I've been going to Bozeman, MT, a bunch for work lately, and it seems like a cool town. A bit of a college town, but I really like the vibes. Bridger Bowl is an awesome hill, and Big Sky is only about an hour away.

Aaand Schweitzer just pushed back opening day.

Looks like I can hit Purg and or Wolf Creek either the week before or after Xmas. I've never skied either week, it it a madhouse of lines with kids out of school it is it relatively ok, if anyone happens to know?

WC is a very flat mountain. It gets good snow but has very little vert.

Durango gets far more variable snow but has 25% more vert.

Wolf Creek only has 1600 of vert. Durango has 2050. That extra 400 is nice.

WC will probs be less busy than Purg.

tx.ag15 said:

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Need this threads advice/recommendations:

I have a few month gap in work coming up and I want to do a ski season somewhere. What location(s) would you all recommend? Want to factor in housing costs (would like to keep <2000/mo, have found several options in SLC for example, but this amount is flexible), would like some social scene (early 30s/single), want to really spend a season becoming a better skier. Would also take ability to find part time work on weekends/evenings into consideration.

Based off housing and mountain options I am looking at Tahoe/Epic and SLC/Ikon. Randomly Sandpoint/Schweitzer seems interesting to me but I have zero knowledge of or experience with that area. I have primarily skied colorado resorts and worked in the state before so not as interested in this option, but still on the table. Curious if y'all have any other suggestions and feed back.

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Early 30s and single.

Tahoe, my dude. North Idaho is so lovely... for a bunch of people like me in their late 30s with kids that want a 9-5 and also ski.

Tahoe + Reno will be a scene for you. You could even stretch into Mammoth and reach into the LA scene.

Bend, as the Lord has made my purpose on Earth to always mention, must be mentioned. It's the overflow of Tahoe. Slightly more affordable, I like it more than Tahoe, but I have a decade of fam memories there biasing that.

SLC will suck, dude. Again, great for a fam looking for safe and great schools. Night life will suck.

Ask yourself what gets your dudes on a plane to visit you at the resort? Full gas, I've finally convinced my dudes in TX to ski in Tahoe next year for our bi-annual boy's weekend. Skiing Heavenly. Staying in Stateline. I fully know my craps game will cover the Epic Day Pass I bought.

Edit:

Boise has Bogus up a stupid windy and long road, but so legit. I love that hill. They allow RV camping in the back lots and it's such a wholesome vibe. Will feel more like TX if that's your people vibe. You're 1.5 hours to Sun Valley. The Sawtooth range is > most National Parks in the US (they fought the designation hard to become only a rec area). Unreal backcountry skiing.

Think he can do Tahoe on a $1500 housing budget? That seems REALLY hard.

In Reno, easy. Would need to lifty at Northstar, though.

Bend looks awesome. A ton of rentals within walking distance of river trails, perfect for my vizsla. How is bachelor? 20-30 min drive doesn't seem bad at all.

Amazing local hill.

Are you acustomed to Driving on ice? If not, spend the $750 on studded artic claws. Thatll make that Drive alot less stressful.

Bachelor and "local hill" isn't something I'm used to seeing. I mean, I guess compared to Park City and Vail, sure.

Local hill would be Hoodoo in Sisters.

Bend is 100% doable on $1500 and would provide some pretty good night life. Especially for the mid to late 20s crowd. That would be a great choice.

Done! Now send some pics of the "social life" you bring home.

tx.ag15 said:

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A ton of rentals within walking distance of river trails, perfect for my vizsla.

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Love Vizslas, we have a Weimaraner.

Over the summer while we were up in CO on vacation my wife was fitted for a pair of custom ski boots at boot mechanics after years of being underwhelmed from rental equipment. She also recently purchased her first pair of skis and bindings so now we need to find somewhere to get the bindings installed before we head up to Park City in Jan.

Any recommendations for places to get the install done close to DFW? Would Sun & Ski in Dallas sports be a good option? Hopefully this is a job any reasonable ski tech can do and doesn't require getting done at a ski shop in the mountains like boot fitting does. Thanks!

Here's her equipment:
Nordica Promachine 95 W boots
Atomic Women's Maven 86C 147 skis
Atomic Stage 10 GW Ski Bindings

Can't vouch for them on the equipmen/tech side (only bought clothes) , but up in McKinney is a place called Doug and Lynda's Ski Shop. May be better equipped than a chain like Sun & Ski.

https://www.dougandlyndas.com/

plarmigan said:

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Over the summer while we were up in CO on vacation my wife was fitted for a pair of custom ski boots at boot mechanics after years of being underwhelmed from rental equipment. She also recently purchased her first pair of skis and bindings so now we need to find somewhere to get the bindings installed before we head up to Park City in Jan.

Any recommendations for places to get the install done close to DFW? Would Sun & Ski in Dallas sports be a good option? Hopefully this is a job any reasonable ski tech can do and doesn't require getting done at a ski shop in the mountains like boot fitting does. Thanks!

Here's her equipment:
Nordica Promachine 95 W boots
Atomic Women's Maven 86C 147 skis
Atomic Stage 10 GW Ski Bindings

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I wouldn't chance it. Most ski shops aren't going to take blame for something you didn't buy at their shop. So when you have some kid from DFW who has no clue what he's doing mount the bindings, and he ends up setting the screws too deep and separating the bottom sheet, you're going to be SOL and fighting to get them to cover the damage. I'd find a good shop wherever you're going to be skiing, call ahead and arrange to drop skis off and have them mounted the day you get into town. Then they'll be ready to roll for your first ski day.

My experience at the sun and ski in Houston was they didn't give me any grief about mounting bindings on skis I bought elsewhere. And I guarantee the old burned out hippy in the workshop has done it a few thousand times.

I thought that Doug and lundas closed?

I know they're closed in the off-season and open back up on Labor Day. Looks like McKinney posted about them on their Instagram in September so I assume they're still in business?

Probably Not. Most of the kids I knew that teched their were inner city jewish kids with like 3/4 years of skiing experience and some videos.

Dont get them mounted in a state without a ski hill. Serves no purpose to do the leg work to go to boot Mechanics if you bush the mount.

Moubting bindings is an art. It's not just plug and play and repeat.

This Man knows things.

Christie, Canyon or Compass in PC.

If You Go to Christie Sports lmk and I can get you a discount.

Only places that can stress test the binding will be able to do the mount. Thats a HUGE liability process so go somewhere like the above that do this day in and day out . Overall it takes about 15 minutes to actually mount the bindings. It's much faster than fitting boots etc.

Christies is one of the few rental companies that also do mounts because the equipment to test the bindings is a couple 100k easy.

Ya you're prob right. Spending over $1,200 on custom boots only to have some Dallas kid screw up the mount would defintiely suck.

That's awesome, thanks so much for the offer. We're staying at the Red Pine condos off Canyons Resort Dr. so I need to look up the location of those 3 shops and see what's closest to where we are staying. Not sure if we are renting a car yet or using the bus system. This is the first time I've been back to PC since I was like 7 so not sure what the weather and road conditions will be like in late Jan and not sure if I trust the rental cars in that situation.

Unless I can slip a tech $40 and convince him to do it right then and there, sounds like she will prob be in rental skis for the first day. At least she'll have her new boots though at least.

They will do it as you wait or maybe a come Back in an hour of two normally. Thats what we do. Throw them a case of beer for the shop. 30 racks of something better than hamms and they will love it.

Heck yeah. I can definitely do a 30 pack of beer. I tried calling the shop at 875 Iron Horse Rd. in Park City but guess they're not open yet for the season. Do you know if that location does binding mounting? The website made it seem they only did rentals there.

Can you get discounts at Christie's park city for rentals? 4 adults.

God bless the indemnified list. At dropoff yesterday for our ski swap there were 3 barrels full of skis that patrol had turned away from the swap because of the bindings, and people just tossed them in the trash right there. All kinds of rad old stuff. 195 Rossi vas, olin mark iv, volant chubbs, research dynamics coyotes...so now I have all the planks I need for ski chairs and a gate, and as a bonus one of the pairs (k2 cv comp 185) had Solly equipe drivers, aka some of the best bindings ever made. Couple weeks ago I made a thrift store find of 192 dyna 4x4 with look zrs pivots for $12. I'm actually gonna do some runs on those before I cannibalize the binders

Snowmass this morning….. less than 2 weeks from open…. BARF.

Man I really hope these storms this week and next materialize and produce.

4 inches in Vail overnight. Telly about the same. Should get 12-18 inches over this storm through the 21/22. WC may get 20-24. Withthatsaid, Hoping the forecast after isn't accurate as 4 days of full Sun and a week of highs in the 40-42 degree range will melt most of it directly off since there's currently w no base and the mountain isn't cooled because it's been so so so warm. Low temps looks good (mid 20s) so Good news is low temps are finally helping w snow making.

Overall setting up to be a icy icy icy week after this storm passes.

After Friday 11/21 the next storm is forecasted around 11/30 (should be 10-14 in) then dry through 12/4. Again, the problem is the temperatures are expected to reach 40+ degrees from the 24th to the 30th. It isn't until 12/1 that the day time temps stay below freezing.

Colorado updated their season projection yesterday and the new forecast season projection is somewhere in the 38% of median. So not a terrible year (better then last year 12%) but still significantly below the median.

this is Crested Butte yesterday….

Mammoth in CA delays opening after 3 inches of rain under 8,600ft.

Snowing like a MOFO in Vail right now. POW Day on the 2 open runs jaja. I'll take it.

Snow stake shows 1" and almost 40* on the temp gauge..?

Live look from Schweitzer:

Early skiing is definitely going to be poop.