snorovr

Ya, there is no need to talk it up at Blue. The kids who are in it do enough of that for us. Seems like more and more people are starting to know who we are, hopefully in a good way.

Went to Camelback once and that was one time too many for me.

Huckin my first decent sized cliff in Brighton, Utah.

I was thinkin about rompin around on the NASTAR course on thursday night. Its either that or stay at school and get schwasted with scantily clad women. It is a tough decision... I get outa class at 4pm. What time does it start? And will anyone feel bad if I smoke them on dull twins?

Try spinning a three with your arms straight down at your sides, toy soldier style. Make sure your body is as rigid as possible. Doesn't it look sweet!?! Now tell me you don't use your arms to spin a three, a five, a seven, etc... If he is twisting with his legs and hips, how will he spot his landing? Spinning makes so much more sense to many people if you do more along the lines of what nick said. Looking over your shoulder when you're airborne not only helps you set and control the spin, it helps you spot your landing, and when you're spinning more than a 3 helps you get the extra rotations around. Try both ways and see what works for you I guess, but I bet controlling the spin with your upper body will be smoother and look better...

Nah 7th Heaven is on the side of Blackcomb that faces Whistler Mountain. You can see Whistler from 7th heaven and vice versa. But when it snows, Harmony on Whistler is where its at, and there are a few more spots but givin away locals secrets is lame.

Can there be a "Parenting Help" forum on this site? This does not belong in "Park & Pipe" cuz it doesn't have sh*t to do with it. For what its worth, the kid is twelve. I know my parents were tellin me what to do till I was like 17 or 18 and they still try. Papa, I don't see why you're defending yourself to anyone. You're his dad, I'm not telling you to grow some balls or anything, but how old are you??? do what you want man!. I don't think anyone is gonna submit your name to childrens services... If Nipples is complaining then do what my parents used to do and give him a swift kick to the chest to knock the wind out of him and then it wont be so loud.

I never want to have kids...

The long term forecast that Blue gets for snowmaking and daily operations is from accuweather, and their longterm report has colder temps returning "by the end of the month."

Speaking of sales trends, I stopped in Sports Chalet today, and that place is sweet. Talked with Kristi for a while and I'm definitely goin in again soon. If people wanna ski on twins then thats fine, hopefully they realize that there is probably a better ski for what they are doing in a non-twin model, but some people just like graphics. When I see someone on twins who isn't using them and never will, I just make sure that I'm in front so they have to deal with my rooster tail of snow and not the other way around.

Yeah between Chris, the snowboard school, and a few of us who have talked to reps, we could throw down some really sick contests with some great gear that are actually sponsored directly by the companies and not through ski shops. Last year the park crue and the snowboard directors basically ended up running slopestyle because the course was built, the park crue made a few features, Ed came in and just lightly ran over everything so he could get his check, and then he didnt even stay through the contest. The focus this year was just on getting the park where it needs to be.

Ya I had never thought of alot of the stuff that article brings up, and then I read it and it made so much sense I felt dumb.

Yeah you can thank Eds House for the lack of contests. Things will change for next season though. The park is so much better this year because they saw what other mountains are doing and responded. The same will come with Blue, and hopefully Ed won't be a part of that equation.

Atomic, Its not so much where you have the lift users coming from, its more about how you load them. Also, if the runs would come down on either side, riders would be able to see the length of the line on both sides, and then naturally proceed towards the side with less people in line, so in Blues case the lines should even themselves out on both sides (although nothing works normally at Blue). If you have ever been to Okemo, they have a good example of working a quad line in a small amount of space where riders come from both sides. A good line also requires a constant line attendant, something with which Blue has been much better this year. Its also detrimental to "load people as fast as the lift can move." The key is to find the speed at which lift users will load at the most efficient rate. This rate comes from reducing the amount of falls in the lift line. Here is a link to an article that provides info on how to run a lift in an efficient manner, and pretty much goes into detail on what I've said. http://www.saminfo.com/issues/article.php?tid=3395

Ya just what I want, turn Blue into a country club... Seriously though, I just want a mountain that embraces mountain sports, and takes advantage of the land it has to give its patrons the best possible experience for their money. This includes worldclass terrain parks, stellar snowmaking and grooming (read quality not quantity, blow drier), modern facilities and decent food for the money (Blues food has definitely gone downhill in the past 5 years or so), and make the mountain appealing to an outdoors savy crowd year round. Like support mountain biking, build hiking trails that access the appalachian, and never ever build a huge dirty waterpark. If the owners and managers at Blue were into the outdoors and participated in many of the sports their customers do that place would be entirely different. I was informed by the director of the Snowports staff at Blue that there have been plans for a long time to have paradise run down on the left hand side of the quad as you are going up the quad. It would tie into what now is the snowboard bunny hill, valley school east, and that way you would have people accessing the quad from both sides, which would really make the flow into the quad much smoother because people would be lining up on both sides, then coming at it in groups of four from straight on. This would also get alot of beginners off of Homestretch, and just reduces the congestion in that general area. Tubing would be moved over a little bit and some other things would be shifted around in that area. That is the most realistic change I see within the next two years, along with the completion of new trail under the quad. As a disclaimer, I don't consider hunting an outdoor sport. Unless it is with a longbow, a spear, or a blowgun. Don't bother posting if you disagree, because I don't care. Yeah I'm an as*hole today...

Anyone who hucks themselves when its as hard as it is right now is asking for a ride in the ghetto bird. Hopefully with a few blowable nights this week conditions at Blue will head in a better direction.

Blue's park has some really nice lines now. Hopefully it will get cold soon so some new features can come out to play.

yeah crashing sucks...

Ya that was definitely more of a July ice rink snow setup. I hope to god for Bears sake that it gets colder soon. Contest organization was squirrely at best, although if things had remained as planned it is possible we would all still be there.

I've been politely telling people who are misusing park features the correct way to use them when I see it happen, and so far most people are pretty polite when they realize your intentions. Sure there are assholes who get in my face and get all big, but if you're just calm then they are usually fine and they blade away. I'm sure these people do the same stuff next run, but we are trying to do anything we can to keep people safe in the park, and the more they know about how they shouldn't stop under a landing to a jump we are landing switch off of, then the better the park will be for everyone. I'm gonna see if we can get a few guys from Blue's park crew to stand at the top of Sidewinder this weekend for a few hours and just talk to people. This way we can try to make up some smart style flyers we can give to families, we can talk to some of the riders and hear what they want to see out of the park, and just let people know that we are really trying. Skitzo, sweet comment man. Way to be "defensive..."

Dennis is the head mountain manager. People might debate this because depending on what time of day it is or what day it is there are two different managers on duty, one for the mountain, and one for the lodges. But Dennis is pretty much second in charge. Anything we want approved has to first pass through Dennis. He also gets all the e-mails about the park, and anything else a customer feels is worth writing down and sending. I leave for Italy the 31st of January. I'll be working pretty much from then until February 27th, and I don't know anything about how much time I'll have to ski. I got my assignment in the mail the other day, and the main venue that I'll be working is the Freestyle Skiing venue, and since I'll be in the mountains I'll probably be working some of the other venues up in the hills as well. After the 27th I'm staying in Europe for the first part of March and I'm gonna try to hit as many hills as I can in Switzerland, Austria, Italy, and maybe France.

Ya I was just messin with you man. It hasn't been groomed because its to warm right now. If you groom it when its all slushy then the walls just fall in on themselves, and as soon as people hit the walls they get all trenched out and you have to start over from scratch. As soon as they can blow snow again then they should be able to run the Zaugg up through it again.

Yo man we are really tryin' this year. There were a couple guys that were already let go from the park crew because they were riding instead of working, or thats what I heard anyway. I definitely do agree that people need to send e-mails, the more Dennis gets about the park, then the bigger a priority the park will be made. But sending e-mails that say, "Park crew sucks, they don't do their jobs, all they do is ride" are pointless and will just put the wheels of progress into reverse. I'm scheduled from 4-8pm friday, saturday, and sunday nights, and I bust my ass man. Do you have any idea how much that shift sucks on a regular basis? Like bunny said, I don't get paid the 4 hours, we just get paid for each run through the park that we make, which if you take your time and do it right takes about an hour or two. I usually make two runs through in a shift, if not more. I don't take my skis out with me unless we don't have the snowmobile and I have to take the lift to get to Sidewinder. What we usually do is shovel and rake the lips and landings, chalk and salt them, and then make sure that the feature is as safe as it can be given snow conditions and the amount of traffic using it. You can imagine how difficult it is to fix some of the features and keep them maintained on a busy Friday night or Sunday afternoon. Some of the holes in the lower park are all but impossible to fix, but we often do the best that we can with them. One of the reasons you don't always see people in the park is that the Park Crew is currently being taken from Blue Mountains instructors. If it is a busy day, and the ski and board schools are packed then we have to come out of the park and teach. I don't really understand it myself, but am not really in any position to change it or complain about it. We are not allowed to leave shovels and rakes out for a few different reasons. Among them being that there is a good chance they would be used irresponsibly, and as has been said, its all about liability. I don't really know what else to say man. If you've been riding at Blue longer than 3 years then like many other riders up here you would appreciate the vast improvements that have been made, and would have certainly heard of the snails pace at which this place progresses in terms of the freeride scene. Hopefully you'll see park crew more, and if you do, let em know what needs to be fixed because not a whole lot of them surf PASR. By the way the park is awesome right now. Lips are butter, landings are soft, and there is no one here

Doug you should be shot for comparing any of those places to Blue. There is a reason those places don't need to develop their parks. There is a new booter in the park today. The table-top was reshaped and is now a wedge with a nice looooong landing. You have to take alot more speed into it than you had to take into the table, and Im not really sure how long it is, maybe 40-50ft. Pops you real nice. Even park crew isn't being told right now what any of the new rails are that are going to be coming out in the next few weeks. As soon as it gets cold again we will be able to start putting more stuff in and changing things around. The 75 footer is a definite possibility. Those who can actually utilize a feature of that size know this, and those that don't yet feel comfortable with how big that is will still have plenty of features. From what I've heard from people who ski and ride the park as it is meant to be, they are liking Sidewinder thus far this year. Any complaints should be directed to the weather gods.

Yeah landings were sooooooo soft. Slush factor was a little high for my tastes, but who am I to complain about skiing. I took a good bail on the table top cuz the lip threw me but its all good. I'm workin park crue all week so I'll keep you as informed as I am about new features.