Timeless

I see no reason why those of us that don't give a crap about the park can't keep condition report posts going. I certainly will post every time I make it up over the next 2 weeks, I can't help you with judging the quality of the moguls on rocket ('cos me and my board don't play well with tightly spaced bumps), but I promise I wil not whine about the parks.

Yeah, that "flat" light made it difficult to read the surface, I ended up riding with my goggles up most of time (and my eyes streaming), if it's the same tomorrow I'll try a different lens.

The what? I may need to know about this.... I'm taking an few vacation days and working from home so that I can help out for the first couple of weeks with the little one. This seems to allow me to go to the mountain first thing in the morning for a couple of weeks, either before work or as the start to a vacation day.

First hand report from this morning: Conditions are still holding up nicely, I did 12 runs this morning, 6 off of each quad. Asp & Marjies both very nice (if you have edges), not much surface but decent "pack" underneath allowing an edge to hold nicely. Big Pocono was a little crunchy and rutted at the turn but should improve as it softens up with the warmer temps today. Didn't do rocket but the bumps looked clean and well spaced, just not my thing on a board. The middle green trails for crossing over from east to west were nice, not scraped off at all. Nile was OK, lots of cord. Cliffy was good but a little crunchy/scraped in places. Pharaoh into Bactrian was really nice, fast and loose Ceasars to near east to raceway was OK on top sections and lovely carving cord on raceway. All in all, no complaints, no crowds, nice conditions, had my helmet headphones going this morning so my apologies to anyone that caught any of my "singing"

I've been thinking this one over a lot recently having spent quite some time at CB and reading the slating the rhodo park has generally got from people that don't work at CB. To me it looks like they have done a reasonable job of creating some quite challenging features and they do seem to have been slowly adding and improving as they've gone. Now I'm ot a park rider so my view on how good / bad it is is irrelevant. However, it strikes me that the effort required to build a maintain the park as it is now is completely wasted. There seem to be very few people that use it at all (presumably something to do with the park passes but more on that in a minute) and of those that do, only a tiny fraction (less than 5%) are hitting the jumps with enough speed to reach the landing and even fewer are attempting the rails. Back to the park passes, they need people to watch those in the park and take away the passes if required. I watched from the raceway lift today as a young kid (maybe 12) rode up the side of the big flat-down rail and sat no more than 6 inches from the end of the rail (by the side of it) watching his friend have a go at the wall ride. While he sat there he was running his hand along the top of the rail. Presumably he had watched the video and gotten his pass 3 options for next year: 1) hire a big name park crew so that the label-concious park rats think it's a cool place to be. 2) down-grade it to be an extension of the laurel park, don't try to be something it's not 3) scrap it all together and use the trail for something more interesting to a wider variety of riders like a boardercross run, or plant it full if christmas trees for a man-made glade. surely something has to change, no one seems to benefit from the current arrangement. Feels free to tell me to keep out of this as I don't ride park, but I just wanted to share my thoughts.

My first day out on the snow this weekend and I was pleasantly suprised that the conditions were really good despite the obviously very busy previous days. Didn't do too many of the bigger runs as I was with the kids, but those up to the "double" blues were all really good Lift lines were very bad at the sullivan quad but less so at the stevenson and very few people at the raceway triple, even fewer at the Mark Anthony lift. There did seem to be a high proportion of n00b's and crazy asians today.

The "bumps" on rocket were nothing to note today, just ungroomed like the rest of the runs after the storm. Maybe they will groom them up tonight. Conditions this afternoon were unusual, the snow was actually OK if a little heavy but the wind was horrible, at times on the upper trails it was like being shot-blasted with ice chunks. Very few people up there, only one (slow) lift to the top.

That info came from 911, a CB employee too. I suspect it was a comination of the two, with so little traffic it was easier to take the lift down and clear the trails of people and netting while it was still light and not snowing heavily.

please just dont groom any of them tomorrow morning let us enjoy the powder.

that would be funny if there wasn't a 50% chance that it'll be true

They're obviously just about to get off of the lift, that's why they are looking ahead, checking for loose clothing and keeping their ski tips up.

I agree, leave poor danger-chippy alone. it's not as if he doesn't have enough problems getting that baklava out of his hair.... He's entitled to voice his opinion regarding CB's conditions, doesn't matter who agrees with him. Danger, you should try and get to CB earlier on the weekends, or on a weekday if you really want decent grooming, once the mob gets there it's going to deteriorate pretty fast because the trails are quite narrow and alot of people tend to stick towards the centre.

You could be right, my boards have different shape heel straps (basically curved on the technines but more angular on the rides) and having ridden the technines almost exclusively for a year the rides certainly dont "fit" as comfortably. Would the boots change to this shape over time? Not sure but it's a reasonable assumption. Is everything else equal? stance etc, also are the bindings properly centred (heel to toe) on each board or are you maybe compensating for an off centre binding subconciously? just some thoughts.

It was a bit crunchy this morning, suffering I'm sure from a large saturday crowd, but icy? give me a break Chippy. If you think that's icy you shouldn't be skiing in PA. I was there from 8-10 today with my 6 year old and we had a great time until the crowds (liftlines rather than trail traffic, why is that?) got too much. What trails did you try? Do you have edges?

for those of us not interested in the geekery but are interested in the snow, can you explain this map a little?

Isn't it 2/10 today? Saturday?

8 to 10 is very quiet. Before 11 it's fine, after that it depends on the weekend and conditions. If it's a sunny (or even dry) weekend this time of year then it gets pretty bad between 11 and 3 then it dies off a bit.

Of course I did, it doesn't pay to be on the wrong side of the yellow jackets

Blue wont be open in April, they will close 1 hour after CB so they can claim to be open longer. To be fair, I think they were open a whole week later than CB last year, we had fun surfing the slush over there.

I think given 'kitten's ability level they would really like Okemo. I've only been there a few (4) times but it didn't seem crowded and the runs are great for advancing intermediates like me.

Just a quick 10 runs for me this morning but conditions were generally excellent everywhere except the newly re-opened marc anthony top section which was crunchy crud, looks like they just plowed it rather than running a groomer over it. Of the runs off of the sully I tried Tut's (very nice today), Asp (Excellent), Rocket (v.good as yesterday), Marjies (better today) and big pocono (even better today than yesterday although the surface "powder" seems quite thin). Scooting over to the east side via Mark-Anthony, passing 2 very bored looking park crew at the top of the pipe, skipped over to raceway, then did ceasars to raceway (raceway was good today but not as stellar as it has been lately, can we have some more "blow-over" from the park guns please?), then pharaoh (excellent) into bactrian to finish. Didn't have time to do cliffy or the now re-opened nile, I would have liked to have started over this side but the lift was shut down when I arrived (8.15). This was at least posted on the website so no real complaint here. This weekend should be excellent conditions for anyone planning the trip up but do yourselves a favor and come early, get the best conditions and avoid the crowds for as long as possible. A great way to blow out the morning cobwebs and start the day. Also, thanks to the lady ranger for the offer of a pole at the top of ceasars, unnecessary but a nice gesture.

Lanes have pretty much gone this morning, much nicer.

Thanks, I was "late" arriving (8.25) and they were just starting the stevenson but I assumed it was only that lift that was late starting. I feel better about not being there before 8 now.

That's what I figured but it looked like no-one else had been down there all morning (this was around 10.30) and I didn't see any tracks.

disclaimer : this is not an expert opinion and I know nothing about the technicalities of park riding. The original edit on this thread (the wezlo one) had some of the best riding I've seen from a "local" film, genuine skill AND with style. One or two of the shots at the beginning seemed a little unsteady but the composition and editing looked great. Great work, hope you are successful with it.