Ski

Shawnee has opened in November with one very overcrowded and lame run, "Pennsylvanian", or whatever. They always project for Thanksgiving and are usually the first to open, but it's ALWAYS a waste of time. CB, on the other hand, waits too freaking long to open. The Daves' answer is that they want to get terrain open for all abilities, when in fact, it's because they act like tightasses and can't imagine opening at less than full customer capacity. Belleayre is hoping for Nov. 6th; Hunter the 13th, but likely the 20th. I'm heading to Belleayre for opening day...

Jeez, guys I'm freaking married. I spent the night trying to help answer college essay questions for my oldest daughter and just now put my four-year-old to bed. By the way, SnowBunny, did you know I was rich beyond belief?

She'll be the first to tell you that PR/Marketing types have pretty thick skins. And they are usually pretty cool people from mountain to mountain. Funny, how CB is the exception.

And just what would that make me?

Well, she's letting me go to the Sugarbush camp. I guess if I behave myself, she'll consider other sleep-aways.

I already asked; she said no.

I'll go if bearcreek_chick goes...

It just seemed like a harmless opinion to me. The Daves, of course, get all red and sweaty at any mention of an outside world, kind of like that director in The Truman Show...

Heheheh...excellent!

I know...I might as well just quit my job.

It was just one of the screen names I picked out that the Daves wouldn't be suspicious of when they were banning people that might have been me. For example, they deleted ski9, even though he was coming to the site from a proxie server in South Africa. I was bored and collected a few dozen screen names over a couple of days.

'Mom had been asking how to go about changing her name... And what's up with that nasty remark, Sib? Hmmm? A little defensive about your CHEAP ASS grill, maybe?

You mean Montage? I meant my "actual" home hill, which is a small, private ski area. Our diamond truly stretches the meaning of the term diamond. It rocks for grass skiing, though.

Ha, 'Dude, we have a diamond at our ski hill.

Beautiful house. Amazing view. Cheap-ass grill.

Ski Mag is EXCELLENT for putting skis in catagories for "types of skier". There's no financial insentive one way or the other for them saying a GS:11 is a jibbing ski. Ski Mag makes a point of saying they don't include bad skis, so you are welcome to assume the skis left out are the bad one's. That way, they can write only postive reviews and make the advertisers happy, while still being honest. But, again, the useful information is how they catagorize skis, boots, and bindings.

Never been to Tussey. And if my youngest has a race there, I think I'll pass on a lift ticket.

February 5th and 6th for a pair of GS races, as Blue hosts two PA Cup races. Elk again gets Finals on March 4,5, and 6th. Montage apparently convinced someone they'll open, since they are listed as holding some races for the younger 3/4/5's.

Greek Peak is too small for the drive. It's like driving really far to ski in the Poconos. Hunter is by far the most crowded. A sunny Saturday and you decide to challenge yourself down Hellgate and it's like getting on the Parkway at 5pm. Hunter is truly skiing's version of the NYC subway. Someone their even had the brilliant idea of naming runs after shitty, overcrowded NY area highways. Windham has less crowds, although most people consider it a little less challenging. I haven't understood what is challenging about Hunter, but if people say it's hard and ski there, then they must feel better about their skiing. Windham has a cool headwall (Wheelchair?---not sure) that has a wicked steep pitch and is right under a lift. By far the best skiing in the Catskill Region is Belleyare. But don't freaking tell anyone else! It's cheaper, has 10 or so good fall line diamonds, and has 1/10 the crowd as Hunter. Why all those people load up on the Long Island Expressway and herd their bodies to the Hunter masses--- which is mostly clad in NY Jets Starter jackets--- is a mystery to me.

Board and ski bases are a lot like sponges. It may seem like you're scraping all the wax off, but it's the wax that gets into the pores of the base that keep your board healthy. An unwaxed board will get a powdery residue, which is the actually base flaking off. If you don't want the hot wax hassle, you can use the cork method. Buy from a shop, or even just use a champagne cork---it's all the same. Take your wax and draw loops and circles all over the base (also known as crayoning). Then rub the cork on it until it works into the base. The friction of the cork heat up the wax. Then scrape it off with a plexiglass or plastic scraper. You can use a nylon or horsehair brush to get more out, if you want. Corking doesn't work as good as hot wax, since it doesn't get it as deep. But it's still 1000x better than nothing. How often should you wax? Well, think of it this way: a day of skiing and riding is the equivalent of driving your car 3000 miles. As for sharpening bases and edges, you should get a stone grind and base sharpening at the beginning of each season. Edge sharpening is done as needed through the season. You can pick up a "multi-tuner" for $30 and never have to waste another dime in a shop.

I have Homecoming football games Friday night and Saturday...so if it snows, I'll be sure to peg a cheerleader with a snowball and take a picture for you. And, btw, why are you still Skimom? Did I miss something?

For every recreational skier out there, settings should be the same for front and back. Why they have different toe and heel setting for racing has to do with a mixture of things, such as boot mechanics, canting, as well as for what injury each skier is physically vulnerable. I'm just assuming this is why they do it, since I only have different settings because torque tests show my toe-piece springs have been wearing out sooner. So I guess that anyone wanting to be anal about it may have has many as four different settings for used bindings, yet all have equal retention. More importantly, HEY PEDRO: WHO'SE YOUR DADDY???????

Mmmmmm... Twiggy...

I had emailed them to ask if I could take a "scenic ride" up the lift and grass ski down. No answer since Sunday.

The upper mountain does face just north of west, but the North Face turns toward the north. The North Face diamonds are also burried in trees, so there's no real sun exposure no matter what. I'm not so sure a slight western exposure is why the surface can suck up top as much as the budget snowmaking and grooming because the county managers are morons. But one of my favorite (and Atomic's too, maybe?) little Vermont mountains is Bromley, AKA the Sun Mountain, because of it's southern exposure. I guess I wouldn't want to deal with a southern exposure mountain's extreme conditions as my home hill, but, then again, which way do the Vail Back Bowls face?