Ski

Unless you have a good heat source meant for p-tex, it's always a sketchy thing to do on your own. Because it's so messy, it helps to put tape around the hole like when you are painting a window frame. And if you want to try something funny, drip some burning p-tex on someone you don't like...it's a lot like napalm.

It's 8 degrees here and I have to give lessons from 6-10pm. I wish it was 40 degrees.

$10 tickets during a holiday period with top-to-bottom skiing? That just may be a first for any ski area. I'm heading over at 2pm, hopefully for some laps on Boomer.

Race start time is when when the race starts. If it's a J1/2/3 race at Big Boulder, then 9am (or whatever) goes on all sheets. Race codes for men and women are separate, but a race begins when the first forerunner goes off. And I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that your finish place is pretty meaningless. Does a college coach care whether you finished 20th in a race? That tells him nothing. Finishing 100th in a race can be better than winning a race. It's all about the points which are basically determined by the quality of the competitors. The only time when finish place matters for CAT racers is during PA Cups---and then, it's only for the few at the very top who are earning births to post season races up north.

Jeez, Sib, what's up with that? Firstly, I didn't say he finished 39th out of 116 or 216 or 316. I meant his ruts must have been a bitch since he started way the hell back. If you want to assume I meant something else, then go right ahead. So with 35 degree temps for run one and 45 degrees for run two (and there was heavy rain in the area), how well do you figure a course would hold up? And have you been to a USSA race in the East where girls and guys race on separate courses? I haven't even heard of a USSA race where they separate them. And just why the heck can't I give props to 'Dude for scoring a sub-200 race? I think it's awesome. I always have and always will root for ALL current and former CAT racers.

Huh? He had the ruts of 116 racers minus any DNSers. Girls first. I feel a little better after skiing with him a few early season days knowing that he's faster and that I haven't necessarily gotten slower.

Results are in from Swain... The 'Dude started with bib #117 out of 124 racers, which is waaaay the hell back. Finished in 39th place, with 194.12 points. BTW, Atomic, that's the equivalent of 9th place at the Blue race we watched...

On Wednesday, some kids walked into the lodge, looked around and yelled, "What's all this Kung Foo sh*t going on?" There will be a fistfight or two this season.

I never get tired of that.

Haven't heard and USSA is slow to post during the holiday week. It's a shame about yesterday's weather, since it's almost impossible to improve points in bad weather. There was rain during the NASTAR pacesetter trials at Hunter and I'm going to have to actually beat our pacesetter to get gold (not that I care, but Ty collects them). 'Dude was at Brantling today for a slalom, so he'll be back about the time Santa passes by his house.

Funny, but only the third day open and someone already broke the new pool table.

Pretty cool that Montage was blasting away from top to bottom all day. Boomer will definitely be next to open. Even with $10 lift tickets, the bunny hill was the only one crowded. Cannonball could be tucked top to bottom and even that stupid SLOW sign near the lift was gone.

So, uh, is CB comping you a lift ticket to share with a friend to make up for the hassle and wasted gas and time? Or is it "Oops, we goofed, it won't happen again until it happens again with some other new employee"?

The 'Dude is probably eating some lunchtime meatloaf between race runs at Swain right now. It's currently 48 degrees, with moderate rain and 30 mph winds at Swain. Kinda curious how that turns out...

It's run by a county that's basically bankrupt. They can't manage to hire someone that knows how to update their website...even opening day was announced in a tiny, scrolling marquee that was surrounded by year-old information. As long as they are able to stay open, I'm fine with small crowds and 'fair' snowmaking. The people that work at Montage seem a helluva lot more friendly than anywhere else in the Poconos. Rangers at CB set the tone for that place...and it's not a good tone. If a Montage 'triangle guy' gets and attitude, we beat him up and send him to work at Camelback.

Okay, a warm, sunny opening day and Cannonball was cool. Just one Ranger-guy hanging around bitching about the kids building a hit about halfway down on the left...the slope was empty otherwise. Came back in the pm with my little maniac to find that there's now a 7-day-a-week shuttle to the lodge door? That's awesome if you want to use the lodge for a home-base instead of just jumping on a north face run. Aside from what's open, none of the other slopes are even close to having coverage and need days of blowing.

I unofficially opened our home hill, but got sick of hiking...so no, not really, this is first day out in PA. And I'm forbidden from letting my kid cut school, can you believe that? Freakin' pre-K!!! My wife even said she was going to call the school to be sure I didn't lie and take her anyway. And, Skifreak, don't ever let these guys talk you into doing something that might get you chained to the trailer hitch of a Jeep and dragged down a highway.

Montage lifts finally open Noon tomorrow---until 10pm. I'll be the anti-social, non-stickered guy doing Cannonball laps, so stay the @#%* outta my way.

Well, Skimom, that's exactly why I'm so intense in my hatred for Hunter. The next 100 people can tell me how much they like it, but my time there has been one crash after another with NYC buttheads. I think I'm seein' the Endless Mountains in your future..

There will be plenty of guys racing on 9.20's. And, yeah, you should try to make it back. Dual GS is awesome; it completely freaks you out to have someone making the same turns right next to you. You can, of course, let the other guy go ahead of you since you are racing against the clock and not him, but it's cooler to go off at the same time.

Man, I just can't imagine you in a yard sale...

AtomicSkier will be racing in an ASRA Dual GS race at Blue on January 23rd.

It's a system where it takes away the 'fluke', or cheap wins. So if all the good racers crash and you waddle down to the finish and win, the penalty points are really high.

Men are, too. Any race is given a "penalty". It's wicked complicated and depends on three factors: 1. The seed points of the top five racers that start; 2. the seed points of the top five racers among the top 10 finishers; 3. whether the times of those five racers are clustered together near the winer's time or widely dispersed. Basically, you need a computer to figure out the penalty assigned to each race. Then, you have to figure out the race penalty, which means how close your time is to the winners. For example, it's better to finish in 10th place and be 1 second behind in a race than it is to be 9th place and 2 seconds out in a different race. The whole idea is to be able to compare racers on any given day and on any given slope.

Some insane competition in FIS races. Former CAT "CW" had FIS races yesterday and today in Maine... Again, it can be better to finish 100th in a race with great competition than 10th in a race with little competition. It's all about the points. You try to get them as low as possible, just like a golf or NASTAR handicap.