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Summit has been going back and forth with the Forest Service for years trying to get a plan approved for upgrades to the ski area. Since most of the Seattle ski areas are on National Forest land, it can take a lot of legal action to get changes put in place. Note that just because these changes have...
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It has been an abnormally long wait for the Seattle area, but snow has finally been falling in the mountains. I decided to make my first turns of the year on Saturday when Summit Central opened up. Seattle is in the midst of some pretty nasty weather for this area, but I90 was clear. I set the cruise...
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Everything was shut down in Seattle yesterday because of snow. The only catch? It didn’t snow yesterday. But since the ratings-mongers on the news were leading with SNOW, DEATH AND DESTRUCTION, everything was closed. Today, everything is closed again, but it’s a bit more legit. Areas of Seattle got anywhere...
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If you were at Whistler today, you would have been in for a surprise. One of the towers near the bottom of the Blackcomb gondola collapsed and sent two cars toward the ground. Reports are still a little sketchy on specifics but it doesn't look like anyone died and doesn't sound like the cars actually...
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In seven weeks, AndyC, JayA, MikeD and I will be converging on Big Sky, Montana for a fun weekend of skiing. Big Sky is a huge resort that gets very little traffic. I'm dreaming of deep untracked powder and empty lift lines. While the exact details are still being sorted out, plane tickets have been...
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The question I get almost daily is, "When are you going to start skiing?" The start of the ski season is not in sight for the Pacific Northwest. We're still having unseasonably warm temps, and what little snow is in the mountains is almost gone. Thanksgiving is usually an optimistic date to ski around...
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Every year it seems like a race to see which will come first: opening day or the Warren Miller movie. Either way, I’m always super excited about the Warren Miller crew coming to town. Barring a freak snowstorm, it’s the official start to my ski season. There’s plenty of love for both skiers and snowboarders...
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There's a new TV show on cable station "truTV." I didn't even know I had this station but it's a network devoted to real life stories. Think "Rescue 911" twenty four hours a day. The show is called Ski Patrol , and, as the name implies, the show follows ski patrol units...
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Running 38 lifts takes gobs of power. Running the entire Whistler village takes even more. By 2010, all of that will be running on power generated from Fitzsimmons Creek. Construction has begun on a renewable energy project that will offset the total annual energy consumption at Whistler Blackcomb. The...
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Loveland and Arapahoe Basin have a yearly race to see who can open first. It looks like Loveland has pulled out to an early lead by starting snowmaking last Wednesday! "It has been cold up in the high country, but it didn’t look like we would get the temperatures necessary to start making snow until...
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I told some of you that I was going to make the main release in November, but having two versions live in the wild at the same time is a pain. So it’s time to roll out the update! If the status line in your gadget hasn’t changed to notify you of an update yet, it should soon. That message will tell you...
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This is a special reminder for skiers in the Seattle area. September 15 is the last date to get discounted season passes at the Summit at Snoqualmie. I'll be picking up the Big S Unlimited Gold pass because it includes 5 free days at Crystal. It's a fantastic deal. If you're going to ski...
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I know a lot of you like to watch sites like slickdeals.net , woot.com , steepandcheap.com and a host of other bargains sites so I have one more to add to your list: tramdock.com . It's the same company as steepandcheap but it's 100% ski and snowboard gear.
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Last winter, I wrote an application which captures images from the web at set intervals. It's available on codeplex.com if you're interested. This has been running on my machine since December and I finally got around to making some videos out of them. They probably aren't terribly interesting...
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You'd think that skiing regularly through Memorial Day and getting caught in a blizzard on skis one June 6 would have made it easier to wait for the next season to start up. It didn't. Here it is only mid-August and I'm already getting the itch again. I can hear the collective groans from...