Bress, a contractor from Denver.

Last year, the Arizona Snowbowl was open only 15 days because of a drought, compared with 139 days the previous year. Without manmade snow to guarantee a reasonably long season, the resort has been reluctant to invest in upgrades, like new lifts.

Snowbowl's general manager J.R. Murray says when he goes looking for the 500 seasonal employees he needs, from lift operators to restaurant employees, he "can't tell the applicant when they'll start, how long they'll work or how much they'll be paid."

"If they have to choose between going to work at the Snowbowl and going to work at Denny's, Denny's is guaranteed," says Mr. Murray.

Upcoming openings

It looks like some of the Colorado front range resorts are going to open up this weekend, based on the heavy snowfall they've had recently, and their ability to draw local metro Denver visitors to their mountain. The more western resorts in Pitkin and Eagle counties, reliant on destination visitors, seem to holding on for more normal opening dates.

I can't really tell what's going on up in Vermont; it seems like its been cold but not super cold. Normally we start to get a little snow up at the cabin by late October, so we'll see how it's going when we go up there tonight. I still need to get more firewood delivered, especially before the lawn gets covered in snow.
A quick peek over to some Swiss bloggers sites revealed that some of the die hards have started to get out on the smaller local oriented mountain running drag lifts and the what not. Most of these seemed to be tilted toward locals testing new gear they had purchased. Unfortunately, fall is one of the times it is most expensive to buy new gear. However, if you need things this is the most obvious time to go shopping for it, unless you have to test gear/clothing on the mountain. Some on mountain stores justify their prices because they let you test things and return/exchange them if you don't like the way it feels on the hill. That can make sense for some things. The internet is great for low prices and a wide spectrum of things, but mission critical gear like boots/jackets etc has got to be inspected in person and tested. If they don't fit/feel right , it will just cause problems all season, and the time/money investment in getting those right is really worth it. Hopefully that gear will last a long time too; I've used my boots for ten seasons and my jacket for eight.