Ski

Blue has a good no-bullsh*t race department that will insist on sending pacesetters to trials at Hunter, so HC's will be accurate. That's an added plus.

Thanks for the heads up...

Awesome, Jeff. Thursday nights are especially cool.

CB is a big profit maker, so there's no huge change necessarily coming; Montage and Tanglwood are not, so we just have to be glad they reopen from year to year. Montage had one bad XMas week two years ago and the county went crazy trying to sell. Elk would love it if Montage shut down and they got their Scranton/Wilkes-Barre skiers/riders back.

Tilted? I would guess a leaning rail would be a b*tch to stay on.

Right. Probably was me. Eh, and maybe a different day. But walking across the lot in ski boots is still a bad thing...

How many times can you stand there and kick your binding toepiece before you crack the plastic? Can I come kick your bindings and run a little test?

And I remember a pre-release you had on a Montage diamond

Yep. Or old shoes you don't mind losing. I often give people crap for walking from the lot in their boots. You're really screwing with the binding contact points...like using your binding to kick snow off your ski boots....use your pole instead.

I can sure vouch for the unwavering obsession Sib has for racking up runs and feet and miles...and I'll bet Sib has spent more time than anyone standing around in her ski boots, not just watching races, but watching practices, too (we used to catch hell from the girls for that). What Sib does to boots is what that woman in the Columbia ski jacket commercial does to her husband and the jackets...

It's better than when they only made one new version every four years, though. And I guess the positive side is that I really like the beta lobe dampening system in Atomics---better than K2's PE or Salomon's bars---but the 21m is hard to shorten with such a stiff ski. It's like if you're late in one turn, the next four gates are blown trying to recover and get back ahead of the course. So the 16m is a way to cheat a little.

I was just attacking him for his goofy comment.

Mostly just to show Jeff, but here's a pic of the odd sized GS:11's with a 109mm shovel on the far right. The middle pair are the "off the rack" GS:11's I bought after the season ended; my SL:11's are on the left. The lobes are the same, but the 109's look a lot like SL:11's...

Sorry, 'Mom, but it's a little like saying Philadelphia didn't exist until Tasty Cakes opened in 1914. How often are there takovers where new management doesn't immediately reassure employees that no layoffs are coming? It's usually the first issue addressed, isn't it? When Montage was recently listed, the County Commissioners were requiring that any new owner guarantee they would keep all the current employees. I think that's absurd...why would a new owner want to keep the snowmaker that was late for work 50 times and written up five times for starting fights? Or a cafeteria worker that has been suspended twice for having $200 missing from her drawer? The hardest thing to do is get reliable seasonal employees, so employers have motivation to reassure workers and not have them start looking elsewhere. But Bob should know this about the Poconos: ******** The first boarding house hotel was built in 1829 by Anthon Dutot in the Delaware Water Gap. By 1857, the hotel became the center of a flourishing resort industry. The Monroe County Publicity Bureau (an early forerunner to the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau) began encouraging vacationers to "Pennsylvania?s Playground" in 1927. In the upper regions of the Poconos, Pennsylvania?s Power and light company began the construction of what is now the third largest man-made lake in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Lake Wallenpaupack. In 1926, PP&L dammed the creek and built a hydro-electric plant and in doing so, a 5,600-acre lake was created with 52 miles of uninterrupted shoreline. During World War II, many GI?s often took their leaves with their girlfriends and families in the Poconos right before they went overseas. The Poconos then took on a romantic appeal for these young people, many of whom returned after the war as honeymooners. It was the 1940?s when the Pocono Mountains began its climb to becoming the Honeymoon Capital of the World. In 1945, Rudolf Von Hoevenberg opened a rustic operation consisting of some cabins and a main lodge, called The Farm on the Hill, the first honeymoon resort of the Pocono Mountains. Plush resorts for honeymooners in the 1940?s and 1950?s spurred the growth of a flourishing resort business in the Pocono Mountains. The four-season appeal of the Pocono Mountains was enhanced with the opening of the first commercial ski area in Pennsylvania, Big Boulder , in 1946. In 1950, the first patent application for the making of snow by blowing water through a nozzle was filed, and by the winter of 1956, the system was perfected and in place at Big Boulder Ski Area. This first helped to establish the Pocono Mountains as a ski destination. Beginning in the late 1950?s and continuing into the late 1960?s, Interstate 80 and 81 were constructed in the Poconos? four county regions. The opening of these major interstate highways made the Pocono Mountains easily accessible by motor vehicles, thus the Poconos became an even more popular all-season destination. In 1963, the first heart-shaped tub was introduced at Cove Haven in Lakeville, PA. Life magazine ran photos of this latest novelty and a flood of publicity followed, resulting in the naming of the Pocono Mountains as the "Honeymoon Capital of the World." Pocono International Raceway in Long Pond, PA opened its 2 1/2 mile super speedway in 1971 with the first of a series of Indy car races. NASCAR soon followed in 1972 and brings thousands of race fans to the Pocono Mountains today. ***********

Not a flame...very legit. My first reaction was that he would flip it, too. But not to an Intrawest type company, or even Snowtime. CB is pretty maxed when it comes to growth of the ski area and the Poconos are way too weather reliant. I could see a big resort chain being interested. Proximity to about 20 million people is a big deal. W Hotels coming in and expanding the rooms by 300% and charging their standard $250-$400/night, which will include a family pass to Camelbeach. Probably a lot of talk about improvements, but very little actually done over the next couple of seasons. Flame away...

They wouldn't cut a program like USSA since CB currently makes so little financial and facility commitment. They just might make you pay another $50/season. Now, if Newman and the Board had given you guys Rocket on weekends, you'd probably be screwed.

Unless it's a last ditch attempt to keep a dying area open, it's generally a bad thing when a small investor buys a ski area. They generally don't come in and dump $5 million in upgrades and new terrain. Usually, it's more about ego and bottom line. I mean, it would have been great for him to snatch up Montage, but I can't see any great additions coming. Interesting to see what happens... And this: "Before Camelback opened 43 years ago, the Poconos closed for the winter, said Bob Uguccioni of the Pocono Mountains Vacation Bureau." Hey, Bob, Camelback didn't invent hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, camping, honeymoon vacation resorts, rafting, dirt biking, and the numerous other outdoor activities. What a stupid thing to say. Wonder if the park will be better?

The closest major ski area in VT that has nearby snowmobiling is Mount Snow. Here's the snowmobiling link: http://www.snowgooseinn.com/New%20Snowmobile%20Page.htm Mount Snow is my old home hill and I highly recommend it, especially since they bought Haystack and offer a free shuttle over. Kind of like a Killington/Pico thing, where if Mount Snow gets packed, you can escape to Haystack and have no lift lines. I hesitate to recommend the North Face of Mount Snow to Zaldon, though. If he straightlines Rip Cord or Jaws of Death, we may never see him again.

Rollka made them under a few names. Not sure if they supplied them to other companies or changed their own name of the years they were in business. That's the first pair with green treads that I've seen, though.

I emailed them a dozen times over a six month period and they never responded. I chatted with a guy from Bryce who had a pair about two years ago. They are very high maintenance and much more fragile than Rollka's, he said. They are much faster, though, but be prepared to tune them every time out and bucket wash them after every use. I thought your's were broken...

Well, people scoffed at bum fighting at first...and that turned out pretty good. 'Dude's like seven feet tall now, so I'd say a vid of her beating him up would sell.

Yeah, oops. It's a stupid habit from all the time I spend next to amps and speakers at either at dance clubs or proms.

I sometimes prefer sensei999... My experience is just that the vast majority of martial arts doesn't teach kicking someone's ass, although that Machio kid was from Jersey before moving to California. My Buddhist Peace Fellowship background has me all screwed up when it comes the right time and place for kicking someone's ass.

After the Karate Kid movies came out, thousands of runt kids flocked to dojos and earned belts of all colors from a variety of martial arts, yet still got their weenie asses beaten into the dirt. Although my hero was a Ninja:

It would be a whole different product because you'd have to make something that skids. Design it and become rich.