Living up to the hype, is it ever possible, yay or nay?

[tch]

On a side note, take it or leave it: also (legal) recreational marijuana and Drugs.
Hype is true especially for non-smokers or infrequent users
Modern weed is extremely potent and effective with huge selection of highend strains available with different effects and tailored to what you are looking for. Even with regulations and taxes inflating prices, for my extremely infrequent to non-usage, $30 will get you more drugs than can be used in a year and goes stale.

Totally agree on all points.

 

[markojp]

Hyped and the real deal, The Broad Museum in LA... amazing!

Hyped, not hyped? Dunno. Saab 95 wagon... best roadtrip car ever.

Hyped... probably over... Sun Valley... nice, great customer service, but not my cuppa... oddly long and generic'ish, though the surrounding backcountry terrain looks amazing.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

a few others worth a hype
again a total solar eclipse (the next one will be best in Mexico if your interested)
aerials in a 1920's open cockpit bi-plane
going down a Olympic track on your own luge or skeleton
dolphins playing with the bow wave
Orcas putting on a display
running herds of elk or buffalo shaking the ground
Grizzlies (if over 2 seconds away)

misses for me are usually big ticket events,
plays, concerts, festivals, sporting events
but certainly not all of them are misses, some are worth every penny

 

[Philpug]

Hyped, not hyped? Dunno. Saab 95 wagon... best roadtrip car ever.

Ongoing debate, Saab or Volvo seats, which are better?

 

[LiquidFeet]

living up to the hype:
natural childbirth with helpful husband feeding you ice chips

falling short:
being a mother those first two years

 

[Uncle-A]

$200 for a seat in a helicopter just to ride around and look at the mountains from up there is worth it, imo. Without even skiing....

Ride a helicopter through the mountains and not even skiing it at $200 is a miss for me. It cost a lot less when I took the helicopter through the Waimea Canyon State Park Hi. Now that was a big hit, but I already gave Hawaii a big hit in a earlier post.

 

[fatbob]

My only heli ride was a very non scenic Sea King with a possible broken pelvis in a high wind.

The interesting part was that my winchman was one of the few people to have shot a future monarch of the UK, he went on Prince William's stag trip and the close protection officers laid on a serious paintball session for them.

 

[markojp]

Ongoing debate, Saab or Volvo seats, which are better?

Dunno. Never had or ridden much in a Volvo.

 

[Philpug]

Dunno. Never had or ridden much in a Volvo.

Equally on par with Saab.

 

[Après Skier]

Lived up to hype/Surpassed my expectations:
Aspen. Great variety in ski terrain, wonderful infrastructure. The people were interesting and friendly, and there was plenty to do in the charming town with a fun après lots of activities. Everyone seems to think of Aspen as being too expensive but I did not find that to be the case. There were lots of options at different price points for food and après. Well, actually it would be too expensive for me to buy real estate but for a ski vacation it was heavenly.
The French Riviera. This is where the Alps meet the sea and I can still feel the warm water lapping at my toes so blue, calm, and clear. And the beautiful cities and quaint little towns are so charming to explore, fun late night dance parties on the beach, lovers kissing in doorways. And the food was outstanding, I am still dreaming about the truffle chicken. And the people were so cute always joking and wonderful service everywhere.

Did not live up to the hype/Expected more:
Park City. I thought both PCMR and Deer Valley were great fun for skiing, but the beautiful little mining town of Park City seemed to be missing something. Restaurants were okay but usually very expensive and often difficult to get a reservation. I don't mind spending good money for meals as long as the food is tasty and the service is competent. But when the food is meh and the service is clueless... welcome to Park City. I was basically paying as much as I did in Vail (too much LOL) with the difference being at Vail I was treated like royalty. Deer Valley was nice and I will most likely be back but will never again pay for a premium lodging near Main Street.

 

[DanoT]

The first time that I skied Snowbird it was a cold mid week 8-10" powder day and as I skied down the close to 3k vertical continuous black diamond powder turns from the top of the Gad chair, I kept thinking: "There is no over hype here, this is the real deal".

Revelstoke, OTOH has been over hyped due to having 5600 vertical, longest in North America and while the physical mountain is great, the lift system is flawed. When the lifts were installed the extremely low base elevation was not taken into account and the lifts were not properly set up to ski the upper half of the mountain where the good snow is found and the lifts do not spread skiers out, resulting in a long but narrow resort.

 

[tch]

Lived up to hype/Surpassed my expectations:
Aspen. Great variety in ski terrain, wonderful infrastructure. The people were interesting and friendly, and there was plenty to do in the charming town with a fun après lots of activities. Everyone seems to think of Aspen as being too expensive but I did not find that to be the case. There were lots of options at different price points for food and après. Well, actually it would be too expensive for me to buy real estate but for a ski vacation it was heavenly.

Interesting re. Aspen: my own take was pretty different -- although I admit I did not ski Ajax itself. My most recent experience (of two underwhelming visits) made me want to gag. I was staying down-valley and skiing Snowmass and took an off day to wander Aspen town. Perhaps it was walking into the "ski" shops right at the base, but I was done pretty quickly. $2,000 white leather ski jackets covered with sequins and fur, big fuzzy après moon boots, mens' one-piece outfits with epaulets and excessive stitching.... and not a bar of retail wax (what I went in for) to be found. Women on the street looked like they'd just come from botox treatments, and the men came across as overly-groomed "captains of industry" types. I did spend some time at a music shop where the owner seemed genuine and spoke positively about the community, but it just didn't outweigh the impression I got of a high-end, overly-privileged Disney experience.

FWIW, I agree with your take on Park City, even though my daughter works there and it is her home area. My take is that it is trying too hard and has lost itself.

 

[Philpug]

Lived up to the hype..then lost it.
Snowbasin. My first trips to Snowbasin was over a decade ago when I was being courted by the city of Ogden when I was with hart Skis. We got a personal guded tour of the mountain including behind the scene like the kitchen and locker rooms along with private gondola rides. The food back then was amazing, the prime rib sandwhich was the stuff that cravings were made of and the prices were reasonable. Fast forward to today, while the food is good, it no where near the reputation when they first opened. Many resorts have caught up with it, it is no longer the standard that it first had.

Oh, the bathrooms are still the standard all other resort bathrooms are measured against.

 

[Turoa Kiwi]

Went to a Fleetwood Mac concert in the mid 70s. It was horrible. They sounded stoned and uninterested, kind of like a bad garage band. We left, along with a lot of the crowd, about 30 minutes into the performance.

Yep Same for me too . In Wellington NZ 1980? They were terrible. Stevie Nicks had a melt down . They all walked off the stage Something to do with the f....d up relationships in the band Totally unprofessional. No apologies. Never listened to them again

 

[Turoa Kiwi]

Revelstoke, OTOH has been over hyped due to having 5600 vertical, longest in North America and while the physical mountain is great, the lift system is flawed. When the lifts were installed the extremely low base elevation was not taken into account and the lifts were not properly set up to ski the upper half of the mountain where the good snow is found and the lifts do not spread skiers out, resulting in a long but narrow resort.

Yep a great fun mountain ,but Is it true that when Revvie was first planned, that a another chairlift was to be installed out to the South Bowl and that they still hope to install it?

 

[DanoT]

Yep a great fun mountain ,but Is it true that when Revvie was first planned, that a another chairlift was to be installed out to the South Bowl and that they still hope to install it?

Yes, RMR needs a chair in the South Bowl. They also need to address the fact that their base is 1600' asl, while reliable season long skiing in B.C. starts at around 4000'asl. So they need a chair that starts at around 4000'asl that feeds the Stoke Chair (5300'asl to 7300'asl). Thus when the mild-ish weather hits one would then be able to ski 3000'+vertical without having to deal with all the manky snow on the lower mountain.

New for 2020 at RMR is a short beginner chair above the upper gondola which does address another RMR shortcoming: no beginner terrain

Skier visits (mostly youngish adult black diamond skiers) provide the revenue for daily operations, while real estate sales go a long way toward paying for infrastructure. Ski area real estate is mostly purchased by families who almost always have at least some intermediate skiers. RMR has hardly any blue runs, some require skiing a black run just to get to a blue run. RMR is not a great choice for intermediates and a lack of robust real estate sales is the proof.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for lift access to South Bowl or mid mountain skiing.

Sun Peaks is one of Canada's best family mountains, while RMR is one of the best black diamond mountains. The two resorts have completely different clienteles.

 

[fatbob]

I've skied Utah a fair amount and found it rarely lives up to the hype of a powder paradise. On days that it does the large metro population trashes everything extrordinarily efficiently.

Aspen actually surpassed my expectations on everything from efficiency of the bus system, old school non-corporate feel on hill dining and corporate responsiveness to problems. I was kinda expecting a Vail style experience and it felt much more skier-forward than that.

I like Revy but the orignal base was more than too low nevermind the lower extension. Very much a core skier hill like Kicking Horse where those in the know can work with the shortcomings rather than a resort for all standards.

 

[Crank]

Weighing in on Aspen because...why the hell not.

Found the town to be beautiful, helped that there was 40" of fresh snow, but, soul less in a nothing but high end shopping and really expensive restaurants and NYC priced drinks. No live music happening other tan 1 concert at Nelly's.

Loved the skiing and Aspen Highlands and Snowmass. Loved the free bus system.

Skiing at Ajax was decent.. Did I mention 40" of fresh powder? It might have helped if we had a good guide. The one forum guy who was a regular kind of crapped out on us.

If we gather there this year Robin and I will stay at Snowmass. The village their, though not as charming or authentic as Aspen seems to be much more down to earth.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

maybe the internet forum skier who crapped out on you was worried about living up to "his" hype

 

[Bad Bob]

Over hyped Lots of tier 1 resorts, not all of course but many I have skied. A great opportunity to spend too much money and be treated kind of like a heard animal.
Over perform for their weight class; many under the radar ski areas. Often more soul, friendlier people, lower prices and longer lasting fresh snow.
An example: skied Magic Mountain, ID last season a couple of days, 1/2 hour out of Twin Falls that nobody here has probably ever heard of. 1 funky old double chair 600' vert, a day lodge the squirrels seem to enjoy. A couple of church buses in the parking lot, and lots of people in jeans or carharts. Sat and had a beer with the owner on the porch (a bench no beach chairs here) ate a burger slung by a high school kid, and skied moderately tracked up 2 day old snow all day. What can you expect for $25? Similar places are to be found all over ski country, they very in scale and quality but the heart of our sport is there. Love Aspen, Alta/Bird, Big Sky but can have as much fun for a day at a place like Soldier Mountain, Arctic Valley, Huff Hill or Terry Peak. Just a shout out for the little guys.