Grays On Trays

There’s been a lot of consolidation in the ski business in the last few decades, as operators who can’t afford new snowmaking equipment fall victim to the demands of good snow coverage and longer seasons.

But do new ski areas ever open? There was the Yellowstone Club in Montana, a “private family ski and golf community” that caters to the super-rich. Echo Mountain,  close to Denver, opened a few years ago, but it’s strictly a terrain park. Last year I was planning to go to Tamarack, a new ski area in Idaho, but those plans were scrubbed when the company went belly-up. A new operation went into Silverthorne, Colorado a couple of years ago, but that’s operated as a super-duper-expert-terrain place. In Michigan (of all places!), Mt. Bohemia advertises itself as having “all-expert terrain,” with “triple diamond” slopes. (And from the reports I’ve heard, there is some legitimacy to those claims.)

So are there any new places for people who aren’t super-rich or into parks or super-steeps? Not exactly, but you can get an existing area to expand from time to time. Consider, Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire. I had the pleasure of riding there back in March of 2008, and found it was a blast. With the help of a powder dump, I could take on some of its steep, twisting, narrow slopes. (In fact, it was one of my best powder days, period.)

One excursion of my day at Cannon was to “poach” the terrain at Mittersill, an adjacent ski area that had closed a few decades before. If you followed the top of one ridge line from the Cannon peak, you could make your way to Mittersill’s slopes, which had been maintained to some degree (clearing brush, mainly) by local volunteers. At that time, the general manager of Cannon told us that he was working with various authorities to secure the right to bring the Mittersill property under his management, and to extend Cannon’s lift service.

Government bureaucracies being what they are, it took a while to tie up all the details, but finally, construction on a new lift has started.  Martin Griff, who writes for various media outlets in New Jersey, recently wrote about it on his blog at NJ.com. (I’ve worked with Martin; we’re both officers in the North American Snowsports Journalists Association.) He offers a few details about the $4 million project.

I like Cannon. It’s an anti-resort, without the endless rows of condos and Prada shops. Adding Mittersill to the mix is on balance a good thing.

Though I haven’t moved beyond novice in my short “career” in mountain biking, I often come back from a ride “getting” the sport more, and why it appeals to snowboarders and skiers.

Today’s observation: Moving through the woods is a blast. I made three laps on a short loop that is entirely in the woods. It was my second day on the loop, and I became more aggressive, which is to say I didn’t dismount, I rode over some tree roots rather than avoided them, and I took a slightly tighter line through some of the turns. But what stood out to me the most was how enjoyable it was to be moving through the woods–at the  blazing speed of 5.5 mph!

The experience reminded me first of all of some fun days from my childhood, when I lived on a one-acre lot filled with pine trees and near a forest. Riding my bike also reminded me of snowboarding.

Sure, bowls are fun, especially on a powder day. But so are slopes that go through trees, whether that means a “boulevard” that is as wide as a two-car road, or a glade.

If you’ve learned how to ski or snowboard, you may remember the experience of dealing with the fear of falling and getting injured. As I have entered the world of mountain biking, I have to say that the fear of falling has returned.

Today I went out on a 2.5-mile loop described by the local mountain biking group as “beginner/intermediate.” At several points I thought, “Who are you kidding?” I don’t recall sweating while engaging in so little effort in quite a while.

I dismounted four different times to walk down fairly steep and long descents, three of which had a fair amount of loose sand or gravel. Two had sizable ruts down the middle. Crash there? No way. I’m riding conservatively. No road rash for me.

Yes indeed, I got bit by the fear of falling. On the one hand, I feared letting my bike run. On the other, I feared braking too hard and thus doing an “endo,” which means flying over the handlebars.

In sports, a certain amount of fear is good. Too much fear can be debilitating, and turn you into a couch potato. Too little fear can cause you to take risks that are so far beyond your ability that injury is all but inevitable. A “just right” amount of fear heightens your concentration and makes progress in the sport that much sweeter.

Trail markers in the winter provide clues as to the amount of risk you’re taking. I still remember my first time skiing down a black diamond in Colorado. Going from green to blue to black all marked my development as a skier. I repeated the process when I took up snowboarding.  One reason I took up snowboarding is that I wanted to experience that progression again.

The slopes won’t open here for another 3 months, at least, which means that I’ll have some more time to work on a new set of skills-and-confidence progression.

Novice snowboarders have an easier time sliding on wide slopes and taking big, rather than tight, turns. As you get more advanced in your riding, you can take a more narrow path down the mountain.

As I’ve started to look into mountain biking, I’ve been amazed at how narrow single-track riding is, but I never put a number on it. One cycle shop (perhaps using industry guidelines)  did: “We recommend the following trail guidelines: 36-inch-wide trail for beginners, 24- to 30-inches wide for the more experienced; and for experts, 12-inches wide.”

12 inches wide? Wow. I realize that’s “for experts,” but that’s a tight ride. Even 36 inches–more narrow than even a subcompact car–is pretty tight.

Of course, riding a bike is not the same as riding a bicycle, so the comparison between winter slopes and bike trails isn’t exact. But I wonder if riding 12-inch, 24- or even 36-inch mountain bike trails affects a snowboarder’s riding on the snow.

Bike-riding snowboarders, what do you say?

On the main part of the website, the page why ride sums up some of the reasons that I’ve read people have given for starting snowboarding. When I asked people why they started to ride on the site bulletin board, it became one of the most popular topics. It’s also something we discussed on the Facebook fan page.

Recently I’ve been checking out online forums for mountain biking, and, perhaps no surprise, have found that there’s some similarity in the reasons that people give for both sports. There’s not a total overlap, but a significant one.

To summarize what I’ve read about mountain biking:

There’s something about those two or three “perfect” rides a year that keep you going.

I love pushing my boundaries and taking on a challenge and overcoming it. I never thought I can do this, but I can, and that feels fantastic.

I know that I can always improve, and I enjoy trying to do that.

It gives me an adrenaline rush, especially when I come close to, but escape, a bad crash.

I enjoy riding with friends and hanging out with them afterwards.

I like buying gear and fiddling with it.

I like leaving my cares behind by doing something that requires me to be in the moment. You can’t think of anything else. It keeps my mind active. [Some people speak of Zen and "being one with the trail."]

It’s a good physical workout and it doesn’t kill my knees.

It’s good for my mental health, and reduces my stress. It makes me feel like a kid again.

I love being outside and part of nature.

Once you buy your equipment, it doesn’t cost much [unlike, say, golf, which requires greens fees.]

All this makes me think that I might actually want to take another college class–say, something in the sociology or sport or theory of recreation. There are lots of different sports, but perhaps a half dozen themes that run through most of them. It might be worthwhile to think through them all in some sort of organized, disciplined way.

One feature of snowboarding at a multiple-use area is that you can try to figure out, as you’re riding the chair lifts, what the ground underneath you is used for in the off-season.

For example, at Afton Alps, you can go snowboarding or skiing in the winter, and return in the summer to play golf or ride the mountain-bike trails. I’ve seen some of the mountain-bike trails from the lifts. Some people poach them during the winter, but most look too narrow for my comfort. I’ve played the golf course a few times, and each outing makes me appreciate snowboarding.

Here’s an introduction to Afton during the golf season.

During the summer, the Highlands chalet (one of four at Afton) serves as the clubhouse for the golf course. The Highlands area doesn’t have very steep terrain, but it does have what qualifies as long cruisers by local standards. It’s also the site of several holes on the golf course.

The back teebox for the first hole is just a step or two down from the exit ramp of lift #16.

Unless you’re hitting from the forward tees, you have to hit your first shot over a valley, which is the start of the winter trail “Pandora’s Pass.” The funnel makes the winter scene more interesting, though it’s a bit of a workout if you’re playing golf with a pull cart. It’s amazing: A slope that is small potatoes on a snowboard is bigger and steeper when you walk it, carrying or pulling a golf bag.

That’s lift #17 in the background. It  serves as the edge of the ski area.

If you want to use the forward tees, you can save some of time and effort by taking a bridge over the valley. The bridge is roped off during the winter.

During the winter, you ski or ride underneath the bridge.

The first fairway is a dogleg right, and ends up skirting the top of both Rosie’s Run and then Vicky’s Valley before dipping down (and away from the normal flow of winter traffic) again just before the green.

By the way, Rosie’s Run is one of two black diamonds in the part of Afton known as as the Highlands. Highlands they aren’t, but they do have some of the longer runs in the metro. Rosie’s has a (relatively) steep section that you get to only after suffering through a long flat run. Vicky’s Valley, while flat, is a fun through-the-woods road on the outer boundary of the ski area.  During one of those rare powder days, I’ve been able to snag some of the good stuff available in the mini-bowl that is the start of VV. Get there by dropping in from the top of lift 17.

Speaking of lift 17, when the snow starts melting, you’ll be able to glance off to your right and see the second teebox once you get off the lift. Holes 2 is the beginning of many rather uninteresting holes.

After you finish out the second hole, you cross the road (“why did the snowboarder-turned-golfer cross the road? …”) for holes 3 through 8. Here, the course is flat and for the most part treeless.

You head back across the road to finish up the ninth tee, which, after the first whole, may be the most interesting of the front nine.

The ski area is pressed into use on the back nine, though not all holes actually cross or use a winter slope.

Hole 10
The fairway for hole 10 is a dogleg right. A dogleg usually means that a course is cut through the woods. In this case, out of bounds isn’t a forest; it’s a hill–the other side of which is part of the ski area.

Finish the hole and you’ll be looking at the Alpine chalet.

That chalet serves a beginner’s area during the winter.

Hole 11
But before you get to the chalet comes the teebox for hole 11. It’s a short par 4 that carries over a pond. To the left side of the fairway is a collection of maintenance buildings that are visible from the “front side” of the ski area (lifts 1 through 4).

If, instead of looking down the fairway from the teebox, you turn around and look up the hill that you just played around, you’ll see chair #13 in the Higlands area.

The 11th hole is on the top of lift 5, which you’ll also notice on the next hole.

Hole 12
During the winter, lift 5 takes you within spitting distance of the teebox of hole 12. This par 3 has an unusual water hazard on the left side of the fairway: It’s the pond that is used for storing water for snowmaking. (The pond is also on your left as you ride up the lift).

Even with my tendency to hook, I’ve seldom hit the ball into the water.

On a snowboard or skis, you run off lift 5 and take Lisa’s Lane as the start to a ride that will take you in several different directions, but be warned: it’s flat.

Hole 13
Once you hole out on the par 3 twelth, take a peek through the woods behind the green. You’ll be looking into “Nicole’s Nook” , part of the learning area served by the Alpine chalet. You should also see lift 18, which services that area. Then move over to the teebox for hole 13, which has another down-and-away fairway.

During the winter, you’ll ride lift 6 over the yardage marker. (You’ll be on the opposite side of the pond from lift 5, and the par 12 fairway). The 13th fairway becomes, depending on your line, “Deb’s Drop” (a terrain park), “Polly’s Powder” (which, sadly, seldom has powder), or “Patti’s Pass.”

During the summer you’ve got another killer drop for a drive.

Hole 14
This par 14 drops away, though at this point I’m not sure where it drops FROM, but for a golf course, it’s a sizable drop. I’m guessing that it’s still within the area served by lift #6.

It ends up at the top of the Meadows area.

At this point, you’ve probably reached as far down from the top of the hill that you’re going to be.

Hole 15
Once you get to the green of hole 15, you can look down into one of the winter terrain parks. Lift 11 will be on your left.

I suspect that this short par 3 (130 yards from the back tees) takes you slightly uphill from an area where, roughly, lifts 12, 11, and 8 (roughly) converge.

Hole 16
There’s only one par 5 on the back nine and it’s 16, coming in at 477 yards from the back tees. The back teebox is down a stairway from the top of lift 12. Hit uphill through “Mary’s Meadow,” and past lift 18 until you’re back at the Alpine chalet, and a short walk from the 11th teebox.

During the winter, traffic flows in the opposite direction, though sometimes it comes to a stop as riders who don’t maintain enough speed through the area have to unstrap and skate.

During the summer, the banked right edge of the fairway adds some interest to the play.

Hole 17
The penultimate hole is a “downer,” since you’re hitting down the top portion of winter’s Monica’s Highlands. During the early winter, you can use the back teebox as a launching pad for catching 2 feet of air. After a while, the snow fills in and the jump disappears. You’ll be riding down to the left of chair 13.

During the summer, long hitters can hit a fade to send the ball to the green, 317 yards away. The green is, I believe, tucked into a stand of trees and positioned in a way that it doesn’t get much winter traffic. In fact, it’s probably roped off.

Hole 18
During the winter, you ride over the teebox for hole 18 if you’re on lift 13, and the fairway starts going on the other side of the lift from hole 17.

During the winter, the teebox is the launching pad down Amy’s Lane, a fun narrow slope that opens up to the bottom of a terrain park. You can also use it to launch yourself, halfpipe style, down into the valley of Monica’s Highlands, a wide-open freeway that narrows into a a funnel towards the end.

During the summer, send your drive 130 yards or so from the shadow of lift 13, over Monica’s Highlands, to the bend in the fairway, and then head up through what serves as a winter terrain park. Lift 14 crosses over the fairway, and then as you approach the green, the lift lines will be to your right. The last green is immediately downhill from a winter information

During snowboarding sessions, I sometimes look for golf course markings. The ride up the lift is not terribly interesting, so trying to figure out whether a named run is also a fairway on the golf course makes the trip more enjoyable. The stone markers at the tee boxes are usually covered in black, plastic bags, making the job of identifying them easier. The two seasons do converge in the summer, if you hit an errant shot. A local rule governs what happens if your golf ball hits one of the chairlifts that stay motionless during the summer. I had to rely on that rule once after making an attempt at a pitch onto the green.

All in all, it’s an awkward course, but if you’re a golfer and snow sports enthusiast in the area, worth checking out at least once or twice. Season-pass holders get a discount on summer passes, for either golfing or mountain biking.

One thing I like about learning a new activity (e.g., mountain biking) is that it helps me put an old one (e.g., snowboarding) into perspective. Here are some advantages of mountain biking:

1. You don’t have to pay anything to go riding. (Note: You may have to pay a fee if you go biking on a private land, or if you park your car in a public park.) Unless you practice back-country snowboarding, you’ll probably buy a lift ticket.
2. Unless you’re a hard-core biker who goes out in winter, you don’t have to worry about frostbite.
3. You can wear your normal shoes rather than get into specialized footwear. (Granted, some people do buy specialized biking shoes.)

And here are some advantages of snowboarding:

1. You don’t have to worry about ticks.
2. You have much more freedom of movement down a slope than you do on a single track.
3. You can go at your own pace, and not worry about keeping ahead of the people behind you.  (The need to keep pace is a challenge that I face in another summer activity, golf.)
4. In biking, a trail may be closed because it rained the day before–or the day before that. There is seldom a comparative event in snowboarding, unless it’s a really big storm that prevents you from driving to the mountain to begin with.

Here are some ways that they’re similar:

1. You can get hurt on even the easiest terrain.
2. They can both be a rush.
3. You can spend a lot of money–or not much.
4. The terrain (if you’re riding on  maintained bike trail) can be closed in both sports for maintenance.
5. You can progress from a novice to an expert by taking on more difficult terrain, attempting tricks, and so forth.
6. Equipment can make a big difference. For example, a snowboard can be too stiff or too soft for a given purpose. In biking, I noticed a huge difference in the performance of a street bike (which I took to the same trail about a month ago) and the mountain bike.

And here are some more differences:

1. Even on the novice trail that I rode, I was much closer to the trees than I usually get on a snowboard.
2. Another difference, I suspect, is that you can be much more of a gear-head–and perhaps need to be–in mountain biking.  Whether or not that’s a good thing depends on your interest in and aptitude for fiddling with stuff.

Earlier this year, I decided that my car needed a “death panel” of its own. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it again or get rid of it, the decision was easy: get rid of it.

Buy a car, get a bike

I ended up buying a new car, and with it, received a voucher for a mountain bike (or actually, anything) from a local cycle shop. Since I already have a street bike–and find that it provides a fairly jarring ride in the “paved” walking/ biking trails in my city, I opted for something different, the mountain bike. Oh yes, there’s also a well-acclaimed single-track system within a short distance of my house, which made the decision easier.

But what kind of bike? I was willing to throw in about $100 of my own money to upgrade the bike.  In theory, a “full suspension” model sounds great, but I didn’t want to pay $1,000 for a bike. Plus, as I have since found out, those types require more maintenance and more energy to ride. As it is, the wide tires (probably 3 times as wide as those on the street bike) already offer more rolling resistance, making it more demanding. No need to make cruising more difficult than it needs to be, especially since I don’t anticipate bombing down downhill trails.

So I ended up buying a 2009 model, never used ,that had an original MSRP of $900, but which had been discounted to $600. It has a front suspension and disc brakes. From what I can tell, it’s a bike for lower-level intermediates, which is certainly above my skill level at the moment.

With the voucher in hand (and having to pay sales tax on the whole price), I was out the door for about $140. Except that I then spent $25 for a pair of gloves and $25 for a lock, plus I’ll probably spend another $25 (or more) sometime soon for a new saddle (seat).

Similarities to snowboarding

I’ve taken the bike out for a few rides, both on pavement and in the woods, and I’m still getting used to how the gears work, figuring out how to ride over small obstacles, and seeing if I can live with the seat.

Before and after making the purchase, I’ve also been reading various websites about mountain biking, getting a feel for the types of mountain bikes, styles of mountain biking, techniques of biking, and for lack of a better word, culture of biking.

When I asked fans of the Grays on Trays site on Facebook an open-ended question about their summer recreational activities, the activity mentioned by people, by far, was biking of various forms. (I think it was 70/30 mountain biking versus road riding.)

There are certainly some similarities between snowboarding and mountain biking. Gravity is an important component of both. Wipeouts are possible.  Any given trail can combine cruising (easy) and technical (hard) elements, depending on its grade, the smoothness of the surface, whether or not it has sharp turns, and so forth. Oh yes, both activities can easily eat through your spending money.  In both sports, you can be a gearhead if you wish, though a mountain bike has many more parts than a snowboard. In the bike shop, I saw several models that cost $2,000 or more. The most expensive snowboard that you’ll see in most retail shops, by contrast, costs about $1,000, though you can certain spend more if you go to some split boards or alpine boards.

That’s about the extent of my knowledge of mountain biking to date. I’ll write more as I learn more.

Snowboarding and skiing, like just about every activity you can think of these days, might end up in legal action one way or the other.

The Utah Bar Association has published an analysis by David S. Kottler of the state of Utah ski law. It focuses primarily on legal actions that might result from accidents or collisions, putting them into one of five categories:

• Collisions with other skiers/snowboarders, with immovable objects (e.g., trees), or with movable objects (e.g., runaway skis or snowboards);

• Ski lift accidents due to negligent design, maintenance, or operation of the lift, or due to the negligence of other skiers or passengers on the lift;

• Accidents caused by ski area negligence such as failure to mark a known hazard, improper slope maintenance and/or grooming, or inadequate avalanche control;

• Accidents caused by ski instructor negligence, such as leading ski school students into overly challenging terrain or failing to provide safety instructions; and

• Accidents or injuries resulting from faulty equipment, most commonly alpine bindings that fail to release properly.

Meanwhile, a law firm in Denver offers a survey of the ski laws in 27 states. Though it’s old (published in 2006), it’s comprehensive.

My “big trip” this season was to Sun Valley, Idaho, as a participant in the annual convention of the North American Snowsports Journalists Association. Sun Valley combines old-school skiing with high-tech snowmaking. But can a snowboarder find a welcome there?

You can read my review here.