Ski

Yeah, my bad: What Lib? Eh, I'm guessing you had more flood control issues?

I had a dream that reminded me I need a will. Can I do a small will? For just my watches, my cars, and my dog?

Blue's closing for the season once you get 25 days in...that's the 31st, right?

What Lib? What Lib? What Lib?

More pressure for them to be sure to open.

Scrapping the season would send too many people back to Elk and wreak havok on things like seasonal employees and the race team. Once the cold weather sets in, all this discussion will be forgotten, for the most part. Mr. Carlson had said they wanted to have a ceremonial grand opening on Wednesday, with the tv stations and newspapers, then start the lifts today (before the most recent delay was tagged on). I have a bunch of friends that have traveled up from South Carolina and Florida to stay at the Chateaux...they are mostly fair weather, two week a year skiers/boarders that don't really understand snowmaking and blame CB for the horrible conditions and vow never to return. I did happily send most over to JF/BB....but my point is that even though they brought money in, they definitely aren't going to risk their XMas vacation on the Poconos next year. So maybe not opening with marginal conditions isn't so terrible for a ski area's new reputation. This is a reminder, though, of how we should all feel about Washo, who continued to gloat about how he was responsible for sticking SMLLC for an extra million bucks by filing a lawsuit and trying to back Snowtime. Well, a lot of seasonal employees haven't reported to work because the SMI delivery date was delayed and they lost the early cold snap opportunity that BB took advantage of. Lackawanna County pocketed the million and Washo takes credit...but a whole lot of my friends are paying for it. And Sno is losing tens of thousands of dollars because of it. And we're not skiing because of it...

Just awesome, Sib...

If you were to go in before opening and ask for a refund, they'd definitely do it. They'd try and talk you out if it, but would give in. And if you paid by credit card, you could simply reverse the charge prior to services rendered and you'd get your money back with little hassle. I think they are seeing the crappy forecast for Friday night into Saturday, but then the cold blast coming for Saturday night. They should stay open until midnight 12/31...give us something cool for all this slow death torture. But I'm not too bummed about this week, since it's a mad house during XMas week and we're always saying how much we can't wait for the once-a-year people to go home.

Here's the resolution: I was contacted by the marketing director, who is also the CB rep on PASR. I was cool with him, because he's been cool with PASR. He also let my post stand on the CB MB, which was pretty surprising, 'though I did clean up the f bombs. Even if it's been deleted now---I don't care to check---thousand's of people saw it during the busiest time for their MB. Anyway, he asked for me to give full details of what happened, which I did---again, only because he's been cool here...he asked for my input for future training purposes, which wasn't really something I felt like being used for, but I gave it. Bottom line was that he apologized and wants to hook me up with a lift ticket. That doesn't come close to making up for the skier services manager mocking me and calling me a liar, then making me pay for my 45" tall kid. The only thing I'd see as a true gesture would be for CB to refund any balance they did not for Shadow's season pass last year. A CB rep can deal directly with Shadows, I don't want anything out of it. Oh, and the skier services guy that I dealt with? The one I asked to speak with his manager, but he told me HE was the manager? The one who called me a liar? He isn't the manager. He lied. That comes from a CB rep that investigated the matter.

Awwww, crap. And it's 40 degrees, right now...

Here's a cut and paste of the ticket price page from CB's website. Anyone see what the manager was talking about? Shit, I just assumed he was telling the truth... 12/28/2006

Great is a great understatement.

They have a wood block with a horizontal stick attached. The block is held on the counter, so the stick is at 46", then it's held over the kid's head. Ty was clearly under the 46" stick by 1/4" or so and she had sneakers on. But the guy said "there's no way she'll be under the stick with ski boots on." Period. I asked to speak with his manager and he said "I am the manager." Again: I don't have a problem with the policy, I have a problem with a CB employee telling me one version, then her manager telling me another after we drive to the mountain, buy the adult ticket, then go inside the office. To CB: my daughter's friends are staying at the Chateaux. They bought night tickets tonight, but weren't allowed to buy multi-day tickets to add on. Good thing for them. Listen: because the manager of the skier service/customer service office called me a liar, I was happy to give them directions to Jack Frost and Big Boulder. Two adults and two college students that would have bought day passes at CB tomorrow, are now headed to JF or BB. I'm not looking for a future freebie or comp. I would tear it up. If the manager had apologized for his employee's mistake and said he simply couldn't make an exception, then all would have been okay. But to tell me his employee wouldn't have done it and call me a liar? F*ck that. Guess where I'll recommend The Hideout ski trip not go? Hint: they listen to me for advice because they know I follow area conditions better than anyone. As a matter of fact, I just finished posting my experience on our community message board. And I plan on spreading my feelings to every kid at our ski hill and every person that asks my opinion. My angry rant is done for now, but I'm far from done telling people what CB did to us and plan to cost Camelback 100x what they burned me for tonight.

Just an open letter to any CB rep: I was at a friends house this afternoon when my oldest found out some friends were going to be at CB tonight. So I used my friend's phone to find out the policy for little kid's tickets. We had planned on dropping my oldest off, then skiing BB, since I figured their conditions would be better and I'm not a big fan of paying for Pocono lift tickets after having purchased season passes at our still closed mountain. So here's the conversation I had with the CB employee: Me: Hi, I just wanted to know how much it is for little kids. CB: Hold on...(three minute pause)sorry to keep you waiting...children under 46 inches are free with a paying adult. Me: Oh, great, so I just come to the ticket window? CB: Hold on...(three minute pause)...hello? You must purchase your adult ticket, then come inside the office just to the left of the main ticket windows. Me: Thanks very much! Later that day, around 7:30pm, I bought my ticket, then went inside with my 45" child. The guy behind the counter told me the following: "She may be 45 inches tall, but you should have checked the website. It's under 46 inches with ski boots." Me: "I wasn't on the computer, but spoke with someone in this office and came here instead of Big Boulder, where she would have skied free. I did EXACTLY what the girl told me to do. Why wouldn't your employee have told me that it was with ski boots on? I wouldn't have paid for a lift ticket to ski for an hour." CB: "Well, what was the name of the person you talked to?" Me: "How the fuck am I supposed to remember? And will it make a differenc if I do remember?" CB: "I just don't believe someone didn't tell you the correct height requirement." Me: "So you think I came here looking to try and bitch my way into a free lift6 ticket? You think I'm lying?" CB: "That's certainly possible." Me: "You are a fucking asshole. I'll go buy the $22 lift ticket for her, but it's the last fucking ticket I'll ever buy at Camelback." So, if a mountain rep reads this, I just want you to know it's truly the last fucking lift ticket I'll have ever bought at CB. Bait and switch is a crime. NYC camera dealers went to jail for exactly what you fuckers did tonight. I hope you really stretch that extra $22 you scored tonight. Last word to CB: scumbags.

We have an inch...the first time it's snowed more than just a coating this season.

Yeah, the Mount Pocono reporting station is much closer to Sno's elevation. And even the airport is far below---you can look down from Switch at the runways.

The Cybershots are a very popular camera line, Schif. They generally get four out of five stars in consumer ratings, I've noticed. The newer versions look really skinny and have a nice, big viewing screen. I use an older version for all my skiing 'snapshots'.

Isn't cadillac one of the karaoke chicks Doug picked up in A town?

Shadows, from the looks of your photobucket, you are definitely ready for a dslr. Everything Jib said is on the money, but I'd avoid the risk of a used dslr from eBay, unless it was an incredible deal---but the better eBay deals come from NIB, grey market cameras. People selling their cameras in eBay almost always over-rate their used cameras. And there are enough people out there that bid on them, so you gave to get lucky. As far as independant lens manufacturers, I've owned every brand from one time or another. It's all about the quality of glass, when the number of elements are equal. It's a little like buying a diamond, where the better lens has clearer glass with the least imperfections. Firstly, though, no independant lens is as good as the comparable Canon or Nikon lens. The imperfections are most noticeable when used with a wide open aperature---so when you're shooting sports and need a fast shutter and wide aperature, a bad lens will really give poor results. But unless your looking to get published, a good independant lens is great. I'd avoid Soligar and most Tokina lenses. I've had good results from Vivitar and Sigma. Tamron was the most aggressive early lens makers that went after professionals with high end long lenses. For example, they made 300 2.8 lenses that retailed for $900, as opposed to the $1500 Canon version. They weren't quite as good, but they allowed sports photogs to shoot without a flash. Bottom line: listen to Jib. He has great info for ya.

The only kit you want to buy will include the body, a standard zoom, and the cords and software. Never buy a kit that includes the crappy tripod and/or lens cleaning stuff; they are just junk. It's fine to buy a "body only", then pick either a wide angle or telephoto zoom...depends on what subjects you'll be shooting. As for memory, just invest the $60 to $90 on a 1 gig flash card. That's roughly the equivalent of 10 rolls of 36 exposure film, if you shoot medium size photos. More than enough for most people to put their entire Disney vacation on.

The rule of thumb on a certified, manufacturers refurb is if you can get it for 60% or less of a good asking price of NIB, then it's usually a good deal. But if you decide on a good d-slr, then I'd just buy a new body/lens from a discount dealer. One of the NYC shops like B&H, or Keh Camera in Atlanta. The first thing you need to do, though, is decide whether you really want to invest in making great photos, or just want great 'snapshots'. Buying a higher end dslr means $600 or more for the body and standard zoom, then you are open to lots of options for wide angle and longer lenses. With the dslr, you can shoot bursts of 3 and up to 9 frames per second, while a point and shoot gives you one frame for your basic jib. You can still take an awesome photo, but you have to be lucky and work a lot harder at it. And even the top pro dslr's take about 20 minutes to learn the basics to get decent photos, so it isn't rocket science. What you get from a higher end dslr is the opportunity to use unique angles and lens varieties, really. You can buy cheap fisheye to long telephoto lenses by selecting slower, with larger maximum aperatures, that are just fine for sunny days on the slopes, or used with a flash. For example, you can buy a Canon autofocus 70-200 f4 zoom lens for $150...and because of the 1.6 magnification, your zoom is actually a 112-320. That's a cool thing about digital: a film slr lens of that focal length would have cost $1000, or so. Another benefit of a dslr over point and shoot is the ability to add an external flash. Even an older Vivitar 283 flash you can buy for $60 will light something 60 feet away, as opposed to a point and shoot reaching about 10 feet. If you have any specific questions, go ahead and ask. I use a point and shoot for 95% of my skiing photos, but have used both film and professional slr's for work for a really long time. Each kind of system has it's benefits...

It's bigger than it looks and we drove over in my wife's goofy little car. But, yeah, we even talked about swiping it.

Nobody's doing much of anything yet at MRG this season. Do you know the story of boarding at MRG, skitzo? It was one of the first areas to allow snowboarding, but the way boarders pushed off at the top of the single chair made it derail and shut down pretty often. So the old woman that owned it made it off limits to boarders. Not long after, a couple of pissed off boarders cussed her out at a grocery store---so she banned boarders from the entire mountain. And the rest is history.

I guess it's what they meant by a "new tram". It isn't motorized, so it needs to be pulled. You have to carry skis/boards on. The orange buses that they've used the last two seasons were a billion times better than having to use the stairs, but it was a pain in the butt to get up and down the bus steps with little kids and gear. And the slots on the bus sides didn't hold really wide tail skis or even skis with race plates---so they had to be carried onto the bus. These trams are also much better than Elk's cattle cars, since you just step right up to where you sit, rather than having to climb around the pipes and all.

This is really starting to suck: "In the spirit of the holiday season, Sn