• For more information on how to avoid pop-up ads and still support SkiTalk click HERE.

Pat AKA mustski

I can keep a Secret
Ski Diva Tester
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Posts
4,865
Location
Big Bear, California
I recall one day at PowMow that we never actually skied. We sat in the lodge all day because we missed the last AM shuttle back to the condo. Every time, we stood up to try, it socked in bad again. A local went out to check it out for us and came back with a BIG Hell no. Another guy went out with ski patrol to check it out. He didn't know where he’d been so he renamed the runs- broken back, twisted knee, and where the F*** am I alley. Some days are meant to be spent in front of the fireplace with a cocktail!
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
7,213
Location
Boston Suburbs
The best way to ski zero visibility is to closely follow someone who knows the mountain really, really well. Not only for general navigation, but if you look at their skis you can see surface variation.

Even then you can mess up. I was following @Near Nyquist at Alpine Meadows. But I was stabbing at the snow downhill of myself with my pole. Why? I guess to reassure myself the world didn't end at that point. Dumb, I know.

Of course, I skied over my pole basket and took a hard fall.
 

Fuller

Semi Local
Skier
Joined
Feb 18, 2016
Posts
1,522
Location
Whitefish or Florida
This is @Philpug at Mt. Rose two years ago. He is actually downhill from me. I believe we called it a day when we finally found the bottom of the hill. I noticed this year I seem to be more susceptible to the adverse effects of vertigo.
View attachment 91165
View attachment 91166
I think I turned around and went home on this day.
Turned around? That would be considered quite adequate visibility at WMR. I skied (kinda slowly) all day today in mostly 1 chair conditions and enjoyed it. The only deal breaker in my book is freezing fog on the goggles, that just pisses me off.
 

Sibhusky

Whitefish, MT
Skier
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Posts
4,804
Location
Whitefish, MT
Turned around? That would be considered quite adequate visibility at WMR. I skied (kinda slowly) all day today in mostly 1 chair conditions and enjoyed it. The only deal breaker in my book is freezing fog on the goggles, that just pisses me off.
Fred just told me today was the worst he remembered in 26 years. For bystanders, that's saying something. Fred is a vert leader here, capturing one of the top three spots every season.

I'm glad I stayed home.
 

Henry

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Posts
1,229
Location
Traveling in the great Northwest
One day at the top of A-basin, above the trees, in very dense cloud I experienced how vertigo can effect people differently. No one could see anything, but a couple of the group were really distressed. Their vertigo became vertigone.

For fogging goggles a helmet with vents above the brim is a big help. These vents pull air through the goggles. Once I had this type of helmet I no longer needed to run the fan in the Smiths to keep my glasses clear.

No goggle will help one see through water droplets. If the fog isn't that thick but the light is very flat, certain lenses will help certain folks. Oakley Prizm doesn't work the best for my eyes. I do better with Dragon LumaLens, Spy Happy, and Smith ChromaPop. I think anyone buying goggles should get them from an on-mountain shop where they can take several to window on a gray day, look through each, and buy the one that picks up the contrast best for their eyes.
 

SSSdave

life is short precious ...don't waste it
Skier
Joined
Sep 12, 2017
Posts
2,516
Location
Silicon Valley
LittleDipper-fog3.jpg


A couple weeks ago skied in much riming cloud fog per above. Even skiing 100 yards from the lift top to the start of this bump run, the outside lens of my cheap $25 goggles would rime and wet up. So at the top of the run would stop to take out a dry Kleenex tissue and wipe the lens that took 30 seconds or so. Then would ski down quite a ways while the goggles rimed up again and stop to repeat. Was not really much an issue but would not have worked if I was skiing groomers at speed since riming would be too frequent.

Note on such a stormy or cloud fog day, once I put my helmet and goggles on my dry face inside my Forester, I avoid ever removing my goggles because doing so allows moisture to land on my face that absorbs into skin and then evaporates with goggles on. If my face does get wet, I'll go back to the car and run the heater full blast into my face a bit to dry the skin off. On that day my goggles never fogged up on the inside.
 

wyowindrunner

Getting off the lift
Skier
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Posts
430
lift line. JPG.JPG

If you ski Targhee you are gonna ski fog. Taken from the base last year. Have ended up in spots I did not intend to go. Sibhusky's advice is on point. I would add do not look down. Try to find a point on the horizon to focus on. When conditions are like this I heard for the trees. A depressing point; have been told that once vertigo is experienced, it will always return. At least in my case it seems true. Never really found goggles that worked in vertigo causing fog.
 

Bad Bob

I golf worse than I ski.
Skier
Joined
Dec 2, 2015
Posts
5,843
Location
West of CDA South of Canada
Most of those pictures are what we loving call Tuesday in this neighborhood. Think I have one day in clearer conditions this season; but no complaints, could be in Finnland.

Ski in or near the trees, and just keep turning. Start shopping for turns and you are in the backseat no maybe about it. Go slower and really feel with your feet. Like the snow, 'there are good conditions and conditions that are good for you',

This seasons norm
 

Attachments

  • 20200126_131151.jpg
    20200126_131151.jpg
    51.3 KB · Views: 2

Kneale Brownson

Making fresh tracks forever on the other side
Instructor
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
1,863
Fog so thick I couldn't see my feet ended the ski day. The OTG goggles with fans kept me sane when I had to wear glasses. The glasses would fog, not the goggles, and the fans would help keep the glasses clear. Now I only need reader glasses to read something small as newsprint comfortably, so I use Ryders photochromic wrap-around glasses.
 

Ski&ride

Out on the slopes
Pass Pulled
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
Posts
1,633
keep turning
I found that helps a lot.

No stopping, no traversing, just keep skiing at a safe speed, but keep turning.

The skis provides enough feedback from the snow pushing back. That’s a feedback my brain is familiar with. And my body automatically reacts to keep me in balance.

That works as long as I know where I’m going is without hazard. But if I’m in doubt, I don’t go there.
 

Tony S

I have a confusion to make ...
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 14, 2015
Posts
12,612
Location
Maine
OP here. I took Dramamine the third and final day at Schweitzer and it seemed to help with not getting dizziness issues that would upset my stomach but it wasn't a conclusive test because it wasn't a very bad fog day...but my gut feeling is it's going to help.

By the way, see ski sickness or Hausler's disease. Nobody mentioned it but it seems like it's a thing and what I am starting to suffer from if not nipped in the bud.

Yup. I've had this for years. For way too long I tried to anticipate when it was going to strike. I would skip the meclizine if I thought the risk was low. Misjudged a few times and lost ski days in abject misery, sometimes lying on the floor of the base lodge for hours at a time.

So now I take it at least two hours before getting on snow, religiously. It works for me, though having this additional complication to my ski day, and the sudden sleepiness when it wears off, are not things I welcome.
 

Dave Marshak

All Time World Champion
Skier
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Posts
1,452
Physical therapy can help with vertigo, and sometimes even cure it. I had problems with the way my eyes tracked, and the PT gave me exercises that helped with that. There are also small crystals in your inner ear that can get out of place, and the PT manipulated my head around to put them back where they belong. That didn't help me but it cured a friend who had suffered from vertigo for years. That changed her life, or at least her skiing career.

dm
 

mdf

entering the Big Couloir
Skier
Team Gathermeister
SkiTalk Supporter
Joined
Nov 12, 2015
Posts
7,213
Location
Boston Suburbs
manipulated my head around to put them back where they belong.
My father-in-law had that done and it made a huge difference. In his case the doctor held a vibrator against his skull behind his ear while he did it, I suppose to shake up the crystals and help them move. The treatment was followed by a day or so in a neck-immobilizing brace, I suppose to give the crystals time to settle into their new homes.
 

Atomicman

Out on the slopes
Skier
Joined
May 6, 2017
Posts
843
Not true. I’ve fogged plenty of goggles whole wearing a helmet. Currently my Anon WM1 goggles have been the best at not fogging.
Glad you responded to Rod. I was going to and then decided not to until I saw your post.

I agree, helmet makes fogging worse. Although, the new goggles anti-fog properties are so good, mine don't fog
 

wyowindrunner

Getting off the lift
Skier
Joined
Aug 26, 2016
Posts
430
Surely you jest! What horizon? This first one has two skiers in it. The third one was UNDER the fog layer. The last one is looking up hill at the Ant Hill.
View attachment 93775
View attachment 93771 View attachment 93772 View attachment 93773 View attachment 93774
The faint (really faint!) outline of the trees will work. anything that breaks the nothingness. An instructor at Snowbird offered that tip years ago and it seemed to help some for me. Man, those pics could be from Targhee! Or any other place on particular days.
 

Sponsor

Staff online

Top