Post your first ski day of the '14/'15 season!

[MaineSkiLady]

I heard this on Sunday from someone on Sugarloaf chairlift who had been at Sunday River on Saturday. Also a bit dicey at Sugarloaf, middle of some runs. But the sides stayed pretty decent all day. Overall, pretty typical early season? I was glad to have a fresh tune (thanks, DH!).

 

[Duckie]

My first day was on December 1st at Wild Mountain in Mn. This is where last years season ended early and my ski career and life almost ended too. I was fine until I got to the top of the run I was going to do first. I couldn't do it. It was next to the one I fell on racing last season, and the fear of falling was overwhelming. I settled for a couple green runs and called it a day. My son was with me and reassured me that I was brave to even try skiing again. I left totally deflated. I worked with my new Skia Trainers for a while that night. I'm not giving up!! The sun came out the next morning and my husband and I headed over to Trollhaugen in WI to give it another go. I started with a long green and never looked back. We had an awesome day. Bright blue skies, seamless corduroy, and the hill to ourselves. Within 30 minutes I was carving my turns and racing down my favorite run like it was a GS course. What a relief, I don't know what I would do if I couldn't ski. The terrain isn't much to talk about, but it's home.

 

[SkiBilly]

First day 5 Dec at Big White. It was snowing and awful visibility...was almost a white out. The snow was sticky and chopped up...not like it normally is, definitely not powder! (though we've never skied this early in the season). It was hard going - I was sweating so much my hair was soaked through (and I had my helmet vents open)! It was only minus 2 degrees celcius, I think. We only did two runs. It should be better tomorrow after grooming. I like corduroy the best to get my ski legs back at the start of the season. Boy, are they aching! I've activated some dormant muscles for sure in that soft crud; I'm gonna get in the hot tub!

 

[2bjenny]

First day was Thanksgiving Day at Targhee and second at Jackson last Sunday. The groomers were really nice last week. I wasn't brave enough to venture off the trails even though it was tempting - could still see lots of rocks peeking through the snow. It has been fairly warm, but hope to make it over to the Tetons this weekend. It was nice to start to the season!

 

[Zez]

We are season pass holders at Sierra at tahoe but it's not open yet. So we made use of one of our 4 days free at squaw valley today (12/7). Lot of driving for only one day's skiing since we can't use the free days in a Saturday but we had a great day. My 6year old was nervous the first run as we've only ever skiied at Sierra before and she didn't like the fact that she didn't know the runs, but we all soon got our ski legs back. Stayed all on greens, but we're beginners so it was a great way to start the season. And best of all my new ski boots were fab!

 

[Dianna]

Today Dec. 8th at Keystone. 7 runs on Schoolmarm, green, but was so much fun and great begging to get my ski legs back. LOL , they were toast, glad we have a hot tub!

 

[Lori_K]

Day 1 on Thanksgiving, Day 2 two days later at Taos. Yesterday was Day 3, with a few inches of fresh new snow, which was a welcome change from the previous two days. Mostly spent the first two days doing drills and getting the mind & legs back on track. Yesterday the drills paid off, and we were skiing hard and having fun. Now we just need some more snow to open up the off-piste terrain. Yay ski season is back!

 

[DeweySki]

Went to Northstar on Saturday for Day 1 because they seemed to have the most terrain open. It was pretty crowded and the man-made snow was pretty slushy, but it was great to just get back out there! Day 2 was at Heavenly, where the snow was nicer but they only had 4 runs open. I got into my head a little bit trying to remember all the bits of advice from the Divas, but at some point just told myself to link some %$*# turns and enjoy the mountain. Overall, I was SUPER happy with where I picked up from last year!

Here's a pic from the top of Northstar. Told SO I needed a pic for the forum; he was happy to oblige.

 

[skibum4ever]

Skied at Mammoth today. This was even more special than usual, as 2 months ago I had no idea when I'd be able to get up to Mammoth. DH is progressing incredibly well, and managed to climb the 2 flights of stairs to the condo.

Conditions were very good on the snowmaking and groomed runs. Very few people were riding off-piste.

Here are some photos.

 

[snow addict]

Skied another couple hours on Sunday. Snow was still concrete-like at 11 am but started softening around noon. It was nice to see the sun - probably the highlight of the day as we've had these low-hanging clouds below 2400 meters for the last 3-4 weeks. Love my Magnums which is good since it looks like they will be my go to skis at least till New Year...

 

[segacs]

First day of the season today! Couldn't have asked for better! Sunny, minus 2, no wind, few crowds.

I went up to Saint-Sauveur, and while they didn't get as much snow this week as we did in the city, they had some fresh stuff to supplement the snowmaking and, though it was a bit fast and thin, it really felt like midwinter conditions. Only a handful of runs were open, so I just did laps, basically.

But it felt REALLY good to be alive and back out on the ski hill.

 

[SkiBam]

Glad you got out, Segacs. I had my first day of x-c today. Just an hour on some of the flatter trails nearby (not enough snow yet for hilly trails to be open), but it did feel lovely to be gliding along. I'm sure the muscles for x-c, which are not all the same as those for downhill, will be letting me know tomorrow that I did something new (for the season) today.

 

[gardenmary]

skibum4ever, looks really good! We are investigating Mammoth as a last-minute option, but it's proving really tough and painfully expensive. Hoping Utah gets a bit more snowmaking in this week.

I'd love to talk about your Cross Trek, it's looking like a strong option when I consolidate vehicles.

 

[skibum4ever]

Sure, @gardenmary, give me a call.

Mammoth got about 2' of snow and there are a couple of storms which will hopefully come in next week.

Today was my 6th ski day, but it was @VickiK 's first ski day of the new season. Conditions were good and the weather was gorgeous.

 

[SkiGAP]

First (and second) days done! Spent the weekend at Grandvalira (Andorra). A great start!

 

[num]

Day one for me today at Alpine Valley in WI. The temperature has been unseasonably high this weekend, and the snow was snowcone like, mostly granular chunks with occasional slush. I was just overjoyed to be making turns on snow(ish matter). Someone I don't know came up to me when I was in the lift line and said they wish I could see my face when I'm coming down the runs, since it couldn't be plainer that I was having a great time. I guess it showed, because I definitely was.

 

[segacs]

First (and second) days done! Spent the weekend at Grandvalira (Andorra). A great start!

I've always wanted to ski in Andorra but I've never been there. How's the skiing?

 

[Jilly]

Yeah, I heard some great stuff about that place too.

 

[abc]

My first day "on snow" was yesterday, in the form of a ski instructor training course!

Last year, I took the rookie instructor training course. The full training course is 2 weekends plus a midweek evening. 5 days altogether. Anticipating some people have conflicts to prevent them from doing all 5 days, we were told the minimum requirement was 3 days. I had a conflict so only did the first 3 days, which covered teaching up to wedges turns. But not how to go from wedge to parallel, which was covered on day 4 of the training.

Lo and behold, one day during the season (I think it was the busiest President's week), I was given a group of enthusiastic teenagers who could already done wedge turns and were looking to transition to parallel! Well, I had to wing it. After all, I had gone through that in my own learning process! But I wasn't sure I did it right since teaching methodology had changed since the days I learned.

So, knowing the same training course would happen again this year just like all the years, I asked the ski school head if I could "make up" the portion I missed last year. Of course, they said. They were really happy that I care enough to do the training again!

The weekend was made more fun because, a few weeks earlier I succeeded in persuading TWO of my bike club friends to take the instructor course. So I got to join them in the last 2 days of the training series too! The three of us made quite a splash, especially when we promise to take several of our instructor trainers on a bike ride come spring time!!!

Sorry, I digressed. This is a skiing forum, not a cycling forum...

 

[snow addict]

Day 3 and 4 done. Actually it got slightly better this weekend after some snow fell on Thursday and they opened Mt. Fort. I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time so to speak - I love this mountain on its first day before huge moguls start to form, managed to get down it 3 times - every time after queuing up for 40 min but it was worth it. Will take nice cold calf-deep snow over rock hard and very busy groomers with brown patches any time. Queues are understandable given that weather was beautiful and all the locals headed to the mountains and our resort is one of the very few in the vicinity that has snow. Made a mistake not to download later though and my new Magnums went for their first base repair.
Skipped the lifts yesterday and went for a skin, was pleasantly surprised that it was doable from village level despite very little snow.