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Summer is Coming! How to Handle the Springsestential Crisis

by Greg Colquitt | April 19, 2017

Spring is springing. Hard.

I’ve had my running shoes out for the past two weeks hitting trails around my neck of the woods in Colorado, and much of the country is seeing a similar story unfold. It is, after all, mid-April, and almost every resort has seen its closing day antics (along with epic pond skims) come and go. So now what?

First of all, buy your gear and season passes now!

Actually forget the season passes, keep buying lift tickets from us.
But as far as gear goes…I know, crucify me because you can’t be caught dead wearing last seasons gear, but seriously, you’ll be much happier when you can buy more beer during the 2017-18 season. Check all of your local mountain retailers for huge end of seasons discounts. Forget thinking about this during the season, now is the time to be buying skis, bindings, poles, goggles, you name it.
We may be a little late, but also check for demo sales. Shops that sell and/or rent skis often will have current year skis for customers to try out if they’re jonesin’ to try out that Rossignol Soul 7 on a pow day, for example. At the end of the year these shops have to get rid of said skis and sell them for dirt cheap. Yeah, they’re used, but as long as the bases are in good shape who cares?  I landed a pair of Kastle FX 95 skis with Tyrolia 13 demo bindings for $329 at my local shop. That ski alone without bindings retails around $900 brand new. In other words it’s about a $1200 set up (after tax) that I landed for about $900 less. As cool as buying new skis is, it’s just not worth it in my eyes.
Second of all, like I mentioned earlier, it’s time to start thinking about what summer is going to mean for your stoke. I once read about an old man in Vermont that chooses to ski every day the he possibly can because he knows once the season is over, he’ll be wishing he could ski.

What if you never had to stop skiing?

Well, that’s certainly a possibility depending on where you live/are willing to travel. Head to the west coast for some summer turns at Mt. Hood’s Timberline Lodge in Oregon or try Mammoth Mountain in California, who plans to stay open until July 4th thanks to ungodly amounts of snow this winter. Killington in Vermont has also been known to stay open late in the year and depending on what happens with snowfall this spring, Arapahoe Basin in Colorado can stay open until July, too.
If you’re really wanting some turns, head way down south to New Zealand whose turns can be just as good as what we have here in the States, and whose views might make you start reaching for your bow and arrow, Legolas.
If you do, however, decide to enjoy summer for what it’s worth, make sure you check your local hill for mountain bike access. Many resorts across the country provide the same lift-accessed thrills you get on snow with world class downhill single track that you don’t have to work quite so hard to get to. Just ride up with your bike on the back of the chairlift and scream down the mountain having the time of your life. It’s that simple. For a complete list of resorts offering summer mountain biking, check out mtbparks.com
 

Finally, in case you’re missing powder, here’s one of the coolest ski videos ever made. Enjoy!

 

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