Bringing European Ski Culture to the US

[Tricia]

In a recent Powder Magazine article with Travis Ganong, he talks about a dream of owning a mountain top ski hut/bar which is something that he loves about the European culture.
I've never skied in Europe so I have no first hand experience, but this sounds cool.
Snip from article ...

I’ve been talking with a couple of my teammates—Steve Nyman, Marco Sullivan, and Andrew Weibrecht—about how we can bring that European ski culture back to the U.S. somehow, and about building little ski huts at our home areas and branching out from there. We’re all ski racing right now. But it would be a fun way to transition.

There’s this après ski bar up a T-bar at Kvitfjell. The guy who owns it has turned into a really good friend of ours. He has all this memorabilia from 30, 40, 50 years ago—amazing old skis and boots and jackets. This year, I was able to convince him to unscrew the skis from the wall and go up on a snowmobile at midnight. I took two runs on these 1963 Atomic skis with leather boots and old Norwegian bamboo poles with huge powder baskets. The owner wound up giving me the skis and boots after that. He wants me to put them up on the wall of my first hut one day.


Read more at http://www.powder.com/stories/interviews/voice-travis-ganong/#TqMxXcPt8Talss6H.99

 

[scott43]

An observation..I don't see that culture really in NA that much anymore from where I'm sitting. There was a time when baseball and hockey were popular after work pastimes, and usually beers and wings or something similar were part of that. I just don't see that much anymore. I feel like, if anything, we are moving away from that kind of social activity. Whatever the cause. I go to the rink, play and everyone is pretty much on their way. Even après here in NA. I just don't see it that much. Maybe it's just me..it seems to be a lot more private than the old days..listen to me, talking like an old guy! And to be honest, I didn't see it that much in Austria. I skied there for 2 weeks and I can count on one finger how many people talked to me!

 

[fatbob]

2 major barriers to proper Euro ski culture (= drinking & wild après basically)

1 Resort liability/lawyers/lawsuit culture connected with encouraging people to ski down after hours after getting well lubricated.
2 Preponderance of drive to visitors in many resorts.


I did once do a guest services chairlift interview and suggested what JH really needed was an Umbrella Bar mid mountain with Eurotrash house music or Scandi hair rock covers band.

This was how I ended my season - RATM and Nirvana house mashups with podium dancers etc



Oh and a nice treacley mogul field to ski down afterwards if you wanted.

 

[Jason Robertson]

An observation..I don't see that culture really in NA that much anymore from where I'm sitting. There was a time when baseball and hockey were popular after work pastimes, and usually beers and wings or something similar were part of that. I just don't see that much anymore. I feel like, if anything, we are moving away from that kind of social activity. Whatever the cause. I go to the rink, play and everyone is pretty much on their way. Even après here in NA. I just don't see it that much. Maybe it's just me..it seems to be a lot more private than the old days..listen to me, talking like an old guy! And to be honest, I didn't see it that much in Austria. I skied there for 2 weeks and I can count on one finger how many people talked to me!

You skate in the wrong league, lol. We require pre and post game beers if your gonna skate with us.

 

[Dadskier]

I haven't skied Europe in years, but there are random huts in the middle of the slopes where you can stop for lunch and have a few beers on the deck. Not too different from mid mountain restaurants here, just better atmosphere, food, and beer ...

 

[Alexzn]

This is what I liked a lot about european ski culture as well. I don't have extensive experience, but what I saw was pretty nice- plenty of little huts with nice, simple but very tasty food, which is miles and miles better than the greasy pizza and overpriced dry burger fare you get at a typical US ski area. Most of those huts are also owned by different families that compete with one another and seemingly pass the tradition for generations. yes, they serve beer, but so do the typical US ski lodges. Maybe if you can get decent food, you will be less drunk. So, yes, Travis, I'd love to have a euro style ski restaurant at Squaw (if KSL lets him do it). Do it, man!

 

[scott43]

You skate in the wrong league, lol. We require pre and post game beers if your gonna skate with us.

Haha! Yeah..well, the one game I play we have postgame beers in the room. But we never go out anymore. The other game is done and out. Maybe it's just a big-city thing. Dunno.

 

[Jason Robertson]

Doesn't sound like hockey to me. Certainly not old time hockey, lol

 

[Prickly Jones]

Careful what you wish for.

 

[SKI-3PO]

I see the problem as the big resort companies wanting to own and control every part of the resort experience which leads to something very generic.

 

[newfydog]

Ski-up bars in the Dolomites

 

[crgildart]

For starters we could get rid of lift line corrals and resort employees maintaining any sense of order loading the lifts..

 

[fatbob]

+ all kids wearing ski team uniform should be encouged to duck through peoples' legs to get priority.

Any lifty saying hi or being otherwise upbeat should be immediately dismissed and their replacements trained in mandatory scowl, foul smelling roll up in the lips and hands in pockets.

Gapers in Steelers jackets should be replaced by Germans in bovine onsies.

 

[Jerry Graffam]

For starters we could get rid of lift line corrals and resort employees maintaining any sense of order loading the lifts..

Bahaha!!! I love it when naive Americans come back from a trip to Paris or something and say, "The French are actually really nice; I don't get what people are talking about..."
If you put those same people at the base of a popular lift in Les Trois Vallees, they had black and blue marks and would have learned some new ways to tell someone off!

 

[Jerry Graffam]

+ all kids wearing ski team uniform should be encouged to duck through peoples' legs to get priority.

Any lifty saying hi or being otherwise upbeat should be immediately dismissed and their replacements trained in mandatory scowl, foul smelling roll up in the lips and hands in pockets.

Gapers in Steelers jackets should be replaced by Germans in bovine onsies.

When those Germans decide they're gonna get a little rad, they don matching one-piece Descente outfits with the built-in glitter!

 

[markojp]

Why wouldn't they wear Bogner?

But yeah, it's not going to happen so long as ski areas are local monopolies.

 

[SBrown]

You skate in the wrong league, lol. We require pre and post game beers if your gonna skate with us.

Yeah I think the whole point of my tennis leagues was Mom's Night Out. Back when we were in our 30s, we had a few raucous Tuesday nights.... Did you know there is Tranny Bingo down on Federal Blvd? But that was when the kids didn't start school until 9 am.