Black diamonds east vs west?

[tinymoose]

From this western skier who skied in the east once (Killington/Whiteface):

- moguls are easier our west because they are not usually hard as rocks
- most things are easier out west because there is less ice - not no ice, but less.
- don’t expect trails to be well mark
- you can generally make anything into a trail, and there are a lot of unmarked chutes and pathways and bowls that might make, say, an intermediate run more difficult if you veer off the side

Moguls out west are sooooo nice. I'm still not the worlds greatest bump skier, but so much more doable than the concrete blocks of ice we have out here at times.

I feel like runs on the east coast are so condition dependent. Take, for example, White Lightning at my home mountain of Montage. I believe it's about 32 degrees as far as pitch, although it's not all that long. I can ski it fairly comfortably and somewhat aggressively if it's groomed and not icy. Not so much if it's groomed and a sheet of ice. I can also manage it if it has bumps on it that are soft, or at least not a frozen block of ice. But if it's covered in big giant ice bumps with huge troughs, I won't go near it. Whereas out west it seems like snow conditions are a lot more consistent and consistently better.

 

[marzNC]

Whereas out west it seems like snow conditions are a lot more consistent and consistently better.

Spot on.

It's pretty rare that there is rain on the slopes in the Rockies during the core season, say from mid-December thru mid-March. While it can warm up into the high 30s and 40s in March, firm snow after temps in the 20s overnight is still much more likely to be edgeable than true New England ice after a storm system from the Gulf pushes all the way to Maine. I've skied Alta in April after very warm weather (50s at the base) in March. By then there had been more than one good snowstorm and the snow conditions were really fun, with no worries of touching the frozen layer from a few weeks before. By the time that layer was exposed, day time temps meant good late season conditions with edgeable groomers and reasonably soft bumps by mid-morning.

 

[TNtoTaos]

I skied with a low intermediate from PA on Schoolmarm in Keystone (a true beginner trail). She loved it but commented that it would be a blue run in PA.

Speaking of Keystone, how did Frenchman turn into a black diamond?

Frenchman has two entrances: a short black diamond section that joins the blue trail, and a blue entrance. Was just out there a couple wks ago.

 

[marzNC]

Forgot about this thread. There is good info for folks in the east of any ability level who have never skied out west.

One of the first seasons my crew did a Ski Week at Taos there was very little snow even though we went in early February. No black terrain was open before it snowed a bit early in the week. They hadn't even bothered to build any features in the wide trail that is usually a terrain park. That became a groomer with bumps after a 9-inch storm midweek. It was just before Lift 1 became a high-speed detachable quad. We still had a great time and I learned a lot of useful drills for improving fundamentals as an advanced skier. Happened to be Women's Ski Week. @santacruz skier and I were in the top group for women who would normally have been skiing blacks early in the week and double-blacks by midweek, assuming good conditions.

For 2023, the Women's Ski Week at Taos is in late February. This season Diva West is at Taos then. Would be a good time to check out both if you have never been to Taos or a part of a Diva West gathering. The price of a Ski Week is $360 for 2022-23, which is higher than a few years ago. But still a bargain for six morning lessons (Sun-Fri) with the same very experienced instructor and max 7 students, with many groups with 6 or fewer. The transformation of the base has made Taos a 4-season destination resort in ways that it wasn't before the Blake family sold to the current owner who had the financial resources to fund necessary major projects.

Taos Ski Week, a 6-morning lesson program, 2022-23 notes

Couldn't decide if this topic should be in Skiing Tips or Resorts . . . so General Skiing was simplest. It wasn’t that long ago that I didn’t know much about Taos Ski Weeks or Taos Ski Valley terrain. Going to a resort that requires a 2-3 hour drive after flying to NM didn’t seem worth the...

www.theskidiva.com

 

[TNtoTaos]

Forgot about this thread. There is good info for folks in the east of any ability level who have never skied out west.

One of the first seasons my crew did a Ski Week at Taos there was very little snow even though we went in early February. No black terrain was open before it snowed a bit early in the week. They hadn't even bothered to build any features in the wide trail that is usually a terrain park. That became a groomer with bumps after a 9-inch storm midweek. It was just before Lift 1 became a high-speed detachable quad. We still had a great time and I learned a lot of useful drills for improving fundamentals as an advanced skier. Happened to be Women's Ski Week....

Was that the year that we first met? I'm sure glad you guys decided to go to TSV that week, or I might never have discovered TheSkiDiva! Thanks, @marzNC!

 

[marzNC]

Was that the year that we first met? I'm sure glad you guys decided to go to TSV that week, or I might never have discovered TheSkiDiva! Thanks, @marzNC!

It was the next year because that was the first time for @diymom . She was your first introduction to TSD. We have certainly benefitted with your experience traveling to Taos and NM in general.

In 2019 I went twice. First over MLK week with her and other intermediate Divas and again when the PugSki/SkiTalk folks were doing their first mini-Gathering. Back then we could stay at the Columbine Inn, which was bought by the resort for employee housing just before the 2019-20 season. That season was the last time I did a regular Ski Week based on the ski-off on Sunday morning.

Taos Ski Valley has evolved quite a bit since 2019. Although that has made it more important to book lodging slopeside that much sooner, overall I like all the changes to the main base. Also with more snowmaking on the groomers, that means people who want to go in January can count on having enough trails open in the case of slow start for winter snowstorms. I'm glad TSV joined MCP and then Ikon.

 

[TNtoTaos]

It was the next year because that was the first time for @diymom . She was your first introduction to TSD. We have certainly benefitted with your experience traveling to Taos and NM in general.

I guess you're right -- now I remember... I met @diymom, in the Women's Week program, and she told me about TSD and intro'd me to you, and then you both gave me the sales pitch, lol. How could I forget?
Sorry, @diymom , and a belated thanks to you, too!

 

[scandium]

I find it funny that I ski mostly at Okemo, where the blacks and double-blacks would probably be blues anywhere else. It's a hill that caters to groomer-zoomers.

But I also ski at a tiny little community "family-oriented" hill called Whaleback, and their signage categories are total mayhem. They groom with the enthusiasm level a teenager grudgingly gives to house chores. Their chairlift off-ramp would be a double-black at Okemo and there's one blue trail I've never even looked at because the horizon line alone makes me nervous. They seem to have one snowmaking gun that they point around at random and then put into storage in early February. There are some glades that look terrifying.

Of the two, btw, Okemo has waaaaaaaaay more, and more serious, injuries than Whaleback. Granted it sees far more customers in a season, but still, a co-worker who patrols there says that it's a pretty fun gig because they do a lot of skiing around and grilling on the patrol shack deck because there just isn't much patient care to be had.

I love that description! I wonder whether the groomer zoomers at Okemo overestimate their ability to stop / general level of control - it's one thing to zoom down an empty slope, but to do it on a busy day while not being a dick and cutting people off or causing an accident is another thing entirely.