What is the one thing that will cut your ski day short?

[Jim McDonald]

A concussion, subdural hematoma & compressed disc fractures the night after my final day on the mountain last season.
But, I'm back at it again this season

 

[Roundturns]

Yesterday was the second time in 43 years I turned around and drove home. Got to Seven Springs a little late and the main parking lot already filled, diverted to the top lot where you wait for the school bus to take you down to the lodge . Very little open and skiers were pouring in to park.
Anyway did everyone a favor and left making one less body to contend with.
I know pretty weak on my part. Good breakfast on the way home though!

 

[Paul Lutes]

Sounds like wisdom to me!

 

[Vampire Cat]

+1 Same hill, same drive, same reason.

Yeah, when I skied Crystal a lot I made sure to try to beat the traffic. TBH it was mostly the usual rush hour, as even on days there was hardly anyone skiing I'd encounter the same log jam once hitting Enumclaw.

Well, today I bailed on skiing @ Steamboat, despite 10" of snow (didn't look to see how much it was until later). Probably a bad decision, but the insomnia monster bit much of the night and when my alarm went off the thought of getting out of bed was not appealing. I tried to rationalize it by thinking of how sketchy the drive might be (snow the entire 90ish miles of two lane highways), but meh.

Hopefully there's a little powder left tomorrow.

 

[Paul Lutes]

And then there's this one that's not on my bingo card: half way up to the mountain my engine light comes on. Managed to limp/coast back home, suspect rodent damage

 

[dbostedo]

Managed to limp/coast back home

Wait, that cut it short? I would assume you limped home after skiing for the day, right?!?

 

[Paul Lutes]

I am truly ashamed to admit that I did not. I feared the rodents might not take well to freezing in the parking lot, and take it out on my interior upholstery.

 

[az29okg]

Why?
Did they turn off the gravity generator?

I spent a few days thinking about your response. I concluded that I don't understand it.

 

[KingGrump]

I spent a few days thinking about your response. I concluded that I don't understand it.

Gravity is what sucks you down the hill. Just have to allow it to suck.

 

[Marker]

Gravity is what sucks you down the hill. Just have to allow it to suck.

Does that mean when I suck at a higher level the gravity is stronger?

 

[dbostedo]

Does that mean when I suck at a higher level the gravity is stronger?

Yes! But the cause and effect relationship is unclear.

 

[dovski]

So yesterday I skied Crystal Mountain with my kids plus a good friend and his kids. This was the first ski day trip of the season for us, so I was a little bit rusty. While I did load the car the night before and brought our ski boots in the house so they could warm up, I forgot to load them in the car before we left ...luckily I realized my mistake within the first 5 minutes of leaving the house and made a quick u-turn so we could collect our boots and only arrived at the hill 15 minutes later then we originally planned ... not sure if the lost 15 min counts as shortening a ski day lol but it certainly cost us at least one or two runs.

The reality is the only thing that has cut a ski day short or forced us to cancel a ski trip are injuries and luckily that has been a very rare occurrence for us.

 

[pinger]

I cut my ski day very short two weeks ago due to renting skis that just were not working for me.

I normally ski on my very very old Salomon x-wing 6. I didn’t have them with me. Rental place recommended a pair of Head I.shape rebels pro. To say I hated them is an understatement. I could initiate turns very easily but could not for the life of me get any grip and stop the turns. Front of the skis was perpetually “wobbly”. I had a few embarrassing falls on runs I know well…

Ultimately I decided I didn’t feel safe and wasn’t having a good time at all. I called it a day as going back down to exchange the skis and then back up (long long gondola ride) would have consumed too much time to make sense anyway.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

Yesterday was the second time in 43 years I turned around and drove home. Got to Seven Springs a little late and the main parking lot already filled, diverted to the top lot where you wait for the school bus to take you down to the lodge . Very little open and skiers were pouring in to park.
Anyway did everyone a favor and left making one less body to contend with.
I know pretty weak on my part. Good breakfast on the way home though!

Se did that one day at Mammoth early season 2022, the Monday before Thanksgiving. We drove 3.5 hrs from Reno and when we pulled up to main, it looked like the clown show at a bad circus - a river of people tumbling down Broadway and bodies scattered everywhere! We had lunch and drove back to Reno!

 

[FlyingAce]

The thought of “I can do one more” is usually the cue to stop right now. It is always the one more that I regret doing.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

The thought of “I can do one more” is usually the cue to stop right now. It is always the one more that I regret doing.

@In2h2o taught me you never say last run. It’s always N+1 - no wait that’s the formula for the optimal number of Skis! Last run is a “no no” - say T-1

 

[In2h2o]

yes! @mustski or as DD says any number minus 1 for her cue to let us know she's only in for a few more, the final is 2-1 .....
big surf is going to be cutting my ski (holiday short) this week.... and well, I wish there were more runs open. Holiday end of blackout crowd incoming.....

 

[Paul Lutes]

Big surf easily trumps current snow conditions, but ..... maybe not for long!

 

[Snowplow Skip]

I have bailed after a few runs due to heavy rain a couple times once I was soaked to the skin.

Usually if I know that is in the report I don't go up or choose a different hill. (the main hills I ski have bases at roughly 3k and 44K respectively, with mid-mtn's at 4400 and 5300, so there can be a very significant difference in temps and conditions.)

I bailed once after two runs when it was ungroomed ice death moguls, and I just wasn't having fun. Too windy, well 60 mph gusts with 30+ sustained was a bitch; but same answer as below for visibility. Too sticky, yes, I cut the day shorter a few times, but always still had a few hours in before calling it a day.

When I broke my wrist (a fact I didn't know until the following day) I skied the rest of the day. The next year when I had a serious season ending injury (again didn't know the season was done until the x-rays,) I was on my way down anyway; though I did ski off the hill there is no way I could have continued skiing that day.
I ski mid-week only so crowds are rarely a major issue. Besides there is so much terrain at both places that I just go to a different run.

Broken, forgotten equipment-that is what the ski shop is there for. Besides I always bring extra poles after breaking one when I was a teenager and having to buy a set with what little money I had.

I have never left for the day due to visibility, maybe cut the day a little shorter. I hate flat lighting and heavy fog (like when you can barely see the chair in front of you; but I still ski.
As Bad Bob pointed out, when skiing in the PNW if less than ideal conditions are going to send you packing, you won't get many runs/days in.

Part of the beauty of having a pass is not feeling pressured because you laid your money down for a ticket to ski in super crappy conditions.

 

[Nobody]

I have had days cut short due to all of the above at one time or another

Me too!

This poll is clearly flawed as there may be more than one answer. But let’s just say if the visibility drops to below 20cm, my right boot broke, I found out that I forgot my left ski at home and it started to rain, that’s it for me, I quit.

Pfft. I see yours and raise with : I skied one half day on one ski only, because I forgot my boots at home and had to rent a pair of too big crappy boots from the rental shop (couldn’t convince the rental shop “tech” to give me a pair of boots based on my indications, he kept insisting on asking me my street’s shoes size…). Was able to set one ski binding but not the other, so that rental boots could fit.
I had no tools with me (screwdrivers in the boots’ bag) and the tools sets at the lifts bases had been withdrawn due to still active covid regulations. Had only a five € cents coin to use…But it was the first day of the season so my lust for skiing (after nearly two seasons of stop) was high…but after half a day I called it quit nonetheless.