Johnny Style

The alarm was going off way too early this morning at 5:30 but I was in for an awesome drive up to Blue. The moon was full (largest of the year) and still shining big time until 7:00. I thought today was going to be sunny (and in fact it is back home right now) but as AJ said above, it was snowing pretty good at the hill. Today was "day one" for me and I couldn't be more pleased. Really good conditions, and just a few people on the slopes. Now I am watching some World Cup GS racing on Universal Sports TV now and enjoying the rest of the day. Perhaps I'll chop some wood for the fire later. Otherwise, there is nothing to do except wax up the skis for tomorrow's Dawn Patrol. See ya then. P.S. The two dudes on snowboards that were carving it up on Challenge were pretty good. I like it when they get their bodies parallel to the ground.

Nice film zgerhard. Hey I am a ZG wannabe too. See you in the Roaring Fork Valley sometime.

Good find. For those that don't like their items in a vertical layout that requires scrolling you can also use: http://www.cleansnipe.com/ Same type of site, better layout.

I just spit up laughing at that. Good one.

Ha, I like your Jersey Shore comparisons. Seaside...yikes.

Thanks for the input. I want to do this but my schedule never allows me to do the complete thing. I should probably just sign up and see how many of the clinics I can make it out to.

I was thinking about doing this as well. If I sign up by today (14th) I save $10. Do you know anybody who has participated in the clinic that might be able to offer some feedback? i.e. is it worth it?

Got it on the first pull this year, maybe I'll actually go up this year?

In case anybody besides me actually cares about ski racing you can now watch it on TV! Previously you had to watch it online at WCSN.com. Now if you are in the Philadelphia area and have Comcast Digital you can check out the races. I get it on channel 249. There is a delay in the TV coverage as last weekend's races will be shown this Friday night. If you can't wait, you can still watch online at universalsports.com where they have same day VOD. It is always so difficult to find ski racing on TV, besides those lame Jeep King of the Mountain races, that I thought I might help out others with the same problem.

Where was that? I drove over Vail pass at 2 p.m. on Saturday and it was snowing up there as well.

I'll be up for dawn patrol, off the mountain by 10 a.m.

Dawn Patrol for me. See ya in the morning session.

Is that why there were camera crews on the mountain yesterday? I thought they were just local news people. One of the stations down here in Philadelphia always show Camelback during the weather portion of their show. I just thought it was the same type of thing. I also heard the ticket scanner and a patrolman yesterday by the upper mountain scan-in entrance talking about a ski patrol reality show. I didn't think anything of it until I read this post. But come on, Blue Mountain ski patrol? No offense to any of its members. But if you want real ski patrol why don't you cover the crew at Aspen Highlands. Do you know what they have to do to open up Highlands Bowl? Oh yeah, Warren Miller already covered them in a movie.

I left around 10 because the fog was starting to increase down the mountain. Otherwise it wasn't too bad on Challenge because most of the sugar/glue was getting skied off. Hopefully tomorrow morning will be a bit firmer. Good luck on your date Doug, remember, be a good listener. Get the unibrow tamed.

This morning was not as good as yesterday. The lack of sun was part of it, but it was as Chippy described, crowded. Otherwise the conditions weren't too bad. If anything, all the racers on the mountain provided plenty of motivation. I left after 10 because it was starting to fill up. Nice morning workout. Came home and took a nap and now it's time for an afternoon of X-games.

It was real nice this morning. Bluebird, crisp, good conditions. Both the six pack and the quad were running so I barely took a chair up with another person. Those kids racing today were the best in the state and they could really rip. It was fun watching the race. And in true Doug fashion, I left the parking lot at 12:30 p.m. to a pleasant mix of 80s thrash bands on the ipod. (Anthrax, Megadeth, Testament). I pit stopped at McDonalds for a #2 combo meal and then I was off for the quick ride down the turnpike. Got home, waxed 'em up, and am ready for dawn patrol tomorrow.

Sounds awesome Phil. I am quite jealous. You may not want to come back.

Yup, but he better look out for Daron Rahlves. Daron recently finished 2nd at Telluride and Casey didn't even podium.

Casey Puckett is my neighbor in Snowmass, CO and he just destroys all comers in skiercross. Of course he lost the last race on TV but other than that he is consistently the Jeep King of the Mountain or x-games gold medal winner.

Sounds like a Chinese Downhill to me.

I'm sure they will tell you where to go when you purchase your lift ticket tonight. Turnout might be kind of small due to the weather and conditions so it might be like a private lesson for you. If you go I would love to hear about it to see if it is the right kind of thing for me. I haven't trained on gates since the 80s (my Atomic ARCs were 203s back then) and it sounds like just the right type of program to get rid of the rust.

I really wanted to do this but I will be on the road the next two weeks. Let me know how it goes and whether I can join up half way through.

Thanks for the explanation.

Let me see if I have this correctly. Because the pacesetter at Blue had a bad day when they were handing out pacesetter HCs in NY, all of our HCs will be inflated by ten for the remainder of the season? Essentially we are competing against a 12 HC that Nastar treats like a 22 HC?

Sorry to hear that. That sucks so bad.