Studio711.com – Ben Martens

On Saturday I headed to Crystal for my fifth day of skiing so far this season. My watch keeps tracks of how many runs I take in a day and I’ve already done more than the last three years! And what a season it has been so far. The photo below shows the top of the Northway lift earlier this week. They had to dig 9 feet down to make a path for the chair. The snow this month has been incredible!

I arrived in the parking lot at 8:15 for the 9:00 opening and I was amazed at how many people were already there. In true Crystal fashion, the enormous parking lot crowds apparently got lost between their cars and the slopes because I never saw big lines. The gondola line was short so I hopped in that and was at the top a little before 9 thanks to an early opening. There wasn’t any fresh snow, but I do love a good groomer so I made about 5 laps on Green Valley waiting for the crowds to show up. They never did arrive, but I noticed that the Northway lift had opened so I decided to explore there.

I discovered a couple ENORMOUS areas that I’ve never skied before and look forward to checking out more in the future. It occurred to me that these new areas I found to ski were bigger than the entire resorts that I used to ski in the Philly area. Crystal had also run the snow cat up part of Northway which is very rare but thankfully it smoothed out the huge moguls that form right near the bottom of the lift.

On my way out of Northway, I decided to attempt the long traverse back to base called I-5. I must have made a wrong turn at some point because I ended up down at LOT E. That was super convenient though because I had forgotten my snacks and was able to grab them from the roof of my car as I caught a shuttle back up to the lodge. The parking lots were completely full by this point (even lot F was filling up) but I still never saw a long line.

The light was starting decrease up top as the day went on so I called it quits around 1:30. It was a fun day for all the new areas I found to ski, but the conditions were nothing to write home about.

Looking back at the history of skis, there are some obvious major advancements in technology. Early skis were slabs of wood that you would strap your feet to, but skiing really started to gain popularity with the masses when rigid plastic boots and break away bindings were introduced. In the mid-90’s, the skiing industry discovered shaped skis. This meant that the part of the ski under your foot was thinner than the ends. It greatly improved skiers ability to carve in turns, keeping the whole ski in contact with the snow in a big arc.

About ten years ago, the industry started another big shift. This time it was called “rocker.” The diagram below shows the older camber shape with the new rocker shape.

The goal of a rockered ski is to float on top of powder, but the problem was that the early models were horrible on groomed runs. The tips would flap around and there was hardly any edge contacting the snow when you attempted to carve. Modern rocker skis are a combination between the older camber and the newer rocker. Here’s a side profile of the 2013 Salomon Rocker 2 108.

This might look roughly like the camber diagram, but the major differences from cambered skis are that these new rocker skis are much flatter under foot and the rise to the tips starts early. It’s not a “fully rockered” ski since those are best kept for pure powder skiing which very few of us do. I’ve been reading about rocker in magazines for a long time, but it has finally gotten to the point where I felt like it had potential to be an all-mountain ski. Conveniently I’m in the market for some new skis this season.

This last weekend I demoed a couple pairs of skis at Crystal to figure out what I might like. I’ve never skied a rockered ski or even a ski as fat as modern skis so I wanted to try them before plunking down that much cash. Based on my research I started with the  Salomon Rocker 2 108s. They are 108mm underfoot (my current skis are 79mm) and they have rockered tips. The morning was cold and blustery with hard packed bumps off piste. I theorized that any new ski would be better in the powder  than my old skis so I wanted to test the rocker on groomers. I was immediately impressed. They weren’t quite as good as my Bandit B2’s on the hard groomers, but they were plenty good. And as fresh snow started to fall, I ventured off the groomers and fell in love with the skis. They handled every condition I could find with an ease I had never experienced. They were so much fun that I had a hard time going back to the demo shop to switch them out for something else.

I asked the sales guy what he recommended and he pointed me to the Blizzard Cochise. The measurements are similar to the Salomons, and I didn’t notice a ton of difference on the groomers. But as good as the Salomons were off-piste, the Blizzards were even better! I was doing things with those skis that I had never done before. It felt like in 30 minutes I gained more skill than I’ve gained in the last year. The snow was falling pretty fast and I found some powder stashes to play in. I’ve always been frustrated with powder in the past because I couldn’t ski it like I knew I should be able to, but with these skis it was a breeze. The groomers had collected a lot of snow and there were large bumps of packed powder. With my old skis, I had to ski around and  between them, but with these new skis, I was able to pick my own line regardless of the bumps and just skim over the top. It’s something I’ve watched other people do and had no idea how the physics of it worked. Now that I had the same skis, it all made sense.

As you can probably tell, it’s hard to describe the feeling and how much I felt like it elevated my skiing. The best description I’ve come up with so far is that it’s like a baseball player who has been using a wood bat all his life and switches to aluminum. You can use it the same way but you get a big difference in the result, and then as you get better with it, you realize there are additional capabilities. I’m by no means an expert and I have a lot to learn, but these new skis could give me the confidence and tools to increase the rate at which I improve. I’m going to sit on it a couple more weeks and then make my decision right after New Year. I can’t wait!

On Saturday I headed to Crystal again. They have gotten a lot of snow since last weekend and the base area really showed it. I could ski all the way to the bottom without much trouble. I didn’t need the rock skis today!

The day started with a great run off of High Campbell and then I spent much of the rest of the time exploring the Green Valley lift. I’ve skied at Crystal more than any other resort and still more than half of my runs were runs that I had never done before. It was a lot of fun exploring.

I did whip out the GoPro for a few runs, but I didn’t leave it on my helmet the whole time. The assumption seems to be that if you have a camera on your head, you think you’re awesome. I could spend all day telling you why I’m not awesome, but still, I’d rather let people laugh in silence at my skiing. (I regularly hear jests shouted from chairlifts to people who fall wearing a GoPro.) Anyway, I got some decent video of one run and have posted it to YouTube so you can watch. It occurred to me that much of the video is going to look extremely similar so I probably won’t post a ton of it going forward. I have a lot of fun with the camera though!

Steven Pass was probably the place to ski today though. They got 2 feet of snow on Thursday night and 4 feet last night for a total of 69” at the base. They had to spend quite a lot of time digging some of the lift chairs out of the snow! Apparently the lines were incredibly long though so I wasn’t too disappointed. A good chunk of the Crystal crowd eats lunch between 11:30 and 1 and during that time, I repeatedly skied right onto the lift.

The day ended slightly early for me. I took a break around 1:30 and then rode the gondola back up to get a few more runs in. About three turns into my first run, I got cramps in both thighs. Thankfully one lightened up but my right leg was pretty rough. I made it the 2500 vertical feet back down to the base and headed for the car. It was a good day and there’s no reason to push it.

I have an amazing wife. Not only is she carrying our child, but she agreed to let me get a season pass to Crystal and Snoqualmie this year since my skiing opportunities in the future will be quite a bit different. Thank you Tyla!

On Saturday, I made my first use of the pass. The resorts opened a couple weeks ago, but early season conditions are still in full effect. Rocks and trees poke through in a lot of places and the bottom half of the mountain is mostly ice. That being said, the top of the mountain was still a blast and my legs wore out long before the snow did.

I have had a season pass in a couple years, but I was reminded on Saturday of how great it feels. There’s not much worrying the night before about whether or not the snow will be good enough to justify a $65 lift ticket and there’s no pressure to stay the entire day to get as much use out of that lift ticket as possible.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find the right mount for my GoPro (a replacement has already been ordered!) so I didn’t get a chance to really test out the camera. I took a quick video using the headband mount but that meant I had to carry my helmet and goggles and squint through the blowing snow. Still, it gives you a bit of an idea of what it looked like up there. Most of the video shows a run from the top of the gondola down Lucky Shot to the base of Rainier Express. Normally this would include a great view of Rainier off to the right, but it was clouded in. Mom and Dad, the first half of this run is right where we hiked when you were out here earlier this year. The last few seconds of the video show a short clip of the Northway area which opened for the first time of the season while I was there. My skinny rock skis were no match for that deep snow, but it was still fun to see what lies ahead this season!

Soon there will be enough snow that I can switch to my regular skis and then in January I’m planning to pick up a new pair of skis thanks the new benefits package from my job. If any of you have thoughts about the following skis, please let me know: Line Prophet 98, Salomon Rocker 2 108, K2 Hardside, Rossignol S3.

UPDATE: Some of you asked how my sinuses did in the cold/dry air since I’m only 2.5 weeks past the surgery. This is a bit gross, but you asked for it. I still wake up every day with some bloody mucus draining down my throat or out my nose and that definitely increased while I was skiing. It was never a cause for alarm though and honestly I didn’t think much about it during the day because I was having so much fun. The drainage quickly return to normal levels and I don’t think I set my healing process back at all. At my last checkup the doctor said I was cleared to ski as long as nothing crazy started happening with my nose. I’m very thankful to be back to normal activities so quickly after the surgery!

We’re all itching for opening day. Every year we hear people saying this is taking longer than normal, but what is normal? Here is a list of opening day for area resorts for the last 5 years:

As with the stock market, past performance is no indicator of future results. Additionally, while the resorts opened for skiing on these dates, they very rarely if ever have the whole mountain open and rocks are usually easy to find for those first few weeks.

Think snow! With any luck we’ll be skiing soon. Whistler has already announced they’ll be open by 11/17.

I’ve been hard at work getting a new version of the CascadeSkier app put together which will run in the new Windows 8 environment. Jeremy, the designer who is responsible for the beautiful Windows Phone apps, is on board for this new app too. We’re following the same look at feel of the phone app but adapting it to fit with the Windows 8 environment. I’m eager to show you some screenshots and give you a demo, but I’m holding off until we actually get this thing submitted to the store. That should hopefully happen in the next few days and then I’m expecting the store testing to take quite a while. There are a ton of developers trying to get their apps into the store before it publically launches at the end of October!

Crystal Mountain recently installed a giant air bag. They put it underneath a jump so that people much younger than me can practice their jumps without much fear of injury. I just had to know what it felt like so last weekend Tyla and I went down to Crystal along with a couple friends from work, Andy and Aim.

Andy and I tried to come up with excuses for most of the day, but eventually our egos got the best of us. We paid our $5 for 2 jumps each and signed away all our rights.

The ramp was about 9 feet high and it wasn’t just a big wedge. It had a curve to it. Seeing all of the other people going off it and throwing backflips should have been a clue that the jump wasn’t going to be easy to go straight off of. The first time off, I tried to lean forward but I still ended up far on my back. The landing was smooth though so I climbed back up the hill to try again. The second time was way worse. This time I crouched a little bit with a plan to hop right at the top. The little pop helps keep you straight in the air. But I really underestimated the force that the ramp would exert as it through me up into the air. My slightly bent knees compressed all the way so that my head was between my knees when I went off the jump. It actually knocked the wind out of me! Style for miles.

So I looked completely ridiculous, but I’m happy that I did it. When I finished I said I’d never try it again, but the pain is already starting to fade in my memory and of course now I think I should try it again but this time I should attempt a backflip. There’s always next year.

And since I have no pride, here’s a video. The skier is me and the snowboarder is Andy. He fared much better than I did. The noise you hear in the background is the generator running to power the fans that keep the bag inflated.

We’ve had an interesting winter. It started off with a bang, dried out for quite a while, and now we’re getting alternating snow dumps and rain. I skipped the pass again this year and again I wonder if that was the right idea. My plan was to pick out the best days, take vacation, and go skiing, but that hasn’t happened yet.

I have been up three times this year though. I’ve already written about the first trip to Crystal with Tyla and my friend AndyM from work. I’m amazed at how much Tyla has improved from last year without any skiing. What’s her secret? Every day we go out she progresses dramatically. Maybe we should have both gotten passes and set ourselves up to ski once a week.

The second trip was also to Crystal with Tyla but this time it was with AndyD and StephanieW. Aside from an unadvised attempt to lead them down Green Valley bowl, we had a great time.

Then last week I headed up for night skiing at Alpental with AndyM. We started off in a bit of misty rain, but that ended and the slightly warm snow was soft and very nice. It started to turn into frozen lumps by the end of the night but we were done anyway.

I don’t know that I’ll ever get another 29 day ski season (at least until I retire), but these trips up with friends are a lot of fun!

Every October, Microsoft has a big auction for charity. Employees can put things up for other employees to bid on. Four years ago, I won a day of semi-professional ski photography. Jay and Andy came out and the three of us had a great skiing day with some amazing photos. I’ve continued to enjoy those pictures, and Bernard, the photographer, has continued to offer that auction item every year. So this past fall, I bid on it again and won.

We’ve had a hard time picking the “perfect” day. I wanted to combine a midweek date so there’s less traffic, some partial clearing so there is good light, and of course, fresh snow! Those three things aligned last Thursday so we took the day off and headed up to Stevens Pass since they had the most snow that day.

One of the main reasons I wanted to do this again was that I felt like I skied extremely poorly the last time we did this. Bernard was able to get some good shots every once in a while, but I pretty much fumbled through the whole thing. While I’m still FAR from an expert skier I felt much more in control this time. Maybe I’ll do it again in four more years after I have even more practice.

Lest I get too much of an ego about these pictures, I’ve included one in the upper right of this post that is fairly indicative of how I normally ski. The photos below are a few of my favorites but there are more in the photo gallery.

I definitely had my share of dumb moments throughout the day. The most obvious one was the time we spent about 20 minutes carefully traversing through some very tight trees to a secret untracked stash. Over the radio, Bernard described the route to me. Drop out of the trees, make a hard right, traverse under the cliff about 50 feet and then ski down the tree line. Got it. I dropped in out of the trees, turned right a bit late, tried to correct and ended up face first in the snow. By then I had lost too much speed and the rest of the run was wasted.

But all in all, I got a ton of pictures that I love. Thanks to Bernard for putting up with me and for giving me these wonderful photos!

This winter hasn’t been a great ski year for most of the country. Washington is very lucky to have about an average amount of snow for this time of year. We got most of it Thanksgiving week and it has been pretty dry since then, so although we have a decent amount of snow, it’s not great quality.

A couple weekends ago, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to get out for my first turns of the year. Tyla and my friend Andy from work headed down to Crystal with me. We had a great day and the groomers were pretty nice. Andy and I snuck off at lunch for a quick run down Powder Bowl. The entry was a bit dicey as we picked through some rock bands, but the snow was decent. Throughout the day, I was smiling from ear to ear watching Tyla get better and better with every run. It’s quite an accomplishment for her considering that I’m her teacher and that starts her out in a big hole!