Johnny Law

The piles are coming along nicely. I'll be there Sat and Sunday morning.

Spruce gets beat with traffic, too many idiots. Toll house is the shit, I know long green groomers don't get much love but Toll House is the shit, Great Eastern at Killy is the best trail in VT.

Snow was good last night and nobody was there. The blew a fuck ton of snow, everything should be good by Friday.

I'm sure they will try

This is very good news, the stratosphere has suddenly warmed. Every once in a while the polar vortex which moves particles west to east or what we call wind essentially goes on the fritz, rossby waves which are weather in a sense get through the troposphere and into the stratosphere. This warms the stratosphere by tens of kelvins and throws a big fucking monkey wrench in the polar vortex. The polar vortex when strong hold's cold air up by the arctic which is good for the arctic ice and the polar bear but bad for EC skiers. This sudden warming makes the vortex wobble which blows very cold air down into the EC. This means generally the EC will be cold for about a month and obviously increases our chances for significant snow events. This is actually bad because it relates to global warming but its kinda like sloppy seconds or something similar, not really good news but really good news in relation to the currently available alternatives.

Mary Ellen Gulch has been on Dick Bass's radar since at least 06, he swapped land to get UT on board, well and for that mtn coaster shit. He has lots of power via mining so the UT people pretty much suck his dick. That area is ok, great views but they really like it because it has some low angle shit. The bird is kinda vertical, even big emma isn't really all the beginner friendly and the tram just straight up makes them piss their pants. Mary Ellen would provide somewhere for those riders to go. Its 800ish acres and maybe 3500 vert so not exactly minor. The other thing is you could theoretically still get the Bird when the LCC road is closed via American Fork but don't quote me on that as I'm not sure that is actually the plan. In 2011 the US Forest Service accepted their plan which basically means they will now look at the 2-3 year environmental impact statements and watershed reports. Long story short I know Bob Bonar and he actually runs this shit, currently they have to get through the Gad Valley Improvement impact statements first and then do the two year dealio with Mary Ellen Gulch so what would that be 2015. In reality they have the Gad $ which is night skiing, magic carpet and new quad, they don't really have the Mary Ellen $$$ lined up yet so you won't be skiing there until 2020 probably. BC wise I think peeps are worried this will allow the Bird to control access to Baldy Bowl and White Pines but they will probably not push that. Watershead people are pissed as always. The BC people don't want White Pines becoming the next Scotty's bowl and are maybe worried about the increased potential for slide related problems. I'm not a huge expansion guy but this at least relates to skiing, they are only doing this to improve skiing...well mostly.....so I'm not exactly for it or against it. More they are going to do what they are going to do and this one doesn't really fuck up the neighborhood. If it was my decision and it ain't, I build the Alta/Brighton tunnel and put massive underground garages at the bottom of LCC and BCC. Everyone must take the train which is mostly above but goes underground for the big slide paths. This light rail uses the aforementioned tunnel to move between the two during high slide activity. The roads are only for emergency vehicles. Rail connects to SLC/Airport and maybe eventually to the Ogden/Snowbasin area. Too many cars in the canyons, particularly LCC so you gotta do something but stringing up a billion lifts just doesn't seem reasonable.

Keep driving.....

I'm thinking about doing the deal tonight, props for getting out when its cold and they are blowing.

Its the fucking sheriff, now I will never be a huge fan of cops but this shit was fucking disgusting. Dude is sitting in an unmarked SUV in the moonbeam lot at solly, its snowed like 12", Christmas break so non-UT people. Some random walks out of the lot and into the woods right next to the giant snowcat path and takes a piss. As he is walking back to the car sheriff dude comes running with a water shed ticket, random's got a beer in his hand and turns out he's 20. So he gets an underage and a pissing ticket, his dad gets a supplying to a minor all because he wanted to have a beer with his kid at the end of a good pow day. That's the difference between a pig and a cop, a cop realizes these aren't criminals tells them to keep that shit on the DL and go does actual cop work. Pigs load these two people up with tickets and shit because he can even though they aren't hurting anyone. Meanwhile back in reality as the sheriff is writing all these tickets about 1000 snowcats and snowmobiles come flying by belching diesel fumes and shitty two stroke exhaust but that pee is just too much man gonna fuck up the watershed. It would be funny if it wasn't true....in NH at King Ravine there is a real nice BC cabin that has an outhouse. Somebody has to go out in winter and break that shit up as it freezes and causes problems. Big ass sign on the door to the outhouse says this is only for shitting, if you have to pee use the woods. Nature can do pee no problem, it has millions of years of dealing with pee but somehow in UT pee not millions of cubic feet of diesel exhaust is the problem.

That shit is tough and even more so when you get to just show up with a bunch of people who have ridden the course a billion times before. Major props for putting your thing down.

Its fucking bullshit, the interconnect is a 20 year pipe dream of land developers and idiots everywhere. It doesn't make life better for skiers and it ruins classic BC lines and areas in an already super crowded area. Long story short there is bullshit between the lease holder for Park City, and the lessor. Essentially Park City pissed off a canadian company called Talliskier, Talliskier then purchased the lease rights to some of the land Park City needs to run its operation. It was a 99 year billion reup type lease but PC fucked around and Talliskier acted like dick faces too and the whole thing got pretty nasty, my recollection is the courts worked it out. This all stems from the same problem, the Canyons in comparison to BCC/LCC is a shitty place to ski but the only place were you can really do new construction. So a bunch of real estate guys pretending to open a ski area blow up housing and shit at the Canyons around 02 when the olympics were in town but people don't want to ski or live there so they have a big fucking problem particularly when the greater housing market is in the shitter. Very smartly they figured out if they run a lift from the Canyons to BCC which is actually very close now people will want their shitty condo's for 1.5mil and they can be very happy. First off this kills prime fucking touring, real UT classics and second of all its very stupid. Who the fuck is going to leave Brighton/Solly to ride at the Canyons ? Its going to take an hour full round trip so add that in too. Its going to be alot of one way traffic, peeps that want to live at the Canyons but ride at Brighton or Solly, neither of which by the way need more PC fuckers. Never mind that if you take a piss in the woods at Solly they pop you with a watershed ticket but they'll let Dick Bass and friends run diesel trucks all over the fucking place and string a lift up every possible square inch because well they have $$$. Its stupid, it is another real estate deal sold as having something to do with skiing. UT is not the Alps, it doesn't ski like that, there is very little advantage to being able to go from Alta to the Canyons and there is alot of downside. Unfortunately conservation is not exactly our strong point and the buffoons and land developers will probably eventually win this battle....

Holy shit look at that fucking "quad" chair.....looks like two doubles and welder hahahah Hopefully its a full stock YAN so it falls to the ground and kills alot of people sometime soon, my guess is they don't do a whole lot of maintenance. From the look of the building its a full YAN, would have to look up into the mechanicals to see if it got the late 70's leightner/poma treatment but I'd go 30% they didn't. Would not want to spend alot of time on those fucking things.

I'll be there around noon

Just go, it snows in March alot. To be frank if this is your first rodeo your going to spend alot of time floundering anyways. The only place in NA with a general level of ridership in the same planet as Jackson is Squaw who then go to the wood if its really going off. This dude is from Phoenixville and lived in PA until he was in his late 20's. At Squaw he's just another of 1000 rippers and Jackson is even a level above that. Its such a different experience than so many other places, I would be happy to rip groomers all day in 50 degree weather and chill at the moose.

It has been defacto legal for like 40 years. Walk down church anytime at night and if you look like you smoke somebody will ask you if you need. Slokemo and its brother who shall not be named with the massive fake ass village are lame. Though Stratton does actually have some pitch and surprisingly good tree skiing. Regardless the lower VT gem is Magic Mtn. No bullshit, steep, excellent tree's and an entire mtn that is connected but went out of business a long time ago. Its also not 1000$ a lift ticket, if you can ski and don't need your dick sucked check it out. Excellent taps and cheap. Sugarbush is where Dick Cheny would ski in VT. Regardless nice trip dude, any skiing in VT is a vast improvement over PA.

Incredible

LOL In my defense I have poor eyesight (20/100) and wear nothing but boring blacks and greys to work everyday. Skiing is fun, skiing is living so throw on some bird sex colors and have a good time.

^ not shitting on anyone, I do the exact same thing but in my whole life I've heard maybe once somebody say bad shit about a ski they own. Skis are like sexual orientation, very personal and alot about what works specifically for you. Ride a bunch of skis across the turn radius spectrum, pick skis that are directional and have twin, ride conventional and those with rocker. Ride god damn everything and then you can picture the perfect ski in your head, then try to find it. Additionally once you know what you like you can find people that ride with your same style and see what they think. Atomic is a great skier, I don't doubt his ideas on gear but I would almost never buy a ski he says is fantastic on his advice alone. We ski very differently and what is a great ski for him might be total shit for me.

Those guys are very good skiers, ever try turning xc sticks. LOL

They closed in January for a week and half about three years ago.

Nice dude ! Demo days are fun. If you already know this then feel free to call me a condescending douche but the main reason those skis feel different is turn radius. Turn radius is actually a very complicated concept that includes things like flex profile and side cut and physics but theoretically its the tightest circle the ski could make. So the Rossi Experience 88 has a turn radius of 16 meters whereas the Mantra has a turn radius of 25.4 meters, thus they are very different skis. The EX88 is a turny mother, real easy to get them to move but its going to be more difficult to arc big radius turns and obviously the opposite for the Mantra. Now obviously that isn't the total of everything that goes on in a ski but its the quickest way to evaluate a ski. Sub 15m - Sl ski, lots of turns, real easy initiation 15-20m - More like a GS ski, wants to arc bigger turns, probably the top for mortal mogul skiers (excluding reverse camber designs) 20m - 30m - Super G, real big arcs for peeps that want to go very fast, tush pushers look elsewhere 30m+ - Go straight, go very very fast in a straight line LOL I have a pair of 104 Squads with a 39m radius, amazing ski but by far the most difficult conventional ski I've ever skied on. Always trying to kill you, I would bet in AK or something similar they are insane amounts of fun but you really have to push a ski like that, lots of leg and crazy high angles. Reverse camber has changed alot of this because big skis then ski very short, a 195 super7 has an effective length of maybe 170. So a giant pow ski actually skis like a mid range upper gs ski as its effective length is short and has a mid 20's radius. Stiffness of the ski is also very important a ski can be torsionaly stiff so force applied in a twisting motion or more conventional up and down stiffness. I would argue the later is far less important, additionally the stiffness generally varies over the length of the ski. Again this isn't a guarantee but generally a soft ski is more forgiving, easier to maneuver but flaps around at decent speeds. A stiffer ski is less forgiving to operator error but is a more put together package, it can handle big speeds and big skiers. Lastly swing weight is also important but there isn't hard and fast rules there, conventional wisdom says make them light at the ends to make them easier to throw around and have them torsionally stiff to counteract deflection but DPS thinks differently and Stephen Drake it seems is always about 5 years in front of everyone else. This obviously isn't the end all be all but understand turn radius and stiffnes you can actually figure out what ski is for you. EDIT: I did ski the 88,98, 83 and the Mantra, Goats, Shiro so I think the above is accurate when you actually ski them as well.

Go the Knob when it snows, best hill in PA by far. Also use your lookers, lots of logging/snowmobile shit in that neck.

I don't know why all helmets don't have them, I have always had a visor and its useful for so many things. This is going to sound stupid but hear me out, the best thing I've gotten recently is a hunk of plastic. http://www.tognar.com/ski-visions-tuning-stick/ When using a belt sander or even the hand tuners its tough to tell what's sharp and how much, with this stupid plastic stick now you have a super simple way to measure what's sharp and how sharp. Its a truly elegant solution to a simple problem.

There is alot of snow in VT right now, newbs from NJ drop off and don't see the traverse back blow by it and now realize they are 2000ft of wallowing in waist deep snow. They are from NJ so they are dumb and decide just keep going down, at which point they realize this is VT and it maybe 10 miles to the next something. Police found all these idiots but they are pissed, even started talking about charging which until this year was a big no no in VT....NH well that's NH.

Killy and Stowe were 20% over last years Christmas numbers. 30 some odd people have gone lost as killy in the last two weeks, all from NY, Jersey and Mass, that is like a years worth in two weeks. Early to mid January is tough because everyone just blew their load at Christmas. If things stay on the current path this will be one of the best years for VT at least in a long time.