There are those who say skiing is for the rich, and to a degree they’re right. When you look at the iconic resorts across the west – Vail, Jackson Hole, Telluride, Park City, Sun Valley – you can expect $200 or more just for a one-day lift ticket. That’s right, no hotel, food, or equipment rental included. What’s worse is that over the past 10-20 years the ski industry has been cannibalizing itself and as you would expect when the big get bigger, it’s all about the Benjamins (do people still say that?). Vail Corporation, perhaps the largest of the large has been scooping up resorts across the country and looking for ways to squeeze more dollars out of an already pricey experience. Aside from inflated lift tickets, the strategy typically involves more development in the form of half-occupied condos and high-end faux western shopping. So yeh, I get it when people think skiing is a rich man’s (and woman’s) game.

My first experiences of skiing were not week-long family vacations to destination resorts, but day trips in high school to the “mountains” of eastern Pennsylvania. Fixed gripped doubles and tow ropes carried denim and camo clad patrons to the top of stadium lit slopes. The snow was terrible, but cruising around with friends and warming up with hot chocolate and hot dogs in stove warmed lodges is a fond memory. Thankfully, despite the trend towards the 1% there remains a network of independent home-town hills that provide communities across the country the same joy-filled experience of skiing that I remember. Even better is that you can still find these experiences thanks to the Indypass, a collective style season pass that provides access to 120+ independent ski resorts across North America from North Carolina to Alaska. For the last three seasons this has been our preferred ski pass, and one that Dana and I used to not only enjoy familiar regional resorts, but to explore new places across the northwest. 

A ski area that embodies that local roots experience that I remember is Pomerelle Mountain Resort in the Albion mountains of southern Idaho. Located 30 miles northeast from the state border with Nevada and Utah, Pomerelle for all intensive purpose is out there. The nearest town to the resort is Albion, home for some 250 residents. 50 minutes away is Burley, Idaho with a modest population of 11,000 residents. Yet this 500-acre family-owned resort has been turning chairs for over 60 years. The original operations started in 1940, with a cabin and tow rope built by the Civilian Conservation Corps. After World War Two, a group of ski enthusiast relocated the resort “up the canyon” to its present-day location. In 1973 the resort was purchased by Woody and Sandy Anderson and has remained family owned ever since.

Standing at the base area, directly behind the log-cabin lodge you can take in most of the resort. Two chairlifts take skiers to a summit of a surprising 8,762 feet, making it the second highest ski hill in Idaho (Sun Valley’s Mt Baldy is the highest at an elevation of 9,150 feet). Most of the runs are modest, at a vertical drop of about 1,000 feet and many, if not all of the actual runs could be classified as intermediate. The statistics may not make you jump out of your chair and grab your ski boots, but don’t be fooled Pomerelle receives an annual average of 500 inches of snow and as their motto affectionately states “What the hell, ski Pomerelle”.

So Dana and I decided to take the resort up on its claims and made a weekend trip of it. We even managed to sell a few friends on the idea of a destination ski trip…wait where is this place? Our friends Kris and Paula decided to join us for some back-lot camping, others opted for the one and only hotel in Albion, which as with the rest of the trip was a pleasant surprise. 

What wasn’t so pleasant was discovering that we had forgotten to turn the camper on, a necessary pre-trip step should you want to have enough battery life to power the heater at night when temperatures dip below 20. Thankfully we were able to phone John who was coming the next day and brought our power cord and his portable battery bank saving our soon to be frozen bacon.

Despite the frigid night, we woke with high spirits to see what Pomelle had in store. Several storm systems had passed through the Albion mountains throughout the week and the forecast called for more over the course of the weekend. While we waited for our friends to arrive we headed to the lodge for coffee and to warm our feet by the wood stove fire. Normally I’m pealing layers off in the lodge, but I kept my jacket zipped and winter hat on while my core temperature clawed its way back from frozen. 

Our friends finally arrived and after a short exchange of good mornings we headed out to catch the “summit” chair. With the all-to-familiar fixed-grip knee slap we settled in for the first chair ride of the day. We scanned the runs below getting a lay of the land and scouting out stashes of untracked snow. At the top as folks strapped into boards and adjusted boot buckles, we debated where to begin. With little visibility and no experienced Pomerellians, I shrugged my shoulders and pointed to a blue run ahead of us. Goggled heads bobbed in seeming agreement and away we went. The snow felt good on the wide cruising run. I stopped midway to look back and found we literally had the whole run to ourselves, a common theme we’d experience most of the morning.

As we became more familiar with the mountain, we began to spend the chair rides scanning the tree lines. The snow looked pretty good and the tree spacing manageable. Off the chair we headed back to an outer perimeter run where the snow seemed to pile up on the shoulder. As I made my first turn I felt that joyful, playful feeling that you only get from your skis floating in powder. I heard “woops” and “weees” as friends cut similar lines around me ducking in and out of trees. Soon we were chasing each other through the woods like a winter version of Marco-Polo. As we popped out at the bottom of the run, all smiles we looked around and took a head count- all present. We pushed off back to the chair to see what other hidden gems we could find.

At mid-day we stopped for a parking lot tailgate and impromptu dance party. Another advantage of smaller resorts is that your car is never that far away, so you can bring a chair, share some food and should the mood and music strike, do a little mid-day dance to keep the legs loose. And since you didn’t drop two paychecks (at least for me) to ski, there is a lot less pressure to see it all and ski it all, so you don’t feel guilty spending time relaxing mid-day. 

After a few more hours and heavy legs, we decided best to call it a day. All too happy to wrench off ski boots, we cheered a beer before John, Duane, and Michael started the trek back to Boise. About the same time the snow started to fly and the wind kicked up sending us retreating to our mobile accommodations. In the evening Kris and Paula came over to Roadhouse for some evening cocktails and hilarious card games. By the time we were ready for bed, our cheeks were just as sore from laughing as our legs were from skiing.

In the morning I poked my head out of the camper to find it had snowed several inches overnight, though it was hard to tell how much given the wind. After gathering our gear we said our goodbyes to our parking lot companions who were off to ski another Indy resort Soldier Mountain. In their place we would meet up with Emily and Luke, but not before checking out the lodge’s breakfast burritos and a second cup of coffee.

Riding our first chair of the day we scanned the mountain and found that much of the snow from the previous night blew into the trees and bowls we’d explored the day before. Excited with the refreshed conditions we headed off to a few choice tree runs we’d found the day prior. The powdery runs brought smiles to our faces, but our tired legs seemed to grimace. At lunch we met up with Emily and Luke who had unexpectedly brought Jello-shots. Why not? Boozy sugar consumed we were happy to show our new ski companions our favorite runs. 

With each turn of the chair my reaction time seemed to get a little slower, making skiing in the trees a bit harder and a bit more hazardous. Thankfully the rest of the group was experiencing the same thing and we collectively decided it best to call it a wrap. In the parking lot, we packed up vehicles, reminisced on the weekend’s highlights, and said our goodbyes. I gave one last look at the log cabin lodge and smiled. Pomerelle might not make the destination list for most people, but with its hidden tree runs, hometown feel, and parking lot camping, it is definitely on mine.

I often joke that the correct number of bikes to own is N+1, where N is the current number of bikes in your garage. I can’t take credit for this idea, in fact I think I saw it in an ad for a t-shirt on-line somewhere. Never the less I have always found it useful as those who love biking tend to love bikes and can almost always rationalize the purchase of yet one more. The principle of N+1 is not lost on corporate marketing departments of course as they are constantly coming up with new names and categories to satisfy our insatiable love for bikes. 

Several years ago the mountain bike industry was plateauing. Gone were the days of Olympic showcasing and high-profile athletes with big-time contracts. Sadly, the marketing world was done with “extreme sports” and the dream of the 90s seemed to fade to mid-life mediocrity. Bike technology continued to progress of course, but incrementally with a few more inches of travel here or a little more carbon there. The industry was consolidating and everything seemed to be as homogenized as the current SUV market. At some point sales must have slumped low enough that the numbers guys began really pressing the engineers for something new and exciting. Somewhere in the darkness of an office after way too many Redbulls, it dawned on one of those guys “why don’t we change the size of the wheels?” BOOM! Evolution. 

For decades mountain bikes have come in a standard 26” wheel circumference. Yet no one asked why or whether that was the best idea. Bigger is better right? Well, that’s debatable and nothing spurs ingenuity…and sales, like a good old fashion debate. Bike companies started coming out with every iteration of wheel size – 29”, 27.5”, plus size, and of course, the fat bike. It was then back on the marketing guys to convince the masses that indeed they need just one more bike and so we had a bike for every possible riding scenario. Cross-country, downhill, freeride, trail, all-mountain, enduro, down-country (perhaps the dumbest concept…unless you ride in Florida), and bike-packing. On and on it went and of course being the bike loving lemmings we are, we bought into it hook line and sinker – N+1. 

While the explosion of bike categories is pretty meaningless, the concept behind changing wheel sizes actually has merit and I must admit that when it came time to purchase a new bike, I went with a 29er. Now the current state of division in our politics is pretty bad, but wheel size might just be a close second. And like my political stance, I am a moderate when it comes to wheel sizes. As long as it performs well on the trail, I don’t care the size of the hoops. There is an exception to that of course. The fat bike.

Fat bikes as the name implies are mountain bikes with clown-esk wheels reminiscent of that bar hopping beach cruiser you ride into town on Friday nights. The theory behind the fat bike is that the wide tire and low pressure allows for greater surface contact in soft conditions, such as sand and snow. So as one might imagine the number of scenarios in which a fat bike is the right tool for the job are few and far between, which means the marketing guys have to work extra hard to make the case that enough of us need a fat bike to make this category viable. Luckily for the marketing guys the formula N+1 is born out of an affliction suffered by many bikers, which continuously finds them justifying yet another bike purchase. On numerous occasions I have talked to or overheard a fat bike owner explain to a curious observer the necessity and advantage of their purchase “Well the trails here just get SO sandy in the summer”, “I don’t need that heavy suspension, these tires just soak up the trail”, “Winter is the best time for riding bikes” (Said no one who skies). 

Now I am not holier-than-thou and must admit that I have thrown a leg over one of these ballooned beasts on several occasions. I will admit too that under the right circumstances a fat bike can actually be fun. By fun of course I mean like trying to ride home from the bar through a sand pit at a Belgian superprestige race. The massive tires and atrocious turning radius make these bikes about as appropriate as riding a Clydesdale at the Preakness. Still there is some entertainment in trying to keep these behemoths churning in a straight line through a snow covered forest. The key to that previous statement of course is snow, which only occurs part of the year, in certain locations, and in variable quantities. So why do I see so many fat bikes around? Turns out marketing guys are good at their jobs.

While I may not be scouring the Pinkbike classifieds for that full carbon fat bike, I am not immune to N+1 either. There is a bike barn in our backyard for “town-bikes”, bikes in the shed, and the basement. I have a beach cruiser, and my commuter is an early generation Bianchi Grizzly that I spent months looking for. I try and moderate my obsession, I call my cyclocross bike my duel-sport as it serves as both my road bike and cross bike. Yet when I find myself in need of a little mindless internet I forgo the Tic-Toc and scroll through Craigslist or Marketplace. If you know anyone looking to sell their steel hardtail -preferably a 29er – have them give me a call, I’ve been looking for one for summer riding in the lower foothills. 

N+1.

I originally wrote the following for my running group’s blog (https://boisearearunners.org), but it was a fun project so I thought I would share it here as well.

For runners New Years is often less about resolutions to start working out or to start running, and more about training plans and filling in a fresh calendar with race dates. If you are like me though this New Years has been a bit different, and not because we had to watch a virtual potato drop. 2020 was a year to forget in many ways, but as runners it was the year of busts. Just about every event was canceled or postponed… and then canceled. For many runners training plans were scrapped and trip plans canceled. Michael Ford jokingly told me recently “My investment portfolio is heavily weighted towards airline credits right now”. While we all could (and probably have) still run virtually let’s be honest, running with a number bib along the Greenbelt on a Tuesday just isn’t the same as lining up with a hundred other nervous energy souls at a start line or the crowd cheering you home across the finish line.

I recently found myself staring at the blank pages of the calendar, pen in hand, still shell-shocked from last year’s rollercoaster. I sat there unable to bring myself to write down race dates and events that might happen this summer. Pessimistic? Perhaps. I prefer realist. I sat back from the table and sighed, my motivation and creativity for planning the coming year had decided to take a rain check. Then, an idea came to me. I remembered the lyrical wisdom of the Beattles “I’m gonna get by with a little help from my friends”.  I decided to reach out to my fellow BAR members and see what running goals they wanted to accomplish in the coming year. 

After a recent Thursday night run I posed the question to the group and I was surprised at the answers I got back. Some folks kept it simple saying they wanted to stay injury free or to be more consistent with their running. Others held out hope that we would once again be able to gather at the start line and race. Some of my favorites were those that took a more creative approach to setting personal goals, like running 2021 miles and making at least four new running friends. Over-all the responses were the motivation I was looking for and got my own mental gears turning on what I wanted to accomplish with my running in the coming year. 

Beyond this self-serving endeavor, what really inspired me was how the diversity of answers reflects the breadth of our running community. From walkers to competitive racers, road warriors to trail trotters, newbies to veterans, we all share the common passion for running. Through all the turmoil and uncertainty, the BAR has been one of the few constants over this past year and it is this great group of people that really gives me motivation and hope for 2021.

So, what is my 2021 running goal? A half year of half marathons – six officially unofficial backcountry trail runs. Random? Absolutely, but it reflects what I love about running and gives me something to work towards. 

How 2021 will unfold is anyone’s guess, but I know that no matter what I can count on my fellow BAR members to keep me motivated. So, a big thank you to all of you and I wish you all luck in reaching their goals in 2021.

Happy Trails, 

Neil