2023 Ski Season

The previous year we dipped our toes into the ski bum road trip lifestyle with a month long trip. It was awesome to spend so much time on the road and really learn what we like and don’t like.

I switched my pass this year to the Ikon Pass to get more days at the places I love and to expand the number of places that I am able to ski. It also didn’t help that Altera removed their mountains from the Mountain Collective pass, taking away all the California mountains. I also felt a bit limited in the number of days I could ski with the Mountain Collective pass, only getting 2 days at each of the partner resorts. Ikon gave me unlimited at the Altera owned mountains and 7 days at the rest of the mountains I would want to ski.

Mariah stayed with the Mountain Collective, since she wasn’t planning on coming on the whole road trip, but just flying in for a weekend at a time to join me. This worked out well, since it forced me to move around more than I would have otherwise.

The Plan

This year’s plan was to do a road trip on an even bigger scale than last year, with at least 2 months on the road and getting more days on the mountain.

• Fly to Denver to ski with friends in Colorado
• Fly to Boise to pick up my truck
• Get back to Denver by the end of February for a conference
• Mariah would fly in and ski parts of the trip, but wasn’t road tripping
• Slowly make my way back to California by the beginning of April
• Ski a bunch in California

Ski Trip Log

I was able to make it to more mountains in a year than I have ever before and also ski at seven new mountain.

Taos

We flew out to New Mexico to bring my dad back to Taos. The last time he was there was in the late 80s. We had a lot of fun showing him the city and the mountain.

A huge storm rolled in overnight for day 2 and multiple inches of fresh snow fell. I unfortunately forgot to pack enough contacts and couldn’t ski. We got a late start getting up to the mountain so Mariah and my dad could ski. When we got there, the storm was still dumping snow. The winds were high and the temperature was low, so they only lasted 90 minutes before calling it quits.

Colorado Part 1

I flew to Colorado to take some friends skiing at Breckenridge. I ended up flying in a couple days early to also ski with my cousin who was attending CU Boulder. We did a day trip up to Winter Park. My friends came in the next day, and we drove up to Breckenridge

• Lift lines at Winter Park
• Friends at Breckenridge
• Top of Peak 6

Idaho and Grand Targhee

We drove over to Driggs for what is becoming a tradition of late January skiing at Grand Targhee and on the way we stopped at Sun Valley. This trip has been growing in the number of people my Dad brings each year, and we always have a great time with his friends.

• Teton Canyon at Grand Targhee

Jackson

Mariah had a 6am flight out of Jackson on the 31st, so we split off from the group again for the last day, where they were planning on skiing Grand Targhee for a third day before heading back to Boise.

My plan was to drop her off, grab a coffee in town and then head up to the Mountain for a morning of skiing. That didn’t end up happening due to some extreme cold temperatures. It was -20°F outside when I dropped her off at the airport. It didn’t get above zero until 1pm, and I decided to just call it a wash and check into my hotel and go the next day.

• Antler Arch in downtown
• Panoramic view from Hoback
• Corbet's Couloir
• Tram Warning

Utah Part 1

I drove down Salt Lake City and bounced around the greater area for a couple weeks. During this time, some co-workers and Mariah came into town separately to ski.

With my change to the Ikon pass this year, I was able to try out a bunch of resorts in Salt Lake City that I wasn’t able to in the past. This gave me a reason to spend time up in Ogden to try out Snowbasin. Snowbasin was a such a welcome surprise, with it not being crowded at all and having great snow and terrain.

I was also able to venture up the Big Cottonwood Canyon for the first time to try out Brighton and Solitude. While I still prefer the Little Cottonwood Canyon more, Solitude has some very fun steeps, and I lucked out with a huge powder day.

For my final day in the Salt Lake City area I headed over to Park City and skied at Deer Valley. While I wasn’t impressed with the mountain after having spent 2 weeks skiing the steeps of the other Utah resorts, the town itself was a fun experience.

• Snowbasin Powder
• Mineral Basin at Snowbird
• Blue Sky at Snowbird
• Deer Valley

Colorado Part 2

I needed to be in Denver by February 23rd, so I made my way from Salt Lake City and stopped in Steamboat for a couple nights. While in Denver, I went up to Copper with some coworkers to ski. On my way back out of Colorado I stopped in Glenwood Springs for a couple nights to ski at Aspen. Work was pretty hectic, so I didn’t get to ski as much as I would have preferred in Colorado.

• Zuma Cornice at Arapahoe Basin
• Dropping in off the Cornice
• Copper Mountain

Utah Part 2

On my way back to California, I stopped in Salt Lake city for a couple days of skiing. Mariah flew into ski too, and we hit up Snowbird and Snowbasin. On the way out of town, I got a quick day in at Alta too.

• Greeley Bowl at Alta
• The Cirque at Snowbird
• Mineral Basin at Snowbird
• Porcupine at Snowbird

Return to California

I ended off the roadtrip with a stop in Tahoe, staying at the Inn at the Boatworks in Tahoe City. As for the skiing, the first day I was in California, all the resorts were closed due to the storm that rolled in the night before. I got a good three days of powder skiing before calling it and heading home.

By this time in the season, this had already been the deepest season in recorded history. There were 6ft snowberms on all the streets in the area.

• Snow berms in Tahoe City
• Avalanche Debris off Granite Chief

Day Trips to Tahoe

We did a couple day trips up to Tahoe for skiing. Mariah and I went up for a day trip to pick up her ski pass for next season. The other trip was with my Coworkers to pick up their passes for the next year. Both days were blue sky days with amazing snow conditions for late April.

Cinco de Mayo in Truckee

Mariah and I headed up to to Palisades for the Cinco de Mayo weekend and ended up with a surprise powder day. We stayed at the Spring Hill Suites in Truckee.

• Alpine Meadows Visibility
• Cinco de Mayo Powder

Mammoth Mountain

I planned a team building event for our team in Mammoth Mountain. We rented a condo for 5 days and road tripped up and back. The snow was ridiculously good for that late in the season with the entire mountain still being open. Record breaking year all across California and we continued to take advantage of it.

• Mammoth Gondola
• Lines in May

Late Season Turns

The season wound down for us in June, where we really didn’t feel like getting up to Tahoe every weekend to ski less and less snow. We decided to go up once in June to saw we skied in June and then again in July for closing day. It hopefully won’t be the last time I can ski in Tahoe this late into the year.

• Skiing in June
• Skiing on July 4th
• July 4th Cheer
• July 4th Outfit
• July 4th ski run
• Bottom of the ski run

Ski Gear

From the skis on my feet to the helmet on my head, gear is an important part of skiing. Here’s the gear that made it possible for me to enjoy this season.

Skis and Bindings

I’ve been skiing on Volkl Mantra 102s with Look Pivot 14 bindings for the last 4 seasons. They still tackled everything I threw at them and then some. From ripping down groomers at high speed to getting into the fresh stuff after a storm, they handled it all beautifully.

Holding me to the skis the Look Pivot 14 bindings that have been flawless this entire time. They can be a bit difficult to reset after a fall, but they continue to give me the ski feel I am looking for as I slide down the mountain.

2020 Volkl Mantra 102

• Volkl Mantra 102
• Look Pivot 14

Boots

Just like the skis, I continued to ski with the Dalbello Panterra 120 and ZipFit liners I’ve been using since 2020. My feet hurt a couple more times this season than last season, but everything seemed to work out if I kept my boots tight.

• Dalbello Panterra 120
• ZipFit Boot Liners

Poles

My tried and true Goode G-Max poles are still with me with no signs of needing replacement. These poles are made out of a composite material that allows them to flex and feel almost indestructible. They are light weight and have handled every ski season I’ve used them since 2008.

• Goode G-Max Poles

Helmet and Goggles

My goggles and Helmet didn’t change this year either. I did end up picking up couple more lenses for the goggles before the season started to be more adaptable to different sun conditions.

I’m skiing with a Smith Vantage MIPS helmet and Smith 4D Mag Goggles. These form a great system with a ton of ventilation and protection. The goggles give almost 100% peripheral view, with most of the gain in the vertical direction. MIPS technology in the helmet is designed to help protect your brain during a twisting fall by allowing the interior of the helmet to twist at a different rate than the exterior. Thankfully I haven’t had any big falls with my helmet yet, so I should be good to continue using it for the foreseeable future.

• Smith Vantage MIPS
• Smith 4D Mag goggles

Outer Layer

Between seasons I replaced almost my entire outerlayer system. I switched from my 686 Quantum Thermagraph pants to Flylow Baker Bibs. Having never skied in bibs before I just thought the normal operating behavior was snow going down your back in big pow days or during a fall. Little did I know the life changing magic of snow bibs. They’re an overall that keeps snow out of your clothes and also add a ton of extra usable pockets. They’ve got a thigh pocket where I keep my Balaclava just in case I need it, and chest pockets where I keep my car keys, snacks and anything else I want to keep warm or safe inside my jacket.

For the jacket, I picked up a Backcountry Cottonwoods jacket. This is only a shell, but it is made of burly gore-tex fabric and feels very strong. I also got a jacket that had the pockets in the places that I wanted them, and didn’t have a bunch of additional pockets. My requirements for pockets in a jacket is an exterior chest pocket for my phone, an additional exterior chest pocket for my goggles cleaning cloth, hand pockets for any additional things like snacks or trail maps, arm pocket for a pass, and vents to dump heat. Switching to only a shell gave me lot more control of how hot or cold I was going to be on any given day.

While in Utah the first time I did pick up an additional jacket that I use for extremely cold days, the Flylow Roswell Insulated jacket. I didn’t get to wear this much during the season, but when I did, I was definitely warm and stayed warmer than I could accomplish with my down jacket and base layers.

Keeping my hands warm has always been a problem for me and I’ve been very happy with the gloves I bought last year, Hestra Fall Line Three Finger gloves. I also added in a pair of Hestra Ergo Grip Active gloves for warmer weather. They are a much thinner glove and the back is polyester to really aid in ventilation. I didn’t expect to use them as much as I did, but they give a ton of dexterity and were a perfect temperature for nice days.

• Backcountry Cottonwoods Jacket
• Flylow Baker Bib
• Flylow Roswell Jacket
• Hestra Fall Line Gloves
• Hestra Ergo Active Gloves

Base Layers

I’ve been skiing in SmartWool socks since I started skiing, and I will never ski without them. Socks are just as important as boots for warmth and comfort.

For base layers, I picked up a couple of additional bottom and top layers for different temperatures. For pants I picked up some 3/4 length stretch pants and 3/4 length insulated pants. I always seemed to have issues with the 1/4 of the pant that isn’t in the boot bunching up around the top of the boot and causing pressure and a mild discomfort. 3/4 pants completely fix that so there isn’t all that extra fabric. The stretch pants are like a thicker long underwear, made of the same material is a yoga pant, and the insulated pants are like a light down jacket, but for your legs. The insulated pants also had side vents just like my pants for dumping out excess heat if I got hot, and I was able to operate the zipper through the vent holes in my bibs. Both of these base layers acted as a set of a temperature regulators that I could use to perfectly keep my bottom half warm.

For my tops, I have a plethora of long underwear tops that I can wear to keep me warm. I have medium heat and high heat smart wool shirts and my 32° Heat thermal shirts. I also have my down jacket and sweatshirts that I can add in as additional layers to tune my insulation value. There weren’t any days where I felt that I didn’t have the necessary gear to keep myself warm.

• Smartwool Ski Sock
• Smartwool Intraknit Thermal Shirt
• Backcountry Insulated Pants
• REI Down Jacket

Travel

For the majority of this season I drove my 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche. This is a four wheel drive truck that I have equipped with snow tires for the winter. The only time I didn’t drive the truck were the rentals cars in Taos and Denver in January and a couple of times at the end of the year up to Tahoe. I only took 4 flights for skiing this year, all of them in January.

While in Colorado, the front right wheel bearing gave out and the truck needed to be towed to a shop and the bearing needed to be replaces. I had to scramble to handle that while also attending a work conference. Thankfully there was a shop in the neighborhood that was able to help me out that day.

At the tail end of the main road trip, the truck started to make some noise and I had to take it into a shop when I got home. The engine blew up to a known design issue and I had to put a new motor in it. Thankful that motor should be good for the next 3 years or 100,000 miles, since that is what the warranty is.

Accommodations

I stayed in many hotels and accommodations for this season, totaling 72 nights away from home in 29 different locations. From all this travel, I ended up getting Marriott Titanium status and a couple hundred thousand points. Towards the end of the trip, I figured out how to settle into a hotel for longer periods of time, rather than the 2-3 days that I was doing at the start of the trip.

The trip last year taught us that there was a minimum level of hotel that Mariah and I were willing to stay at, but we had much fewer data points to compare against. The additional places this year drove in what style accommodations we were comfortable with and which things we didn’t actually need. You can see that most of the hotels at the end of the trip were Marriott hotels, but I also book stays through HotelTonight and VRBO if needed.