method9455

why are they closed is it raining out there? its warm here (manhattan) but its not raining

Yea you are right I looked at the pictures again I have only hit it once this year

All the jumps at Blue are tabletops except for one. I'm not saying fences are unworkable, i'm saying fences like that are dangerous. Give me a hole to bail in and I'll be happy. Make it 2 foot wide so I can fit through in an emergency but it will deter most people and I'll be happy, I just don't want to end up sliding through a fence some day. But then I think people will just go up in that hole and stand there anyway. I liked the ollie over a pit of fire entrance we talked about a few years ago, much more effective than steps.

I agree with the problems but not the solution. Well actually I like your ramp idea and thanks for the illustration, but the fence on the table is not a good idea. You are treating a symptom and not the problem. The problem is that there are a bunch of people who don't belong in the park in the park, not that people shouldn't be crossing next to the ramp. My warm up run or two in the morning, I take all the jumps and ollie the knuckles, it warms up my knees, I can see the jump, now what? What if you are going into a jump and have to bail - no you are going to slam on the brakes last minute and hope to stop before you go off the ramp or hit a fence, lame. Or what if I hit the first jump, fall so you can't hit the second table, and want to pump the second table to get enough speed for the 3rd? With a fence you can't. And it doesn't prevent people from sitting at the bottom of the landing. What if you want to film? A better solution would be to have people clipping the tickets of those in the landings, that would truly make things safer.

I'm stoked about the college pass + 4 free passes, my friends are so damn broke I end up riding alone a lot so that will be great. I don't know how much I will be getting up to JFBB next year because I may be away for the winter but I could break even on it just going early/late season easily.

I would say stick to your current size, you will get more grip but like they said above, a smaller board will flex too much. Besides size is only a problem with a heavy board. My 159 Altered Genetics is lighter than my 153 Burton Jeremy Jones by a really noticeable margin, I can spin the 159 as well as the 153, and on the lift you feel the 159 much less, and it pops way harder. I would have to say while expensive I can't think of a board better than a MTX Altered Genetics. Lib Tech is "going bannanas" next year (their words not mine), almost every board will be getting bannanaed, lots of good feedback. i've also never heard bad feedback from people riding MTX. Literally, no one has ever told me they where un happy with it and we sell the whole line every year. The only boards that I want are bannana and/or MTX, (and the Rome Mod that thing is LIGHT), you can't go wrong.

Janes is fun, especially if you take the right hand split where it is narrower. Is there an unused glade all the way left connected to Easy Rider? I've only been down that trail once this year but it kind of looked like it, I was thinking next storm after east mountain gets beat I was going to go over there and check it out, but East Mountain never gets when I'm there.

-True, and no reason they shouldn't be everywhere, there are more snowboarders than skiers at mountain creek by a large margin. Its probably 70/30 -There is a lodge in the plans for the village, but who knows what will happen. They didn't build a lodge before because they planned on building this whole village, now that Intrawest got sold I have no idea what the plans are, the timeline, or anything. Obviously they aren't done with lodge improvements, they sunk a bunch into South. That said, it is an embarrasment that they still have the tents up. At least get some new tents once in a while they where not ment to stand for this long, upgrade to something with better ventalation its brutal. Luckily I never spend time in the lodge. It kind of worked before since Vernon was park rats who don't care and South was higher end skiers and it still had a lodge, but now free riding skiers just get screwed every way possible from the bad parking to the later opening to the worse terrain to the worst lodge to the worst lift. -Mountain Creek, VV/GG has been, was, will be, insanely crowded. It is the closest mountain to NYC, the only major ski hill in the most densly populated state in the country, and it has a layout that doesn't help much by funneling everyone back to the same 4 lifts. It sucks, and it always will. More lifts would just crowd the trails even more. If they had added more trails AND more lifts, it would be just as crowded but fewer people would go out 80 to PA, so it would be even more people, just divided over a bigger area. I think it just gets crowded to the point where people just say "we are going to spend so much time in lift lines, lets just driver further to Hunter or Camelback", and so it levels itself back to this insane level of crowdedness that is only slightly less insane than what it could be. There is nothing they can do to change 1 and 3, but 2 is certainly a failing of Intrawest. Not to mention many believe it was very convenient for the lodge to burn down as soon as Intrawest took over. Now they "need a village" because they "need a lodge". Imagine if they tried to knock it down themselves and left us with no lodge for 10 years? How pissed would people be? At least now they can say "it wasn't us" (yea right).

I just don't see how it is ever going to work if you need a spotter for every jump. The park is like driving a car. There is a lot of risk, people get injured and killed. You have to do everything to minimize that risk. As the driver of the car if you do anything remotely reckless and kill a pedestrian, it is manslaughter. But if a person jumps out into the middle of the road at night and the driver does everything they can to avoid that person, and still end up hitting them, they do not get charged. I see it the same way in the park, I do every possible thing I can to avoid people, and I end up hitting someone who was doing something blatantly stupid because "they paid for a pass so they can ski where ever they want" it can't possibly be my fault. It is entirely unpreventable for me going over a jump to spot the jump myself. Its like your saying that if I hit a scuba diver with my boat because he didn't put a flag up, its my fault. If liability worked that way, no one could hit jumps, no one would drive, and no one could boat, among a million other things. Just because you are the victim doesn't mean that you are blameless, recklessness goes both ways. Also, this is a huge assumption that the person IN the landing is the one who gets hurt. I would bet that if I came over a jump and saw someone in my landing area at a high rate of speed, and I did manage to avoid them, I would get hurt in the process. Now are they liable? Doubtful, even though it is their fault. Which brings me back to my original favorite position - this is why we need park passes, and real park passes where you have to sit through a video for 30 minutes and pay some money, designed to discourage people and reduce liability. There is no correlation between this kind of danger in the park park and anything else in the sport, no where else do you have to have faith in those around you doing what you expect them to do so that you don't get hurt. We've had this conversation a thousand times but its the only solution I see. It is a hassle for those of us who know it, and those who just want to ski through, and I hate them when I visit a place like stratton for a day and I can't use the park because I don't have a pass, but at the end of the day it is the only way to make the blind jumps any safer. Spotters are even more of a hassle to implement on your own, and even more expensive for the mountain. If you have 1 guy per trail checking passes, it is cheaper than 1 guy per jump checking landings.

Hey, I'll be up at JF tomorrow 9am - 2pm, anyone else going? I will probably be aiming for park since it will be warmer than usual but I'm open to anything if other PASRs are there. I'll be in my grey pants/red jacket/white helmet look, if you see me just yell Kevin, I love to ride/ski with anyone. I usually do One park, T-Bolt, Challenge, and East Mountain pretty much all day, I never really venture the other direction. Kevin

Thats not true. While the skiers responsibility code says you have to avoid people downhill of you, the smarstyle sign says explicitly that you have to stay off landings. Since the smartstyle's scope is solely park I would say it over rules the skiers responsibility code when they conflict. And what landing can you see? I can't think of a jump where I could ever see the landing from the ramp except a hip. That said, I do worry on busy days about people in the landings. For me, I never take the center of the ramp. I move off about 3 feet, this way if someone before me falls I won't hit them. If I can see what part of the ramp the guy before me went I will go as far away from it as is possible so I avoid him. I think its more dangerous to land on someone who is not moving than come and hit someone who is moving from behind. The problem comes if someone is completely randomly sitting there. So I always call my drop, loud, and I look for someone waving me off. For spotters, it is kind of impracticle. Sometimes I have one when someone is filming me, but they are standing on the first jump, what happens in a 3 jump line? Should I have 3 spotters? So now we need 4 people to go through the park and only 1 gets to ride? So I do what I can but in the end, people need to stay out of the way.

I think his run was lien air -> mctwist -> 1080 -> 1080 -> 900 -> 900 -> 1260? Edit: sweet I was right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6Rr0zPisQI

Sure there is, because falling down on an icy Razors means you can't stop, which means you gain a lot of speed, and ultimately end up killed hitting a tree at the bottom. Compare that to a glade where getting up to 40+ is difficult because you can't go 10 feet without hitting a tree. Have you ever hit a tree? I have, it didn't hurt me because I slid into it feet first. Yet I have broken my nose, broken my wrists, and gotten concussions in the park. Yet more places have parks than glades. Do you know who has personally been killed at a ski hill? I know of 3 in my town, non involved glades. My point is by saying A is safe you can do it, but B is not safe so you can't, they take the "Ski at your own risk" out of the equation. Now its "ski within the boundaries that we set because they are safe" which makes them MORE liable than if they just say "do what you want, if you get hurt its on you". They are saying that the park is safer than glades, that groomed steep terrain is fine for beginners but glades are not fine for advanced riders, its rediculous. In my other sport, sailing, it is sail at your own risk. When the storms roll in and it gets crazy, it is up to you to decide if you want to go out or not. As soon as they start saying it is not safe to go out today, the next time they go out and someone gets hurt or killed, they can sue and say "I thought it was safe becuase the last time when it wasn't safe you wouldn't let us go out". Lay the responsibility on the participant not the business. Maybe the law doesn't agree with that, but it would hardly be the first time the law doesn't make sense. As for me searching it in Lexus Nexis, while I do have a subscription and I could do that, I'm not the one who asserted the point without any basis. Who gets to decide what is safe and what is not? There is no case law that spells it out, because if there was there would be NO glades.

On what basis can you say that? You make that statement with nothing to back it up. What defines a properly marked and maintained trail? If I had a choice between off trail glades at JF with soft snow or the ice I encountered on an opened Razors Edge at Blue a few days ago, the glade at JF was unquestionably safer. So how is JF less liable for injury than Blue? Under your argument, JF is more liable soley based on the trees being there, even though the Blue trail was one of the most dangerous I have ever ridden because of conditions.

Yea I'm so bummed danny kass fell on his opening hit 3 times, I pull for him every time. Shaun seemed to be the only one landing anything in those conditions. And then he throws the 1260 like its nothing.

People have died at Shawnee, Mountain Creek, and Camelback - without any gladed terrain at any of them. People get killed on groomed trails, on bumped trails, in terrain parks, in the parking lot, on the lift, the drive up, and the drive home. To say that that ONE thing is the one that will get Elk sued is stupid. Sure it is more dangerous in a glade than on the bunny hill, but is it more dangerous than the park? There are degrees of risk and the glades are definately riskier than a gladed trail for someone who knows what they are doing, but is it worse to have advanced skiers in a glade or beginners venturing out onto a wide open steep trail where they will get a bunch of speed, fall, and have no way to stop themselves before they hit a tree or lift pole. Based on my experience trying to get people to try glades with me, people are much more intimidated by a stand of trees than a steep trail, and I don't think beginners venture into the glades as often as they do onto trails that are too steep for them. I've ridden with a backpack before, and it was very useful. But that was because we where at Mountain Creek. You park at one lodge and it is 25 minutes from one end to the other because of how it was 2 seperate places at one time. So we used to be dropped off by the school at Vernon, ride up with food/clothes/cameras, get to south, and lock the stuff in the lodge there because we where at south most of the day there. sometimes things happen outside of what the resort plans for you, if mountain creek had banned backpacks we would not have been able to do that. on the other hand, dumb people with backpacks get hurt on lifts, who saw that youtube video with the kid in utah hanging from the lift with a 40 foot fall below because of his backpack.

That was awesome. And someone please slap that girl who was like "How did it feel to be 10 feet in the air' - it was a 85 kicker it was a lot bigger than that. That blew my mind more than anything else this week. I appreciate that he said if he was in 2nd he would go for it, and he was clearly getting gold, and he still went for it just to do it, thats hardcore.

How about now? Tara Dakades, Gretchen Bleiler, and some motox girl.

I've put in 100+ days on Salomon Maoris as well, they where the first boot I owned, and I loved them. Switched over to K2 T1's after they where hopelessly packed out, the K2's fit great, very warm, super stiff, but are packing out faster than the salomon ones, I'm at about 60 - 70 days on the K2's and they are getting a bit loose. 32's are great boots, but they don't fit my foot at all. They are lighter than the salomons, but I think they will pack out faster which is a bad thing. The two are very different shapes, in fact the 32's are very uniquely shaped so people either love them or hate them. I appreciate their design, but for my foot I hate them. I get hung up less on this model vs that model, go try them on, find one that fits well and has the flex you want. 32's on the whole are less stiff than salomons. I have been a super-stiff boot fan for a few years, but my current boots are almost too stiff so next pair I'm getting are going to be more intermediately flexing.

It looks good, thanks for the pictures. Fan guns + cold temperatures are amazing, that is a hell of a lot of snow.

My bad I will agree with you on that

I missed boarderX but it sounds lame. But while we're bitching about coverage, STOP GOING TO THE DAMN COMPUTER GRAPHICS. If they built a perfectly manictured jump SHOW ME THE JUMP AND PUT A LABEL OVER IT LIKE FOOTBALL. When they show that its 3rd and 6 at the 46 yard line, they don't pop up a virtual football field and show it, they draw it on the screen. Verses does this for niche sports too (Americas Cup coverage, half the time it was computer graphics YOU HAVE VIDEO SHOW IT! FUCK!). I got it, the jump is big, but you know what makes the jump look bigger? WHEN YOU SHOW THE DAMN JUMP. When I see a picture that says 68 feet, or a giant gap with a camera man that looks like an ant standing in it, which gets the point across better? As for the boxes, seriously, what the hell was that about. I was watching it and I was like what, I've done a battleship box that big, maybe not 270 to front board but certaintly a boardslide across it, or a gap across the top, what the hell? And an up box, you have 4 jumps afterwards and you basically just made an extra jump, how about a gnarly down-flat-down? Or a swingset box. Oh wait, maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. You got a picture of her when she was like 12, check out here, shes not a model but shes better looking than Kelly Clark/Hannah Tetter/Gretchen Bleiler http://www.askmen.com/women/votes_300/324_...letes_2006.html

Ha that is a great post. Put the 20' air with the 60' jumps all over PA and NJ now. Bullshit, they're 35 foot jumps and you got 10 feet in the air. Look at the X games, the biggest jump in slopestyle is 68 feet and it is twice as big as anything we've ever seen around here. 1 skier was going bigger than 20' in the pipe. That being said - falling from 5' in the air can break your neck easily, we're jumping on you because this is how people get killed, go read the daily record from last week, a doctor from NJ tried a jump in the park, landed on his head and died. Don't let that happen to your kid just because you underestimate the risks, and at 13 and 15, they're not going to estimate their limits well at all.

Thats what Laurel glade is for, or the 3 jumps at the bottom of that run, neither of the two jumps in that park are good for "experimenting" The fact that they have two guys who do that is great, I wouldn't rip that at all. I wish more mountains did that, it would prevent injuries.

Yea what a bad time to do it. If they don't have lights do it during the day,or buy some damn lights. I'd rather have it taped and aired 3 hours later and have the guys land it, than have half the runs shown be washed out. And I liked the jumps but this was definately not the best slopestyle course ever. The jump line was good but there weren't any super hard rails, everyone was just gap 270 to front board that box, which isn't even all that hard, and very little unique was going on with that up box. Danny Kass bonked the tip yesterday which was cool but he didn't make it to the finals, which was lame.