Ski

Okay, Mrs. Garrett...

C'mon, DH, be nice...do those kids bust your n*ts for not being able to spell forty?

Check this out...this is the weekend schedule of FIS events across North America and Europe. 16 out 19 events had to be changed or cancelled from Slovenia, to Germany, to Switzerland, to Canada...I've never seen a mid-season schedule anywhere close to this. The one story about the men's Super Combined mentioned it was 11c, which is 51.8 degrees... 14.-15.1.2007 K

Julia Mancuso pipped(?) Lindsey Kildow by 0.06 seconds as the USA pulled off a memorable one-two in Sunday

(Check the paragraph about January ski conditions in Switzerland:) Mario Matt pulled off an extraordinary coup to win the super combined event in Wengen on Sunday after a superb slalom run. First to leave after finishing the downhill in 30th, a huge 2.37 seconds down on winner Peter Fill, the Austrian took advantage of slushy conditions to seal an unlikely victory. The deplorable condition of the slalom piste at Wengen told a telling story. Brown earth could be seen poking through the thin layers of crumbling snow on each gate; these were spring skiing conditions in January. As the first skier let loose on the slalom course, Mario Matt held a huge advantage over his opponents - even if his weak downhill run saw the Austrian almost two-and-a-half seconds off the pace, and seemingly out of the equation. But it soon became apparent that Matt held the cards after his immediate subsequent opponents, all carrying through time advantages from the first leg, failed to match Matt for speed. Only Ivica Kostelic posed any threat, the Croatian nevertheless still 0.61 seconds off Matt's pace in provisional second. With the top ten skiers from the downhill on track after two much-needed by equally futile piste-repair breaks, Matt's position looked increasingly unreachable. Under the hot Swiss sun in Wengen the course was deteriorating as fast as David Beckham's career in European football, and even slalom specialist Benni Raich of Austria could not get anywhere near his compatriot, settling for sixth place. Swiss pair Marc Berthod and Slyvan Zurbriggen managed to push Kostelic down to fourth, but they still trailed Matt by 0.38 and 0.41 seconds respectively. It was left to the three fastest runners of the downhill to try their luck. First up was Austria's Michael Walchhofer, second to Fill in the downhill by 0.16 seconds after a tight run. The piste proved too slow and Walchhofer, who crashed heavily in Saturday's downhill, only posted the 15th quickest time at 1.85 seconds. Next up was Bode Miller who, trailing Fill by just one hundredth of a second after a solid downhill run 24 hours after his win in the classic Lauberhorn race on Saturday, looked in a perfect position to record his first technical victory of the season. A glance at Miller's form this season, however, emphasised just how testing the American's predicament was: Miller had yet to complete a World Cup slalom or combined event all year. And pressing to make up time on the patchy piste Miller kept up his woeful run, straddling an early gate and dropping out of the competition. Only Fill stood between Matt and a truly remarkable win, and when his 2.37 lead from the downhill was whittled down to just 0.30 seconds at the first check, Matt's face erupted into an almighty smile. Fill finally crossed the line in lowly 21st place, a massive 2.38 seconds behind Matt, who had managed to take off more time from Fill in the second leg than the Italian did from him in the first. Swiss pair Berthod and Zurbriggen held on to record podium finishes, but a glossy Matt was the toast of the day. "I was definitely very lucky to be the first starter (in the slalom) because the conditions at the start were perfect for me," said Matt, a former slalom world champion whose five previous World Cup wins had all been in his favoured discipline. "To ski from 30th place and win is extraordinary though and this pays back all the hard work that I've put in since starting to work with the all-round team." Had Miller gone on to win or finish second in the event after his strong downhill run he would have replaced Norway"s Aksel Lund Svindal at the top of the World Cup overall standings. But the American's disqualification means Svindal extends his lead over Switzerland's Didier Cuche to 52 points after finishing the event in eighth. The Norwegian however lost his overall lead in the combined standings with Berthod now holding a slender one point advantage. "To make the podium for the second time in a week, and in front of the home fans, is beautiful," Berthod said. "It also gives me a lot of confidence for the upcoming races because I know I can still do more."

Anybody planning the tram photo should make sure they have ample PASR stickers...there's a lot of empty space on those things.

I didn't know those things were on par with being an astronaut! Is it that hard to believe that I was a sports writer, as well as a photographer? Is it such an amazing accomplishment that I also was a starter for PA Cup races? That's somehow hard to fathom? I was a staff sports writer at the Bridgewater Courier-News, which is a mid-size daily newspaper, just down the road from Metzy... Get out and do things, 1st Grade...stop being jealous and angry. There are doctors and lawyers and cops and photographers and computer people that are traveling the world right now on this MB...if it's what you want to do, then just do it. It's that simple.

And for the women, hot tub girl finishes third, while Kildow DNF's: LTENMARKT-ZAUCHENSEE, Austria

Most of us know...Sib's run timing gear at one and I've been a starter. Some people do things, while other people look 'em up on Google.

It's just a NASTAR thing, Sib...it's the time it takes to straight run a NASTAR course, without using turning gates. It's AKA as "tuck time", "terminal velocity", and a few other names. If that time is too close to the par time, then it means the course is too straight. It's also suggested to not have the par time too far from the cap time, which means it's too turny. In over 20 years of NASTAR, I've seen it checked five times... I've been told repeatedly that I don't know what it is, though, so you might want to check for yourself...

Metzy 1 Jeffy 0

No cap times, Grilled. They use homologations...it's pretty complicated, so maybe alpine racing expert 1st Grade can step in and explain them.

We just went over and took a quick run through the fog...the scanner at Shuttle wasn't working. The fog is really hitting it hard up top, as Sno said. It's not really bare spots, but there are some gnarly rocks showing through. Here's what it was like skiing:

The Butternut link in particular doesn't address the height issue, though. Butternut seems to use either pole mounted HDK's or SMI's on the ground. From what I've read, raising the fan guns makes a big difference. Maybe I'm just missing the obvious...

How often have you told people to shut up for making pointless posts? If you were paying attention, you'd know that Bode's been doing great in most speed events, including leading the WC in Super G.

I had joined a snowmaking website to get the definitive answer, Big, and waded through dozens of threads...and still didn't come up with an exact comparison. Maybe 'Freak or Yumm could offer one up...we just listened to sales pitches, so all the info was biased. Funny, but when I was going through the message board sign-up process, they asked me what kind of valves and other things I preferred...and after a few hours of reading, I discovered hardcore snowmakers are some seriously strange ass clowns.

Gotcha. But our difference in opinion is probably due to the fact that you're just an all-around nicer guy than me, Greg. Now, go skiing, you ass clown!

Bode absolutely smoked the field in what's generally considered the second most prestigious downhill event, The Lauberhorn, in Wengen, Switzerland. Here's the story from Eurosport: American Bode Miller won the classic Lauberhorn downhill with a dramatic finish line crash that he said he had planned all along. "I pretty much knew at the start of the race that I was going to crash at the finish," Miller told reporters after picking up his fourth World Cup win of the season, and the 25th of his career. Miller said he had decided to go flat out coming through the course's final s-shaped turns and over the last jump despite knowing that it would throw him directly into a large dip in front of the finish. "You can ski slowly through the final (turns) and stay standing but I wanted to carry my speed. I knew that would mean ending up all the way down in the compression and that if I tried to match my body angle to the pitch I could go flat on my face. "So I went off the bump (leaning) back a bit and just kind of sat down. It felt fine." Miller has earned a reputation for crazy stunts in the past -- most notably when he lost a ski during the downhill stage of a world championship combined race, but decided to complete the course on one leg. His apparent decision to include a fall in his pre-race tactics met with similar incredulity on Saturday, with his fellow skiers seemingly in no hurry to copy Miller's approach. "I think if you have to take that kind of fall to win, then I don't agree with that kind of thinking," said Switzerland's Didier Cuche after finishing the race upright, and in second place behind Miller. "I'm ready to take the risk of falling but I'm not ready to plan doing it beforehand and risk getting injured. "If it was Bode's absolute plan to fall like that, then all I can say is he was lucky and I just hope he stays healthy until the end of the season." U.S. head coach Phil McNichol was treating Miller's claim with a little more scepticism. "Maybe it had been in the back of his mind that he might have to fall and then it became a bigger thing in his mind after it actually happened," McNichol told Reuters. "I doubt he really thought about it until he was on the course and feeling fatigued and then just thought 'I'm going really fast, let's give it everything and who cares if I fall?'" Italy's Peter Fill finished Saturday's race in third place, a distant 1.47 seconds behind Miller, after taking a similar spill on the final section of the sapping 4.5-km long course. The Italian said tactics had played no part in his own tumble. "My energy was just completely gone at the end," said Fill. "That was the only reason."

Word. Maybe MC people should appreciate Method's thoughtful comments---right or wrong---and see what they can learn from them, instead of going into attack mode.

There are good and bad things about the type of guns Sno bought. Skifreak and Yumm know a crapload more about it than me, but our hill also went with that style gun after comparing sales pitches. The Pole Cats may need a lower wet bulb, but they also fire the droplets much higher in the air, allowing for more cooling time. And they also spread the snow out in a greater area, so there's less work after blowing---not just a bunch of whaleback piles. I recall being told they made more snow that was of a higher quality. If our area just got average temps from late-November on, it wouldn't be an issue. Normal temps would give plenty of time for ANY type of guns to cover the slopes.

The check arrived in today's mail. A couple of things I'll say about this. If anyone cares to search back through my posts, I've always tried to separate what CB did that night and opinions I've posted about Craig. Craig has always been a stand-up guy and I'm sorry if I embarassed him. I think, though, that it comes with the territory. A marketing director gets lots of props, but they also get all the heat for all the crummy things any employeee does, from not refilling the mustard tub to not making enough snow. A marketing director is also a little like a baseball umpire, where you don't really notice him until there's some sort of screw up. I also didn't ask for a refund and was very clear that I was satisfied with pulling some business from CB. Getting a check in the mail doesn't make up for being humiliated in the CB office. Greg jumped on me for airing dirty laundry, but although I respect his opinion and he's the boss around here, I totally disagree. I wasn't out to embarass a person; I was out to embarass CB. Craig went way out of is way to do his best to fix this situation and I give him full credit for that. But I always though PASR was founded so we could openly discuss the good and the bad without retribution. Craig already knows that letting weeks pass before refunding a customer's money isn't acceptable. He's a smart guy that knows it will make matters worse. He didn't learn this from me. He did his part and the system that CB is, just didn't get the job done quickly. And all the while, Craig has asked me for my input...he sure got it. If it had been a simple matter of not knowing how the height rule worked, that would have been one thing. But calling me a liar (the employee, not Craig) just totally set me off. I won't repeat the amount of money I've spent at CB over the decades, but it's directly related to how pissed off I was at having been called a liar. Bottom line: thanks, Craig, for your efforts. I won't be taking you up on your ticket offer and I'm not going to recommend CB for our community trips, but I recognize how seriously you took this matter. I hope Sno hires you away from CB... Peace.

That scanning thing is a pain, especially for the people scanning. We wear our passes on our legs, just above our boot tops...it's like they are trying to tie our shoe laces, or something. Not to get anyone in trouble, but we were only scanned about half the runs...the guy wasn't really into it. And if you hit first chair on Shuttle, we'll call it a tie---not that it matters

Ha, thanks! I had my hopes up when we pulled in and the Phoebe Snow (North Face lift) was spinning...but then they turned it off. They made an effort down there, but you can't get a good look from where we were. On the upper mountain, they blew on most slopes, but need at least 48 hrs. of great temps to open more. There are mounds of snow, but they are surrounded by frozen grass. The shear number of new guns just blew me away...Pole Cat guns are installed in front of most lift towers and seem to line every slope. You'd go deaf then freeze to death if they had them turned on under the Iron Horse...

Just got back from Sno's opening day...my oldest and I left home at a little past 11am and pulled into the lot at 11:30am...there were a bunch of employee cars, but not many customers. We couldn't ski the connector down to Iron Horse, so we walked down the access road. We had told the tram driver we were going to ski down---but it wasn't groomed and was just heavy cat tracks. We clicked in next to the lodge, then waited at the CLOSED trail sign from 11:50am until ski patrol pulled it at Noon. We skied down to Iron Horse and were the FIRST EVER Sno Mountain skiers on the lift. Whistler, Mainline, and Bunny were the only trails open...we skied about eight runs down Whistler, then took the lift and skied over to Mainline to get back to the tram to the parking lot. Whistler didn't open at all last season and I'd forgotten that it's a decent little trail. It's a little like Main Street at Booter, but a little shorter and there are a couple of headwalls to flats instead of straight fall line. I have to get to a game in NJ, so we had to leave by 2pm... The snow was groomed cord, soft, and a lot of fun. A bunch of boarders and jibbers showed up after our third run...I wasn't wearing my orange helmet, so I'm sure I missed sayin' wazzup to a few ass clowns from here. Oh, and check the one shot of the WNEP chopper...it was actually below us on the slopes filming shit. And there was a guy from a tv station shooting us all on Whistler.

Schif, you have to be there for opening day. And maybe they'll give out more snowmobiles...