the t-shirt rule for rating ski areas
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JimK - DCSki Columnist
January 29, 2007
Member since 01/14/2004 🔗
2,990 posts
In a recent hardcopy issue of Skipressworld magazine one of the articles cited the t-shirt rule for evaluating ski areas (couldn't find article at their website: http://3w.skipressworld.com ) I thought this was a humorous and curiously accurate rating method.

Forget all the statistical analysis, field research, accounting techniques, verbiage, braggadocio, BS, etc.; which ski areas have you thought enough of, at least at the time of your visit, to acquire a t-shirt from the place for your personal use?!?

T-shirts:
Snowbird, UT
Wildcat, NH
Aspen, CO
Blue Knob, PA

Stretching the t-shirt rule:
Hats with logo for personal use:
Taos, NM
Loveland, CO
Bad Hofgastein, Austria

Surprisingly short list after 40 years.
Although, I've also bought lots of stuff (e.g., Killingon hats, pins) for others, and received many things from family (e.g., Charnita parka patch, 1980 Lake Placid Olympics hat).
Some people buy clothing, pins or patches from every place they've ever been, thereby skewing the t-shirt rule. This leads to grade creep, but makes for good conversation starters on chairlifts.

Edit: just thought of Bad Hofgastein, probably gonna be a lot of others as my fading memory kicks in.
kennedy
January 29, 2007
Member since 12/8/2001 🔗
792 posts
I buy stickers for my board. It hasn't been many places warranting a sticker in it's life but it does have Snowbird, Park City, Powder Mountain and Breckenridge labelled on their along with stuff that sometimes comes with new gear.
JohnL
January 29, 2007
Member since 01/6/2000 🔗
3,563 posts
Nice question. I'll have to check my pile of t-shirts tonight. Off the top of my head, I probably have at least 6 t-shirts from Alta. Also have shirts from Snowbasin, Solitude, A-Basin, Taos.

I probably have more t-shirts from bars and brew pubs I have visited on ski trips than from the ski areas themselves. Alcohol tends to get me to spend some coin.

Rumor has it that FishNSki has an online site selling T-Shirts of Mount Porte Crayon.
Ullr
January 29, 2007
Member since 11/27/2004 🔗
532 posts
Got a logo turtleneck from Squaw and Jay Peak, but I do collect hat pins from:

Jay
Stowe
Sugarbush
MRG
Stratton
Killington
Gore
Whiteface
Hunter
Elk
Tremblant
Montage
Great Gorge
Jack Frost
Big Boulder
Shawnee
Camelback
Blue
Blue Knob
Seven Springs
Wisp
Canaan
Timberline
Snowshoe
Winterplace
Wintergreen
Massanutten
Bryce
Whister/Blackcomb
Squaw
Heavenly
Alpine Meadows
Kirkwood
North Star

I may be missing one or two. I'll keep thinking about it..........
comprex
January 29, 2007
Member since 04/11/2003 🔗
1,326 posts
T-shirt:

2xSolitude Ski patrol benefit

The story is that, one fine day in Utah I had had enough of the group dynamic and decided to bust off on my own. Tootoototootoot, and I'm at the bottom of Middle Slope heading for Summit lift, right? Well, little did I know that they had all decided to follow me. Some panicked radio exchanges later (and two quick laps for me) and here we are, waiting for ski patrol to rescue Ana and Tony from the icey bump fest that was Milk Run that day:

So I felt all guilty about that and appreciative and all.



Snowbird

Joke T-shirt:

2x Killington

Long sleeve T:

Smuggs

Zip-T:
3x Mont Sutton
2xKicking Horse (and a sticker on the helmet from their first season)
Breckenridge Nordic
fishnski
January 29, 2007
Member since 03/27/2005 🔗
3,530 posts
Got a "Beaver Liquors" T-shirt in Avon,Co at the base of Beaver Ck...That Count?......I'm Selling "The Grilled Salamander" T-Shirts For the Restaurent at the Summit....With the "Endangered Species" Bar T- shirts to follow...Thanks for the Plug JL!....the final T-shirt for Mount Porte Crayon will tout my Fav Run....EXTINCT!!
JohnL
January 29, 2007
Member since 01/6/2000 🔗
3,563 posts
Quote:

Got a "Beaver Liquors" T-shirt in Avon,Co at the base of Beaver Ck...That Count?




I forgot about that place! In the heart of ski snobbery land, of all places.

OK, after checking my clothing stash, maybe it's time for me to do some housecleaning... Ski area clothing swag consisting of tees, long sleeve shirts, t-necks, sweatshirts, hats, polartec, vests, ball caps:
  • Numerous Alta items, including my favorite "Endless Winter" tee. (Takeoff on the "Endless Summer" movie.) Still torn after a rough night at the Bottle and Cork.
  • Solitude
  • Snowbasin
  • Taos Ski Valley
  • Jackson Hole
  • A-Basin
  • Whistler/Blackcomb, including the infamous "Go to heaven, ski like hell" tee.


For ski area brew pubs and nightspots:
  • Granville Island Brewery, Vancouver, BC
  • Steeps (now something different), Park City, UT
  • Snake River Brewery, Jackson, WY
  • The Cantina, Aspen, CO
  • The Mangy Moose, Jackson Hole, WY
  • Gritty's, Portland, ME
  • Wasatch Brew Pub, Park City, UT
  • Blues at Lou's, SF, CA (Tahoe trip)


Some tees and a real nice vest from the X-Team ski clinics.

And of course, sweatshirt and tee from DCSki.

Also found plently of old Dewey Beach, Grateful Dead, Jimmy Buffet, schools, sports teams, Wolftrap, etc. that haven't seen the light of day in years.
Roy
January 30, 2007
Member since 01/11/2000 🔗
609 posts
I will typically get a T-shirt/Sweatshirt/Fleece of some sort from almost every place I go. Sometimes it's the area that I get this for (I'm currently wearing my Lake Tahoe fleece).

But there have been a few that just didn't warrant desire for that souvenir:

Vail
Telluride
Park City

While the ski days were fun, they were checked off my list as a new mountain and move on.
SpringsRegular
January 30, 2007
Member since 10/14/2004 🔗
153 posts
A Basin
Jackson Hole
Solitude
tromano
January 30, 2007
Member since 12/19/2002 🔗
998 posts
Solitude
Alta
7Springs
Blueknob

I need to get a snowbird shirt.
twin58
January 30, 2007
Member since 04/1/2000 🔗
198 posts
I buy them at thrift stores and yard sales, so I have them from all sorts of places I've never been.
JCHobbes
January 30, 2007
Member since 09/12/2005 🔗
94 posts
My List:
Laurel Mountain
Timberline
Canaan Valley
Killington
Snowshoe
wojo
January 31, 2007
Member since 01/17/2005 🔗
333 posts
My List (short, sweet, exclusive):
Alta: long sleeve Sometimes I wake up grumpy, sometimes I tell her to roll over and I go ski
Steamboat: long sleeve turtle neck
Copper: snowboard short sleeve
Whitetail: long sleeve, red/white/blue skies that look like a flag
Le Trois Valles: Coffee mug

All on sale, all cool. This is a great topic!
The Colonel - DCSki Supporter 
January 31, 2007
Member since 03/5/2004 🔗
3,110 posts
First and most important, from the mecca of skiing, an "Altaholics Anonymous" tee shirt from ALTA, of course;
from Mt. Ste. Anne in Quebec, a turtle neck; a turtle neck from Snowshoe; a mock turtle from Vail; a sweatshirt from Snowshoe; a fleece from Seven Springs; a sweatshirt from Alta; a tee shirt "The Bermuda Ski Patrol"; baseball type caps from Breckenridge,Snowbird, Alta and Salt Lake City Olympics; a wool cap from Switzerland; a heavy fleece from Whitetail; 80+ ski pins mounted on a framed "blackwork" needle work of a skier (designed and made by my wife, pins from areas I have skied), and a belt buckle from Park City.
The Colonel
Roy
February 1, 2007
Member since 01/11/2000 🔗
609 posts
Changing this slightly to a local view, how many T-shirts do you have from the local mountains? I have one hoodie from Whitetail.
JimK - DCSki Columnist
February 1, 2007
Member since 01/14/2004 🔗
2,990 posts
Quote:

First and most important, from the mecca of skiing, an "Altaholics Anonymous" tee shirt from ALTA, of course;




The "t-shirt rule" article in the hardcopy version of Skipressworld magazine (got from a local ski shop) featured a picture of a guy in an Altaholics Anonymous t-shirt.

Ski and Tell

Speak truth to powder.

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