SallyCat

I certainly hope so! The past year and a half has been financially brutal, getting myself set up for mountain biking and skiing at basically the same time. Luckily I have good equipment and clothing now for both pursuits, and the only ongoing expense should be passes and beer. I'm back to austerity mode now. The one bummer is not knowing where I'm going to be next year, so not being able to buy an early, discounted season pass.

Nope. But they have the "First Tracks" benefit, which they refer to as "First Trax" in an effort, I can only imagine, to appeal to the criminally low literacy level of their consumer base.

Good reminder, thanks!

I paid $900 for RTMs recently and I love the skis , but dang the price left a mark. I'm not eager to give Volkl more money.

This ^ = this ^

I just took the Wardens off the skis and the Attack 13s off the other skis. Gonna have Blue's shop mount the Tyrolias on the Soul Riders, sell the Wardens AND the flat skis. Can't rid myself of those damn Wardens fast enough.

I don't get it, but I also can't tell if Salty is for real most of the time.

If you got a "wax and sharpen", they didn't likely do anything to your bases other than brush them out and wax them; hopefully you got a hand wax at that price. Even so, that's still a crazy amount of $. Sounds like maybe they're not such good people...

You're in Vermont, why not ski someplace else that you've never been? Sugarbush, Smuggs, Bolton, etc.? f you're driving up Saturday, you could stay over Sat night somewhere and ski one of the cool little local hills for cheap fun. Suicide Six, Whaleback, Dartmouth Skiway, etc. Pico is always good. Liftopia should have some good Sunday prices. All of those hills are accessible from the Woodstock area which is a nice small town. And West Lebanon NH is nearby if you want a cheap motel and fast food.

So true. (And even worse if you're nearing fifty and play basketball!) Fwiw, the SkiDiva site is great for meeting women who are excellent skiers. And I've met tons of awesome women while traveling in VT and at Mammoth through the site. I've never had a bad day skiing with anyone I've met on Ski Diva. There are a number of local women on the Diva site who seem to ski at JF and Montage if I'm not mistaken, though I met them at Elk. They are awesome skiers and really nice people. I tend to ski alone just out of inclination (a friend once called me "defiantly solitary" and she did not mean it as a compliment) and I accidentally ruffled some local feathers by throwing shade at Dieter at Alpina for mounting my Soul Riders weird, so locally I tend to keep to myself. I don't know of anyone who necessarily has weekdays free, but there's at least one mid-Atlantic thread over there and it would definitely be worth a visit. Anyway, back on topic: RTMs are lame, gratuitous Salty insult, Camelback sucks, etc.

They're not hard core 80s skiers unless they're wearing Cubco bindings with a strap around each ankle. #nobrakes Bonus for being a kid wearing a nylon snowsuit. No friction + skis attached throughout fall. That was skiing. Also why my parents and aunts and uncles had tons of kids; probably we weren't all going to make it. #Darwin

30% of the content on this site is just people randomly bashing RTMs. Btw, there's a big difference between the RTM 81 and the 84. And my 84s get waxed after every three ski days and the edges get a pass or two with a diamond stone after every trip. My bases look good.

Ohmygod. If I saw your bases I would take them into protective custody.

My cat is actually a super sweet dude but he likes to yell a lot. A lot. I'm always game to host beer-and-tuning sesdions. Have taught a nimber of friends and I tune a lot of the ski club skis.

@saltyantSeriously, I like waxing and deburring/sharpening skis. If it ever works out logistically, I'll be happy to do yours for nothing. I live near where 22 and 33 intersect in Bethlehem Township and I should ne at CBK most Fridays. If you want to hang in the basement with my asshole cat I can show you how to do everything yourself and lend you some tools/wax/etc.

True, I'm just brokety-broke.

I love My RTM 84s. Not sorry!

A ridiculous 6.50. I usually bring pocket beer and enjoy it on the patio but sometimes if it's cold I'll splurge just to sit inside. The bartender is borderline Rain Man for remembering my order--I don't really go in that often.

I don't think anyone here skis longer days than I do on weekends. I like a nice 10-12 hour marathon, and those stats are bonkers. Doesn't mean I'm a good skier. Doesn't mean anything. Well, the bartender at Slopeside now says "Perpetual IPA?" before I even take my jacket off, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. But like Lloyd Bridges said in Airplane, "...I picked a bad week to give up sniffing glue." Malcolm Gladwell's made a sweet career for himself spouting absolute horse shit and then counting his money while actual experts quietly discredit him. That whole "ten thousand hours of practice makes you an expert" thesis is utter nonsense. It's the quality and intentionality that matters, not the number of hours or runs, or speed. It's the quality.

Don't quit the site, that's dumb. You obviously enjoy posting and your trip reports are fun. You should copy and save this sentence, though: "Thank you for taking the time to give me sound and thoughtful advice. I will give it serious consideration."

I love being a renter. We may be the dirtbags of the real estate world, but I never shovel snow, rake leaves, or mow the lawn. When stuff breaks it gets fixed, and if I want to explode my professional life in PA and then move outside the blast zone, I have total freedom as soon as my lease is up!

Thank you for all of that, @Justo8484. Yeah, it's too late: the shop helicoiled it. Is there anything you recommend, like checking the screw periodically or doing something else to it? Regarding the Wardens, that's disappointing. I've had nothing but trouble with those bindings since I got them. I have a pair of skis that I'm going to sell and I'm thinking of taking the Attack 13s off those skis and replacing the Wardens with them. I don't care about a second drilling as long as it's do-able. The skis with the Wardens on them are Nordica Soul Riders and I LOVE them in soft snow. They are such fun skis, but man those bindings are a headache. Thanks for your informative reply.

Watching those beautiful clouds throughout the morning was a joy.

Sorry for the terrible spelling; was typing on my phone with old eyeglasses. I also chatted with a ski patroller on the chair; he said that they had about 26 serious accidents yesterday, and almost all of them were on Burma and Paradise and were just one-person crashes. Said that was completely typical and that Lazy gets some accidents, but it's mostly the green trails where people get hurt. He did say that he was pretty sure the person who hit the skier last weekend was a snowboarder rather than a skier, if that makes any difference. I didn't press him for details. Today's lack of crowds was a real treat. I'm hoping next Sunday afternoon/evening will be much the same on account of the Super Bowl. Nothing against the Eagles--I hope they win--, but I'm not so much a football fan as a fan of New Orleans, so when the Saints went down I lost interest in the rest of the season. Another low-crowd Sunday would seem like wretched excess, but I'll take it!

Oh, man, sorry I didn't see you. Yeah, awesome snow .