Monday, December 21, 2020

2020/21 Season Opener Video

Start to a 2020/21 Ski Season

World is a crazy place but happy the lifts are spinning and the snow is flying!

First Video of 2020/21 Season:

Pacific Crest Trail at Bear Gap

Mike at Tin Mine bridge below Gold Hills
Bridger and Bennett with Meme skiing down Queens Run
The Apron looking great as always!
Top of the King on opening weekend
Mike and my tracks down Silver Basin
Mike's truck parked next to my Jeep.... what small tires that truck has:)


Thursday, January 9, 2020

Early Season 2019/2020 1st CGR ski video

Its been a slow start to the ski season but when the days were good.... well they were pretty amazing!

1st Video of 2019/2020 season



Bridger hitting Quicksilver with Bennett in front
 Bridger and Bennett on the slopes!
 Sometimes you get some interesting things showing up when you push the range of the EV getting to Greenwater
 Southback from the skin track
 New ski trucks first trip to the mnt!
 EVs first trip to the mountain, actually made it back to Greenwater with half the battery left!
 Court and boys on the trail
 Loving the snow that day!

Friday, March 8, 2019

AMAZING February Skiing!

Second video with some drone footage!
Crystal Mountain Northback, Far Far North and Hwy 410
Big shout out to the drivers picking us up at the base of old Northway and the bottom of 410 and crystal mountain blvd.  Thank you Caitlin!


Boys Crushing it at Whistler

Paolo heading up towards Gun Barrel Far South
 Sean Keely on the Skin Track!!
 Creek by Vail CO
 Court in Vail
 What happens at Crystal with new snow and the Gondy on wind hold
 Cabin just got a little snow.....
 Driveway wall of snow from the storm being plowed
 Snow plow on the 4wheeler was KEY!

 Just a couple people waiting fro chair 6
Great Whistler Crew!
 Up at Whistler
 It snowed just a little bit overnight
 Base of Blackcomb
 Bridger and Bennett crushed Whistler!
 Whistler skiing with the Fam!

Sunday, January 13, 2019

Cascade Gravity Research Gets a Drone

In full disclaimer I am far from figuring this drone out yet, but not a bad start!


Also the drone is a great excuse to get some more time far far south and far far north due to the CM drone policy.  Outside of area boundaries it is!
Some pics from a couple latest adventures
Headlamp skin entering Superbowl
Headlamp skin sunrise
Mike Benson taking the lead
Paolo headlamp skin
ThreeWay and the King plus Mt Rainier from Drone
 Base of Crystal from drone by Dog Leg Chute
 Far Far Far South
Looking back into the basin at the Crystal base area
 Top of Superbowl at 8:15am
 Just playing with the boys in the snow
 Skiing down early December at Whistler
 Sean and Paolo hiking the boxcar in southback
 Skiing down Bear Pits fresh pow!
 Me making a skin track turn look easy
 Skin track in the AM




Friday, April 13, 2018

Multi Resort Passes and RIP MAX Pass




If you have never had a multi resort pass you owe it to yourself to buck up one season and make it happen.  They are a great way to expand your playground beyond your local hill and while you may not hit all the resorts on your pass at least it is motivation to check off as many as you can fit in!

This season I may not have had the highest number of days skiing, turns out having a full time job and twin 3.5 year old boys might have made a dent on the total number of days. Typically when I read articles on those people chasing powder and logging in huge numbers of ski days there are two common ingredients: not married and no kids. Still would rather have both but it will make hitting a record number of days a thing of the past for a while.

To be honest I will probably not be able to come close to skiing 5 days a week, every week like I did back my freshman and sophomore year of college at Montana State ever again.  Perhaps when I am retired but tough to see it happening before then without doing a ski sabbatical of some sort.  But one silver lining of this year is I did end up going to the most amount of resorts than I ever have had the chance to by getting to ski 6 resorts in 1 season and counting:
-Crystal Mountain WA (of course!)
-Steamboat CO
-Winterpark CO
-Boreal CA
-Mt. Bachelor OR
-Alyeska AK(2 trips)

What really made this possible was the MAX pass and the fact that it had great local PNW representation(2 WA, 1 OR, 1 BC).  In a summary the really sweet part of the MAX pass was it gave you access to 5 days unrestricted at 44 resorts.  The HUGE BONUS was if your home mountain(aka Crystal) happened to be one of those 44 resorts you could add it on to your home mountain seasons pass for only about $340 dollars.  At $340 it didn't take long to pay this pass off in reality if you visited any of the top resorts 3 days the pass was more than paid off.

So what's the problem, the problem is that that the MAX pass is going the way of the dinosaurs and the replacement if there is one is a watered down version of the MAX pass at best!  The IKON pass has been able to grab about half of the resorts that used to be on the MAX pass and if you live in Colorado to be honest this is the pass to get.  If you live in the PNW however you quickly find out you went from having 4 mountains in the PNW to ZERO!

Best pass deal I can see out there is really now for just those of us that happen to live in Washington or Canada being the Whistler Edge Card.  The silver lining of Vail purchasing Whistler last year was now the Whistler edge 5 day card has the ability to go to most of the Vail resorts for 2 of the 5 days.
Those Vail resorts include: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Park City, Heavenly, Northstar, Kirkwood, Stowe, Wilmot, Afton Alps, or Mt. Brighton.  If you get the Whistler 10 day edge card you then can use up to 3 of those days at the Vail resorts.  With a day ticket to Vail around $160/day and the 5 day Whistler edge card costing about $350 USD go to Vail for two of your 5 days and enjoy 3 free days at Whistler!  Also the Whistler edge card comes with free early season skiing basically from opening day till about Dec 14th as an added bonus.

I would say the other pass that is definetly worth taking a look at if you are looking to make some extended weekend trips and don't mind some travel is the Mountain Collective.  The list of resorts is really impressive and its about half the price of the IKON or the Epic pass but you are limited to 2 days at each resort so as long as that is not a hang up that might be the bucket list pass to get.  At the end of the day for me its soo long MAX pass you where an amazing deal while you lasted, now time to visit Whistler and Vail next season!




Monday, February 26, 2018

CGR Update Crystal Mountain Jan/Feb 2018

Enjoy a good first ski video of Cascade Gravity Research 2018

Tuesday, January 2, 2018

1st Post of 2017/2018 Ski Season

We have had some powder, we have had some rocks, we have had some groomed and some ice.  Still waiting for La Nina to show her full impact but having some fun in the mean time.  Plus Bridger and Bennett are stepping up the 3yr old skiing to the next level!

Quick video from a few laps up the King in the South Backcountry at Crystal:

Couple Pics of the boys crushing it on Discovery:
Boys checking out the hill side before the lifts opened early season
 Bridger and I riding up the lift
The Boys at top of Discovery
Sean Hiking up the King
 Caitlin on the King with Crystal in bounds in the background


 Caitlin heading up the King with Rainier in the backdrop
Family at the summit house at Crystal, photo credit Paolo