Giant Resort Companies You Hate Are Saving Skiing

JTG4eva! wrote

I doubt skiing on synthetic services will ever appeal, no matter how great the future technology is......unless they can lay it down boot top in the woods.  Skiing synthetic “groomers” with the masses might be interesting once for the novelty, but generally....no thanks.

OK - you get where I was going.  I wouldn't even waste my time.  For athletic training, I see the appeal, but that's not why I ski.

Curious what 'core skiers will say.

Cunningstunts wrote

JTG4eva! wrote

I doubt skiing on synthetic services will ever appeal, no matter how great the future technology is......unless they can lay it down boot top in the woods.  Skiing synthetic “groomers” with the masses might be interesting once for the novelty, but generally....no thanks.

OK - you get where I was going.  I wouldn't even waste my time.  For athletic training, I see the appeal, but that's not why I ski.

Curious what 'core skiers will say.

I would have no interest in skiing on artificial snow. For one thing, it would most likely take place somewhere inside or on a man-made structure of some sort close to a population center. I have no intention of ever going, even out of curiosity, to whatever they are now calling that eyesore in New Jersey with the indoor slope.

i think im a core skier.  id go.

I think Z was speculating that there will be technology in play some day that makes more than some shitty ski dome possible.  They’ll find some medium they can lay down, allowing them to ionize large slope areas, then find some particulate with attraction properties that will stick to those ionized slopes, or some shit like that.  It might even be white!  That would be interesting, but still not something I think I want to ski on regularly in a resort setting.  The vast majority of skiing I do is in the woods and the backcountry, and there are bound to be limits to whatever tech does come out.

There is a guy in our advocacy group that tends to take the long way round the barn.

A couple years ago our Town Supervisor stopped him in the middle of one of his dissertations, says “Son, you are the only person I know who takes 90 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.”  

Pretty confident we could have figured out the energy issues decades ago but you know the scientists and engineers are prone to the fake facts.....  

I’d have zero interest in skiing on synthetic snow at any point of the year.   I mean skiing today’s manmade is all right and all but nothing peaks my interest like storm riding!  

When real snow ceases to exist I’ll quit skiing.  

Cunningstunts wrote

Just hypothetically speaking, say in the future all slopes were coated with a synthetic snow or those plastic ski surfaces laid out.

During the summer, if you had the option of riding a mountain bike park or skiing on plastic, which would you choose?

Biking...
I biked this past Saturday, knowing that Hunter and others were styling..It cost me the price of Taco and some gas..

lol we cant even figure out the energy issues now.

i already ski on fake sno i dont know what the big deal is.

Cunningstunts wrote

Just hypothetically speaking, say in the future all slopes were coated with a synthetic snow or those plastic ski surfaces laid out.

During the summer, if you had the option of riding a mountain bike park or skiing on plastic, which would you choose?

I’d definitely go mountain biking, hiking and backpacking over skiing on synthetic surfaces, every single time. If there’s no snow, I don’t go.

Southern Tier wrote

i think im a core skier.  id go.

Is that you Gladerunner?

It all comes down to what it is about skiing that is important to you.  I’d also argue that man-made snow, which is still cold, somewhat powdery, crystallized water, is much less “fake” than some synthetic surface is likely to be.

The things important to me in skiing don’t seem likely to be well served by a synthetic future.  Sure, there would always be the sensation of flying via sliding on the surface, the same way skiing groomers can be a thrill now.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it’s not my primary attraction to skiing.  

I like being in the quiet wilderness, mostly in the trees.  I love skiing on steep slopes and rocky features away from the crowds.  I love the pristine appearance of a slope covered in virgin, untracked powder, that lets me feel for a brief moment that the world is still pure and unadulterated.....and then floating through and ripping it up.  I like the sense of community that is found in like-minded ski tourers, and earning my own private corner of a wilderness for a short period of time.

I don’t see much of that happening in a synthetic skiing future.  When the real snow is gone I could see taking the skis to the sand dunes now and again.....

so youd grab your synthetic mountain bike, hiking and back packing gear over using your synthetic skis on a synthetic surface.  ok but i dont feel like threading that needle.

raisingarizona wrote

Southern Tier wrote

i think im a core skier.  id go.

Is that you Gladerunner?

+1!!  Hahahahahahah.  

are you guys making fun of me?

Southern Tier wrote

i already ski on fake sno i dont know what the big deal is.

No, you ski on man-made snow. It's not "fake" it's real man-made snow.

The synthetic bike, boots and backpack are just a means to access spectacular natural areas, much like synthetic skis now allow us to access natural snow in all it’s splendor.

Synthetic skis on synthetic snow would be different, like telling RA he could only ride his MTB in a sterile, concrete, man-made mountain bike park.  I’d bet he’d give up the MTB, too....if that’s what it came to.

Southern Tier wrote

are you guys making fun of me?

Damn, is Glade more than two years ago?!  

No, not making fun of you, just a joke of historical context.

Gladerunner used to like to tell everyone how hardcore a skier he was.  When feathers ruffled and bannings happened he had various reincarnations on the boards, under different names.

Southern Tier wrote

are you guys making fun of me?

Every ski forum has a history.  You'll figure things out soon enough.  Meaning what to ignore.

Don't know for sure, but I may be old enough to be your mother.  So that's why I come across somewhat differently.

Damn straight! The natural outdoors is 90% of the attraction for me.

Southern Tier wrote

lol we cant even figure out the energy issues now.

i already ski on fake sno i dont know what the big deal is.

Since I live in the southeast, without snowmaking I wouldn't have been able to get my daughter started on skis without flying somewhere.  But at the same time, if we hadn't gone out to Alta when she was a tween, I don't know that she would've been as interested in spending the time it took for her to become an advanced skier before middle school.  Certainly would've pushed back on the idea of ski school once she could ski any black in the southeast or mid-Atlantic without any effort.

I know of plenty of folks who drive hours for a ski vacation once a year in the southeast where the biggest ski resort is Snowshoe.  Now that Snowshoe is on Ikon, some of those families are more likely to consider a trip out west at some point.  Whether or not that becomes a family tradition, hard to say.  But certainly more likely that the kids may become ski nuts compared to if they never ski at a destination resort where most of the trails are natural snow while parents are paying the bill.

As for energy, Jiminy Peak invested in solar and wind power a decade ago that covers 100% of their power needs.