Check out:

http://staff.washington.edu/gregm/boeitch.htm

&&

http://www.sandskiing.com/

I've got an old pair of rossi's and a pretty crappy pair of x-c skis that just might need a work out!

What, you thought I was referring to frozen water style skiing?

Norway and Chile.

But if you must... try great Sand Dunes National Monument in Colrado. It is a blast but there are hornets that live in the dunes and man are they nasty.

There's always grass skiing and mountain boarding at Bryce. I believe Bryce was the first US resort to have grass skiing... and I think its one of the few (if not only) still doing it. I think it's bigger in Europe and esp. Asia.

http://www.bryceresort.com/summerTemplate-MountainActivities.html

Homestead and Wisp also offer mountain boarding.

Here's a link to some crazy snow domes : http://www.firsttracksonline.com/welcome2.htm

Or .... really dude .... skiing in July at Mt. Hood in Oregon maybe with a ski race camp like Rowmark is a way to do it ....

Which prompts a thought, particularly after the recent cold snap: What is the latest into the spring that a mid-Atlantic resort has ever been open? Any of the "old timers" around here have a good memory?

Does Whitegrass count? I'm pretty sure they've been open now and then in May... and on the early front, Sugar used to occasionally get open the first weekend of October (then promptly close down again when the weather warmed). Seems Snowshoe used to stay open until mid-April back in the 80s.

John S.:

Thanks for the memories! That saturday was my best spring ski day for sure, and one of the best any time in my 10 year career. My goal for the day was 20 runs and out so i could get home for a family event. Got six on Cupp, eight on the basin side and legs said no more after five more on Cupp. I remember seeing three people on my first run. Are the pictures in your report from the 6th?

jimmy

Hey Jimmy:

Yes, all pictures in that piece were taken on the 6th. I had a couple of nasty falls due to thin cover, but other than that, I enjoyed the day.

It pays to ski cautiously during the end of the season. The 2 inches of fresh snow made the slopes appear better covered than they were in actuality. I had just gotten back from skiing some very steep terrain at St. Anton, and was overconfident. I paid the price for that attitide with two falls. Local slopes can kick you just as hard as tough slopes further afield.

Nevertheless, I had a wonderful time--one of my best Spring skiing memories ever...

Now this could be a good thread - best ski day you've ever had after April 1st (not counting going to the Southern Hemisphere in summer, of course).

I had a day on April 17th once with knee deep powder. The resort had gotten 3 feet from a storm after weeks of melt, so it was epic above 2800 meters. It was unskiable back to the base at 1200 meters, though. I remember trying to ski back to the base and having to stop and take my skis off to walk the rest of the way. As I was making my way down some uncovered rocks along with others who had tried to ski back to base, some guy came flying thru, literally bouncing from rock to rock, laughing and shouting, "dont worry! They're rock skis!"

Good times.

About 15 years ago I skied at Whistler/Blackcomb the second weekend in May. Was mighty disapointed to awaken Sat AM, arrived late pm on Friday, to see little snow at base. Just patches in the woods. Had to carry my skies up two chairs at Blackcomb to reach snow, but snow I found!...over three thousand vertical feet of magical marvelous spring corn. Temps reached upper 50s, saw women in bikinis skiing. Let me tell you though, corn snow is real rough if you fall with bare skin! Anyway, had a blast.

The latest I've ever skied in North America was at Bryce Resort in late March, probably around 1989. The slopes were thin but ski able. The bottom few hundred yards to the lift, however, was a different story. Bryce laid out yards and yards of old carpet to enable skiers to ski from snow patch to snow patch without running the risk of hitting rocks. It's a diehard Skier that skis on carpets at a resort with a 500-foot vertical (or possibly just an idiot).

The latest i've skied was April 6, 2002 @ Snowshoe. Stayed at the inn friday nite, got my free lift ticket and woke up saturday morning to two inches of fresh. It snowed until 11:00 am and then the sun came out. Hit Cupp Run as they were dropping the rope and had my work done by 12:30.

I'm curious what happens to bare skin when you wipeout on sand mountain?

The latest I've been skiing in the northern hemisphere (which, sadly, is the only hemisphere I've skied in) was early June, at Mammoth Mountain in California.

I wrote a Firshand Report for DCSki back in '98:

http://www.dcski.com/news/06_16_98/mammoth.shtml

I can't say the conditions were great -- icy in the morning, slushy in the afternoon, but *perfect* for about 3 and a half minutes in between -- but it was June, and I was skiing. That made me happy.

Jimmy:

6 April 2002 was a memorable day:

http://www.dcski.com/news/2002/04_14_2002/snowshoe.php

I skied Arapahoe Basin on June 4th once. We had had a miserable winter on the east coast and I was on a summer drive-around trip, so I had no coat... and it snowed. First day that entire winter I had skied in the snow. On top of that I had never been at altitude like that in my life and got a wicked case of altitude sickness (headaches, nausea). On the whole though it was a blast!