Ski

Method, there are more pro athletes who come from non-driven parents than there are that come from zealots. I've been a soccer coach for a total of 20 years and my job has me around coaches and athletes almost every day. Zealot parents burn kids out and turn their kids off to sports more times than not. The best chance a kid has to succeed in a sport is to have a parent who introduces them to a variety of sports and allows the kid to gravitate toward something they love to do. But I always tell the parents of my players that the best thing they can do for their kid is to get them to the fields. Parents don't have to coach and they don't have to push---they just have to give their kids the opportunities to play. And positive reinforcement is the key to them being encouraged. As a coach, I instill a need for respect of other players and coaches. That's also why I think Bode is a piece of crap and a terrible role model. But that's another story. And self respect is equally important, which is one reason I have a problem with hazing. Also another story. And to the parking lot? I don't get bullied, Method. I stand up to bullies as an example to my kids. A guy got in my face and I wouldn't back down. Lastly, education is more important than any sport. Nothing is more pathetic than a wannabe athlete dropping out of high school because his dad thought he was the next best thing and let him blow off school. Not speaking of anyone in particular. I've always felt that way... (Jeez, this was waaay too serious...)

Ha, you're screwing with my hyperbole. We actually did look at houses around Blue before we bought up here. Too much $...

Method: Belleayre is my second fav mountain. PASR day this spring, right? Hmmm...Doug sure does make the Big A sound like a great place to live

But when you are a parent of kids on a team, you don't have the luxury of skiing around the crowds. That's what made CB such hell for me---if it weren't for Sib, I'd have gone nuts having to be there every weekend from 7:30am until 3pm. Not to sound too much like a whiney bitch, but I also probably migrated toward Montage/Sno because I had to work weekends at Mount Snow and Hunter, which are two of the most crowded resorts in America...

Toast, I don't wanna rag on Blue. Blue's a great mountain. I've always said it has awesome fall lines and I've had great times there. I just hate the crowds and I happen to love my home hill. I loved Montage with all its idiotic quirks and now we have so much more with the new owners. Is it perfect? Pffffttt...but it fits our needs perfectly.

I stick up for my friends. And my kids will both be literate, with college educations.

It's still a shorter time to get up the hill at Sno than at Blue when you consider the lift lines, now isn't it? So Blue's not crowded at 1pm on Saturdays? IDK, if Blue is anywhere close to CB's weekend crowds, I'll pass. We do.

It's NASTAR, Doug. It's for people to have fun with their entire families. I've heard people complain that the ramp and headwall on Blue's course is too steep, which defeats the purpose of NASTAR. The USSA course is on Smoke.

With hundreds of people on every fucking trail at Blue, I bet. No thanks.

Ha, trying to send people off to Shawnee, eh Timeless?

Well, they do have both types. The HKD style are scattered around the mountain. They line the bottom of Smoke and there are some at the top of the Iron Horse. The big Polecats worked perfectly for the NF---you just couldn't have asked for better conditions on the NF following the heat. They pumped out an immense amount of snow on the NF headwalls. They also piled huge amounts for the big terrain park. So do you sprinkle the entire mountain with a little snow when it's 30 degrees, or do you bury the important trails when it's 25 degrees? The guns on the race course have been ready to turn on...they can hit it in one night. A real problem, though, is that nobody around here is showing up to buy enough tickets to justify worrying about the slopes on the east side. If there are 200 people on Challenge, there are just 5 people on Boomer. Blue needs to spread people out, but that's sure not an issue at Sno. All day on Saturday and Sunday, the small group of race parents I ski with had White Lightning all to ourselves. Every once in a while we'd have to wait for a couple of people to clear the bottom steep part, but we just waited a minute and took in the view. I don't know why people aren't here in droves, but it's not my deal to worry about. I'm relishing the amazing conditions and the empty slopes. This has been the best ski season I've ever had in the Poconos. Could you just imagine what would happen to a group of 6, 7, and 8 yr old kids doing laps down Marjie's or Rocket on holiday weekends at CB in a snake formation? They'd be bowled over one by one by a guy named Vinny from Staten Island. IDK, but I hear people like Rob mocking---if not gloating---about a perceived problem at Sno. But fuck it. I'm a skier, not an owner. I'll let the bookeeper and Rob worry about paying for the new deck chairs. What a stupid waste of time for the rest of us to waste time trying to apologize for having the best conditions in the Poconos. Corduroy on a black diamond at 1pm on a sunny Saturday...who cares why it's still there?

Don't be mean, Doug. Put me down for a c-note.

Wow, that just sounds so terrible it's almost funny. Sorry about your trip, dude. Okemo is usually a good bet since they bounce back after bad weather really well. Sucks that you hit the middle of the bad weather.

I wouldn't count on snowmaking last night. The majority of the new guns require a lower wet bulb temp and it was marginal last night. They could have fired the HKD style one's that look like dragons, but they aren't set up for the majority of coverage. The upside is that when it is cold enough, the guns produce almost twice the snow at a much higher quality. It may suck when temps are marginal and it can leave a bad impression of missed snowmaking days, but it's the reason the NF was nearly perfect despite the 60 degree days.

Thanks for the TR

Rob, don't start shit with SMS. Just don't. And you sure don't want to get personal with parenting issues because we all know how much bail you'll be coughing up some day. When someone says they hate you, just accept it.

Sno's North Face made anything at BB look like shit. Take a lesson, JordanA, and maybe you can enjoy the entire mountain.

Fuck off, troll.

Bear Peak was an awesome race arena, with a great, wide fall line GS slope and then the ability to set up a slalom to skiers left. And they threw it away. Oh, well.

It wasn't long ago that MC had built the rep of 'second only to Stratton' for pipes and terrain park. And they fell in love with that imagine...

Whatever. The kids on there are posting to an anti-authority concept, not having actually seen Bode race outside of Utube clips. It's hilarious to consider you are gaging the pulse of ski racing on a Newschoolers message board. You hang out on NS way too much, Rob. Way too much.

Is that what you call NS when you're trying to add a little credibility? A "youth skiing board"? Too funny. What a wonder that kids on NS would say there should be more racers who get drunk and say fuck you.

Bode was behind on the first couple of splits, then rocketed ahead through that super long gliding section. He was 2 seconds faster on the flats. Fast skis and his tech hit the wax. Everyone takes the same line through that easy, albeit thigh burning, section.

Kids really don't care much about Bode these days. It would be like the final scene of Clockwork Orange (where they force open the gang leader's eyes with a metal contraption) trying to get a kid interested in the Lauberhorn. IMO, downhill and SuperG racing is so far removed from what most race kids---especially in the East---can relate to. I'd say that more than 95% of PARA kids will never even see a speed course and even New England programs hold just a couple speed races almost as a novelty. Ligety is far and away the better technical skier than Bode, who is 15th in the world in giant slalom and 23rd in slalom. DH and SG are more about who gets the best base material and who's tech hits the right wax. The greatest downhiller on the planet will give up 2 to 4 seconds on a DH course to the skier with the fast skis and right wax. Since the best skier in the world was hurt in a crash last month, Bode and Raich (and maybe Cuche) will battle it out for the overall. But it's a less than thrilling battle since one is a great tech skier and the other is winning speed events and they don't battle it out head to head.

It's also what happens when you cut down all the trees to expand the terrain park...Whistler has been just fine because it's so shaded... But if Sno is going to blow tons on Spike for the jibbers and tons on the NF, then it works for me.