method9455

Agreed Thats what a beginner park is for - see Mountain Creek, Stratton, Tremblant, et al. I feel you, so often I've talked to kids, but more surprisingly, their parents, and their parents just don't care. I was explaining to one guy how his son was almost just hit and he was like, well he was having fun so ..... And I'm standing there explaining that his son almost got hit in the head with a sharp metal object at 30 miles an hour, and he has no comprehension of what that would do. Thats for sure, although it is much easier at times when there are more experianced riders than not. When the mountain is fully open, and the park only has park rats in it, the newbies see how it should go with calling drops and stuff. When the parks are open and its full of people skiing through, they don't see the order. I'm not sure how it would stand in court, but I know whos fault it is - not mine. I'm not saying that because I don't take responsibility for myself. I'm saying that because you physically can't see the landings. Its not a matter of me jumping over a jump and saying fuck whos on the other side. It is a matter of me going into a jump and trusting that it is safe. When I ride with my girlfriend she goes before me and sees if its clear. However there is a huge problem with that, ESPECIALLY at blue mountain. (additionally, she is back in school now so I ride alone so its not even and option but lets say it is). At JFBB, Shawnee, and Camelback, you can see all if not most of the features you are going to hit. So you can see who is in front of you, stop, and go when you know it is resonably clear. (If someone is sitting on a landing for that longer than I stand there, there is nothing I can do about it, but that rarely happens because I usually stop for a while figuring out what I'm going to do). At Blue and Mountain Creek, the parks wind around. Thus, you can not see the jump before you hit it. This is especially true at Blue where the trail (was) narrow so you had no choice but to ski over the landing. At mountain creek the jump was seperated and there was a way around it, but htere was no telling if someone had fallen on the jump before you. (This was especially true on the first jump on indian pass, you had to bomb from the top and turn a corner and roll into hte jump with maybe 100 feet of in run to decide to hit it or not). I've bailed a lot of times from hitting a jump if there are people standing around - maybe there is someone down on the other side, maybe not. I usually take the ramps from the edge because most people take them from the middle. Again, you just don't know. So what is the solution? Blue took a good step forward by widening their trail. I've seen a lot of patrol standing near jumps/riding through the park keeping landings clear and waving off riders who are going to hit a jump when it is obstructed. But in reality it is not a question of if but when someone gets hit. I've narrowly missed a lot of people, including one at Jack Frost a few weeks ago that I purposely fell really hard to avoid them - I ended up tumbling down the whole landing because I threw my legs out of hte way to clear their head. Last year I went over a jump at creek and ended up there was a kid sitting there and I had to lift my legs really high when I was landing to clear him and kneed myself in the jaw and again went for a slam - so it happens. Thats why I flip out when I see people sitting there - because most likely I get hurt instead of them. But eventually there will be a kid who gets hit. It is worse with skiers, I fell on a jump but cleared out to the side, was sitting maybe 3 feet from the woods not on a landing for the jump but downhill of it. A skier came over the jump and his ski popped off when he landed, and it spun really fast and hit me in the back of the head. It left a 1/8" gouge in my helmet and knocked me over. Imagine if I didn't have a helmet. I wouldn't sue the kid coming over the jump, and it wasn't my fault to be sitting there because I was on the side, it was just an chance accident. Luckily I had a helmet on. This is why I think its ridiculous when you talk about people skiing quickly down a green trail. Compare what happens there, at least there you see the people, you should be in control. I agree call out the really bad people purposely buzzing kids. But seriously, if half the people are getting whistled at, and there aren't any accidents, you should focus your attention elsewhere.

Actually there was a comment on the other thread that Bear Creek is already over-maxed out on guns per acre. Meaning, they can't put anymore guns on the trails, they already beyond the limit and they start to suck up each others air sometimes. With the temperature you have, they can only make so much snow per hour per gun, so at least they're using their extra pumping power on other trails, rather than just doing nothing with it. Maybe some of that snow will survive who knows.

Wait are we talking about doing a clinic on judging? I'd do it. (Those who can't do judge?)

Sweet

Overly alarmed? So you'd rather worry about us alarming people as we ski in control than the actual safety of your patrons? Because if you worried about safety you would be a on a trail with danger - as in a terrain park, or a trail with a headwall and people sitting below it in a blind spot. Not a green trail where everyone is clearly visible. As for the equipment question - the point stands. Boards aren't skis. Sure I can slow my stiff board down, but the only option there is to speed check, turns won't slow me down. So I can either stop and go down the whole damn trail, or I can do a lot of little turns, but it won't slow me down. I'll let you guess which option I'll choose. Let the people in control go the speed we want to go. If I'm not near someone, and I'm going fast and in control but it happens to be on a green trail, what harm is that. Does this apply to out of control newbies in a terrain park? No? Then don't even think about taking my pass until you deal with that problem first. In the park I'm not getting overly alarmed when I see them as I'm airing over a jump, I'm about to crush their skull with a 4 foot long sword at 30 miles an hour. Put the whistle back in your pocket and actually protect someone, just chill in the shack until we call you with the body of a 4 year old on the landing of a jump.

it makes sense to me. get 5 guys, one of them has to be good at QP and slopestyle. make the guy good at both your captain. Get two guys for slopestyle. Get two guys for a quarter pipe. Go and compete, do the best you can, go when they tell you to go.

especially since no matter how fast i go, i've NEVER hit someone while going down a hill. A guy was walking in the base area while I was stopping and he literally walked right in front of me in the middle of me stopping. Then he got mad when I knocked him over and I was like, hey ever think to look up the hill before stepping out in front of skier traffic? There is a limit to how fast you can stop and I was cranking it to stop.

They can say what they want, the more they say, the more it shows how poor the Mountain Creek employees & management are at customer service. If you want to a great comparison, go look at the difference between the dialogue in this thread, versus that in the Water Cooler thread in the Bear Creek forum that I started. Here - they attacked me. There, the general manager is answering my questions and a bunch of people are going back and forth over how they can solve a weather problem worse than Mountain Creeks. Plus - I found out that in order to get a shop employee season pass you had to go up before January 9th, which since they haven't been open I didn't waste my time doing since on my days off I went skiing, rather than drive all the way up to a closed mountain to take a picture. (Because they have to see our paycheck stub bla bla). And I'll tell you right now, I'd never pay to go to Mountain Creek. So do what you guys want, you won't see any money from me this year, and don't expect any customers from our area because all the guys at the shop got screwed by that deadline. While your out not making snow, we're directing hundreds of customers to mountains that have snow. Its actually kind of liberating, now I'm going to rotate my 3 days off between all the PA mountains and see them a lot more. I've been to every mountain a little bit but I don't know them as well as Mountain Creek.

I think that step downs should be high with a flat angle. Whatever that angle, it is. But I think at least 4 or 5 feet from the very end of the lip it should be straight so that it is predictable. For tables, it can curve all the way to the lip for more kick. I like hips like that too. For rail setups, I like extra wide, again flat with no kick, more like a table to ollie off than a jump to put you on the rail. I also like them low enough that you can see the rail as opposed to guessing. I dont' like ride on.

What do you do when you are snowboarding and you can't go slower? When you are actually carving a snowboard, it doesn't slow down in the turns much at all unless you over carve. So on my big cruising board, when I lay down turns I'm in complete control but I don't slow down. Add in a great wax job and I'm flying. So what should I do? Are you guys going to buy me a slower board? Or should I just spray snow everywhere when I have to speed check because I can't turn a race board any tighter? What if I spray snow on you but I'm slowing down is that ok?

Got to check the work schedule, I'm probably in.

I wouldn't mind them scanning day/season passes on every lift, if they kept track of the vertical for season pass holders. That would be pretty pimp.

Oh yea Whistler is on the list believe me. Two guys from the shop just got back, said 10" everynight except one. That night they got 22". The pictures show it too. Just can't do anywhere we have to meet up at the airport from 2 differant places, its such a hassle. Anyway - Doug do you have any recommendations for a cheap motel? We just need one bed, a TV, and a shower really. A fridge would be a bonus, and we're trying to do it cheap. As long as the room is clean, its not big deal. Right now its look a hell of a lot more expensive than Killington, which sucks. I really don't want to go to killington during that time it will be so crowded (although they have good snowmaking and good parks so, not that bad, just crowded). Although if i'm in a hotel of college kids (at k-mart) there will probably be some good beer pong, and that is our idea of nightlife so ......

and camelback

Lets not even get started on whats harder per person. A better example is skateboarding, heelflips and kickflips are considered the 'entry level' flip tricks. Yet I know kids who can 360 flip and hardflip, but can't heelflip. I also know kids you can heelflip all day but can't kickflip. For me backside spins on a snowboard are easier, for some people frontside spins are easier. I think a switch backside spin is easier than a regular frontside spin for me, but they are rated differently. Thats the reason I don't really like judged contests. My personal opinion is that anything that is subjectively judged is not a sport. A competition maybe, but not a sport. If it were up to me halfpipe snowboarding, figure skating, gymnastics, all that crap would be out of the olympics. Snowboard racing is a sport for sure, but I don't really ever think of the hitting the park all day as a sport. Thats not saying it isn't really hard, or that the people doing it aren't athletic (hell I'm a park rat too), I just think a 'sport' is differant from a competition because there are much clearer rules and a quantifiable number that determines the outcome. Judging is too subjective.

Believe me I like moguls more than any other snowboarder I've met. I really did enjoy Lower Eagle last year - notice how I didn't complain about it. My problem with Zero G was that it didn't bump up right, and then it rained, and they didn't groom it out. So what happened was there was a huge field of iced over bumps, and it was just not fun. Plus on lower eagle there was actually a line through the bumps, where as on Zero G is was just a mess. That trail was crying to be groomed out, have some snow made, and allow it to bump up again. As for last year - last year January was 10 degrees above average, this year December was only 8 degrees above average, so I agree that both of these years suck. My point is that - these winters are going to keep sucking, and the design of the system has to reflect that. An equal amount of energy is going to be expended to cover the mountain, the fact that it needs to be covered faster is something that can be dealt with by engineers if the company wants to. Clearly they do put that as a high enough priority because they haven't made enough noticeable upgrades. None of this is an attack on employees, the engineers who designed the system, the people grooming, etc. Rather - on those who decide where the money flows, and clearly their priority is not on snowmaking upgrades. I don't think you guys should be talking about skiable acreage or superior terrain parks when Bear Creek is beating you open by a week.

Give me 3 medium size (like 25 foot) jumps right in a row rather than one 70 footer. Rhythm sections are key, and if anyone wants to film - a sick shot is when you setup a tripod above the first jump, and film the guy land 3 tricks in a row without the camera moving. That would be nicer than one shot on a 70 footer.

There is a big snowboarding industry event in Vegas, but its next week I believe.

Since it is going to rain this weekend, they are probably just building on the open trails. I wouldn't expect them to start blowing anywhere else until Tuesday. After Tuesday weather looks solidly cold for long enough to build a base on closed trails.

I know they've been upgrading pipe for years, and the new yellow fanguns they made a big deal about, but the reality is the mountain was short on snow last year, and every year before that. They need more than a gun here or there, they need a major upgrade because they're just not up to par. That is one of the reason Great Gorge went under, and if Mountain Creek thinks they're going to sell condos when the peaks with condos (Vernon & Granite) are closed on Christmas week, MLK weekend, and close before April, forget it. So maybe they've upgraded a bit on the production side, but you know what, the RESULT side hasn't changed. You know what would make a much bigger change to the snowmaking at Mountain Creek than some pipe and a few fan guns? If they got some generators and a bigger budget so that they could make snow every chance they had, instead of just some of them. Once they get past just being able to get the trails open, maybe they'll get to the point where they could actually resurface the trails sometimes so it was better snow. And if you had anything to do with the grooming of Zero G last year, I wouldn't exactly be flouting your grooming expertise, that was the worst trail I have ever seen at any mountain, in the last 15 years of riding.

There is a huge problem with poachers at JFBB, more than any other mountain I've seen. The pass validation is an extension of that. I know its lame, but it still takes less time to get from the parking lot, through pass validation, and onto the slopes at JFBB than just walking from the parking lot to the mountain at Mountain Creek.

dude i'm not hating on your 1440 cuz i'll never be able to do that, but don't claim that your working on the spin for a 1440 first and then adding style. there is no style in it, and probably never will be. sorry dude, but a backside 180 with a tweaked out indy grab will out do a 1440 for me every time. I'd rather see a clean frontside board out regular than a 270 to boardslide 270 out, any day of the week. there is a reason pros don't go past 1080, because it looks like crap. i think the buck stops at a 540 for style, 720 on a big jump. beyond that the spin is more than the style. at least thats why i won't try for more than 540, even if I could, I wouldn't want to.

Well based on the weather so far this year, I think it might actually be located in or around Washington D.C.

Thats why big jumps separate the men from the boys.

Yea i'm not too worried about how close I am to Stowe, we were 15 minutes from Mount Snow and had a blast, doesn't matter much, my car is reliable as hell. Too bad I can't just put my Mazda in the check baggage on the flight out. Lift tickets are expensive there, but they are worse at some other places so whatever. I'm just trying to avoid the spring break crowd and I feel like Stowe is off the Stratton/Okemo/Mount Snow/Killington/Tremblant style spring break radar.