Why I don't want to go skiing in China


A lift-line in China…

I read this story about skiing in China in TIME magazine

[quote]The first sign that Lotus Mountain is not Aspen comes from the man skiing down the hill in a pin-striped business suit.

Few know how to negotiate a gentle slope without a few spills

Well, you’d prolly be an instructor there, and thus, not have to wait in line. Can’t be much help with that yellow snow tho. Just don’t eat it, is all.

Is that a line? Looks more like a cluster. Reminds me of waiting for the 232 bus outside the train station about 10 years ago! :wink:

I guess in China no one minds when the person behind them steps all over the tails of their skis… I hate that.

never mind the yellow snow, imagine how much phlegm and spit must be in the snow either side of that line :noway:

Do they chew binlang in China. Red China = Red snow?

I’m a gonna dredge up this old thread.

@sandman has been tagging me in Ski Scotland pics for the last couple of weeks now. Skiing is something I packed in when I came to Asia. I guess I figured that having gotten close to 1000 days in the 90s was enough.

But I’ve brought back other things I thought I’d retired upon arrival and I seem to be doing lots of those things So, I, recalling a couple of dudes I met 15 years ago in some dank ShiDa hovel that had vids of themselves skiing in China in what could’ve of been record BC conditions, I googles “cat skiing in China”.

Until recently it was possible to go cat-skiing at Changbaishan International Ski Resort in Jilin province, but not at the moment. “China’s sole cat-skiing operation is currently on hiatus due to North Korean nuclear testing in a nearby area,” Orchard says.Nov 17, 2017

So that’s why I don’t want to go skiing in China.

Now that I’ve successfully revived this thread with an on topic observation, let’s switch up and modernize the narrative.

Why should I go skiing in China?

Anyone ever been? I am gonna start checking out the snow webs and keep the convo going. I got an itch to suit up at least one more time. Anyone else?

Cheers to that @Old_Gobbo guy. He’s funny and what a great name.

Why not just go skiing in Japan or (South) Korea?

Yep. We’re going to Hokkaido next winter. First time on skis for Incontinentia and first time in over 16 years for me. Should be interesting. We were going to go last year but we left it too late and it was a bit pricey.

Jesus Christ don’t wake the sleeping beast scotsman by tagging him. Before we know it he’ll be back on the boards telling us stories about that time he saved the universe from impending doom armed only with a haggis and a deep fried mars bar.

I want to go to China.

Becaaaawwwz…

aaaand…

The vids I viddied were incredible. Also, I really want to visit The Wu Dang Shan at some point. So I am hoping to find skiing somewhere thereabouts. And the group that goes with me will be called…

The Wu Dang Shan Clan

Clan…why I tagged The Furrow from Edinburgh .

Well, I suppose it would be more of an adventure. But can you really trust their ski lifts? Probably be safer to hump up the slope yourself.

Haha… I started skiing in the early 70s. Some of the T-Bars would be fraying right before your eyes as they drug you up rollercoaster tracks, or those old chairs that came around the bow wheel at mach force and would slam you in the calves if you didn’t jump just right, then would rock violently when some punter failed the mount and the liftee would slam on the brakes.

That all said, for all their tech and efficiency, the detachable quads that started popping up everywhere in the 90s were responsible for some of my more hair-raising lift experiences.

The Peak Chair on Whistler rarely came to a stop, but when it did, you would slide back about 20-30 meters. Now if this happens just as you’ve crested the last cliff face, mere seconds from offload, you’d be having your balls for lunch as you find your self suddenly propelled back over the cliff face.

Now, Whistlerites have a credo:

Death Before Download.

Quicksilver

The lower part of the ski areas would get more rain than snow and the base could quickly erode. You’d literally be hopping over mud and rocks from icy patch of brown snow to the next one and so on, but…Death Before Download.

Now, the lower right side (Creekside) would be way worse and the punters would all download that last chair the arrow is indicating. But not I. Not Never.

This one rain-soaked Dec. 26th, I skied out as usual and it was grueling and wet. As I was kicking off my skis in front of Dustys, done for the day, one of my buds walks up and sez, “Let’s blaze one.”

So back up that chair (yes, the map indicates it is a Gondola, more on that later) we goes. But, those aforementioned downloaders were passing 10 feet from us every 5 seconds…not an empty chair…making sparking it up impossible. So we have to load the next chair and head further up the mountain and what dya know, some punter jumps onto the quad with us, again making our raison d’oobtre impossible. So we hit The Boardroom, a little patch of pitch invisible from all chairs and other eyes, a place very popular with the locals (a gortex bag on a tree always held papers and a lighter) and finally communed with nature. After toking in the view for a bit, we head back down. At the top of that first chair, the one the arrow is pointing to, my friend cuts off and heads to the village side. I, having already skied out Creekside once, decided, for the first and only time in my near decade skiing there, to …gasp…download.

But the lineup of punters waiting to shame themselves woke me up right quick.

A quick right, swoosh down and left and start my 2nd ski out.

Now, go back to the map and look at that arrow again. It marks the exact spot I was when:

I actually remember it stopping as I was exactly below it and I made some off the cuff “Whoa, that was a big one” comment, but just assumed it was another crazy quad stop.

If you again look at the run, you see it swings further right and down quite a way before it once again cuts under the chair. No one was screaming down “help” or anything otherwise to indicate what had happened. At the base, no commotion at all to indicate what had just happened. I hopped in my car and went home, showered and was hanging out with my neighbor while we waited for our day drivers to pick us up for a big holiday night of hacking when the phone rings to tell us what had happened.

Speaking of trusting ski lifts…

ahhh…ski lifts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_g379oXvb4

Why not don’t ski at all? Trees kill people, they attack skiers. Know a coupla people from Nordic countries who had to ski to school as kids. They NEVER want to see snow again. Haha.

No seriously , i bet its great fun. And I would (probably not) like to try it one day. Drove past Boreal the other day. Looked pretty cool…Cold in fact.

But look what happened to Shumacher? (sp?).
F1 never hurt him but skiing effectively made him a vegetable.

Sonnybonophobia?

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Plus this :
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/formula-1/michael-schumacher-ski-accident-10360005

Yabuli…2 hours from Harbin.

Skied at Yabuli around…2005 I guess? Place was fine. Equipment and runs were all in good shape. At the time they were hosting some kind of international competition for kids which was a lot of fun to watch.

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Maybe you like skiing in South Korea better?