Overcrowding at Ski Resorts

[contesstant]

Same here. CalTrans has gotten a lot more conservative in the last few years and closing the road at times when I think it would have been open 6 years ago (hahaha, I say that like a cranky old-timer even though I've only lived here for 7 years. ) Related, I think there are more people going up, driving like lunatics, crashing, and closing the roads.


Also same. For the 2020-2021 season, I had a weekday pass at Sierra at Tahoe, which was super mellow except for one powder day. Last year and this year, I'm at another independent resort. The best part is pulling off the highway to go to the indy resort while everyone else is going to sit in traffic for the next hour and a half going 20 miles to the big name resort on a Saturday. I still try to get away on weekdays if I can, but being able to ski with friends on weekends is also really special.


It works some places in Tahoe, but I don't think it does until closer to 1. And then you have to deal with the heavy traffic leaving the resort at 4. This is probably for the big-name resorts, I was able to easily leave the ski area at ~4 last Saturday and get to my local destination.


What happened to me this past Saturday was that I left a friend's cabin near the indy resort, which is 10 miles closer to the Bay Area than the highway exit for the big name resort, at 5:30pm, and the traffic was surprisingly *heavy*. Better than a Sunday evening because it was moving 65-70mph, but definitely heavy. I suspect that the traffic I was mostly cars leaving one of the big name resorts. In the morning, I pulled into the parking lot of the indy resort at 8:50 and had rockstar parking. I had even stopped on my way to pick up breakfast and get gas (and because for reasons I can't explain, two of my cards were declined at the pump, I actually went inside the station to pay). I mean, those were time sucks.

I 100% guarantee if that independent resort went on a mass pass, it would get overrun like the rest of them. Especially if it's the resort I'm thinking it is. It truly breaks my heart that my home mountain joined a mass pass.

 

[contesstant]

There is confusion about overcrowding on the slopes & traffic+lack of parking. This past weekend there were no lift lines. But traffic was horrible. Private vehicles only transport 2.7 people Vs 30-50 in buses. Most Americans "want" public transportation & hope someone else will take it so they can continue driving their cars. Zion has a mandatory bus which works great cuz driving ur car is not an option.

You are so correct about that. The municipalities and counties and resorts need to do MUCH better, including offering free lockers or bag checks for public transit riders. We rode the shuttle to Big Sky today and it was a total pain in the ass. We had to call a private van to pick us up to take us to a bus stop, where we then had to wait for the bus to take us up. The bus ride home was jam packed and all I could think of is GERMS and I damn near had a panic attack. I couldn't see out the windows as they were all fogged up and we were crammed in like sardines. So tomorrow, we will take two cars! (There are six of us.)

 

[Pequenita]

There is confusion about overcrowding on the slopes & traffic+lack of parking.

They are sometimes conflated, but this weekend, there were long lift lines/crowded slopes, too:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1619433998509539330

 

[snoWYmonkey]

@Chuyi In europe atvleast france and sweden the government subsidizes oublic transportation in order for it to be convennient to use. Waiting 40 minutes in zero degree F weather to fight my way onto the 3rd bus to come by after being outside working all day to then stand up apcked like a sardine for an hour when it should only take 20 does sort of suck and I do not always have the extra time to wait for a bus or the energy to fight my way on after work. I much prefer sitting and reading a book with music on than driving on ###### roads with horrible drivers. I just cant do another hour or two on my feet after 6 hours of skiing. America can amd needs to do better. Charge more for roads and put the difference into oublic transportation. My closest bus stop is 8 miles away. Our county only has three highways. It is pathetic. Then no commuter lot to catch the bus so I have to drive an additional 3 miles to park to catch the bus for the final.stretch. Madness.

 

[Christy]

They are sometimes conflated, but this weekend, there were long lift lines/crowded slopes, too:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1619433998509539330

I have never seen anything like this.

Here in WA, if there is traffic craziness and full parking, there are going to be lift lines. The lift lines would be worse if there was more parking. At Crystal Mt in particular, the amount of parking seems about right for the mountain. It's possible to have full parking without apocalyptic crowds. But it's busy for sure and there will be lines.

 

[Bookworm]

Not here in Aspen!
Come this way!
we are known for not being busy

View attachment 20230

Next year!

 

[newbieM]

Snowbasin has in 9 years gone from one of the quietest places I've skied, to one of the busiest, and the biggest change was when they first went on Mountain Collective and we started seeing an uptick in skiers from nearby resorts, then to Epic when weekdays became the new weekend with weekends being madness, to Ikon this year and it's been overrun by people escaping the BCC and LCC drives. So guess what? Now the drive to Snowbasin (for those of us who know better) has turned into a race to get out of bed and get your ass up there early. Even weekdays one has to get up earlier and earlier. Lift line management is non-existent (it's a free-for-all) finding a place to sit down for breakfast or lunch is impossible, and getting out of the resort at 4:00 on a Saturday is a lesson in patience. My husband had a lesson last Saturday that ended at 4, he got to his car at 4:30, and proceeded to move 3 miles in an hour. So yeah, Ikon has pulled in tons of skiers who would never ski Snowbasin and it has taken away a lot of the joy of it. It has always been a commuter mountain, and the locals are NOT happy. The feeling is that someone invited 8000 guests to your home for a party, and 10000 showed up.

The mountain gets skied out in ways I've never seen. It's a steep mountain, so there are Sun Valley-like moguls popping up on runs that used to mostly have soft piles. Areas that I used to love to ski off-piste are chewed up so fast now. The bathrooms are dirtier than ever, the lodges look like they get vacuumed once a week (those beautiful lodges.)

My hope is that Snowbasin has figured out that they were not ready for Ikon (if I had a dollar for every time I've heard that spoken) and will back away from it. Not likely, though, as $$ talks. In this case, the $$ is in the form of food and beverage purchases, as they surely can't be making much off of Ikon itself.

Ironically (and sadly) one mountain south is some incredible terrain that Snowbasin used to own and had at one time planned to expand into. Instead, they sold it to private uber-wealthy investors who have turned it into a "Yellowstone Club"; private mountain that the 2% can enjoy, too bad for the rest of us pleebs.

This is so sad. We go to powder mountain on weekends to avoid the crowds. We were tempted to try snowbasin but I heard much of the same. In pow mow you can get fresh lines all day. Yes it’s not as steep but that mountain is magical for me.

 

[contesstant]

This is so sad. We go to powder mountain on weekends to avoid the crowds. We were tempted to try snowbasin but I heard much of the same. In pow mow you can get fresh lines all day. Yes it’s not as steep but that mountain is magical for me.

Do you have a season pass to PM? If so, count yourself so lucky!

 

[TiffAlt]

I have more flexibility with work these days so, as I know I've said, I've opted out of the megapasses and have a weekday pass for Snoqualmie. I've traded terrain and size for a much mellower experience.

This is exactly what I think I should do next season! I just tried some night skiing there and wow, loved it! You trade in a lot of stuff being open, but the experience is so much better. I mean you actually get to SKI ... a lot ... without fearing you're going to collide with everyone else every few minutes.

 

[TNtoTaos]

I'll admit that I didn't read this entire thread carefully, but FWIW, I just read somewhere that Taos Ski Valley limits their daily number of guests to 5,000 to avoid overcrowding.

 

[marzNC]

I'll admit that I didn't read this entire thread carefully, but FWIW, I just read somewhere that Taos Ski Valley limits their daily number of guests to 5,000 to avoid overcrowding.

My impression is that all the Ikon Partner resorts that are requiring reservations have a sense of the max number they want to have on a given day. That was true at Alta long before the pandemic. It just wasn't as well known before the age of Facebook and online ski forums.

In general, Saturdays and holidays are the only days where the numbers are such that day tickets and/or Ikon reservations aren't available.

Last Thursday there were no Ikon reservations available for Saturday, Feb. 4. That was not going to be any sort of a powder day. However, the Kachina Lift had opened for the first time this season on Feb. 3. By Friday there were a few Ikon reservations that had opened up.

 

[Slow Sarah]

I skiied Snoqualmie and White Pass last year. Loved White Pass. I am not crazy about the commute of around three hours.

Overall, the hills seem more crowded than ten years ago and way more crowded than in the 90s when I learned to ski on small hills in Montana.

I feel pretty intimidated on most mountains now due to the crowds. I read someone say they would rather take their chances higher up with the trees and steeps! I am getting there.

I won’t do Snoqualmie at all now unless it is a midweek night, a rare midweek day or first thing with the expectation to leave by 10:30 on a weekend despite it being the more reasonable commute and still a gorgeous area. Several times there I felt someone actually brush past me and not even slow down. It seemed like everyone else was resigned to it as well.

At Stevens and White Pass I have had younger people briefly clip me but they slowed to apologize and one seemed a bit worried that it had even happened. Each time I try to take up even less space and move off to the side for the remainder of the run.
During the next season I plan to take a lesson to see if there is anything I can do to better control my skiing on busy slopes. Sometimes I think I have just been on busy slopes with others who might be inexperienced, rude or inebriated so the results while not being desirable make sense so I need to be better at managing myself in these spaces.

Another concern I have is that while I veer away from crowded patches and stay to the side when I can, I have noticed that just moving off to the side and waiting for an ease in the flow has also resulted in what starts to feel like a bottleneck for others.

Once I saw a guy almost fly into the trees while winging past me on the right side. It was a bit spooky but I did admire his skills! Sometimes I am not sure what is the best course to take beyond just getting off the hill. I think that has prompted me to be a more aggressive skier overall as I try to avoid getting plowed into when slowing and moving around others who are even slower than I am.

During this last trip to Whistler in April I was pretty sure that 93.5-95% of all locals would rather I not have been there and this is based mostly on my in-town experience. As I grew up in MT during the Redford years I understand and that combined with scribbles inside the gondolas “F— Vail” I can see that crowding is really having an impact there.

On the mountain there were a few people who were friendly on the lifts and one lady went out of her way to confirm 7th was open on my last day there which made everything else worth it. One young man started up a conversation and you could tell he cared a lot about snow quality and month over month conditions there as well as crowding but he didn’t overly complain either. These made me feel like whatever great energy comes from being up there still makes people happy and want to talk about it.

While skiing I noticed that even when there was plenty of room on all sides and no-one ahead of me, some would swish past and continue in front of me which felt more intentional; this makes me wonder if I may be skiing in a way that makes the better skiiers want to make a point, especially at Whistler. If anyone has thoughts on this piece, I would love to hear! I should improve when I can and brush off anything else I have no control over.

Etiquette changing and crowding have definitely influenced how and where I ski plus my enjoyment: reducing the cost/benefit regarding how much money I have sunk into passes. This year I got both big passes plus one local despite it being a big stretch. I did this so I had the freedom to move around and get a feel for the local mountains and when and how to focus my time regardless of holiday/weekend etc. That is definitely not sustainable.

Ikon/ Crystal was great because I was able to take the shuttle for several weekends. This was ideal but they didn’t run it through the whole season which was unfortunate. I do feel like raising the price of the pass may have helped with some of the crowding so this made the experience there better than Snoqualmie or Stevens for weekends but I often arrived before 7:30 or 8 for reasonable parking and still mostly only felt comfortable crowd-wise during the first two or three hours of the day. Super Bowl and Easter Sunday were excellent!

I try to remember that I am the crowd for someone else too. Once I find a carpool I would ski on Indy but for now I can’t justify the drives by myself.

For the upcoming year I have made the following adjustments to the plan:

Epic only, despite knowing if all else was equal would not be the best choice for the more responsible consumer. I appreciated reading about Stevens!

I will focus on the early mornings, nights and the odd midweek day at Stevens with a few lessons. If I can swing it, a weekend day or two at Crystal if the stars align. Resources saved by foregoing Ikon means more can go to lessons to help grow my crowd related skills.

One or two trips to Whistler, in late spring if I get only one trip. I have heard it is less crowded and this seemed more or less true for me though I had not been before, this is just comparing to other areas around Seattle.

If I find carpools, I will visit White Pass and other Indy areas and if this works out will go that route next year. I look forward to Hurricane Ridge!

Any tips for now on form or technique would be great in case I am the one slowing the flow behind me.

I am working toward fitness and skill level so that I won’t need a lift at all (I recently heard about a small yurt type resort in CO that had no lift) and can get back to the original experience where I felt like I was exploring and speeding all on the same day.

Thanks for the thread!

 

[TiffAlt]

While skiing I noticed that even when there was plenty of room on all sides and no-one ahead of me, some would swish past and continue in front of me which felt more intentional; this makes me wonder if I may be skiing in a way that makes the better skiiers want to make a point, especially at Whistler. If anyone has thoughts on this piece, I would love to hear! I should improve when I can and brush off anything else I have no control over.

Any tips for now on form or technique would be great in case I am the one slowing the flow behind me.

Maybe start a new thread on this? I can't offer any tips, but could probably use them too!! And howdy fellow Seattlelite!

 

[MissySki]

I skiied Snoqualmie and White Pass last year. Loved White Pass. I am not crazy about the commute of around three hours.

Overall, the hills seem more crowded than ten years ago and way more crowded than in the 90s when I learned to ski on small hills in Montana.

I feel pretty intimidated on most mountains now due to the crowds. I read someone say they would rather take their chances higher up with the trees and steeps! I am getting there.

I won’t do Snoqualmie at all now unless it is a midweek night, a rare midweek day or first thing with the expectation to leave by 10:30 on a weekend despite it being the more reasonable commute and still a gorgeous area. Several times there I felt someone actually brush past me and not even slow down. It seemed like everyone else was resigned to it as well.

At Stevens and White Pass I have had younger people briefly clip me but they slowed to apologize and one seemed a bit worried that it had even happened. Each time I try to take up even less space and move off to the side for the remainder of the run.
During the next season I plan to take a lesson to see if there is anything I can do to better control my skiing on busy slopes. Sometimes I think I have just been on busy slopes with others who might be inexperienced, rude or inebriated so the results while not being desirable make sense so I need to be better at managing myself in these spaces.

Another concern I have is that while I veer away from crowded patches and stay to the side when I can, I have noticed that just moving off to the side and waiting for an ease in the flow has also resulted in what starts to feel like a bottleneck for others.

Once I saw a guy almost fly into the trees while winging past me on the right side. It was a bit spooky but I did admire his skills! Sometimes I am not sure what is the best course to take beyond just getting off the hill. I think that has prompted me to be a more aggressive skier overall as I try to avoid getting plowed into when slowing and moving around others who are even slower than I am.

During this last trip to Whistler in April I was pretty sure that 93.5-95% of all locals would rather I not have been there and this is based mostly on my in-town experience. As I grew up in MT during the Redford years I understand and that combined with scribbles inside the gondolas “F— Vail” I can see that crowding is really having an impact there.

On the mountain there were a few people who were friendly on the lifts and one lady went out of her way to confirm 7th was open on my last day there which made everything else worth it. One young man started up a conversation and you could tell he cared a lot about snow quality and month over month conditions there as well as crowding but he didn’t overly complain either. These made me feel like whatever great energy comes from being up there still makes people happy and want to talk about it.

While skiing I noticed that even when there was plenty of room on all sides and no-one ahead of me, some would swish past and continue in front of me which felt more intentional; this makes me wonder if I may be skiing in a way that makes the better skiiers want to make a point, especially at Whistler. If anyone has thoughts on this piece, I would love to hear! I should improve when I can and brush off anything else I have no control over.

Etiquette changing and crowding have definitely influenced how and where I ski plus my enjoyment: reducing the cost/benefit regarding how much money I have sunk into passes. This year I got both big passes plus one local despite it being a big stretch. I did this so I had the freedom to move around and get a feel for the local mountains and when and how to focus my time regardless of holiday/weekend etc. That is definitely not sustainable.

Ikon/ Crystal was great because I was able to take the shuttle for several weekends. This was ideal but they didn’t run it through the whole season which was unfortunate. I do feel like raising the price of the pass may have helped with some of the crowding so this made the experience there better than Snoqualmie or Stevens for weekends but I often arrived before 7:30 or 8 for reasonable parking and still mostly only felt comfortable crowd-wise during the first two or three hours of the day. Super Bowl and Easter Sunday were excellent!

I try to remember that I am the crowd for someone else too. Once I find a carpool I would ski on Indy but for now I can’t justify the drives by myself.

For the upcoming year I have made the following adjustments to the plan:

Epic only, despite knowing if all else was equal would not be the best choice for the more responsible consumer. I appreciated reading about Stevens!

I will focus on the early mornings, nights and the odd midweek day at Stevens with a few lessons. If I can swing it, a weekend day or two at Crystal if the stars align. Resources saved by foregoing Ikon means more can go to lessons to help grow my crowd related skills.

One or two trips to Whistler, in late spring if I get only one trip. I have heard it is less crowded and this seemed more or less true for me though I had not been before, this is just comparing to other areas around Seattle.

If I find carpools, I will visit White Pass and other Indy areas and if this works out will go that route next year. I look forward to Hurricane Ridge!

Any tips for now on form or technique would be great in case I am the one slowing the flow behind me.

I am working toward fitness and skill level so that I won’t need a lift at all (I recently heard about a small yurt type resort in CO that had no lift) and can get back to the original experience where I felt like I was exploring and speeding all on the same day.

Thanks for the thread!

A lot of this sounds very scary! I cannot imagine skiing where you are getting touched by people multiple times.. yikes! I’m sure it’s not your skiing that needs the adjustment, you sound very self aware.

The approach I take is trying not to ski where most others do. On groomers this often means the very edges of trails near the trees. Bonus if there are bumps or an edge ridge to ski on.. this keeps the majority of others away, where I ski anyway. This is also often where the best snow is pushed from those who stay more centered on the trails, so that is a great benefit too. I also usually stick to a tight line of short turns and try not to vary turn size/shape/rhythm too much so those behind me can anticipate what I’m doing if they are going to pass by me. Lastly, my preference is to ski bumps and trees when that terrain is open. I usually find that the more advanced the trail, the less crowded.. so that also helps keep one away from the masses. Sometimes the resort will be crowded but I’ll be alone or close to it in this type of terrain. This isn’t why I started skiing this terrain more, but it is a major perk I’ve found from it.

 

[Christy]

I skiied Snoqualmie and White Pass last year. Loved White Pass. I am not crazy about the commute of around three hours.

Overall, the hills seem more crowded than ten years ago and way more crowded than in the 90s when I learned to ski on small hills in Montana.

I feel pretty intimidated on most mountains now due to the crowds. I read someone say they would rather take their chances higher up with the trees and steeps! I am getting there.

I won’t do Snoqualmie at all now unless it is a midweek night, a rare midweek day or first thing with the expectation to leave by 10:30 on a weekend despite it being the more reasonable commute and still a gorgeous area. Several times there I felt someone actually brush past me and not even slow down. It seemed like everyone else was resigned to it as well.

At Stevens and White Pass I have had younger people briefly clip me but they slowed to apologize and one seemed a bit worried that it had even happened. Each time I try to take up even less space and move off to the side for the remainder of the run.
During the next season I plan to take a lesson to see if there is anything I can do to better control my skiing on busy slopes. Sometimes I think I have just been on busy slopes with others who might be inexperienced, rude or inebriated so the results while not being desirable make sense so I need to be better at managing myself in these spaces.

Another concern I have is that while I veer away from crowded patches and stay to the side when I can, I have noticed that just moving off to the side and waiting for an ease in the flow has also resulted in what starts to feel like a bottleneck for others.

Once I saw a guy almost fly into the trees while winging past me on the right side. It was a bit spooky but I did admire his skills! Sometimes I am not sure what is the best course to take beyond just getting off the hill. I think that has prompted me to be a more aggressive skier overall as I try to avoid getting plowed into when slowing and moving around others who are even slower than I am.

During this last trip to Whistler in April I was pretty sure that 93.5-95% of all locals would rather I not have been there and this is based mostly on my in-town experience. As I grew up in MT during the Redford years I understand and that combined with scribbles inside the gondolas “F— Vail” I can see that crowding is really having an impact there.

On the mountain there were a few people who were friendly on the lifts and one lady went out of her way to confirm 7th was open on my last day there which made everything else worth it. One young man started up a conversation and you could tell he cared a lot about snow quality and month over month conditions there as well as crowding but he didn’t overly complain either. These made me feel like whatever great energy comes from being up there still makes people happy and want to talk about it.

While skiing I noticed that even when there was plenty of room on all sides and no-one ahead of me, some would swish past and continue in front of me which felt more intentional; this makes me wonder if I may be skiing in a way that makes the better skiiers want to make a point, especially at Whistler. If anyone has thoughts on this piece, I would love to hear! I should improve when I can and brush off anything else I have no control over.

Etiquette changing and crowding have definitely influenced how and where I ski plus my enjoyment: reducing the cost/benefit regarding how much money I have sunk into passes. This year I got both big passes plus one local despite it being a big stretch. I did this so I had the freedom to move around and get a feel for the local mountains and when and how to focus my time regardless of holiday/weekend etc. That is definitely not sustainable.

Ikon/ Crystal was great because I was able to take the shuttle for several weekends. This was ideal but they didn’t run it through the whole season which was unfortunate. I do feel like raising the price of the pass may have helped with some of the crowding so this made the experience there better than Snoqualmie or Stevens for weekends but I often arrived before 7:30 or 8 for reasonable parking and still mostly only felt comfortable crowd-wise during the first two or three hours of the day. Super Bowl and Easter Sunday were excellent!

I try to remember that I am the crowd for someone else too. Once I find a carpool I would ski on Indy but for now I can’t justify the drives by myself.

For the upcoming year I have made the following adjustments to the plan:

Epic only, despite knowing if all else was equal would not be the best choice for the more responsible consumer. I appreciated reading about Stevens!

I will focus on the early mornings, nights and the odd midweek day at Stevens with a few lessons. If I can swing it, a weekend day or two at Crystal if the stars align. Resources saved by foregoing Ikon means more can go to lessons to help grow my crowd related skills.

One or two trips to Whistler, in late spring if I get only one trip. I have heard it is less crowded and this seemed more or less true for me though I had not been before, this is just comparing to other areas around Seattle.

If I find carpools, I will visit White Pass and other Indy areas and if this works out will go that route next year. I look forward to Hurricane Ridge!

Any tips for now on form or technique would be great in case I am the one slowing the flow behind me.

I am working toward fitness and skill level so that I won’t need a lift at all (I recently heard about a small yurt type resort in CO that had no lift) and can get back to the original experience where I felt like I was exploring and speeding all on the same day.

Thanks for the thread!

Yeah, massive population growth + IKON/Epic = I won't ski weekends anymore. It's only going to get worse, probably much worse, with a million more people predicted to move here, and climate change making skiing less predictable (I've heard Snoqualmie could be unskiable by 2030). I have a flexible schedule these days and only skied weekdays at Snoqualmie this year. It's pretty empty. Alpental on a powder day will still be busy weekdays but the other summit areas won't be. Parking at Silver Fir, practically right at the lift, then skiing with a mellow older crowd is delightful and worth the limited terrain. If I go back to a regular job my skiing locally would probably be limited.

 

[Slow Sarah]

This is exactly what I think I should do next season! I just tried some night skiing there and wow, loved it! You trade in a lot of stuff being open, but the experience is so much better. I mean you actually get to SKI ... a lot ... without fearing you're going to collide with everyone else every few

A lot of this sounds very scary! I cannot imagine skiing where you are getting touched by people multiple times.. yikes! I’m sure it’s not your skiing that needs the adjustment, you sound very self aware.

The approach I take is trying not to ski where most others do. On groomers this often means the very edges of trails near the trees. Bonus if there are bumps or an edge ridge to ski on.. this keeps the majority of others away, where I ski anyway. This is also often where the best snow is pushed from those who stay more centered on the trails, so that is a great benefit too. I also usually stick to a tight line of short turns and try not to vary turn size/shape/rhythm too much so those behind me can anticipate what I’m doing if they are going to pass by me. Lastly, my preference is to ski bumps and trees when that terrain is open. I usually find that the more advanced the trail, the less crowded.. so that also helps keep one away from the masses. Sometimes the resort will be crowded but I’ll be alone or close to it in this type of terrain. This isn’t why I started skiing this terrain more, but it is a major perk I’ve found from it.

Thanks for these suggestions. I am glad to hear that the approach of sticking to the side by the trees is the right one. Likely then the people passing on the right are either doing their own thing and hoping I don’t veer farther to the right and/or calculating that passing on the right is still preferable to whatever is to the left of me.
I do try to be aware and stay to a pretty tight path as well but I know I am not always that graceful at times. Once or twice I have had to veer off when I hit a bump or sludge patch and always cringe thinking of those behind me. Mostly I try to keep to what I imagine is 1.5 the width of my skis but I expect consistency is even more important!
I do hope my skills continue to improve so that I can go higher up as I know that will help with the crowds in most cases plus that is where I want to be in any case…for the most part.

 

[Slow Sarah]

Yeah, massive population growth + IKON/Epic = I won't ski weekends anymore. It's only going to get worse, probably much worse, with a million more people predicted to move here, and climate change making skiing less predictable (I've heard Snoqualmie could be unskiable by 2030). I have a flexible schedule these days and only skied weekdays at Snoqualmie this year. It's pretty empty. Alpental on a powder day will still be busy weekdays but the other summit areas won't be. Parking at Silver Fir, practically right at the lift, then skiing with a mellow older crowd is delightful and worth the limited terrain. If I go back to a regular job my skiing locally would probably be limited.

I heard something similar about Snoqualmie as well…not too far off at all. (Excellent tips for parking too.) That might have been when I started to think more about improving so that I could get into backcountry areas eventually. I have some extra days off that I plan to use during the weekdays too. Last season I spent them more at Stevens as the overcrowded days I was there made me want to see it when it wasn’t insane. There is also something sweet and particular about the snow too or it could just be my nostalgia for the place my husband learned to ski. Nights at Snoqualmie will continue to be the goal but a weekday wouldn’t be bad if conditions are good. The year before last I did a few weekdays there that were pretty empty but the weather and snow weren’t as good. I will shoot for at least one weekday there next year! I always love the view.

 

[MissySki]

I do try to be aware and stay to a pretty tight path as well but I know I am not always that graceful at times. Once or twice I have had to veer off when I hit a bump or sludge patch and always cringe thinking of those behind me. Mostly I try to keep to what I imagine is 1.5 the width of my skis but I expect consistency is even more important!

The crap thing is, you shouldn't have to be so worried because those behind you have the real responsibility as the uphill skier. I wish everyone took more of a responsibility for their actions on the mountain, and how it affects others. :(

 

[Slow Sarah]

The crap thing is, you shouldn't have to be so worried because those behind you have the real responsibility as the uphill skier. I wish everyone took more of a responsibility for their actions on the mountain, and how it affects others. :(

I think about that when I hear the swish and scrape so close behind me. It feels like I am driving on the freeway if everyone had their highbeams on and a couple of them are also tall trucks. ;) I know everyone is in different places in our learning/ skill-level but I do wonder what has changed beyond crowding. I also think about where I fall on the spectrum of annoying behavior. I am sure everyone has cursed me at least once on a cat track

I know I ski differently when I am all alone or mostly so on a run. For now I try to think of skiing “defensively” like a skill and make note of things others in front of me do that seems unreasonable. If someone cuts in front of me, slows down and starts weaving big lines I think: Make sure you don’t do that! I vacillate between trying to give grace, wondering what I did to prompt whatever behavior, keep having fun and being so frustrated I imagine wearing a big plastic donut around my waist. Then I remind myself I can leave so that I can live to ski another day. That is the worst part.

In one thread I think I read something about having people take a refresher on safety courses or that there may have been a change in how etiquette is being taught as part of lessons. I guess I will see how that looks in my next lesson.

 

[TiffAlt]

I also think about where I fall on the spectrum of annoying behavior. I am sure everyone has cursed me at least once on a cat track

If it makes you feel better, it's you and me both sister, you're far from alone!

I know I ski differently when I am all alone or mostly so on a run. For now I try to think of skiing “defensively” like a skill and make note of things others in front of me do that seems unreasonable.

This is the tough thing about trying to improve at a crowded resort - you end up skiing defensively a lot of the time and, at least for me, that means technique tends to fly out the window and I'm just trying to get down without injuring myself or anyone else. Often times I've seen sticking to the more difficult runs suggested to get away from the crowds, but I know I'm not ready for that and haven't had great experiences over terraining myself. Figuring out where to go to both comfortably work on my technique yet avoid crowds is like being stuck between a rock and hard place at times

Since you ski Crystal, I've found that some of the runs off of Downhill tend to be less busy, so I'll detour to Rolling Knolls a lot. Magoo is nice too as are the Chapelles.

For Snoqualmie, I've been skiing Summit Central the most and I tend to do Golden Nugget a lot. Alpine seems to get more congested, even though its way more wide and open.