Skiing alone - thoughts?

[B.E.G.]

Love it? Hate it? Do you find yourself more adventurous when skiing alone, or less? Do you talk to people on the lift and make friends?

I think we've had a similar thread before, but I'm curious (I was reading the thread about a poster's significant other losing interest in skiing). Also, it's likely I'll be doing a lot of skiing alone this season as I have a pass and though my friends also have passes, they're not the every-weekend skiing-types. So let's hear it!

Though Bay Area divas, I have the Tahoe Local and will probably be skiing Northstar more than anything, for those of you in the area who wants a buddy.

 

[Tammy]

I ski by myself a LOT actually. I may not take as many risks when I'm by myself but I still get out there and have a good time. I've made some friends and met some rather interesting people in my ski travels. It's always an adventure, and I don't mind experiencing it on my own.

 

[Perty]

I like skiing alone, but not all the time. I don't think you can be as adventurous in terms of off piste, but the freedom to go wherever you want is great. The distance you can cover is huge too. In somewhere like the 3 Vallees in France that's a big plus. I certainly clock up the miles on my own and end up more tired and achy as a result though! The downside is the lack of company for lunch and coffee stops and no-one to be more adventurous with. Mr P is my ideal ski buddy, even though sometimes (all the time?) he's far more of a nutter than I.

 

[jellyflake]

No, generally I don't like skiing alone.
Reason is that I prefer to go off-piste - and that is a no go for me if I am alone.

But if I have a chance to go skiing and no friend is available I'd still go! Usually it is no problem to connect and to find someone to ski with or to just enjoy myself on the slopes.

Two winters back Mr Jellyflake was forced to stay at home (knee...) from December onwards but I still went each weekend. Most days I eventually met some friends but some days I kicked off alone. And yes, it is fun to ski. Maybe a bit less than in good company

The real advantage of going with someone is the logistics - you don't travel/drive alone. I find this is big plus, especially when you are a bit tired after a long day and you have to drive home for x hours.

 

[Skise]

I mostly ski alone since my friends are less nuts than I am (and of all my three skiing friends two are a couple with two small children and the third has a dairy farm, so needs to be milking his cows twice a day). I am definitely less adventurous on my own, meaning I tend to stay on blues with tele gear and on reds with alpine gear. I don't really talk to people on lifts but sometimes they talk to me (yes, I do answer). I love skiing anyway but it is more fun with friends. Most of the time.

 

[marzNC]

As an intermediate, I didn't mind skiing alone. On a little mountain in the Mid-Atlantic with little or no off-piste options like Massanutten, I rather enjoy skiing alone. Makes it easier to work on technique. Would love to be able to share driving (3+ hours each way) and weekend lodging though.

For trips out west as an advanced skier, I much prefer to ski with at least one ski buddy most of the day. One reason I joined online ski forums was to find folks to ski with when I fly to ski. Also makes staying in comfortable and affordable lodging easier.

 

[Celestron2000]

I do enjoy skiing alone. I can very much relate to what marzNC said, as I've been progressing, skiing alone has allowed
me to focus on my technique, do drills if I want to, and always ski a run that's exactly as challanging as I want it to be.
Now that I'm reaching the point where I want to start skiing trees and off piste some, it can start to feel a little limiting.
I love skiing with DH (when I can talk him into coming), and any other time I can meet up with a friend or whatever, but if those were the only times I skiied I'd be lucky to get in 3 days a year. Sc^ew that!
I did have a good experience at Monarch once where I met someone on the lift who was going to ski some trees and she invited me along, but like Skise I tend to not speak unless spoken to.

 

[abc]

I like to be alone some of the times. And that includes skiing.

I ski just as aggressive alone as I'm with others. The only exception is when I'm going somewhere I'm not familiar with, having someone show me around means I get to find some good stuff I otherwise won't find on my own.

I enjoy good company to ski with. It doesn't change where or how I ski. It does add to the enjoyment!

 

[segacs]

I also like to ski alone sometimes, especially if I'm just heading up for the day or a few hours and it's a short drive. I'm not doing anything crazy in terms of back-country or off-piste, so safety issues aren't really a concer. I agree with marzNC though that having someone to share driving, accommodations and apres-ski with on longer trips is a good idea. One of the reasons I've done a couple of courses with UCPA in France is that it's a great way for solo skiers to meet people and socialize while travelling to ski.

 

[snow addict]

I think skiing alone can be really beneficial for skiing even if you are less adventurous without company. When skiing with others especially when they are better skiers often you concentrate on keeping up and it comes at the expense of technique even without you realizing. When you are alone you have a great chance to focus on linking these perfect round turns, keeping both skis on the snow at all times, without worrying that you are holding people back - because you should really do it slowly. Technique is everything and the better you get the easier it becomes to find people to ski with.

 

[Mrs Hutchins]

I never go skiing by myself, mostly because I don't want to drive up to the mountains alone! I find that once I'm skiing, if I split up with my group, I actually really enjoy skiing alone. As snow addict said, you really can concentrate on yourself and your skiing. I can totally get lost in my own head (in a good way).

I always get paranoid when skiing with someone else, especially after the epic crash I had with my BIL last year. There was a slow, inconsistent skier in front of us, and we both tried to cut by through the same spot at the same time. Oops. When I'm skiing with people, I tend to ski in the back and keep quite a bit of distance.

 

[altagirl]

I enjoy skiing by myself, to be honest. Haha, and when I said in the other thread that I "ski alone a lot" lately, that's not actually what I meant. What happens lately is that my husband wants to ski "with me" but he doesn't want to ski the same terrain, so we ride the lift together and I end up beating him down by a lot of time and stand around freezing to death for 10 minutes while waiting for him to finish hiking whatever he's doing. THAT - I don't really like. (Mainly due to the boredom and freezing to death part from standing around for so long).

Now if I'm actually skiing alone and am free to just go where I want and at my own pace - I enjoy that. And I tend to actually be a little MORE adventurous off piste, mainly because I don't worry about holding up a group. I'm willing to explore a little more because I have time to pick my way through things or traverse out of things or sidestep up or whatever if I don't like what I've gotten myself into. But if I'm with a group, I tend to go the known way so as not to make anyone wait for me. Honestly I don't really worry about the danger of it much - I'm at a busy resort, not out in the backcountry. I know things can happen, but actually the one time I had an incident with a tree well, years ago, I was probably only 50' from my husband and friend and neither of them heard me screaming for help under the snow anyway. I could hear them talking and debating where I went and heard them decide to just ski to the lift and I had to get myself out of it. Which was terrifying, but my takeaway was to not get so close to those big trees, because skiing with a buddy isn't necessarily going to help when you disappear under the snow in a split second.

And when I'm by myself, sometimes I chat with strangers on the lift, sometimes I just enjoy the quiet time. I'm more of an introvert anyway, so it's nice.

 

[Kimmyt]

Honestly, you can get yourself in just as crappy positions if you're skiing with someone as if you're skiing alone. I was skiing some mellow trees my hubby at Monarch once and he was just a few turns in front, when my tip got caught under a hidden downed tree, flipping me over into the snow and burying me without releasing my ski. Essentially, I was hanging upside down face first in the snow and unable to right myself for a good few minutes before I slowly managed to locate a lost pole and struggled to release my binding. Hubby was waiting at the bottom of the glade when I got there, covered in snow. I'd hollered a ton, was only 10' off a trail, and still had to rescue myself.

Basically, bad things happen sometimes even if you think you're in a safer situation. That being said, I like to ski by myself and ski trees and stuff although I tend to only ski trees that I know fairly well. Once on a powder day I hooked up with a ski patrol dude who showed me a sweet tree run that I would have never found by myself, he skied it with me to make sure I got out ok, and it's been one of my favorite runs since.

Interestingly enough, that incident when I was tree skiing with my husband was the worst situation I've been in, even with skiing steep trees by myself. I think I tend to get myself in more trouble when I ski with my husband because we are often exploring new areas 'oooh look at those trees lets check them out' and end up in creeks and stuff. We're pretty bad influences on each other.

 

[Pequenita]

I end up in creeks on my own!

I think I'm equally inclined to get into dumb/bad situations when alone and with others. Worst situation I was in while skiing alone was coming down a trail early season, and the creek at the bottom of the run hadn't frozen/been fully covered yet, and the 2 ding dongs below me missed the snow bridge and had to climb out of the creek. I was already halfway down/committed to the route when I noticed the water hazard. I probably spent 15 minutes alternating between trying to figure out how I could guarantee hitting the bridge with enough precision and speed to not fall in and panicking that I'd get soaked.

Equally bad: a friend gave me a pep talk and then skied off with me supposed to follow his tracks, except I missed the first turn and got tangled with a tree (aka, the first turn that I was supposed to ski around) while he was yards and yards away. Good times.

I skied the bulk of last season alone at Squaw. I think the biggest benefit for me was not having to sort out with others what run to take or to keep track of others, and being able to get in a ton of laps because of the singles line. This all makes me sound super selfish, huh?

 

[Lexiski]

Snowbird and Alta are such social places, I rarely get the chance to ski alone, but when I do I don't shy from it.
Growing up in Salt Lake I've learned these mountains and they are so familiar to me, that being alone isn't scary. I notice that I focus a great deal more on my technique or stop and try to absorb the scenery when skiing alone. Although, I would say it's really difficult to ski something really AMAZING or ski on a powder day alone, it's just hard not to be sharing that joy and ebullition with another human.

One of (well...no...THE) best experience I ever had was skiing alone. It was magical!

 

[Serafina]

I almost always ski alone. :( While Mr. Serafina is a "black" XC skier, he's a "green" alpine skier. I don't mind skiing with him, but he gets ticked off when I whip down some little fall line and wait for him. I'm groovy with it, because I like skiing with someone. But he, no matter what I say, feels like he's "holding me up" and stuff. Most of the time when I'm skiing with someone it's because I got a private lesson. Once, and this was AWESOME, I had a friend from out of state fly in and ski with me. She's an old-school skier - the straight sticks - and it was her first time with the "new" shaped skis, which she picked up really fast, and in general it was the BEST.

So mostly there's me, striking up conversations on the lift, and making my lonely way down the slope. I don't mind it too much, but I totally agree, if I'm facing challenging terrain, it's way harder to do it alone than it is to do it with someone else. In fact, I was at one local ski area and I skied off the lift behind some guy on the Ski Patrol. I told myself "I'm skiing with that guy. He takes a run, I'm taking the run." I didn't mention this to him, of course, but it did help me psych up to take on a run I'd been afraid of before. I did it, and with bells on.

 

[Serafina]

That said, I've never skied in the trees before, even though everyone swears my skis are PERFECT for this. I just have it on a visceral level that you don't tree-ski unless you are WITH someone else. Period. So that's an area where skiing alone has cost me a little something.

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

I like skiing by myself--I get to work on what I want and at my own pace. I won't ski in trees by myself but I'm not that great in trees anyway so I really don't belong there unless I'm in a lesson. I don't mind skiing by myself on groomed slopes though; I figure there are enough people going by that if something happened, eventually a good samaritan or patrol would eventually come by.
I've gotten so used to driving up to ski by myself I don't really mind that either---the only thing I won't do is drive in bad weather, so that limits when I get to ski. I like to get there early too, so the last thing I want to do is drive by myself in the dark morning (5am) on slippery roads.

 

[volklgirl]

With DH and me working different shifts, I ski mostly alone, too. I love that I can ski where, when, and how fast I want, I can sing at the top of my lungs, and I can pick my way down stuff that I'd hesitate to do under watchful friends/peer pressure. Since I ski lots of nights, I usually ride the chair alone and sing, but if I'm on the chair with others I tend to be a chatty Cathy.

 

[B.E.G.]

If only we all skied the same mountains! Though I'm fortunate to have so many Divas skiing Tahoe. It does make a difference driving up - I wanted to go more last year, but I didn't want to do the 3-4 hour drive on my own. This season, I'll have a driving companion, but unfortunately, we each have passes to completely different resorts (hence my skiing alone).

I figure that at least this will be a great excuse to do lessons frequently, both to improve AND to have someone to ski with (especially on harder runs).