Ski

They dropped the prices back for today and Friday, hoping to score a few new customers....man, that just can't be good

Yeah, 'Dude, ITC (Instructor Training Course) means nothing...the ski area you want to teach for makes you pay a fee, mostly to weed out the complete freeloaders, then if you can ski marginally and commit to a certain amount of time, you are hired. PSIA Certified would be closer to what they were going for. ITC's are basically a call for hiring, not any sort of certification. BTW, I've done them at Hunter, Mount Snow, and Mt. Tom...it's the resort learning about you, not you learning to teach.

It rained at RT's pacesetter trials. Pacesetters that were 10's are now 16's; 15's are 22's...there was an old guy from BC at trials that is now a certified 56HC, although he usually skis a 30-something. They may not give out ANY medals the night he pacesets at Bear Creek

We've skipped BB the last two years...not sure why, but probably a height thing with Ty. Disney's totally for the girls around here; I just carry luggage and hand out money. We used to do the Big Island every summer, until this child thing...but she can ride a boogie board now, so we're probably done with Disney for a while.

Sorry, Doug, I missed your name the first time I looked at that. You closed the gap on Speedy pretty good this week.

Well, Metz got spanked by Jeff: http://www.nastar.com/index.jsp?pagename=r...44474&year=2006 But the surprise of the night was our own mbike-ski, who found his way into the medals!

Johnny, we look forward to when you can hang around on a more regular basis...

Hey, Sib, guess what just arrived today in a plastic bag marked "Damaged by USPS"? I could read most of it. Thanks! Doug: only Super G's on Kastle 213's and they were races I didn't really belong in. One annual race was at a mountain in MA, near where I used to live; they ran a night SG on a mile-long trail and the whole thing was sort of like Disney's Space Mountain ride.

What, like: it was long overdue? Just, FYI: The 76th running of the Lauberhorn downhill, Saturday, is one of the most grueling and prestigious speed events on the World Cup. I believe Bode finished third last year. It's 2.8 miles and about 2 1/2 minutes. Racers actually bank their way around one turn, which is unique to all dh's, then go under a railroad tunnel, which has been seen in lots of movies, including Redford's Downhill Racer. Just to be clear, though, the final training run decides the start order for the race, so racers wishing to run early check their speed right before the training run finish line--they stand up and do a little hockey stop speed-check. The fastest in training go last in the first 30 on race day. It's usually best to finish about 20th in training, so your bib is #10 for the race. Canadian Eric Guay won the training, so he goes 30th, which could make it impossible for him to win.

I was loading my gear in my Jeep when the ra*n started...bummer...

The black ones or the Samurai (white w/red and black)?

Hahaha and that was edited!

"...not even Ski999"? WTF? You dick! But I did want to say that was one incredibly classy post, Jeff.

Just FYI, it's 510' according to BC; 400ish on the topo maps.

So Doug vs. Metz on Thursday at Blue? Sort of a battle for redemtion? There needs to be a case of beer or bottle of something riding on it. And it's Volkl vs. Rob on Saturday at CB? That's interesting because there's some history going on. That's just a good, stright-up challenge...no booze needed. Do I have that straight?

To be clear: "But nobody outside of the PASR "Team" would ever give a flying crap about our team standings." If you are going to quote me, then don't make up quotes, Rob. Do you care about the "D-Team Trollhaugens"? PASR people already do go to ASRA and Masters events. You don't and never will. And it's ME that takes the fun out of NASTAR? I guess you weren't around the MB or Blue Mountain last Thursday. I think we all had a lot of fun with it. IMO, that's the epitome of a NASTAR night: a little trash talk, then going head to head with friends. Not who is the 5-yr.-old National Champion, or claims of pipeline to the US Ski Team....

Rob, NASTAR handicapping is wildly inconsitent and erratic. Getting "noticed" by the PASR Team? Comparing results from different days and different courses doesn't work. Last season, BC didn't even have a certified pacesetter...they just made up their own official handicap. And at some mountains, the pacesetter doesn't even ski---they have one of the race kids take his run for him and let him use the pacesetter's handicap. It's totally against NASTAR rules, but it's status quo at a number of resorts. But who cares? NASTAR is just a fun race. It's the dopes trying to turn it into a profit for themselves that take the fun out of recreational racing. BTW, I heard from your kids how much you want to beat me. They cheered and scoffed at me when they thought you'd beaten me at JF; one actually laughed and danced Well, according to NASTAR HC's, you have a far superior HC than me...something like 10 points! Jeez, I'd have to be crazy to ever race a speed demon like you. But nobody outside of the PASR "Team" would ever give a flying crap about our team standings. I don't understand why you'd badger Doug about it. Badger him about his white-boy rapping, but pressuring him to join a "Team" for silly reasons is goofy.

Toast is a soccer player, so it's impossible for me to give him a hard time about anything.

Hey, props to you Volkl, I thought for sure you'd bail.

Ha, go ahead, toast, don't leave us hanging...why is Blue better? More vert? More acreage? Better snow quality?

We never have 100% coverage. The North Face is fine, though. Colder nights up here, although we don't get the 100+ inches that BC gets down in that snowbelt valley

Ha, you're right, I'm sorry. But I am a little worried after that XMass week. And during the days, lifties keep saying things like "You have the mountain to yourself again."

I'm a Yankee fan and I hate it how fast other Yankee fans boo longtime players too fast when they are in a slump. For anyone else who is a Yankee fan, could you imagine ever hearing boos for Bernie? Well, it had started and gone on for a while and it was just wrong after what Bernie had done for us. For Sox fans, that's the equivalent of booing Schilling or Papi. But Bernie never struck out because he was drunk.

I was going the opposite...I'd take a CB pass over a Blue, but I like Challenge and Razors both over Cliffy. For me, I like the fall line that drops straight down the mountain on Blue's two, plus Cliffhanger's flat lower 2/3's gets pretty thick and crappy a lot, while snow gets scraped off Blue. Cliffy's probably a more 'interesting' trail, I guess, with it's bends and fall line changes.

Oh, sh*t, I may have p*ssed off Doug and Jeff knows where I live 8*) Seriously, though, I've been out of practice for dealing with that stuff, Doug. I was waiting in the ticket line and someone leaned a snowboard on me. I'm like "WTF?" So then I went and stood in line to take a wizz and unless I'm at a club with a Absolut/rocks in one hand and 30 goth chicks outside waiting, then that's a bad moment in my life. You should seriously consider relocating to a mountain that's always on the verge of closing down.