Well, I think we're all pretty much done. Perhaps time to review what we did and what he hope to do next season.

This season:
-Learned to snowboard
-Got comfortable on blacks and decent on double blacks
-Visited 6 resorts (Keystone, Breck, A-basin, Copper, Winter Park, Big Sky)
-Did a couple of BC days
-Got comfortable making small jumps
-Got in a total of about 33 days (and I might get in a few more since A-basin should be open till July)

Next Season:
-Get my level one Avvie cert
-Spend a LOT more time in the backcountry and do some touring
-Get to Vail, Aspen, and Jackson Hole
-Start landing the jumps (without involving my head)
-Buy a split board
-Feel comfortable on the double blacks and start ventruring into "extreme" terrain (the lake chutes at Breck)
-Get in 30+ days again
-Figure out where I want to spend the season of 07-08. (My goal is to get a job at a place like Aspen Valley Community Hospital for the winter.)

This season:
First day on skis was backcountry, in November! Hiked Mount Washington, to the summit via Lions Head, and skied down the auto road.

Visited Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Northstar at Tahoe, Heavenly Valley, Stowe, Hunter, Killington, Pico, and Attitash.

Spent New Years in a Killington condo hot tub with 14 other goons.

Skied the Bruce Trail and the Monroe Trail in the Vermont backcountry/sidecountry. Skied the backside of Killington. (In December in sketchy thin snowpack. Made mostly kick-turns!)

Finally got comfortable enough to make jump turns in the steeper part of Right Gully.

Hiked the Palisades at Squaw Valley and dropped off the cornice into Main Chute. Skied the crux fine, and then lost it on the slightly less steep section by letting my skis turn too far across the fall line.

Skied some mad, fairly steep trees at Northstar's lift-serviced "backside" area, at full throttle in knee-deep pow... and kept it together most of the time.

Skied the Mount Rose backcountry--from the secondary summit down the ridgeline. What an excellent run.

Next season: need to get my level 2 avy class so I can find out what people are talking about with all this slab hardness stuff. Need to dig some real snow pits.

Need to ski the Lip at Tuckermans. Didn't get up there on a great conditions day for it this year.

It was an epic snow year here in Switzerland. The down side to that was there were a lot of weekends where the weather was bad or the avilanche conditions made it unsafe. For the 3rd straight year I avoided skiing in ski areas. I totaled 22 days of touring with maybe a few more to come and topped the season off with Mont Blanc this past weekend (I put a some pictures in the photo gallery).

My ski season doesn't usually end until August - is there anything in the world more fun than late spring and early summer corn skiing? Anyway, I got in around 20 resort days and another 10 in the backcountry so far. Took a level 1 avy class again since the first one i took was years ago before i was a skiier. Turns out I remembered just about everything, but i'm glad i took it for peace of mind. Best part of the season for me was my new setup - I got a pair of Havocs, which are awesome.

Intrepid02, if you are cool on double blacks you should go ski the Grizzly Couloir on Grizzly Peak near Independence Pass. There is one short section that is a bit steeper than 45, but mostly sustained 35-40 in a relatively wide chute with a very safe runout. Boot up the couloir(you'll want crampons and a light ax) to preview it. It'll be in good shape by mid June I would think.

Well, it was basically the season that wasn't. Powder days were few and far between here in the East. Didn't call in sick one weekday this season to hustle north for first tracks (compare with 4 such days last season!). However, all in all, it wasn't that bad. Managed 20 days:

12 days at Killington (no matter what people say about Killington, in lean snow years, there's no better place to go, because they blow the guns like their lives depended on it). 1 day at Mt. Snow (a really good one, actually). And 1 say at Ski Sundown (quickie).

5 glorious days in Wyoming: 1 at Grand Targhee, a mere 3 days after they'd gotten 16 inches, so there were tons of powder stashes in the trees everwhere (over by the Sacajawea lift . . shhhh), at 4 at Jackson Hole, including two straight 11+" days of fresh fluff. Checked out J-Hole's Crags area for the first time, and it was fantastic, and went OB below the Saratoga Bowl in 2 feet of completely untracked powder! Best day ever. This should give you an idea of the amount of snow:



Got up to Mt. Washington this past weekend; hiked up Hillman's Highway, tagged the summit, and boarded down. Tremendous day despite less than perfect conditions. Check out the TR w/ photos here:
Hillman's TR

But it's not over for me yet!! I leave next Thursday to head out to Mt. Shasta to climb and board Avalanche Gulch. Can't friggin' wait!

Got a new board set-up this year, as the old one had had it. Picked up a Nitro Demolition board w/ Drake F-60 bindings, and love it.

Caught some huge air this year, but still haven't mastered a 360 yet -- next year!!

Next year, lots more backcountry (may even invest in a split-board).

Les,
What are you plans for shasta? when leaving etc.

My wall plans fell through

CB - check your PM's.

the season is still going. i went to great basin national park last weekend and skiied wheeler peak. if you are anywhere near it, that is a fantastic tour and highly recommended. the snow got patchy a few hundred feet below the summit, but i still got in about 2000' of great corn. perhaps the most memorable part of the day was skiing through an ancient bristlecone pine forest to get back to the road. beautiful trees, and perfectly spaces for skiing just about anywhere.

I've gotten in a couple days at Loveland Pass lately and it's been phenomenal! I really didn't think Spring skiing would be this good!

Once you ski in the spring in the west, you realize how much NE spring skiing pales in comparison. The other great thing is that the tourist skiers are all gone for the most part.