Timeless

Rode from 8-9.30 yesterday evening: Conditions- not bad, a very good base, but "packed powder"? come-on be realistic, what did you pack it with? a tank? The flatter sections looked very promising with some nice surface but tut's was scraped back to very fast, hardpack with lumpy ice (remnants of last week?) poking through as you exited onto the meadows. I realise this was due to the traffic but that's what you get if you only have 2 ways down. First complaint - ONLY 5 TRAILS, not the 9 posted on the trail report. As a non park person, there is only so many time you can ride Tut's without getting bored. Second complaint - School kids, its NOT ok to sit in groups on the middle of the slope every time one of you falls over, there were tons of rangers around and what were they doing about it? Whistling at me for not slowing down enough as I weaved between them. Positive note: They have blown lots of snow (and were still blowing) on the other trails they claimed to have open today, once they groom the piles out they should have good cover there too. I would guess that with more grooming Friday morning would be very good. It's great to see them open again and making good progress towards opening some new stuff, I'll be back up tonight. Prediction for the weekend: still only 9-10 trails, thousands of people. It doesn't matter to me though because I'm blacked out on my pass. I'll be at Blue, JF or Sno one or both days (I'll let the kids choose).

why?

next week you can add Tuesday night = elementary (at least PEC)

A "full day" at CB ski school doesn't get them much more time on the snow. They have a 10 o'clock start, 1.5 hours on the snow, lunch, another 1.5 hours and they're done by 3pm which is pick-up time. Did they allow you to put your kids in "normal" lessons (the $25 ones) at 5 and 7? I was told they would have to go into the ski-school (at $115 now) even though they have season passes and their own gear.

Camelback will be open tomorrow, maybe all the blue people can come over if their mountain has let them down....

what about it, is it bigger than everyone elses?

This "winter" is really showing the limitations of CB's snowmaking system, with the other resorts really seeming to step it up in this regard. If they open this weekend, the mini-me's and I will be there or JFBB as we are blacked out at CB this weekend.

My son as a 4 year old went through a series of weekday lessons at Blue, and since then has had follow on lessons at both Blue and Camelback. My Daughter also took snowboard lessons at CB. The quality of the instruction at CB (IMO) is inconsistent and on busy weekends it's more like daycare, my son learns nothing. The program at Blue is excellent, I have posted on here many times before how impressed I have been by their "explorers" program. Both of mine have taken the "private lesson" option at CB as well as the normal "ski-school" and this has been a good experience for them, CB does have some great instructors.

Yeah, of course that's what I meant.... If the accuweather forecast holds true then we wont have to choose which slopes should have the snow, 24 hour snowmaking for most of next week

Thanks Cr.... SkiCamelback, I look forward to riding Raceway and Pharaoh (sp?) when I get back from France next week. Dont waste any snow on that ditch in oak grove.

Thanks for the honesty, it's good to know that you are giving it everything under difficult circumstances. Assuming the Accuweather forecast continues to hold true we should see much more productive snowmaking next week? Before you closed down, one of your rangers was expressing the opinion that you wont get the east side open this year no matter what happens with the weather, is that why you've stopped blowing on Sunbowl? It would be really sad to see the east side not open, but understandable given the weather and time of year. Can you tell us that it's too early to be thinking about limiting the terrain?

In a BC thread there have been some really interesting numbers thrown out there regarding snowmaking capacity and I know Sno have also been quite bullish about there system. So here's the question: How do you compare to BC's figure of merit "open the whole mountain in 80hrs of snowmaking at 28F" 2 assumptions / clarifications would need to be made: 1) What base depth is considered acceptable to open (12" groomed?) 2) How many acres does this include. Any claimers out there?

Could the management of BC.... PLEASE BUY CAMELBACK your attitude and public interface are simply a million times better than we see from CB, but you do seem to be somewhat screwed over by your location. I the CB reps read this topic, please take notes on the approach of BC, if blue or JFBB were this interactive and honest my season passes would go there next year, unfortunately BC is just too far for me. I wonder what the equivalent system capacity relative to the hill acreage is for the other mountains? Any reps care to comment or claim? The whole mountain open in 80 hours at 28F seem to be an excellent bench mark, how many acres is that? I think this is worth another thread....

That's good to see. This is a real question, I am not complaining, why are they only blowing 5 trails? Is this everything they have concentrated on 5 trails so that they can make sure they open on Thursday, or is this all the snowmaking they can run at once? Out of interest, if there are snowmakers from CB on here "DiMe.."? What's the restriction on snowmaking? Obviously it's not guns so it's either water or power, I assume it's electricity generation?

No, I've yet to meet anyone from the MB despite riding at CB alot either by myself or with my kids but then I try to miss the peak hours as much as possible and don't get to go at night too often because of work, so maybe it's no surprise. It may not really have been anything to jump up and down about but it sure was a whole lot better than I expected (and better than today ), I didn't think tut's and cleo's were too slushy, it was only on the lower sections that it got sketchy.

Them is some dead chickens.....

I don't mind the rain, I just thought they would close

The park is not worth any pictures... same stuff they've had there all year (except the pipe is now closed) and pretty slushy surface. Credit is due for keping it (nearly) at the level they started at, but no one of any ability is going to be happy there. If it's not raining this evening I may go up again, I'll take my camera.

I thought I'd get one last quick ride in before the weather closes CB down this weekend so did 7-9.30 or so at CB yesterday evening. Although fairly wet, the conditions were actually pretty damn good, especially on cleos and tuts, and strangely I seemed to be 1 of only 4-5 people that was using cleos which was awesome because the uphill bank was still in really good condition so it was mucho fun. Honeymoon lane was pretty sketchy as the night wore on (sadly this is the only way out from cleos), seemed lie the dark patches, rocks (and branches!) poking through got worse every run. If it's warm and/or rainy today, this could be the last chance to ski/ride at CB for a week. Interestingly I was talking to a ranger on the lift and he was quite openly voicing the opinion, as an employee of CB, that "there's no chance of them getting the new half-pipe or any of the east side open this year". Seemed a little early to be making those kind of judgements to me, but maybe that's the message they are getting.....

It's quite sad they they have to shut it down, but there really wasn't much on there of interest that wasn't also discussed here. There are enough CB employees here to keep the information flow going and maybe Craig and Ashleigh will become official mountain reps on PASR now?

I have the pro-tec version of the tune-up II's and they dont work with my cell phone either (a bluetoooth nokia), I was pissed about this because the non-phone versions (like the original tune-ups) are much less money (like $30 rather than $60 additional to the helmet cost). I managed to find an adaptor for my phone to a "standard" wired headphone jack but if I connect it it starts voice dialling and all sorts of random crap. I bought mine because I wil be riding this year while my expectant wife will be due and so I really cant afford not to hear the phone ringing in my pocket. I rarely use the headphones while riding ( I thought I would ) but do use it on the lift if I'm on my own. I don't think you could actually use it while skiing, the wind noise would be too bad.

On sunday they were blowing at the bottom of the hill in what must have been the most marginal conditions imaginable, you could feel how wet the spray was on the lift and the puddles under the snowguns we pretty bad. I share p'steezes frustration, but have much sympathy for the snowmakers, it's clearly not an easy job in these conditions. My only real gripe would be that it seems they cannot switch what snowmaking power they have to other trails once they have opened the existing ones for the day, even if temps would still allow it.

CB are closed today due to "inclement weather", can't say I blame them given the damage the rain we had last night must have done to the "base". Looking at the webcam, the snow seems to have suffered really badly, though Blues looks equally as bad on their webcam. This season just plain sucks.....

So I was 14th in line for the chair at 8 this morning, and while they didn't actually let anyone on the lifts until 8.10, the conditions (and crowds) today were much (OK, a bit) improved over last week. The cover was actually pretty good, but the grooming seems to be well below par at CB at the moment (new operators or just not a good enough base?). Tut's was pretty sketchy again and the bottom of meadows was a bit of a mess, but Cleos, Marc and Honeymoon Lane were OK. I managed 8 decent runs before my kids were delivered at 9.30, then I rode around behind my 6 year old for the rest of the morning while my (now flying) 10 year old enjoyed the "powder piles" They seem to be blowing hard on Marjies, but not on the lower section so dont expect this to open anytime soon. It does look like they might open lower cleos soon though. Wierd thing today was the crowds grew up till around 10.30 and then it was as if people decided to call it a day, the lines went back to nothing (less than 20 people at the quad) up til 11.30 when we left. The trails were busy but not unbearably so.

What do you do up there? And how would I recognize you? Next time the kids and I are up we'll look out for you.