Johnny Law

The V-day storm is probably rain, maybe it will get cold enough, further north mostly along the coast could see some good snow. The problem with the potential big one on the weekend is it doesn't look like its getting its shit together until its in the ocean. The trough is plunging straight down, without something out in front it never spins across and up the coast, the energy goes out to sea and eventually drops its QPF a couple hundred miles out for the dolphins I guess. 4 or 5 days out still, a couple hundred miles ain't shit but it ain't looking great and I'm a bit of a wishcaster. The pattern is good though everything is in the right setup we just need the right kind of energy to come through. Additionally it should be generally cold until at least the end of the month, if Blue wants to blow they will have the opportunity.

What is skiing ? There is a dictionary definition certainly and that's all well and good but its equivalent to saying sex is a penis and a vagina for procreation, it only tells part of the story. In that sense every resort is an answer to the above in their own style, DV has a narrative about what skiing is and so does Silverton, both are valid but wildly different. If you limit yourself to one place your only going to get one story and the richness of the adventure, the multiple ways in which you can answer the above is what is maybe most interesting to me. Why would anyone ski Suicide Six beyond the bad ass name ? Slokemo, Stratton, Magic and Bromely are a stone's throw and are bigger, faster and way more posh. Because it tells its own story, short but steep with all day long freshies in the trees, its family and mainly focused on riding. JH is amazing, Vail is amazing, Blue in its own way is amazing so if you limit yourself to one place your only getting 1% of the experience.

Denton ? LOL

No one should go to UT ever its terrible. 80's fuuuuucccck figures marble and brass and all that shit ain't cheap. The highway out there is all UT state money, Robert Holding who owns it and Sinclair oil is big buddies with Orrin Hatch, word is he simply called Orrin and said I want x dollars and a highway for my resort --cough- Olympics and bam it was done. Only place I've ever been where they bring all the gondy cars in underground every night.

Exactly, this is what I'm saying. Its just like DV, DV is expensive but that is what the people who ski at DV want and its the same deal with Vail or the Beav etc etc. Fuck some schmuck in a chef's outfit has to come out at 3 and serve warm cookies because that is what this type of crowd wants. What I don't like is the death of the OG hardcore skiing hill. It has lifts and a building, you go skiing and that's it. Skiing is getting too expensive, for a family of four a couple days at Killy or Vail is 2k no problem and there are less and less alternatives every year. People want to blow up Powder into the next Vail, Stowe mother fucking blew up with the Spruce monstrosity, shit even Bridger strung a lift up Slushman's and the loaf, five hours from Boston is set to become the biggest east of the Mississippi. I'm not saying everywhere should be Magic or MRG, I'm saying skiing needs these kinds of places if not for what they represent than just for the simple fact that they are relatively cheap.

If you have not skied there you do not understand. I have ridden Powder, I have ridden Vail, Powder claims more terrain but it ain't even close Vail is 3x the size of Powder. Blue Sky basin takes 20 mins of legit riding to get to. Vail has 10 fucking bowls that are like 3/4 Baldy size and about a billion lifts. Vail is what you expect Aspen to be in your mind. It is huge, like crazy huge, with nice shit everywhere and pimp lodges and shit. People mother fucking flock there and hence why its 110+. Riding at Vail is about the whole Vail dealio which is why its fucking expensive. Snowbasin who has lots of nice shit and HS lifts will have to go this way to eventually, UT adjusted of course. Most of that resort was Olympic and state money and the dude who owns it has deep pockets from his O&G empire but they are running out of $$ to subsidize the lift ticket price.

Blue was excellent, really wet but fast and soft. Maybe 3-4 inches tough to say as it sticks to the snow before the car. Roads are fine tommorow should be good as its good base snow.

Starting to come down at blue

We're in the snow dome.......PA always has dry slot issues.......maybe tonight will be better.

Brilliant ! Sincerely, Your Friend, JL

That is always fun I'll be there around 5 i think hopefully that will be the fat part of the storm.

I'll be up at Blue tonight with some friends, wash the sand out of your vag and go ski.

It was always a long shot from the start. Look around PA mtns, 1% if that are actually decent skiers and a smaller percentage of that is super obsessed with skiing like PASR people are. Then they have to also be people who do shit on-line like talk to total strangers, beyond that they have to get past the tight knit aspect of this place, in a sense its kind of an all boys club. That's a pretty rare group of people.....

I have realized over the years I obsess on just a couple of things, one is winter weather models. LOL Could you pick anything more lame to obsess over than winter weather models and skis hahahahah

This is a real fucking tricky beast, if it moves 50 miles in either direction the output is wildly different. Interesting thought is that a stall is beginning to show up in the models, the NAO is currently not blocking however if a stall occurs everywhere gets 2x what is currently being predicted. There is a northern stream of energy and a southern stream of energy, how those two come together or phase is 99% of the ball game because it determines the cloud temp and to a certain extent ground level temps.

EURO coming in cold LV 7-12" Reading 4-8" Mt. Pocono 10-14" just text so far now maps until 230ish

That is the conventional wisdom, the Vwerks Katana is a different story. Carbon is very rigid, the ski therefore could be very light and still have lots of stiffness to power through crud. The conventional Katana is a pretty excellent crud/chop buster so one would think but maybe that isn't the case. Hopefully the Volkl rep will have a pair in April and I'll let you know what the deal is.

Models have problems and not just cocaine and trying to stay thin. The NAM is always saying snow for everyone and lots of it. That model is showing 1foot for LV and crazy shit like that. The GFS is almost always too warm and too far east. It shows my hood with jack shit. The EURO is a mix of the previous two, it is normally the best for EC winter but also tends to pull storms too far west. The higher resolution models will start popping up tonight and the next EURO run is this afternoon, these will be probably the most accurate. The key here is the trend, the models earlier in the week said rain for everyone, then like every other storm as it gets closer they trend colder and more west. If you made me put money on it, I'd say this plays the classic EC game and comes in a little colder and more snowy but with dry slots. Local mets will up the snow totals tonight/tommorow morning and you get a decent day at Blue but partiucarly points further north. Ride you shit head ME going to be going off, even better get in your car and drive to S VT. Magic gonna get 20".

Gotta a text re: Vwerks Katana "Fucking shocked dude, just amazing, go ski it, super fast and redic light."

RPM isn't a great weather model. GFS says too warm, EURO says we are all in a snowpocalypse.....hmmm Keep your eyes peeled but this is going to be a tough one to predict, previous history says this will end up colder than the GFS predicts.

In terms of holding snow - Hidden Canyon If you hit the houses you took too low of a traverse back to the lift, no worries its only a couple minute walk. Do not ski the center part of the Canyon as it slid on a kid about 6 years back, both arms are a ok with the left being shorter but well tree'd and steeper. The skiers right arm can be traversed to the second ridge which is pretty god damn far. You can ride pow all by your lonesome for weeks there.

To be clear doesn't have to be the Belafonte just maybe try something in that design.

Ride in the back seat. AJ and JohnnyStyle ride PSIA perfect, forward aggressive, alota pressure on the tongues. They really flex the ski which allows them to make really nice short radius turns and transition really quick. They have racing style. You ride with your weight further back more working the tails which gives a more caddy like ride but decreases your ability to make real short radius turns as there is less pressure on the ski in front of the bindings. This isn't a knock, I have 1950's Dick Durance style with lots of upper body twisting and arms all over the place, I'm just saying when you pick a ski you got to pick something that works with the way you ski. If AJ gets Katana's make him let you ride them in JH crud/chop, they are more in the belafonte style which I think is a better fit than a fun shape.

I was never a tester, I'm an official mooch who happens to have access to a bunch of shit about a month before most people. Try a fun shape, maybe one of the short chargers. DPS 112RPC, Rossi Squad 7, JJ, etc They have traditional camber underfoot and tend to be pretty good carvers, in the upper teens low 20's radius, the rocker and pintailsh tails make them good in the pow, a stiffer shovel and torsion box (22oz triax with carbon or even better carbon stringers) is conventionally thought to be what you need for crud or chop. Essentially rocker to float you over the variation of chop and enough stiffness to power through. A caveat though is that they are kinda funny to ski, they have narrowish balance points and they can get really weird on hardpack. The pintail will want to hook and put you down if you get too far in the back seat and the reverse nature of the sidecut on the tips and tails means if they aren't detuned or you really get on the ski they will reverse carve. Essentially the two skis shoot off in opposite directions. Personally I think the Belafonte route is the way to go for a crud, chop buster with good pow and hardpack performance. Basically its a conventional ski, camber under foot, no pin tail and has rocker and R/R only in the tip. Its stiff, like LP stiff, 25ish radius and wants you to work it. I don't mean this in a bad way, my form is weird and certainly "wrong" in a PSIA sense but you like to tail gun so a fun shape pow boards with a pintail and lots of rocker is going to put you down or worse in the woods an awful lot.

Dude the last foot of the ski is nothing but carbon and edge !! They will be light and super fast, now it seems if you hit something they would be dead but they are alot smarter than me so if they have the durability thing under control this will be a minor evolution in how we make skis. Hopefully the volkl rep will have a pair in April and I'll let you know what I think. Crazy construction even Stephen Drake ain't making skis like this.