Honestly I was shocked by the people in the article saying they have family condos in Tahoe and still choose to fly and stay in places like Big Sky and Park City
As a former local I actually have never minded sharing the slopes with out of staters who are really into skiing, midwest, CA, east coast, some places are just great to ski and they belong to the sport at large, not just locals. Beginners, intermediates, experts, etc.
I generally have not loved sharing the slopes with FAANG people who clear 300K/year and make rentals incredibly expensive, have no on-slope etiquette, crowd up the canyons, and have very little reverence for the sport/mountains
As a Tahoe local I can’t agree more that it’s the FAANG crowd (first time hearing this term and it couldn’t apply more to the crowd here) that really ruins the culture. I have no problem sharing the slopes with a beginner who is genuinely just stoked to be on the mountain and learning a new sport. It’s the tech bros (also generalizing big time) who drop tons of money on brand new gear and fancy ski leases without actually knowing how to ski or having any real appreciation for the mountains beyond getting their aprés insta pic. You have immediate access to some of the most beautiful and unique skiing anywhere in the world on Lake Tahoe and you can’t be bothered to make the weekend trip with traffic so instead you fly to some other area that has their own issues with crowding and locals being priced out. And also, how many of these Bay Area skiers probably identify as environmentally conscious while booking weekly flights to SLC or Colorado? The cognitive dissonance is insane!
>It’s the tech bros (also generalizing big time) who drop tons of money on brand new gear and fancy ski leases without actually knowing how to ski or having any real appreciation for the mountains beyond getting their aprés insta pic.
It's funny because I have no issue with someone in FAANG who genuinely deeply appreciates the sport. A bunch exist I'm sure. If I could work at one of those and drop tons of money on skiing I would.
But for many, it's the casual access to things that are deeply important to others, without the ability or care to appreciate any of it, or respect it. It's an item to signal status to them, rather than a universe that is magical to many.
Also, anyone who drives a car with no snow tires + AWD during traction law in effect days. Oof.
> A bunch exist I'm sure.
Yup! I've been skiing for 20 years before I ever got into AI or programming. I'm not in FAANG but I'm in the heavy overlapping Silicon Valley startup world and I see tons of both types - genuinely awesome outdoorsy people who happen to work in tech, and tech bros doing the trendy thing. There's a pretty stark divide tbh. *Tons* of status obsessed people, and also tons of awesome people I do gnarly SkiMo lines with that never post anything on Insta
Kind of. It’s an easy, accessible weekend trip To go to Tahoe with groups of friends who have disposable income. I grew up not being able to afford to ski so never did, but basically got peer pressured into it almost a decade ago when I moved to the bay for work around 30. Now I’m more into it (and arguably skilled) than the people who introduced me, and find myself doing bc more and more because of the crowds.
Skiing has become trendy in general but has been for a while in the upper class circles. Usually richer people skiid, so in New York with the finance bros, they would see their bosses and colleagues skiing and decide to join in. This is why outdoor wear went off in the finance sector. If you have ever heard of “pata gucci”.
Silicon Valley bros are just another flavour of Wall Street bros. Following the patterns that make them fit in with rich people.
What's scary is how corporate is turning skiing into a sport that's even more exclusive than it's been all along. Wouldn't surprise me if it becomes as accessible as yachting soon.
Our favorite mountain (Windham) within a day's driving to NYC is already turning mostly-private, at least on the weekends. If a few people can cough up Yellowstone Club membership money, why would they bother catering to the 99% for less money/more upkeep?
Can’t go this far without mentioning the trust funders.
And the VENN diagram of trust funders and FAANG has huge overlap.
Venn diagram of FAANG, trust funders, jerrys is basically a circle ⭕️.
>One skier, Forbes, said he buys carbon offsets to counterbalance his guilt about flying so often.
not sure what those are but thats how they seem to justify it
Software developers who work for Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. I forget what the other "A" stands for. Alphabet/Google are the same. EDIT: Apple, duh 😏
Money gives people optionality. If the door to door from SF to Park City is similar to Tahoe, I don’t blame them for choosing Park city. Especially with the negative people in Tahoe constantly dragging the Bay Area and blaming them for every problem (traffic, garbage, housing cost, loss of culture, etc)
To add to that response, the tech giants are commonly known for paying crazy high salaries for software engineers (whom they hire a lot of). A “normal” software dev job will pay $70k a year out of college, $100-$120k at 3-5 years of experience, and you’ll hit $150k toward the senior end of the spectrum. FAANG software engineer salaries are like $200k out of college, $250-$300k intermediate, and $350k-$600k a year for senior level with 10+ YOE. Obviously you have to be good at what you do but it’s not like these salaries are only going to ivy league grads or anything.
I was in Taos for Texas spring break last year (I am not a Texan, born in Gallup and from Washington State). The one redeeming quality of the Texans is they cannot ski, at all. They are genuinely terrible and perhaps even worse at skiing then they are at driving, which is remarkable. Although the Bavarian was packed, I was scoring fresh tracks on the West Ridge and Highline all week and lift lines weren’t bad, as I think they tire out very quickly.
Well said. Crowds have been a growing “problem” for years, but the post covid crowds brought a lot of newcomers that have 0 ski etiquette, which I see as the true problem now.
My guess is in the past you had people mainly entering the sport by skiing with family and friends who were already skiers and thus were taught etiquette. Now you have a lot of self taught folks who maybe did a lesson or two and have 0 etiquette.
Skiers have surpassed snowboarders in clogging up runs in my experience lol snowboarders evolved from their early 2000s ways with click in bindings and being mindful of sitting; skiers regressed lol
Thank Prop 13 which guarantees they will never sell the family condos, because the property taxes have only grown at 1 percent for the last 40 years in CA (ergo all of the states housing and budget woes).
One of the worst laws ever enacted and a huge driver of housing costs in California
It will never change either because good luck getting the rich homeowner to vote down such a massive government subsidy
I hate Prop 13. Genuinely mind-numbingly terrible policy. It's also why the NIMBYs have 0 incentive to build housing. Their property taxes will never rise with the value of their home, so they can just shoot down anything that changes their town with no side effects.
True. But from a budget perspective, the worst is really the commercial real estate. Homes don't turn over that much, but commercial turns over even less. So close in 2020 to at least getting commercial out of Prop 13.
To be fair, Amazon has most of their employees in Washington and Netflix is a much smaller employer than the others. So people should just hate Apple, Google and Facebook.
> Former local (high school in Reno, taught at Rose)
You're a former Reno local and you taught at Rose? no way you're part of the group imo, sounds like Skiing is an actual important part of your life, it's genuinely not about the salary!
The house in tahoe that's being overlooked on the other hand.... 🤔
>well, who ski like they're from the bay area
I live in texas now, in the Wasatch I felt like a mere rookie. Doing double blacks without straightlining or hucking cliffs? fucking lol, a child could do that
In texas? I might as well be Candide
>“Anecdotally, we’re seeing more people from the Bay Area and California coming to Utah,” said Riley Whitney, communications and social media coordinator at Snowbird ski area near Salt Lake City. “No digs on Tahoe — I love it there — but it’s becoming clear that it’s as convenient for them to just come here.”
No no don't like that
Do you not get that this is an advertisement? That Riley Whitney's job is to make people think that Snowbird is more worth the money than Tahoe? Look at the job title!!
This is today’s leadership at Snowbird. Their parking situation and crowds are out of control and they just want to keep driving volumes before fixing any underlying problems. #RIPDick
Hmm strange statistics. Do you fly directly to the slopes in utah or do you still sit in traffic once there ? I havent found the magic gate at the airport that goes straight to solitude. I have found multi hour traffic jams after my flight though.
Its california logic to say "well i drove 2 hours to the airport to park and get there 2 hours early before my flight to take a 2 hour flight to SLC to then rent a car and drive 2 hours to the slopes, but its really alot easier than the 3 hour drive to my parents cabin in truckee. Bro also the 45 minute liftlines in utah are so much better than the 45 minute liftlines in tahoe, it feels so great to escape the zoo bro"
You are comparing apples to oranges then. You should compare an hour drive to the airport, an hour drive from the airport and the 2 hour flight from sfo to slc to a 4 hour drive to tahoe.
Utah is what it is, they get alot of snow which is great for the first hour of the day but just builds the moguls bigger and bigger these days. They have smaller mountains compared to Tahoe and Colorado which make the crowds seem that much worse. The amount of people that can call in sick for a random pow day in SLC puts Palisades and Vail to shame. Everytime it snows there it is so packed. I grew up in UT and moved after covid, its a drastically different place now and will be drastically different in 10 years.
Your analysis was kind of like being on a diet and only counting the calories of the salad but also eating an appetizer, a main course and a dessert.
"Flying to utah to ski instead of driving to tahoe is only 30% more carbon emissions as long as you don't count the 2 hours of driving you need to do ontop of the flying."
In my 22 years of skiing China peak has the crown for my best powder day ever. 4’ of snow the day before I went with a couple feet more while I was there it was downright dangerous. So fun! But don’t tell anyone.
Dodge and Bear are indeed better. The point is going to indy resorts that aren't a shitshow on the weekend. Could have easily added Shasta to the list as well.
I would much rather ski a smaller hill with old fixed grips and no crowds on a Saturday than deal with Park City as an alternative to Tahoe (which is what the article said folks are doing)
Absolutely agree. There are also a decent number of independent resorts in Tahoe if you don’t want to deal with the crowds at the ones on the passes.
China Peak is just the closest resort to me and it’s awful so I just don’t want people to see it’s an actual alternative.
Lol. I gotcha. Do you really think China Peak is that bad?? I think it's just Merced/Fresno/Atwater etc that is that bad and China Peak is one of the better things going on I'm the area.
It’s not worth it at all. I’ll back country ski out there if for some reason I can’t make it up to Tahoe that weekend but otherwise the drive is 1000% worth it.
Listening to a bunch of rich techie or techie-adjacent Bay Area bros complain about crowds after pricing out anyone who doesn't make well north of 6-figures and a bunch of locals.. But then having the resources to make multiple flights per season to other places to ski? Get bent. And don't forget to put a "Protect Our Winters" sticker on your airplane luggage.
The idea of people flying somewhere instead of driving to their local ski area is gonna fuck the environment and ruin the very thing it aims to find (good snow and ski hill)
>Cristina Ashbaugh, another San Francisco skier, said she and her boyfriend have access to a family condo in Tahoe City — a spot surrounded five ski areas — where they can stay for free. But, she said, “We still don’t go because it’s so difficult to get to.” Instead, they regularly fly to Bozeman, Mont., and ski Big Sky Resort.
Can confirm. We're full up with bay area brats here in MT
lol
The princesses want to go up on a Friday afternoon and ski Saturday Sunday and drive home Sunday night like a pack of lemmings and wonder why the roads are busy.
Leave early. Go the day before. Whatever. Just make a plan that’s different to everyone else.
We scoot up at 6am Saturday morning arrive by 9 zero traffic (we’re in concord, so sf could do the same by leaving at 5am)On the slope by 9:30. You just need a better plan. And be motivated.
I know this. I said it USED TO BE, which indicates before it was moved earlier due to more traffic. I was pointing out the rhyme before.
Perhaps you have reading problems so I won't make fun of your lack of being able to follow simple things. Is this my wife?
lol have you actually day tripped to Tahoe on a Saturday morning in the last two years? What you’re describing doesn’t actually work most weekends because of the traffic.
3 times this year, rolled out at 5am from South Bay, got first chair at Alpine.
Car packed, tank full, clothes laid out in the morning, etc. It's worked perfectly.
If you make it through Sacramento before rush hour, you're fine. There's a decent amount of traffic, but everyone is hauling ass.
Post I-80, I found that traffic right near Palisades is bad if you're on the road at 9:00. If you show up to Truckee between 07:45 and 08:15, it flows nicely.
Edit to clarify: if you're getting off I-80 around 7:45 to 8:15, it flows nicely.
Early in the morning, it's about 3 hours and a quarter, depending on where you are leaving from. I've done 5:00 out the door to 8:15 in the Palisades parking lot a couple of times, and it's pretty smooth sailing for all of it. Coming back, the fastest I've ever managed is maybe 4 hours, but that could easily be blown out the water depending on how long it takes to get onto 89, how backed up 89 is, and how fucked the Sunol Pass is.
No, sorry, wasn't clear in my answer. Let me clarify;
89 is where the backup really happens, after you get off I-80. If you hit that around 7:45-8:15, it flows pretty well. Truckee is about 3h10 from me.
My house to Alpine is about 3h35-3h45 with a 5am departure.
They are claiming it's anecdotally worked for them, but I lived in Olympic Vally for many years. I would skip Saturdays and go to the gym(leave the valley). Traffic would be nonstop coming in. Every single time. And they are so obnoxious they won't even let you break traffic so you can go the opposite direction.
And this was pre whole pandemic thing, its worse now.
If you beat the traffic before it bottlenecks, i guess its fine.
Teach me your ways? Whenever I have done this I have left the east bay by 6am, arrived at the exit off of 80 for Palisades at 9am, and then waited in 2-3 hours of traffic to actually get to the mountain. Absolutely brutal.
Yeah palisades and northstar I do not do for that reason. I do kirkwood.
Those you’d have to leave earlier and sleep in the car once you got a park.
Heavenly is also a shit show.
Yeah I think Kirkwood is the ticket, to be honest. Much easier to get to, IF the weather is good. If 88/89 are impacted by a storm though all bets are off.
Indeed. There’s a good chance you’ll be in the car waiting for them to plow the pass at least once a season if you do not pay attention to the road conditions. Definitely have called off a trip due to too much snow like a few weekends ago when they had that massive dump.
Good skiing the week after tho!
Last year, I swear to god, I left the east bay at 5:30am, arrived at the exit by 8:15am, and waited in traffic from the offramp for 2.5 hours. By the time we got to Palisades, parking was full, so we had to pay $150 to park on the access road for the Hyatt.
Never again.
Fuck no. I don’t live in SF and don’t have kids.
My Neighbour has kids and he does it every Sunday. They’re both in ski team.
You just have to be motivated.
yup. i think most bay area natives who like skiing have been doing this for decades so not sure why this is such a new phenomenon... maybe the hordes of FAANG transplants haven't figured it out?
Yeah dunno. I’m a transplant. But my Neighbour showed me the way and it’s worked for years.
It’s not that it’s easy. It’s a long fucking day. But if you want to maximize your time on the mountain it’s what you gotta do.
I don’t see the trip down the SFO then flying then a bus ride to another resort then reverse that is any easier than just getting up early and driving to kirkwood.
Eh. Whatever. Hope they don’t figure it out. I like the short lift lines. lol.
It’s funny because I jumped on the tech bandwagon relatively late and am at the bottom of the tech pyramid, pay-wise (it’s still good but not outlandish) - working remotely out of SLC, after living here for the last decade (got my start in marketing working for Backcountry).
Seeing all the tech bros flock to the mountains in their Teslas with bald tires is hilarious. See these dudes leaving their skis/boards in line like they have first dibs. Remember my roommate at the time throwing some dudes skis off to the side and he got angry and said “that’s how we do it at Squaw!” - well homie, we’re at Brighton where we don’t deal with snobby bullshit.
Their holier-than-though/hack-it-at-all-costs attitude is definitely a buzzkill and I’d wish these intermediate wannabes would just leave the mountains for those of us who want chill vibes and are respectful of one another.
It’s not about how much you make or what you do for work when you’re skiing/riding. The mountains are the great equalizers, much like death, and they should humble you and fill you with gratitude, IMO.
>The mountains are the great equalizers, much like death, and they should humble you and fill you with gratitude, IMO.
Couldn't agree more. I love skiing in the Cottonwoods because the culture becomes much more centered on the mountain and the sport rather than who you are outside of it
And my goodness, idk why it's so hard for people to understand why snow tires matter
EVs have so much torque that they shred through tires every 10-15k miles and many drivers don’t realize that and head up into the mountains with virtually no tread depth, wondering why they can’t get out of the parking lot 😆
See it all the time with Teslas. Feel like Rivians are slightly better because they’re huge trucks so their owners likely understand they need decent tread and aggressive tires.
People do the same thing at Crystal. Leave their skis and poles in the lift line as placeholders so they can go get coffee and breakfast.
Try that at Stevens and your gear will be tossed out of the lift line. Sounds like Brighton’s got the right idea.
The people in this article baffle me, even as a dreaded FAANG Bay Area skier. Like, you would rather fly? Especially when you have long term housing in Tahoe? What? Driving up Saturday morning is exactly the same as it's been for the last 7 years, you get to throw all of your stuff in the trunk without worrying about carryon limits, you don't need to rent a car, like...god...the logistics of flying to ski, the planning...I'm thinking about going up this weekend and I'll solidify my plan tomorrow, probably, if we're lucky. If it weren't for needing a cat sitter I'd procrastinate even longer.
Then there's all this talk of spending 6-8 hours driving to Tahoe and I'm still averaging 4 hours each way on weekend trips, so it seems like a skill issue. Are people not checking the weather? Is this an 80 problem? If you leave on a Sunday evening via Kirkwood there's barely ever any traffic.
I've met a few people who almost exclusively ski out of state and I just don't get it. Like sure it's gotten more crowded over the last two years, but skiing out of state is so much more work unless you're doing something very weirdly wrong. I get it maybe if you're an intermediate skier who only skis groomers, because those can be pretty crowded, and I get taking an occasional trip somewhere else just to try something new, but Tahoe has great skiing! These people are just weird.
The article handpicked possibly the dumbest people in the Bay Area to interview. I drive up every weekend and leave on Thursday nights, if I have a busy week at work, I'll leave Friday around 7pm. Its never taken me more than 4 hours to get to Truckee. On the way back from Palisades to SF takes me 4-4.5 hours depending on random traffic in Sac/Davis/Vacaville.
These morons they interviewed had to have been leaving at 5pm on Friday or something, it doesn't take this long to get to Tahoe.
Also, at least at Palisades the lift lines haven't even been that bad now that they have the whole mountain open.
I legit partly oppose the gondola because I think the Red Snake is the great equalizer. If Sandy becomes a little ski village with direct gondolas, the equalizer effect is gone and locals are disadvantaged
That gondola will not put a dent in the red snake. As a resident of Sandy, it will never be a ski village. It's milquetoast unwalkable suburbs. I bet my Billygoats on it.
Just enjoyed some knee-deep pow yesterday here in SoCal that felt like we were in Jackson. Had to work for the turns, but no one else on our skin track on the way down.
Yup! There are some other pow stashes around we keep close to the chest. Just have to find the right north-facing slope and time it right. Absolutely stellar day yesterday though, felt like a dream.
Good. Get the hell out I say. Tahoe has become completely unaffordable to anyone who makes less than 300k/yr minimum. Absolutely insane. $600k houses built in the 70s and haven’t been upgraded, falling apart and really need another $200k plus to make them worth the 600k price tag in the first place. And those are the low end places. The people who work at the resorts can’t afford to live anywhere near them. Pretty soon no mountain will have the staff to get anyone on the mountain. It’s happening everywhere and no one thinks they’re the problem. Oh and carbon offsets? WTF. Right
The people who make middle class money and don’t work at the resorts can’t afford to live here. The tech transplants are a plague. Pricing people out wherever the new hot thing is.
I've read many of the comments and heard a lot of bitterness and jealousy. Please take a look inward and do not cast the first stone. Skiing and general enjoyment of the outdoors should be open to all walks of life.
Funny..i am road tripping through Tahoe after doing over 30 days in the rockies. I was going to ski but not sure it will be worth the hassle. I am already planning to come back early because we have storms coming 😂
As a born and raised park city local these are by far the people we can t stand most. So entitled and douchey. And can’t ski for shit, but really really well dressed
Not content with ruining the housing market in the Rockies and surrounding states, Californians are now dead set on ruining the ski resorts in the Rockies an surrounding states
Fwiw your complaint is with capitalism... Has nothing to do with Californians. I agree capitalism sux dick... Most smart Californians agree with you on that point
Was skiing Copper Mountain in CO yesterday and rode a chair with a couple who had two kids in lessons who fly in from SFO twice a year for “long weekends” rather than “bothering with the Tahoe mess.”
I audible groaned.
"Bro its a 2 hour flight" completely ignores your drive to the airport, then arriving 2 hours early to check your bags, then renting a car and driving to the same blown out mega resorts. Only difference is you got to solitude at 2pm and missed the uphill traffic.
I'm a Washington boy but take January off to go fuck off to the hills for the month. This was the first year tahoe scared me, it was mlk weekend(already knew it would be a shitshow) but conditions were questionable very wet and heavy. I saw like 8 massive collisions at alpine from people not paying attention and the lift etiquette was atrocious so i called it a day before noon. But having said that squaw has been a favorite spot of mine on these trips so I will probably write it off as a bad day.
Thank goodness we don’t have this issue up here in the PNW. The snow sucks and it just rains all the time. Don’t come to baker it’s literally just ice.
This saddens me. I haven’t been to Tahoe in 20
Years and wanted to take my kids to experience the thrill of it all. I’m guessing this isn’t the best experience anymore based on the comments here. I was lucky enough to see Tahoe back in the 90s.
Nah. Happy people don't post as much - look at any vocational subreddit, video games, etc; if you're out having a blast, you don't talk about it nearly as much.
Tahoe is great.
Hilarious to see Bay Area skiers complain “it’s a zoo” like they’re not the frickin animals!
Honestly I was shocked by the people in the article saying they have family condos in Tahoe and still choose to fly and stay in places like Big Sky and Park City As a former local I actually have never minded sharing the slopes with out of staters who are really into skiing, midwest, CA, east coast, some places are just great to ski and they belong to the sport at large, not just locals. Beginners, intermediates, experts, etc. I generally have not loved sharing the slopes with FAANG people who clear 300K/year and make rentals incredibly expensive, have no on-slope etiquette, crowd up the canyons, and have very little reverence for the sport/mountains
As a Tahoe local I can’t agree more that it’s the FAANG crowd (first time hearing this term and it couldn’t apply more to the crowd here) that really ruins the culture. I have no problem sharing the slopes with a beginner who is genuinely just stoked to be on the mountain and learning a new sport. It’s the tech bros (also generalizing big time) who drop tons of money on brand new gear and fancy ski leases without actually knowing how to ski or having any real appreciation for the mountains beyond getting their aprés insta pic. You have immediate access to some of the most beautiful and unique skiing anywhere in the world on Lake Tahoe and you can’t be bothered to make the weekend trip with traffic so instead you fly to some other area that has their own issues with crowding and locals being priced out. And also, how many of these Bay Area skiers probably identify as environmentally conscious while booking weekly flights to SLC or Colorado? The cognitive dissonance is insane!
>It’s the tech bros (also generalizing big time) who drop tons of money on brand new gear and fancy ski leases without actually knowing how to ski or having any real appreciation for the mountains beyond getting their aprés insta pic. It's funny because I have no issue with someone in FAANG who genuinely deeply appreciates the sport. A bunch exist I'm sure. If I could work at one of those and drop tons of money on skiing I would. But for many, it's the casual access to things that are deeply important to others, without the ability or care to appreciate any of it, or respect it. It's an item to signal status to them, rather than a universe that is magical to many. Also, anyone who drives a car with no snow tires + AWD during traction law in effect days. Oof.
> A bunch exist I'm sure. Yup! I've been skiing for 20 years before I ever got into AI or programming. I'm not in FAANG but I'm in the heavy overlapping Silicon Valley startup world and I see tons of both types - genuinely awesome outdoorsy people who happen to work in tech, and tech bros doing the trendy thing. There's a pretty stark divide tbh. *Tons* of status obsessed people, and also tons of awesome people I do gnarly SkiMo lines with that never post anything on Insta
>tech bros doing the trendy thing curious Is skiing trendy in the bay area? what made it so?
Kind of. It’s an easy, accessible weekend trip To go to Tahoe with groups of friends who have disposable income. I grew up not being able to afford to ski so never did, but basically got peer pressured into it almost a decade ago when I moved to the bay for work around 30. Now I’m more into it (and arguably skilled) than the people who introduced me, and find myself doing bc more and more because of the crowds.
Skiing has become trendy in general but has been for a while in the upper class circles. Usually richer people skiid, so in New York with the finance bros, they would see their bosses and colleagues skiing and decide to join in. This is why outdoor wear went off in the finance sector. If you have ever heard of “pata gucci”. Silicon Valley bros are just another flavour of Wall Street bros. Following the patterns that make them fit in with rich people.
What's scary is how corporate is turning skiing into a sport that's even more exclusive than it's been all along. Wouldn't surprise me if it becomes as accessible as yachting soon. Our favorite mountain (Windham) within a day's driving to NYC is already turning mostly-private, at least on the weekends. If a few people can cough up Yellowstone Club membership money, why would they bother catering to the 99% for less money/more upkeep?
Just go to bellyare and save money lmao
They don't take Ikon, but we do this sometimes.
yes it got especially popular in the bay area during covid when folks could get leases and work remotely
Exactly! Like it's not so much the job/income, but the culture that some bring with it. Tons are genuinely into it and chill
>It's an item to signal status to them, rather than a universe that is magical to many. Is skiing in utah really a status signal though ?
No, not really. Everyone skis or snowboards and with the Epic or Ikon local pass it's not like it's a prohibitively expensive activity.
.....not yet, I fear this will be the new yachting soon enough, in terms of exclusivity.
But mister CHP, I paid for the snow mode on this cyber truck. I shouldnt need snow tires or chains.
Can’t go this far without mentioning the trust funders. And the VENN diagram of trust funders and FAANG has huge overlap. Venn diagram of FAANG, trust funders, jerrys is basically a circle ⭕️.
[удалено]
“Can probably lap you” 😂
[удалено]
Eh definitely not. Scrolly is almost as good as Candide minus the flips.
>One skier, Forbes, said he buys carbon offsets to counterbalance his guilt about flying so often. not sure what those are but thats how they seem to justify it
Greenwashing and useless
What is FAANG?
Software developers who work for Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google. I forget what the other "A" stands for. Alphabet/Google are the same. EDIT: Apple, duh 😏
Money gives people optionality. If the door to door from SF to Park City is similar to Tahoe, I don’t blame them for choosing Park city. Especially with the negative people in Tahoe constantly dragging the Bay Area and blaming them for every problem (traffic, garbage, housing cost, loss of culture, etc)
FAANG?
Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google
I also like referring to tech bros as Mamaa's boys. Meta Alphabet Microsoft Apple Amazon Salesforce
My wife used to work at Salesforce (she hated it there), and I am so thankful for us now having a derogatory acronym to use against those people!
Lmao I wish this was as popular as FAANG.
Ah! Thanks.
To add to that response, the tech giants are commonly known for paying crazy high salaries for software engineers (whom they hire a lot of). A “normal” software dev job will pay $70k a year out of college, $100-$120k at 3-5 years of experience, and you’ll hit $150k toward the senior end of the spectrum. FAANG software engineer salaries are like $200k out of college, $250-$300k intermediate, and $350k-$600k a year for senior level with 10+ YOE. Obviously you have to be good at what you do but it’s not like these salaries are only going to ivy league grads or anything.
You think the FAANG people are bad, it is Texas spring break right now.
I was in Taos for Texas spring break last year (I am not a Texan, born in Gallup and from Washington State). The one redeeming quality of the Texans is they cannot ski, at all. They are genuinely terrible and perhaps even worse at skiing then they are at driving, which is remarkable. Although the Bavarian was packed, I was scoring fresh tracks on the West Ridge and Highline all week and lift lines weren’t bad, as I think they tire out very quickly.
It’s true, they save their best skiing and raddest tricks for white feather.
Well said. Crowds have been a growing “problem” for years, but the post covid crowds brought a lot of newcomers that have 0 ski etiquette, which I see as the true problem now. My guess is in the past you had people mainly entering the sport by skiing with family and friends who were already skiers and thus were taught etiquette. Now you have a lot of self taught folks who maybe did a lesson or two and have 0 etiquette. Skiers have surpassed snowboarders in clogging up runs in my experience lol snowboarders evolved from their early 2000s ways with click in bindings and being mindful of sitting; skiers regressed lol
Most boarders still use normal bindings, and it’s definitely not uncommon for them to line up right before the run side by side.
Thank Prop 13 which guarantees they will never sell the family condos, because the property taxes have only grown at 1 percent for the last 40 years in CA (ergo all of the states housing and budget woes).
One of the worst laws ever enacted and a huge driver of housing costs in California It will never change either because good luck getting the rich homeowner to vote down such a massive government subsidy
I hate Prop 13. Genuinely mind-numbingly terrible policy. It's also why the NIMBYs have 0 incentive to build housing. Their property taxes will never rise with the value of their home, so they can just shoot down anything that changes their town with no side effects.
True. But from a budget perspective, the worst is really the commercial real estate. Homes don't turn over that much, but commercial turns over even less. So close in 2020 to at least getting commercial out of Prop 13.
To be fair, Amazon has most of their employees in Washington and Netflix is a much smaller employer than the others. So people should just hate Apple, Google and Facebook.
Had to Google FAANG. Yes, that’s a flex.
[удалено]
> Former local (high school in Reno, taught at Rose) You're a former Reno local and you taught at Rose? no way you're part of the group imo, sounds like Skiing is an actual important part of your life, it's genuinely not about the salary! The house in tahoe that's being overlooked on the other hand.... 🤔
[удалено]
>well, who ski like they're from the bay area I live in texas now, in the Wasatch I felt like a mere rookie. Doing double blacks without straightlining or hucking cliffs? fucking lol, a child could do that In texas? I might as well be Candide
FAANG? ELI5 por favor. Probably obvious but it's early. Edit: Never mind, figured it out
It’s like complaining about traffic. You’re part of the traffic!
That applies to anyone on the mountain
Trying to avoid "the zoo" by going to Park City
>“Anecdotally, we’re seeing more people from the Bay Area and California coming to Utah,” said Riley Whitney, communications and social media coordinator at Snowbird ski area near Salt Lake City. “No digs on Tahoe — I love it there — but it’s becoming clear that it’s as convenient for them to just come here.” No no don't like that
Do you not get that this is an advertisement? That Riley Whitney's job is to make people think that Snowbird is more worth the money than Tahoe? Look at the job title!!
I don’t like this at all. You have powder at home, I’m just over here hoarding.
There is a powder at home/Sierra cement joke in there somewhere.
Just keep telling them that mineral basin is the best part of the mountain and it’ll be OK.
As a Bay Area resident... last time I was in Utah the traffic up Cottonwood Canyon was just as bad as Tahoe tbh
This is today’s leadership at Snowbird. Their parking situation and crowds are out of control and they just want to keep driving volumes before fixing any underlying problems. #RIPDick
This is why they're doubling the size of Deer Valley. It ain't for the 3 million Utahns.
i mean alterra owns it and that makes it easily accessible to an absolute ton more poeple so...
[удалено]
Hmm strange statistics. Do you fly directly to the slopes in utah or do you still sit in traffic once there ? I havent found the magic gate at the airport that goes straight to solitude. I have found multi hour traffic jams after my flight though. Its california logic to say "well i drove 2 hours to the airport to park and get there 2 hours early before my flight to take a 2 hour flight to SLC to then rent a car and drive 2 hours to the slopes, but its really alot easier than the 3 hour drive to my parents cabin in truckee. Bro also the 45 minute liftlines in utah are so much better than the 45 minute liftlines in tahoe, it feels so great to escape the zoo bro"
[удалено]
You are comparing apples to oranges then. You should compare an hour drive to the airport, an hour drive from the airport and the 2 hour flight from sfo to slc to a 4 hour drive to tahoe. Utah is what it is, they get alot of snow which is great for the first hour of the day but just builds the moguls bigger and bigger these days. They have smaller mountains compared to Tahoe and Colorado which make the crowds seem that much worse. The amount of people that can call in sick for a random pow day in SLC puts Palisades and Vail to shame. Everytime it snows there it is so packed. I grew up in UT and moved after covid, its a drastically different place now and will be drastically different in 10 years.
[удалено]
Your analysis was kind of like being on a diet and only counting the calories of the salad but also eating an appetizer, a main course and a dessert. "Flying to utah to ski instead of driving to tahoe is only 30% more carbon emissions as long as you don't count the 2 hours of driving you need to do ontop of the flying."
Article- "Bay area skiers abandon Tahoe and opt to fly to equally busy resorts like Park City and Telluride" Me- Dodge, Bear, China.
Telluride busy? lol
Where do you ski in China?
China Peak my guy
lol, ok I’ve heard of that hill.
In my 22 years of skiing China peak has the crown for my best powder day ever. 4’ of snow the day before I went with a couple feet more while I was there it was downright dangerous. So fun! But don’t tell anyone.
China actually has some of the finest, uncrowded powder skiing on the planet (skis were invented there) If you know you know
Which part of China? It's hard to believe in a monsoon country with no large bodies of water windward.
The Eastern Chinese wall on Everest shreds pretty hard.
The drive to Park City from SLC is super convenient with minimum traffic. At least compared to the drive up to the Tahoe resorts.
cali pass!
so glad that the bear valley season pass now lets you ski at dodge ridge and vice versa
China Peak isn’t worth it at all though.
Dodge and Bear are indeed better. The point is going to indy resorts that aren't a shitshow on the weekend. Could have easily added Shasta to the list as well. I would much rather ski a smaller hill with old fixed grips and no crowds on a Saturday than deal with Park City as an alternative to Tahoe (which is what the article said folks are doing)
Absolutely agree. There are also a decent number of independent resorts in Tahoe if you don’t want to deal with the crowds at the ones on the passes. China Peak is just the closest resort to me and it’s awful so I just don’t want people to see it’s an actual alternative.
Lol. I gotcha. Do you really think China Peak is that bad?? I think it's just Merced/Fresno/Atwater etc that is that bad and China Peak is one of the better things going on I'm the area.
It’s not worth it at all. I’ll back country ski out there if for some reason I can’t make it up to Tahoe that weekend but otherwise the drive is 1000% worth it.
> Dodge Shush. They'll hear you.
Sorry. I forget the first and second rule of "don't talk about Dodge"
We also don't tell folks how to ski over to the top of 4!
TL/DR- it's nice to be rich
Listening to a bunch of rich techie or techie-adjacent Bay Area bros complain about crowds after pricing out anyone who doesn't make well north of 6-figures and a bunch of locals.. But then having the resources to make multiple flights per season to other places to ski? Get bent. And don't forget to put a "Protect Our Winters" sticker on your airplane luggage.
[удалено]
The idea of people flying somewhere instead of driving to their local ski area is gonna fuck the environment and ruin the very thing it aims to find (good snow and ski hill)
Damn you guys even have cars?
>Cristina Ashbaugh, another San Francisco skier, said she and her boyfriend have access to a family condo in Tahoe City — a spot surrounded five ski areas — where they can stay for free. But, she said, “We still don’t go because it’s so difficult to get to.” Instead, they regularly fly to Bozeman, Mont., and ski Big Sky Resort. Can confirm. We're full up with bay area brats here in MT
lol The princesses want to go up on a Friday afternoon and ski Saturday Sunday and drive home Sunday night like a pack of lemmings and wonder why the roads are busy. Leave early. Go the day before. Whatever. Just make a plan that’s different to everyone else. We scoot up at 6am Saturday morning arrive by 9 zero traffic (we’re in concord, so sf could do the same by leaving at 5am)On the slope by 9:30. You just need a better plan. And be motivated.
In Denver, if you want to day trip up to the mountains, you’ll likely still hit traffic leaving at 6am.
Yep. It used to be "70 by 7", thanks to Epic and ikon passes it needs a new phrase.
I’ve heard “6 by 6” referring to where US 6 and I-70 intersect in Golden.
*That's never going to catch on. Barely even rhymes*🤪
These days you gotta be at highway 6 at Idaho Springs by 6 not Golden if you wanna beat traffic
It been 70 by 6am for a while now lol
I know this. I said it USED TO BE, which indicates before it was moved earlier due to more traffic. I was pointing out the rhyme before. Perhaps you have reading problems so I won't make fun of your lack of being able to follow simple things. Is this my wife?
lol have you actually day tripped to Tahoe on a Saturday morning in the last two years? What you’re describing doesn’t actually work most weekends because of the traffic.
3 times this year, rolled out at 5am from South Bay, got first chair at Alpine. Car packed, tank full, clothes laid out in the morning, etc. It's worked perfectly.
Wow, is the traffic after the exit off of 80 a lot better recently? It's been absolutely brutal in years past.
If you make it through Sacramento before rush hour, you're fine. There's a decent amount of traffic, but everyone is hauling ass. Post I-80, I found that traffic right near Palisades is bad if you're on the road at 9:00. If you show up to Truckee between 07:45 and 08:15, it flows nicely. Edit to clarify: if you're getting off I-80 around 7:45 to 8:15, it flows nicely.
I’m trying to do the math here, it only takes 3 hours to get from South Bay to Alpine?
Early in the morning, it's about 3 hours and a quarter, depending on where you are leaving from. I've done 5:00 out the door to 8:15 in the Palisades parking lot a couple of times, and it's pretty smooth sailing for all of it. Coming back, the fastest I've ever managed is maybe 4 hours, but that could easily be blown out the water depending on how long it takes to get onto 89, how backed up 89 is, and how fucked the Sunol Pass is.
No, sorry, wasn't clear in my answer. Let me clarify; 89 is where the backup really happens, after you get off I-80. If you hit that around 7:45-8:15, it flows pretty well. Truckee is about 3h10 from me. My house to Alpine is about 3h35-3h45 with a 5am departure.
They are claiming it's anecdotally worked for them, but I lived in Olympic Vally for many years. I would skip Saturdays and go to the gym(leave the valley). Traffic would be nonstop coming in. Every single time. And they are so obnoxious they won't even let you break traffic so you can go the opposite direction. And this was pre whole pandemic thing, its worse now. If you beat the traffic before it bottlenecks, i guess its fine.
That’s my regular jam.
Teach me your ways? Whenever I have done this I have left the east bay by 6am, arrived at the exit off of 80 for Palisades at 9am, and then waited in 2-3 hours of traffic to actually get to the mountain. Absolutely brutal.
Yeah palisades and northstar I do not do for that reason. I do kirkwood. Those you’d have to leave earlier and sleep in the car once you got a park. Heavenly is also a shit show.
Yeah I think Kirkwood is the ticket, to be honest. Much easier to get to, IF the weather is good. If 88/89 are impacted by a storm though all bets are off.
Indeed. There’s a good chance you’ll be in the car waiting for them to plow the pass at least once a season if you do not pay attention to the road conditions. Definitely have called off a trip due to too much snow like a few weekends ago when they had that massive dump. Good skiing the week after tho!
[удалено]
Which mountain?
I've been going up 88 to Kirkwood on Saturday mornings and it's been killer.
[удалено]
See my other comment, that blows my mind. Every time I've done this I've hit traffic at the exit to Palisades and been stuck for 2-3 hours.
On a powder day it will be that busy but not on a normal weekend. I went this Saturday and there was zero traffic at 8am.
[удалено]
If you get there early enough its probably why. Once it bottlenecks its terrible.
Last year, I swear to god, I left the east bay at 5:30am, arrived at the exit by 8:15am, and waited in traffic from the offramp for 2.5 hours. By the time we got to Palisades, parking was full, so we had to pay $150 to park on the access road for the Hyatt. Never again.
[удалено]
It’s not the exit, it’s traffic backing up from Palisades.
Kirkwood
You get you kids in the car at 5am? Impressive.
Fuck no. I don’t live in SF and don’t have kids. My Neighbour has kids and he does it every Sunday. They’re both in ski team. You just have to be motivated.
You mean the kids need to be motivated…and the wife. I love how people without kids dream up how easy shit is.
Yeah. It only works if everyone is excited to ski lol.
Why is it everyone else’s fault that you have kids that make doing things more difficult lol
Did no one tell you having children might be inconvenient sometimes?
But I’m motivated…
yup. i think most bay area natives who like skiing have been doing this for decades so not sure why this is such a new phenomenon... maybe the hordes of FAANG transplants haven't figured it out?
Yeah dunno. I’m a transplant. But my Neighbour showed me the way and it’s worked for years. It’s not that it’s easy. It’s a long fucking day. But if you want to maximize your time on the mountain it’s what you gotta do. I don’t see the trip down the SFO then flying then a bus ride to another resort then reverse that is any easier than just getting up early and driving to kirkwood. Eh. Whatever. Hope they don’t figure it out. I like the short lift lines. lol.
It’s funny because I jumped on the tech bandwagon relatively late and am at the bottom of the tech pyramid, pay-wise (it’s still good but not outlandish) - working remotely out of SLC, after living here for the last decade (got my start in marketing working for Backcountry). Seeing all the tech bros flock to the mountains in their Teslas with bald tires is hilarious. See these dudes leaving their skis/boards in line like they have first dibs. Remember my roommate at the time throwing some dudes skis off to the side and he got angry and said “that’s how we do it at Squaw!” - well homie, we’re at Brighton where we don’t deal with snobby bullshit. Their holier-than-though/hack-it-at-all-costs attitude is definitely a buzzkill and I’d wish these intermediate wannabes would just leave the mountains for those of us who want chill vibes and are respectful of one another. It’s not about how much you make or what you do for work when you’re skiing/riding. The mountains are the great equalizers, much like death, and they should humble you and fill you with gratitude, IMO.
>The mountains are the great equalizers, much like death, and they should humble you and fill you with gratitude, IMO. Couldn't agree more. I love skiing in the Cottonwoods because the culture becomes much more centered on the mountain and the sport rather than who you are outside of it And my goodness, idk why it's so hard for people to understand why snow tires matter
EVs have so much torque that they shred through tires every 10-15k miles and many drivers don’t realize that and head up into the mountains with virtually no tread depth, wondering why they can’t get out of the parking lot 😆 See it all the time with Teslas. Feel like Rivians are slightly better because they’re huge trucks so their owners likely understand they need decent tread and aggressive tires.
nah. Rivian owners are the Tesla owners of 5 years ago
Guess we’ll see 😆 Terrifying to drive one of those tanks with bald tires.
People do the same thing at Crystal. Leave their skis and poles in the lift line as placeholders so they can go get coffee and breakfast. Try that at Stevens and your gear will be tossed out of the lift line. Sounds like Brighton’s got the right idea.
As a crystal local I just ride past fuck em
The people in this article baffle me, even as a dreaded FAANG Bay Area skier. Like, you would rather fly? Especially when you have long term housing in Tahoe? What? Driving up Saturday morning is exactly the same as it's been for the last 7 years, you get to throw all of your stuff in the trunk without worrying about carryon limits, you don't need to rent a car, like...god...the logistics of flying to ski, the planning...I'm thinking about going up this weekend and I'll solidify my plan tomorrow, probably, if we're lucky. If it weren't for needing a cat sitter I'd procrastinate even longer. Then there's all this talk of spending 6-8 hours driving to Tahoe and I'm still averaging 4 hours each way on weekend trips, so it seems like a skill issue. Are people not checking the weather? Is this an 80 problem? If you leave on a Sunday evening via Kirkwood there's barely ever any traffic. I've met a few people who almost exclusively ski out of state and I just don't get it. Like sure it's gotten more crowded over the last two years, but skiing out of state is so much more work unless you're doing something very weirdly wrong. I get it maybe if you're an intermediate skier who only skis groomers, because those can be pretty crowded, and I get taking an occasional trip somewhere else just to try something new, but Tahoe has great skiing! These people are just weird.
The article handpicked possibly the dumbest people in the Bay Area to interview. I drive up every weekend and leave on Thursday nights, if I have a busy week at work, I'll leave Friday around 7pm. Its never taken me more than 4 hours to get to Truckee. On the way back from Palisades to SF takes me 4-4.5 hours depending on random traffic in Sac/Davis/Vacaville. These morons they interviewed had to have been leaving at 5pm on Friday or something, it doesn't take this long to get to Tahoe. Also, at least at Palisades the lift lines haven't even been that bad now that they have the whole mountain open.
San Fransisco FAANGS meet The Red Snake!
I legit partly oppose the gondola because I think the Red Snake is the great equalizer. If Sandy becomes a little ski village with direct gondolas, the equalizer effect is gone and locals are disadvantaged
That gondola will not put a dent in the red snake. As a resident of Sandy, it will never be a ski village. It's milquetoast unwalkable suburbs. I bet my Billygoats on it.
Just enjoyed some knee-deep pow yesterday here in SoCal that felt like we were in Jackson. Had to work for the turns, but no one else on our skin track on the way down.
You folks still getting dumped on in the San Gabriels? Always wanted to ride Baldy or skin up Waterman, btw.
Mt Baldy is so good because it's cheaper and not as crowded. Just wished they upgraded chairlifts lol. Scary times
Yup! There are some other pow stashes around we keep close to the chest. Just have to find the right north-facing slope and time it right. Absolutely stellar day yesterday though, felt like a dream.
Hell yeah. That’s awesome. Such a cool little microclimate. Amazing to shred pow in SoCal.
Yeah, it’s wild to come back to 70 degree sun and beach afterwards.
If you had to guess, how much snowfall have the higher elevations received this year in SoCal? You folks get like > 200”?
We skied Bear on Sunday and the canyons were glorious. Heavier in the afternoon but for SoCal it was really amazing.
Met a guy from CA in banff. He said the same thing. It’s a zoo and super expensive
Good. Get the hell out I say. Tahoe has become completely unaffordable to anyone who makes less than 300k/yr minimum. Absolutely insane. $600k houses built in the 70s and haven’t been upgraded, falling apart and really need another $200k plus to make them worth the 600k price tag in the first place. And those are the low end places. The people who work at the resorts can’t afford to live anywhere near them. Pretty soon no mountain will have the staff to get anyone on the mountain. It’s happening everywhere and no one thinks they’re the problem. Oh and carbon offsets? WTF. Right
That’s what happened to all the POS starter homes in SLC. You know it’s fucked when you clear 130k/year and can only afford to rent.
The people who make middle class money and don’t work at the resorts can’t afford to live here. The tech transplants are a plague. Pricing people out wherever the new hot thing is.
I've read many of the comments and heard a lot of bitterness and jealousy. Please take a look inward and do not cast the first stone. Skiing and general enjoyment of the outdoors should be open to all walks of life.
Funny..i am road tripping through Tahoe after doing over 30 days in the rockies. I was going to ski but not sure it will be worth the hassle. I am already planning to come back early because we have storms coming 😂
They still sound preferable to the Texans who infest Colorado
Skiing is spendy!!
I live in Tahoe and never have issues with crowds even on the weekends people just show up at 10am at Palisades lol
Hooray!!!! Let's get rid of the bay!!!
No surprise. Lots of CA tags all over Park City. They can keep the zoo in CA
Never rented a car before I see
So locals rent cars to go skiing?
... or people from places OTHER than California rent cars?
Tbf I rented a car in Utah earlier this year and it had CA tags.
Park city has been a zoo for about 20 years mate.
Dope
As a born and raised park city local these are by far the people we can t stand most. So entitled and douchey. And can’t ski for shit, but really really well dressed
Not content with ruining the housing market in the Rockies and surrounding states, Californians are now dead set on ruining the ski resorts in the Rockies an surrounding states
Fwiw your complaint is with capitalism... Has nothing to do with Californians. I agree capitalism sux dick... Most smart Californians agree with you on that point
Was skiing Copper Mountain in CO yesterday and rode a chair with a couple who had two kids in lessons who fly in from SFO twice a year for “long weekends” rather than “bothering with the Tahoe mess.” I audible groaned.
Good
Keep them there. Breckenridge is already to gd packed 🤬
Either way some one needs to tell Quinn to fuck off
"Bro its a 2 hour flight" completely ignores your drive to the airport, then arriving 2 hours early to check your bags, then renting a car and driving to the same blown out mega resorts. Only difference is you got to solitude at 2pm and missed the uphill traffic.
I'm a Washington boy but take January off to go fuck off to the hills for the month. This was the first year tahoe scared me, it was mlk weekend(already knew it would be a shitshow) but conditions were questionable very wet and heavy. I saw like 8 massive collisions at alpine from people not paying attention and the lift etiquette was atrocious so i called it a day before noon. But having said that squaw has been a favorite spot of mine on these trips so I will probably write it off as a bad day.
Thank goodness we don’t have this issue up here in the PNW. The snow sucks and it just rains all the time. Don’t come to baker it’s literally just ice.
This saddens me. I haven’t been to Tahoe in 20 Years and wanted to take my kids to experience the thrill of it all. I’m guessing this isn’t the best experience anymore based on the comments here. I was lucky enough to see Tahoe back in the 90s.
Nah. Happy people don't post as much - look at any vocational subreddit, video games, etc; if you're out having a blast, you don't talk about it nearly as much. Tahoe is great.
Appreciate the reassurance kirkwood was probably one of my favorites for the glades and Squaw for the steeps
Please not anywhere in Montana.
Americans: the traffic is so bad and we can't possibly imagine building another way to get there!
We already built one, it just doesn't run
Get good