Ski

Sling Blade, Philly. And if it isn't booze, then slip your reading specs on, my friend. I don't know you well enough to use the Q word.

Philly? Been drinkin'? I was quoting a movie...and NOT calling you queer.

You're funny, Philly. Funny haha, not funny queer.

Hmmm....bullsh*t. You joined to say the contractors all walked off and Sno tried to stiff a little ski shop. Then you love management, but in the same post make another, bigger complaint. If you really work there, which you don't, I'd fire your ass tomorrow. Really. There's fire. And some guy hanging out in the bushes spankin' his monkey because he gets off on the thrill of starting fires. See where this is headed, Rob?

Riderossi, do you really think I have a problem coming down really hard on a ski area that screws up? Heck, Craig from CB had someone else start his car for two weeks after I had a run in with their less than stellar skier services people... With Sno, I'm looking at the big picture. Montage was falling apart and 'secretly' losing enough money that one vote from the taxpayers would have shut it down. I've known the new owner casually---were not friends, or anything, but just had daughters on the same team---and am happy to cut them a lot of slack. Montage was a mess, from plumbing to snowmaking to the crazy staircase down to the lodge. Will it take one season to make things perfect? Will it take a few? I bought a house near Montage because it's my favorite Pocono ski area and I'm happy as hell it was saved, so they are getting a ton of slack from me. Posting complaints is fine. Most businesses have suggestion boxes, or other form of getting feedback. But I think it's lame to post negative rumors just for the sake of spreading them.

Ha, Sean, I was just about to be a total wiseass about that...

With that avatar, I'd say Doug might show up. Oh, and thanks for the heads up, Melissa. I didn't get the email...

The Ski Corner? Is that the tiny seasonal store across from the mall? They bought stuff from them? Do you know what the dispute was? I'm not saying there wasn't a problem...I'm saying you can't listen to one side and be sure you have the right one... Was it part of the $3.3 million debt SMLLC agreed to assume from the county? If so, those debts have to be confirmed by the accountants and signed off on by lawyers. Five months sounds about right. But what I'm basing my thoughts on are the fact that SMLLC bought Montage for $5.1 million and immediately had millions of dollars in equity. The operation is worth far more than $5.1 million. It would be like you mortgaging a house for $50,000 and finding out it's worth $200,000... IDK, you post says they did pay him, so what's really the issue? That a brand new company didn't pay a vendor fast enough? BTW, Skibum, you joined PASR just to say that you heard two really bad rumors about how Sno Mountain conducts its business? What's your beef?

Not unless the guy faked a heart attack, too. They had also gotten behind when they ran into electrical code problems with buried wires being too close to either the Lazy River or where the wave pool is going in. As I understand it, there's absolutely no money issues, it's all just been a company trying to do summer and winter work in a hurry and they've hit snags. There was so much animosity going around that any negative rumors are probably just the same old sour grapes. When it gets cold, I expect them to blow lots of snow and turn on the lifts. That's all I care about.

No lines! (You know they didn't open, right? As I understand it, the general contractor suffered a heart attack.)

Kids at summer race camp do it all the time---a lot don't bring two sets of poles and you HAVE to have slalom poles with guards, so that's their obvious choice. But it's harder to shift the poles in your hand to go into a tuck with guards, plus if there's room on the chair, I jam my poles under one leg handle first. And there's really no drawback to freeskiing with GS poles.

My 2 cents: I use my GS poles as everyday poles. I think they are Scott. I keep my pole guards on my SL poles and couldn't imagine changing them out for freeskiing or trying to freeski with slalom guards. People ask me just about every day on the chair how my poles got all bent up.

Mostly I'd guess it's the typical winter inversion. On clear cold nights, the ground and air around it cools, with heat radiating upward, so the hill tops are warmer than valleys. Since it's clear about three out of four winter nights on average, then the NF would be colder than the summit about 75% of the time. Because of wind speeds, the wind chill just makes it almost always feel colder up top. Humidities, though, would probably tend to be slightly higher at the base of the Phoebe lift, so that would have to factor into where they could blow first.

I think you're absolutely right, Method, but the twist in the liability issue with park passes is this: if someone gets instruction and guidance from a mountain, then is deemed competent to take certain risks, the mountain is then liable on a whole new level. I've read a couple of judge's decisions and the expectations put on ski areas for safety are almost insane. It's no wonder so many small areas went broke from insurance premium raises. If Ty had gotten hurt by the out-of-control boarder at BB on Saturday---and if we were the suing sort of people---we'd have had a pretty good case for partial liability against BB. Everyone witnessed a kid unable to stop, taking laps through a crowded space, and not once did a BB employee or ski patrol take action. I'm sure there's case law to refer to, since it happens a lot.

Cool. Al is the founder of GMVS and his DVD has great info for beginning skiers all the way up to advanced racers.

Ha, don't torture me, Big...

All he said was "I don't know how to stop." But I already knew that

WTF? Why be a troll, Fluffy? The reason to get the photo machine up and working---OKAY, LISTEN CAREFULLY---is so that we don't have a thousand people in line on opening day. The more days the machine is online before opening day spreads out the line. Sort of a math thing... Fluffy, people at your school aren't jealous of your grades, are they? And, Fluff, one day doing laps on White Lightning is > a month at BB. Uh oh, more math... Peace, Fluff.

Thanks, Philly. I wish CB and other local ski areas could see the madhouse turnout they passed up on. And BB didn't squeeze everyone for max $, despite being the only place open. Hell, we both could have skied for free, but Ty has a new black Spyder jacket and there was no way she was wearing her old blue coat.

Poc, it's funny that you mention it..it did happen about 11 years ago to Kat during opening day at Hunter. We were headed down to Hellgate on our first run and a kid jumped his board off one of the blind spots that are off the trail and hit her really hard. It happened right in front of a patroller, too. The kid immediately apologized and asked Kat how she was. She had a bruised leg, but was okay. The patroller asked me if I wanted the kids ticket pulled and I said no. Dumbass reckless sh*t happens...we've all done dumb stuff that has gotten us hurt and risked injury to others. I'm pretty chill when things like the Hunter thing happened---the guy was a great boarder and did a stupid blind jump 'cause he had first run psych. Was my first thought to kill him? Eh, maybe, but Kat said she was okay right away and the dude was seriously sorry. So it was cool. But a parent sending a kid up the lift to just bang into everyone pisses me off. It pisses me off as a parent, a soccer coach, and a former ski instructor. I tried to explain it to Ty this way: if she has a cute dog that bites other dogs and she lets it run free at the park and it bites another dog, then she is responsible and if someone yells at her cute but biting dog, then she'd have no place to be angry with that person. She should just apologize and train her dog.

1. Giving the option of the first shot is for legal reasons. It may be stupid, but not for the reason you're thinking. Any person has the legal right to defend himself/herself with an appropriate response. IE, you can't shoot someone for punching you, but you can certainly punch someone back (even repeatedly) if they hit your first and you don't face criminal charges (even though cops usually charge everyone with disorderly conduct---it would be dismissed).2. I can size someone up in the first five seconds, so getting laid out wouldn't have happened.3. I guarantee I know more than he did. And what he has? It wasn't Mark Ha, if you can stop and not just ram into random people, you're fine. There's enough room to just avoid the hits and get some carves in. Just don't go with real high expectations.

Thanks for gettin' pics. Hmmm...not much progress from a couple weeks ago.

Doug's gonna toss your iPhone out the car window.

Sorry, Kyle, I can barely spell 'park', let alone describe it...eh, two long rails side by side at the top...then a small jump...then a couple of rails toward the bottom. Oh, and is it a butter box that you jump on and do spins? Well, one of those. That's the best I can do

Nice TR, Jeff!