This should wake you up on this Sunday morning. Check out this incredible daredevil, who’s just invented a new sport by doning a rolling bodysuit and then skating down a mountain road in the Swiss Alps.
I think it speaks to the craziness of this stunt that it’s managed to upstage the Swiss Alp backdrop, which is stunning eh? Oh, and notice the zooming bikes and vehicular traffic.
Travel health and the emerging specialty of “wilderness medicine” have obvious overlap. Dr. Paul Auerbach is one of the leaders in wilderness medicine: helping found the Wilderness Medical Society, co-author of A Field Guide to Wilderness Medicine and numerous journal articles and serving as faculty to the Stanford Fellowship in Wilderness Medicine.
His blog, Medicine for the Outdoors, is celebrating the two year anniversary. For those who haven’t yet had a chance to visit, it is filled with practical information and advice for those exploring their environment and wanting to come back from the experience in good health. Travel and expedition medicine is the focus of my career and I find myself citing Dr. Auerbach’s work and information, in my work. He is one of the pioneering physicians who helped elevate this field of medicine to a new and unique specialty.
A visit to his blog will allow the reader to learn about things from jellyfish stings and dislocated shoulders on the trail to malaria medications and outdoor recreation. This is truly an opportunity to read, first hand, the information from a leader in wilderness and expedition medicine. I highly recommend a visit to his blog, if you get a chance. Oh, and don’t forget to congratulate him on his two-years of dispensing great advice!
Before this weekend, all my best skiing experience had come from either the Alps or the Pacific Northwest (e.g., Whistler, Oregon). I had never skied in the Rockies before. How is skiing in Colorado different from skiing in the Alps? I had to find out.
I am happy to report I just got back from a 5-day “research trip” to Colorado. The highlight of the trip was, of course, skiing Vail. To really generalize, based on skiing only Vail, I would say that skiing the Alps is very comparable to skiing the Rockies in that both have great conditions, extensive slopes, sunny weather. There are, hoverer, some differences that could make or break the deal for some people.
Cost
A one-day Vail ski pass is $92. That is just ridiculously expensive. Not only that, the price is the same whether you start at 8 am or 11 am. All they do is half day, afternoon discounts. Contrast that with Verbier, a comparable mountain in the Swiss Alps. One day ski pass goes for $64 Swiss Francs ($63). Kaprun, a ski resort in Austria, sells their day passes for 35 Euro ($55) for adults and discounts for teenagers and kids. And that’s with the Euro being at its all time high.
I realize that skiing in the US is generally more expensive that skiing in Europe. Why? I am not sure. Less competition perhaps? All I am saying is that $92 for a day of skiing is excessive and makes skiing a type of elitist sport way beyond reach of an average American. A ski weekend for a family of four would be too expensive to even think about. That’s a shame, because–if you ask me–skiing rocks.
The good news is that there are people selling buddy passes and discounted tickets everywhere in Vail. I don’t know how legal it is, but it may, I hear, be possible to buy a day pass from a random person for about $40, which is much more reasonable than $92.
If you don’t own your own equipment, you have to add another $30-60 for a set of boots, poles and skis or snowboard. The Vail Sports center right by the ticket counter offers a special package for about $50, where you can try different kinds of equipment all day long, for only one run each if you want. This is a good way to test what skis you like before actually buying a pair. Equipment rentals are everywhere in the village and their prices are about the same. To get the best deal (but not the best equipment) the local Sports Authority rents packages from only $20/day.
Ski conditions
Like I said, skiing Vail is comparable to skiing in the Alps. Colorado is supposed to have 300 days of sun. I can’t confirm that because we only had one day of sun out of 5. I can’t really comment on the weather because I didn’t spend enough time in Vail.
This season was supposed to be one of the best seasons the locals can remember, with over 425 inches of snow. Usually, they get about 350. We did get about 10 inches of new snow just in the last few days, which made it amazing, especially if you consider it is April. In sunny weather, you almost need it to snow every night. The sun warms the snow and when it freezes, the slopes get icy immediately. If it doesn’t snow enough, sunny weather in the mountain is a bad thing. That is why spring skiing can be tricky.
The other problem with spring skiing in Vail is that they close the season so early. This year’s season will close this coming weekend although they have enough snow to last for a another month. Apparently, they must close it because the workers they hire have fixed-term contracts and don’t want to extend them at will (and don’t forget visa issues for the foreigners). The good news about skiing Vail this week is that they reduced the price of a day ski pass to $75.
Vail has some of the best bowls and moguls I have ever seen. I have to say the area that they groom in Vail is incredibly large. The lifts, on the other hand, could use an upgrade. There is only one gondola, from Lionshead Village. The rest are your typical quads, and not even the “bubbles,” where you get a clear plastic bubble over you to protect you from the wind and snow.
Ambiance
I never quite understand why so many Northern American ski resorts try to look like Alpine villages. It is kind of silly. Why not invent its own “mountain look”? I remember that I first learned the English word “contrived” when I was in Whistler village; it’s how Lonely Planet described the village.
“Contrived” is what best describes Vail, as well. Faux alpine-type buildings with pseudo-Bavarian window treatments. When I first walked into the square at Lionshead village, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was kind of like being in a Disneyworld version of Innsbruck. Everything is meant to look authentic, but it is a little too new to be authentic. (see photo)
That said, there are a few great little cafes and restaurants, both in Lionshead Village and in Vail Village (they are only about a mile apart). The French deli in the center of Lionshead square makes great coffee. People love the German place in Vail Village, Pepi’s, but I just couldn’t bring myself to actually eat German food (which is so similar to my native Czech cuisine) in Colorado.
Last, but certainly not least, the apres-ski possibilities are great. No need to say more.
Mountain photo: kw baker, Flickr
Greetings from Vail. In case you haven’t heard yet, the skiing here is pretty awesome. The season has been the best “anyone can remember”, I keep hearing from people.
Sadly, it has also been one with the most recorded deaths. On Friday, a man in Aspen jumped off a cliff and died. Yesterday, a 32-year-old Denver-area man in Vail became the 17th skier or snowboarder to die on the Colorado slopes this season, Denver Post reports. The man died after a skiing incident on an intermediate run called The Wuides in Blue Sky Basin at Vail. I am not sure what happened, all I know from the news that the skier was wearing a helmet at the time of the incident. Helmets can only do so much, I guess.
The prior record was tied last weekend when a Kansas man became the 16th death on the slopes. The previous record for deaths was 16, set in the 2001-2002 season. And there’s still great snow and skiing here until at least April 13th…let’s hope that’s it for fatal accidents this year.
Be safe out there. The bottom areas get icy. More on that later. I’m kinda busy conducting “apres ski” research right now.
Photo: Sweet and Bitter
Top 10 Ski Resorts in the World
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I am in Colorado this weekend. (Stay tuned for a ski dispatch.)
I have to say I was impressed by Colorado the minute I got off the plane. Check out the conveyor belt they have at Denver airport? Yes, they really put skiing first, don’t they. Instead of collecting your skis or golf bag at various stages of decomposition at the “over sized baggage claim,” you can just collect them right out of the spinning ski conveyor belt.
I have never seen a ski conveyor belt before. Thought I would share. Clearly, I am easily impressed.
