method9455

Yea I don't have any money either, thats why I don't let go of it. Easy solution, never let it go beyond a foot from you. I would never leave $500 cash just lying outside with nothing holding it, what is the differance between that and a $500 setup? Its kind of like that at college. Lots of kids don't lock their dorms when they're not there, but I always lock mine. I'm like why don't you lock your door? There answer: they don't lock their houses. Maybe it is a differant mentality but I'm used to locking all my doors and keeping my car in the driveway and locking it even if its just in my driveway during the day etc. Some people are just alot more trusting. Me, I'm in jersey, of course I know shit gets stolen.

I agree that the thing holding blue's park down in the past was the curveyness of the park. But I think this year will be a lot different, just wait and see what happens before we start complaining. First the weather needs to cooperate.

Its just too narrow with the snow on it right now. If it were snow covered edge to edge it might be 10 feet wider, but still, not that great. We'll see how things are when everything is setup but I would flip a few things around, especially wasting Janes Lane at JF.

This is also and example of Shit happens. A hose might have broken and leaked water everywhere and they tried to clean it up. Two seasons ago I was in a mogul field and there obviously had been a snowmaking hose split open, and the water had poured down between the moguls in one section and made ice 2-3 inches thick. I mean clear solid ice skating rink ice. It was horrible. That could have happened.

I don't think widow is a good trail for the park personally. 1) It is really narrow, the One park at JF and the Boulder park will both have enough room for skiers to go down NEXT to the jump line. Merry widow, they have no choice (at least right now) but to go over the jump knuckle, even if they are good enough to realize this, which most people aren't. 2) It winds a bit, which means that up top is mostly going to be jibs. 3) When it does straighten out, the terrain isn't quite right for jumps. A little bit of pushing dirt in the summer can smooth all that out, but I felt like the landings on the jumps are shorter than they could be. If they moved the jumps a bit closer that would be nicer too. I would consider the best solution might be to flatten out the pipe, cut the tree line back 20-30 feet, and plant new trees where the pipe used to be. This would open up the bottom straight section a bit more. The pipe there will never be a good one, it is super short and cramped anyway, so bag it. That would give more room for people to ride through, or make a double line. I'd rather give up the easy intro park at JF than make Little Boulder into a park, it is too short and flat. They already have a park like that (the freedom park). I think if they just had the One Park at JF, and a little park on Frosty, that would be enough. It would be lift serviced, which would be nice, and out of the way. Janes Lane is destroyed by having the intro park on it as a riding trail because the rails are kind of in odd places, with crowds of new people who are afraid to hit things. SO they just sit there all day staring. I don't hate on them for being like that, but move that off to Frosty and leave Janes Lane as it is. You don't need a trail that big for an intro park, there are only so many ways you have to setup ride on rails and boxes and 6 foot jumps.

I don't think anyone disputes that when its colder (less than 25 degrees) the SMI (and other brand, Areco etc) are great. But above 25 wet bulb, they aren't as good. That makes complete sense to me. The fan guns are designed to be efficient, I.E. make more cubic yards of snow for less money than any other kind of gun. They do that by having the compressor right there, don't have to pipe (and lose pressure over the run of the pipe) as much air. The fan not only propels the water instead of compressed air, but since the fan is mounted on a pole, the snow has a longer time to fall and freeze. Thus the snow is dryer (softer) because it fell longer. However in marginal temperatures, the extra compressed air is better, because compressed air is colder than ambiant air. Also, the air temperature being higher, no matter how high you throw the snow, it will be wet hitting the ground. THe fan guns rely on that falling, while the whisper guns rely on the mixing of air and water. So two different machines designed for two different things. If I were in charge, I'd run the fan guns every minute of every night that it was not marginal conditions to get the most out of them. I'd run the tripod guns only when necessary to cover bare spots. Save the money to run the guns the really cold nights later in the season when you'll get a lot more snow out of them than the tripod guns.

You can't fit too much more in Exhibition than that. The most I've ever seen in there was 2 jumps and 3 rails, mid season. Maybe 4 rails if they had plenty of snow. I'm not sure how wide it is right now but the right hand side is a ditch for the old half pipe (why don't they level that out?). I don't see why they couldn't setup some rails at the base of Bear and make them hikeable considering bear is closed now anyway. People riding park aren't taking the lift right now anyway. I call bull on that and bull on the ParkLogic comment. They were at Creek for a long time, every local knew the snowmaking has been a problem for the park. Last year, there were plenty of nights they would blow on one trail or another, but the capacity is not there to blow on the park and a few trails at the same time. So the other trails take precedence, and the JibLab guys have no snow to work with. Their leaving JFBB, who knows, but I think this season is an example of why they left for JFBB. JFBB has plenty of snow and Mountain Creek has zip. I know its colder in the poconos, but Creek skipped the first window of snowmaking weather, and the first 2 nights of the second. I remember bitching about it. One of the best nights of the (short) snowmaking season was their 'testing their guns' night. Maybe they have more snow than hidden valley, but they don't have as much as Blue or Camelback, and def not as much as JFBB. You can't fit too much more in Exhibition than that. The most I've ever seen in there was 2 jumps and 3 rails, mid season. Maybe 4 rails if they had plenty of snow. I'm not sure how wide it is right now but the right hand side is a ditch for the old half pipe (why don't they level that out?). I don't see why they couldn't setup some rails at the base of Bear and make them hikeable considering bear is closed now anyway. People riding park aren't taking the lift right now anyway. I call bull on that and bull on the ParkLogic comment. They were at Creek for a long time, every local knew the snowmaking has been a problem for the park. Last year, there were plenty of nights they would blow on one trail or another, but the capacity is not there to blow on the park and a few trails at the same time. So the other trails take precedence, and the JibLab guys have no snow to work with. Their leaving JFBB, who knows, but I think this season is an example of why they left for JFBB. JFBB has plenty of snow and Mountain Creek has zip. I know its colder in the poconos, but Creek skipped the first window of snowmaking weather, and the first 2 nights of the second. I remember bitching about it. One of the best nights of the (short) snowmaking season was their 'testing their guns' night. Maybe they have more snow than hidden valley, but they don't have as much as Blue or Camelback, and def not as much as JFBB. And why did they waste all that snow on the tubing park? Had they thrown that snowmaking power at Exhibition they would have more snow to work with. But they didn't care, they put it on the tubing trail to try and get that open. Well compare that to JFBB, they have a crap load of trails open right now, but not any tubing. Their priority was on the riding and skiing. Not the people tubing and going into 'ski town' shops that they hope to attract. (Like you can ever create a ski town in Vernon anyway) The weather hasn't changed much in the last twenty years in vernon, every year they have this problem. Maybe they should boost their air capacity so they can make snow at warmer temperatures, at a faster rate, to take advantage of shorter snowmaking windows. Oh wait, thats crazy talk, it would require spending money.

I think Sno gets a mulligan this year. Who knows how it would have gone had those asshole lawyers not been all over them for 6 months. They got the OK to proceed when? October at the earliest. I still don't think Camelback can be half as bad as Mountain Creek, but they certaintly do a lot of stupid things. I won't jump on the hate on Camelback bandwagon (although I probably won't go there) because my ski hate is so focused on Intrawest's asshole-ness. You really can't top the bullshit they pull. Camelback pulled 3k tickets yesterday. Mountain Creek most likely topped that. Mountain Creek has only 1 trail, top to bottom, with no splits except for a terrain park with 2 features. Yea, imagine THAT crap. And they're charging full price for tickets. At least camelback has 2 ways down.

Yea even if you have the thickest lock in the world on a snowboard, it just takes a philips head screw driver. Forget it if they have a power screwdriver they can have your board in 15 seconds. I never leave my board no matter what, one of the reasons I don't go in the lodge to eat. They do have board check for weekends/holiday free which is sweet. Last year one of the guys I know got a shop edition Ride Business, it had different colored sidewalls and was limited edition with a serial number on it. He also got limited edition shop employee bindings on it. It got stolen at Mountain Creek. Two weeks later he saw the same board, some bindings, and asked the kid where he got it. The kid said he bought it at so and so shop. My friend was like, bullshit on that, you stole it from me. (This all happened on the gondola) and the kid freaked out. I know he got his board back. Didn't say if he beat the shit out of the kid or not but I would condone it for sure.

It is nice. I was there Thursday and liked it. When I saw it, there was Roller Barrel Bonk Short Downslope Step Down Step Down Downslope/Flat box riders choice Gap to Flat/Upslope rail riders choice Doesn't seem like much but it is actually a really good run with lots of open space to ride too, lots of fun and good flow. For size, this is the first step down, the ramp isn't in the frame but barely out of it. I'd estimate 20 foot knuckle to ramp, 4 foot step down, not too much vertical kick. The second is about the same. I'd say, some length as merry widow with slightly less kick but better landings so you can go farther if you want. This is the flat box on the first riders choice, right hand side.

Oh yea, it was crazy. I would be careful with the jumps and the upslope rail on a day like that because the landings are blind. Everything else is hittable but be wary of the people around. I found the park at JF and the Freedom park to be less crowded.

ha are you serious? 5 snowboards being stolen made the local news? There once was a neighbor who moved to my neighborhood from Iowa (a nice neighborhood in a nice town) and moved out because the news at night scared them so much that they thought they were going to get shot out here in the suburbs of NJ. (We get NYC news). Mountain creek has 5 snowboards stolen an hour. Last year my ski club had 60 kids, we went up 6 nights. In that time period, 3 snowboards were stolen from our club. LOCK THEM UP.

I really do believe that shit from them. That is something Mountain Creek would do too. As lame as JFBB is to ParkLogic (not many people where more vocal on taht one than me), this is a case of the smallest of all evils. I would say Blue is the smallest evil Bear 2nd (some grumblings on snowmaking but who knows JFBB 3rd (they would be #1 had it not been for the shaun/julian thing in my book) Shawnee 4th Camelback 5th Mountain Creek is basically satan incarnate. Realize the crowds Mountain Creek has on holiday week are on ONE trail right now. Last year it was deathly dangerous with 2 trails at South, and 3 on Vernon. I can't imagine the same crowd on less than 1/5 the terrain. And word is that the coverage is bad on that one trail. I haven't been up once yet and I have a season pass. Camelback - the bait and switch is bullshit. I gave a guy a discount at work today, right now I'm allowed to do around 25% off on most snowboards. The cashier punched it in and i was looking over and the discount came up as 46%. I raised an eyebrow to myself because that is losing money price and I could have made an error on my math before, but even had I quoted the guy the wrong price originally I would have sold it to him at the price I quoted. He agreed to $600 for boots bindings and board (which after the cashier corrected her mistake was 28% off), but had I fucked up and it was 46% off, I would have given it to the guy. Now that mistake had the potential for being over a hundred dollars or more, and I would have let it go just to let the guy leave the store happy. Here instead of hundreds of dollars, at a small mom and pop shop, we're talking about $22 to a company that did 3,000 tickets x 40 something dollars each yesterday, and its 1 inch difference. LAME!

FYI both are open at 8am. BB is open until late night, JF closes at 4 still.

I would check out the 2 parks at boulder, and when they get crowded in the afternoon head over to JF and check out the ONE Park, two good jumps, a few good rails. If you do the 2 at BB and the One park, there are lots of park features.

I'm pretty happy with them. I agree with ParkBuilder, that downslope rail was setup really badly at first. It was better yesterday but still seems wierd. Its a huge ramp for a small rail. The first barrel bonk is hard to get enough speed for, it needs to be lowered like 5" or the roller pushed up like a foot. But those are small. I saw them out raking jumps at BB yesterday, but no one seemed to be cleaning up JF's park. The big pipe at the end of Big Boulder is setup wierd too. No landing, it would be fine if it were lower with that landing, or the same height with more landing, but right now I didn't see anyone hit it at all yesterday. The rest of the rails at BB are setup well, the two jumps are nice. JF seems to be good. I think a flat-down rail would be good right before the first jump at JF on that knuckle where people sit for hte jumps.

I went up wednesday as well. Snow coverage was excellent, no bare spots I saw. There is 0 snow anywhere but on the trails, no new trails getting blown on, no snow on the sides etc. However, east mountain and the park at JF had really thick coverage. BB was good too but I wasn't there long. Crowds were 'big' for JFBB. I waited in a lift line for the for time there, but not bad. I was very happy with everything except the crowds in the park. They kind of make me nervous and I can't ride well when I'm worried about hitting little kids the whole time. By the way, the upslope rail at JF is one of the best rails I've ever ridden.

I won't be up today, the girlfriend is sick, and now I'm a little sick. I will be up tomorrow (12/27). Same clothing, new bindings (Ride Delta MVMT) thanks to her. (nice)

I've been up a lot, I've seen one or two at Jack Frost but it is much less busy so that is enough. Usually in the freedom park they walk up from the top down and maintain. I'm not sure how they maintain merry widow, I've only been in it a bit because I like the jumps at Jack Frost better. I have seen them pull out the cat and do some mid day grooming which is unusual, but I don't know what determines when they do that. They seem pretty good to me. I've been up a lot, I've seen one or two at Jack Frost but it is much less busy so that is enough. Usually in the freedom park they walk up from the top down and maintain. I'm not sure how they maintain merry widow, I've only been in it a bit because I like the jumps at Jack Frost better. I have seen them pull out the cat and do some mid day grooming which is unusual, but I don't know what determines when they do that. They seem pretty good to me.

Ha yea I go to camelback when I ride with my dad so I wont be distracted by the park. They have been off the map for park for years, and I don't think they should really try, they just don't really have terrain for it. If they just got some really nice jibs made, and maintained a nicely setup intro park on Laurel, with a good half pipe and and maybe a small sized park on Rhodo, that would be great. Just have everything setup well and maintained well, but keep it small. It would be a good mountain to teach people. They shouldn't get into the race for a full big park, they don't have the expertise or commitment so it just is unrideable.

ha I'm off until february 6th. Well I'm working but its at a shop so who can complain about talking about snowboards all day. Then I just ride the other 4 days a week. January is going to be great.

I don't see a unified pass working in our market. It works in Colorado because season pass holders are a smaller minority than here. They also rely on natural snowfall a lot more than us. Our mountains are defined by snowmaking, grooming, and terrain parks. Those mountains are defined by snowfall, terrain, and accommodations. If you start taking out some of the competition, we will lose. Look at JFBB, they improved their snowmaking and opened earlier, and are making money. If all the Bear and Blue and Camelback season pass holders just went to JFBB, the other mountains wouldn't have a reason to compete because they would get the same slice. Now, if pass holders start going to JFBB, maybe the other mountains will feel like they have to compete next year or they will lose their early season capital they rely on to pay the bills until Christmas week.

Good post, I agree with that, Bear creek has been screwed by the weather harder than anyone else. Now Mountain Creek - we can blame their management all day because they didn't make snow for the first snowmaking window, and then skipped 2 out of 4 nights on the second snowmaking window. But where as Mountain Creek had marginal conditions so didn't want to make snow because it is more expensive per cubic yard of snow, Bear had weather that was impossible to make snow in.

I'm not a binding tech but I'm down in the shop a lot, so I kind of know how they actually test them and it is similar to your method. There is basically a foot shaped piece that attaches to a torque wrench. You put that foot into the boot, which is in the binding in a jig that doesn't let it move. Crank the wrench until the boot pops out, sideways and forward release. I don't know what the torque values are but bindings fail pretty regularly. I'd say about 1/3 of the bindings that are still idemnified but are obviously old fail. They don't adjust the DINs down and up like that when testing them though, there is a chart that has the torque value for the skier DIN I believe. If you are serious about this man, buy a pair of shitty Ebay skis, get the bindings checked for $5 and go out and you won't rip your knees apart. Or you can basically strap a piece of wood to your foot, and jump down a staircase. Think about it. Ebay skis: http://cgi.ebay.com/Used-Rossignol-Freerid...1QQcmdZViewItem

Check out the Elan's, they are really great skis. For what you are asking for, there are so many different great skis you are going to get a hundred answers. Every brand makes at least 2 or 3 skis that are right for you, so if there are plenty.