Tag: snowboarding
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13th annual+
It’s that time of year again: the annual ski and snowboard trip.
Regular readers of this blog will know that this happens each and every year, provided a global pandemic isn’t currently underway. Last year we went to Park City and this year we’re off to Lyon and Les 3 Vallées. Is there anything better than urban + mountain? I don’t think so.
This year’s is also unique in that I selfishly upgraded it into a slash bachelor party for myself. And that’s why I’m calling it the 13th annual, plus.
So what should you expect on this blog for the next 10 days or so?
You should expect more travel, food, and snowboarding-related content, as well as more photos. I generally never travel without my Fujifilm. I’m also thinking about experimenting with more real-time posts, and possibly even multiple posts per day. Basically something more akin to a social feed. We’ll see if that happens.
Regardless, if beautiful European cities and sublime mountains aren’t your thing, you may want to check back in early February for our regularly scheduled city building programming.
Photo by Inés Álvarez Fdez on Unsplash
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Rescue reflectors vs. avalanche beacons
Last week, I decided to order a RECCO rescue reflector for my snowboard helmet (the red strip pictured above). My new jacket — a wonderful Christmas gift — doesn’t have one built in, so I decided it couldn’t hurt to just stick one on. They cost about $50.
However, a passive RECCO reflector is not an avalanche beacon. These reflectors only work if a rescue crew has active RECCO detectors on hand. I don’t know what percentage of resorts have them, but if you’ve ever been cat or heli-skiing, or if you do backcountry skiing, you’ll know that what you need is a beacon.
Avalanche beacons generally have two modes: a sending mode and a receiving mode. When you’re riding, you want it in sending mode, meaning you’re automatically transmitting your location. No further action is needed.
If something bad were to happen, and someone gets lost, everyone in the group will then switch their beacon to receiving mode. And this is how you go about finding someone if they’ve been caught in something like an avalanche.
I don’t know that many people who do this while skiing inbounds, but today’s tragedy at Palisades Tahoe is a reminder that sometimes bad things can happen even within managed resort areas. My heart is heavy for the skier who died today.
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Snowboarders are annoying
There are three resorts in the United States that do not allow snowboarding. They are: Deer Valley and Alta in Utah, and Mad River Glen in Vermont. New York-based Extell is also developing a new resort next to Deer Valley that was previously known as the Mayflower Resort. For a while, it was up in the air whether they would allow snowboarders, but this past summer it was announced that it will become part of Deer Valley and that their snowboarding ban will remain firmly in place.
As a snowboarder, I’m not overly fussed by this. There are, of course, lots of other places that will welcome my kind. But I do think it’s both interesting and worth poking fun at. It speaks to the tribal-like nature of humans. I get down the mountain on this device and you get down the mountain on that device. So we are fundamentally different humans. And I do not want to associate with you. At the same time, I do respect the ability for private resorts to make their own decisions. And this seems to be what their paying customers want.
But what about if the resort happens to be on public land? Does that make things any different? Deer Valley sits on land that is privately owned; whereas Alta sits on land that is owned by the National Forest Service. Which is why in 2014, a bunch of cantankerous snowboarders sued the resort, claiming that its ski-only policy violated the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. I’m not a lawyer, but I am told that this is typically used in cases involving discrimination.
Alta ultimately won the case. They argued that even though the land they sit on is public, their lifts are still private. And so they get to decide who uses them. I guess that’s fair. But at the same time, this technically means that snowboarders are allowed on the mountain, they just can’t use any of the lifts. I tried to confirm this fact with Alta on X the other day, but they have yet to respond.
In any event, my prediction is this.
Snowboarding is a relatively young sport. It grew massively in popularity during the 1990s (which is when I switched over from skiing), and so its participants tend to skew younger (my assumption). This is probably why fancy resorts like Deer Valley don’t feel the need to cater to them. However, young people tend to both grow up and, you know, make more money. And so at some point — when there’s a real business imperative — we may find that people suddenly change their minds.
If you’re trying desperately to sell luxury condominiums at the base of a resort and if snowboarders keep showing up at your sales office, for how long will you continue to say no to their money?
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My first Turo experience
I used Turo for the first time this evening. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Turo is like Airbnb, but for cars. It connects people who have cars with people who need rental cars. Here is a photo of ours at SLC:
The pickup was perfectly seamless. I got a text from an alleged human the day before. It said that they would leave the car on the second level of the parking garage next to baggage claim. And that I would get more precise instructions — such as where the key will be — after it was parked there.
I was also told that there would be a small charge to pay in order to exit the garage. And that the charge would obviously depend on how quickly I retrieve the car after they park it. In my case it ended up being US$10, but we also stopped for food on the way.
Overall, I’d say the pickup experience was easier and faster than your typical rental car. The car was as advertised. And thankfully, it was also there waiting for us. The two standout features for me are probably: (1) It was cheaper and (2) you get to pick your exact car.
This second one is important because sometimes you need a rental car so that you can drive it into a snow-covered canyon. And when faced with this situation, it can be helpful to know exactly what you’ll be getting — right down to the type of tires.
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Gone snowboardin’
View on TikTok, here.
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11th annual
We landed in Calgary last night, stopped for a bowl of pho noodle soup, and then did the three hour drive into the BC interior. This year’s “annual” is in Fernie, British Columbia. It’s my first time here and the snow is everything I was promised. And since I have been meaning to post more photos on this blog, here are a few that I took today on my iPhone (with only minor edits made in VSCO). More to come, here.
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The future of clothing
Today’s post is going to be a bit of a departure from our regularly scheduled programming. But it’s so cool that I had to share it. It’s a company called Vollebak, and they use science and technology to make highly technical clothing (or, as they call it, the future of clothing). It was founded by two brothers.
Every month they launch a new clothing concept. (Sign up here if you want to get on their list.) But each new piece they develop could take anywhere from one to five years to actually produce. Usually we’re talking about new production methods and materials that have never before been used for clothing.
Examples include an indestructible puffer jacket designed to help us withstand up to -40 degrees; a solar charged jacket; a “black squid jacket” that reflects visible light to go from black to bionic; and a plant/algae t-shirt that is grown and can later be composted.
But the piece I’m really eyeing is this blue morpho ski/snowboard jacket. It uses two billion microscopic glass spheres to try and replicate the wings of a blue morpho butterfly. During the day the jacket is matt blue. But as soon as you shine light onto it, it looks like the above photo.
This would be useful if you were, say, caught in an avalanche and a helicopter searchlight was trying to find you. Hopefully that’s a use case that none of us have to experience. But it could also be invaluable if you were out walking or cycling at night and you wanted to make sure that cars could see you.
(Please note how I somehow managed to make this post mildly relevant to cities.)
Image: Vollebak
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Yearning for Turning Vol. 9
It is starting to feel a lot like winter and you know what that means:
Korua makes some of my favorite snowboard videos.
Please check back tomorrow for our regularly scheduled programming.
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[Video] Yearning for turning
It is a beautiful snow day in Toronto today and so I thought we would switch gears a little.
If you don’t care about snowboarding (or skiing), you may want to ignore today’s post and check back tomorrow. But if you do care, then you are going to absolutely love this video by KORUA Shapes. There’s something so magical about pairing the right song with the right video. If you can’t see it below, click here.
I’ve been following KORUA for a number of years now. They make unique snowboard shapes with virtually zero graphics or ornamentation. The tops are white and the bottoms are red. Clean and simple. It’s all about the geometry of the boards and their performance. Their mission: “Simply for the sake of beauty and joy.”
I think I’m going to try one out next season.
