mbike-ski

guess my decision's made, its mtb for me

man last night my skis were gross covered with black snow slime

only on thursday nights! oh and tuesday night uhhh and monday too

raceway to midway or chute is a blue mountain delicacy but has crappy lift service off the main street chair (or "loser lift" as my kids refer to it)

my favorite for that type of ride is switcback with lazy mile being second - the turns aren't really blind, oh wait maybe thaey are for r2! sorry man couldn't resist....

maybe about a third or so of the maybe 20-22 people who started out wear protective gear. I was a little nervous the first night booting up watching the guy next to me put on his spine protector! After a week or 2 of getting beat up i got some pole guards. i be lying if i said i didn't get a few bumps and bruises on the shins and arms. figure i'd add a piece of gear or two each year as i get more aggressive, next will be some better padded gloves as my hands seem to be taking the most punishment attempting to block

It was a blast and i definately plan on doing it again next year. first few weeks did more drills than worked our way to more and more gates. sets were mostly slaloms with a few gilalolams (between a gs and a slalolm) thrown in, full gates with some stubbies here and there to mark turn initiation/fall line position on the set. coaches were very helpful and the group was a great bunch of guys ( and gals). pretty laid back structure and just alot of fun. alot of folks do this every year, i think one guy was in his 7th session.

the last 1/18/09 pic is awsome too - i like the spikey tree shadows

fyi passes are good weekends now also - right on with the 1 person / 5x thing

hahaha r2, it's all good. this sites like a big dysfunstional family - gotta take the good with the bad/vice versa! at one time or another its aggravated, entertained, edumacated, insulted, inspired, motivated, infuriated, embarrased, enthralled and distracted all of us! bottom line is it's all about skiing/riding and has gotten me out on the hill more with all types of people!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_Kops

my perspective is a little different than alot of you so i thought i'd share, i like to ski fast, and feel i can hold my own all over the mountain, groomers, fresh, bumps, a little park, and trying to get a handle on the racing thing. i got three kids 11-17 and a wife who started skiing 7-8 years ago. we're blue regulars between season and club passes. i taught/watched them all learn to ski at blue, mostly on paradise. i was so sick of that trail i probably didn't even ski it for 2 seasons after they "graduated". theyr'e all very solid skiers/boarders with the exception of one who has some medical issues but still has a blast out there doing her thing about once a week or so. i've watched two of them get taken out big time on paradise. the best was my son about 5 years ago on an empty spring morning. the kid was a season pass holder and didn't even stop to see if he was ok. i skiid after him, tackled him and was ready to rip his pass off and beat his ass before i realized he was probably only a few years older than my boy and regained my composure. so do i think there should be a trail for folks to learn on without getting creamed - absofreakinlutley! unfortunatley that requires speed control. alot of our skiing is on friday nights and some weekends. if you ever witnessed the mass of buses descend on blue on a school club night it's quite a site - i wish i could bottle some of that energy and had a buck for every f-bomb yelled in the llift lines - i'd buy the place! have i ever bombed paradise - hell yeah! a few weeks ago i was yukking it up with the pasr crew when i almost took root out! i'm just glad we were both going fast and he didn't lose too much weight yet! if he was a kid in a wedge it might of been ugly. was i in control though?ALWAYS....just like the guy on challenge who had to have his busted up ass hauled off in a sled by the same patrollers he continues to antagonize. that being said the way blue is doing this is not in anyone's interest. it's a joke, the whistles and keystone koppers routine is just rediculous and and creates more problems and bad feelings. the Tru-tv thing just shows how bad it is and at the same time inflates the egos of some and makes it even worse. not sure what the solution is though, signs are a joke , people would just wiz past the patrollers if they didn't whistle. even with the whistles/tickets people just laugh and keep going. i'm sure a large part of SP's attitude is a reaction to people being rude and laughing at their frozen pens and whatnot - i sure as hell couldn't be one and put up with that crap. maybe established slow skiing times would help keep more people happy. me if i get the urge to ski paradise fast i'll do it early before the patrollers get there. my guess is a little good judgement and courtesy on both side of the rope would probably go a long way.....

great pics and report - i gotta ski there! i'm surprised theres not more natural snowcover on the mountain

i was thinking the same but wasn't sure, anyway these threads just aren't the same without ski, if you're out there lurking "wassup"...

alot of stuff going on there personally, physically, equipment , results etc - i can't say i'm shocked...i know people love to bash him but with all that and still being in the top 10 it can hardly be called a waste of a season gs. hope he's back next year. it's still fun - maybe more - watching ligety and vonn this season!

hahahaha he was on come around!

awesome to hear, you gotta love gp on days like that! were heading up in 2 weeks

yo philly just cuz jf gits a lil 'vadah y'aint got to be a blue hatah! queen green gots da bleu lean an mean! best damn snow i's evah seen! werd to ya muvvah..... yessir that'd be the effect of a few long trails...ya herd

racechick, good meeting you and racedad! hopefully we'll see you around the mountain

cool johnny, glad you came out - it was great meeting and skiing with ya! maybe i'll catch you on a staurday morning or thursday night for a few more runs before the end of the season...next year you gotta stick around for a beer or two though!!

We wrapped up the last night of this program last night - a fun time with lots of great people! Coaches were great, thanks again guys if your lurking out there! I'll definately be doing it again next year...

good to hear - we're headin up 3/7 (?) weekend. we always are pleasantly surprised by crowd and conditions every time we go

a few pics... big smiles on the chair thanks walt da kids bang!

aawww man, i never got around to posting it here, too bad -definately worth a sick day! kinda like blue this year - best possible conditions short of a major dump! another great day 2/15! morning criusers doing laps in the sun on thanks walt with the family off the sunbrook chair followed by some fun over at carinthia on prospect,mini pipe and the grom park with my son. after working up a sweat there making an ass of myself trying to spin a 3 (270 doesn't count!) we ditched the kids and mrs snowbunski and i did some cruisers on snowdance and standard , ending with a few bumps on ledge. a great weekend - my face hurts from sun, wind and grins! i'll try to post a few more pics later but my daughter has all the good ones and didn't bring her patch cord. i should add it was her first time since her acl surgery in october - great seeing her whole again! caught the torchlight parade / fireworks and now chillin with a double bag, great weekend!

We got up friday afternoon and did a 1 hr snowmobile tour - way cool! i'd guess we did about 20+ miles some sort of slow backcountry, some cruising topping out at about 50mph. the mrs was a beast - we have to change her name to mrs SnowMobilSki!!! This morning temps were around 20 and sunny, mild wind. after a few warm up runs with the girls on snowdance my son and i left the man made pow and edgeable hard pack for the north face. we celebrated his 11th birthday finding a few a soft pow bumps on skiers left under chair 10 then hit the trials glades where we were able to find some untracked areas and boot deep shots left over from thursday nights snow - bonus! met up with the girls for lunch to cruise some fun groomers for the rest of the day.tommorrow should be fun too as the plan is to repeat the morning then head over to carinthia with the twin tips