Podcasts about Chairlift

Marie - The Snowboarding Mom joined me for a chat about Snowboarding as a youth who never got her big break to go big or go home when Women's Snowboarding and really snow boarding was in it's infancy. Come grab a hot coco as it's warming up and let's chat, snow and snowboarding.Don't Forget - Her Podcast "The Chairlift" or The ChairliftCheck out her Instagram!

As they recap season 4 episode 20 of PLL "Free Fall", they discover Ezra's secret smoked meats are not the only things being blazed - so are Ash and Hayley!!!! For this long awaited episode (CHAIRLIFT!!!!!!) they light up in honour of Flopzra getting caught OOT, discover some Norristown canon/Andrew Cunanan and get obsessed with Victoria Slaystings' ability to get to a country club dinner in 5 minutes.   You can also WATCH our regular fortnightly episodes on the Call An Adult YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@CallAnAdult Want more Call An Adult? Come join our Dollhouse over on Patreon! patreon.com/callanadult

In this episode, Brian Garofalow, CEO of Skullcandy, shares his journey from his roots in Southern California to leading a globally recognized brand. He reflects on his early days snowboarding in Big Bear, building a career in action sports marketing, and working with iconic brands like DC Shoes and Ruca. Brian discusses the importance of staying authentic to a brand's heritage while navigating modern challenges in direct-to-consumer retail and social media. He emphasizes the value of fostering community, staying innovative, and maintaining a strong point of view in competitive markets. 

January has been a disheartening month for many snow lovers, but there was good news today. Marble Mountain ski hill was scheduled to open in the morning. It's taken a lot of work and perseverance to get the hill ready. Bruce Hollett is executive chair of the board of directors of Marble Mountain.

Season 4, Episode 34 - Flashback to the top 5 episodes of 2024.  Back on Episode 39, Chairlift Chat stopped at ⁠Ski Big Bear at Masthope Mountain⁠. The resort has been open since December 14, 2024 . Plus – it's the ideal spot to learn how to ski or snowboard. The instructors are great – we'll meet one of them who is an award-winning veteran and also share a chair on the lift with General Manager Lori Phillips. The Poconos is a year-round destination for millions and with 24-hundred square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers with historic downtowns and iconic family resorts, it's the perfect getaway for a weekend or an entire week. You can always find out more on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PoconoMountains.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or watch ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pocono Television Network⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ streaming live 24/7.

In the final episode of 2024, the boys catch up on a variety of topics just before PowBot hits the road for a month-long ski adventure on the Powder Highway of Canada, including Trail Whisperer's story of driving the Powder Highway right as COVID hit in early 2020. The new snow reporter, Al Powcino, makes his debut with a wet and soggy forecast, Trail Whisperer presents the most compelling evidence yet that the Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption is linked to the last two years of record-breaking global warming, the boys discuss the 2024 word of the year, “Brain Rot”, and Trail Whisperer recounts his recent visit to San Diego chasing the massive surf swell. Pepper in a few Dope or Derps and 2024 is complete. Thanks to all our listeners for an awesome second season of Mind the Track! 3:00 – Artificial Intelligence and snow forecasting.5:50 – Christmas Day – Pow Day at Sugar Bowl, death cookies at Mount Rose and holiday traffic.8:20 – PowBot gets Trail Whisperer a Christmas gift – a bicycling book from Japan.11:00 – Dope or Derp? eSkimo – the ebike of backcountry skiing.15:50 – Dope or Derp? Christmas gifts and Christmas trees.21:10 – Sam and Trail Whisperer went to San Diego before Christmas to surf the big swell.27:30 – PowBot is about to embark on a road trip to the Powder Highway of Canada and going to the Meadow Hut with Golden Alpine Holidays.29:25 – Driving the Powder Highway, Trans-Canada Highway, Revelstoke, Kelowna, Golden.32:45 – Revelstoke and Kicking Horse – awesome mountains but no chairlift infrastructure.35:10 – Crystal Mountain in Washington.36:00 – Chairlift evacuation malfunctions at Heavenly, Telluride, Winter Park and France. What's the longest you've ever spent on a broken chairlift?41:00 – Golden Alpine Holidays and Meadow Hut in the Esplanade Range north of Golden.42:00 – Banff National Park – Amazing winter campground with 110V power and heated showers.44:10 – Dope or Derp? Driving and passing someone on a double yellow.48:20 – Oxford University Press Word of the Year – “Brain Rot”.50:15 – The Hunga Tonga volcanic eruption and it's effect on recent climate change. Scientists are beginning to acknowledge its effects on the suddenly warming climate.52:10 – Dr. Javier Vinos – author of Climate of the Past, Present and Future, a Scientific Debate, summarizes Hunga Tonga's effect on the rapid warming of the climate.58:10 – Mind the Track introduces the new Powderiffic Snow Report correspondent – Al Powcino!1:02:30 – Low tide snow conditions in Tahoe and Shasta Avalanche Center employees rescue a lost and frozen duck at 10,000 feet elevation and released it at a creek in town.1:05:00 – News – EXPLORE Act passed by Congress – legislation focused on improving outdoor recreation access, including BOLT Act - Bicycling on Long Distance Trails.1:08:50 – Outdoor recreation is a $1.2 trillion industry supporting 5 million jobs in the U.S.1:10:30 – Toyota takes every spot in vehicles most likely to last 250,000 miles or more, including the Tacoma, Tundra, Sequoia, 4Runner and Highlander Hybrid.1:13:35 – New study shows staggering number of spinal cord injuries with mountain bikers.1:15:20 – Hoot Trail in Nevada City – continued drama about its future.1:23:25 – Trail Whisperer's story about driving the Powder Highway at the beginning of COVID.1:29:40 – On a musical note - @facemelts – King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, The Osees, Queens of the Stone Age, Screaming Trees, Mark Lanegan.1:35:45 – Do you listen to music when you ski or ride your bike?1:39:30 – Thanks to all our listeners for an awesome 2024. Growing fast!

Listen with FREE Interactive Transcript only on the RealLife App. In this episode, I sit down with my co-host to ask him all about his unforgettable journey as a work-and-travel exchange student in the U.S. Hear all about his time working at a ski resort, the culture shocks he faced, the life lessons he gained, and how watching TV shows at home helped him get comfortable with English before the trip. It's a fun and inspiring look at what it's like to work abroad and embrace a whole new world of experiences!   By the end of this episode, you will: Learn about a program Izzy used to find a job in the US Learn great vocabulary related to ski resorts, like "Chairlift", "Snow tubing" and "Terrain park" Have fun with the hilarious stories Izzy shared from the times he worked at the guest service at Seattle ski resort.  Plus: Expand your vocabulary with a ton of practical expressions. Find out about some culture shocks of a Brazilian living in the US Celebrate the achievements of our Learner of the Week.   Show notes here. .......... Follow us on: RealLife English (YouTube) Learn English with TV Series (YouTube)

Proper polymaths have one guiding principle: love every genre you explore. And it's clear from the first note of any Olga Bell album she's dedicated to that rule. The classically trained pianist, electronic warlock and hip-hop connoisseur hasn't found a sound she can't warp and adore. At the beginning of the decade she toured with The Dirty Projectors and Chairlift and released Край an exceptionally ambitious project dedicated to the music of her native Russia. But a wondering spirit like Bell gets bored and her next album, Tempo, was an ode to dance music, bouncing from BPM to BPM and dance move to dance move. The opening song “Power User” was a stately mix of G-Funk, Beastie Boys brattiness, dancefloor empowerment and terrifyingly catchy synth-pop. So, listen to our interview with Bell, read up on “Power User” and see why we think it's one of the best of the 10s. “I think being an artist requires a certain amount of delusion and then checking that delusion. ” — Olga Bell

In this episode of the On the Runs podcast, Knute, Erika, and guest Mikala discuss Mikala's experience running the Western States Endurance Run. They talk about the lottery system for entry, Mikala's training and preparation, and the logistics of the race. Mikala shares her strategy for drop bags and the items she included in them. They also discuss the supportive and inclusive atmosphere of the race and the camaraderie among runners. The vibe at the starting line of the Western States 100 mile trail race was emotional and filled with dedicated supporters. The race began with a challenging climb, and one runner even walked into a chairlift by accident. The river crossing was a highlight, with volunteers helping runners navigate the water. The race took place in hot weather, and some runners struggled with the heat. Despite the challenges, Mikala's why for running ultras is simply because she loves it. She enjoys the reward of running in the woods with like-minded people. In this part of the conversation, Mikala discusses her experience running the Western States 100-mile race and the challenges she faced. She talks about using headphones during the race and the songs she listened to, including 'It's Raining Tacos.' Mikala also shares her thoughts on the finish line and the post-race meal she had. The conversation then transitions to Erica's experience running the Washington Yeti 100-mile race, where she describes the beautiful scenery and the differences compared to her previous race in Virginia. They also discuss mental preparation and the importance of being relaxed before a race. In this final part of the conversation, Erika shares her overall experience of the race and the lessons she learned. She talks about how she prepared better for this race, including taping up her feet to prevent blisters and improving her fueling habits. She also discusses the lack of tracking in this race and the challenges she faced during the night lap. Erika mentions her upcoming race, the Notch, and her goals for it. The conversation ends with a discussion about the Code Brown commandments and the importance of being comfortable in outdoor bathroom situations.Chapters00:00 The Lottery System and Training Camp17:33 Logistics and Panic Attacks19:56 The Importance of a Support System22:18 Preparations and Safety Pins23:25 The Emotional Start of the Western States Race24:25 Challenges and Strategies for River Crossings29:26 Managing Heat and Hydration in the Western States Race33:13 The Significance of Toenail Colors in Ultra Running37:24 The Joy of Running Ultras: Nature and Camaraderie45:41 Music and Finish Line Vibes at Western States 10054:02 Average Pace and Buckle at Western States 10001:08:08 The Beautiful Trail and Aid Stations at Washington Yeti 10001:11:26 Challenges of Long Distances and Mental Preparation01:12:48 Appreciating the Support and Camaraderie of the Ultra Running Community01:12:54 Mental Preparation and Relaxation01:14:55 Learning and Improving from Past Races01:16:27 Fueling Strategies and Adaptation01:19:03 The Importance of Support from Fellow Runners01:21:50 The Challenges of Limited Tracking01:25:13 Finding Motivation in the Beauty of the Scenery01:27:02 The Excitement of Signing Up for Another Race01:32:06 Code Brown ComStrava GroupLinktree - Find everything hereInstagram - Follow us on the gram YouTube - Subscribe to our channel Patreon - Support usThreadsEmail us at OnTheRunsPod@gmail.com

Welcome to Chairlift Chatss the podcast, where everyday conversations take flight. Join us a brother and sister duo, Chelsea and James Widdicombe as we dive into current events, explore meaningful topics, and share genuine chats that happen between friends, strangers, and everyone in between. Whether you're on a chairlift, in an elevator, hitting the slopes, or just living life, we're here to capture those authentic moments that truly resonate with people. Strap in and let's get talking on Chairlift Chats! Instagram ⁠https://www.instagram.com/chairliftchatss?igsh=MWFqNzk5c3N3bmtnaA==⁠ YouTube ⁠https://youtube.com/@ChairliftChatss?si=K8IidTXOnYJ2Nh5n⁠ Facebook ⁠https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556662837937⁠ chairliftchatss@gmail.com

Nesta edição, Cleber Facchi (@cleberfacchi), Isadora Almeida (@almeidadora), Renan Guerra (@_renanguerra) e Nik Silva (@niksilva) conversam sobre os personagens ocultos da indústria da música, oportunistas históricos e figuras dos bastidores que conquistaram seu próprio espaço. Participe da promoção Vai de Itaú para Copacabana: https://meu.itau/elavemvfsm Apoie a gente: https://apoia.se/podcastvfsm Não Paro De Ouvir ➜ Vampire Weekend https://tinyurl.com/ycjyajba➜ Funk.Br (NTS) https://tinyurl.com/2u32kyub➜ Paula Cavalciuk https://tinyurl.com/58d2xmf3➜ Nina Maia https://tinyurl.com/249rxxy4➜ Peggy Gou https://tinyurl.com/2nyster7➜ Romy https://tinyurl.com/ypzjdewb➜ Charli XCX https://tinyurl.com/y9dxyvvd➜ Kamasi Washington https://tinyurl.com/5bv84ux3➜ Chilly Gonzales https://tinyurl.com/472bnmzu➜ NxWorries https://tinyurl.com/4mpcvfn7➜ Bruno Berle https://tinyurl.com/3vhaasuu➜ Fabiana Palladino https://tinyurl.com/yynkxkvu➜ Tuyo https://tinyurl.com/34nsewu9➜ Drahla https://tinyurl.com/fn5ud2ct➜ Kehlani https://tinyurl.com/27tubvn5➜ Caribou https://tinyurl.com/y64fhyue Você Precisa Ouvir Isso ➜ Nada Será Como Antes (Cinemas)➜ Black Pumas na KCRW https://tinyurl.com/bdfsup5m➜ Switched On Pop: Cowboy Carter https://tinyurl.com/4ed7c8ks➜ Chairlift https://tinyurl.com/56jjdxsh➜ “A vida não é útil” – Ailton Krenak➜ “Ideias para adiar o fim do mundo” – Ailton Krenak➜ “Futuro Ancestral” – Ailton Krenak Playlist Seleção VFSM: https://bit.ly/3ETG7oEContato: sobremusicavamosfalar@gmail.com

In another episode of the Chairlift Confession themed stories. A scorned lover confronts the new woman on the sidewalk as she exits the guys house. Plus the 7-month marriage and why weren't you a runaway bride?! 

Thanks to  Maxxis Tires, FOX and Jenson USA    for supporting The Inside Line MTB podcast! With the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Downhill season fast approaching, we talk with Aaron Gwin  about his move to Crestline Bikes,  how his 2023 injury is healing, why he has like 497 different jobs, including being the owner of  Windrock Bike Park , and how he thinks he'll handle racing this year.Interview Topics0:00 - Intro, Move to Crestline Bikes3:05 - Did Aaron Spend Personal Money for the New Team?4:27 - Why Did the News Take So Long?5:57 - How'd He Keep the Team Rumor Secret?9:10 - From Vee Tires to e.13 Tires - Is There Really a Difference?11:42 - The Day He Realized He We Would Be Off Intense16:17 - Did Aaron Try to Be a Part of Big Brand?21:36 - Does the Frame's Suspension Platform Matter Any More?24:55 - Gwin's Crestline DH Bike Weight26:56 - Does He Still Run Firm Suspension?32:32 - Dakotah Norton35:51 - Are There Enough Crestline Frames for the 2024 Season?41:39 - Windrock for World Cup DH Training and Making Trails Harder45:32 - What Goes on at a Red Bull Athlete Camp?53:39 - World Cup Snow DH, Cool or Lame?54:18 - Aaron Gwin's 2023 Injury in Detail1:07:02 - World Champs is Gwin's 2024 Goal and He Thinks He Can Win1:09:35 - Does a Winning DH Run Have to Be Out of Control?1:12:27 - Jackson Goldstone and How to Compete Against Him?1:17:43 - Gwin Racing at the World Cups1:20:17 - Why Aaron Gwin has Like 53 Different Jobs1:26:55 - The Future of Windrock Bike Park - Host a World Cup? Get a Chairlift?1:32:31 - Favorite Bike He's Ridden in the Past? YouTube Habits and Life Outside of California

Richard and Jeff hit the slopes and watch Adam Green's Frozen, sorry to disappoint you Disney Princess fans! This is an underrated horror/thriller that has cameos from some of your favorite Adam Green properties and nods to this world! This is a mostly spoiler free talk that veers all over the horror road! Sponsored By @southland_dungeon on Instagram www.southlandbooksandcafe.com @nightofthenerdylaser on Instagram Email us @ nightofthenerdylaser@gmail.com Hosts: Richard & Jeff      

Season 3, Episode 38 - A high speed, high capacity, comfortable ride on the chairlift at Camelback Resort. The Poconos just got another healthy helping of snow just in time for President's Day weekend – a biggie in the ski industry! So, recently we caught up with some folks at Camelback Resort on its newest high speed lift, Black Bear 6 and a mom who's just loving all that Camelback has to offer for her family visit. Plus, for this Valentine's Day, a listen to our three-part series on the Land of Love, Cove Haven - Paradise Stream - Pocono Palace. The Poconos is a year-round destination for millions and with 24-hundred square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers with historic downtowns and iconic family resorts, it's the perfect getaway for a weekend or an entire week. You can always find out more on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠PoconoMountains.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or watch ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Pocono Television Network⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ streaming live 24/7.

This week's Suburban Underground show has a set of songs about units of time.  The full list of artists are: The National, Camera Obscura, Blur, The Pretenders, R.E.M., Ocean Colour Scene, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Hives, Chairlift, Roaring Boys, The Housemartins, Bully, Moonlight Breakfast, The Neighbourhood, Primitons, Vinyl Kings. On the Air on Bedford 105.1 FM Radio      *** 5pm Friday ***      *** 10am Sunday ***      *** 8pm Monday *** Stream live at http://209.95.50.189:8178/stream Stream on-demand most recent episodes at https://wbnh1051.podbean.com/category/suburban-underground/ And available on demand on your favorite podcast app! Twitter: @SUBedford1051  ***    Facebook: SuburbanUndergroundRadio   ***    Instagram: SuburbanUnderground   ***    #newwave #altrock #alternativerock #punkrock #indierock

We have a guest, Nick, that shares the gospel on the chairlift at a ski resort several times throughout the day

Season 3, Episode 34 - Chairlift Chats is back with a new edition after a couple runs down the mountain at Ski Big Bear at Masthope Mountain. The resort has been open since December and is benefitting from some new year snow fall.. and some cold nights to make snow too! Plus – it's the ideal spot to learn how to ski or snowboard. The instructors are great – we'll meet one of them who is an award-winning veteran and also share a chair on the lift with General Manager Lori Phillips. The Poconos is a year-round destination for millions and with 24-hundred square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers with historic downtowns and iconic family resorts, it's the perfect getaway for a weekend or an entire week. You can always find out more on ⁠⁠⁠⁠PoconoMountains.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or watch ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pocono Television Network⁠⁠⁠⁠ streaming live 24/7.

Episode: 2968 Brothers Byron and Royal Riblet.  Today, a tale of two brothers.

Season 3, Episode 31 - The crews around the 6 ski resorts in the Poconos have been busy capitalizing on cold weather when able – to make snow and get open when possible. One of those resorts which opened – Shawnee Mountain Ski Area – started making snow last month when I caught a ride up and back down with Rachel Wyckoff. She's extremely pleasant to chat with – on a chairlift or anywhere! Especially talking about what she knows best – Shawnee and ski/snowboard season. The Poconos is a year-round destination for millions and with 24-hundred square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers with historic downtowns and iconic family resorts, it's the perfect getaway for a weekend or an entire week. You can always find out more on ⁠⁠⁠PoconoMountains.com⁠⁠⁠ or watch ⁠⁠⁠Pocono Television Network⁠⁠⁠ streaming live 24/7.

Jeff has a bad date experience and wants to talk about it. He tells Mindy it's a Chairlift Confession which typically is a really bad date story spanning states or potentially bodily harm and jail...but alas Jeff is just dazed and confused once again by dating in the current times. Which is why he started the podcast. His date with a local comedian was doomed from the start and then the comedian disses him and is basicallly disrespectful and callous. Jeff is hurt. So hear the tale and at least commiserate and get some thoughts on being nice in the world or dating.

Episode: 2953 Engineering the Chairlift.  Today, getting to the top.

Season 3, Episode 29 - Taking Pocono Mountains Podcast to new heights with Chairlift Chats, a special series of podcasts starting with Blue Mountain Resort in Palmerton. The crew hopes to be open as soon as December 1st weather dependent. The Poconos is a year-round destination for millions and with 24-hundred square miles of mountains, forests, lakes and rivers with historic downtowns and iconic family resorts, it's the perfect getaway for a weekend or an entire week. You can always find out more on ⁠⁠PoconoMountains.com⁠⁠ or watch ⁠⁠Pocono Television Network⁠⁠ streaming live 24/7.

Another Chairlift Confession where hosts or listeners come to tell their stories of love, sex, breakups, deceit, and other sordid tales of dating. In this episode our guest “Kelly” starts dating and falls in love with the handsome contractor that had come to renovate her home. “Sam” was a dream come true, with his rugged good looks, blue eyes, and tool belt. But turns out that Sam may not be all that he claimed. Kelly tells the tale and we try to help her avoid having her heart broken further.

If you listen to the podcast you've likely heard Jeff bring up "K" or Kimberly. The woman he loved and that broke his heart. Hear the full story starting with Hinge and until now in the past few weeks where he's finally deleted her from his life. Love and heartbreak at it's finest...but not the finest hour(s) for Jeff. As he tells all the mistakes he made as she pulled away. Learn from his errors. 

The view from the top of Marble Mountain is one of the best on the west coast of the island. But getting up the hill in the summer is a serious trek that few will tackle. Now, there's an easier way to get there. The staff at the mountain have started running the Lightning Express chairlift -- at half speed -- for summer rides.

MY FOREVER CO-HOST MANI HAS RETURNED, AND ALL IS RIGHT IN THE WORLD! Mani of the “Mixing with Mani” podcast dropped by for a meaty conversation about all the Bravo shows (and so much more). We touched on everything, including the new trailers that dropped (RHOA reunion trailer and RHONY midseason trailer), Carlos King's interview with Kenya Moore, and the latest episodes of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, New York, and Orange County. Plus… why does Marlo have that chairlift in her home?! Follow Mani on Instagram! Check out Mani's Podcast (on Apple Podcasts)! Check out Mani's Podcast (on Spotify)! Check out Mani's Patreon (where I make regular appearances)!   *** HEY! Some of you have asked how you can show your appreciation for all of the content provided by your mama's favorite Black geek. How about you buy me a beer/coffee? CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT! ***   New episodes of “Reality & Comics Too” are released 3X each week!   DON'T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE, RATE, AND REVIEW! I LOVE 5 STARS! EMAIL ME AT REALITYCOMICSTOO@GMAIL.COM! FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Officials on Maui are making progress as they search what's left of the devastated area and identifying bodies. Two of former President Donald Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election case have now turned themselves in. A hearing is taking place today on whether Texas needs to remove its controversial floating border from the Rio Grande. Rescuers have saved four children trapped in a chairlift in northern Pakistan - but two children and two teachers are still stuck. And, Bud Light has been dethroned as America's best-selling beer.To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Six schoolchildren and two teachers trapped 900ft above Pakistan ravine. Why iPhone 15 charging cables are so special. The revolutionary tech turning Co2 into propane fuel. Microsoft's new plan to seek approval for Activision takeover. In this episode:Three Scottish projects win funding from the UK Space AgencyStudy: Keep fit to avoid heart rhythm disorder and strokeMicrosoft submits new plan in £54bn Activision takeover battle with UK competition watchdogOsteoarthritis may affect nearly one billion people by 2050KFC's VR game that rewards players with free chickenThe voice of Mario is stepping down after 27 yearsFollow us on Twitter or on Threads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest Mike is a “Chairlift Confession” he has some funny maybe embarrassing stories about dates and dating. He lives in the Midwestern United States, and although that's different tha, the mountain state of Denver, sounds like the same crazy stories. If you have a story you'd like to tell look me up on Facebook or Instagram, Jeff Kimes, or the Dating Daze group page and send me a message and say you'd like to tell your story. Also if you have an episode topic idea or want to be a guest contact me. @jdkimes on Instagram

Enjoy a wide ranging conversation with Alicia Leggett, Mike Kazimer, Dario DiGiulio, and Henry Quinney. The topics of this week's podcast include everything from paragliding lessons, downhill bikes, bike testing, and Henry's fear that AI will take our jobs and end the world as we know it.

The image went around the country in days: A man clinging to a broken chairlift 20 feet above the ground, one ski off, moments before he had no choice but to jump. What the image didn't show was that moments before, the man's 4-year-old son had fallen off the chair when it broke.  It happened at Montana Snowbowl ski area just north of Missoula, back in March. The incident sparked an outcry from the community and prompted the U.S. Forest Service to investigate the safety and operations of Snowbowl. And it's spurred questions about why Montana deregulated chairlift safety in the late ‘90s.  With me today is Joshua Murdock. He's a reporter at the Missoulian who covers outdoor recreation, natural resources and land management agencies like the Forest Service. He's been following the situation at Snowbowl and investigated chairlift safety there and more broadly in Montana. He's also an avid skier, including at Snowbowl and other small ski areas around the West. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the first seconds of her latest album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You, Caroline Polachek asserts that she is truly a once-in-a-generation artist. From her work in the indie band Chairlift to years of behind-the-scenes songwriting, she has worked hard over years to build a stellar music career – culminating in the pop opus Desire, already one of the best rated albums of 2023. On this episode of Switched on Pop, we look at Polachek's career thus far, and talk to her about the intricacies of her latest. Songs Discussed Caroline Polachek - Desire, I Want To Turn Into You Caroline Polachek - So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings Chairlift - Bruises Ramona Lisa - Dominic Beyoncé - No Angel Danny L Harle, Caroline Polachek - Ashes of Love Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek - Tears CEP - Lilian's Pavilion Caroline Polachek - Pretty in Possible Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner DNA remix Caroline Polachek - Welcome to my Island Caroline Polachek - Bunny Is A Rider Caroline Polachek - Smoke Caroline Polachek - Crude Drawing of An Angel Caroline Polachek - Butterfly Net Caroline Polachek - Sunset  Caroline Polachek - Fly To You Caroline Polachek - Hopedrunk Ever Asking Caroline Polachek - Billions Caroline Polachek - Blood And Butter Caroline Polachek - Butterfly Net Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Aaron and Brent both highlight music from two different Manhattan-born singer/songwriters.Starting out in the synth-pop band Chairlift before embarking on a solo career in 2019, Aaron picks out three songs from Caroline Polachek.Acquiring her stage name from a 1984 song from Queen, Brent looks at three tracks from Lady Gaga.Visit www.crossingthestreamspodcast.com for extended show notes.

Tell Me What Happened — the award-winning podcast about people helping people — is returning this May!We're hard at work on Season 3 and have more incredible, heart-pounding stories to share with you about complete strangers stepping in to help someone in need. This series is produced by OnStar. They are committed to keeping you safe and so are we. Each episode features an expert with helpful tips for all sorts of situations.As always, every story has a happy ending and celebrates the power of a true human connection. Join us for this exciting and heartwarming journey.Learn more about our podcast.

We welcome video content to the TITF Podcast. Bare with us as we work out the kinks and make the best content we can for you! We start out talking about the upcoming Kokomo Comedy Event, Adam and Laura reminisce about George Carlin. Branden tells a great story about ordering a lady of the night from craiglist. We find out Branden was a really bad kid and Adam gets confused about politics with so much more!!! We all encourage you to interact with our Social Media pages @TITFPODCAST on all platforms. Check our hosts out on Instagram Branden- @uni_baller & @therealrandydick Laura-@Uniballerwife Adam-@adamnelson5142 Please Like Subscribe and Review!!!

We welcome video content to the TITF Podcast. Bare with us as we work out the kinks and make the best content we can for you! We start out talking about the upcoming Kokomo Comedy Event, Adam and Laura reminisce about George Carlin. Branden tells a great story about ordering a lady of the night from craiglist. We find out Branden was a really bad kid and Adam gets confused about politics with so much more!!! We all encourage you to interact with our Social Media pages @TITFPODCAST on all platforms. Check our hosts out on Instagram Branden- @uni_baller & @therealrandydick Laura-@Uniballerwife Adam-@adamnelson5142 Please Like Subscribe and Review!!!

John Irving, one of the world's greatest novelists of all time, joins Zibby (who idolizes him!!) in this once-in-a-lifetime interview to discuss The Last Chairlift, a sweepingly cinematic, multigenerational ghost story about a slalom skier, her accidental pregnancy, and, years later, the son who returns to Aspen to uncover her story. After discussing this latest release, Mr. Irving describes the fascinating process behind each of his iconic books, revealing he has piles of notes waiting to be turned into novels (but refuses to start writing them until he knows exactly how they will end!). He also shares how helpful and influential his first readers (like Kurt Vonnegut!) and editors have been in his career. You can all meet John Irving at the Santa Fe International Literary Festival on May 20th!Purchase on Zibby's Bookshop: http://bit.ly/3TptF5VPurchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3ljFLRySubscribe to Zibby's weekly newsletter here.Purchase Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books merch here. Now there's more! Subscribe to Acast+ and get exclusive access to the in-store author events at Zibby's Bookshop in Santa Monica, CA. Join today! https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the latest recap episode, Len and Beave talk John Irving's "The Last Chairlift", and recommend the book with enthusiasm. Len decides to refrain from reviewing Future's "Puffin' On Zootiez" and instead discusses Rob Sheffield's top 100 songs of 1983 (SPOILER ALERT: The #1 song is "Electric Avenue" by Eddy Grant). Plus college hoops, and Illinois' revenge win over the slumping Northwestern Wildcats. Len shifts his anti-Brad Underwood campaign into overdrive. Beave talks the Oscar nominees for Best Documentary, and Len reviews Best Picture "Women Talking". Tune in!

Welcome to Season 3 of The Kayak Nerds! In our first episode for this season, we chat about what we paddled in 2022, new kayaks, and what we're excited to paddle in 2023. We're excited to be kicking off a new season and getting back to podcasting after nearly 8 months!

Grant explains his frustration (and envy) with the Eagles cruising to the Super Bowl, and takes another victory lap on MVS. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Arapahoe Basin is a legendary ski resort in Colorado, and when it's a powder day, skiers wake up at the crack of dawn to get up the hill for those fresh tracks. That's exactly what Richard Dempsey did, except he only got a few runs in before everything changed. Richard is able to recount his story thanks to a slackliner named Mickey Wilson who risked his own life to save someone he met that morning.We also speak to author and retired ski patroller Patti Burnett about what dangers to look out for while skiing at resorts and in the backcountry, as well as what to do if you find yourself or someone else in an emergency situation while enjoying the mountains in wintertime.For more information on this episode or to share your own story, visit OnStar's website.

In the ongoing them of Chairlift Confessions and anonymous guest tells her story of falling in love with someone that seemed like the perfect match for a widow that had held off on a relationship for years. When she finally decides to go for it she gets more than she planned including nude photos but not from her new man...from his "ex" girlfriend sent from his phone!!

John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time, among them, "The World According to Garp," "A Widow for One Year," "A Prayer for Owen Meany" and "The Cider House Rules." He now returns with his first novel in seven years—a ghost story, a love story, and a lifetime of sexual politics, "The Last Chairlift."

In this episode, NPR's Scott Simon pays best-selling author John Irving a visit in his Toronto home. Across from Irving's family photographs and slanted writing station, they discuss the writer's expansive career, the prevalence of gender and sexual politics in his novels and the newfound personal connection he can make with his characters.

As skiers, we love ski lifts. They get us quickly to the top of mountains so we can slide back down. But what would you think about visiting every single ski lift in America? 2,381 of them! Well, that has been the life of Peter Landsman, a lift supervisor and founder of liftblog, a popular website and network of social channels. Today Last Chair chats with Peter about his adventure across America, the unique lifts he found and what we can expect for new lifts this winter.Growing up in the Pacific Northwest (Snoqualmie), Landsman became infatuated with lifts early. “Immediately, I loved to ski – I think I was about four years old when I first started. Very quickly with the skiing, I realized the lifts were also really interesting machines. Ever since then I've had an interest in both the skiing and the lifts and tried to get to as many ski areas and lifts as I can.”As a lift supervisor at Jackson Hole, Landsman works long shifts three to four days a week, then heads to the airport to fly around the USA, hopscotching to ski resorts in a rental car winter and summer to ride lifts, hike to lifts and photograph them from every conceivable angle.In 2015 he started a small blog (liftblog.com) documenting his travels and indexing ski lifts. It was slow at first but with some love and car on social media, it took off.There is probably no individual in America who is so knowledgeable about, literally, every ski lift in the country. He can rattle off stats and show you photos on his phone.Here's a sample of Last Chair's episode 3 of season 4 with Peter Landsman.How old were you when you began an infatuation with ski lifts?One of the earlier memories I have of a ski trip was to Sun Valley. I was five or six and asking my parents if I could stay late and watch them turn off the ski lift and like, somehow that would be interesting. They probably thought it was kind of a funny thing to ask, but they let me stay and watch and I ended up talking to the lift operators and I still do that kind of thing today.You've been to nearly 500 resorts. You must have some interesting stories?The ski industry is incredibly broad. I have been to a ski resort that's inside. There are ski resorts run by schools. There are ski resorts that are run by the US military. There are ski resorts that are run by nonprofits. So they come in all shapes and sizes. And it's really remarkable how many different types of lifts and ski resorts I've been to.How do you plan?I study the map. Usually I have an idea in my head of what the ski area is like from my prior research. But the night before, I review the map, figure out what I think is going to be the most efficient and fastest way to go up and down every lift. It really varies on the resort, how many runs you have to do for each lift to really photograph them properly and ride them and then get between the different lifts. Do you have a pipeline to the lift manufacturers to learn about new lifts?I do have a good sense of what lifts are coming online. It actually mostly comes from the U.S. Forest Service in Utah and a lot of other places. Many resorts are on public lands, so they have to go through a permit process through the Forest Service before they can even build the lift. And then a lot of times resorts will tell me that they have an announcement coming up and keep me in the loop.Have you seen some unusual lifts?Every one is different. One that comes to mind is in New Jersey, an actual lift that was built here in Salt Lake City but sent over to New Jersey. It's inside this new indoor ski resort in a shopping mall called Big Snow. They have a quad chairlift that instead of coming out of the ground it actually hangs from the ceiling. So as you ride up, the lift towers are coming down from the roof. And that's a pretty unique lift. And then another one that comes to mind is a single chair up in Alaska. Cordova, Alaska, has a single chairlift still operating. It's actually from Sun Valley that got sent up there after they were done with it in Idaho.Do you also try to track the lineage of lifts, like where they started and ended up?I do. So some of them have moved two or three or four times. As an example, Deer Valley's old Homestake Lift went to my home mountain in Washington – Crystal Mountain, where it's now operating again. So if lifts are not that old and being removed, there's a good chance that they will end up at another ski area down the line.I've always wondered, how do the ends of lift cables get attached to each other?It's called a splice, and it's a very technical marriage of two ends of a haul rope. There are specialized specialists whose only job is to go around the country and splice these ropes. So they basically unwind both ends of a cable and weave the strands together, make some cuts, do some pounding with hammers. And at the end, you've got a nice smooth loop of rope. And nobody, unless you're a real technical guy like me, nobody really knows where the marriage even is.Any technical innovations on the horizon?Some of it's behind the scenes technical aspects that we deal with as lift employees that the public may not see. The big one of those is called direct drive. For example, Alta's new Sunnyside lift is going to have a direct drive. It's a new kind of motor for ski lifts that directly operates on the bull wheel. So it takes out a whole lot of components of the drive system of a lift that could fail.We have a handful of six-packs in Utah, with some eights planned. What's the limit?I think eight is probably the limit as far as how many skiers you can line up in a row, have them sit down and then be able to get off and not crash.Peter has a lot more to say about his favorite lifts and unusual ones he's seen around America. Listen in to the full episode of Last Chair with liftblog founder Peter Landsman on his adventure to visit every lift in America.By the Numbers2,381 lifts in USA480 resorts46 states773,091 miles (thank you Delta)Liftblog's Five Game Changing Lifts in UtahTram - Snowbird - Kicking off a second half-centuryCollins - Alta - Two lifts in oneQuicksilver - Park City Mountain - Connecting two resorts togetherJohn Paul - Snowbasin - Third most chairlift vertical in USAParadise - Powder Mountain - Classic fixed grip quad serving vast terrainNew Utah Lifts for 2022-23Alta - Detachable six replacing SunnysideDeer Valley - Detachable quad replacing BurnsSnowbird - New tram cabins and drive systemSundance - New fixed grip quad opening new terrain off Jake'sUtah Olympic Park - Detachable quad serving new West Peak

John Irving is the acclaimed author of novels including The Cider House Rules, The World According to Garp and In One Person. He joins David Common to talk about his latest book The Last Chairlift, why he's drawn to stories about LGBTQ characters and women's rights, and why he can't stop picking on his native United States – even after permanently relocating to Canada and acquiring Canadian citizenship.

After a six-month hiatus, Bob and Mike return to play and discuss music from NYC, Brazil, London, and Germany, and also discuss Pavement's recent shows headlining the Primavera Sound festival in Porto and Barcelona.

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive thousands of extra words of content each month, plus all podcasts three days before free subscribers.WhoBill Rock, Chief Operating Officer of Vail Resorts Rocky Mountain Region and Executive Vice President of the Mountain DivisionRecorded onJune 13, 2022About Vail Resorts’ Rocky Mountain RegionThis is it, the inner empire. Where hyperbole suits just fine. This is why people in suburban Detroit buy an Epic Pass. To get here. “Aspirational.” That’s Rock’s word for his half-dozen cloud-pokers. It fits. Even for Keystone, a favorite target of the Cool Kids who only ride Snowbird Brah. Whatever. Keystone is great - it’s bigger, as you can see, than Breck, and it’s about to get larger with the Bergman Bowl expansion, opening next winter.Why I interviewed himFor many, just visiting these snowy kingdoms is not enough. Relocation becomes the only option. They turn west, to the mountains, and there they hack out whatever life they can. I’m not talking Grizzly Adams here. They’re not building log cabins and churning their own butter. But housing in most Western ski towns - and certainly the ones listed above - is limited and expensive. Wages are, historically, low. Skiing is expensive, always.For a long time, the skiing was enough to offset the other burdens. Then things changed. Covid, of course. But less discussed is the drying up of immigrant visas of the sort that destinatin resorts had long used to staff front-line positions. The rising labor movement. Workers, suddenly empowered, no longer had to settle for the fast-food wages of decades past. Vail had to adjust, and in March, the company rolled out a $20 minimum wage for frontline workers next season. But another very real factor contributing to last season’s labor shortage was a sudden and dramatic re-ordering of the mountain-town housing market. White collar workers, liberated by remote work, moved en masse to the mountains. This further distorted an already unbalanced market, driving out whatever shadows of affordability remained. So Vail’s plan also included a significant investment in affordable worker housing, on land that - the company emphasized - it already owned. If that sounds like a straightforward proposal, then you are unfamiliar with the workings of U.S. America, where all easy things are hard and all hard things are impossible. Rock, I figured, could help us at least understand the current conditions impacting resort-town decision making.What we talked aboutThe shift to midweek skiing and what it means for Vail and the Epic Pass; Vail’s 2021-22 operational challenges and successes; chasing the military’s camaraderie and sense of purpose until finding it at Bristol; a regional hopscotch leading to Vail; Northstar as Vail’s executive talent incubator; the company’s monster employee-investment initiative announced in March; how Vail decided on a $20-an-hour-minimum wage for next season; beefing up the HR staff and what that means for the future of the HR tool (commonly referred to as Vail’s “HR app”); owning last-year’s employee-support challenges; the company’s new flexible work policy; why Vail Resorts’ ski area social media accounts have seemed more lively over the past several months; why Vail’s 165-bed employee housing project has stalled in East Vail; “people have gotten really good at gumming up the works”; luxury townhomes go unprotested but suddenly everyone is very concerned about bighorn sheep when it comes time to build affordable housing; the potential of the Ever Vail parcel and if there is a better way to build; updates on employee housing developments in Park City, Whistler, and Okemo; Vail’s $300 million-plus 2022 lift investment and what that portends for the future; “I don’t know if we can find 21 lifts to do every year”; thoughts on why Vail hasn’t sold a lift in several years; the current status of the Bergman Bowl expansion at Keystone; thoughts on new lifts going in at Vail and Park City; “in a town that has over 70 lifts, to do two replacement lifts should really not be controversial at all.”Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewLast month, I wrote a long piece about a dispute between the Town of Vail and Vail Resorts:Unfortunately, we have entered an era in which absolutism reigns. As the ski industry housing crisis accelerates to levels that are endangering the viability of lift-served skiing as a sustainable enterprise, the town of Vail last week activated the nuclear option to block Vail Resorts’ long-planned affordable housing project near Vail Mountain. Per Jason Blevins in The Colorado Sun:The Vail town council late Tuesday voted to condemn a parcel where Vail Resorts plans to spend $17 million to build affordable housing for 165 workers. Dozens of Vail Resorts executives, employees and managers crammed into the council’s chambers Tuesday night as the council heard passionate support for both housing and wildlife. Ultimately the council voted 4-3 to approve a resolution that gives the town the ability to seize ownership of the 23-acre parcel and prevent any development as a way to protect a bighorn herd that winters in the south-facing aspen groves along Interstate 70.“I’m disappointed you’ve been backed into a corner and have to consider this resolution tonight,” said Terry Meyers, the executive director of the Rocky Mountain Bighorn Society. “Please make the decision to protect the bighorn sheep herd and move forward to find other options for affordable housing in the Vail Valley. The sheep have to have this. They can’t go anywhere else.”Exactly which corner the council members have been backed into is unclear: this same council (made up of different representatives), approved this project in 2019, and helped defend it in court in 2020. Vail, which owns the land, has promised to develop just six of the 23 acres. To protect the herd on the remaining land, Vail Resorts “partnered with wildlife experts and Colorado Park & Wildlife to develop an extensive mitigation plan, including funding for long overdue habitat rehabilitation,” and has earmarked $100,000 to implement that plan, a company representative told me. The project underwent “an extremely thorough environmental review process,” the representative added.Meanwhile, more than 100 luxury homes already fill 95.6 acres of this supposedly sacred bighorn habitat. Vail’s proposed development is the three tiny yellow boxes labelled “East Vail Affordable Housing” in the image below:“Vail needs housing now – not development that might happen in five years,” read a statement supplied by Vail Resorts to The Storm Skiing Journal on April 25. “If the Town can support luxury homes in East Vail, then it can support affordable housing. We will continue to aggressively pursue this affordable housing project for the hard-working employees in our community.” …The suggestion that a herd of sheep that has managed to negotiate nearly 100 acres of mansionland developed amidst their territory over the past several decades would suddenly be thrust to the brink of extinction from the addition of six acres of dense housing hard by the roadside is absurd. This whole action by the town feels disingenuous and petty, a because-we-can temper tantrum rooted in the vaguely expressed notion that Vail Resorts has been a disrespectful negotiator.While the town has not yet seized ownership of the land, the strident act by four precious council members all but assures that the legal fistfights will howl on for years. The brazen seizure of private land could ignite a fire that burns all the way to the Supreme Court, an absurd act of overreach that could wind up damaging future environmental efforts by stoking the business-friendly court majority to streamline development approvals. And in the meantime? Opponents of the plan continue to peddle platitudes about the importance of affordable housing.You can read the full thing here:Meanwhile, four people who apparently have nothing better to do have been stalling Vail’s planned Park City lift upgrades. Per the Park Record:The PCMR project would replace the current Eagle and Eaglet lifts with a high-speed, six-person detachable lift. The resort also wants to upgrade Silverlode Express from a six-person to an eight-person, high-speed lift, which would make it parent company Vail Resorts’ first chair of its kind in North America.The people who filed the appeal, Clive Bush, Angela Moschetta, Deborah Rentfrow and Mark Stemler, argued the proposal should’ve been exempt from receiving a staff-level administrative conditional-use permit because the upgrades would exceed PCMR’s comfortable carrying capacity (CCC) and should be voted on by the Planning Commission instead. They also argued the application should not have been approved due to inadequate parking mitigation or conditions of approval for peak ski days.A staff report from the Park City Planning Department recommended denying the appeal because a section of a 1998 development agreement with PCMR, which outlines growth at the resort base, states, “development of the skiing and related facilities as identified in the mountain upgrade plan is a conditional use within the city limits and is a subject to administrative review” as long as the projects are identified in and compliant with the mountain upgrade plan. Planning Department staff said the agreement requires lift upgrades to be reviewed administratively if six criteria are met, which they say are.However, the appeal claims criteria one and six – which call for consistency with the mountain upgrade plan and a sufficient parking plan – are not met. The group also made 11 arguments in the filing to support their appeal.On Wednesday, much of the discussion was centered on whether upgrading the lifts would increase visitorship and surpass the resort’s comfortable carrying capacity. Mike Goar, who until recently was the chief operating officer at PCMR and remains at Vail Resorts, said the improvements will help reduce crowding by moving people up the mountain faster and that lift upgrades don’t lead to more skiers and snowboarders.The maximum carrying capacity is 13,700 and PCMR’s current comfortable carrying capacity is 12,570. The proposed upgrades would increase the comfortable carrying capacity to 12,860 and would not cause a significant increase in parking demand, according to a staff report.But Moschetta argued that “fuzzy math” caused the numbers to be manipulated. She presented a series of comfortable carrying capacity numbers that differed from the findings of outside consultants hired by the resort and argued the upgrades will increase the figure to 13,980.“The miscalculated and already exceeded CCCs confirm absolutely that this application violated the [mountain upgrade plan], and therefore the [development agreement], and therefore violated the [Land Management Code], and therefore never met conditions for administrative review,” she said. “On this basis alone, our appeal must be upheld and the decision of the planning director overturned.”Her argument was compelling to most of the commissioners, who asked PCMR and its consultants to explain the discrepancies. Planning Commission Chair John Phillips said he trusted the specialists and supported denying the appeal while Planning Commissioners Sarah Hall and Bill Johnson indicated they would side with Phillips if the comfortable carrying capacity discrepancy was clearly explained.“The appellants have the burden of proof and they’ve not presented experts, facts. We have. Two experts on CCC, and mountain planning. We’ve worked through this in great detail. Lastly, the planning director’s decision should be upheld on appeal if it is supported by substantial evidence on the record, which is what we presented originally,” Goar said.After repeated back and forth, and several unsuccessful attempts from the resort’s experts to clarify the numbers, the majority of commissioners were not satisfied.More than four hours in, the commission adjourned, to meet again on Wednesday, June 15, as Rock and I discuss in the podcast.What, really, is the point of all this? Must we fight about everything? Housing? Chairlifts? Not even new chairlifts. Upgrades. Four more seats on a mountain with 41 lifts. Do larger lifts draw more skiers? Maybe at Jiminy Peak or Ragged Mountain, where a six-seater really is a regional curiosity. But this is Park City. Most tourists don’t even know what kinds of lifts the mountain has while they’re riding them. Chairlift tourism is not really a thing.I suspect the appellants know this. Multiple sources throughout the West described a prevailing atmosphere of frustration with Vail Resorts throughout this past season. Staff shortages led to inadequate or inconsistent grooming and terrain and lift openings, skiers at multiple resorts said. Many Park City residents are apoplectic over the coming paid parking plan. There seems to be an element of spite, then, in the actions both of the Park City foursome and the Vail Town Council.I can’t decide if they are bringing a knife to a tank fight, or a tank to a knife fight. In both cases, the non-Vail parties are both overmatched and over-armed. It’s like they assembled an army to invade an apple orchard. One that’s defended by a fire-breathing dragon. Like, you can just get apples at the grocery store.If this all seems like an enormous waste of time, money, and energy, it’s because it is. The hostile parties may well halt both projects. But to what end? What better ideas do they have? And what happens when, in some not-so-hard-to-imagine future, this insistence on saying no to everything yields to new sets of rules – driven by frustrated middle-voters who put rampant Free Market Bros in charge of the world – in which we can’t say no to anything?Questions I wish I’d askedFrankly, I would have liked to have had a completely different conversation. The Storm is, first and primarily, about the skiing. Rock oversees a half dozen of the best ski resorts in America. I would have liked to have talked deeply and only about the resorts.But the moment demanded a different sort of conversation. Part of this is the NIMBY-mania I referenced above. Part of it was because Vail kind of blew it last year in multiple markets and had to roll out a big oopsie plan to draw more employees for next season.But even with the focus mostly on that plan and those people, we still ran long. I didn’t have time to get to questions about Vail’s diversity initiatives, or the fact that an incredible five of Rock’s six resorts are run by women. I also didn’t get to the Breckenridge lift upgrades.What I got wrongI made the comment to Rock that it had been years since Vail had sold or repurposed a lift. While Vail has indeed not sold a lift to an out-of-network ski area in years, the second part was flat wrong. And I knew this. Here’s an Instagram post I published six months ago after riding and extensively documenting Okemo’s former Quantum 4 in its new location replacing the mountain’s summit triple:I regret the error.This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 14. Free subscribers got it on June 17. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, please consider an upgrade.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 65/100 in 2022, and number 311 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Paid subscribers receive thousands of extra words of content each month, plus all podcasts three days before free subscribers.WhoKarl Kapuscinski, President and CEO of Mountain High and Dodge Ridge, CaliforniaRecorded onJune 6, 2022About Mountain HighClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Invision Capital and Karl KapuscinskiLocated in: Wrightwood, CaliforniaClosest neighboring ski areas: Mt. Waterman (45 minutes), Mt. Baldy (1 hour, 15 minutes – they’re only 8.4 miles apart as the crow flies, but 57.4 miles apart via road!), Snow Valley (1 hour, 25 minutes), Big Bear/Snow Summit (1 hour 40 minutes)Base elevation | summit elevation | vertical drop:West Resort: 7,000 feet | 8,000 feet | 1,000 feetEast Resort: 6,600 feet | 8,200 feet | 1,600 feetNorth Resort: 7,200 feet | 7,800 feet | 600 feetSkiable Acres: 290Average annual snowfall: 117 inchesNight skiing: North onlyTrail count: 60 (35% advanced, 40% intermediate, 25% beginner)West Resort: 34 (1 expert, 16 advanced, 12 intermediate, 5 beginner)East Resort: 16 trails (1 expert, 4 advanced, 7 intermediate, 4 beginner)North Resort: 10 trails (6 intermediate, 4 beginner)Lift count: 14 (2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 3 triples, 4 doubles, 3 carpets - view Lift Blog’s inventory of Mountain High’s lift fleet)West Resort: 1 high-speed quad, 3 triples, 2 doubles, 2 carpetsEast Resort: 1 high-speed quad, 1 quad, 2 doubles, 1 carpetNorth Resort: 1 quadAbout Dodge RidgeClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Invision Capital and Karl KapuscinskiLocated in: Pinecrest, CaliforniaClosest neighboring ski areas: Bear Valley (2 hours, 6 minutes), June Mountain (2 hours, 24 minutes), Mammoth Mountain (2 hours, 37 minutes), Badger Pass (2 hours, 45 minutes), Kirkwood (2 hours 58 minutes)Base elevation: 6,600 feetSummit elevation: 8,200 feetVertical drop: 1,600 feetSkiable Acres: 862Average annual snowfall: 300 to 500 inchesNight skiing: NoTrail count: 67 (40% advanced, 40% intermediate, 20% beginner)Lift count: 12 (1 fixed-grip quad, 2 triples, 5 doubles [2 of these doubles - lifts 1 and 2 below, are making way for one triple chair for the 2022-23 ski season], 1 T-bar, 1 ropetow, 2 conveyors - view Lift Blog’s of inventory Dodge Ridge’s lift fleet)Why I interviewed himIn the Midwest of my youth, the calculus was simple: north, cold; south, warm. The only weather quirk was lake-effect snow, tumbling off Michigan and Superior in vast snowbelts west and north, and across that mysterious realm known as the UP. Altitude wasn’t a factor because there was no altitude. Iowa, Nebraska, the Dakotas get rounded up by the chortling masses reaching for a flatland target to ridicule, but they overlook Michigan by ignorance, or, if they’re Michiganders, denial and self-preservation. Midland County, where I grew up, is the flattest place I have ever seen, a forever plain that disguises itself in treed horizons.  It was California that alerted me to the notion that altitude could override latitude. It could snow in the south. You just had to get to the sky. The mountains went there. Humans have so overrun modern SoCal that it is easy to forget what an amazing natural monster it is: foreversummer – or at least foreverspring – on the coast. From the beach with bare feet in the sand you can see the mountains*, snow-capped and forbidding, impossible and amazing, thrusting Tolkien-ish over pulsing Los Angeles. Beyond that, deserts vast and inhospitable, stretching hundreds of miles toward the rest of America. Cross that wasteland to understand why California so often feels like a nation of its own – geologically, it may as well be.But what we care about here are those mountains. There is no reason that LA, America’s second-largest city, must have skiing. But it does. Big Bear and Snow Summit, Baldy and Waterman, Snow Valley and Mountain High. From the ocean, the land lurches skyward with astonishing speed. Mt. Waterman, 40 straightline miles from the coast, sits at 7,000 feet. Mt. Baldy, base elevation 6,500, is 52 miles. Snow Valley, 6,800 feet, 67 miles. Snow Summit, 6,965 feet, 74 miles. Big Bear, 73 miles, 7,104 feet. And Mountain High, seated between 6,600 and 7,200 feet, depending upon which parking lot you pull into on any given day, standing 52-ish miles from the ocean.And it snows. Not what-the-hell amounts. This isn’t Tahoe. But enough that, 98 years ago, someone said “well by gum we ought to be snowskiing on these here hills” (in my head, everyone in the past either talks like Yosemite Sam or Winston Churchill), and set up a snowskiing operation at Mountain High. The ski areas of Southern California are not, like the Poconos or the mountains of the Southeast, the products of technology, of machines providing snow where nature provided hills and cold. Mountain High is the fourth-oldest ski area in the country, opened in 1924. Snow Valley opened in 1937. Waterman in ‘42. Big Bear in ‘46. Baldy and Snow Summit in ‘52. From a technology point of view, 1924 may as well have been a different planet. Electricity was this newfangled thing. Forget about snowmaking, or even chairlifts. I’m almost positive dudes must have been up there in top hats and bowties. And indeed here’s a photo of a fellow rocking a kerchief while smoking his pipe:I’ve been processing this for decades, and it still amazes me: there is skiing in Southern California. Of the many geological and geographic wonders packed into our sprawling continent, the mountains-looming-over-the-seaside-city phenomenon remains one of the most stunning in its asymmetric, improbable glory.And here, in the clouds, dwells Mountain High. Once, this complex was three competing ski areas, fighting it out for families scaling the mountains in rear-wheel drive Buicks and skiing in peacoats. Everything is different now. Those three ski areas – Blue Ridge (West), Holiday Hill (East), and Table Mountain ne Sunlight (North) – are still three separate ski areas, but they operate as one. The cars are better, the gear is better. Vapers and backpack speakers rule the day (Though were I to spy a chap swiveling downslope with poles tucked underarm while puffing on a pipe, I daresay I would invite the old swell to a game of backgammon and a bottle of my finest mead [and there’s the Churchill]). Somewhere along the way, Mountain High installed chairlifts, and then, snowmaking. But despite all this change, a century on, there is still skiing in Southern California. And what a marvelous fact that is.*“on a clear day,” one must always addWhat we talked aboutThe 2021-22 ski season at Mountain High and Dodge Ridge; a record broken at Dodge Ridge; growing up at Ascutney, Vermont; ascending the ranks to the top of Mountain High; Ascutney’s disadvantages compared to the rest of Vermont; how three once-separate ski areas united to form the modern Mountain High; the novel big-business prospects of “snow play” zones at the base of high-altitude urban-adjacent ski areas; why snow play is “drought-resistant”; Mountain High’s snowmaking source, limitations, technology and potential; the incredible efficiency of modern snowmaking; undeveloped land within Mountain High’s permit area and whether we could see expansion anytime soon; the possibility of connecting Mountain High East and West, and whether that would be done through lifts or skiing; the mountain-to-mountain connection we’re most likely to see; humoring me on the could-we-connect-North-to-East-and-West-with-a-gondola question; the most likely next lift upgrade at Mountain High and what it would take to make it happen; whether we could ever see Mountain High North expand lifts back down into the bowl where trails ran at the old Sunrise ski area; the cultural importance of night skiing and why it’s unlikely to ever expand beyond its current footprint; why Kapuscinski purchased Dodge Ridge last year; how Dodge Ridge is “very culturally different” from Mountain High; the amazing percentage of Dodge Ridge skiers that also have an Epic or Ikon pass; a long-term vision for Dodge Ridge; replacing chair 1 and 2 with a single lift this summer, and how the new alignment will enhance the experience for beginners; how much money the ski area is saving by putting in a new lift rather than a used one; possible alignments for high-speed lifts at Dodge Ridge; what a high-speed lift will run you these days; thoughts on Lift 8; the big expansion opportunities at Dodge Ridge and what sort of terrain skiers would find there; the differences between running a ski area that relies heavily on snowmaking and one that doesn’t; Dodge Ridge’s nascent snowmaking system; whether the ski area could ever get night skiing; reciprocity between Dodge Ridge and Mountain High season passes; the Saturday problem; the number of season passes each mountain sells; an estimate of Ikon Pass sales in Southern California; forming the Powder Alliance; and whether the ski areas are considering joining the Indy Pass.   Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewKapuscinski has been the king of Mountain High for decades, taking the CEO job in the mid-90s and eventually buying out his partners to take full control of the resort. He gradually grew the place, and in 2004 purchased nearby Sunrise, now Mountain High North, in what was essentially – as he tells me in the interview – an estate sale.That may have been practice for what came last summer, when Kapuscinski purchased big and snowy Dodge Ridge from Frank and Sally Helm, who had run the joint for 45 years.“I’d had my eye on Dodge Ridge for quite some time,” Kapuscinski tells me in the interview. “It was an area that I knew probably wouldn’t draw a ton of interest from the bigger ski companies. There’s not a lot of those areas that are well-positioned, where they still have a fair amount of upside, but aren’t going to get gobbled up by the bigger ski companies.”Dodge Ridge is one of a series of larger-than-you’d-think ski areas – Bear Valley and China Peak are the others – that hangs off the west side of the Sierras, in an awkward limbo that’s invisible to Epic- and Ikon-wielding skiers racing off to Mammoth and Tahoe. It’s a bit of a time machine, a fixed-grip redoubt that lacks material amounts of snowmaking and is seated, in a very un-California way, far from a large city or interstate. But it has terrain, room to expand, and 300-plus inches of snow per season. That’s plenty to work with.With a full season of operations behind him, I figured it was a good time to check in with Kapuscinski to see where Dodge Ridge was sitting and where he planned to take it, and how the ski area may work with Mountain High – six hours away – to form a little in-state ski network. He has plenty of ideas, particularly when it comes to blowing out the lift fleet. Dodge Ridge skiers tired of the 10-minute ride up Lift 7 are going to like where Kapuscinski’s head is at with an upgrade. Things are already starting to happen: this summer, Chairs 1 and 2 are making way for a used-but-rebuilt replacement, and the resort has, for the first time, the whispers of a snowmaking system.With skier visits up across the country and multi-mountain passes opening the state’s resorts to a new generation of skiers, this is an exciting time for California skiing. Kapuscinski is, and will continue for some time to be, an important part of the whole scene.Questions I wish I’d askedGiven that Kapuscinski ran Stevens Pass for many years, I ought to have asked him about Vail’s struggles up in Washington this past season. There was enough, however, to talk about with his two ski areas, and that seemed like the better place to focus. I also neglected to ask which runs, in particular, Kapuscinski had in mind for Dodge Ridge trail improvements when he mentioned that as a priority.What I got wrongThis isn’t really something I got wrong so much as something I didn’t explain properly – when I mentioned Loon’s base-to-base railroad connection, I commented that it “would never get environmental approval” in California. The reason why is that this is an old-fashioned steam train with an exhaust pipe that would embarrass the Onceler:I’m sure it’s grandfathered in in New Hampshire as some sort of tourist novelty, but any base-to-base transit between Mountain High East and West would have to, um, not run on wood. Not that they would propose it, but that explains my remark in the podcast.Why you should ski Mountain High and Dodge RidgeThere was a moment, before I turned against it, when I was in thrall to U.S. America’s car-first notion of civilization-building. Dropping out of the high desert after a cross-country roadtrip my buddy Ron and I found Los Angeles and its spectacular network of freeways. For days we explored, Midwest teenagers awestruck and eager, zippering through staggered herds of Hondas and BMWs in a beat-up GMC pickup with a topper and a brand-new transmission we’d acquired after a mid-night breakdown in Victorville*. What was this magical realm, sandwiched between sparkling ocean and spectacular mountains, with its Beach Brah vibe and its bristling subtext of hustle and ambition? City-strong, nature-adjacent, nearly rainless with moderate coastal temps, it struck me as a sort of American Utopia, everything great about the nation organized into a self-contained realm.It was the skiing, as mentioned above, that most fascinated me. Access to winter without the doldrums of winter, the ice and the wind, the endless months in jackets and boots, the extra 20 minutes in the morning to warm and de-ice the car and clear it of snow. While my infatuation with Southern California freeway culture would not last the week – shattered in a four-hour dead stop southbound on the 5 while the authorities tended to an overturned and fire-blackened vehicle – my belief in the awesomeness of its top-of-the-world skiing never abated. Most of America’s warm-weather cities – Miami, Houston, Dallas – are considerable journeys from easy turns. Not Los Angeles. There are a half dozen choices, right there. Vertical drops up to 2,000 feet. Glades aplenty and skiing into May when the snow comes. Parks, nights, whatever you want. I’m not saying it’s Mammoth. But I’m saying that it’s right goddamn there, and that’s pretty incredible.I never did move to Los Angeles, or anywhere in California. But if I had, I imagine I’d treat that halo of resilient little SoCal ski areas the same way I treat Mountain Creek now – as my local to notch turns between my runs farther north. The season passes are not expensive – Snow Valley’s is just $329 and grants you the option of a discounted Indy Pass add-on. Baldy and Mountain High run $499. Big Bear and Snow Summit are, of course, on the Ikon Pass, and I suppose that’s become the default for so many Southern California residents as a result. But Mountain High remains compelling – North is a beginner’s paradise, completely free of Radbrahs. West is a parks and night-skiing haven. East is the more traditional trails-and-glades option. I guess many people in Southern California simply choose none-of-the-above and wait out winter between trips to Tahoe and Salt Lake. Which, OK. But, I don’t know man, if there’s turns to be had, I’m taking them.Dodge Ridge is a whole different thing. How, exactly, does a mountain sandwiched between Tahoe and Mammoth stand out? Well, by not being Tahoe or Mammoth. The terrain gets plenty of snow. The mountain is big enough. It’s a good place to hide out, especially from high-speed lift snobs with the patience of a fruit fly, who act as though a 10-minute lift ride were the equivalent of waterboarding.Kapuscinski seems committed to changing that and upgrading the rusty lift fleet, but the mountain will always be a smaller alternative to California’s ski resort royalty. He told me in the interview that an amazing percentage of Dodge Ridge passholders also have an Epic or Ikon Pass. For them, Dodge Ridge is where they go when they can’t – or don’t want to – go to the chest-beaters. It is, as Kapuscinski says, “a multi-generational mountain.” Meaning, for a lot of people, it’s home.*To this day (this was 1996), my buddy is convinced that it was my insistence to reroute off I-70 and up US 6 in Colorado that strained the transmission to its breaking point later in the journey. He’s probably right, but I really, you know, NEEDED, to drive past Arapahoe Basin.More Mountain HighIn our interview, Kapuscinski mentioned mothballed plans for a gondola to connect the resort to lower-altitude terrain, which would have eliminated the need for “mountain driving.” I couldn’t find any of these old plans – if you have any materials on this, please send them over.I had a lot of fun poking around in the archives for trailmaps to Mountain High’s predecessor resorts. Here are a few:Table Mountain/Sunlight (now Mountain High North)Poma #1 in this 1970 trailmap of Table Mountain runs in the approximate line of the modern-day Sunlight quad at Mountain High North. Lift service is now restricted to the top portion of the mountain, and Poma #3 on this map stretches down into a bowl that is just a wide-open snowfield on the current trailmap. Holiday Hill (now Mountain High East)It’s hard to make out the modern hill in this map from 1976.In this version, it’s easier to recognize the basic footprint of modern-day Mountain High East. I’m not entirely confident on the date here, as skimap.org suggests this is from 1980, and some sources indicate that the resort merged with its neighbor in 1979.Mountain High WestI couldn’t find any trailmaps of Blue Ridge, as West was originally known. But this 1978 map of the ski area is pretty cool. You can see the outline of modern Mountain High West here: Chairlift #2 here runs along the approximate line of modern-day Lift 6, Exhibition. The resort long ago abandoned the Wild West-themed trailnames, but, for context, “Calamity Jane” is “Calamity” at the modern ski area.This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 10. Free subscribers got it on June 13. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, consider an upgrade.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 63/100 in 2022, and number 309 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe