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Andy Hays

The Top 9 East Coast Ski Resorts & Why You Must “SKI THE EAST”

ikon, ikon pass, Washington, snowshoe, West Virginia

So you’ve finally tucked the skis away, the jacket has been hung up, or at least thrown into a heap in the corner and it’s time to think about the joys of summer. The lake and the hiking and the biking and the golf and the fishing and all of the other wonderful activities that you’ve been waiting for. Right? Wrong. You’re still thinking of skiing aren’t you. Well, you’re in luck, it’s time to start planning on where you will be taking a trip to next season. You’ve thought of all the usual suspects, Jackson, Snowbird, Whistler. Maybe you’d like to get off the beaten path. Big Sky? Revelstoke? Is this the year to head across the pond? Is this the year you […]

Andy Hays | September 8, 2023
55 Comments

Is Skiing in the Rain Fun?

The car sat idling as a steady rain pattered against the windshield. It’s not as if I didn’t have any clue that this was going to happen. The forecast had been pessimistic. Still, it seemed as if there was hope. The rain held out, until… really until the access road. Then it came down. As I got closer to the parking lot the wind had picked up. The car sat idling. I turned off the ignition. Well… I drove here damn it. What was I really going to do? Turn around and drive home? The idea seemed preposterous, but staring out the rain soaked windshield at the foggy slopes above, so did the idea that this was going to be any kind of […]

Andy Hays | April 7, 2022
5 Comments

70 Reasons You Shouldn’t Go To South America This Summer:

Another summer is upon us and another summer is here that despite my best intentions I will not be going to South America for the ski season. Why? I’m a loser, that’s why. Why should you go? Because, you are a winner, and that’s what winners do. In fact I have become so adept over the years at not going to South America that I have chosen to utilize the depth of my experience to compile a comprehensive list of UNACCEPTABLE excuses for not making the trip this year. 70 reasons you shouldn’t shouldn’t go to South America […]

Andy Hays | March 25, 2022
4 Comments

The Science of the “Yard Sale!!!”

Yard Sale!!!

No doubt the day had been marvelous. So far it had all come together. The snow, the sun, the snow. It was epic, it was sick, it was radtastic, it was probably the best you’ve ever skied. That was until… Yard Sale!!! The yard sale is libel to strike at any time. In the back country. (preferable: less people around to see it.) In the park. (moderately undesirable: not really shameful but everyone has to wait and gets annoyed.) On a groomer under the lift (highly undesirable: maximum shame and certainty of heckling) There is something to the presence of a lift that seems to push skiers to their limits. To ride the fine line that resides between control and a massive explosion of limbs and […]

Post Tag for BrainsBrains
Andy Hays | March 5, 2020
10 Comments

Ode to the White Ribbon of Death

It’s early season and I’m thinking of the last day of last season. It was sunnier and warmer. The snow was better and there was more of it. It wasn’t this crowded either. Nor did it get dark at 3 o’clock. Not to create the impression that this isn’t fun. It’s fun alright. Skiing will always win out over not skiing. That said, it’s time for some snow and an end to this white ribbon of death as the people like to call it. It’s narrow, it’s scraped off, it’s crowded, and if you are back east there is probably a snow gun blasting every ten yards or so. It’s also all that’s open. Lap after lap. Lap… after…lap… My more […]

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Andy Hays | November 7, 2015
6 Comments

Boreal, CA Opening Day Report: 1st Top-to-Bottom Skiing on Opening Day Since 2004

Ski season in Tahoe has officially kicked off.  (yeah, I know Mt. Rose opened on Wednesday, but despite the implications of its name, magic carpet stretches my definition of lift serviced.) For the first time in over ten years Boreal opened today from top to bottom via the Accelerator chair.  They will be on a 9am to 9pm schedule for […]

Post Tag for Conditions ReportConditions Report
Andy Hays | November 6, 2015
3 Comments

Tuckerman: Quest for the the Unknown

The story doesn’t begin here, but many years ago. For as long as can remember the photograph hung on the living room wall. For a time I believe it resided over the fish tank. Then perhaps it was beside the door that nobody used. For close to three decades it hung without fail in my parents house. Then it moved. To our family camp, where it now remains. The point is not where, however, the point is what. The year was 1937, the month April, I believe. Not believe, know, being […]

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Andy Hays | June 8, 2015
3 Comments

“Glory Road” | The Zen of Driving to the Mountain

The headlights rapidly descending the hill behind me at first failed to catch my attention. It was growing late and it had been some time since I had last seen another car on this lonely road. It was then that they became noticeable and the pace at which they approached became concerning. As they reached me and shone brightly through my rear window the profile became recognizably familiar. It was the Highway Patrol. F*ck! I flipped the cruise control off and conspicuously slowed to the posted speed limit. I mean sure, I was speeding, but I wasn’t really speeding. […]

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Andy Hays | May 20, 2015
2 Comments

Ski Town Profile: “The Smug Guy”

smug skier

The lift ride would begin as any. Just by looking at him it would be impossible to tell. Really there was no way in your power to avoid it. Perhaps you tried to start a conversation or he got impatient and started it for you. You had gotten on the chair with Smug Guy. Smug Guy is having a better day than you, and he will be the first to tell you that fact. Smug Guy is smug, not much can be done about this. For the duration of the lift ride you will be stuck with him. This isn’t to confuse anyone who is having a good time with being smug, on the contrary, but what truly makes Smug Guy so smug, is that not only is he better than you, it is […]

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Andy Hays | January 29, 2015
8 Comments

Ever Fall in Love With a Pair of Skis? | “A Boy & His Skis”

When I made my way out west ten years ago I possessed a lifetime worth of hopes, expectations and dreams, along with two brand new pairs of skis to make it happen. That day that I first laid eyes on what would be my powder skis, a pair of grey and silver Rossignol Scratch BCs, I would have no idea whatsoever just how far they would take me. My first impression was that they were huge. All 90mm under foot of them just seemed so unbelievably wide. Sure I had skied on bigger skis before, my dad was an early adopter of the true powder ski with a pair of Volant Ti Chubs. He had a pair of Bandit XXXs until I lost them, which is another story for another day. Those were huge, but sitting in my […]

Andy Hays | January 5, 2015
2 Comments

Crash and Burn

Skier's crash of the year in jackson hole

It may not have happened yet. It might not happen for some time. It could happen at any moment really. It could be the first run, of the first day of the season. Or not. Even when it occurs you won’t know until the end of the year if it really was… the Crash of the Year. The Crash of the Year can manifest itself in various forms. It can be particularly violent. It can be terribly embarrassing. It can be […]

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Andy Hays | November 12, 2014
2 Comments

What’s Better on Skis? Speed or Air?

Julian Carr going big in Las Lenas, Argentina

My thoughts wandering afar, I glanced down. Yikes! I’m speeding again. I try to be as law abiding as possible. Sure, I don’t obey the speed limit very often, but I try to refrain from truly speeding. That is until this time every year. About the second week of October or so. Every year. It doesn’t happen on purpose. I can’t really explain it. Like salmon returning from the sea to spawn, it just happens. I start driving too fast. Given that it happens quite subconsciously, I can’t even chalk it up to trying to achieve some kind of cheap thrill. Something […]

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Andy Hays | October 23, 2014
3 Comments

$1.00 Season Passes at Squaw Valley, USA

One USA dollar

If you screw up royally and no one notices, did you really screw up…? Well of course you did, but not nearly as badly as you could have. Kind of like the time that we were horsing around my friend’s basement after school and knocked his dad’s bear skull off the bar and it smashed into several pieces. As if it was out of some cheesy episode of the Brady Bunch or something we carefully put it back together with Elmer’s glue. To my knowledge he never found out, and in the end it makes a terrific story so I guess it worked out for the […]

Post Tag for Industry NewsIndustry News
Andy Hays | October 10, 2014
4 Comments

Bottom of the Barrel: The Andy Hays 2013/14 Squaw Valley Edit

Some good ol’ fashion self promotion. Is it a little early for edits? Absolutely, but I’ve been in a mid summer funk and well I’m ready for snow.
Yeah, it might be a little gangsta for snowbrains, but you know me, that’s how I roll and shit. See how I did that? How I made fun of bros making edits and then I make one of my own? Is that hypocrisy or is that me being able to make fun of myself? It’s a tight rope spud…a tight rope. […]

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Andy Hays | September 3, 2014
2 Comments

Choose Your Own BroVenture:

Bro, I can’t believe it bro. Seriously bro, I thought we was hella tight? Bra, we was bros, bro, like the Bash Brothers, the Blues Brothers, like Bartles and James and shit. Bro, don’t you remember when we used to__________? A). Shred the gnar like almost every day. B). Not shred the gnar and get hella drunk off jager instead. C). Get hella drunk off jager and shred the gnar. D). Drink hella jager and watch lifetime movies. Bro, I always had your back. You can’t forget that time______? A). I helped you hide from the cops that time you crashed your car into a telephone pole. B). I helped you report your car stolen that time you crashed your car into a telephone pole. C). I helped you with all those dead hookers […]

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Andy Hays | August 6, 2014
1 Comment

More Big Screens, Please.

A recent report highlighted the jump in sales for ultra big screen televisions. Televisions 50 inches and up now account for 25% of all sales. Screens 65 inches and greater have seen a 69% boost over the past year. All of this news had me a bit concerned… Is my screen large enough? No one wants word to get out that his screen is disappointingly small. This was all very disconcerting, indeed. It was true seemingly everywhere I looked there were more screens and they were getting bigger and bigger. In Reno, Nevada, the Grand Sierra Resort is […]

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Andy Hays | July 20, 2014
1 Comment

Waiting for the Rain in California…

Waiting for the rain to come. In the wintertime there are fewer things I loath than the sound of an ice cold rain pounding down on the roof. Yet come summertime there is nothing that my ears long for more than the gentle pattering on the tin, turning to a more audible soaking roar. […]

Andy Hays | July 15, 2014
5 Comments

Did Park City Execute the Greatest Blunder of All-Time?

A recent court order all but seems to have closed the book on the struggle to control the resort at Park City, Utah. In what apparently was an oversight of the most colossal variety, the former operators of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) missed the deadline for renewing their lease. Always the opportunist, Vail Resorts swooped in and snatched it from their grasp. A shocking turn of events to say the least. Somewhere, someone at PCMR […]

Andy Hays | June 24, 2014
1 Comment

Has “Soul” Become the New “Extreme”?

It has been recently been brought to my attention that if I was looking for soul, I could discover it at Squaw Valley this summer. Pausing for a moment, I took in the significance of this. Skiing apparently also has a soul, and he currently calls the valley home as well, or as much as could be confirmed by the marketing department. Little is known if the two souls are in fact related in any way, nor was […]

Post Tag for Featured ArticleFeatured Article
Andy Hays | June 18, 2014
8 Comments

To Duck The Rope or Not to Duck…| The Forbidden Dance

He doesn’t care what kind of skier you are. He won’t discriminate, expert, beginner, or terminal novice alike. He is the skier’s oldest and most persistent foil, on a long enough timeline the day will come that you find yourself face to face with, The Rope. The Rope’s orange color gives it an officious look, as it hangs there looking stern. Often times there are additional medallions of warning, badges on a deputized strand of nylon. Rope wants you to know he has his eye on you. For the most part Monsieur rope and I ignore each other. […]

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Andy Hays | April 25, 2014
18 Comments

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