Ski

A non-marketing person at Belleayre just told me that if the forecast holds, they'll be up and running on Nov. 13th, with $25 tickets.

Yeah, it's been one of those days where the clouds are just streaming out of the NW and sometime dump sleet and sometimes snow. And I started a five week vacation today, so my skis are waxed...

We aren't really supposed to bash the donut slurping fudge packer here, so let's try to be nice. And, after all, it's SNOWING!

It's not sticking, but we had some awesome snow squalls come through creating five minute blizzards. Trees are down all over the place. I know it's not really winter yet, but WINTER FREAKING RULES!

Sat. 12/4 10pm

It was 29 degrees here at 9am...and there was a big green splotch of precipitation on the weather.com radar screen about to move over us. So close, yet so far.

Someone does that once or twice a year on the CB MB. I guess we're all slowly taking turns doing it once.

As far as I'm concerned, some of the best rock skis are used junior race skis. My wife skis Atomic 10.22's in 150. She's tiny (5', 90lbs or so), but the 160's would have been a blast for me. I also picked up a pair of used Rossi 9S junior slalom race skis in 150 for her, which I paid $36, plus $12 shipping. There's no substitute for Skidudebay when it comes to cheap skis.

Ever wonder why you never see Bode and Ski999 together? Hmmmm?

You get to break up with girls this hot:

I went over to grass ski today but it was too leafy. Dry leaves are okay, but wet leaves suck to ski on.

Do they make a steering wheel?

Yeah, Blue and here's the list of all PA ski shops: http://www.skisite.com/shopsList.cfm?state=PA The scumbag Pelican shops in Quakertown are showing up as the next closest to you...but if you call Blue ahead and ask when someone will be there to do it while you wait, it might make it less of a hassle.

Isn't Nestor's in Whitehall the only place close? http://www.nestors.com/main/warming_hut.asp Avoid any Pelican...they eat babies.

http://www.reliableracing.com http://www.the-raceplace.com http://www.race-werks.com/index.php http://www.svst.com/ http://www.racewax.com/

...

The World Cup opened on the glacier in Soelden, AU, last weekend. Here's the new GS leader (check out the boards!):

I was mostly just applying it to edge work at the beinning of the season. Volkl had said to detune at the beginning of the season by stone grinding. That would set the base to zero. While it sounds good to start the season from scratch, it's wrong.

I was just going to PM this to 'Mom and 'Dude because we'd discussed it, but some other people might want be interested. I had a long talk with my shop guy today and he took issue with something I'd read a few years ago. In the 2000-'01 Masters pre-season newsletter, there was a long article about tuning from a longtime Volkl tech. In it, he stated that before re-beveling the base edge, you HAD to stone grind the base flat. But unless you are base-high, or have some other issues, it is NOT necessary to do any stone grinding. This makes sense and saves a lot of base and edge material. So, when you are doing your pre-season tune, just check the bases with a true bar, keeping in mind that most skis are designed not to be totally flat. Atomic, for instance, has two channels mostly toward the tip and tail. If they look good, then just sharpen the base (I use 1 degree), then the edges (3 for mine). Don't sharpen the bases again all year. Just keep working on your side edges. Stone grinding your bases will make your skis slow down. Make sure you really need the grind. Use the same base and edge bevel for all of your skis, no matter the discipline. I guess that's it...

Ha! Yeah, that'd be more fun!

Ya just gotta learn the system..tell your English teacher you want to do a short story about a trip to the Mad River Valley; or tell your social studies teacher you want to do a project about life in a small New England village; or a science teacher about the impact of a ski resort on the environment. One of them will say yes. Then go to the ski club advisor and tell them that you want to go on the trip as an academic project. That Mr. Hand is sending you. Best of all, you can look up that shit on the internet in roughly seven minutes.

Four months later...

The Bush is a great place. It's made up of three separate experiences. You'll spend most of your time on Lincoln Peak and, if there's good snow, over on Castlerock. Locals will tell you to avoid Mt. Ellen, which has less terrain and slower lifts. Castlerock is the home of an extreme skiing comp every year. Castlerock runs are pretty insane. We spent a week there a while back and everybody had a blast. Hard to say what it compares to. Sugarbush has a lot of smelly freeheelers and you get a wiff of pot on every lift ride, it seems. Sorry I have no idea about parks or pipes...

And, btw, the back way is mostly 60 mph, so it takes about 90 min. from Honesdale, not 2 hrs. 18 min. And that's in a Jeep...

Yeah, Windham, Hunter, and Belleayre are all doable from Philly for a day trip. The Catskills are roughly 3 hours from Philly... For anyone around Camelback, it's a lot easier to take the back way, rather than the NY Thruway. Check a map and look for Honesdale, PA, which is about 43 miles from CB...then it's just 85 miles to Belleayre. http://www.mapquest.com/directions/main.ad...-01979-400c2528