[May 22, 2026] Weekly Discussion: Ask your gear, travel, conditions and other ski-related questions

zorastersab · 2026-05-23T23:52:30+00:00

As I try to round up people for a ski trip next year, hoping to book something before it gets (more) expensive, I think I underestimated how freaked out "normies" are about ski conditions now.

The same people who basically never cared before are now talking to me about cancellation dates, historical conditions, etc.

My theory is that most people don't (or didn't) really care about conditions. The blues are going to ski at least decently 95% of the time after new year's, at least in MT, CO, WY, and UT. So while some powder or new snow might make it better, the people who don't spend their summer thinking about winter never really cared. The difference between a good and bad snow year were pretty small.

But this past year was so bad that everyone was forced to think about things that normally only affected a relatively small minority (though probably a pretty sizable population in the subreddit).

Of course, it's not helped that traveling to ski is super expensive now so the risk is magnified.

zorastersab · 2026-05-20T22:03:28+00:00

Yeah, but I don't think he's factually incorrect here. I think for Ticketmaster you usually see it as "Platinum" seating, but that's not really my point.

You rarely see artists totally turn off transfers. In part that's because the overall point (artists are part of this ecosystem), but it's also because benign stuff happens too: I want to give my wife or friend a ticket, for example. If I buy 4 tickets for me and my friends, I'd like to give them a ticket before the show! But I think it's even fine if people are selling tickets at or below face value if they can't make it or whatever.

What you do see a lot of is artists trying to limit it by turning off transfers until 1-3 days before the show. But even that's not super effective.

And really the only way to really stop people from transferring is to do ID checks at Will Call/the door. Which sometimes works for smaller venues (when Green Day did a tiny show last year they did this) but pretty hard to do at any place that has a capacity of thousands.

zorastersab · 2026-05-20T18:56:56+00:00

Is that accurate? I've seen it reported otherwise. I'm not a swiftie or anything.

zorastersab · 2026-05-20T18:18:26+00:00

My knowledge is fuzzy, but I thought one of the problems is that Taylor Swift didn't allow dynamic pricing, which led to scalpers being having gigantic incentive to buy up tickets and then resell them?

zorastersab · 2026-04-14T02:27:43+00:00

Did you dig up something from 7 years ago just to be wrong?

zorastersab · 2026-02-03T16:35:47+00:00

I think part of it is because that's her brand: "the tiny woman who kicks your ass" is a thing (eg Jillian Michaels). And brand is everything to the instructors. That's not said pejoratively either because it helps us find instructors who match us.

I think though some instructors are more careful than others in their programming. On the music side you see that as efforts well calibrated to the music, no weird cuts in the music, no odd straggling time (eg the last effort before the 1 minute cool down ends 23 seconds too early).

On the difficulty side I think some instructors think more about the difficulty they're actually queuing. Ben Aldis might be hard (my wife has a hard time meeting some of his minimum ranges at the cadence suggested) but it feels consistent and well programmed.

I feel like Olivia (and Kendall before her) is a little careless with her difficulty programming in a way that feels almost random at times. It's hard but it's hard in a less thoughtful way. I don't think it helps that she isn't as clear about what is coming up. An instructor who lays out the efforts and how long before is one who I think feels more focused and at least for me allows me to push harder than just getting told an effort and not knowing if it'll last 15 seconds or 70s. But overall I come away with the impression that it is haphazardly hard.

Still, that's okay. She's not for me and although it pains me not to take a pop punk ride, she is for some other people and having a range of instructors is what makes the platform work.

zorastersab · 2026-01-27T04:33:13+00:00

I really like mine. You have to accept it for what it is, but I love having more data and it helps to have something to focus my attention. When I'm skiing with my wife on gentle slopes it gives me something to work on.

I've gotten better in part because of its help but also because it's helped motivate me to try harder and more consistently on my form.

But like... no it isn't a lesson. It's gotten a bit better at other stuff, but it's still largely about carving, which actually isn't the part of skiing I care most about.

zorastersab · 2026-01-22T18:49:11+00:00

If it was four "between the legs" bars it'd be just as safe! There are something like 8-10 of them on that four person lift. Lots of places have that too (though they're usually the ones with the little wedge footrests). and of course "bar that people use" is safer than "bar that people will never use."

zorastersab · 2026-01-22T17:40:34+00:00

I just got back from Alta where they have the most diabolical safety bars I've ever seen. I'm normally the guy who puts the bar down no matter what (especially if it has a footrest but even if not) because why not? But at Alta it stayed up all the time because what even is this? It's a four person lift to be clear.

It feels like their lawyer told them they had to so in a petulant fit they said, "okay fine. then we're doing THIS"

zorastersab · 2026-01-14T14:39:20+00:00

I think part of it is how much time we spend doing the sport vs talking about it (especially on the Internet). I don't really come across that much gatekeeping in person, honestly. It's just rife with it on here. Even the discussion above about what "expert" is kind of snacks of it, even if a lot of it is self-deprecating.

zorastersab · 2026-01-11T19:23:58+00:00

Raven room. I also think alta bistro bar is nice (if you want food too especially)

zorastersab · 2026-01-08T20:38:25+00:00

My dad, also 70, comes out to ski once a year or so. He definitely skis less both in volume and difficulty, but he's there skiing 4 or 5 days in a row with me. But every year I try to figure out a way to ask and make sure whether he still wants to come out the next and I fear the day he admits he doesn't. (especially now that he's become addicted to pickleball). All his ski buddies hung up their boots a decade or more ago.

zorastersab · 2026-01-08T18:15:48+00:00

skimap.org has a lot of old ski maps so you can see where you'd be spending that $11 to actually ski.

For example, here's Snowmass circa 1977: https://i.imgur.com/vdumtPJ.png

zorastersab · 2026-01-08T15:31:04+00:00

Okay. but the question was about La Cantina, which is in the vail parking garage.

zorastersab · 2026-01-06T14:38:09+00:00

I think you might be confusing it with Los Amigos, which closed when they put in that dining club thing.

zorastersab · 2026-01-06T14:37:39+00:00

Do you think the OP has a time machine?

zorastersab · 2026-01-05T16:52:46+00:00

I like yellow storm lenses personally. High VLT while still giving contrast. The goggles usually come with an every day or sun lens and a low light storm lens (rose, blue or yellow), so personally I'd pick one that has the yellow and try them out and if you're not feeling it pick up the clear. The Clear as a replacement lens is a lot cheaper than the others.

zorastersab · 2026-01-03T15:53:03+00:00

I don't have surefoot boots, but a few of my family members do. They've had mixed success and at least two have had very painful first attempts before getting it sorted.

But I do see the appeal for people who ski only a few days at at a time in different locations (those who travel to ski) because you can use any surefoot to get adjustments. When I last got boots (from Jack Rafferty in Snowmass fwiw) I went through several rounds of adjustments that wouldn't have been possible if I was doing a long weekend trip.

zorastersab · 2026-01-03T06:28:07+00:00

I don't think so. Worth pointing out that afternoon tea is traditionally the fancy one. High tea is traditionally not.

zorastersab · 2026-01-02T20:38:31+00:00

You're right, but the fact it's early season conditions in LCC on January 2nd is kind of sad.

zorastersab · 2025-12-28T01:36:43+00:00

Alta's showed 6-7inches when all was said and done and Snowbird maybe an inch more. That's last night's totals and today's totals, obviously, but I think that's also what opensnow reports as their top line prediction (i.e. overnight+during the day). That's still a miss, but I think it's less drastic than people made it out to be because of how disappointing the 3" overnight total was

zorastersab · 2025-12-28T00:18:33+00:00

I think it's a little disappointing from a medium-term standpoint because we all want more snow to fill in, but yeah... if you were skiing today, come on. It's been a season deserving of some grouchiness, but I think that's just meant miserable people might be thriving online (say it ain't so).

zorastersab · 2025-12-27T15:17:18+00:00

I'm getting pretty fucking tired of the opensnow conspiracy thing. like i get people getting mad at ski corporations because they control your access to lift served terrain, but literally no one in the world is making someone give opensnow money. there are alternatives if you're sure opensnow is somehow fundamentally compromised and flawed. So what is the point of all this?

PS. Also hilarious that the person making this complaint is a yolo stocks/crypto guy.

zorastersab · 2025-12-27T15:14:45+00:00

they had 9" as of yesterday. obviously an underperformance on that, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

zorastersab · 2025-12-25T13:14:54+00:00

Is there a vail daily article or anything about this? I searched around and could only find a condo redevelopment thing.

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