Canyons Resort March 2015

 

It’s official. The season – at least in Utah – is going down as the warmest and driest on record. According to the National Weather Service, temps were consistently 7 to 13 degrees above normal from December to March; and that news comes on top of the reports that our nation’s winter overall was the 19th-warmest in the last 120 years. The irony is that NOAA was calling this back in October yet everyone seems surprised. But despite the tragic news, Utah skiers are ready to party.

 

The massive party you’ll share with a couple hundred of your fellow passholders takes place atop High Rustler on the final Sunday of the season. It celebrates the “Final Closing Day of Alta.” (Alta closes on April 19 then reopens for one last weekend on April 24, 2015).

 

HIGH RUSTLER RAGES

Locals skiers aren’t ones to let their favorite resorts close without a bang and so the annual ritual of meeting on High Boy for the last run of the season has been raging since the 1960s when a loyal group of Altaholics made the High Traverse to Rustler for one farewell kiss to winter and some raucous hell raising. The 45-degree pitch drops you quickly into the 1300 vertical-foot run but the point of the ceremony is to wait, and wait, drawing out the day until the last possible moment before making that painfully sweet final run.

Back then, the gang waited until the last Germania chair emptied and those skiers joined up with them. That was around 6 p.m. or so. Now, you might still catch skiers crunching beer cans from the peak at 7:30 p.m. as others make their way to the parking lot. Alta technically closes at 4:30 p.m. but the sign at the top of Collins Lift will post that ski patrol’s going home at 5 p.m., you’re on your own, so be careful. That’s like leaving for the weekend and giving the teenagers the keys to the house, the car and liquor cabinet. Who’d want to leave that party?

More than 200 skiers and snowboarders (who brave the cat track from Snowbird’s Baldy Express to the top of Collins and the High T) dress in crazy costumes and rally for the ridge above Rustler. Coolers, amps, boomboxes, beer, combustibles, fifths of whiskey and vodka, and firecrackers get passed among the crowd.

A flat spot no bigger than the bed of a pickup truck acts as the podium for the “judges.” If you jump into Rustler too soon, these gatekeepers pound you with harsh words and harsher snowballs. So you wait, and wait; hoping for a sign that it’s time to start the mass exodus from the peak. But it never comes too soon. Everyone has too much fun at the party to want to go home. In past seasons, a giant roar would erupt from the mob and you’d experience a Chinese Downhill, Alta style. Flash turns, hoots, hollers, wipeouts, and apologies made to the wind as skiers continued their nonstop crush to the bottom, rippers barely missing the snowplowing novices who dared the ritual. It wasn’t pretty for anyone as you spent most of the run trying to survive the onslaught of darting, out-of-control bodies. But that was the best part.

These days the core riders may want to hang onto even the tiniest bit winter. We’ll see what happens this April 26. You may have to decide on your own when to leave. Luckily the party continues with live music and the largest ski tailgating event of the season in the Collins parking lot. If you’re anxious for asphalt make sure you sneak through a line in the trees and pop out below where the snowballs can’t reach you. The heavy wet snow is destined to leave a mark both physically and emotionally.

If you ask me, winter started winding down in January. But now is the final hour – even if there are 12 inches of new snow in this week’s forecast before Utah ski area closing dates. We have a storm system headed our way that’s already dropping temps and bringing in some much needed moisture. Too little, too late? It matters not. We need it. Eagle Point, Sundance, Beaver, Powder and Snowbasin are now closed. Cherry Creek never opened.

The fresh snow comes just in time to close out Deer Valley and Canyons Resort in Park City this Sunday April 12, 2015. Park City Mountain Resort will try to eek out one more week by April 19, 2015.

Solitude Ski Resort will also be closing down this Sunday as well but they’re promoting a sweet final week sale- Season pass and season ticket pack holders can bring a buddy to ski for $29. (Limit 2 per day.) If you don’t have a pass then an all day lift ticket will be $49; $29 for kids 7-13, and kids under 7 ski free.

As for the remaining resorts:

Alta Ski Resort will close April 19 and then reopen the weekend of April 24 – 26. If you’re in the market for new skis, don’t miss the Spring Demo Day this Saturday. Rumor has it the party will be raging again at the top of High Rustler on April 26 but if you prefer to party on land expect some of the biggest tailgators ever in the Collins Parking April 26.

Brighton Ski Resort closes April 19.

Brian Head Resort in Southern Utah plans to stay open through April.

 

As usual Snowbird Ski Resort will be the lone holdout with an anticipated closing in June. (My bet is on a mid-May closing, however, judging from the current snowpack.)

 

Credit: Dan Davis, Beaver Creek Resort

My jaw dropped as I eavesdropped on a table of ski instructors last week. They were on a break and sharing a YouTube video. A video about fair wages for ski instructors poked more than fun at Vail Resorts and had been circulating since November. It was slowly gaining momentum. Weren’t they worried about getting fired? Heck, I’m worried about just writing this post. VR is a monster corporation in the ski industry; one that considers itself a “leader”.

The YouTube user calling themselves ‘Fair Wages’ is stirring up all sorts of trouble. And it’s about time. It’s well-known in the ski industry that compared to what resorts charge for lessons, instructors are getting the shaft.

As one commenter posted under this hilariously sad ‘insider’ video, VR, has no problem charging “a week’s groceries for a day pass” but they can’t pay their instructors for their experience? Instructors in general are not paid on commission. They’re on hourly, paid anywhere from $8-25/hr plus tips (maybe) for a seven-hour day (actually 6.5 because lunch is deducted even if you are required to dine with your clients) while charging guests nearly $1k for a private lesson.

Now, letters and comments to the editor at the Vail Daily are flying. Resorts charge guests around $900 for an all-day private lesson and pay the instructor from $100 to $200. Some insiders speculate that the high prices drive guests to take fewer (if any) lessons or find underground instructors on Craigslist, Facebook or word of mouth to guide them. A less-than-ideal snowpack also turns away customers. This significantly cuts into what an instructor can make in a winter.

Ski Instructors Speak Out On Fair Wages

Derek Hamlin commented on the VD article: I work at a Colorado resort, I am making an average of $44 per day. It is not just Vail Resorts that are sucking the life out of instructors, we all have the same issues no matter what resort we work at. It is about time the PSIA (Professional Ski Instructors of America) actually did something for us. By the time we have paid our dues, completed our training, bought boots skis gloves helmets we actually pay the resort for the pleasure of working for them.

Guests too are bothered. On top of what they’re asked to pay, they’re having an amazingly personal day with a pro and they don’t like knowing that nearly all of that money is going to the resort. They shouldn’t have to tip on top of what they’ve already paid but they feel sorry for the poor bastard.

Not to mention that while the guest pays a flat fee no matter who he skis with (a 20-year vet or a new-hire), the instructor will make a different amount depending on his years of experience, his part-time or full-time status, his level of PSIA certification and whether this is a returning client.

The latest letter to VD complains of other practices as well – “calling 10 people into work and only using two; the other eight are sent home with almost no pay, wasting the whole day. Secondly, allowing guests to cancel on the same day because it is too cold, warm, windy or snowing”, charging them cancellation fees but paying the instructor nothing. “Therefore, an instructor’s chances of working that day are greatly reduced, significantly reducing the pay. When you take the number of days that instructors show up and divide by the gross wages, you really have the actual pay.”

The popular ski forum on Teton Gravity Research took up the topic last December. For anyone who has never taught skiing you might think this is just a bunch of instructors whining. They get a season pass, they’re in the mountains and they get paid to ski. Stop you’re moaning. But ask yourself this: If your boss told you to be at work by 8:30 in a business suit and, by the way, you might only be paid for 15 minutes, how many times would you show up (forgoing all other opportunities to make money that day) before you started complaining?

The Corporate Mentality Jeopardizes Fair Wages For Ski Instructors

The practice has been entertained since the dawn of ski schools. To a ski school’s defense, their hands are tied to the industry standard by Corporate and without a voice for the little guy the practice isn’t likely to change. Ski instructors, like waiters and non-union actors, face the same backlash: if you don’t like it, find a different career. But should that really be the answer? Why can’t a person make a decent living doing what they love without being taken advantage of? Wouldn’t your guest prefer a seasoned, happy professional who’s committed to skiing with your kid from the time they’re 6 to 18?

Waiters, who everyone knows work for tips not basepay, are getting minimum wage increases. And most waiters aren’t passionate about their job. It’s a way to pay bills. Actors and instructors love what they do. They love the training, the process, the ability to find inspiration in every single project or class. However, “full-time actor” would be an oxymoron for anyone outside of Los Angeles or New York, yet there are hundreds of “full-time” instructors.

Unfortunately, instructors are individual creatures and no one wants to be that guy who stands up and makes trouble. A good friend of mine left Park City to teach in Aspen; just like the video said. She wanted a fair wage and lesson assignments she felt she deserved from the more than 20 years of teaching experience and PSIA certifications. Her complaints fell on deaf ears in Utah. Resorts shouldn’t have to (or want to) lose good people because they’re not listening (or because they’re speaking up. cough, cough.)

Only this season has the conversation gone public even if it’s in the form of a cartoon. We’ll see if resorts’ ears perk up now.

 

 

 

It’s easy to get stuck behind a desk and forget that there’s a life in front of it. Get off your butt and move. We already know sitting around is just plain bad for your emotional state but a new study in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Journal has linked sitting around to chronic diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.The study looked at 12, randomly selected, non-obese guys in their 20s and put them through two trials. In one, they stay seated for three hours without moving and the other they were asked to get up and and onto a treadmill once every hour for five minutes.Researchers concluded that prolonged sitting even for just one hour actually impairs the blood flow to your legs and vascular function, which is a marker of cardiovascular disease. The study also found that five minutes of light walking every hour makes a huge difference in the blood flow rate.They did agree, however, more research needs to be done to determine exactly how sitting impairs vascular function, specifically when it comes to those already at risk for chronic diseases.Bottomline, the next time your boss sees you walking out the door in your ski jacket just tell him that you’re taking care of your heart and you’ll be back soon.

It was a parent’s nightmare today as many families witnessed a chairlift accident at Sugarloaf Ski Area in Maine. The King Pine lift’s brakes failed around 11:30 a.m., sending about nine chairs backward through the bullwheel and injuring seven guests. While no one was critically hurt, three are resting comfortably now in the hospital. It took operations about two hours to evacuate 204 people from the lift but some had already launched from the lift, attempting to jump to safety before it was too late.

“The lift was dangerous and erratic as it circled the wrong way around the bullwheel at the bottom. Chairs were swinging people off and into the chairlift structure (pole),” said guest David Souweine who happened to think quickly enough to yank out his cellphone and catch the action. “The lift at that location was 10-15 feet with soft snow underneath. The (chairlift accident) injuries were from people swung by the bullwheel (big wheel where the lift changes direction) not from those bailing off the chairs.“

“Jumping was the correct and safest action at the time. Gravity will yank the people loaded, backwards, RAPIDLY, into a concrete and steel structure, then spin around 180 degrees with you flying off into said structure,” said YouTube’s ScottieBoo. “It was the fact the brakes were not kicking in, if it never braked every single person near the top of the lift would be flying backwards at near terminal velocity which is unsafe to jump from.“

The fixed-grip quad lift was inspected and certified to operate last October according to a press release on Sugarloaf’s website but it is now closed pending a close investigation by the Maine Board of Elevator and Tramway Safety. Sugarloaf is set to host the U.S. Alpine Championship, March 25-29, so this kind of wreck is not the exposure they were hoping for; especially as it was only four seasons ago that Sugarloaf’s Spillway East lift derailed, dropping nine chairs to the ground and putting eight people in the hospital.

 

In Utah ski lifts accidents are rare and usually occur when someone falls off. The last time anything mecahnical happened in Utah was in 1966 when two ladies died after being thrown off a scenic, summer lift ride at Sundance Resort.