You know after waiting all offseason I find it boring to read about equipment. Other than Warren Millers column there are no articles. I think it would be much better if it came out as a christmas issue or something. i want to be reading about resorts and skiing and trip planning.

Just my opinion

I agree myrto. While it's nice to see some of the equipment, the issue is not relevant until the end of the season when I want to buy stuff cheaper.

As far as resorts go, the issue coming up (I think it's SKI) will give the Top 100 or Top 50 resorts. These are the same resorts that were in the issue last year and the year before, etc., etc. It just puts everything in a different order (Who's number 1 this year? Vail? Whistler? Will there ever be another number 1?).

BRING ON THE SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SKI's equipment issue has way too much information for me. I did do a side by side w/SKI and Powder's equip reviews, kind of interesting to see what ski's they had in common. Powder though, pretty much ignore's us eastern skiers. They start with the crudbusters and move on to tele & pow skis. Boot review was pretty good, i think, because they just reviewed what they liked, not every boot in the world.

The best part of the equipment issue is all the advertisements the resorts put out for the skiing. Pictures of Vail's back bowls, someone barreling down a chute at Big Sky, two people walking down the village street at Breckenridge in a snow storm, etc. All those commercials and all those pretty images and all that... SNOW... and it's only August.

My favorite issue is the one that tells you what's new around the country. So far, the only "what's new" I've caught wind of out west is a 400 acre terrain expansion at Schweiter in the Outback Bowl. Anyone hear of anything else going on out there? Honestly, although it's a small ski hill by national standards, Wisp's expansion is one of the most exciting things I've heard so far. Not often a ski resort doubles it's size in a couple seasons!

Im kinda interested in how many of us who are members of dcski are subscribers to SKI? This will only be my second year of subscribing to SKI but i am a huge fan of that magazine.

Langley, start a new thread. Hijacking a thread with a poll is unprecedented in the few years I've been visiting on-line message boards. Delete this post and start a new thread. Include an option for those of us who don't subscribe to Ski but do subscribe to other ski magazine. I prefer Couloir.

I don't know what other folks opinions are, but I find that SKIING magazine has really gone downhill. I am not sure who they are trying to appeal to but the jokes about sex, stupid behavior and the other rubbish that has taken over the magazine I find to be distastefull. The seem to want to appeal to the young fraternaty crowd. This will be my last subscription. SKI and SKIING are both published by the same company so you are getting recycled stories in one or the other of the magazines.The best ski magazine in my opinion was SNOW COUNTRY which went belly up 4 years ago.

I have long since stopped expecting the entire issue of any mass-market magazine to be relevant, interesting, or informative to me. That said, there are usually a few nuggets of gold to be mined from any of them. I would agree that the nuggets have gotten smaller on average.

Memorable nuggets of old:
SKIING:
- The HUGE gear reviews of the mid-90's.
Those comprehensive bootfit tables were gold.
- Gordy Pfeiffer's tactics articles
In the current issue I really liked Stu Campbell's on-slope bootfit analysis.
SKI:
- The opening of Kicking Horse
Powder:
- Pike's Peak backcountry
Couloir:
- Search patterns for multiple burials
- Ultralight BC in the Gaspe
Ski Presse:
- The sock and undies review issue
- Guy Duquette's tactics for snowgun whales

Post yours below?

I am not critical of any skimag content except top 10/20/50/100 lists, and of those only when they're really recycling tourist pamphlets in whatever order.

Snowsmith: I agree totally. Sometime in the mid to late 90s, Skiing decided to shift its focus from mainstream to hard core audiences, and the tone shifted accordingly. Instead of profiles of resorts that highlighted various types of terrain, ski schools, lodging, etc. you got Maxim on snow, and I think Maxim might actually be classier.

Ski magazine has taken on a more hardcore edge as well, but it's not as tasteless. You can say all you want about snowboarding and extreme skiers making up the majority of ski visits, but as long as people keep appealing to that group you're not going to grow the business. Someone needs to be looking at ways to attract the middle 80% of the market (the intermediates) into skiing more frequently, and these magazines- esepcially Skiing- aren't helping. Nor is converting places like Silver Creek into terrain parks.

I think I'll go have some coffee now and cheer up...

Roger Z, if by hardcore you mean younger Internet-happy set, then I might agree with you. Unfortunately, I feel that if by hardcore you mean 'long-time experienced skiers who have a demonstrable passion for the sport' then I must disagree.

I do not dispute the shift, mind, but it's costing them the old guard readership, because comprehensive, thorough coverage is now understood by print media publishing to be the domain of the Internet.

Charging ahead without securing what one's gained already is a very dubious strategy, and that is what most of these 'growth' schemes have reduced to IMO.

I mean more of the internet-set folks, Comprex. Catering to, say 18 year old adrenaline junkies who- while they love the sport and might harp incessantly on their parents to take them out west- aren't the ones that make the $2000 investment decision to take a trip anywhere. So, in a word, I mean catering to the audience that has the heart but not the cash to spend. The long-term devotees of snowsports are likely to have both cash and heart- and even if they don't have the cash, they don't blink at spending money they don't have. I think there might be a couple of folks like that on this board!

To take a corrolary to my profession.. The magazines ski and skiing are as relevant to the actual sport of skiing as the movie hackers does(did) with anything technology / computer related.

They are still fun to read now and then. But you find much better more current and relevant info here on tha web.

right on RogerZ!
-Proud to be in the middle 80%!

Tromano.....you hit the nail on the head with your comment. relevance???? Most die hard skiers will pick up a copy and read, but we all know that what works for one won't work for the masses.