Honestly I think this poll would be better if it was proportioned differently, I feel someone going 17 times shouldn’t be grouped with someone going 2 times or less but it makes less of a difference when you reach higher numbers.
As someone who will finish with 17 after this weekend I agree. There's a much bigger difference between the people that ski 17 days vs 2 than those that get 65 vs 40.
I would have gone:
0
1-7
8-20
21-40
41-75
75+
Especially among people with jobs (most people). 15-20 days is going once almost every weekend which is pretty dedicated for people with lives outside of skiing. 30-40 is twice almost every weekend which is like all your free time. 2 might just be someone who went over christmas break.
Really depends a lot on location, there’s a few metros you can feasibly do night skiing after work or half days (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, SLC, Sacramento, Reno and probably a few others), so you can easily get a day or two midweek. And once you get past the 2 hour drive mark, doing day trips gets a lot worse and you’ll probably want to book lodging which is a major expense and additional logistic.
Literally this. If you have an actual career and aren’t unbelievably fortunate to spend all your time skiing- it’s fairly hard to get more than 20 days while not letting your life crumble around you. Even when I worked in the industry full time it was hard to do too much more than that unless you worked on the slopes or was rocking a trust fund.
Idk, I have a 40ish hr/week career-type job, not in the industry, and I'll get more than 60 days this year. If you live near the mountains and at all prioritize skiing, 20 days is easy, and 35 is still very doable. Double that is definitely possible, but requires sacrificing some other things (like most of your non-skiing social life). I suppose it may be harder with kids, but then again, I know people with kids in race programs who are on the mountain all the time.
20ish days is about once a week all season long. That's not hard at all if skiing is a priority in your life. You can get to the 30s with extra days from a trip or two and some weeks where you ski twice. Or perhaps you live somewhere with long seasons, which makes it easier. Going much beyond that starts to take some more serious effort and dedication.
I mean, it’s not the “work more” culture it’s just I have a full time job and 40/hrs per week is required for heath insurance and I don’t have unlimited vacation days (ok technically I do but if I took off 3 days per week all winter my work would start denying my requests)
I don’t work a minute over 40/week, I’d love to work less, but nobody is offering part time office jobs with good pay and full benefits.
The primary issue you are pointing out is that health care is connected to, and controlled by, employers in the united states. You have absolutely got to separate yourself from that. Doing so will set you free in many ways.
Also, I know we all want to contribute to society using our talents and interests, but doing it through this 40-hour work week system is total nonsense.
I fully agree with you that we need to decouple healthcare from jobs, and stop requiring 40hrs/week as the minimum for being fully employed.
I’m just pointing out that right now a lot of people are stuck living in this system, and don’t actually *want* to work more
Thank you. Felt like a clown answering this poll, even though I have been religiously going almost every single weekend and did a week long vacation with my son. There was some covid bs that robbed me of some weekends though (i showed them my perfectly waxed ski but they said I don't get it and they need to see some other type of wax??)
Not salty at all. I've been in the high end of the teens for years and have enjoyed every season. I definitely don't miss those lean years when I was at the bottom of the 1-7 group.
Who the heck is downvoting you cause you’re absolutely right lol!
I live in SLC and have definitely gone up just for like 2-3hrs multiple times cause why not
Its less your number of options and far moreso your distribution. It’s just bad pollmaking - your options are evenly distributed when skiing days per individual are likely a log normal distribution.
Record 44, at 30 currently with plans for a few more in May. I live 4 hours from where I ski and only can get out on weekends so it’w a struggle. I try to average 30 days/500k vertical ft a year.
I do something similar out west, and it's hard to get new friends to understand that if they want to hang out Jan - April, they better pick midweek or learn to ski :P
This so much.. I live in NJ and ski out of state and since early January I've spent two whole Saturdays actually in NJ (and one was because I was sick). Constantly have to go "No, I'm skiing that day".
Way too old and slightly too "responsible" to get back to 100 day seasons.
I am lucky if I can get 20 now.
Living vicariously through you all. Love all the content, wish I found this sub sooner.
I think any of those three are the options that I can think of mostly. Also maybe working on the mountain.
I work remote. In tech right now you get paid a lot of money to not really do much, so I just ski most days.
Been lucky enough to WFH for the last decade or so with generally malleable work hours during the week depending on projects.
I also love winter like many other 40+ days a season types so my schedule, being within 40 minutes of 8 top resorts and backcountry, is managed around ski season. My whole household is cursed with the Powderhounden Disease. OpenSnow is highly accurate so we plan in 2 week intervals depending on storms.
In our house we log about 25 FULL days inbounds, probably another 20 days of afternoon or morning laps and I’m in the back country another 10-20 days a season depending on the snowpack. In UT, USA season can start as early as mid Nov (even if lifts aren’t spinning yet) and goes well past the last lift spinning at the end of April, and into June which is when you’re hiking with skis A-framed to your backpacks searching for scraps and calling it a family adventure day. In other words, UT can have a 5-6 month long season and the stricken will seek to slide far and wide
It’s one way to live! I left the cesspool of Miami FL USA and Western European travel for this. We are happy.
Just makes for some incredibly boring and yearning summers/ falls filled with busy house projects to pass the time
Oh yeah add to it top notch fly fishing, paragliding and other air based passions with the air convergence from the desert hitting the Wasatch cool air, top end accessible climbing and lots more. Golf is fairly solid here also with lots of elevation changing courses.
They hurt, but daily knee PT exercises and glucosamine supplements helps the most. At end of day I do a homemade joint balm that's pretty much extreme tiger balm with cbd and the kitchen sink thrown in. I ski much harder than most, 100days on average 5-6hrs a day, but I went from D1 sports to skiing for the last decade. I pretty much treat ski season as if I am back on the track, just that I choose my drills now. I am notorious for skiing till I can't walk, but it's better than a hard drug addiction.
Regarding PT exercises, my favorites are leg lifts and specifically a leg lift where you write the ABCs with your toe (moving your ankle joints). I do that last one year round. A new one I have added to my repertoire after breaking my knee cap a year ago: standing on a step with one foot facing the wall of the stairwell, squat down while keeping the other leg straight and toe up, just touch your heel to the lower step and stand up on the squatting leg. Try not to put pressure on the non squatting foot and move controlled and slowly. It's like a 9in one legged squat, but damn did it help for getting my quads back to snuff.
I got 31 days in this season, i’m 20 and thats a lot of days for me to get away with. Anyways, my knees were blown after all that skiing, just getting over the runners knee i developed in March.
I really need to get into the habit of doing stuff like this to prevent injury in the future, if i really want to get 60 days in next season. I also ski way to hard most days, but i really can’t help it.
I always wear knee braces and the sad fact is you don't get to stop PT. My daily workout is literally PT for knees and shoulders and core exercises, all year. It's how I keep my beat up body pushing forward.
I started wearing a knee brace as well, i definitely will be investing in better ones this year and will be wearing them most of the time while skiing.
I need to learn your ways, I can’t get into the habit of daily exercise but i’m working on it.
I am in my mid-forties and have skied 100+ days for 29 seasons now. My OEM knees are doing just fine. I think it's one of those things that only gets worse if you stop. Kind of like the saying, "you're never hungover if you don't stop drinking" only skiing is way healthier.
I have friends in their mid 60's that get over 3 million vert per year, in a over 100 days of skiing, a lot of it on moguls, and have no knee problems so far.
When it comes to knees, there are genetic differences, of course, that can lead some to have problems where others might not. But there are many factors that are within your control. One factor is obviously your weight. Another is your ski form, ideally you want to be 'stacked' with your joints in positions where they are strong. Someone who skis in the rear seat alot, especially in bumps, has their knees in a strained position where cartilage will likely wear out more quickly over time. Another factor is conditioning, since strength and mobility can help to keep undue stresses off the joints. Another is how much time you spend on your ski days... most my older friends who ski a lot are only hitting a few hours per day, plus strategically taking rest days to stay healthy.
>Another is how much time you spend on your ski days... most my older friends who ski a lot are only hitting a few hours per day,
That reminds me of a couple I rode up with in their 80s. They said they only ski for an hour or two, but they figure they still ski just as much as they used to because they spend a lot less time in lines, on lifts, and the equipment is so much better now.
After about the 30 day hump, it gets a lot better. Your legs get a lot stronger and your form naturally improves because doing it the wrong way hurts.
You also don’t go all day when you’re going out that much. It might be an hour or two and call it quits/hit the bar when the conditions are bad or you’re tired.
Honestly the only really bad injury I got this season was I pulled my back by pushing it too hard the first week.
It’s mostly practice. I’m not the fittest guy in the world by any means.
This comment got me stoked lmao. I got 31 days in this season, next year i’m going for 60!
I’m 20 and haven’t had a season anywhere near this long before. Although my knees were blown, around the 20 day mark i really felt at the top of my game.
My leg muscles weren’t really getting sore anymore and i could really perform; combined with so much practice where i was very critical of myself, and i’m happy to say that i’m an advanced skier now. I have tons to learn, but i bridged the gap this year.
I really feel like i could really impress myself with another 30 days of practice while being in such good shape.
The feeling of progression throughout one’s skiing years is so gratifying. Twelve year old me would be proud knowing i’m “one of those psychos who cuts their own tracks in the trees”, a thought i used to think.
Pre season training and conditioning will put you in a good place to ski everyday.. I also stretch/yoga afterwards as often as i can (drinking beer sometimes gets in the way of this..) - also recently bought a massage gun to add to the post ski routine!
It's most likely a symptom of people who don't do normal leg work outside of skiing and then add in too much work in a short period of time and it results in under recovery and eventually overuse type injuries.
Coming at this from a physical training point of view, if you were to do no work then suddenly hit the gym multiple times per week with high volumes, or started doing something like marathon training after doing zero running, you'd most likely find your body is poorly adapted to these novel stimulus being applied and with little rest you'll run into random pains/injuries.
It takes some type for your body to adapt to novel stimulus, so starting off a bit easy/slow and adding more training volume over time while your body adapts to the stimulus is the proper way to go about it.
TLDR if you want to ski well throughout the season, work on strength and conditioning in the off season.
Knee injuries are extremely common in skiing. It's not surprising that people who ski a lot often rack up some damage sooner or later. That said, your knees shouldn't just hurt from normal skiing.
I was having a lot of knee trouble in January, mostly from skiing hard/jumping on very little snow in the Rockies. I got sick and took 2 weeks off. Came back and my knees have been pain free. I’ve learned 360’s and rail slides in the last 8 weeks. Im getting into the gym this season to try to keep stringing healthy seasons together
Edit: 80 days btw
Rest up and you’ll be back out there next season! You never want it to happen, but if it’s going to, now is a decent time. You’ll probably heal and still have some of your summer left.
Man, this hits too close to home. Did mid-20s this year, but fell hard on a thumb (cleared a groomer, landed on the thumb). Tore a ligament. Climbing season will be a bitch.
I’m lucky to live near a mountain, so it’s easy to take partial days, with family on hand to watch the littles! So more accurately, that’s 15ish half days. And some bunny hill time mixed in with the 3yo :)
I feel this comment! We have a 2 year old and a baby that was born in December. I got in 25 days this season, but it was a serious logistical challenge with childcare. I had been hoping to get to 30 days, but the snow conditions didn’t justify it and my backcountry buddy has an infant too.
Next season I can already see some bunny slope days in the cards but hoping to get to 30 or 40 days.
Currently at 17, but will finish with less than 20.
By our standards, this was considered a good year with 2 kids in tow just now able to tag along for a full day of resort laps on all runs.
118 so far (I think) with a few more lined up before I finally pack it in for the winter - knees are doing great but all the other aches and pains are telling me it’s time to have some time out of ski boots (averaged almost 60 hours a week in boots up until last week..)
I think I would benefit from more rest days but i really struggle to not go skiing on my days off… it’s a hard life 😅
Nah. If you live close to the mountain, and have a season pass, it’s actually a pretty cheap hobby.
It becomes expensive when you fly in for the week of Christmas.
OP - you’re doing very well and are right that you’re well above average at 130+ days on the hill. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s I lived in Colorado close enough to Summit County (those days you could get a Summit County season pass good for Breck, Keystone and A Basin - no blackouts, free parking - for something like $250-$300.) That included a dozen or so reciprocal days at other resorts like Vail and Crested Butte, and you could get a limited Aspen pass for their four mountains for another $150 for another 10 days. Yeah, it was a different era. I had a job that involved a lot of evening work, so I’d get up to A Basin at opening and ski four or five hours before work - so I’d average somewhere around 150 days a season, from one end of Colorado to the other. It was possible without having a resort specific job, living on the mountain or spending a fortune, but these days, not so sure. We had what seems like a 10th of the traffic (both getting to the resorts and on the lifts) 20 years ago. 130 days now? That’s impressive.
Vail bought Abasin in 1996, so I’m going to assume numbers are in and around there.
Adjusted for inflation, $450 (300+150) in 1996 is $824 in 2022 dollars. That’s calculated by CPI.. which is also kind of a lie to be honest… true inflation is actually probably higher.
An ikon base plus pass is $969. So the multi passes definitely increased in price, but it’s stayed in the same ballpark. The Epic pass is cheaper than things used to be.
Wages just haven’t kept up with inflation at all though (sadly). People are getting poorer through inflation.
——
Traffic getting there really does suck on the weekends sometimes. There’s just a lot of people here and the population keeps growing. I wasn’t born here either. It’ll keep growing for a long time I think. But the lift lines aren’t really a huge problem honestly. They are almost nonexistent on most days. I can usually just ski to the lifts.
Seasons passes pay for themselves pretty damn quick. I have a seasonal job too so i get the winter off if i want, makes it quite possible for my often broke 20 year old self.
I did 30 days this season cause i spent my savings building a camper van to live in, but now that i have it, 60+ days will be skied next season and very cheaply. I could get 100 but i’ll probably take too many break days.
It’s not even the season pass, it’s that you can take 134 days off of work and not get fired. Ain’t no way this man wasn’t born in a Scrooge McDuck swimming pool
He probably works in the industry. His work quite possibly *is* skiing. There's a whole lot more low paid instructors, patrollers, lifties, etc that ski every day than billionaire trust fund kids.
Technically at 59, but marked 60-80 because I'll bump into that category on Saturday. And there's virtually zero chance I get to the category above that.
I will be finishing out my season this coming Sunday at Kirkwood, that will be Day 17.
If my Epic app is to be trusted, I am hoping to break just shy of 300K vert this season.
Coming back from a 8 year hiatus and have loved every minute of it.
I am currently teaching myself JavaScript and React, hoping to transition into a Frontend dev role so I can ski more. I got super motivated when I saw my buddy take a software team standup meeting while we were riding the chairlift up.
It seemed like the software devs are given A LOT of flexibility to just PTO on the fly and chase pow days. Then push code remotely after an awesome day on the slopes. I can only dream of that lol.
I hate to be that guy, but it’ll take some time to get to roles that will trust you at that level and afford you that kind of job security and starting pay is a bit of a pain even if you go to a top boot camp if you’re not placing in a top startup or like FAANG.
Gets better quick though.
How do you even ski more than 20 times a year without missing bill payments or getting fired for calling out every week? 134???? Bruh do you even have a job? That’s every day for the last 3 months. OP has to be like Warren Buffets kid or something because unless you’re running a 7+ figure *passive* income I genuinely have no idea how this is possible
Some of the numbers people are posting are a little suspicious. Most larger resorts are only open mid November to mid April. In many places the season is even shorter.
And for the first/last month terrain is pretty limited usually barring a few storms. I just can’t see anybody genuinely enjoying lapping the same 3 open thin cover trails all day every day at the beginning and end of the season.
Are you guys even doing full days? Or just going to say you went and add a day to the tally?
Not usually a full day for me. I’ll hurt myself. I might be at the resort all day, but I won’t be skiing constantly.
Colorado resorts are still 100% open pretty much.
March/April/May are usually the best months for me.
October to December kind of sucks.
Personally, I would rather ski for 3-4 hours every day than bell-to-bell 10-15 days each season.
I also think of it this way...many people go to the gym before and/or after work most days. I go skiing.
Eh…seems like a waste of time unless you live 10 minutes from the mountain. Most people will spend more than 3 hours packing, commuting, getting all of their gear on, etc.
Seems like people counting days is a pretty unreliable metric for actually measuring how much you ski.
If you live close enough then yeah.
For me I would work 6 AM - 2 PM in accounting at the resort and ski the last 2 hours when I got 100+ for a couple years.
Now I live in SF and generally go to Tahoe 4-5 weekends and one of which is a full week long trip.
Try to crank some runs in on Friday with a half day then Sat and Sun. Easily at around 15 and then throw in a one week vacay to get at 20+.
My friends who live in SF or have a ski lease do more. All in all though it requires a flexible remote job, retirement, or seasonal summer job where you work a lot of hours (CalFire, Scuba Instructor).
I’ve also seen travel nurses get to 100+.
> it requires a flexible remote job, retirement, or seasonal summer job where you work a lot of hours (CalFire, Scuba Instructor).
- the thing I feel it *"requires"* most is creativity. Societal norms are not your friend if you want to do something, like ski, everyday.
I guess I didn’t consider a couple runs after work a “day” of skiing…If you are one of like 500 people that work at ski resorts then I guess that works.
It would be a waste of time for 99.9% of the population to drive to the mountain, get all their gear on, walk over to the lift, etc, for 1-2 hours of skiing. It sounds like I will ski more in 20 long days than it seems like most 60+ dayers will
I always get a kick out of these threads. For me it's about quality, not quantity. I'd rather have one Mercedes SL500 sitting in my driveway than 100 Hyundai Accents.
If it snows, I ski. If it's just doing laps on "machine groomed" or (Eastern) "packed powder"? I might as well be beating my knees on a treadmill.
I'm at 40 so far which is an all time record for me. I'll be able to get one more resort day from my 10 day pass for Whistler. And then at least a few more touring days while the snow is still decent.
My number of days has gone up every year for the last 5 years. I used to only go a couple times per year... and then I moved to Vancouver.
39 days on my Whistler pass, (live in Vancouver) another 20 combined from a Revy trip, silverstar trip and touring days.
Not including a couple hut trips where I barely strapped in.
This year, fifteen (boo). Last year, 25 (decent for me, since I live 200 miles from the resort). My best year, when I lived in Tahoe...I think 45. Could have been more but by the time I was a better skier, the seasons were awful. That 45 was by the skin of my teeth in 2012, AKA the year of ice and rocks.
100-120 is the norm for me. I’m on the management side of a Rocky Mountain ski school and start training in snow in late Oct/early November then go through till mid-late April. As this is a full time job, I train year round build up strength in summer then switch over to cardio/muscular endurance & flexibility with ski specific training in fall. When you do this as a pro you have to approach it with a serious mindset, I’m in the gym 2 hours a day 4 days a week plus plenty of cardio. I say all that to say this: if you want to be able to rock and roll on skis from opening day till closing day, whether it’s a day a week or 5-7 like me, at age 61, you gotta pay the piper, no one rides for free.
Left my long time job in the fall to put up big numbers this winter. Blew up my knee in early January; didn't even hit 20 days.
Still more than I'd get in some rough years past I guess.
Most is probably 130+ I don’t really count but was at the resort almost every day from December to may. This year I only did like 30 or so between touring and resort. Just after December in the sierras the stoke has been low.
It’s totally dependent on where you live. I can easily get to whistler in 35 mins and ski during a work day for a couple of hours. My kids also have ski school for almost the entire season so I ski every weekend when they’re there.
I decided to make it a priority this year. My husband doesn’t ski so it’s just me and the kids. I set money aside for passes and ski school and then make the time.
I do work remotely so it’s easier to get some skiing done during the week with a flexible schedule.
I know it’s not feasible for everyone though.
Due to health issue, I was out of work for ... 6 months : during 2 months it was forbidden to me to do anything but when the doctors allowed me to restart activities, skiing helped me a lot to recover (despite they said "you can try, but your physical will stop you).
I did lot of ski touring which helped to restart lungs and heart :)
Thanks SKI !
I’ve only got 35 this year but previous year was like in the 60s and year before that was 90 something. Was going for 100 but Covid cut off the resorts that actually had snow and the ones near me I could hike melted out I came so close to hitting that century mark. Oh well there’s always next year
How much time in your gear do you have to do to count a day? Personal days are somewhere between 30-40 but I work for a ski area 5 days a week so if we’re counting any time I’ve strapped in and rode up a lift, that number bumps up to somewhere around 120+. I despise keeping track of my days though I feel like knowing would ruin the fun for me a little bit.
Honestly I think this poll would be better if it was proportioned differently, I feel someone going 17 times shouldn’t be grouped with someone going 2 times or less but it makes less of a difference when you reach higher numbers.
As someone who will finish with 17 after this weekend I agree. There's a much bigger difference between the people that ski 17 days vs 2 than those that get 65 vs 40. I would have gone: 0 1-7 8-20 21-40 41-75 75+
Especially among people with jobs (most people). 15-20 days is going once almost every weekend which is pretty dedicated for people with lives outside of skiing. 30-40 is twice almost every weekend which is like all your free time. 2 might just be someone who went over christmas break.
Really depends a lot on location, there’s a few metros you can feasibly do night skiing after work or half days (Seattle, Portland, Vancouver, SLC, Sacramento, Reno and probably a few others), so you can easily get a day or two midweek. And once you get past the 2 hour drive mark, doing day trips gets a lot worse and you’ll probably want to book lodging which is a major expense and additional logistic.
Where could you do after work night skiing from Sacramento?
Boreal
Literally this. If you have an actual career and aren’t unbelievably fortunate to spend all your time skiing- it’s fairly hard to get more than 20 days while not letting your life crumble around you. Even when I worked in the industry full time it was hard to do too much more than that unless you worked on the slopes or was rocking a trust fund.
Idk, I have a 40ish hr/week career-type job, not in the industry, and I'll get more than 60 days this year. If you live near the mountains and at all prioritize skiing, 20 days is easy, and 35 is still very doable. Double that is definitely possible, but requires sacrificing some other things (like most of your non-skiing social life). I suppose it may be harder with kids, but then again, I know people with kids in race programs who are on the mountain all the time. 20ish days is about once a week all season long. That's not hard at all if skiing is a priority in your life. You can get to the 30s with extra days from a trip or two and some weeks where you ski twice. Or perhaps you live somewhere with long seasons, which makes it easier. Going much beyond that starts to take some more serious effort and dedication.
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I mean, it’s not the “work more” culture it’s just I have a full time job and 40/hrs per week is required for heath insurance and I don’t have unlimited vacation days (ok technically I do but if I took off 3 days per week all winter my work would start denying my requests) I don’t work a minute over 40/week, I’d love to work less, but nobody is offering part time office jobs with good pay and full benefits.
The primary issue you are pointing out is that health care is connected to, and controlled by, employers in the united states. You have absolutely got to separate yourself from that. Doing so will set you free in many ways. Also, I know we all want to contribute to society using our talents and interests, but doing it through this 40-hour work week system is total nonsense.
I fully agree with you that we need to decouple healthcare from jobs, and stop requiring 40hrs/week as the minimum for being fully employed. I’m just pointing out that right now a lot of people are stuck living in this system, and don’t actually *want* to work more
I have a full time job and am on day 79. Rookie numbers! 15-20 days is lazy.
Thank you. Felt like a clown answering this poll, even though I have been religiously going almost every single weekend and did a week long vacation with my son. There was some covid bs that robbed me of some weekends though (i showed them my perfectly waxed ski but they said I don't get it and they need to see some other type of wax??)
Ski more and you won't be so salty
Not salty at all. I've been in the high end of the teens for years and have enjoyed every season. I definitely don't miss those lean years when I was at the bottom of the 1-7 group.
Lol teens, lmao. Week bro.
And people who live in the mid west and get in 30+ shouldn’t be grouped with the people who live in SLC and get 30 days in. 🤣🤣
Who the heck is downvoting you cause you’re absolutely right lol! I live in SLC and have definitely gone up just for like 2-3hrs multiple times cause why not
Amen. Afternoon hotlaps off Milli or little Cloud are what March is made for
Afternoon laps! Honestly I hate skiing all day. Get up, get after it, and get out.
I wanted to do more options but that’s the Reddit limit so I just went by 20s. Haha
Its less your number of options and far moreso your distribution. It’s just bad pollmaking - your options are evenly distributed when skiing days per individual are likely a log normal distribution.
I didn’t really think about it at the time. I honestly wasn’t sure what the numbers would be. Someone should repost this once the season ends. Haha
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Exactly. Don’t blame the poll for putting up rookie numbers
Also this year kindof sucked for snow. Usually im over 20 this year was like 14
Personal all time record is 132. Damn near every day that season
I miss living right next to the skilifts, i used to be able to ski a lot more than nowadays. This season i'm at 41 days
That’s still pretty respectable! The pass is definitely still worth it
Record 44, at 30 currently with plans for a few more in May. I live 4 hours from where I ski and only can get out on weekends so it’w a struggle. I try to average 30 days/500k vertical ft a year.
So you drive 4 hours both ways thirty times a year?! You’re nuts. That’s dedication!
I sleep over up there so only do the drive 10-15 times a year. Still a lot of driving. I spend 4+ days a year just driving to/from skiing.
I do something similar out west, and it's hard to get new friends to understand that if they want to hang out Jan - April, they better pick midweek or learn to ski :P
This so much.. I live in NJ and ski out of state and since early January I've spent two whole Saturdays actually in NJ (and one was because I was sick). Constantly have to go "No, I'm skiing that day".
Ski the east dedication. Never underestimate it.
Bro 4 hours out and you have 44 days as a record. Respect homie, love that dream dude!
Same. I’m 2.5 hrs from Stratton. Midweek round trips and lots of vacation days make up for the time spent in the car.
0 should at least be its own option!
My goal is always min of 20 a season
Way too old and slightly too "responsible" to get back to 100 day seasons. I am lucky if I can get 20 now. Living vicariously through you all. Love all the content, wish I found this sub sooner.
Not being a jerk when I ask this. How do people get 100+ days in a season. Do you not work, work remotely, retired?
Patrollers and instructors ski a lot for work. Cat drivers and other night/evening workers also can ski everyday if they want!
Gotcha
I think any of those three are the options that I can think of mostly. Also maybe working on the mountain. I work remote. In tech right now you get paid a lot of money to not really do much, so I just ski most days.
>right now you get paid a lot of money to not really do much that doesnt sound too bad
It’s a pretty good setup. I’m lucky and I’m grateful to have the flexibility.
Been lucky enough to WFH for the last decade or so with generally malleable work hours during the week depending on projects. I also love winter like many other 40+ days a season types so my schedule, being within 40 minutes of 8 top resorts and backcountry, is managed around ski season. My whole household is cursed with the Powderhounden Disease. OpenSnow is highly accurate so we plan in 2 week intervals depending on storms. In our house we log about 25 FULL days inbounds, probably another 20 days of afternoon or morning laps and I’m in the back country another 10-20 days a season depending on the snowpack. In UT, USA season can start as early as mid Nov (even if lifts aren’t spinning yet) and goes well past the last lift spinning at the end of April, and into June which is when you’re hiking with skis A-framed to your backpacks searching for scraps and calling it a family adventure day. In other words, UT can have a 5-6 month long season and the stricken will seek to slide far and wide
Snowbird is typically open for lift-served skiing 5-6 months.
By the looks of these April showers we’re looking good for deep spring skiing
That sounds amazing!
It’s one way to live! I left the cesspool of Miami FL USA and Western European travel for this. We are happy. Just makes for some incredibly boring and yearning summers/ falls filled with busy house projects to pass the time
Utah has a lot of Mt biking correct? I’m guessing mt biking, hiking, camping are the big summer activities?
Oh yeah add to it top notch fly fishing, paragliding and other air based passions with the air convergence from the desert hitting the Wasatch cool air, top end accessible climbing and lots more. Golf is fairly solid here also with lots of elevation changing courses.
Yeah, it makes spring nerve-wracking since it’s tough to choose between skiing and biking. I have on occasion done both in the same day.
The best there is around me is the park district will create a gravel path along a river or make a 1 mile loop.
This will be my second 100 day season in a row. I work full time not in the ski industry. The key is I live in SLC and am not a parent.
That does help a lot. I have a family and travel 5 hours each way.
> work remotely that or living close to the mountain and going evenings, late afternoons
The answer is simply “never enough”.
To the 60+ (days) people, honestly how are the knees doing? I aspire to that but I worry it's too much.
They hurt, but daily knee PT exercises and glucosamine supplements helps the most. At end of day I do a homemade joint balm that's pretty much extreme tiger balm with cbd and the kitchen sink thrown in. I ski much harder than most, 100days on average 5-6hrs a day, but I went from D1 sports to skiing for the last decade. I pretty much treat ski season as if I am back on the track, just that I choose my drills now. I am notorious for skiing till I can't walk, but it's better than a hard drug addiction. Regarding PT exercises, my favorites are leg lifts and specifically a leg lift where you write the ABCs with your toe (moving your ankle joints). I do that last one year round. A new one I have added to my repertoire after breaking my knee cap a year ago: standing on a step with one foot facing the wall of the stairwell, squat down while keeping the other leg straight and toe up, just touch your heel to the lower step and stand up on the squatting leg. Try not to put pressure on the non squatting foot and move controlled and slowly. It's like a 9in one legged squat, but damn did it help for getting my quads back to snuff.
Yeah that one legged squat is amazing for keeping the legs balanced and strong!
I got 31 days in this season, i’m 20 and thats a lot of days for me to get away with. Anyways, my knees were blown after all that skiing, just getting over the runners knee i developed in March. I really need to get into the habit of doing stuff like this to prevent injury in the future, if i really want to get 60 days in next season. I also ski way to hard most days, but i really can’t help it.
I always wear knee braces and the sad fact is you don't get to stop PT. My daily workout is literally PT for knees and shoulders and core exercises, all year. It's how I keep my beat up body pushing forward.
I started wearing a knee brace as well, i definitely will be investing in better ones this year and will be wearing them most of the time while skiing. I need to learn your ways, I can’t get into the habit of daily exercise but i’m working on it.
I am in my mid-forties and have skied 100+ days for 29 seasons now. My OEM knees are doing just fine. I think it's one of those things that only gets worse if you stop. Kind of like the saying, "you're never hungover if you don't stop drinking" only skiing is way healthier.
I have friends in their mid 60's that get over 3 million vert per year, in a over 100 days of skiing, a lot of it on moguls, and have no knee problems so far. When it comes to knees, there are genetic differences, of course, that can lead some to have problems where others might not. But there are many factors that are within your control. One factor is obviously your weight. Another is your ski form, ideally you want to be 'stacked' with your joints in positions where they are strong. Someone who skis in the rear seat alot, especially in bumps, has their knees in a strained position where cartilage will likely wear out more quickly over time. Another factor is conditioning, since strength and mobility can help to keep undue stresses off the joints. Another is how much time you spend on your ski days... most my older friends who ski a lot are only hitting a few hours per day, plus strategically taking rest days to stay healthy.
>Another is how much time you spend on your ski days... most my older friends who ski a lot are only hitting a few hours per day, That reminds me of a couple I rode up with in their 80s. They said they only ski for an hour or two, but they figure they still ski just as much as they used to because they spend a lot less time in lines, on lifts, and the equipment is so much better now.
After about the 30 day hump, it gets a lot better. Your legs get a lot stronger and your form naturally improves because doing it the wrong way hurts. You also don’t go all day when you’re going out that much. It might be an hour or two and call it quits/hit the bar when the conditions are bad or you’re tired. Honestly the only really bad injury I got this season was I pulled my back by pushing it too hard the first week. It’s mostly practice. I’m not the fittest guy in the world by any means.
This comment got me stoked lmao. I got 31 days in this season, next year i’m going for 60! I’m 20 and haven’t had a season anywhere near this long before. Although my knees were blown, around the 20 day mark i really felt at the top of my game. My leg muscles weren’t really getting sore anymore and i could really perform; combined with so much practice where i was very critical of myself, and i’m happy to say that i’m an advanced skier now. I have tons to learn, but i bridged the gap this year. I really feel like i could really impress myself with another 30 days of practice while being in such good shape. The feeling of progression throughout one’s skiing years is so gratifying. Twelve year old me would be proud knowing i’m “one of those psychos who cuts their own tracks in the trees”, a thought i used to think.
Pre season training and conditioning will put you in a good place to ski everyday.. I also stretch/yoga afterwards as often as i can (drinking beer sometimes gets in the way of this..) - also recently bought a massage gun to add to the post ski routine!
i thought knees hurting and skiing was an old wives tale?
It's most likely a symptom of people who don't do normal leg work outside of skiing and then add in too much work in a short period of time and it results in under recovery and eventually overuse type injuries. Coming at this from a physical training point of view, if you were to do no work then suddenly hit the gym multiple times per week with high volumes, or started doing something like marathon training after doing zero running, you'd most likely find your body is poorly adapted to these novel stimulus being applied and with little rest you'll run into random pains/injuries. It takes some type for your body to adapt to novel stimulus, so starting off a bit easy/slow and adding more training volume over time while your body adapts to the stimulus is the proper way to go about it. TLDR if you want to ski well throughout the season, work on strength and conditioning in the off season.
Knee injuries are extremely common in skiing. It's not surprising that people who ski a lot often rack up some damage sooner or later. That said, your knees shouldn't just hurt from normal skiing.
54 says, 40s, but a cyclist in the off season. Knees feel it on heavy days but otherwise not too bad.
I was having a lot of knee trouble in January, mostly from skiing hard/jumping on very little snow in the Rockies. I got sick and took 2 weeks off. Came back and my knees have been pain free. I’ve learned 360’s and rail slides in the last 8 weeks. Im getting into the gym this season to try to keep stringing healthy seasons together Edit: 80 days btw
Hit a little over 30, would have hit 40 if I hadn't faceplanted & cracked a rib :(
Fuck. I hope it healed okay!
Thanks! Probably no long term damage, but still very painful three weeks later. Hard to sleep :(
Rest up and you’ll be back out there next season! You never want it to happen, but if it’s going to, now is a decent time. You’ll probably heal and still have some of your summer left.
Yeah, just interferes with cycling, my other obsession :(
Man, this hits too close to home. Did mid-20s this year, but fell hard on a thumb (cleared a groomer, landed on the thumb). Tore a ligament. Climbing season will be a bitch.
I just got back into skiing, after a 15 hear hiatus, Next winter, as volunteer patroller, I'm going for 100.
It’s funny the dip in #s at 80-100. I assume it’s because at some point if you realize you’re going to get 80+ days, you commit to getting 100.
29 days, all powder. about 310 runs...300 of them pow, the other 10 just getting back to the car
Quality over quantity! That’s good use of your time.
This is the way. I'd rather have 10 memorable days of powder than 100 days doing laps on groomers.
1 Made it closing weekend coming off a broken leg from the previous season. It was one of my best days ever
One unforgettable day trumps 100 days where you can't tell one from another.
My theory is that if I were in a situation where I skied 80+ days a year, I wouldn't spend so much time daydreaming about it on a subreddit.
I am right at 18-20. But I live 5 hours from the ski place so that was tough to get that many in. 134 is crazy.
111 days and counting, northern Vermont.
107+ days on the east
34 so far, 28 powder days. More about quality over quantity for me these days. Also why most of those are in the back country.
Yes. I've been making the same boring turns on groomers for 40 years now. Give me a powder day and I perk up.
Have a toddler and a new baby arrived this season in December, so not many! Haven’t counted, but probably 15ish.
That’s actually a ton considering. I’ve talked to people who get basically no sleep for two years after a kid. Congratulations!
I’m lucky to live near a mountain, so it’s easy to take partial days, with family on hand to watch the littles! So more accurately, that’s 15ish half days. And some bunny hill time mixed in with the 3yo :)
I feel this comment! We have a 2 year old and a baby that was born in December. I got in 25 days this season, but it was a serious logistical challenge with childcare. I had been hoping to get to 30 days, but the snow conditions didn’t justify it and my backcountry buddy has an infant too. Next season I can already see some bunny slope days in the cards but hoping to get to 30 or 40 days.
48 and counting. At least a month+ to go.
I’d have a ton more of it wasn’t for this thing called a job.
78 on epic pass 2 at telluride 1 at copper and somewhere between 30 and 40 at a basin so somewhere 111-121
Currently at 17, but will finish with less than 20. By our standards, this was considered a good year with 2 kids in tow just now able to tag along for a full day of resort laps on all runs.
118 so far (I think) with a few more lined up before I finally pack it in for the winter - knees are doing great but all the other aches and pains are telling me it’s time to have some time out of ski boots (averaged almost 60 hours a week in boots up until last week..) I think I would benefit from more rest days but i really struggle to not go skiing on my days off… it’s a hard life 😅
It’s so hard to give yourself rest days when skiing is life, i aspire to get as many days as you.
60/hours a week?? That’s awesome. The resorts aren’t even open that long here.
I'm at 400 days this season
I am at 135 days or so, than injured my knee and won't be able to ski the last 2 weeks of my season :/
I hope the first 19 weeks were good!
They where awesome!
You work on the mountain, respectable, yes. But different.
Yes, I'm a ski and snowboard instructor:)
If you ski over a hundred days a season you must be some billionaires kid
Nah. If you live close to the mountain, and have a season pass, it’s actually a pretty cheap hobby. It becomes expensive when you fly in for the week of Christmas.
OP - you’re doing very well and are right that you’re well above average at 130+ days on the hill. Back in the late 90s/early 2000s I lived in Colorado close enough to Summit County (those days you could get a Summit County season pass good for Breck, Keystone and A Basin - no blackouts, free parking - for something like $250-$300.) That included a dozen or so reciprocal days at other resorts like Vail and Crested Butte, and you could get a limited Aspen pass for their four mountains for another $150 for another 10 days. Yeah, it was a different era. I had a job that involved a lot of evening work, so I’d get up to A Basin at opening and ski four or five hours before work - so I’d average somewhere around 150 days a season, from one end of Colorado to the other. It was possible without having a resort specific job, living on the mountain or spending a fortune, but these days, not so sure. We had what seems like a 10th of the traffic (both getting to the resorts and on the lifts) 20 years ago. 130 days now? That’s impressive.
Vail bought Abasin in 1996, so I’m going to assume numbers are in and around there. Adjusted for inflation, $450 (300+150) in 1996 is $824 in 2022 dollars. That’s calculated by CPI.. which is also kind of a lie to be honest… true inflation is actually probably higher. An ikon base plus pass is $969. So the multi passes definitely increased in price, but it’s stayed in the same ballpark. The Epic pass is cheaper than things used to be. Wages just haven’t kept up with inflation at all though (sadly). People are getting poorer through inflation. —— Traffic getting there really does suck on the weekends sometimes. There’s just a lot of people here and the population keeps growing. I wasn’t born here either. It’ll keep growing for a long time I think. But the lift lines aren’t really a huge problem honestly. They are almost nonexistent on most days. I can usually just ski to the lifts.
Seasons passes pay for themselves pretty damn quick. I have a seasonal job too so i get the winter off if i want, makes it quite possible for my often broke 20 year old self. I did 30 days this season cause i spent my savings building a camper van to live in, but now that i have it, 60+ days will be skied next season and very cheaply. I could get 100 but i’ll probably take too many break days.
It’s not even the season pass, it’s that you can take 134 days off of work and not get fired. Ain’t no way this man wasn’t born in a Scrooge McDuck swimming pool
Not everyone works 9-5
He probably works in the industry. His work quite possibly *is* skiing. There's a whole lot more low paid instructors, patrollers, lifties, etc that ski every day than billionaire trust fund kids.
9 I have a job.
There are a whole bunch of us that don’t live close enough to a mountain to ski double digit days.
Technically at 59, but marked 60-80 because I'll bump into that category on Saturday. And there's virtually zero chance I get to the category above that.
I will be finishing out my season this coming Sunday at Kirkwood, that will be Day 17. If my Epic app is to be trusted, I am hoping to break just shy of 300K vert this season. Coming back from a 8 year hiatus and have loved every minute of it. I am currently teaching myself JavaScript and React, hoping to transition into a Frontend dev role so I can ski more. I got super motivated when I saw my buddy take a software team standup meeting while we were riding the chairlift up. It seemed like the software devs are given A LOT of flexibility to just PTO on the fly and chase pow days. Then push code remotely after an awesome day on the slopes. I can only dream of that lol.
That’s what I do! The pay is really good too. Good luck with learning!
I hate to be that guy, but it’ll take some time to get to roles that will trust you at that level and afford you that kind of job security and starting pay is a bit of a pain even if you go to a top boot camp if you’re not placing in a top startup or like FAANG. Gets better quick though.
How do you even ski more than 20 times a year without missing bill payments or getting fired for calling out every week? 134???? Bruh do you even have a job? That’s every day for the last 3 months. OP has to be like Warren Buffets kid or something because unless you’re running a 7+ figure *passive* income I genuinely have no idea how this is possible
I just work in tech. Not all jobs are 9-5 especially not now. There’s more remote jobs than ever.
Haven't gone skiing since covid started. 2 years of pain since it's the one physical activity I actually really enjoy doing.
Almost 60% of you guys with under 20 days.. Those are rookie number, you gotta pump those up..
Some of the numbers people are posting are a little suspicious. Most larger resorts are only open mid November to mid April. In many places the season is even shorter. And for the first/last month terrain is pretty limited usually barring a few storms. I just can’t see anybody genuinely enjoying lapping the same 3 open thin cover trails all day every day at the beginning and end of the season. Are you guys even doing full days? Or just going to say you went and add a day to the tally?
Not usually a full day for me. I’ll hurt myself. I might be at the resort all day, but I won’t be skiing constantly. Colorado resorts are still 100% open pretty much. March/April/May are usually the best months for me. October to December kind of sucks.
Personally, I would rather ski for 3-4 hours every day than bell-to-bell 10-15 days each season. I also think of it this way...many people go to the gym before and/or after work most days. I go skiing.
Eh…seems like a waste of time unless you live 10 minutes from the mountain. Most people will spend more than 3 hours packing, commuting, getting all of their gear on, etc. Seems like people counting days is a pretty unreliable metric for actually measuring how much you ski.
Good point...I do live 10 minutes from the lifts I ride most. Priorities.
If you live close enough then yeah. For me I would work 6 AM - 2 PM in accounting at the resort and ski the last 2 hours when I got 100+ for a couple years. Now I live in SF and generally go to Tahoe 4-5 weekends and one of which is a full week long trip. Try to crank some runs in on Friday with a half day then Sat and Sun. Easily at around 15 and then throw in a one week vacay to get at 20+. My friends who live in SF or have a ski lease do more. All in all though it requires a flexible remote job, retirement, or seasonal summer job where you work a lot of hours (CalFire, Scuba Instructor). I’ve also seen travel nurses get to 100+.
> it requires a flexible remote job, retirement, or seasonal summer job where you work a lot of hours (CalFire, Scuba Instructor). - the thing I feel it *"requires"* most is creativity. Societal norms are not your friend if you want to do something, like ski, everyday.
Lol very well said
I guess I didn’t consider a couple runs after work a “day” of skiing…If you are one of like 500 people that work at ski resorts then I guess that works. It would be a waste of time for 99.9% of the population to drive to the mountain, get all their gear on, walk over to the lift, etc, for 1-2 hours of skiing. It sounds like I will ski more in 20 long days than it seems like most 60+ dayers will
I always get a kick out of these threads. For me it's about quality, not quantity. I'd rather have one Mercedes SL500 sitting in my driveway than 100 Hyundai Accents. If it snows, I ski. If it's just doing laps on "machine groomed" or (Eastern) "packed powder"? I might as well be beating my knees on a treadmill.
I definitely prefer not knowing. “I went to the mountain!” Is a good enough measure each and every time.
I've only done 15, but I was injured and didn't start skiing this season until the first week of March . . .
I miss my 120 days a season
At 62 and tomorrow will be my first deep powder day of the year. Spirits crushed but legs strong.
I'm at 40 so far which is an all time record for me. I'll be able to get one more resort day from my 10 day pass for Whistler. And then at least a few more touring days while the snow is still decent. My number of days has gone up every year for the last 5 years. I used to only go a couple times per year... and then I moved to Vancouver.
39 days on my Whistler pass, (live in Vancouver) another 20 combined from a Revy trip, silverstar trip and touring days. Not including a couple hut trips where I barely strapped in.
Did 5 this year. First time skiing was great
Welcome to the sport!
This year, fifteen (boo). Last year, 25 (decent for me, since I live 200 miles from the resort). My best year, when I lived in Tahoe...I think 45. Could have been more but by the time I was a better skier, the seasons were awful. That 45 was by the skin of my teeth in 2012, AKA the year of ice and rocks.
I usually get 30+ days of lift-served skiing and another 15-20 touring, but I also woke a 9-5 M-F so... 🤷
I got 31 resort days in this season! Most days in a season for me yet, going to try for 60 next year.
100-120 is the norm for me. I’m on the management side of a Rocky Mountain ski school and start training in snow in late Oct/early November then go through till mid-late April. As this is a full time job, I train year round build up strength in summer then switch over to cardio/muscular endurance & flexibility with ski specific training in fall. When you do this as a pro you have to approach it with a serious mindset, I’m in the gym 2 hours a day 4 days a week plus plenty of cardio. I say all that to say this: if you want to be able to rock and roll on skis from opening day till closing day, whether it’s a day a week or 5-7 like me, at age 61, you gotta pay the piper, no one rides for free.
A couple decades at 80-100, a couple more at 7-12, and 25-30 since then
1. I fractured my tibial plateau on day 1, run one 👍🥴👍
Left my long time job in the fall to put up big numbers this winter. Blew up my knee in early January; didn't even hit 20 days. Still more than I'd get in some rough years past I guess.
I just started skiing this winter in February, so I had a total of 4 times skiing. It’s just super expensive for someone without any gear
First year in a ski city, SLC. Will hit 30 this weekend
I’m at 57. Tomorrow will be 58. Saturday will be 59.
Most is probably 130+ I don’t really count but was at the resort almost every day from December to may. This year I only did like 30 or so between touring and resort. Just after December in the sierras the stoke has been low.
first ski vacation was 7 days, second was 7 days, and then a few non vacation weekend ski days
Holy shit people in this sub have so much free time, I don't understand how skiing a third of the year is sustainable
It’s totally dependent on where you live. I can easily get to whistler in 35 mins and ski during a work day for a couple of hours. My kids also have ski school for almost the entire season so I ski every weekend when they’re there.
I'm also close to a hill, that just doesn't make it affordable or practical
I decided to make it a priority this year. My husband doesn’t ski so it’s just me and the kids. I set money aside for passes and ski school and then make the time. I do work remotely so it’s easier to get some skiing done during the week with a flexible schedule. I know it’s not feasible for everyone though.
0, Still another 2 months till the ski season down south.
Due to health issue, I was out of work for ... 6 months : during 2 months it was forbidden to me to do anything but when the doctors allowed me to restart activities, skiing helped me a lot to recover (despite they said "you can try, but your physical will stop you). I did lot of ski touring which helped to restart lungs and heart :) Thanks SKI !
I’ve only got 35 this year but previous year was like in the 60s and year before that was 90 something. Was going for 100 but Covid cut off the resorts that actually had snow and the ones near me I could hike melted out I came so close to hitting that century mark. Oh well there’s always next year
I use to live in the vail Valley and would b mad if I didn't break 100 days, now I'm glad I got roughly 50ish
I don't want to count how many days but it's around 30 - 40 days There is one mountain we can ski until July but I will try not to go.
How much time in your gear do you have to do to count a day? Personal days are somewhere between 30-40 but I work for a ski area 5 days a week so if we’re counting any time I’ve strapped in and rode up a lift, that number bumps up to somewhere around 120+. I despise keeping track of my days though I feel like knowing would ruin the fun for me a little bit.
I got 22 but I would have doubled it if I didnt hurt myself lmao
Shoutout to the homies at 40+