Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!
How about ski the mountain?
If you don't ski the mountain when there is no pow, you are really missing something. Unless your mountain reallly sucks.
Do you mean to suggest that is you ski at Snowbird/Squaw/Whistler/Mammoth the only time to ski the mountain is if there is pow? If that is what you want to do, more power to you, but you are really missing a great part of skiing.
If all there is to do at your mountain when there is no pow is carve or ski the park.....I feel sorry for you.
I don't see why someone who lives in say, Vermont, would only ski the mountain when there is pow. Skiing Killington bumps will help your skiing. I grew up skiing Belleeayre/Hunter/Whyndam, back when there were no parks....And I had a great time skiing bumps. If the kids at those places nowadays are not even bothering to occasionally ski those bumps, well they are really missing out.
If anything saved skiing, it is better skis, and options. Shane McConkey did a whole lot more to save skiing than any terrain park.
Skiing back east was pretty awesome before terrain parks. If you ski Stowe every weekend, and you don't ski the front four, you are really limiting yourself.
Skiing could survive without terrain parks. There are plenty of skiers back east who don't ski park...And they don't spend all day on groomers.
Skiing bumps is really, really fun.
I do understand your point, but skiing in the northeast could exist without parks. Parks just make things better.
So you are a bit like a 12 year-old virgin who loves chocolate, and insists to a an experienced 25 year old that chocolate is better than sex.
I grew up back east. I loved skiing bumps, thougtht they were the greatest thing in skiing. When my family took trips out west, I wanted big open bowls, full of moguls. I did not like powder initially, it was very hard for me to ski. I was humbled. Back east I thought I was a great skier, but the western mountains made me feel small. Keep in mind, this was BEFORE fat skis, so I learned pow/crud on sknny skis, MUCH harder than it is today. Give me an icy, east coast bump run, and I was fine, but give me a steep, western pow run, and I sucked.
I went to school out west, and gradually got to ski more pow. During a Colorado trip my freshman year, stuff finally clicked, and I started loving pow. I finally saw what the fuss was about, skiing 6 inches of light Colorado fluff. From then on, I wanted pow. Skiing Mammoth 2-3 times a month, and on most of my vacations, I started to fiend for powder.
Skiing powder is beyond euphoric. It is truly one of the great things in life. I would try to explain it, but I can't. Why do you think people at Squaw line up at 3 am for the KT-22 lift? Because they want to hit The Fingers in all their glory. And people DO line up at that time, ask any Squaw local
I'm not putting down your opinion, and I respect that you would rather ski park. LIke I said, there was a time when I would rather ski bumps.
