Alba Adventures

Mi Skier wrote

let’s face it when you ski with your 4 year old any hill can bring joy to you.

Fact.

Well MiS, welcome back in advance.

Mi Skier wrote

. . .let’s face it when you ski with your 4 year old any hill can bring joy to you. So along with the internet I found your sight and my love for skiing got strong again and that fact that I have gotten my daughter to Jiminy Peak twice and Gore three times and I couldn’t be happier.
My financial situation due to a devorice has prevented me from coming back east, but in two more years that will change and I will get back and ski and see some family that I have.
The one good thing is I have a 400’ hill here called Caberfae Peaks and they have a $99 weekend season pass. I have learned to make the best of our small hills and enjoy skiing in Michigan

I also didn't ski for years because of money and geography.  My divorce came before kids but I completely get having fun at a small mountain with a 4yo.  There are certainly plenty of ways to enjoy skiing in the flatlands (midwest, southeast).

Discovered this winter that Jiminy Peak is a great family resort.  Bigger is not always better.

I would be interested in midwest conditions and trip reports.  My brother-in-law is about to retire and he lives in Chicago.

marznc wrote

Mi Skier wrote

. . .let’s face it when you ski with your 4 year old any hill can bring joy to you. So along with the internet I found your sight and my love for skiing got strong again and that fact that I have gotten my daughter to Jiminy Peak twice and Gore three times and I couldn’t be happier.
My financial situation due to a devorice has prevented me from coming back east, but in two more years that will change and I will get back and ski and see some family that I have.
The one good thing is I have a 400’ hill here called Caberfae Peaks and they have a $99 weekend season pass. I have learned to make the best of our small hills and enjoy skiing in Michigan

I also didn't ski for years because of money and geography.  My divorce came before kids but I completely get having fun at a small mountain with a 4yo.  There are certainly plenty of ways to enjoy skiing in the flatlands (midwest, southeast).

Discovered this winter that Jiminy Peak is a great family resort.  Bigger is not always better.

I would be interested in midwest conditions and trip reports.  My brother-in-law is about to retire and he lives in Chicago.

I will be happy to give some Mid West trip and condition reports next season. Mine will be from Michigan. My daughter  is now 24 and we have been skiing for 20 years now and I love every minute of it

Mi Skier wrote

I will be happy to give some Mid West trip and condition reports next season. Mine will be from Michigan. My daughter  is now 24 and we have been skiing for 20 years now and I love every minute of it

My daughter is almost 18.  I had to up my game to attempt to stay a better skier but failed by the time she was 12.  I spoiled her with spring break trips to Alta.  The Alta Ski School is very good.  Then she switched to telemark while at school in Lake Placid in middle school.  I've improved in recent years and get in more days than she does because I'm retired.  But she still outskis me on the harder terrain making parallel turns with tele bindings.

Being able to ski with her for a few days during spring break at Alta was a highlight of my season.

marznc wrote

But she still outskis me on the harder terrain making parallel turns with tele bindings.

Cheater!

 

Harvey wrote

marznc wrote

But she still outskis me on the harder terrain making parallel turns with tele bindings.

Cheater!

 

If her third season in the Adirondacks on tele skis had been a better one, then she would've made it over the hump for tele turns.  But that was the season when the NCS ski hill didn't openfor even one day.  A few afternoons at Whiteface wasn't enough.  The season before she went to Telefest at Plattekill.  Never going back to alpine after that experience.  It annoyed her a lot when the next season after she graduated and had to go elsewhere for school then it dumped all winter.

They say - 'Free the heel, free the mind" I guess I should start.

Big things coming this year from these guys. I have no idea what but big things.

Firstly, we want to thank you guys for pushing us to get better. We hope our stuff is getting better.. Hope to see more of you this winter.


We are proud to announce that The Alba Adventures is now officially recognized as press members of the North American Snowsports Journalist Association (NASJA). Over the last 55 years, NASJA has been home to hundreds of highly respected snowsports journalists and is regarded as a communications powerhouse for the snowsports industry. Needless to say, we are excited to be accepted to NASJA and hope that our stories meet their expectations. Please stay tuned for more announcements in the days to come, and hopefully more Alba Adventures.

THINK SNOW!

Congrats To Alba Adventures. What are the benefits of membership? Entry requirements?

Brownski wrote

Congrats To Alba Adventures. What are the benefits of membership? Entry requirements?

Lift tickets? Swag? Tax deductions? Discounts? Skiing is expensive enough for one and crazy for a family. Hopefully you can game the system in your favor.

BrownSki.   I will message you..

Brownski wrote

Congrats To Alba Adventures. What are the benefits of membership? Entry requirements?

PeeTex wrote

Lift tickets? Swag? Tax deductions? Discounts? Skiing is expensive enough for one and crazy for a family. Hopefully you can game the system in your favor.

Ha.. Well tickets, maybe (we have only ever gotten a couple) Swag.. Tax deductions, well if we incorporate then maybe.  Yes, skiing is pricey, the biggest barrier. My wife and I just say, drugs costs more with less of the benefit. So, we ski!  Who knows where this goes though it's very exciting..  Either way, we are going to produce stories this season, with or without free tickets ;).

Thanks PeeTex

Very cool, Ray. Congrats.

Ray, maybe none of my business, feel free to say so:

What metric do you look at for your videos? Views? Or maybe completed views?

Which film got the most traction, and what is your theory about why?

Harvey wrote

Ray, maybe none of my business, feel free to say so:

What metric do you look at for your videos? Views? Or maybe completed views?

Funny you should ask this question as we are always looking for where the curve is. Sometime something we produce that is under 3 minutes has the same relative curve to that of something 6, 10 or even more minutes.  Often we find that videos that are longer, are watched more. Also, videos that are less polished get watched more, at least from YouTube.   So, for us, we look for how long our viewers watching  - watch time. View count, well that is good to have though meaningless; certainly on Facebook since they count a view from 3 seconds and if you have you device on autoplay - FB will count it as a view.

On average though, our videos are getting between 65 and 75% completion of view - which is high when it gets compared to content of similar length.  

When we started this whole hobby, we would first email then once Facebook started to support video, we would put our videos there. Having had a Vimeo and YouTube account, we decided to then make our videos available on all places, eventually settling for YouTube for our Alba Adventures stories .... Still posting on our personal Facebook season 2 stuff.  By season 3 (or really 5) we kept everything on YouTube and then this past summer, we decided to post our stories on Facebook as well as on YouTube - which has hurt our view count on YouTube - though has allowed us to develop two different audiences..   Not that we have much of an audience anyway ;).

Putting our work on Facebook has helped certainly with the number of shares and we are finding that people are indeed watching our work - relative to YouTube - we find that its still less view time - perhaps since on YouTube you have the fewest distractions. If someone is watching our story from our page via an embed - we find that they watch all of it - we think this is due to the fact that our site will have the fewest distractions.

Harvey wrote

Which film got the most traction, and what is your theory about why?

Solid question...  

For our winter work - its

HOME - Mad River Glen
SOL Full Sunday - Jay Peak - our tribute to Rocky
Catskill Heaven - Plattekill

This year  - with work going on both Facebook and YouTube - its hard to say.. Our latest works are getting thousands of views on Facebook with pretty high completion rates.

Currently our latest story "RESILIENCE " might be overtaking them all - then again, on Facebook so we will have to wait and see what the view time will be..

As for your theory - I think if the stories appear at locations of interest people will watch, irrespective of quality. If the film has soul, a story and it filmed at such special places like Mad River Glen or Plattekill or a Magic or even recently our Burke story - where these areas have seen their ups and downs, hardships, and hard Winters; it attracts more people to watch.

For us, we just truly love making stories. Its been a fantastic year for us as we have gotten better at making these, our stories are getting deeper (we think) and certainly we have become far better editors. We still are just Alicia, I and the kids. Hoping that this torch will carry on with our children as they grow.  

Thanks Harvey and NYSkiBlog for letting us be here. I know we can or rather I can be a bit overwhelming to some of you.

No thanks required Ray.

Word on the street is that the Albas are spancered!  Is Alicia going to abandon her trademark coat?

 

Harvey wrote

No thanks required Ray.
Word on the street is that the Albas are spancered! Is Alicia going to abandon her trademark coat?

Hey Harvey ,sure thing, you and this community you created is a large part as to why we got better. So, thanks is fore in order always.

To answer your question... What would you do.... ?

Maybe they can make a similar pattern..

Just bustin Ray!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDjrE-nlsam/

In some sad news Rennie, Ray's twin is down for the season with a busted leg.  +++VIBES+++ Rennie!

Other challenges for the Alba clan too, but you guys will rise above!

That is one of my favorite photos too!

Merry Merry.

I will let Rennie know. He is getting out of the hospital now.

Ray