savaiusini Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 This may not be the best place to post this, but oh well...Does anyone else out there find it a bit ridiculous that they're charging a $50 per person entry fee this year? And if that wasn't enough, they also make you buy a lift ticket! I think last year the fee was $25 or $30ish, plus a lift ticket .Now it seens to me that the whole things is getting a bit out of hand. Why would any backcountry skiers want to buy a lift ticket when they aren't using the lifts? I was considering doing one or both of the races this year, but at $50 (I have a WA Pass, so thank goodness I don't need to buy a ticket), Life-Link can go jump in a lake. I wont pretend to know what the operating costs of such an event are, but typically the staff is volunteer and the prizes are donated.My friend put it best: "If you want to go out and race me skinning, let's go...I won't even charge you!"So does anyone out there have any idea why they jacked-up the rate this year? There wern't that many competitors last year, so I'd think they want to attract more people rather than shun them away. Is the Life-Link Rally Race over-priced?Yes: I think it's crapNo: I think it is reasonable Quote
Blight Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 all most as ridiculous as requiring a shovel and probe to race in a controlled ski area. i think they should require one quickdraw hanging from each skiers pack too, just in case they need to clip a bolt along the way. Quote
savaiusini Posted February 12, 2003 Author Posted February 12, 2003 Will there be enough snow? Â yes, I think there will be enough, but unless it starts snowing again, the conditions are bound to be pretty chossy. Quote
erik Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 i wonder since they are charging so much if they are going to donate the proceddings to needy charities?? such as the ymca, ywca, boys & girls clubs and the such? Â i brought this up last year with this same event. i wonder if it will change? especially now since they are asking for more money. Â competition in solitary sports in my opinion loses the meaning of the sport. Â Â Quote
savaiusini Posted February 12, 2003 Author Posted February 12, 2003 all most as ridiculous as requiring a shovel and probe to race in a controlled ski area. Â WERD! Quote
savaiusini Posted February 12, 2003 Author Posted February 12, 2003 In defense of Life-Link, they do say that all races will benefit local avalanche centers. However, they did this last year too. Why the drastic increase? $50 bucks + a lift ticket is still ludicrous... Quote
pete_a Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 I had been thinkin about entering this years race at Alpy or Stevens..but after I saw the cost of entering, forget about it. Maybe we need to throw together a 'dirt bag' backcountry rally...possibly revive the old Silver Skis race on Mt.Rainier...get a bunch of wacky cheapskates together and do the mass-start chaos of fifty people skiing from Camp Muir back to Paradise. Quote
gregm Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 I had been thinkin about entering this years race at Alpy or Stevens..but after I saw the cost of entering, forget about it. Maybe we need to throw together a 'dirt bag' backcountry rally...possibly revive the old Silver Skis race on Mt.Rainier...get a bunch of wacky cheapskates together and do the mass-start chaos of fifty people skiing from Camp Muir back to Paradise. Â pete_a hit the nail on the head. i would enter the lifelink race if a) it didn't cost more than $15 total and b) i wasn't doing some real bc or climbing that weekend. Â i think the silver ski race declined for safety reasons which i can imagine. also, i think the race should be round trip from paradise (or some other route). but anyway i think there is a really interesting idea here. especially the cheap/fun approach. maybe a joke trophy? Quote
mattp Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 Maybe we need to throw together a 'dirt bag' backcountry rally  Ptor Spricenieks' rally in the Coast Range was a pretty cool idea. A multi-day traverse accross the ice fields.... Quote
pete_a Posted February 12, 2003 Posted February 12, 2003 yeah, I thought it was odd that the Silver Skis race was only a race on the way down...a round trip from paradise to muir and back...thats a good enough leg burner...and a mellow enough pitch that for all but pan face you really don't have to worry about avy danger. So, perhaps a dirtbag rally is in order sometime this season. ...homemade trophy built from cans of rainier and h.c. mmmm! Quote
Figger_Eight Posted February 13, 2003 Posted February 13, 2003 Absolutely...that would be a friggin' kick in the pants. Not to mention a great excuse to go skiing with your buds...not that you'd need any excuse at all. Quote
Billygoat Posted February 13, 2003 Posted February 13, 2003 Yeah! Of course, a proper Dirt Bag Rally would involve partying till 2 am the night before, sleeping on someone elses ratty couch, having an uncooked bagel with cream cheese and a landjaeger for breakfast, skiing some distance, chugging a beer and trying to light a damp bowl with a wet bic at the halfway point, and making it back before the bar closes, of course, in good style... Quote
savaiusini Posted February 13, 2003 Author Posted February 13, 2003 I like where this thread is heading! Quote
erik Posted February 13, 2003 Posted February 13, 2003 CC.COM BACKCOUNTRY SPRAY FEST AND BEER QUAFFING CONTEST. Â SPONSERED BY AMAZING CO. Â AND CC.COM Â I WONDER IF WE KNOW ANYONE WHO MAKES REALLY GOOD BEER?????? Â Quote
iain Posted February 13, 2003 Posted February 13, 2003 AMAZING CO. leverages child labor in taiwan to make cheap climbing tights and redbull I want nothing to do with them Quote
Lowell_Skoog Posted February 14, 2003 Posted February 14, 2003 A quote from Arnold Lunn, pioneer British ski mountaineer and inventor of the modern slalom: Â "I am by no means sorry that it is only piste competitions which are eligible for Olympic medal rewards, and that the mastery of real ski-ing on natural snow, with its exacting demands on the mind no less than the body, remains the monopoly of those for whom ski-ing is its own reward." Â And: Â "The highest form of skiing cannot, praise be to heaven, be tested competitively. Olympic medals are not and should not be awarded to ski mountaineers, for mountaineering is not a sport. It is a vocation." Â I have mixed feelings about rando rallies. I did the Alpental race last year and enjoyed it. I met some people and won a nice prize. But I think these races will become less fun for recreational skiers as time goes on--more oriented toward professionals, more competitive, and more commercial. Â I haven't decided whether to enter any races this year. I think it will depend on whether I've got anything better to do that day, and how full my wallet feels. The $70 fee ($50 to enter, $20 for an unused lift ticket) seems too high. The notion that some of the fee is donated to local avalanche centers feels like a ploy. Â I did some checking in old scrapbooks and I believe that the Silver Skis races were free to entrants. I'm sure that the first race in 1934 was. In those days the race sponsors actually sponsored the race. Â Quote
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