Friday, April 10, 2020

Reliving the Past Ski Season

    I am somewhat obsessed with keeping records of my ski adventures over each season.  In this pandemic time I have had plenty of time to review the past season.  It relieves the boredom and brings back both good and bad memories of the 87 days on the slopes this year.
   Each season I maintain a daily diary entering the following data.
1.  Snow conditions.
2.  Low and high temperatures for the day.
3.  Weather conditions. 
4.  Time of departure from home and return to home.
5.  Number of runs.
6.  Any unusual events for the day.
This year I also have been using the app Ski Tracks.  With the app I have a record of number of runs,  number of vertical feet skied,  speeds on each run,  and a map showing that will show my runs from beginning to end  as well as the miles travelled.   It even keeps track of the length of my coffee breaks.   I can virtually go back and have a guide to my memory of any ski day.
    Over the last few days I have created a spreadsheet compiling my data in a format giving me an complete overview of the season.  Here is a summary.

87 Total Days
31 Days of sun with 10 being Blue Bird Days.
6 Rain Days
The remaining days had varying levels of cloud cover and snow.
Runs -  Total of 940 - Average of 10.8 per day, ranging from 1 to 22.
Vertical - Total of 660,843 feet 
 Average of 7596 feet per day, ranging from 541 to 15,774 feet.
High temperature of the days ranged from 9 to 63 °F  -Average 33.8 °F
Low temperature of the days ranged from 7 tp 51 °F  -  Average 27.9 °F

     I also have my own interpretive record of the slope conditions.  Most days had some level of grooming.  The dominant surface condition was groomed but firm surface.  We had too many days of one form or another of ugly.   Ugly included frozen and rough to sticky goo to mashed potatoes.   Regrettably there were 17 days that I would class as ugly conditions.    In retrospect, in spite of the massive effort by the area to make snow, we had to deal with a warmer than normal season.   Note that we never had temperatures below zero and only four days with lows in single digits. Amazingly 55 of the 87 day had a high temperature at or above freezing!
     If you have read this far, you are probably feeling like this is too much information.  That what happens when your blogger has too much time on his hands.   Tomorrow is my 85th birthday so indulge me with this rant.
     Finally I must say the numbers are only a part of the seasons story.  The daily gathering of the Tough Old Geezer Skiers at Greek Peak was a great social event for all of us.  Countless stories were told and numerous complaints were voiced.  The camaraderie of our group is priceless and can't be quantified.
      I am looking forward to next season both for the both the ski adventures and the socialization the goes with it.  May we all survive this Covid-19 pandemic and live to enjoy freedom from this curse.
     Stay safe and healthy everyone!







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