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I don’t normally like to use this forum to plug local businesses, but I am excited enough about this one in particular that I want to give it a public shout out. The store is called Spencer & Daniel’s Wine Outlet and it is run by two friends of mine, Spencer & Dan:

The story behind the store is really quite sweet - these two combined their love for each other with their mutual love for wine and created an outlet to share that love with the world. Even though society may not allow them to be together as one (both have sham “wives & kids” in order to keep up appearances) the wine store is the one place where their love can truly flourish. They even bicker like an old married couple, with Dan playing the role of the angry & abusive husband while Spencer plays the battered wife who is always making bad decisions that infuriate her husband. It’s right out of a sitcom! They have plans to expand with a B&B in Napa and possibly a day spa as well but for right now they are focusing all their efforts on the wine business. So if you live in San Francisco and need advice on wine from two super cool guys, swing by Dan & Spencer’s - you’ll be glad you came.

Reviews Dan & Spencer

Watched the Season Premier of Entourage last night - overall it was a pretty disappointing start to the season. Sure, Vinny banged some girl in Turtle’s Escalade (I think Adrian Grenier has a clause in his contract guaranteeing at least one sex scene per episode) and that’s all well & good but after last year’s season of actual good TV while Vinny struggled apparently they are back to the “Vince can do no wrong, everything he touches turns to gold!! Life in LA is totally sweet all the time!! Everyone lives in mansions!! There are so many hot chicks walking around that guys like Turtle & Eric are pulling ridiculously hot ass!!” theme for this season. We’ll see how that turns out but at the moment I’m pretty bearish on Season 6.

The true point of this post, however, is related to the return of Sloan, aka Emmanuelle Chriqui, to the cast as the smoking hot girl implausibly interested in Eric. She has to be one of the Top 3 hottest women on TV, just absolutely off the charts:

That’s good stuff. However the really interesting observation came after Entourage was over and I flipped on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. It was then that I realized that Ferris’ girlfriend, one of the most underrated smoking hot chicks of the 80s, was ALSO named Sloane (different spelling, same level of era-adjusted hotness).

The fact that Sloane Peterson (played by actress Mia Sara) and Sloan from Entourage are both incredible hotties leads me to only one logical conclusion: every single chick named Sloane/Sloan/however you want to spell it is guaranteed to be hot. I challenge someone to defy my logic on this one.

Reviews Sloan, Sloane

SunSkier.com is blessed to have an army of dedicated sun skier spotters out there combing the mountains for us. This week, we introduce you to Tim “The Big Dog” Jablonski who was ripping it up while you were still suckling on your mother’s teet. Big Dog just got back from a trip to Red Mountain, BC and provided us with a recap of his trip. Enjoy!

I spent the past 10 days at Red Mountain, BC, the closest foreign ski area to the United States. Red is 6 miles north of the 49th parallel, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Red is the oldest ski hill in Western Canada and the home of two Olympic Gold Medalists in Alpine skiing. Situated in the city of Rossland (yes, the Canadians call a town of 3,500 folks a city), Red offers 2,900 vertical feet of go anywhere bliss. About 60% of the terrain is black diamond, off trail skiing. In fact the term trail should be used loosely. Just pick a line and go. You want extreme, it isn’t hard to find. Also, don’t expect a glitzy resort. If Deer Valley is a 10, Red is a 0.1. It is all about awesome skiing.

Last week I stumbled into town in the midst of a big dump, 50cm’s. 5 days later we were still finding stashes of the fresh. It is fact that in the summer locals disappear into the woods and perform some landscape maintenance and create there own private powder mecca within the bounds of the ski area. This ain’t no Alpine Valley!

The local population is an eclectic mix of Kiwi’s, Aussies, Swedes, Canadians and Americans that love the outdoors, extensive amounts of any kind of beer, an occasional dubious herb, and skinning up to hit extensive OB back country. The quality of life is measured by the fun meter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Today was a spring like day, there was a reunion of folks that have worked on the hill in any capacity in the past and the Sunskiers dressed for the occasion. Check out the attached pictures. I asked them to pose for the camera which they graciously did.

I have a place here and a large group of local friends. It is a bit of a hike to get here, but well worth the effort, especially in mid winter when the pow is a pretty much everyday thing. Ironically, Red is slightly further west than than my home near the ocean in San Diego, but 270 miles inland in an area known as the West Kootenays. Also worth doing is forking out the dough for one of the local snowcat operations. I did some 4 day Baldface trips a few years ago and a Big Red Cats trip this year and last and they were all beyond epic.

So there it is, the report on Red Mountain from a guy who knows it well. Never heard of Red before? Well now you know - so next time you’re looking into a ski trip up in the Great White North you should probably include Red Mountain in the discussion.

Many thanks to our author for the excellent report from Red. We look forward to future Jablonski Reports on a variety of topics - from skiing to surfing to Gonzaga hoops, he covers the good life like no one else out there.

Reviews Jablonski

Tahoe got dumped on last week with almost 6 feet of fresh snow. The storm cleared mid-week, giving locals & lucky tourists an opportunity to hit the best of the best on Thursday & Friday. After having missed a massive storm over President’s Day weekend a month ago there was no way I was going to sit this one out.

The 4:25 AM alarm was as painful as I imagined it would be when I set it the night before. I lay in bed for a few minutes contemplating whether or not I was actually going to get up & make the trip. I hadn’t been able to recruit any friends to go up with me and needed to be back in San Francisco that night so it was a solo day trip mission - not the easiest journey to undertake. Luckily the powder addiction part of my brain took over and I pulled myself up & out of bed, leaving my apartment at 4:55.

On the way up I utilized the patented Radio Ron solo driving technique of singing along to music as loudly and off-key as possible in order to fend off insanity. This also helped to protect me from getting too jacked up on the way, which is always a risk when driving to the mountains for a big day. I pulled into the Harrah’s parking lot a few minutes after 8 am, setting a personal best door-to-door drive time up to Tahoe of 3 hrs, 5 minutes. Randomly, a group of guys I know who have the ski lease house I was in last year pulled up just a few minutes after I did and we chatted a bit about the epic conditions we were anticipating. The day was off to a good start…

I was in line for the Heavenly gondola before it opened for the day and made it on to one of the first 20 up. The people with me were discussing what the ideal head covering would be for the day and much to my delight no hat & sunglasses seemed to be their choice. I briefly considered dropping the SkiEO card on them as they seemed blissfully aware of their own status as sun skiers but instead decided to enjoy the always beautiful view, send a few text messages to buddies about how excited I was, and mentally prepare myself for the day.

The weather on the mountain doesn’t get any better than it was that morning - cold air, clear skies, fluffy white snow everywhere. I had crafted a plan of attack for the mountain that began with hitting my favorite powder stashes on the Nevada side of the mountain (where the sun hits in the morning) and then making my way over to California in the afternoon, following the sun. My legs were a bit dead on the first run of the day but as I got the blood going and gave them the old “I’m gonna need you guys today!” message they loosened right up. One of the nice things about this storm was that it was a cold one, so the snow was great no matter what elevation you were at. I hit my favorite spots near the top then moved on to mid-mountain powder stashes off of Olympic & North Bowl. Much to my delight I discovered a treasure trove of under-utilized powder - it’s rare that a resort as busy as Heavenly has powder last for several days after a storm, but that is exactly what I was finding. After 90 minutes or so of gobbling up as much powder as I could I hit a Break Room in between North Bowl & Stagecoach to make sure I was safe for the day and took a few minutes to relax & be thankful for the day I was experiencing.

After the Safety Check I rode down to the base of Stagecoach. One thing that I had noticed was that there were almost no sun skiers out on the mountain first thing in the morning - this makes sense, of course, as sun skiers almost never make it to the mountain before 10 am at the earliest. Well as I reached the base of Stagecoach I felt like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight - all of a sudden the powder hounds I had been sharing the morning with had magically turned into full-fledged sun skiers! I couldn’t have been more excited with this course of events.

Given the fact that I was now safe & had been spending the morning by myself I was craving interaction with other human beings. From that point on I spent the rest of the day talking off anyone’s ear who would listen to me. The list included: a good ol’ Southern Boy restaurant owner from Savannah, Georgia; two ladies on vacation from Chicago who I ate lunch with and gave sunscreen to; a guy who I tried to pull rank on before had told me he had been skiing Heavenly for 25 years; a friendly gentleman from SF who may or may not have been attracted to me; a proper chap from the UK; and many others. One of the joys of riding solo is having those little 5 minute conversations with random people on the ski lift. As Tyler Derdin pointed out in Fight Club; these “single-serving friends” can make for very interesting interactions since you know this is probably the only time you will ever spend conversing with them. I took full advantage of my time with these single serving chair lift friends on Saturday.

Besides the fantastic conditions & funny conversations, the other great joy of the day were the sun skiers that came out in force as the day went on. I didn’t take nearly as many pictures as I would have liked to and the reason was that I felt like I was on a sun skier safari, surrounded by them so closely that I could reach out & touch them. I was more interested in just enjoying this proximity & soaking in the moment than documenting it. I even saw a classic Miracle Whip occur where the woman fell off the chair as it made the turn and then stuck her head up, getting whacked in the back of it by the chair…she wasn’t hurt, and witnessing it was priceless. I did capture a few of my favorite sun skiers on film, but you will just have to take my word for it that the only reason I didn’t take more pictures was that they were so thick it was impossible to pick out the finest specimens:

I had saved the best for my last run of the day - the legendary off-piste Firebreak trail down the front face of Heavenly, spitting me out at the Harrah’s parking lot where my day began. I am always a little nervous to do it solo since if you get hurt back there you’re most likely going to die a miserable & lonely death, but the upside of what I knew the conditions were going to be like made the risk worth it. I ventured into the secluded terrain and discovered the seemingly endless tree riding that makes the Firebreak one of the best trails accessed by a resort I’ve ever experienced. I took a break midway down to catch my breath and soak in the views, reflecting on what an epic day it had been.

Coming full circle, I ran into the guys I had seen in the parking lot that morning as they were making their way down the Firebreak. We marveled at how lucky we were to be enjoying such a hidden jewel on such a perfect day, it was like being part of an exclusive club. I wished them luck maneuvering down the last 1/4 of the run (after the fun part is over, getting out of the Firebreak is a matter of minimizing damage to your gear and not getting stuck somewhere) and proceeded on my way to the bottom.

As I drove home I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. I had made some necessary sacrifices to the snow gods in terms of sleep & time and I was handsomely rewarded for doing so. It was easily my best day of the season and one of the most fun days I have had doing almost anything in a long, long time. As a wise man once said - if you’re a skier you know what I’m talking about.

Messages From The Skieo, Reviews, Snow Porn Heavenly

The is the Utah Yeti, the unofficial mascot of Ski Utah:

Unfortunately I did not see any Utah Yetis while I was there although local legend is that they do roam the hills. Along with the Yeti, another no-show was the famous Utah powder, known as The Best Snow on Earth. But that’s OK - on Saturday we were treated to a gorgeous bluebird day at Snowbird:

Looking down at the reward ahead of me after a short hike

I thought an Econ degree from Michigan was a good idea because…?

Luckily the sun really brought out the sun skiers. In general the crowd was pretty local & legit, with the popular sun skier look of the day being no hat & sunglasses although there was certainly some overlap with Team Players, Old Timers & Middle Aged Moms & Dads:

Rode the lift with these guys - real nice dudes, total sun skiers.

After a nice day at Snowbird we made the short trip to Park City. One of the best things about Utah skiing is the proximity of everything - Salt Lake City is 30 minutes from Snowbird/Alta/Brighton/Solitude, 45 minutes from Park City, and S/A/B/S is about 40 minutes to PC. That makes a quick weekend trip to the area VERY attractive. (Utah Travel Council - you can either send me an endorsement check or I will accept reimbursement in the form of free future ski trips, whatever works for you). We had a great dinner on the outskirts of Park City with with loyal sunskier.com reader (and PC property owner - I recommend staying on his good side) Karl Stein & friends followed immediately by a complete pass out due to tired legs & full stomachs.

The next day we audibled from plans to sample The Canyons and instead hit Park City, starting at the Silver Star lift right outside Karl’s door (premier units still available!). The weather wasn’t as suntastic but Park City made a nice showing for itself with its rolling slopes & classic clueless tourist sun skiers:

All in all Utah did not disappoint, both from a riding & a sun skier observation perspective. This was my first trip there but I am quite confident it won’t be my last. I leave you with our MVP of the weekend, a fine example of The Foreigner seen at Park City:

Reviews Utah

In our continuing effort to review every ski resort in the world, we are all the way up to #2: Alpine Valley in beautiful Chesterland, OH. Alpine Valley holds a special place in the SkiEO’s heart since it is where I made my first turns as a little sun skier in elementary school. There’s no nice way to phrase this is so I’ll just come out and say it - skiing in Ohio sucks. It really does. You are skiing on a small, relatively flat hill. The skies will likely be gray. It is either going to be bitter cold or raining in the middle of winter. There is just not much good I can say about it. That being said, if I didn’t become a snowrider in Ohio as a child I might not be one today so I can’t just turn my back on my roots.

Taking a look at the AV trail map we can see the layout of the place:

Key Stats: Summit Elevation - 1500 ft; Vertical Drop - 230 ft.; # Trails - 11

Alpine Valley, as with most subpar resorts (again I’m so sorry, but it cannot be denied that HV is subpar), has a high concentration of sun skiers since most legitimate skiers would rather spend a winter day in Ohio being safe indoors & watching snow porn as opposed to trying to squeeze some fun out of the local hill. Here are a few of our favorite Alpine Valley specimens:

No hat…sunglasses…leather jacket…ticket guaranteed to flap in the wind…jeans…sick rentals. This guy is off the charts.

Jackets like this one are why I am in this business.

Kickin’ it old school at AV.

This guy was borderline, but the boots & bindings put him over the top.

Good luck with the lesson fellas…you look like you’re going to need it.

So if you are lucky enough to find yourself in Northeast Ohio in the dead of winter, why not swing by Alpine Valley for some runs. Will you be blow away by the place? No, definitely not. But will you enjoy a day with some of the fine people who are proud to ski that 230 vertical feet to the best of their ability? Absolutely.

Note - it came to our attention after putting together this posting that several of the Alpine Valley pictures above are actually from the Alpine Valley in Elkhorn, WI. The presence of the “E-Z Rider” lift in the background was the tipoff. All we can say about the error is: shit. We were duped. In order to make up from it I promise we will review the Wisconsin Alpine Valley as soon as we find someone who has skied there.

Reviews Alpine Valley

The sunskier.com private jet has touched down back in the Bay Area and the SkiEO is back at his desk at HQ. By any measure the weekend jaunt to Steamboat Springs, CO was a huge success - blue skies, soft snow, lots of sun skier research done and plenty of meetings held. Without any further ado, let’s take a look at the best of the ‘Boat:

These first two beauts were spotted right off our first gondola ride up

I almost choked on my lunch when I spotted this one from afar.

Incredible fanny pack.

This girl was part of an amazing sun skiing family (Mom, Dad, brother & sister). I kept hoping that I would get a pic of all 4 of them together but unfortunately I wasn’t able to make it happen.

In line this guy was actually talking with his buddy about how in his closet he had a bright one-piece that “was coming back in fashion”. So good.

This was some sort of tribute to the Netherlands. I thought I would have a better shot at him later in the day but unfortunately didn’t - he had a weird windmill thing going on the side of his hat.

Up close & without his glasses on (we saw him at the bottom of the lift) this guy looked exactly like Urban Meyer.

This guy was @ Apres by 2:30 after what looked like a solid 2, maybe 3 runs on the lowest Blue on the mountain.

With that one-piece this guy had to be an extra as one of the Assholes in a Bad Guy ski gang in some 80s ski movie.

I sprinted back onto the Apres deck to capture this gem.

Seen from the gondola - brilliant piece of marketing.

This apartment complex was one of the bus stops. It’s pronounced with a weird French accent in a way that it rhymes with “garage”, but I’m pretty sure I know how the locals pronounce it…

Reviews, Safety, Sweet Gear Steamboat Springs

What beautiful scenery! Is that Lake Tahoe?

Not exactly. It’s actually a shot from Chestnut Mountain Resort, our featured Mountain of the Day. Located in scenic Galena, Illinois it is a mecca for Midwestern sun skiers from Illinois, Iowa & Wisconsin.

Everyone who has skied in the Midwest is familiar with the sometimes meager conditions but that never kept any of us away. As a wise man once said: “Rain…fog…whatever. We work through it.”

So maybe you won’t be hitting a lot of 2 foot powder days at Chestnut, the scene is what really keeps people coming back year after year. Helllooooo, ladies!

Chestnut can really bring the thunder when it comes to sun skiers. Check out the zincheads below.

At this point there really shouldn’t be any question - if you live in the tri-state area, Chestnut Mountain Resort is a must-do for any sun skier worth his salt. For more information be sure to visit Chestnut Mountain Home Page.

See you on the slopes!

Messages From The Skieo, Reviews Midwest