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 check posts with Grok's BS button, steelman, put odds on things, and 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.
Every stop downstream adds spin. Now you can skip them.
Ranks what paid or gamed the list. Not what's true.
Grade how muddy each outlet is. Better, but still downstream.
The fix is to start upstream. Agencies, companies and researchers now post their own announcements and data directly, the job the AP and Reuters wires used to do. Read the original, then use Grok to check it.
Sources: Gallup via Axios · Alphabet Q4 2025 results · Ground NewsSay "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. The story you read quotes a post. Read the post.
Winter Storm Warning for the high country, 6 p.m. Thursday to noon Saturday. 12–20 inches above 10,000 feet. Winds gusting to 50 mph.
Travel could be "dangerous to impossible," the Weather Service said in a post on X. Here's what to know about the storm that could…
Example, written for illustration
X is not TikTok or Instagram. Those are built for entertainment, and an app picks what you see. X, set up right, is a list you choose of the people who make the news.
You don't post. You don't argue in the replies. You don't follow news outlets, because they're downstream. You follow the agencies and the handful of experts who make the news.
Sources: Pew, Social Media and News Fact Sheet (Sept 2025) · Pew, X users' experiences with news (2024)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.
One button on every post. Tap it and ask Grok to sort fact from opinion.
This is the icon on your phone.
The Grok button is your BS check. Tap it and ask "Is this true?"
Like trains your feed. Bookmark saves a post without training it.
Here's how that button works on a post you might see at work. Tap it.
Invented post, for illustration. Tap the button.
Below normal for October. Matches the district's posted data, with a link.
Not a record. The ban is a proposal on the agenda, not a rule.
"Hiding the numbers" is a claim with no evidence. The data is public.
How: on any post, tap the Grok icon and ask, "Is this true? Separate fact from opinion and show me the sources." Then open one or two of the sources yourself.
Why ask for sources: Grok makes mistakes. Researchers at the Atlantic Council's DFRLab found it inconsistent at spotting AI-generated images, and it has confidently misidentified real photos. Asking for its sources turns a verdict into evidence you can check.
This one habit replaces two old ones: checking which way an outlet leans, and searching Google to see if a story is real.
Source: Al Jazeera analysis of X data, citing DFRLab and PolitiFact (July 2025)Two tabs at the top of X. One you control, one X fills in for you.
Built from who you follow, plus suggested accounts, trending posts and ads. It grows from every like, reply and pause. Use it to find new sources.
Only the accounts you chose, newest first. Nothing added. This is your wire, so start here.
Now see how they connect. Drag the slider and watch the outer ring.
Two tabs, two jobs. At the top of X are "Following" and "For You."
Why it goes wrong: every like is a vote. Like a joke and you get ten more jokes. That's how Facebook feeds filled up with junk, and the same thing happens here in days.
Keep it clean:
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. Below is how to get all of them through one front door, and Grok finds what's worth watching.
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 and three TVs. Walk me through putting a Roku on each one and signing in to Prime Video, Netflix, YouTube and a live TV app, step by step.
What are the best YouTube channels for ski films, big-mountain and backcountry trips? Give me links.
Your apps live in the cloud. One box on each TV brings them all in.
Netflix, YouTube and your live TV app don't work this way. Each one is its own app with its own sign-in.
Why a Roku box and not the TV's own apps: every TV brand has its own menus, and they change. A Roku box works the same on every TV in the house, and it comes with one simple remote.
Why Prime Video is the hub: you can add other services inside it (HBO Max, Apple TV, Paramount+, Peacock, AMC+ and more than 100 others), pay through one Amazon account, and turn any of them on or off whenever you like. Netflix isn't one of them. It stays its own app, next to Prime.
Why YouTube Premium: YouTube is where the experts and podcasts are, from 10-minute explainers to two-hour interviews. Premium removes the ads on every TV and phone.
This is how it works today. Services keep merging and repackaging, so expect some names and bundles to change.
Sources: Nielsen The Gauge via Advanced Television · Amazon, What are Prime Video Channels (updated Sept 2026)
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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