Ski

Other than for my race schedule, I don't generally make plans to ski around here, Phil...I just kind of go when it strikes me. If friends were hitting Elk some morning and I felt like heading over, then I'd just go. But there's got to be some motivation to spend $49 to ski someplace... But you can't tell me that you aren't a little envious of Doug's world: sell a few headstones, ski a few runs, sell a few more headstones... And the kids? My Montage buds throw huge air off icy black diamond headwall lips that would scare the hell out of most MRG kids. C'mon, Phil, cancel your TV Guide subscription and come be one of us.

You'll get to cheer for him up close on 1/21 at Blue's PA Cup race. The best racers in Pennsylvania open the seven race series that Saturday, then hit CB's Cliffhanger for another GS on Sunday. Winners of those races will be one step closer to a spot at the Junior Olympics.

FedEx totally and completely sucks. I have film delivered almost every day to my home from my company and for the past six years I never had a second thought about it. Then they switched from UPS to FedEx and I've now met five different neighbors that have gotten my shipments just in the last couple of months. The boxes are clearly addressed with my house number and there's a sign with that number at the top of my driveway. It's NOT rocket science. ThinkSnow runs a far superior company than those crappy hacks at FedEx.

I put his link back in my sig...he was nice enough to send me some pics last year...

I'm talking about skiing every day, Phil.

I have to tell ya, Phil, the last hour of night skiing at Montage was superb and empty last night. I parked 20 yards from the slopes and they even took away the ropes and cones at the lifts, because there were no lines. You don't know what you're missing by having to plan trips and watch the weather and all that crap. In the words of Abraham Lincoln: "Just do it!"

The prize is a medal and a lift ticket to Loon on 4/1 to ski in the finals. It's a VERY 'introductory' sort of race series, especially since it's just a single run down a NASTAR-like course. On the upside, the race series is FREE, other than the lift ticket. And they give away tons of door prizes during the awards ceremony. At JF, they gave away about 10 cases of soda, 20 t-shirts, 10 towels, 10 hoody sweatshirts, a snowboard, 2 pairs of skis, and a dozen pairs of Hotfingers gloves. Also, they walked around with free bottles of soda. The series is to hype their product, not make money off the kids that day. They also sold raffle tickets and raised money for the Make a Wish Foundation, so there was some real good deed stuff going on, too.

Ha, no...not sure Tony skis, Brother Skitzo...it's pretty cool to have him lurking around, though, he gets some great shots. If CB or Blue had some guy doing that, he'd make a fortune. We're cheap bastards at Montage.

Rude motherf*cker, eh? Sorry, iPod...gotta wack me with a ski pole or something. I hadn't planned on skiing today, but figured last hour would be pretty empty.

That's exactly why so many people I know hate skiing. They only ever ski XMas week and other holidays. They'd hate malls if the only time they ever went was a week before XMas.

Sibs theory of the day to day increase in masses during this week seems to have held up again. Toys R Us wasn't too crowded, though.

Today's the last close one: http://www.snocountry.com/staticpages/index.php/MDVC-East

We probably bought 95% of XMas gifts online this year, so I guess I'm due for a little discount shopping craziness.

Thanks, but she's pretty set on a Toys R Us trip instead...I wish we'd held off and just come to CB Wednesday.

Thanks...I had her a little over her head today. She's wicked proud of her medal, but she cried for 40 minutes in the race line. We'll be at Toys R Us right after it opens tomorrow, finding the things I promised her...

Ha, thanks, 'Mom...they take a photo of all the medalists in front of an inflatable can of Mountain Dew and she kept holding up the envelope with paperwork for the Loon trip . Not sure how she plans to get to Loon, since I wasn't allowed to race today...

Screw the dog, that should be their new commercial.

Congrats to Papa and Ridge for silver medals in today's Mountain Dew Vertical Challenge at Jack Frost. The cold wind and an extra 40 minute delay in getting the timing gear to work took it's toll on us (Ty and I were both crying like 5 yr. olds 'cause our feet were cold and hurt )...Ty crashed, but bounced back up to finish third among the little one's. It was nice that they gave away a ton of shirts and stuff, but they ran the race on a slope that was probably a little too steep for little kids, especially with icy conditions, and they don't allow inspection for the one run race, which is like taking a test without being able to study. The FREE race series moves to CB tomorrow, where I'm sure it'll be handled a little more racer friendly...at the very minimum, you can see the course ahead of time from the lift and the far side of the same slope. One nice benefit is that the top three finishers in each age/gender catagory get a free ticket to the Eastern Regionals at Loon, NH... Here's a pic of our crash:

At first I thought you were asking me, but realized you were probably asking Skitzo. I think I'm taking my kid over to JF tomorrow morning for the Mountain Dew race...just for her to screw around in the gates. I hate mornings, though.

Wow, thanks, Missy. I was blown away by how empty Montage was today, but Sib always had the formula for how the crowds built up day by day during XMas week and she was always right.

Anyone know how far down the lots were filled today? Was it a typical nuts XMas week day where you had to shuttle from that far back lot? We Montagers have all become pretty xenophobic, but I'm considering bringing Ty down for the Mountain Dew Vert. Challenge, just to goof around in the gates.

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BTW, guys, we just got back from skiing for a few hours and there still isn't a lift line anywhere. We even parked next to the split-rail fence by the lift. Everything is a little spring-like, but it was a lot better this afternoon with it being snow instead of rain. It's pretty amazing how dead it is...

VTmark, I don't hold any grudges or anything with what people post on this or any other MB...I have a pretty thick skin and really only get pissy when people bash PA skiing on a PA MB. My huge problem with the MSRT guy was mostly because he errased our kids NASTAR records while keeping much more "Golden Day" records on his home course. In fact, just this XMas a couple of people were even faster than Darron Rahlves would have been on his course, yet they don't recalculate their races...just our's. But Dranow doesn't like me, so he killed my kid's results and banned me from his message board and threatened my family with violence. Oh, well... But I don't understand why you continue to read a thread that bothers you? Among the rude posts, we have exchanged real information. We don't get along at all, but I think we both recognize with dissenting voices come evolving ideas. The head coach of the CATs is a former high school cross country coach. He's pretty anti-running, at least for distances, when it comes to skiers. Partly because of impact, but mostly because of the way it actually breaks down muscles. My oldest is a cross country runner---now at college---and she's built more like a fashion model than what you'd consider an athlete. The best kind of running to do for skiing is in dry river beds, or trails like that. Running from rock to rock, with hills and undulating terrain. Two of the top male CATs over the last couple of years have something in common: both played linebacker on their high school football teams.

"I can't see what hasn't been done, nor can the racer. When does that improvement show? The ski training day is long, No one yet has come up with a valid argument of why drills are not applied to a course. Ridge wants to do some NASTAR races to compare against last year." A coach doesn't need to see a kid in gates to see if they are improving. Gates have nothing to do with carving properly and body position; gates just happen to be the turning points. I could stand at the bottom of a gateless hill and tell any J3/4/5 what he needs to work on...any level 1 coach could. And just how does anyone compair what they did from year to year in NASTAR? It's impossible. Look at Gary: he's gone from a certified 6 HC to a certified 10 HC. NASTAR does the best they can, but it's not possible to have any sort of accurate handicapping system. And it's a waste of time going into character building examples with you, Rob. But Sib certainly did. Believe it or not, we actually really care a lot about what's about to happen. A blind guy is about to wander into traffic with his kid and we're trying to pull him back. What would you do if a friend at school was about to toss a rock at the back of the head of a tough teacher? Oh, well, bad example. (EDIT: ooops, I didn't mean it would just be you, VT, letting him toss it...)