method9455

Their database really only matters if you are a season pass holder. Its not like you are going to be banned from buying lift tickets there, they don't take any information when you buy one, so as long as you don't want to buy a pass who cares. The underlying problem is that you have a bunch of skiers and riders as ski patrol who aren't as good as the people they are pulling over so they don't understand that it is under control. When I worked at a ski shop you found out that if you wanted to find out how good someone was, you ask how many days a year they go or where they ski or how long they have been skiing. If you ask someone if they ski fast, everyone answers yes regardless of if they do or not because in their mind, it is the fastest they have ever gone so it was fast. It is not until you get to the point where you can just go straight down trails like Razors, never make a turn, and say ok I could not have possibly gone any faster than that, that you truely understand what fast is. So these guys can't do that, and think that because it would be out of control for them to go as fast as guys we are going, we are in fact out of control. Same thing in the park. They don't understand what its like to roll into a jump where you can't see the landing or you are spinning and end up inverted, because they can't do it. So it looks like we're out of control or being stupid, when its not. And of course its Blue mountain so they dont listen to the customers at all. So the mountain ends up pissing off the best people there while not making the place ANY safer. In an area with so much competition, all but the most local people are just going to go elsewhere.

I saw that on Saturday, no wonder there are 1,000 of them around. Maybe with the proceeds they can buy sirens for their helmets so when they pull people over it is more official.

Yea I would not expect many to blow in wind like this, sure its cold but what good is that if it doesn't land on the trail. It is going to be cold for a while, if this was the only cold weather in the forecast they would probably say screw the wind blow while we have the chance, but the trees down here are whipping around I bet its just as bad or worse up there.

I dunno, when I was there, it was early january, and the park had just been built. I thought the opposite, there wasn't a single circusy thing there, and the jumps were gorgeous. The flow was second to none. I haven't seen the new build though. Their jibs themselves aren't as nice as a boulder or a mountain creek jib, but their setups are solid. And the vermonster is meant to be crazy as hell, Un Blanco Gulch is their "normal" park.

Oh shit, this thread started off great, you guys actually got the cutters, some hater was pointing out that as demand decreases price goes up ( I hope you didn't take Econ 101 ), and that bigger pipes are too hard (count me in the group that can air out of an 18 and will be stoked for a 22 because it is easier ) But there is NO WAY you can make the snow in 4 days. If you think you can make the snow in 4 days, then it will suck. If you DO make the snow in 4 days it will suck. Having been a local at Creek through all the years of trials and tribulations with their Superpipe from planning to shitty execution to amazing execution to canning it, I saw every year that it took a minimum of 4 weeks to get it done. Mount Snow took a similiar time frame this year, and that was also for an 18 foot pipe. Could you even make the snow you need in 4 days? Do you have any idea how much snow you are going to need? You need an area the size of the pipe, more than 22 foot deep, all the way across. More like 25 since obviously the middle needs some base. And you don't build the walls up and leave the middle empty, you make a solid block and carve the middle out. There is just no way to have any kind of consistancy with the snow otherwise. So how do you make that much snow? And Creek they had the two trails above the pipe and the pipe itself with monster fan guns running for huge amounts of time and they would push all that extra snow downhill (farming it). It has the advantage of getting a lot of the air out. Then you have to let the snow settle for a few days, let the water drain out. Then you have to kneed the snow just pushing it up and down and around for a few days, (Blue could use that, their pipe has so many air pockets). And then you finally start shaping the snow with a cat, and then finally you cut it, and then it takes a day to set. Oh and lets hope NO WHERE in that 3 week period is there bad weather because who knows what will happen. And mind you, all of that was at Mountain Creek which was an 18' pipe, with dirt underneith instead of 100% snow, and with the pressure of a HUGE competition coming to down that had millions of dollars no the line, and they blew it and lost all of that becuase they couldn't get it done last year. It can just be impossible no matter how much you want to do it if the weather is bad. Sno may be colder, but without dirt I would say it is an equally difficult challenge. At least they are grading it this summer, with that it will be possible to get it done every year after, but for this year, without dirt, you will be lucky as hell. It might happen but it will be entirely dependant on weather, you need a lot of snowmaking time, and a lot of time with a cat. But next year, when that baby opens I'll make my first trip to Sno, and thats why they are building it, becuase nothing else they can do would make me drive 1.5 hours to Sno compared to 1 hour to Boulder,Camelback, Mountain Creek. No matter how good the free riding is, it is only 2 hours to Belleayre/Hunter/Windham, so I'd rather just head up that way. But a 22 foot pipe? Shit I would have to drive 4 hours to Mount Snow to get near a good pipe now that Creek gave up on theirs, I would drive to Sno for that.

I dunno I spent $90 or whatever it was for us to ski on saturday and it was entirely worth it, conditions weren't great but I wouldn't say they where the worst of the year, the last day I went to blue was much worse this year. It was bumpy but I still had good time. There was only one day this year where I said it wasn't worth it after I went and that was because it was hailing, every other day has been entirely worth it.

Well thats what I thought too, but apparently we and every other mountain in America are wrong

Its cool next time you just need to tell me what your going to look like, we spent some time making adjustments at the base of the 6pack on my bindings I'm sure at some point you passed during that period. I was so suprised when he came over to talk to me cuz it was Lazy Mile. I said I was in control and it wasn't a green, and he said that a blue square was still beginner terrain. It was weird, I think he thought I was out of control but I was just messing around slashing snow around since it was making a good spray with all the sugar. If any day ever called for mid day grooming, today was it. The difference between 8 and 10 was huge, the difference between 10 and 1 was the difference between fun and unskiable (at least at a speed I would like, and going slow is so much more effort)

For me obviously VT is not out west, but it is a big step up from PA and NJ. I just like having longer runs, if you double the height of a mountain the trails are about 6x longer because its not like these mountains are 45 degrees the whole way down. The snow is honestly about the same because they get more natural but they also don't have 100% snowmaking like we do, so its kind of a wash unless you are in the glades. The terrain is just so much more fun up there though. As for going up vs going west, you can do a pretty cheap weekend up in VT, we usually stay at a nice little hotel like 20 minutes from the mountain, spend $200 or so for the weekend, and drive home. Its only about $40 a day more than going to PA would be. Since I drive an hour to PA anyway, I get 4 hours of driving for 2 days of skiing in PA, or 8 hours of driving for 2 days in vermont, its not much of a difference. Going out west would require an airplane ticket which is going to be 250-350 if you can find a good fair, on top of the other stuff. So I can go to VT about twice as much as out west. When I'm working part time and doing school, I just can't afford to go out west. But after school is done and I'm working full time, I'll be going west rather than north.

I went up today, they survived the warmth fine no bare spots anywhere and they were able to make snow last night. Bumpy at times because it was so soft the snow was getting thrown everywhere. Jesus christ $62 for a lift ticket? Since when did friday become part of the weekend? If you are going to charge weekend prices you better have weekend hours, I was sitting around this morning waiting to leave, sure its closer than PA but I could have gotten to one of the mountains that opened at 9 and rode for 3 hours before I could even start at Creek. Each individual park feature is great, but as a whole the park doesn't flow for me. It feels more like they took a map, called everything a park, and put 2 or 3 features on each trail. Its not a top to bottom park at all. South will always have that problem because the middle is flat, but Bear was kind of like that too. It feels more like you are free riding a mountain that has park shit thrown around than you are riding a park. I dunno, on Vernon it would be Great Northern, a 100 foot break until one of the 3 trails, drop down to the pipe or drop down to the show off rails, then roll right into Sugar, one long park run top to bottom no breaks. Today it was good from the top of South lift down jumping jack, then hit flying fox, take a long break, hit 2 things in exhibition, and then 1 spine later. Or you go left and its 3 jumps, 3 rails, and then a long flat run out with 2 more features at the bottom. No matter how you slice it, it is only 10 hits on the way down. That is no more than Boulder has and that place is 1/2 the height. It is 1/2 the number of hits as Blue on the way down. It is 1/3 the number of hits as you get on the way down at Mount Snow. I'd rather they where able to have all the features on 3 runs instead of 6 but you get twice as many features on the way down. That said, lots of cool things around you don't see else where. The log rainbow rail? Mad fun. Bringing back the rollercoaster rail, I missed that thing. The super high rainbow after is just glorious. The 5 tables on Flying Fox and Red Tail are the best table jumps I've seen all year. Oh yea, and the guys at mountain creek rip harder than anywhere else, I forgot about that. I love that one short step down under the lift as you go up south, I saw people spinning on it all day and it is just gets you stoked before you get off. Overall I hated the price, the hours, and how long it took to open, but loved the park itself. Unique features, perfect setups despite the weather, park crew out all day fixing it, jibs that no one can touch for quality, no gaper problem, fast lifts, plenty of variety to choose from and lots of variety for progression from ride on stuff to big rails (though no big jumps). It comes back to the park crew is second to no one on the east coast, but the management blows. Simple things - why do they have corals setup for the lifts when there is NO ONE there? That is just a dick move. How hard is it to open it up and when the crowd gets big close it? I never once waiting in line but I had to go down and back every time. Its just stupidity. I won't complain about the snowmaking becuz there are no barespots, but damn it is precarious, they need to make 2 feet of base inbetween the features or one more warm spell like this and they will be done. It was like you had a jump, and the area in between was 6". In PA they still have 4+ foot bases right now. And no southern sojourn open? It doesn't effect me but what happens when ski club drops all the kids off at vernon, is there is a shuttle? Overall I would rate it as a better park than anywhere in PA, but not as good as Mount Snow. Boulder is good, but it is short and they don't have nearly as much variety of features. Plus their hours and prices suck too. Blue has good flow but bad features. Camelback is laughable, as is Hunter, Belleayre, and Shawnee. The only place I've seen better this year was Snow, but that is Vermont so their weather makes it a lot easier.

We got up on the hill at about 8, we took some time in the parking lot because I had to switch bindings since I had my free ride bindings on my park board after decimating my park bindings last weekend (and Burtons still hasn't gotten me parts yet, 48 hour turnaround on warranty parts my ass). It was the gf's first day on her new board so we started on paradise off the quad, then challenge, and then went across and did every trail after. Took a quick break so I could switch my bindings back to my park board, and we hit Sidewinder about 5 times, and then I just rode my park board for a few more runs. I don't know how many we did but I would get 25 or 30, we weren't charing too hard the sugar slowed you down a lot, lots of random bumps and it was pretty flat light with the fog. It was bumpy but I didn't mind too much, I'd take that over ice. It was better than yesterday's slush too. I think its from snow they made last night, and I'd rather have them making snow than not have enough snow, so I'll take it. The park was fun as hell, they switched some stuff up. I miss the his/hers ramps on the jumps, and they shrunk the jump after the wallride a huge amount. I'm glad they took out the hip and moved the staircase though, the staircase is in a much better position. Everytime I ride Blue's park I come away thinking each feature is not the best it could be, they don't have as many options as some other places, but it is so much damn fun. Nothing is too big, everything is smooth and easy and flows well, especially on a day as empty as today I just feel really comfortable in it, I feel like if I spent a lot of time there I would learn a lot of new tricks, rather than when I got Creek or Boulder I'm just trying to survive these giant ass jumps and rails, or the shit is so small that it doesn't teach you anything, Blue is that happy medium it is great. We had a blast except for two little incidents, first a ski patroller stopped me for going too fast on Lazy Mile but he wasn't rude and I wasn't rude so whatever, I get that some people buzz skiers but I was just going my normal cruizing speed, which is quick but it isn't anywhere close to what I ride when I am going fast. Actually I had said something to my girlfriend on the lift ride up about 2 runs before when we saw a ski patroller talking to a guy about how they "pull you over" here and at Camelback, and we laughed about it, and then soon after I got pulled over. And then at the end of the day we where going through the park and some kid with headphones ran over my girlfriends board as we where waiting to drop so I caught up with him and told him to watch where he was going because he had just hit someone and so then he gives me the "i don't care" crap and starts trying to act tough which was pretty halarious, mind you this kid is like 16 and has a pre-pubescant moustache with typical baggy neon clothes. I refused to get into it with him we where standing in front of the 6 pack and he and his crew where yelling at me like "faggot your so gay" and I'm thinking wait I'm riding with my girlfriend and the 6 of you guys are having a suasage fest and I'm gay? He looked like a jackass to everyone, my girlfriend wasn't too happy about the whole incident it kind of put a bad note on the end of her day, the board is gorgoues and luckily there isn't really a scratch in it but it just sucks that people don't care, the thing is going to last like 2 or 3 seasons it would be nice not to get it scratched on day one. Where is the damn ski patrol when you need it? Clip that guys ticket instead of telling me to slow down when I've never hit anyone in my life, and if I did I certaintly wouldn't be yelling at the guy. I'm disappointed I couldn't find Doug or anyone, but you guys didn't give me a description so I didn't know what to look for. I was looking for a guy ripping challenge on Scratches but I couldn't see anyone so I didn't know. I was going to play the name game all day to find you but I didn't want to yell on such a serene day with the way the snow was falling, you can't break that nice quietness.

I don't know if you guys have seen pictures from Mountain Creek's Union Square Street Sessions comp, but its pretty gnarly. Last year was nuts. I totally forgot about it but when I went out to lunch I saw dump trucks of snow and I was like wtf? So I walked down 2 blocks and the contest guys are practicing, its a sick setup. Scaffold that is like 3 stories high, they have a wall ride, a small step down jump on the scaffold, a staircase, a jeep with a battleship box over it, and a quarter pipe with a barrell setup. I'm going to go after work to watch the comp, I wish I had my damn camera. Anyone else going to be there?

Anyone else going up? I will be there between 12 and 6 at South riding park. Red jacket, white helmet, grey pants, if you see me I'm looking for people to ride with all my friends went back to school. -Kevin

That is very true. There are certaintly a bunch of guys who are dicks in the park, I do not fall into that category. Generally for me I'm in the park in one of two modes, either I'm banging down on the big jumps/rails with tricks I have perfected, or I am in the beginner park hiking the smallest of boxes learning something. Many times I have been hiking that box and there are some kids trying to learn how to do something and I'll help them out, because they are trying something appropriate for their skill and there are so many little things I wish people had told me when I was learning because at the time there was no one teaching us, it was all trial and error. I don't care if people aren't good in the park, I have been there, and I consider myself bad at the park for the amount of time I've spent in it, I'm definitely not a natural at it, I have a problem with people doing something stupid that is going to get them or me hurt, which makes the mountain warry of expanding the park.

yea, it is rediculous The irony is that I pick all of my stuff to be anti-flashy. I have solid colored jacket, helmet, board, bindings, and my goggles and pants are basically solid color. So I am really conservative looking, the idea being that I want people to see my riding if they are looking, and if let the riding do the talking. Yet now in the park I am really easy to spot because I'm one of the only ones without camo/plaid/XXXL tshirt/basketball jersey/giant hat/big headphones/airblasters/many bandanas/neon colors Yet somehow without all that flash, I still am able to ride. Its almost as if the camo DOESN'T make you ride better, which is weird because based on how much effort people put into getting all this flashy shit, I would have thought that it did help you ride better. Maybe if they put that much effort into actually riding ....

Agreed, the only time I switch my convertibles from cap to over the top is in the park. I like the feel of it over the top for nose and tail presses, I can't imagine that would feel good. We are having a damn hard time carrying Ride at work, it was almost axed this year but I fought to keep it, and it didn't sell well again. Next year we are trying for bindings only, if we can't do that we might have to drop them, their boards and boots just do not sell.

Nice, my brother has a TRS with MTX that is SICK, which is pretty similiar so I am sure you will love it.

The 390s are bomb proof but a bit heavy because of that, and not all that soft at all. Next year they are moving to composite base plate they should get a bit softer. If you want a really soft binding, the Burton Custom is where it is at, except they break. I like the way Burton's ride in the park, I don't like how weak they are. Rides are my 2nd favorite, and rome my 3rd. The Salomon Relay Pro is an interesting choice for a park specific binding, give that a look. I don't know anything about Union.

Doubtful. Its not quite that time of year yet, MSRP is 450, most shops at this time of year are 20% off so 360ish. You would have to get to 30-40% off to make it 200-300 including tax, that is usually March and later. At that point, there will be none left. Around here, anything Magne-Traction or Bananna-Traction is long gone, all that sells before Christmas. But I would wait, next year, almost every board from Lib is Bananna. It will be a lot easier to find and you won't pay a premium.

Rip on Camelback all you want, they are the only ones who really care about their customers. Blue, JFBB, and Bear are so inconsiderate for letting their patrons get cold in the wind, wet in the rain, or have to wipe their goggles in the fog. Honestly, I love a mountain as in tune with their customer's experience as Camelback.

No, we're not asses for telling you that you have the measurements wrong. When I come on here and post that a jump is 25 feet, or a jump is 35 feet, everyone who has an indication of size knows what that means. When I say a jump had a 4 foot step down, people know what that means. So say your kid DID land that jump, and you said WOW he went 20 feet high, and then I post, hey Blue has a bunch of great jumps that put you up 10 feet in their main park, and you went there and said hey these jumps are 1/2 the size of the ones at camelback, and your kid hits them, and then oh crap they send him twice as high as the one at Camelback, because in reality your kid did a 10 foot jump, got 5 feet of air and really hurt himself. The kick on a jump varies a lot, and I can tell you that if you can't tell 5 feet from 20 feet, you can't tell what will kick you high and what won't. If he did a 20 foot jump he would be in a coffin, and we would be reading about it in the newspaper and I would be lamenting about it like I did about 15 days ago here: Skier dies in terrain park The first day I was teaching my friend how to hit jumps, we where using a 5-8 foot step down, the last one in the Laurel glade park. He broke his nose on it when a kid cut him off, and that was an 8 foot jump. He had a stiff neck for a few days with it too. If you kid had landed head first on the jump he tried which was twice as big as that what would have happened? So thats what we're trying to say, SMALL THINGS CAN HURT YOU, and BIG THINGS CAN KILL YOU. So when you read it as us trying to cut you down because only we can go that big, we read it as you obfuscating the dangers of THE ENTIRE park by making it sound like your kid went off this giant pro sized kicker that only a handful of people in the world would be able to hit. A jump that throws you 20 feet is out of the ordinary, it would be like saying you hurt your leg jumping off a cliff, and other people would read it and say "what an idiot, he jumped off a cliff, no wonder he hurt his leg, that would never happen to me" We're saying, no he didn't do that, he was doing something normal that we see everyday and got hurt, it brings it back to reality so that anyone reading this thread knows they too could have gotten hurt even if it LOOKS small. Just because a bunch of guys rip through the park and make it look easy doesn't mean it is. I've been riding park for 4 years, I go about 30 days a year, of that I spend 5 or 6 of just in the park, and the other days I spend maybe an hour or two in the park. Just the last two years have I been comfortable on big jumps. In that time I've done dozens of jumps hundreds of times, and hundreds of rails thousands of times. So has every other guy out there, at blue its 20 features on the way down, with a lift that you are doing 6 runs an hour, so 120 hits an hour for 6 hours a day is 600 hits a day? Some places it might be 200 because of slower lifts, but the point is that I'm doing 1,000 hits a season at least, and so are the other guys here even if they didn't count it out like that, they are. How many turns do you make in one run on the way down? How many runs and days did it take to do a black diamond? How many turns up to that point total did it take to get the confidence to do that black diamond? Thousands and thousands of repetitions. People think just because they can ride they can ride in the park, but it is completely different, the only reason they are getting away with it is because the ski hills are all run by guys who don't ride the park either and have no concept of what the REAL dangers are.

When I was there I guessed 25 feet but it has a nice step down. It could have changed though. When they made it, it really was not big at all.

I don't think so, see how the prices are have 3 columns and get more expensive as it gets later and the college one is the same price?

Whatever you want to say at the size, I have never seen a mountain as icy during the day as Blue was the day I went this year, not even Mountain Creek. They do a much better job grooming JFBB. I don't care how much vert you have, if the snow sucks it sucks, and honestly if I want to lap something midweek I can go to Camelback and get just as much vert with super fast lifts with much better grooming than Blue. Blue has to offer something more than statistics to convince me it is superior because there is nothing knock your socks off about it.

Ah, thats rough. It was super foggy when I drove back from the bus station tonight. I'm not nearly as outraged by Sno or Camelback or anyone else closing or closing trails lifts so long as it is posted on the website/snowphone as when Camelback used to close one of its major lifts without announcing it anywhere. If it means losing today and gaining a day at the end of the year for spring riding because they are saving operating costs, I'm all for it.