Ski Tracks

April 16, 2012
Closing Day

Well, here it is too soon.

A few weeks ago Diane got me one of those so-called "smart" phones. I told her I didn't really need it, but my dumb phone was not only dumb and old, but didn't get reception in many places that it should (like my office, or at The Pass). So, these smart phones can use all these apps that do clever things that make the phone smart.

When we were in Colorado, Dave Henre had a program on his phone called Ski Tracks. It looked pretty cool--basically it keeps all kinds of stats about your ski day using the built in GPS tracking device that all mobile phones have.

Here's the main interface. It show speed, distance, vert, altitude, runs, slope, and duration. We didn't go for very long today, but I went fast as usual.

It also has the capacity to link in photos, music and other features that I'll probably never bother to learn.

It provides a graphic display of altitude and speed. I see a correlation in there somewhere...

It also plots where you went...down to the level of detail of showing when you stop in the trees to relieve yourself.

Pretty amazing stuff, eh? A little scary too--if you can track yourself at that level, you can be tracked...not that I can imagine any reason anyone would care to track me. Nonetheless, it's not more of an intrusion than the chips they stick in season passes at most ski areas. Moreover, it doesn't require me to log into a web site like EpicMix or other programs. It's cool that ski areas are making use of the technology to find better and less intrusive ways for people to record their experiences.

That all said, I've probably gone overboard and need to just chill on the photos and stuff and get back to skiing. I probably won't do that just yet, but at some point the blog will run it's course.

Shiny, happy skiers

It was pretty nice out today.

Dylan works his way down Success from the top of Eagle Peak.

You didn't...I did. Where do we go from here?

Diane charges By George.

Stung by the Rossingnol ski wasp.

The weather didn't cooperate this season. We got 47 cumulative days on our family pass (compared to 82 last year); I got 21 at The Pass and 3 in Colorado. Injuries didn't help either--Diane's ribs and my back both kept us from going more. But...I'll take 25 trips to the mountains any winter over the alternative of staying home.

Well, that's it for this season unless we decide to do a Bachelor or Hood day. Or get really crazy and hike to the top of a volcano and ski down. You never know.

See ya next season!

Penultimate Day

April 14, 2012
Penultimate Day

Well, then, there's not much left of the season. Tomorrow--usually tax day--is the final day of winter operations for The Pass. As always, it's a little sad, but I'm ready to move on. It's been one weird season. According to the media, the average temperature in the US in March was 8.6 degrees Farenheit higher than any March on record. I don't think it was that way here, but when temperatures in Minnesota go above 70 for five days in March, that's not normal.

We had a pretty typical wet March that carried into April. In fact, The Pass posted 5" of fresh snow in the past 24 hours. We didn't get here until 11 so it didn't really matter. It wasn't five inches anyway.

I practiced my passenger skills today and gave Dylan an opportunity to experience the driver's side. He decided he likes being a passenger better. So did I.

We had a combination of sun and clouds today. That was fortunate since we got there late. If it were more sunny, then the snow's stick-factor would have gone into red too early and we would have had to quit way before we did.

Odell Lake is awesome, as always. The clouds add sufficient drama.

The snow on the trees made for interesting geometric patterns.

Mom discussed how dialed in the grooming is a Beaver Creek in a recent post. Here's evidence of how the cat operators at The Pass could benefit from some training. And this isn't even the worst they've done.

Dylan hits the log ride. The best features at The Pass are natural.

Round II

Round III.

Spring jammin' on RTS. Check out the angle of the trees on the right. It's a lot steeper than it looks in the photo.

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And, one final round of the log ride...

One last view of the log ride...video style.

We'll come up again tomorrow for closing day--it's tradition after all. What we really need is a posse so we can have a party in the parking lot. It's not as much fun with the three of us, but we'll celebrate nonetheless.

We wouldn't have it any other way.

Spring Arrives

April 7, 2011

Spring has officially arrived...in between rainstorms. We all piled in and went up today to enjoy the spring sunshine.

Diane gets her turn on down Eagle's Flight.

That's my boy!

Dylan flips over spring.

Odell is lovely as ever.

Another fine day at The Pass.

April Showers

April 1, 2012

Woke up at my standard time and saw that there was 6” of new snow overnight. Despite my inclination to stay home and let my back heal a little more, I knew that Dylan would be pushing to go up (“there’s not that many days left…”). So we did.

When I went out to the car, I noticed a coffee mug under the right left tire. April Fool's...not. We pulled those out and then a half dozen more from other cars down the street from us. Guess we did our good deed for today.



Conditions were, well 2” of dust on the frozen mush left over from Friday. That is to say less than ideal. In a word, bad.

We searched around for something worth getting excited about. About the best we found were a few spots where you could get a couple turns in without scraping the nasty stuff underneath. I hung in there for a couple of hours, but it wasn’t anything to write home about.

Dylan gets awkward…

He got around and lived to tell about it.

Willamette has the biggest Raven's around. They were hanging out in the trees by the parking lot today.

The conditions weren't great, so we didn't stay very long.

Today is mom’s birthday, so happy birthday mom!

The Parker Family Christmas photo. I'm guessing this was 1973.


Last year I asked the family to provide ski stories from days of yore. There's only so much about the present to write about, but after 44 years of skiing, there's lots of history there. Mom obliged with a few thoughts from their spring break at Beaver Creek.

If you head out to the slopes around 10:00 a.m. at Beaver Creek, you are greeted by a parade of matching gold snowcats - ten of them to be exact. They creep over the top of the hill, lined up, sirens blowing laying down perfect corduroy snow for the skiers. It is an exciting experience, especially for the geezer skier like me. You know that no matter what condition the hill was in the day before - today will be another perfect day of skiing the groomers in the Colorado Rockies.

Our recent week at Beaver Creek was a spring skiing extravaganza. Most days this year, the snow forgot to fall in the Rockies. We have skied in the wind, we have skied hardpack, we have skied slush. For spoiled Colorado, skiers - this is not normal and we don't like it. But, with those wonderful high end grooming machines - a day on the slopes, even when the temperature are in the mid 50's, can be exceptional.

I couldn't help but reflect back after 45 years on the slopes, of what it was like to ski in spring conditions in the old days. We started skiing as a family in the late sixties at a little known ski area high in the heart of Rocky Mountain National Park. It was called Hidden Valley and offered a great value - our family of five could ski for $18.00 a day - a far cry from the daily rate of $115.00 a person at any Vail Resort.

Cat Parade, Beaver Creek Resort


Snow grooming had not been heard of and lifts were basic. As a beginner you pulled yourself up a rope tow. Leather ski mittens were trashed after one session. As your skiing skills improved, you advanced to the hard runs which were serviced by a T-Bar. If you are tall like I am and had to ski with one of your "chillins" - the bar ended up behind your knees which made riding the lift more challenging than learning stem christie's on the bunny hill. Whatever mother nature put down on the slope in the way of snow was what you skied on.

We worked had at mastering the basics of skiing - not easy since we learned on wood skis a foot taller than we were with unsafe cable bindings, boots were leather with laces and the gigantic bamboo poles had huge leather baskets. The ultimate goal was to learn parallel turns a la Stein Erickson or John Claude Kiley. Boots had to be aligned perfectly together and turns had to be smooth and sweeping. You can still spot a skier who learned in the 60's and 70's by their technique. After gaining a certain amount of competency at our little local area, it was time to head for the "big" hills.

Ruthanne at Winter Park, March 1969


Winter Park was our favorite. And they had snow grooming! A man named Bradley, who was a Winter Park regular, had invented what was called the Bradley Packer. It was a terrifying looking apparatus which resembled a farm implement called a hay rake A brave patrolman would strap it around his waist and head straight down the hill chewing up the snow crud as he blazed down the slope. It was a sight to behold. Skiers would stand at the bottom amazed at the feat.

We skied at Vail when it was in its infancy and grooming was still basic. It was a terrifying experience to go out on a spring morning and maneuver down the slope with the slush frozen into suicide mounds from the day before. You quickly learned that prime ski hours were 11:00 to 3:00 allowing time for the snow to soften. That meant long lunches and delicious apres ski on a sunny deck. Not a bad way to vacation.

Looking back on close to 45 years of skiing, any day on the slopes is a good day. I have often commented that if I never get any closer to heaven than from the top of a snow covered mountain I will die happy. The other thing I know for sure is that it makes my heart swell to know that I have raised a family who love the sport as much as I do. They are all much better skiers/boarders than I will ever be and that is as it should be. But, progress is a wonderful thing and I bless those beautiful snow groomers that create perfect corduroy snow. There is nothing more fun for a geezer skier than floating down the hill behind those golden machines making perfect parallel turns on marshmallow snow.

Ruthanne & sister Barb, probably at Hidden Valley, 1967-ish

Ah yes, spring. We haven't had that here yet, but it sure sounds nice right about now. Thanks for the memories mom!

Spring Surprise

Friday, March 30, 2012

Dylan went up on Tuesday—it was the best weather of the week…or at least as sunny as spring break was going to get this week. I had to work.

The wet weather pattern continued through the week. I got up this morning and looked at the Pass Cam and saw it was raining. That didn’t get me too stoked. By the time Dylan got up at 9 the snow was sticking. He gave me the “there’s not to many days left” story and convinced me to go up. It turned out to be an eventful day.

We arrived around 11:30. While there was snow on the ground, I had a healthy level of skepticism going in which continued on the first lift ride. My comments went something along the lines of “there’s a 50-50 chance of this being horrible.”

We got to the top and headed for the standard first run on a powder day: High Lead. We dropped into about 18” of something that was close to the consistency of slush. I told Dylan that I had wakes coming off my skis every time I turned. He said that was the biggest line of B.S. he’d heard since Kayla’s studded tire story.

To digress a moment, when we were in Colorado over the holidays, we went up to Fort Collins to have dinner with the family. Kayla dognapped Casey dog and wanted to go home. The only thing was she didn’t want to drive. Neither did I. So she started cooking up excuses. The best one was that “studs are like ice skates.” She claimed her car would slide right off the road if she was driving. Yea, right, just like ice skates. She ended up driving.

The conditions were actually pretty fun with fat skis. I got just enough float out of the Rossi’s to make it acceptable. Dylan thought it was the bomb.

Dylan stopped long enough to get a few shots of me.

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On the second run we heard sirens from the lift. Multiple sirens at The Pass is never a good thing—it means someone did something horrible either at the ski area or on the road. We didn’t think too much of it at that point.

Dylan tests out the wide surface area of his snowboard.

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By run eight, I was completely soaked, kind of beat up and ready to throw in the towel. That was in part because we had a show tonight. When we stopped, Dylan went to get a soda in the lodge and I walked to the car. I noticed that vehicles were parked on the road so I went into guest services to see what the deal was. It wasn’t good news—there was a fatal head on collision two miles down from the ski area and the road was closed for at least two hours. They said the coroner wouldn’t get there until 7 to do the tough work.

It was about 2:30 and I needed to be back in town by 6:30 to load up. My intent was much earlier so I could get in a hour or two of practice before the show. After checking with guest services, we walked out to the road where the DOT truck was blocking traffic. The DOT guy said it would be 90 minutes or more—they didn’t know. The investigators were doing the forensic reconstruction of the accident to determine what happened.

So…it was decision time. We could take our chances waiting or we could drive back through Bend—a four hour detour, but one that wasn’t blocked. We chose Bend. It was a long haul. Dylan took over in LaPine and drove the last three hours. We got into town around 6:15. As it turned out, we probably would have only had to wait an hour or so for the DOT to open up one lane and let traffic start passing. Oh well.

The show at Cornucopia Maize Lounge was fun, but poorly attended like our previous show at the Axe and Fiddle. The cover charge was $3; we ended up with $21 so I made $5.25 on the night. My dinner was $11 with tip… There were probably 20 or so people there on and off. We were well received and did a pretty kickin’ second set.

I’m a little baffled about how to build an audience at this stage. When we were younger, you just invited your crowd and you could guarantee 30-100 people would show. Nobody I know (including myself) goes on to clubs on weekends. My conclusion is that we should focus on billing with better established bands as well as playing festivals. In the meantime, I’ll keep practicing and writing. Even if nobody comes to our shows, we should have a cd worth of original material ready later this year.