When flying over to the US for skiing and the 2 week ski pass is more expensive than the return Heathrow to Denver flights. Also Austria for the ski Europe win.
You had more than three weeks but you went only in the west part of the Alps. F.E. Dolomites in Italy have even more prominence and steeper slopes. By the way, 289$ for a full day skipass in US??? Sheer madness.
It would be so nice if there can be another great ski resort in south cal other than just Mammoth. I checked the photos and Mineral Peak seems to have some great drops! May be they can build a snow palace with Elsa's statue to encourage the kids to get up there
I think there is a difference in "offpiste" and "offpiste". For example in the Swiss Alps you have avalanche control for nearly all areas along ski ressorts. (Most ressorts even inform their riders whether there is a low or high risk of avalanche when leaving the prepared pists.) We have yellow routes, basically unprepared pistes which are technically offpiste but there are yellow poles indicating roughly where you can ride along more or less safely - but there is no ski patrol and no guarantees. Then there are Ski routes which you can look at on maps to see where it is "safe" to ride completely independant of any ski ressorts. And then there is the true offpiste which is just nature. No markings, no patrol, no routes, no guarantees of safety. Just like you also have in forests. You don't get a danger sign when walking near a cliff somewhere in the woods, so why should you get a warning on snowy areas?
Just a quick correction, upper grand trunk is just a nickname, the run appeared on trail maps for many years as “Bearspaw”. Strangely the cat track was often drawn out of those maps but Bearspaw was still listed, I guess as hike up? Anyway yeah, Nakiska is the dog of the Calgary resorts with how icy and busy it gets. It’s great if you only want groomers and care more about fast lifts. I would go to Mt. Norquay any day over it, similar prices for much better terrain and no crowds.
We have far too little easy access to great locations, with easy access largely blocked by a highly motivated, tiny proportion of the nation’s population. A far better balance would dramatically increase the overall enjoyment of these awesome areas. Imagine a road or modern rail line from Wonder Lake to the Peters Glacier at the foot of the Wickersham Wall. Instead of a few people per decade making that trip, thousands would be able to enjoy that view, one of the most awesome in the world. Tragically underseen. That’s a shame. Selfish for a few folks to block easy access to everyone else. Until a more equitable balance is achieved, we can at least look forward to increasingly capable VR to take our eyes there.
I like the story/history in this ski video. Really interesting. Thanks for researching this and showing all the articles so I could pause and read them.
11:11 oh I see, we are playing monopoly now huh? As if the Euro wasn't bad enough we also got the Swizz currency... I think they got a little carried away with the colors, like I can read numbers why do we need these colors? We are not in preschool anymore and what on earth is up with the hands?? What is that???? Are we learning to count with fingers? Overall I have to say I am not impressed. The run doesn't take 7 hours, it's a lie. In 7 hours I can walk down but thats not how skiing works.
The run you called "Upper Grand Trunk" was actually called "Bearspaw." Bearspaw was a black diamond (run #4), adjacent to Upper North Axe on early Nakiska trail maps. Not sure why they named the run and gave it a slot on the original trail map when they never opened it.
What wasn’t stated was Dave McCoy, owner/operator of Mammoth Mountain at the time, stood to likely be put out of business by Mineral King which is 2-3 hours closer to the huge L.A. market. In response, McCoy , ironically, became a huge financial contributor to the Sierra Club and its relentless lawsuits. The S.C. and McCoy were ultimately successful in their parallel goal of killing Disney’s plans to build Mineral King. So, Vail, Alterra, and a handful of other large owner/operators have successfully been able to limit the supply of new ski resort development, through their tacit if not active support of environmental lobby groups since the 1970’s. Limit supply; monopolize and increase prices. This, and skier lawsuits are a main reasons skiing is so prohibitively expensive in the U.S.
The Sierra club…the same group that resorted to terrorist tactics to prevent people from using and “damaging” a section of desert that was previously a bomb test range. 🙄
Mineral King looks like AJAX on steroids. I can't begin to imagine what a Disney ski hill day pass would cost...but I wouldn't put an o/u any lower than a grand. ...and...Olympic Valley...it's called Olympic Valley.
Sella Ronda is the first big resort I ever skied in. I was 5 years old. I always wanted to revisit it. I would really like to join the PeakCasa, it sounds awesome. A little too early for me to ask for the vacation tho. Hope by the time I can apply there is still place left.
This glacier proves that co2 is not the cause of "climat change". This glacier has retreated since its top in 1644 during the little ice age. There was a massive acceleration of the retreating from 1850 to 1870, then 50 years with slow retreating, before a massive retreat started again from like 1920. All of this happened before any significant co2 output of humans. The retreat has just continued. There is no reason why the glacier shouldn't retreat really. An ice cube do melt in the refrigerator eventually. Those who want a stable glacier, want to go back to the little ice age. People should know that the planted back then was probably just inches from dying permanently from lack of co2 (plants dies if co2 goes below 170ppm). The little ice age was a time with hunger, rampant diseases, failed crops and people dying in large quantity. Extra co2 and hotter climate gives more food, less diseases, and better life. Even today there is not enough co2 and the planet is still too cold.
My wife's aunt is the reason this didn't get built. She spearheaded the entire opposition movement, to this day they still call her the mayor of Mineral King.
No resort in western canada will have a high diversity of trees. The climate is generally too cold for deciduous species. I have skied all western Canadian resorts and many in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming as well. Red Mountain tops my list. It has a unique three mountain 5 if you include cat skiing footprint,, most runs feature lots of side trees or are all trees. I find it kinda similar to The Fish, however the glades and general skiing are a definitely more challenging.
Great video! Didn't know about the plan to have it be rail access only. What a shame it didn't come to fruition, I feel like the North American ski market is really missing something like Zermatt in that way. Also the fact that it would have been massive and probably themed across the mountain really makes me feel we missed out on something special in the end. As a planner, hearing you talk about the regulations and legal challenges piling on certainly sounds familiar for me. Anyway, great video! I give it 5 'Howevers' out of 5!
I too want to protect national parks from overdevelopment but I'm generally supportive of these types of developments that allow more people to experience the outdoors and the parks themselves w/ minimal environmental impact. IMO a road or railway w/ this in purpose in mind (not commercial shipping for example) should almost always be allowed.
