method9455

Nope, I've been on the retail side of the industry for the last 2 years. I've been a passholder at creek for 5 seasons before this year (where I may or may not become one, not sure yet), so I just kind of have a feel for where they put their snowmaking priority, how long it takes stuff to get open, and what the weather usually is like. I also know that Mountain Creek hasn't appreciably upgraded their snowmaking in a while, and that is an issue.

What kind of bindings? If I had to bet I'd say it was a Burton binding, and it was the screw behind the toe ratchet that gave out? I've done that on 2 different sets of Burtons and seen it come into the shop about a dozen times.

Looks like some guns are on but not all yet, temperature is probably dropping and just crossed the threshold. The coldest part of the night is actually pretty late so this is a good sign. They should have a solid night, plus they're blowing onto snow covered ground now rather than grass so it builds up a lot faster.

Well you can hit it straight like a regular jump, which is why I like the idea of it. You could 2 nice ass jumps, but the channel gap could turn a 40 footer into a 60 footer since you have to go diagonal, and for the experts it is a whole new level. I don't remember seeing an east coast park with a real channel gap before. I know camelback had like a mini channel gap at one point but, a full on channel gap would be nuts.

I have a flowboard. It rides like a snowboard in some respects, except that it is more unstable because there isn't a big flat spot in the middle. It also doesn't stop like a snowboard, when you turn it it kind of slides sideways and is really scary. Its fun, but I just got a downhill long board (Original Custom 35) with springloaded trucks and really grippy wheels, that is a hell of a lot of fun. If it didn't hurt so much to fall I'd say it feels as good as cruising on a snowboard on most days on a green trail. There isn't a road as steep as a blue or a black, and there isn't the same level of control on a long board, but it is still a lot of fun.

If your park is small, like it was, have people taking care of it. I can understand if it is small. But if it is small and poorly maintained that is a problem. That means two guys out there, and if they need to close down a rail to shovel in the bomb hole after the landing, do it for a while. I'd rather have 3 rails setup well than 5 setup badly.

Those are diesel powered compressors. I know that Camelback once rented a bunch of extra air compressors like that. Maybe one option for Bear Creek would be to make plug ins on the air lines for external compressors. In a bad year like this, they could rent a dozen of those and plug them in for a month for extra air capacity so they can make more snow in marginal temperatures, then return them. They would stick with the 80 hour plan first, and if the yera was bad, switch to the 40 hour plan.

All of that is bullshit dude. Your confusing Planet Snow with ParkLogic/Jiblab. Jiblab was like 4 guys at Creek, much like the I.W. Then 2 left for JFBB and named the new place ParkLogic. They built all the shit inhouse at JFBB and had planned on being there for a while. They never contracted out to anyone else. Some of their old jibs got sold to Hidden Valley, but beyond that, it was just for 1 and then a second mountain.

Mountain Creek is changing their snowmaking plan. First of all they are now saying they are aiming for an opening January 19th. That means no Martin Luther King weekend. That also means, I'm not getting a season pass this year. I have to be back in school Feb 6th, and even for $100 its not worth getting a pass for one possible week open. Second of all it means a few other things: Vernon is usually the 2nd to open, South takes less snow to open, but the fact they are switching to Vernon says to me they may not open all peaks. I have previously said they will not open 100% of the mountain, I'm not sure if they will even open 100% of the lifts this year. Except Vernon and Granite, but Southern Sojourn is a snow eater the idea of busing people from Vernon to South all season is most likely the only way the whole mountain will be open. I suspect without natural snowfall, they will not be in a rush to open South and Bear. The only kink in that theory is that the racing trail on Bear is required. If they do open South and Bear, I see one way down from South Peak, and the Racing trail on Bear as the only ways down. Expect on Vernon Horizon, Great Northern, Sugar, Khyber, Indian, and the connection between Vernon/Granite. Maybe Devils Bit. I wouldn't expect to see Pipeline, possibly no Zero G either. Certaintly not Come Around. What does it mean? I think Mountain Creek has a serious snowmaking problem. If it were up to me, I'd get rid of Southern Sojourn, replace the Sojourn Double with a lift that goes in both directions, it saves snowmaking, grooming, lights, etc. A new lift won't cost much more to operate than the old one, and that one is the only old lift left on the mountain. This would mean they could open a trail here a trail there and connect them easier than if they have to seperate it into two distinct areas and bus between them. I believe the snowmaking system is somewhat seperated between the two areas because they are so distant anyway. I also think its time to start upgrading snowmaking early season. Instead of opening South then Vernon, during that first window they need to get a trail open (horizon) on Vernon, and a trail open on South, or the crowds are too intense.

Its basically two big jumps side by side, with the trail cut out in the middle so you can ski between them without going over them. Then people can hit one jump, and fly over and land on the landing of the one on the side diagonally. Crazy hard, I would love to see one.

Stowe it is, looking for a place to stay now, but that shoudn't be hard. Yea, she can almost keep up to speed with me, which is saying something since there are only 2 of my guy friends and my brother that keep up with me. Actually I find if she goes first she goes a lot faster than if she follows. If I back it off a little she can keep up. She can do any trail I do which is good enough for me, if she is 30 seconds behind me at the bottom after bombing a run at Mount Snow, its not a big deal. She just doesn't do park really yet, small jumps and small boxes a little bit, but thats not really her thing. I'm disappointed I'm not going to Utah, but honestly they're not having a great year and next year I can rent a car, so I can stay in a MUCH cheaper place. I can do this trip to Stowe for 5 days of riding, plus a trip to Utah next year for 5 days, for the price it was going to cost this year to Utah because I needed a place in walking distance to restaurants and the mountain. Next year we can just get a room and not care where it is, plus our flights will be the same so its less hassle. All I care is that I'll get 5 days of riding in the last week of March, who can complain about that.

Thanks Mark, the info is greatly appreciated, especially at a time when we're all dieing from lack of skiing and riding. At least we have something to talk about. Interesting about the gun microclimates, is there a way around this? Are tripod guns unaffected by overpopulation? (This explains why there are only 4 fan guns on the Superpipe at Mountain Creek, with 4 on the trail above and then they push the snow down into the pipe with a snowcat.) The snowflex is an idea, if one place opened one trail of it with a few jibs, they would have riders coming all year long. At some point it has to become economically viable, especially since you can just blow snow on top of it, and if it melts instead of muddy spots you have ridable surface in some places.

Naw it is too hard to get flights from Honolulu and Newark into Salt Lake anytime near each other without paying a billion dollars. We had it set before but the flight sold out while we waited for a few things to fall into place. The only way it would work was for me to sit around in the airport for 20 hours. I would have done that, but there have been about 5 turns along the way that have given me incredibly bad vibes about the trip. Everything has been seemingly easy and then turned into a major hassle for dumb reasons. Call me superstition but I just was really not feeling the whole thing. It was the same feeling I get when I know its time to stop pushing myself for a day because I'm about to get hurt, except I was planning a vacation. That is somewhat disheartening when I'm spending a huge amount of money compared to what I make. Plus - Utah is having an ok winter but nothing exceptional, and its not going anywhere. I'm going to try again next year and maybe their snow will be better, and we won't have to deal with the Newark/Honolulu thing which makes it almost a thousand dollars cheaper. She likes the look of Stowe. I like everything I've heard about Stowe except some people are saying slow lifts. Also seems like their snowmaking is smaller than other mountains, while they have a higher snowfall total. That scares me when this year is so unreliable. I'd still say Stowe is #1, but I'd like to hear what you guys think about their lifts. Good to hear nightlife is good. I'm about 75% sure it is Stowe right now. I'm cutting Jay Peak off because it sounds like their #1 attribute is their glades, which I have done very little of on a snowboard, and she has done none, so we might try a few out but basing a vacation around something we don't do is a bad idea. Sugarbush just doesn't do it for me when I'm looking at the trail map. I dunno, it doesn't seem up to Stowe or Sugarloaf. I like the vertical at Sugarloaf, and the trail map looks good. The drive doesn't seem great but I'll do it. Their snowmaking seems better, which is a bonus. Doesn't sound like there is much to do though. Thanks for the info so far, I should decide in the next day or two.

This is the way I'm seeing it Jay Peak - Reportedly has great snow, good terrain, the glades policy is nice. The drive is farther than most, but its cheaper, should be laid back on spring break week. Stowe - Nothing special stands out, but a lot of people say it is really nice, with excellent terrain. Sugarbush - Don't know anything about it, other than it has a lot of peaks. Sugarloaf - Big vertical, above tree line skiing, has a bowl. The only person I know who went was my dad, said it was crazy cold, but thats a good thing this winter. Looking for feedback on those four and why you would pick them. Right now I'm thinking 1. Stowe 2. Sugarloaf 3. Jay Peak 4. Sugarbush But barely any differance between them.

Due to some unfortunate complications, I had to cancel my Park City trip. Sucks hardcore, but I'll survive, I'm saving the money for next season and I'm taking at least 1 trip out west next year for sure so, it works out. To make up for it, I'm taking a trip spring break on the east coast. I'm a little hesitant based on the weatehr so far, but a lot of people seem to think winter will be late. I can go anywhere on the east coast. I'm just trying to figure out where to go. The dates would be march 25th to 31st. Possibly hitting 2 mountains 3 days each if they aren't too far, but would prefer to stay at one place. I've done Mount Snow, Stratton, Killington, and Tremblant - I want somewhere new. Its a hotel room for two, nightlife and a town doesn't matter at all. As long as there is somewhere for us to get a pizza or a burger, we'll make do. We don't do moguls. Terrain park is a minor consideration, she doesn't do it, I do, so when we ride together, very few runs through it. Distance/money don't really matter. I'm looking for somewhere with a lot of snow, low crowds, intermediate/advanced groomed runs, steepness is good. I'm thinking Jay Peak, Stowe, somewhere in Maine? what do you guys think?

I don't see any snowmaking on the webcam but I bet they are blowing. Camelback is for sure right now, and so is JFBB. Rumor is that Bear Creek is, and if they are, Blue is.

can see it on the webcam

Sorry to say but I'm holding off till next week. Schedule to work 6 8 hour days right now, which easily turn in 9 and 10 hour days. My plan is to make the cash while the weather sucks, and buy lift tickets after the mountain has recovered. 3 days planned next week, same number the week after. Then back to school and I should be at JFBB one weekend day per weekend till the end of the season, and mountain creek friday and the other weekend day, assuming mountain creek ever opens. If they don't, I'll just hit JFBB 3 days a week.

That was basically making snow in a controlled environment. It was the same technology as this, except they basically had a big silo that was refrigerated. The snow was made and came out the bottom where it was pushed around by snowcats. It allowed them to make snow for a tubing run all year. The same thing could be build pretty easily here, so that they could make snow at night during the winter at say 45 degree temperatures, and truck it to cover bare spots. Obviously you wouldn't cover the whole mountain that way. But if we look at the way some mountains are trucking snow around to cover bare spots, it could be useful. Or the mountain could just blow a big pile of snow in a shady spot, and cover it with a tarp prior to rain as a contingency pile for covering critical bare spots, and save a hell of a lot of money over a giant unsitely building.

I think Hummers are fucking small inside (well the H2 and H3 bullshit ones, not the real one). We have an Expedition and it is smaller on the outside, but much larger on the inside, than a hummer. Basically they jacked the floor up in a Hummer but didn't raise the roof so its like an SUV but with the height of a car. But you still get the shitty gas mileage of a real SUV (and I mean a real SUV like a Suburban or an Expedition, not the car based ones like the X5 or something). But 90% of the people who have SUVs don't need them. We actually use ours, we have 2 boats to trailer and a double axle car trailer we move cars around on, the option was either a pickup truck or an SUV so we got the SUV instead of a pickup truck and a car. But all the moms in the world driving around SUVs for groceries and stuff, give me a break. A lot of people got them instead of minivans, just a big car but more stylish, but will never need the truck engine or the truck chassis and suspension. Thats why there are all these 'crossovers' now that are just cooler looking minivans. I'm not even a big fan of people using SUVs for skiing. Sure, they are 4 wheel drive. But if you go to somewhere with mountains, u'll see a lot more Subarus and 4 wheel drive Volvos than Hummers (from the locals).

Its actually 80 hours

I've heard numbers in the tens of thousands per night for snowmaking. That is probably legit. Blue not opening for the rest of the season, definitely not legit.

I wouldn't bother with it if you are flying. Go the extra hour drive to Breck instead. At least there you get a full mountain plus an amazing park, believe me you wont' be disappointed.

I don't think the park logic guys really wanted to build staircases. They built rails that were in movies, they build rails for the Grand Prix, they built many more rails and boxes than Iron Works has (they were building high quality rails for years before IW got started, plus 30 something for JFBB this year, including 2 dfd). They build huge wall rides. They obviously had the knowledge and budget to build a wooden staircase, but they didn't. To me that says they didn't want to.

At Mount Snow there are at least two dozen SUV size diesel powered air compressors, just sitting in the parking lot. They have pipe for the air system that just pops up in the back of the parking lot, and the compressors are on trailers and are just put next to a pipe and connected by a 4 foot hose. They ran them all day and it didn't bother anyone, I think most customers would want to see that there is snow being made rather than looking for quiet. Realize it is loud as hell when the guns are firing anyway so, its not like the loudest noise on the hill would be the generators.