For Mike Eytel. Forty years on Summit County snow. This is new terrain. Here's the trail map.
Start your first run ↓
The agencies, forecasters and experts you trust now publish on X first, before any newspaper or TV station gets to it. And there's a new kind of tool that can read all of it at once and reason across it for you.
You don't need help with the mountains. You know them better than any machine. What Grok adds is speed and synthesis: ten live sources pulled into one answer, a second opinion that argues back, and a crew that does the reading while you're out skiing.
On a scale of zero to ten, the goal is a solid four: comfortable, daily, useful. The double blacks can wait.
Never opened Grok. Not sure what any of it is. Totally fine. That's where everybody starts.
The Grok app is on your iPhone, and you've asked it a real question out loud.
You reach for Grok instead of Google, and you ask it to pull sources together rather than hand you ten links. Some of it on the drive.
X is a short list of primary sources, not a feed. You use Grok to steelman, put odds on things and test claims, and to find what's worth watching.
A few Grok Bots work for you on their own schedule: a morning news brief, the college search, research for work. Their results land on your phone and in your email.
Tweaking your bots yourself, without Steve. Not today.
Six names you'll hear. Here's what each one actually is.
An AI assistant from xAI, the company tied to X and Tesla. You talk or type to it like a very well-read friend. It can look things up live on the web and on X.
Free on the iPhone App Store. Tap the microphone and just ask. It's also where your bots' reports pop up as notifications.
What used to be Twitter, and not what you think. Used right, it's a wire: agencies, forecasters and experts publish here first. You follow a short list, you never post, and it's how you sign in to Grok.
Grok with one job and standing orders. It works on a schedule while you're out skiing, then reports back. Think of a ski patroller who runs the same sweep every morning.
Everyday Grok lives at grok.com. Bots run in the Grok Bot app from x.ai/bot. After setup you mostly hear from them on your phone.
Grok can ride along. Press and hold the voice button and ask, same as the phone. Handy on the drive, and optional for now.
It's the same Grok on the phone, the computer and the car.
Nobody learned to drop a knee from a manual.
You learn it by making turns. Same here.
Twenty minutes on the couch with your iPhone. If you've done the steps in Steve's email, you're already halfway down.
You don't need Grok to tell you how to ski terrain you've known for forty years. Use it for what you can't do in thirty seconds: pull live sources together and reason across them. Tap Copy, open Grok, press and hold in the text box, and tap Paste.
Build me a ski-day read for tomorrow in the Summit County zone. Pull the CAIC forecast (danger by aspect and elevation), ridgetop wind speed and direction over the last 48 hours, new snow and water content from SNOTEL, the barometric trend, and overnight temps. Tell me where the wind most likely loaded snow, which aspects to favor and avoid, and how confident you are. Cite each source.Simple version"What's the CAIC avalanche forecast for Summit County today?" works too. The long one is the difference between a search and an analyst.
I'm heading from Silverthorne to Loveland at 7 a.m. Saturday. Using live CDOT data, current I-70 conditions and any traction or chain law, and typical weekend traffic, tell me when to leave, what the Eisenhower tunnel area looks like, where to park, and which lifts are likely to have the shortest lines in the first hour.Why it worksThis is live data you'd normally piece together from four apps.
What actually changed this week in the Colorado River post-2026 operations talks? Work from the primary documents and statements (Reclamation, the states' negotiators, the River District), not news coverage. Then tell me what it means for West Slope diversions, and where the outlets reporting it got it wrong.Why it worksYou know this field. Grok saves the reading, and you judge the conclusion.
First time, parked: on the screen tap App Launcher → Grok → Sign In and finish on your iPhone. After that, press and hold the voice button on the steering wheel and ask anything: the road report, a question from the radio, where to eat in Glenwood.
Grok in the car needs a paid Premium Connectivity plan (or Wi-Fi) and a newer AMD screen computer. Check under Controls → Software → Additional Vehicle Information. If yours doesn't qualify, the phone does the same job.
Say "X" and most people hear Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, kids arguing. Used that way, it's noise. Used our way, it's the fastest primary-source wire there is.
Social media. You don't post, you don't argue in replies, and you don't follow news outlets. Outlets just repackage someone else's data, and you can get that anywhere. Following them turns X into one more aggregator.
Where the people who make the data publish it first: CAIC, the National Weather Service in Boulder, CDOT, the Bureau of Reclamation, the River District, Summit County, the resorts themselves, and the handful of real experts in your fields.
Find the official X accounts for the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, NWS Boulder, CDOT and the I-70 mountain corridor, the Bureau of Reclamation's Upper Colorado region, the Colorado River District, Summit County government, and Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin and Loveland. Give me the handles and say which are verified. Then suggest five credible individual experts in snow science and Colorado water, with a line on why each one.
X shows you more of whatever you follow, linger on, like and bookmark. Feed it sources and the "For You" tab turns into a source scanner. Feed it outrage and it serves more outrage.
Only the accounts you chose, newest first. Start here.
The algorithm's picks, built from your follows. Use it to find new sources. Tap ⋯ → Not interested to prune.
Bookmark what matters so you can find it later. Tap the Grok button on any post to ask "Is this true?"
Google finds pages. Grok weighs them. These are the moves that make it worth switching. Ask for them by name.
Steelman the position I disagree with: [position]. Give me the strongest, most honest version its best advocates would make.
Here's how I'd describe the other side's argument: [your summary]. Am I attacking a strawman? What would they say I got wrong?
Argue for and then against [decision or claim]. Same rigor both ways, then tell me which side the evidence favors and why.
What's the probability that [event] happens by [date]? Give a number, show the reasoning, and tell me what news would move it up or down.
I keep hearing this theory: [claim]. Lay out the best evidence for it and against it, then rate it: confirmed, plausible, unproven or false. Show your sources.
Is this post accurate? Separate what's supported by primary sources from what's guesswork or spin, and tell me who originally published the underlying data.On XTap the Grok button on the post itself and paste this.
Cable isn't where the good stuff lives anymore. It's in apps on the TV, and finding it is the hard part. That's a job for Grok.
I like big-mountain ski films, nature documentaries and a good Western. Suggest five things to watch tonight and tell me which app each one streams on.
I have Comcast cable. Compare my options for live TV with local channels and sports, with current prices, so I can decide if I should switch.
What are the best YouTube channels for ski films, big-mountain and backcountry trips? Give me links.
This is level four. You stop going to Grok, and Grok starts coming to you. A bot takes the questions you'd ask anyway, runs them on a schedule across many sources, compares the results against what you care about, and tells you only what matters.
Keep the wind-loading call. It was right on Saturday.
Kill the lift-line guess. I don't care about lines midweek.
Combine the CAIC rating and the SNOTEL numbers into one line at the top.
It remembers every keep, kill and combine. After a few weeks the report reads like it was written by someone who skis the way you do.
Remind me Thursday to renew the truck registration, and every Sunday night send me the week's Silverthorne Town Council and Summit BOCC agendas with anything touching water or sewer flagged.
Compare these three schools on cost after aid, her major, and distance from Summit County. Flag any deadlines in the next 60 days.
Research smart (AMI) water-meter options for a mountain town our size: leading vendors, rough costs, and what other Colorado utilities chose. Sources on every claim.
Every morning at 6:30, send me the five things that matter: Summit County news, Colorado River and water policy, ski conditions, and one good thing to watch. Under 300 words. Mark anything unconfirmed.
Steve's email covered these. If any are still open, do them before you two hire the first bot together.
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