SallyCat

Lol, maybe I don't like them! They look like they should be fun, so I keep trying.

Nooooooooo, I don't ever want to hit a rail. Nope, nope, nope. I really just want to hit little jumps so I can get better at popping, etc. Boxes look fun, but so far the friction has been unpredictable.

Huh? Was referring more to the difference in demo tune quality between CBK and Blue. Sorry for talking about skis on a ski forum though; must remember to mock Salty instead. Wait, didn't you guys just spend a TON of time talking him into RTMs?

Why not? Just curious--noob, etc.

I mean the box has a plastic surface, but there is a metal lip on each end that stops you even when you hit it flat. Good god, I'm too old to hit rails.

I demoed those at Blue last year.I swear they must de-tune their demos or something because I couldn't buy edge grip on anything I tried, and I was not demo-ing wimpy skis, either. Head Monster 88, Head Rally, and the Amphibio. Went to CBK and got on a Volkl RTM 84 and a couple other skis and they were sharp as surgical scalpels.

I need stupid small features; I'm old and a noob. Yeti is fine, but it's just two boxes and a roller and you have to either walk back up or ski all the way down Burma and take the slow chair back up. Also the boxes have metal edges that weirdly kill your speed. I almost went over the handlebars the first time I hit one of them.

Cool, thanks.

I'd actually like to see someone really style the dual-slalom mtb course underneath the 6-pack chair at Blue. I think people assume those are ski features then they get in there and are all "wtf am I supposed to do with this...berm?" But a good freestyle skier could make that look rad.

Does Big Boulder have a beginner terrain park, by which I mean a place for kids and/or rank beginners? If so, which trails are they? I just want to practice popping little jumps and sliding easy boxes. Thanks!

Ffs with the costumes. If you need props to be entertaining, you're not entertaining; that's why nobody likes magicians.

Sold.

That's me. Looked like you all were having a blast. What a fun morning!

Everybody flies by me, but yeah, were you guys going like Mach 1 and whooping and hollering?

It got even better later in the day. Around 11-ish, the sun had come out, temp rose, and there were still no crowds. I skied from 8 to 3 and there were no lines when I left. Runs started to get a little scrapey in places later on, but not terribly so. Kept saying "this is my last run" around noon, but it was so fun I couldn't make myself leave. I'm not sure why they ran the quad, though. Not complaining, just curious; it wasn't needed and it dragged you through the snow guns blasting on Razor's all day. Was a treat to bop around on all my favorite trails from last year (my first year at Blue). Switchback and Main St. are my faves.

The air temp was -16 when I left White River Junction this morning. My jerk cat screamed the entire 7 hour trip and the road conditions were so sketchy north of Brattleboro that everyone was driving 40 and I that was fine. So now that I'm back in the balmy south, I hope to run into some PASRs tomorrow. Very psyched to start the new year skiing a fully-open Blue! I'll prolly be in a big purple jacket and black pants. Atomic Vantage 90cti skis.

Aww thanks, guys. I'm having feelings. I'd better speak to some beer about that...

2009 VW Jetta SportWagen. It's been a good car, but I didn't buy it with winter driving in mind. My next vehicle will be a Subaru.

I work online a lot and I have no self-discipline.

Didn't ski today--the wind chill was too brutal. I skied at Pico the other day in -7 weather and it was fine, but there was no wind that day. The last couple of days here the wind chill has been like 25 below and I found out the hard way how much of a difference wind speed makes. So Okemo yesterday was a day skiing, and I'm not complaining, but it was challenging. First, it was scary cold. My only problems were feet and face, but they were serious problems. My Hotronics cranked to "eleven" just couldn't keep my toes from being painfully cold. You had to cover your face, but doing so fogged your goggles and the fog immediately froze, so you'd have to figure some damn way to get ice off your lenses. The Airhole balaclava I was wearing was nice, thick fleece, but it got saturated from condensation right away, so was worse than useless as face coverage. The snow was pretty firm to begin with and then became scraped off quickly, with big, bald ice patches everywhere. So you were always sort of looking for snow and dealing with ice. And it was really crowded, so there was a lot of standing around not moving much, which didn't help anything. At one point I went inside the lodge at the Solitude lift to warm my feet and before you know it i was at the bar drinking a Magic Hat and eating a F-ING AMAZING plate of chicken and waffles. That was really the highlight of the day. On the way home I almost didn't make it up the hill to my family's house, so all my evangelizing about Bridgestone Blizzaks should now come with the caveat that you really should have all wheel drive in Vermont. Rear-axle torque: I needed it. Headed home tomorrow and hoping to get some runs in first thing on NYD.

I'm with Moe. Stuck in Vermont with temps that make skiing unbearable. And the power just went out.

Of course, by March a person could have bought next year's season pass and be busy making it pay for itself before next season.

Yeah, it's the Blue in Canada. It was $599; I got it because I'm up here a lot and it seemed like I'd get my money's worth out of it and get to check out some new mountains.

I wimped out. Wind chill -25; didn't want to waste a MaxPass day skiing for like 2 hours.so I met some frends for a long lunch instead. Back at it tomorrow.

Hotronics boot heaters ftw. -6 yesterday and I was fine until the batteries died around 2pm. Grabbed my spare batt set and skied until lat chair.