I have bright colors and darker colors, doesn't matter, they still come too close.
1. Definitely! Don't jump the gun either. I saw a group of skiers coming and thought I could stay a head of them. Nah, they decided to go downhill and crushed my groove.
2. Been there. Thought it was clear and two boarders came out of nowhere and decided to rage past me and I almost took one out. Watch out for little kids too. I was on very wide run at Solitude and a group of about six were below me to the far right all skiing in a line together. I have plenty of room to the left but about my 3rd or 4th Toeside I come around and they are coming right towards me. Guess they tried to do a GS turn too. LOL! That was one of the quickest transitions into heelside on a 178 I ever did.
3. Keep your head on a swivel. Never had any bad encounters but lots of questions sometimes. On one particular run at Sundance, I actually witnessed everybody stop around me and watched me. I don't think they had ever seen a carver before.
Hopefully our trenches will cross someday!