Trip Reports: Who Reads Them Anyway?

(Hey I'm willing to own this thread!)

Does anybody really read trip reports?

What do you think?

What's goin' on here?  I never would have started an entire thread on such a stupid topic.  I made some dumb, throw away comment about trip reports and now I look like a guy who starts threads on ski forums about every idiotic, random thought that rolls into my head on a Friday afternoon?  I realize this is somebody else's forum and we all post here at his pleasure but don't we retain at least a modicum of control over how we represent ourselves?

Turns by proxy. Experiences shared by proxy. Insight into other areas by proxy.

Turns by proxy?  If you say so.

I read them and although I don't take pictures, I post them too.  If Harv wants to fulfill his list...I'll do my part to help.  I'll get a TR on willard during one of the next race nights...maybe I'll bring a camera(and maybe I will forget)

lingerlonger wrote

Turns by proxy?  If you say so.

Yep. Just like reading any other threads on ski forums. Same thang.

Stick around. Collect some airline schedules. Linger Longer and gain frequent flyer smiles!

Where do you ski LL?

IMO, the best thing about baseball cards was the bubble gum.

It's like anything else on the Internet, or television, or the bookstore, for that matter. If you don't like it, you don't have to read it. I find looking at most POV video footage makes me nauseous (literally) so I tend to avoid it, unless I get a sense that it is really good. Ski TRs are all over the place, whether it is here, TGR, FTOL, AlpineZone, FIS, RJPSR (shameless plug), Slay The Gnar etc. etc. Obviously people like writing them and other people seem to enjoy reading them. If you don't, then that is your priviledge.  In the travel industry the TR has even spawned businesses: have you ever used TripAdvisor?

There good TRs and bad TRs. Good ones share the stoke of skiing. Bad ones are excruciatingly boring. Harvey Road is home is some of the best ski TRs out there. I'll probably never ski at Grand Targhee, or Powder Mountain, or even Belleayre, but I enjoy reading entertaining stories about other people's experiences at those places. As someone who writes TRs on this forum and elsewhere, I will say that I put a lot of thought into mine and try to make them interesting, funny and appealing to someone who has never been where I am writing about. It is storytelling around the digital campfire. If a TR starts a conversation, so much the better.

And I, for the record, would like to read a TR on someone's great day at Titus Mountain. If a TR on a small mountain gets one more family to ski there, that's more business for the hill, the region and helps keep the resort off the NELSAP list.

One of my big motivations for posting TRs: I LOVE rereading them in the hot summer.

I look at every picture and read most of what is posted.  I honestly find it much easier to read TRs if the author puts some "air space" in them - paragraphs breaks. I find it hard to read if someone has posted 500 words all in one block.  

I try to make my TRs easy to read. Maybe 6 or 7 pics and 10 sentences spread throughout.  IMO working with Jamesdeluxe has really helped me. He's always encouraging me to post in a way that has a wider appeal. Make TRs easy to read and look for some idea or theme to make them fun.

It's funny because I almost posted something like this thread yesterday. The title was "Who Cares About Your TR?" or something like that.  Since I ski primarily at Gore these days I totally understand if you want to blow my TRs off. James, who hasn't been to Gore it maybe ten years, said to me the other day - "why does Topridge matter so much?" Chuckle. It doesn't but it the first expert terrain to open at Gore so we fixate on it a bit I guess.

The idea of trying to get a TR from every ski hill in New York started as I was just making my own list of the TRs we've gotten this year. As I was compiling it I thought it would be a fun thread.  I know a lot of folks travel to the smaller NY hills for racing with their kids, and I thought it might make the Forum more interesting to get some of that stuff going.

We're open to all kinds of threads. Keep it basically on topic and clean, and let er rip.

I enjoy them.

Funky Polak wrote

I enjoy them.

Me too.
It is also a way to get an accurate read on conditions vs relying on the mountain marketing staff who post the next days conditions the night before (like Gore). It is also a way to get specific info about specific trails and glades. It also makes me happy that somebody is enjoying the slopes even if I am not on the slopes. It also allows me to get a feel for an area that I have not skied yet.

Trip reports are awesome.

Excellent question from LingerLonger and the responses from Sick Bird Rider, x10003q, and Snowballs pretty much cover my opinion on the subject. I only read a certain percentage of them, but in general, I like when they're short and sweet, and can be understood by someone who hasn't been to that particular mountain -- i.e. the reader doesn't need a decoder ring to understand all the references made by the people who ski there all the time.

The kind of TR that personally makes me reach for the remote is the "blow-by-blow" report, where every single run, every connector trail, every chairlift conversation, every decision point is described in order and in detail. I guess I understand why people might want to write something like that (a diary entry that they can go back to in the future and relive the experience) and why certain people might want to read something like that (they want to maximize their next visit there and not waste time on certain aspects that may be mis-represented by a ski area's marketing department). It's a matter of personal taste, but I like when TRs provide:

a) a quick overview of the day (conditions, terrain that you skied, interesting experiences)

b) if it's a mountain that's not been covered here before, a couple sentences about why you ended up there and what makes it unique

c) six or seven well-chosen photos/vids.

I started reading them last year when I wrecked my knee and ended my ski season very early.  As Snowballs put it they were "turns by proxy", reading the TRs and looking at the pictures was as close as I was going to get to actually skiing.  It somehow kept me from going completely insane while I was stuck in my recliner and my friends were off skiing.

Now I'm hooked, I enjoy reading the experiences others have at different places and the TRs are a good source of info when I'm trying to decide where I want to ski on weekends.   Plus some of them have sweet pictures too.

Hmmmmmm...PBH??

I do a lot more looking at pictures than reading, that's why I don't post much of anything if I don't have any pictures.

Next to the thread, there is a views column,  most TR's have somewhere around 150. I think they highest to date was Matt's TR from our Toll Road epic with around 1100 views.

But there probably isn't anyone who reads them

lingerlonger wrote

What's goin' on here?  I never would have started an entire thread on such a stupid topic.  I made some dumb, throw away comment about trip reports and now I look like a guy who starts threads on ski forums about every idiotic, random thought that rolls into my head on a Friday afternoon?  I realize this is somebody else's forum and we all post here at his pleasure but don't we retain at least a modicum of control over how we represent ourselves?

I thought your original post was a great one. I separated it out because:

1)  It was a bit of a drift from the original thread.

2)  I thought it would get some interesting response, which, in my opinion - it did.

I tried to carefully select the new thread title. I actually took the title directly (or almost, I think) from the original post.  You did mention "stirring the pot" which, I think, is healthy, if done in a respectful way. I thought you did that.

I admit I'm a rookie moderator, with a lot to learn.  My goal is to try to foster articulate exchange of ideas.

I didn't imagine you'd feel misrepresented - for that I apologize.

Linger, I don't see anyone flaming ya, just answering your question. Please stick around and post it up. No one will beat you down.

So where do you ski and such?

You don't need to apologize.  I just know what I'd think about somebody who started a thread about something so stupid.  I don't care if y'all read and write TRs; I don't have to read them.  My post on the original thread was dumb enough but it's stupid on steroids when it's a thread starter.  But here we are.

Somebody apparently got 1100 views of an "epic" trip on a "toll road"? That doesn't even begin to make sense to me.  How does the word "epic" wind up in the same sentence as the words "toll road"?  If a toll road trip is an "epic", what adjective do you reserve for use in describing a mid-winter trip up Gothics to ski True North?  What about Kathadin in January?  That's part of my issue I guess with TRs about the mundane: They  debase and trivialize our language and lower our expectations regarding what's truly noteworthy.  By celebrating the banal they diminish the sport which, before the advent of the internet and the enfranchisement of any Gomer with a pair of skis and access to a computer, still had a great deal of mystery and maybe even majesty associated with it.  Now it's golf.  

I think we've lost something.

Snowballs:  I'm not in the slightest bit worried about anyone "beating me down".  You've completely missed my point.

Oh, and I don't ski.  I'd have to be an idiot to ski when I can just read TRs and get "turns by proxy".

Nevermind.

lingerlonger is acting too cool for school now, but I thought that his original question was legitimate.

Harv, you need to de-activate the edit function on posts that are more than a day old.