Welcome to Louis (Lou) Dawson's backcountry skiing information & opinion website. Lou's passion for the past 50 years has been alpinism, climbing, mountaineering and skiing -- along with all manner of outdoor recreation. He has authored numerous books and articles about
ski touring and is well known as the first person to ski down all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks, otherwise known as the
Fourteeners! Books and free ski touring news and information here.
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Thanks for the laugh!
Funny. Reminds me of my first trip to Chamonix, my freind commented, “So this is what Vail wants to be!”
Funnier still, when we went to Alta, as my wife inquired about the accomodations, she kept hearing the refrain, “You know, this isn’t Vail!”
If they produce a bumper sticker: “Alta. It’s not Vail.”, I’m a buyer.
We live in faux-Bavaria on the Wenatchee River, Leavenworth, WA. The Code allows only wooden “Bavarian” signs for businesses and even the hospital, and also “Bavarian” appearance for all storefronts. The Alpenhorn is played morning and evening by the owner on the balcony deck of one of the nicest Inns here. My military friend said he and his friends call it “Garmisch in the Wenatchee,” but is mostly looks and marketing, not much culture. Unlike Europe, however, there are no tram rides or huts in the craggy and glaciated nearby mountains, it is earned…faux-Bavaria town actually has only a 300 vf rope tow and nordic trails!
Luckily the camera distortion made the buildings lean like real old ones in EU, the Vail ones are way too perfect, that’s how they give themselves away. That and the lack of sausage.
Just noticed my typo of bogger instead of blogger, hmmmm. Fixed it. You guys probably thought it was intentional and I was going to drive my Jeep up Gore Creek or something, right (grin)?
Still laughing! Thanks for making my day Lou!
Wow, Lou! Were you shopping for some “affordable” new slopeside accommodations at Lionshead? I hope you weren’t looking for Kaltenberg Castle, the Egg Wagon, or other low end establishments. I guess they didn’t fit into the grand value meal plan. Let’s hope they look past Moe’s BBQ for a few more years! You must have had to show them your drivers license to verify that you weren’t “Front Range riff-raff” so you didn’t get shown the exit sign of the $30 parking lot.
Oh yeah, and you owe Vail some serious cheese for the amount of times you’ve used their trademark word, “epic.”
Always fun to riff on Vail. Like I said to my wife: “Bavarian buildings, in Colorado, built mostly by guys from Mexico — go figure.” I’d add to that, they provide employment for a lot of folks… Indeed, some folks in Vail are wrestling with the fact that their local economy is based in great part on construction, and some folks think that needs to shift. That’s a pretty uneducated view. What’s been shown by places such as Santa Barbara and Aspen is that once you get into the stratosphere with real estate values and desirability, nearly every time anything changes ownership it’s remodeled or even scraped. Meaning the construction industry will thrive. Vail made that bed and they have to sleep in it, as Aspen is doing (and as a result providing lifelong careers in construction for many of our friends.)
I live in Edwards, but ski Vail. It is obnoxious how the place is like Disneyland. Everything is too perfect.
Still, as you pointed out Lou, there are some redeeming qualities of the area. I thought it was a little lame when my friend and I won $$ at Davenport’s “Battle of the Bowls” comp over at Highlands this year and everyone booed when the announcer said we were from Vail. I doubt the same reaction would’ve resulted if someone from Aspen, Steamboat or Breck won anything over here.
Only in America would Starbucks ever be considered to serve drinkable coffee!
Lou, this is the same impression I had when I visited the first time Washington DC… I said myself… whow this is where Roman’s copied the Pantheon and Greek’s copied the parthenon temple while watching the Jefferson and the Lincoln memorial… well..romans and greeks have just been able to make it only half size 😉
Vail only needs to pass an ordinance banning all cars that are not made in the Vaterland and institute a beer “purity law” and things would be perfect… oh, and make the Amigos pretend they are Turks and Kurds.
(actually, the beer purity law SHOULD be passed!)