method9455

I convinced the U Delaware ski club to bail on them, we don't know where we are going yet.

My question is the marketing, going from first open last to close to just another vermont mountain is a big slip. I don't know if it will pay off for them (with the way energy costs are going, it probably will) but like Peak says at Mount Snow, opening first gets your name out there and excites a lot of people. That is really valuable marketing, and puts out the perception that your mountain is a leader in the area.

They're solid, I think the design is pretty interesting. I wouldn't say revolutionary but definately a good idea. The differance is largely the toe piece and the straps, the heel cup is the same on all of them. I forgot which is which, but one has a soft toe piece while the others have a normal plastic one.

(Rant) What the fuck, if you look at Burton (Normal, B By Burton, Analog and AK), Ride, Quicksilver, Roxy, Helly Hanson, or anything else there are NO good jackets or pants for women this year. (Maybe pants). But for women, the jackets are utter garbage. And they largely where last year. Everything looked good in the catalogs last january for this year, and now that its coming in it is all crap. Anything that looks good is thin and without any of the features the men's stuff has. Anything "higher end" is some hideous (not even the wearable shades) of plaid or camo, or even worse. Its fucking rediculous. I have been showing this stuff to girls and they ALL HATE IT. I'm showing it to guys who are fucking color blind and they're like wow, what the fuck where they thinking? Who did they test this stuff out with? Try to find a one or two tone womens shell that is on the higher end in water proffness with a removable liner, taped seams, powder skirt, pit zips, mp3 player pocket, and everything in a subtle style - you just can't. The pants might be doable but the jacket has to come first. And yet you can find dozens of them in men's. Not all girls suck at snowboarding (and the ones who do need shit that is more waterproof since they sit on their ass all day!) and there is nothing that is isn't contemporary (which in a lot of people's opinion is UGLY). I'd like to buy something for my girlfriend that won't make her look like a fool in 10 years when we see the pictures again, but pretty much its either look like a snow bunny in something that barely keeps you warm in march, or end up in a down jacket that isn't good late season, or end up with something that actually works like a quality jacket and you look like a jackass. Womens boards and bindings and boots have caught up with men's stuff but why not the jackets? I've looked through every model ride, burton, roxy, quicksilver, and helly hanson and this is true for all of them. Where is the good stuff? I'll post some examples later but has anyone else noticed this?

Yea and $200 for a season pass (college student) is rediculous, thats only 4 days! I'm not too worried about vert per run I'm interested in quality of the day, and I know its going to be better avoiding hunter. I'm hoping I can get my first day this year in Nov, Last year was my earliest day ever at like Dec 10, this year I'm aiming for 2nd weekend they're open which will push it up. As for 1/50th of Hunter's assholes, Hunter is the only place I've ever been to that seemed worse than Mountain Creek in that department.

The Latest News...(10/10/07) DIRECT FROM THE FRONT: master welder extrodinaire greg sharry is now back in the Jiblab fabricating his little heart out. greg returns to us for this season after spending the summer working his normal job - fabricating handrails. But those rails are for actual hands, not sliding...that is, until we find out where they're installed! So, please join us in welcoming back our good friend and all-round excellent fella, greg!! In other news, marc has departed us...but only for a week. He's currently out in utah at the famed DC Mtn Lab working with Chris Gunnarson and the rest of the crew from Snow Park Technologies, as well as about a dozen other supervisors of the top terrain parks in the country. Apparently it's a little bit of a secret about what exactly they're doing out there, but you're sure to see the fruits of this labor out here in jersey come snow time...speaking of, we're 56 days out - who's already mounted thier bindings and hopped around the living room? ALL YOU SKIERS, LISTEN UP!!! We here at creek occasionally get hassled by you guys and gals, with the usual complaint being that we only care about those who slide sideways, and don't give enough love to the two-plankers in our videos and pictures. In all honesty, nobody here has anything against anyone - we just have a hard time because there are so many more boarders than skiiers here - y'all hide out there. So, while we always want to see everyone's pictures and videos, this winter, we want to extend a special invitation to all the park skiers out there to send us your best pictures, moving or otherwise, so we can better represent everyone who shreds the creek on a daily. email or msg us links or whatever you got; like always, if they're good, we'll post 'em up for everyone to see....

Yea she did transfer from UH to Marist which is in Poughkeepsie. Its about an hour and 15 from the mountains. So leave at 7, get up there by 8:30, hit up first chair at 9 - shouldn't be too bad. Its only slightly farther than our hometown to the poconos, and about a half hour longer than our home town to Mountain Creek. Luckily for me I'm home from Dec 15th to Feb 15th, so I'm not driving up from delaware much, I can hit up JFBB weekdays and Bellearye weekends, and we're doing a trip to Mount Snow with about 15 high school friends, and the two of us might hit up Jay Peak at some point for a weekend. Should be a good winter.

Barking Bear forum thread I found through google described Bellearye as the harder of the two (windham vs bell) so thats good. Windham's trail map just looks steeper but we know how deceiving they can be. Thanks for all the tips guys it will probably be Bell for us.

Sweet. So Hunter is definitely out out, its is $300 for college kids (unless you get 4 then it is $250 but we only have 2 right now) Bellearye vs Windham from Skiernet.com Bellearye Specs: Summit elevation: 3429'; Base elevation: 2025'. 8 Lifts: 2 quads, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 3 handle tows. Uphill Capacity: 10,980/hr. Terrain Mix: 21-62-17. Longest Run: 12,024'. Season: usually November through early April. Annual Snowfall: 141". Snowmaking: 96%. The SKInny: Operated by the State of New York Department of Environmental Conservation. One thing about the NY DEC, they take their recreation seriously. Belleayre is often the first open, last to close. There's some serious terrain here -- more like Windham than Hunter -- nothing as steep and long as Hunter West. Most of the expert trails are tough for a short drop, then ease off to a gentle run out. But you can find some seriously tough skiing here; take the snowcat to the woods and you'll find out what you're really made of. On the other hand, this is a much more family-friendly ski area than Hunter or even Windham, with fewer crowds and a more low-key atmosphere than Hunter, and more novice terrain than Windham. The knock on Belleayre has been the short runs, slow lifts, and difficulty moving about between the lower "novice" area and the upper main mountain. Indeed the 1400' vertical is a bit misleading; to get the full run you are required to ski through to the lowest area, then have to double up on chair rides to return to the summit. Hotshots find plenty of challenge on the steeps or in the woods, but these are short stretches that flatten out into easier runs. Wanderers will love Belleayre; as mid-sized mountains go it's vertically smallish, but spread out with lots of exploring to do. Strong blue skiers will be delighted by the difficult but brief drops that help elevate their game. From the summit, skiers can move to either of two blues that switchback down the sides to avoid the white-knuckle drops on the face. Little known fact: Deer Run (a blue) has a full-blown 20' rock drop for huckers who are so inclined, as well as some smaller ones in many spots. Belleayre also has "mid stations" on each summit lift that are more like "three-quarter stations" enabling you to avoid the steeps at the summit if you wish. Note that the double blacks are usually mogul runs, and the single blacks are just as steep but often groomed...and lots of fun. An all-around pleasurable ski area, we'll rank it 5th best in the state, and on any given weekend it fights for higher. Signature Trail: Dot Nebel. Ski Windham, Windham (Catskills)

2300 SATs, president of 3 clubs, member of a few others, I dunno. I loved the vibe of Penn State, the foot ball games seemed like pretty much the ultimate college experiance, the campus is decent, but I didn't really like their engineering program. I have a friend from high school who went there and hes very happy with the engineering school, but I felt better at University of Delaware, its a hell of a lot smaller. So for example, I'm a sophmore here and my advisor is the dean of the program instead of just some random professor, and I'm doing an undergraduate research project with a professor instead of competing with grad students for a spot which is great because I HATE math, and if you just do standard lectures and homework I would have dropped out of engineering a long time ago. Thread high jack over. My money is still on Mount Snow, the weather difference is only part of the equation, it is about snowmaking and what the management wants to do. Look at JFBB vs the others, Peak wants to open early - and they did last year. Peak wants to do the same up there, so they may well do it.

Hey, My girlfriend has an apartment up near Marist so looks like in addition to my JFBB season pass I'm going to snag a college pass to one of the catskills mountains. I'll usually be driving up friday, riding maybe friday and definitely saturday for the whole winter. I've only ever been to Hunter before, and while I like the backside a lot, there snowmaking is good, and it is great during the week - that place is a zoo on Saturdays. I've gotten a lot of recommendations for Windham. Anyone here have an opinion? I'm not worried about park since I'll be doing my park at JFBB, so I'm just looking for less ice and smaller crowds than hunter, without losing too much steepness. I've also heard if you hit the D lift and the backside of Hunter you can avoid the crowds, but don't they let the backside bump up? We can do a few mogul runs but on a snowboard you can't spend the whole day on that you'll be so beat.

Eh, probably not. I had a 3.8 and got a full ride there.

It is better to open horizontally than vertically. The snow to open paradise would open main street and come around, that means instead of all your guests skiing the same trail, they're split off a bit so the snow gets worn down less. Also the lift is slower so less traffic on that one area, and less wear means less snow is needed. Keeping the snow is really important because there hasn't been a winter in my memory where there wasn't a warm spell after the first snowmaking window within about 2 weeks. It seems like the mountains start to get going, and then get knocked down again year after year, so protecting the money invested in the snow already blown is crucial because before christmas and even into the first week or two of january the weather is extremely fickle. (Hell all year it is)

I put the bar down 90% of the time - the 10% being on a triple with footrests. If you try to put the bar down with a snowboarder sitting in the middle and the two little mini ski holders there, the snowboard doesn't fit through and its really uncomfortable. That being said it doesn't make me feel all that safe because most people fall out under the bar, footrests are nice though cuz for boarders all the weight on one foot + cranked down bindings = no circulation in the foot that everything is hanging off. Bars with no footrests are a waste of time.

Yea you can't carve on the face like a regular QP so some moves are out but for 90% of people they will provide a better and safer experience because the lip will actually be vert, and there are so few quarter pipes around that most people do not have many moves in their bag for them. I've really only ever gotten to 360s, grabs and such on QP's but I would love to try a handplant, I just never had the opportunity to because every QP around here has no lip left after an hour or two.

I know right? I'm going to start a bonfire in the parking lot in protest .....

I was looking forward to the endangered species themed trail with bald eagle bonks and shit. That would be sick.

I'm putting my $0.02 on Mount Snow this year. Killington did confirm they were not opening until Nov 17th at the earliest. Worse they said they would close on April 15th. The last 5 years they closed on May 6, May 1, May 15, May 12. May 26. For opening it was Nov 23, Oct 29, Nov 9, Nov 10, Nov 6. They basically took their last season and cut it 2 weeks shorter, and that was already the shortest season in the last 5 years. Oh yea they also canceled all lifetime season passes. Fuck those guys I'm not going to K-mart this year.

www.myspace.com/mcjiblab is the real word from the guys at mountain creek (fuck the marketing department's press releases) The Latest News...(9/17/07) Hours at south...saturdays and sundays, south will be open from 9am - 9pm. weekdays, the chairs will be runnin 12noon to 9pm, which is actually gonna help out twofold: first, it gives the park & grooming staff an extra few hours to pretty up the hill, and second, it gives the snow a chance to soften up a little. as you know, park riding + bulletproof = no bueno. vernon will still be operating 9-9 as always, so you can show up, get in a few cruisers to warm up, then jam it down to south right as everyone else heads in for lunch. We're still working on final specs for the redesigned lodge, started some construction on some things, including a brand new, all-ages bar right in the main lobby... On-hill, we've regraded some of the flat spots, added some new guns in key locations, and generally improved the flow of things. Remember that spot right where sojurn connects with the bottom of giant steps? It's now a super-wide, no-unstrap-and-push spot that rolls right into hawk highlands. So when you're cruising through there this winter, think of Ray and the rest of the on-hill maintenance guys - they killed it. As for the jiblab, Marc has the park layout all set and ready to go. There's going to be features for every ability - never even seen a rail all the way to mt. baker road gap level. The plan is to have smaller features than we've ever had before, but also have bigger features than ever before. See? All levels!! Chris and Marc have also been working hard on refurb and have over 25 rails ready for sliding so far. Sh*t's getting pulled out of retirement for a glorious return, and the steel is in the shop for just as many brand new jibber-jabbers. Pics, videos, audio, 4-d interactive virtual reality of all this is coming soon...hold tight

Quarter pipes and wall rides are REALLY hard to keep maintained right. The lip has to be vert or you are fucked, and every kid that falls on it, bails low on it, screws up the lip. Especially with night skiing they don't get much time to set, and they just get turned into sugar all day. They've been a disaster at most busy parks, I would be surprised if anyone around here could keep one set. Two ramps on a jump is great. It saves snow, opens more options, reduces the room on top for people to stand, reduces wear on the ramps, and allows intermediate and advanced guys to keep their rythymn in the park without having to skip features that are too hard or be disappointed with features that are too easy. There are almost no disadvantages as long as there is enough room - and sidewinder certainly is wide enough.

Where are the ski company sponsors? Its Transworld, a snowboard shop, and a snowboard brand as the only 3 sponsors. Where is Line? Where is Freeskier? Where is K2? Thats not JFBB's fault - it runs like this at every mountain.

Like the one at heavenly?

Its straight from the horses mouth, thats what the K2 and Lib tech factory reps where saying. Of course the Lib guys where saying that magnetraction makes it possible and the k2 guys where saying the new stiffer fiberglass makes it possible. I believe them both honestly. It makes so much sense I can't wait to demo one.

I dunno man, I love those bindings (I bought 390s year one) and I work at a shop, and the only downside I see to them is weight and the ratchets. And don't tell me the ratchets are perfect because I had my hands on them all last year and they were still an issue. There is nothing more frustrating than standing at the bottom of a run stuck in your binding while your friends wait to get on a lift. I will agree year 2 ratchets were a lot better than year 1 but they still need to improve. I'm looking forward to this years. As for weight - it doesn't bother me much. The difference in static weight is like a pound or two, eat less breakfast is a problem. Spin weight is an issue with boards, but the bindings are right there on your feet there is no leverage needed to rotate them so I never felt the need to pony up for more expensive lighter bindings.

Thats nasty as hell. Transfer c to c? I'd love to see that. As for water skiers on rails - they need better bindings there isn't enough control (at least on mine). I tried to jump the wake on them and I fly out of the skis where as I can get some spins on the wakeboard bindings.