Looks like we'll have a season afterall

Thursday, December 23
The Pass

I'm just now getting around to posting about last week's ski adventure with Dylan.  We went up on Thursday after the snow report indicated that it dropped 6" overnight.  We were prepared for just about anything--you never know what you're going to get here in the Great PNW.

We got 6" on the frontside, which was not quite enough to cover up the crust underneath from the rain and sun on Tuesday and Wednesday.  But, Willamette has a secret weapon called the Backside.  The snow tends to sock in back there and today was no exception.  There was a good foot on Northern Exposure and June's Run and the 45 degree trees in between.  My first line got poached by an asshole ski patrol who jumped in right in front of me.  Gotta be quick around here.

Dylan attempts the trees on Cherokee Ridge, which were not, as they say, "all that."  What it was was 4-6" on top of nasty crust.  We didn't go back in after that.


















Dylan was sticking on Diane's board so we went to the car for some wax.  Dylan in his element.

Power magazine has been asking the hard questions this year in a series:

Why is skiing important? And, why do we ski?

I've been threatening for years to write an essay on the similar question of "why I ski?"  In my view, it's useful to think about such things.  "Because I can" is a simple, but lame answer.  I'll pick up on this and hopefully do a longer exposition on these questions in the coming year.  For now, I'll share some of the more interesting reflections.

In the January issue, Rob Story says "Skiing is the Bestest." Hard to argue with that one.  But it does beg for further elaboration. This one stuck out:

"Skiing is important because it's in the Olympics, which means America gives a shit about it every four years.  America: Fuck yea."

In case you don't get the reference, it's from our South Park friend's movie "Team America World Police."




In December's issue Neil Stebbins states "Skiing is not important."  I get his point, but fundamentally disagree.  Yea, it's not important from the standpoint if world peace or solving pressing problems like global warming, but saying skiing is not important is kind of like saying music serves no purpose. There is, of course, a tangible value to the activity--people spend a lot of money on skiing. There is also an intrinsic value in the activity related to the location and conditions at any given moment as well as the people. On the tangible end, I'm pretty sure that it's important to the thousands (or millions) of people who make their livelihood from it. I'm definitely sure it's important to the folks that publish Powder magazine.  It does, you just have to think for a while to figure it out. Apparently thinking is out of style in America (Fuck yea!).  You can read Neil's full remarks here:

• Neil Stebbins - Skiing is not important...but everybody should still do it.

Rob's comments were not available on the Powder.com site at the time I wrote this. 

I'm sure it felt important to Dylan as he leaped off the Whale's Tail.

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Back on the topic of the ski industry, IBISworld--an online database of industry trends--had this headline in January 2016:

"Slippery slope: Economic recovery will boost demand, while climate change strains operations"

IBISworld defines the snowsports resorts sector as follows:

This industry is composed establishments engaged in operating downhill, cross-country or similar skiing areas, or operating equipment, such as ski lifts and tows. These establishments often provide food and beverage services, equipment rental services and ski instruction services. Four-season resorts without accommodations are also included in this industry, but companies that own and do not operate ski resorts are excluded from the industry.

IBISworld summarizes the industry as follows:

Note that this is just the resort portion of the industry and doesn't include impacts down the supply chain. And concludes that Vail Resorts has 38% of the US market share. The conclude, not surprisingly, that the industry is highly vulnerable to economic trends and climate change.  Anyway, seems a tiny bit important to me.

There will be more meaningless proselytizing in future posts. Until then, I'll wait for the next storm!