lurker

I got back from Camelback a couple of hours ago. It was great, I managed to get there just when they were shutting down the express quad because of ice, and just then the snow turned to rain. I couldn't even keep my skis a good distance apart because the snow was so wet. They kept wanting to continually catch and edge. Probably the worst ski conditions ever. Went home after one run.

I was up at Camelback on Monday, and I had taken about 5 runs. I was heading toward Marc Antony when all of a sudden I felt my ski pre-release for no reason at all. When I came to a stop, and lifted my foot off of the ski, my heel stayed behind in the binding. The heel piece freakin' ripped right off! So I skiied down on one ski, and camelback tech shop couldn't fix it. Then I took it to the loft and they said it was a manufacturers defect, and it wasn't fixable. They said, if Atomic warrenties it (its about 1 month out of warrenty of course), it will be about 2-4 weeks until I get new boots, or the old one fixed! Right now I've got some rental boots that don't fit right, and a trip to Killington and out west where I'll probably have to use crappy non-fitting boots. I mean it could be worse, I could not be going at all, but still... I really wish there was a better way. So pretty much, anyone have some spare Atomic 30.5cm boots to spare ? I just need them for abit, I swear! If anyone has any suggestions on how I could get some good boots temporarily for cheap, or get my old ones back faster, please tell!

Oh my goodness. Public Enemy and I got back about 11:00 last night from a full night at Blue. It was my first time up there, and PE hadn't been there since he was really little, and man was it great. Camelback was completely horrible that day, and Blue was amazing. They had a great cushy express quad, complete mountain coverage, all the trails open, and good conditions. The park was really good considering the snow, and the rails were INSANE! I'm not so good at the rails, but PE was in heaven. The king pin, battle ship, kink, and flat down were all huge. The rainbow was also awsome, but I don't think any skiier could ever do it if they ever planned to have children. There were also a whole bunch of big tabletops with lip, a wall ride (without much snow on it, oh well), some weird hip thing which was actually pretty fun, and a really weird spine. Good times. The experts were actually challengeing, the mountain was taller, and they actually have huge bump runs! I didn't know they existed in the Poconos! There were no rangers, and on top of that, the lift tickets were only 18 bucks (Saver Sundays or something). Its only around 15 minutes farther from Camelback, at least for me. The only thing I didn't like was the lights. They were sorta yellow-ish, which made you feel like the place was dreamily lit or something. Not a huge downside though. So pretty much, if you've never skiied there, what are you doing? Go up some sunday night, trust me, you'll like it.

Would today be a good day to check out Blue then? Public Enemy just called me a told me not to go to Camelback because all the trails are prime for iceskating. Definently not what they have on their conditions page, anyway. So we're both pretty bored, and I've wanted to check out Blue for a while now. If I wen't up tonight, would I get a pretty good idea of the mountain, and park? Sound like the conditions were great from what you said.

I still think that its amazing that someone can go in a park, hit their head, and it would be anyone elses fault other than their own. It's that mentality that makes everything around here suck. Canada can have some sick stuff, crazy bike parks in the middle of the city, tons of stuff like that. Its because its generally thought of, if you mess up its your own fault. I don't claim to know what all is involved with all that, but I really think they're doing something right, and we're doing something wrong.

A versaplane is a cheese grater like object that is used to grind away the extra P-Tex above your base. You then use a steel scraper to scrape and level everything off. Its worth getting a nice p-tex kit, depending on how messed up your base is. If you just have some mild scratches or other small dings, its probably not worth it. If you have some big problems, such as my sister had (gashes all the way to the core, huge cuts way down the base), then definently. A candle basically makes a quick temporary repair, that won't last forever, but is sufficent for small scratches or to get by on a trip or something. A p-tex ribbon sorta becomes a gel when it touches the heating iron, and you have to push it into the gaps with the iron. When that stuff hardens its not going anywhere believe me. Cutting it down with the versaplane and steel scraper will prove that. There's a hardness scale. I think its pretty safe to say we all have sintered bases unless you're on some crappy skis or boards. Almost anything you want to know about this sorta stuff can be found here: http://www.tognar.com/base_repairs_tips_ski_snowboard.html

Amen

Yeah I think it was about 10:15 by the time we were done arguing/conversing and I was heading back to my car. So the offense was probably at around 10:05. Edit: Haha, I don't know Skidude! A friendly flame war never did anybody any harm . Well, maybe it did. I wouldn't know .

The candles flow into cracks much easier, but they are much softer, and its also hard to get them not to put a whole bunch of black carbon in as well. You have to watch and make sure you don't get flaming plastic on yourself as well, or anything of value nearby. They sure are better than nothing though! Any repairs are easier with a versaplane and scraper because anything that goes over the scratch or is wrong can just be filled and then scraped away.

Just from what I've heard, they still have tons of trails open, and in pretty good conditions too. Better than Camelback right now by far.

I was teaching my sister how to do rails on her new skis. We built a nice straight box and I had it set up in our backyard. She wasn't getting on it right, and I didn't even think about the fact that it was probably destroying her skis. She kept jumping to early and hitting the bottoms of her skis into the end of the pipes. It turned out she had some HUGE shots and scratches in her bases. Some almost down to the core. I was feeling very guilty, so I ordered a nice set of base repair stuff off of tognar.com including a p-tex repair iron, a couple P-Tex ribbons, some P-Tex string, about 3 techno sticks, and versaplane, and a steel scraper. It wasn't too expensive in the end, only around 50 dollars or so. Everything came in order, and wow did it work well! Way way better than a drip candle! The P-Tex ribbons are almost exactly as hard as the original base, and the string is great for filling small gashes. She skied on them yesterday and they were as good as new. I also have enough left over supplies to fix about any base for the rest of my life. A good investment. Just wanted to post this for those of you who will one day take off your skis/board and get that sinking feeling in your stomach as you realize that its base is almost completley destroyed.

Its sort of a depressing January so far, hasn't it been? Wednesday night was the best skiing in a while, before it turned to ice of course.

Wait, me? I'm sorry if I offended anybody. I didn't think that I was judging anyone. Maybe I mistyped something. I agree that most of the ski patrol is a cool bunch of guys, just sometimes a couple can make it hard. From your posts it sounds like your the exact type of patroler I would like all of them to be at CB. Just the fact that you know what the fence is all about, and everything verifies that.

Haha, yeah I was definently afraid that those boarders were not going to help my cause. The patroler didn't back down in fear, he just looked like he was sick of all the crap, and wanted to go home. (It was pretty late by then)

Yeah, I agree ski911, its just that it was very confusing to whether it was actually closed or not. Saying it was 10:15 was a guess. All I know is I got on the lift at about 9:58 and the nice lifties said it was my last run. I just skied down at a normal speed, and was going home right then. I don't know I just assumed, that the signs at the top were the same as the fence. When I saw the park crew taking out all the closed signs, that also made me think that the pipe was open. I didn't as much run away as, decided it would be a go idea to go home quickly . He didn't whistle or anything so I decided it couldn't hurt. He caught up to me very quickly and I politely stopped when he told me to. I always ski in control, and don't go for a hit if someone is in my way or anything. When I live out west in about 2 years, I won't ever go on closed trails, because I'm sure when I get there and there is fresh snow, there will be more than 3 trails open. I understand you guy's point of view, and I know a couple patrollers. I just think that this could have been handled much differently. Oh yeah, I wasn't in trouble for being there that late, I was in trouble for dropping in the last 15 feet of the pipe. Its interesting to hear everyones opinion though. From the patrol themselves, to the racer's views, to the freestlyer's views.

So its 10:15 this Wednesday night, the lifts are closed, last run of the night. Its been snowing for 4 hours, and there's 2 inches of fresh powder on the ground. There are only 2 boarders in the whole park besides me, and they are well out of the way. Earlier in the day, the 1st half of the halfpipe had closed signs in front of it for some odd reason, weird because it was pretty nice considering the fresh snow sorta filled in the gaps that it usually had. Later I saw the park crew first raking the last part of the pipe without any closed signs along the side. Then I saw them removing the closed signs and raking the first half. At that point many people were in the pipe, and I dropped in and it was just fine. The park crew eventually put up two closed signs at the very front of the pipe where usually the net goes. As far as I could tell the pipe was still open, because when the net is there, they just don't want people riding straight into the pipe. Now it was the situation I described above, and I was at the last 1/8th of the pipe, I dropped in at unnatural 360d out the one side hopped back in a natural 360d out the other side. Each was very smooth, I wasn't out of control and it was just in the very end section. When I looked back up the pipe I saw a medic on a snowmobile going pretty fast toward me. I paused for a couple seconds, he was only a medic, and the pipe seemed open with fresh snow at 10:15 at night. What would he care? Then I noticed he was coming straight at me and, of course as all of you would do, started to run as fast as I could toward the parking lot. He caught me, which was inevitable with him being on a snow mobile. He told me I was in a "closed area", and if I knew what happened if I was in a closed area. He took my season pass and told me that I could get it back from the rangers tomorrow after watching a video and getting it punched. I argued with him for a while, mentioning the facts above. I seriously couldn't believe it though. He told me it was for my own saftey because there was rocks in the pipe. There were no freakin' rocks. So I argued politely with him for about 10 minutes. He said it was clearly marked and that the fence had been dragged in the woods by someone. I told him that wasn't my fault that the fence had been dragged into the woods, and the pipe wasn't clearly marked closed at all. By then the 2 boarders came down and the one told him that the conditions page said the pipe was open, and that he should check that first. The the medic told him to stay out of his business, then a whole bunch of boarders nearby starter making fun of the medic and mocking him. Finally the medic threw back my season pass and told me to tell my friends that they were acting like idiots. I told him I had no idea who they were and happily skied away. The fact is, no matter if you are 1 of the 3 people left, the pipe seems open, its 10:15 at night, and there is fresh snow on the ground, you are still at risk of that sorta crap. If I wouldn't of argued that long, and those 2 boarders hadn't come by, I probably would have a nice pass punch and a video to look forward to. I hate Camelback. (sorry for the long rant, I was just sorta pissed off)

I love how I'll be blazing down a trail, pulling spins and grabs off of side hits, jumping moguls, occasionally ducking through the woods if there's enough snow, then all of a sudden a ranger comes into view and I instantly go into tight completely in control turns until I'm passed. A look over my shoulder to make sure their out of site, and normal mode kicks back in again. Its those times when you don't see them that they get you.

If you're interested in some stuff that works better than drip P-Tex candles, http://www.tognar.com/base_repair_tools_ir...ges_damage.html They have stuff which is almost as hard as your original base, which might work better for the kind of gash you're describing. They also have one of those special irons for heating it. Then again, all these things take money, so maybe modifiying a glue gun is better.

Oh yeah, The Loft gives away free maps to the place. I'm sure they don't have the trails that Lineski's friend built and stuff on them, but who knows, you might stumble into them if you're lucky. Edit: The ones we did were basically strictly downhill. You would drive to the top behind Nile, and it would almost be like a lift ride up, and then you would bike down some crazy trails and you'd be all the way at the bottom of the mountain. You might be able to find some xc. I always went to Glen Park for that.

Yeah, me and my friends use to bike there before we built our dirtjump park. Its really awsome and crazy, besides that fact that you basically need someone to shuttle you back to the top everytime. If you and your friends have driver's licenses, then this isn't a big deal, but if only your parents can drive you, then they might not want to do that .

Oh my God, it's so beautiful. Thats why we were all born right there. To ski that. Hey sib, ya lookin' for someone to stay with your for 3 months ?

Yeah there are trails all around in there. Mostly bike trails and stuff. Every once and a while when we get a big dumping of snow, me and my friends hike over nile and ski through there, but you sorta have to know what you're doing. Its also like a freakin' spy game or something, because the trails come close to nile, and the rangers don't look kindly upon skiing out there and some will chase you, but there are lots of places to hide in the woods. I saw 2 four-wheelers in there tonight while I was stopped on Nile. All you could hear was these huge motor noises, and 2 headlights in dark out there. Everyonce and a while they would get like 6 feet away from the trail. I kept thinking how crazy it would be if they just went right on the trail with their 4 wheelers. It would be interesting to see how the rangers would react. They already looked pretty pissed .

I second that, suck it up Hagedorn.

Hmmm... I don't know what week you went, but when I went there last year in was great. Everyone was really nice, and I made tons of friends. The jumps were really nice, besides the very first one I didn't like, and the half-pipe was awsome, as were the rails. Lots of kids had some insane skills there too, throwing huge backflips and rodeos over 40 foot jumps. I don't know, maybe you got a cruddy week.

Yeah, I second that. Screw Camelback, those greedy hoe bags get enough money. *grumble* keep rasing the price of their stupid season pass, making the season shorter for Camelbeach, stupid adfkljf... *grumble*