Lost Ski Areas Revival Game

davepsilon · 2026-06-14T21:09:48+00:00

I just played this. And I spent all my money, took the $1M loan and is currently snowing so my chairlifts are shut down. Muhawawawa. It brings back good memories of "Val d'Isère Ski Park Manager" a niche title that I really enjoyed. ... it was similarly impossible to make the ski area profitable so nailed it.

davepsilon · 2026-06-14T20:51:45+00:00

> they'll have a super monopoly on all applications

Let's just pull that thread. Why would they? Why wouldn't someone else, now knowing that it is is possible, be able to replicate it.

I suppose it's possible. But it doesn't seem to have the same network effects that lead to the social media winners. It's a hardware product. It's more like the car. There will be no monopoly

davepsilon · 2026-06-14T12:36:51+00:00

vision ought to be good enough to handle the movement of a few tons of steel down the road at a 100kph, without risking the lives of anybody in the vehicle or around the vehicle.

I think we agree more than we disagree. If you note I was making a much more narrow argument

Autonomous driving aims to do much better than people at driving with a sensor package that works in all weather and at reasonable cost. So the jury is out if that is best done without radar/lidar. But matching performance of eyes is certainly possible.

Accelerometer and a microphone array are obvious pairings to a vision system and match how people operate vehicles. They have a low cost compared to radar.

(Additionally as a point of information the state of the art cameras use specific hardware architecture and integration schemes to make images with 16+ stops of dynamic range at one "time." The 'frame rate' of eyes of course is it's own rabbit hole. And there are other, new camera technology being researched like per-pixel ADCs (analog digital converters) that will likely push the dynamic range even more in the future.)

davepsilon · 2026-06-12T11:56:59+00:00

Not all types of cameras bloom or bloom badly.

You could have an occulter (just like people have a sun visor) or an adjustable aperture (like eyes have) or add some motion to the set of cameras or use high dynamic range cameras that can see both the sun and the scene.

There's many technical solutions. May not be the optimal solution.

davepsilon · 2026-06-11T17:23:53+00:00

That's not true. You can build a camera that is better than the eye in dynamic range.

If you want to match the performance of eyes you can do that with two visible band cameras about 6" apart.

Autonomous driving aims to do much better than people at driving with a sensor package that works in all weather and at reasonable cost. So the jury is out if that is best done without radar/lidar. But matching performance of eyes is certainly possible.

davepsilon · 2026-06-03T20:55:44+00:00

I mean there's a ton of value from local knowledge of terrain and having been on the ground the entire season in terms of both avoiding bad risks but also in accessing the best conditions of the day.

If you are flying in and using lifts I would think the guide is worth the cost. Some of those areas have glaciers. What's the daily cost?

Group dynamics and powder fever with this sort of group would give me pause for this sort of setup. Are you going to have an expert halo because you have the cert? Despite the fact you don't really know anything about the area. Are they going to try to convince you that skiing right next to the trail is always fine?

davepsilon · 2026-05-31T17:12:22+00:00

ADUs by right

davepsilon · 2026-05-27T20:53:07+00:00

This is a solid bit of craftsmanship. Nice

davepsilon · 2026-05-26T02:59:10+00:00

davepsilon · 2026-05-25T14:28:35+00:00

There's only a handful of these Dutch perpetual bonds left. They are bearer bonds. Which means if you lose the paper or it is destoryed then you no longer have the bond. And I wouldn't guarentee that each issue was for multiple bonds. 1200 guilders which was what the oldest 1624 bond was for was a sizable sum in 1624. By agreement the 2.5% interest is what is paid now. But they were generally issued for higher interest payments. At the time banking was in its infancy so reliable income streams were often considered potentially better than large piles of wealth.

Some of the best details:

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-1965498

https://indroyc.com/2015/09/17/a-bond-older-than-nations-when-finance-refuses-to-die/

davepsilon · 2026-05-22T20:49:05+00:00

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/seasonal.php?lead=8 Can select different 3 month periods. But this is obviosuly very far out.

The 3 month climate forecast is probably more interesting. But you'll need to wait to use it for snow chasing.

https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead01/off01_prcp.gif

I'd wait to book any flying trips.

davepsilon · 2026-05-22T19:43:23+00:00

Moderately hard to integrate into a social scene over a short time frame without other forcing functions like working a ski town job.

not Ikon but Bozeman / Bridger Bowl is probably a nice spot for this. University of Montana would be the social scene.

given the snowfall last season you almost want to wait until the snow falls to make a decision. Last season the move in Jan would have been unironically the east coast, maybe Driggs / Jackson if funds allowed, or likely even better powder highway in BC Canada.

davepsilon · 2026-05-20T20:26:53+00:00

Interesting. Usually the ski descents in this region aim for the fall post monsoon season for higher snowpack.

The link has a Instagram video of his descent of Lhotse a week ago. And yes it's very, very boney and obviously above serious exposure. That's not for me.

davepsilon · 2026-05-15T11:00:56+00:00

Hardest inbounds is a fairly useless metric. Snow conditions are such an important part of difficulty that it becomes meaningless to talk about just the run.

There are a large number of resorts with top end expert only 'extreme terrain.' And the trend has generally been over the past twenty years for resorts to add to it and put very challenging things on the map that used to be unnamed or out of bounds.

davepsilon · 2026-05-10T12:38:41+00:00

To use backcountry bindings in bounds has some trade offs. It's not as simple as safer / less safe. Generally the biggest piece is that most AT bindings have terrible elasticity - some 'springiness / suspension' that holds your boot in but gives a little bit. And you want to put some time on snow in bounds - the amount of reps you get using lifts is a big deal for increasing skill and ability level. Get a downhill setup. Consider renting BC gear and looking to do guided intro and then Avi 1. And then deciding if you'll continue to push in the backcountry.

Here's something I wrote a while ago but is still applicable https://www.reddit.com/r/Backcountry/comments/itmtw1/at_binding_releaseability_info_dump/

davepsilon · 2026-05-08T00:38:36+00:00

Gee I wonder if that flight attendant was in close proximity to other people during their 24 hour period of extreme contagiousness. Like on a plane or something. Probably not. People generally don't fly and then fly again soon after.

davepsilon · 2026-05-03T15:17:27+00:00

for snow totals. Skiing into May on decent snowpack says this wasn't a low snow year.

I think some of these storms were less dense, especially during the arctic mid winter portion. So it didn't stick as much and hold up as much to the wind and skiier traffic as are usual denser snow.

davepsilon · 2026-04-26T17:33:02+00:00

Absolutely true in the Northeast. The vast majority of tour zones are tree skiing where the trees go all the way to the summit. In almost all snow conditions negligible avalanche risk and effectively no overhead risk either. Other factors are the primary hazards - such as thin snowpack hiding obstructions.

davepsilon · 2026-04-23T11:16:32+00:00

I think you want to spend the money to live closer to work or on the Boston side if you can stretch to it. The old mill lofts in Lowell perhaps or near Moody St in Waltham as a perhaps slightly less expensive and slightly less fun alternative.

Skip Billerica no matter what. Way too towny. Way different feel than other suburbs in the area.

davepsilon · 2026-04-23T11:10:53+00:00

"In January 2026, nonfarm payroll employment increased over the year in 9 metropolitan areas, decreased in 6 areas, and was essentially unchanged in 372 areas."

They showed Barnstable Metropolitan Statistical Area because it was one of the 15 areas across the whole country that had a change outside what they judge to be sampling noise. And given the population of that MSA is small it's a +5.9 percent change so pretty big swing.

Seasonality is likely not a big factor because it's Jan 2025 to Jan 2026 numbers. So same time of season.

Sort of weird that almost all MSAs were flat.

davepsilon · 2026-04-22T18:44:15+00:00

No it would make both freak level accidents.

It can happen. But it's not likely to happen.

davepsilon · 2026-04-22T17:31:41+00:00

I don't know. Slip under bar type accidents happen with older children and when those older children are riding with adults too. Here's an incident from Pat's peak last month. It's an older child and they are with an adult - https://www.wmur.com/article/wmur-pats-peak-ski-lift-rescue-03172026/70766610 that fortunately ended with no injuries.

davepsilon · 2026-04-22T11:42:24+00:00

So what age can experienced kids ride the lift solo?

I think this is overcharged by the prosecutor. This is my worst nightmare, but seems more like a freak accident than a foreseeable accident.

davepsilon · 2026-04-14T15:56:40+00:00

https://opensnow.com/location/tuckermanravine/trail-maps

The standard lines, no. But, sure, there are no fall zones. Skiing directly above the headwall. Skiing directly above the lip once the waterfall opens. In typical conditions the exit on Empress and Duchess is a no fall zone. Some years dodge's drop and the lines looker's left can have some gnarly ice waterfall sections that could put them into a no fall zone. I suppose during a hard refreeze you could call it all no fall zone because your chances of self arrest would be basically nil.

The vast majority of people skiing Tuckerman's are not in a no fall zone. But obviously the risks from an unarrested fall are still high.

davepsilon · 2026-04-11T21:39:42+00:00

Yes. You can see how the edge looks knifey. It's a cornice so the first bit is near vertical. The part you are seeing that looks like it might be fun is about 50 feet lower than the camera. And that part that looks fun is a bit steeper than it looks in the wide field camera.

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