Glenn

I've had a string of minor injuries in the past few weeks. Nothing has kept me off my board for more than a day, but to say I was going 100% on a regular basis in the past few weeks would be a lie. Right now, I'm working my way through some back pain. I got today, but not for long. It was still good, since I didn't ride yesterday. Anyways, this is still a pretty cool place to take it easy. The people are super friendly, the views are gorgeous, and every couple of days we have some half decent snow. Before I get into some other stuff, I promised Nick I would get pictures of the cirque up. Well, I was lazy and didn't edit a long sequence together. Instead here is 1 pic of Nick in the Vasquez Cirque. Right about time it started to get warm I started riding more park, and getting hurt more often. It's not so bad, because we had wonderful temps and about a week straight of blue bird skies with some impressive sunsets. I didn't want to miss the sunsets by grabbing a camera, but here is some blue bird. This sky was the most stunning shade of blue I've ever seen. Instead of lapping the park and getting hurt, or heading towards the cliffs and bumps on Mary Jane, I decided to take a day alone relaxing, and striaght lining groomers at Steamboat. Steamboat has far better and far more groomers than Winter Park. Not usally what I'm after, but in this case I was. I brought my camera, and took a lot of photos that day. Here is my first attempt at stitching together a panorama style shot. It sucks, and I will do much better the next time I try one. Anyways, you can still get an idea of what is going on. This is a 180 degree view spread out. Sorry you have to click, but photobucket doesn't like this image size. Aside from beatering my way down the mountain, and just generally not getting after it, I've done my best to keep up with some friends and play photog whenever possible. Here is dave dropping a cliff on some steep terrain right next to the lift (out of frame obviously). Tonight is my night off, and I took it easy. Went outside and watched the mountains on the deck until the sun went down. There have been better nights, but it still made me smile. Hope you all had a pleasant evening as well, in spite of whatever minor setbacks you have come across lately.

I don't really care. I think magazine ratings are bogus anyways, and I could really care less who "wins". Is Sno superior to elk in nearly all catagories? Yes. Do I think there are more than 7 resorts that have better conditions on the east than Elk, I would hope so. Do I care anyways? No. It's silly. It's SKI magazine, when did it start having authority? It's a magazine poll, when have then been reliable. It's over snow conditions on the east, when have they ever been good? Ok, well the last one was kind of mean. Clearly new snow, grooming and skier traffic determine conditions. In the abscence of real snow, snow making becomes the an important factor. It's not hard to figure out who will have the best conditions. Personally I would vote Blue for best everything, because the evil side of me wants to see that place crowded.

Took 3 runs, lots of face shots, even on the bump trails, dropped a few small cliffs. Nothing photo worthy. Took a long hard look at 20 footer and another long hard look at a 20 foot to 10 foot drop line. Decided with the help of a good friend it wasn't meant to be today since I've got some injuries still healing. Probably will just end up hitting them next year, unless we get another big dump in a week.

SKI magazine isn't focused on the poconos. How does the challange of sno mountain compare to that of Whiteface, MRG or even Crested Butte, Jackson Hole or Squaw.

Ok, so I was wrong. We got 9 inches overnight, and I threw my back out yesterday, so I watched lots of people having fun outside. Work is getting in the way tomorrow so I think I will get about 5 runs in tomorrow. I'm guessing another 6 fell from this mornings snow report. Maybe a pic of a cliff drop I'm aiming for if I can get a friend take it.

Ski said nobbing. Not that it matters anyways though, ski mag sucks.

Sure about that one chief? They are pretty far away from each other.

Bump for stoke

Take your spam to one of GSS's threads you whore. Jk, thanks for keeping the thread bumped

Steamboat is a great place, especially if you can get there when the snow is good. I'd do 6 weeks starting in feb. You should try to get to winter park for a couple days. I'd be glad to show you around.

It's been a year since I've been there but in my experience... No scene really. Sometimes the park is fun, sometimes they aren't. I found it really hard to progress there though.

Nice pictures. Wish we had a mellow wall ride like that.

Thanks for the bump Probably no more pillows this season. Every 1/2 hour I look out the window it's absolutely dumping, then totally clear, just back and forth for about 4 hours. I'm not really hoping for much. Every time it snows it looks like it's dumping (past week or more) but it never lasts. Right now with the snow firming up at night we would need a serious amount of snow for the good cliffs and pillow lines to be rideable. No worries though, we have are having some great park days and working on goggle tans. I have 2 panaramics from steamboat I want to post up. I just have to edit them together, which is proving WAY harder than I anticipated. I realized to properly do them a compass and tripod would have made things a lot easier.

SICK! I think we are done with real snow here for a while. We got 7 inches in 2 days early in the week, but most of the first fallen snow had melted into the snow pack by the end of the storm. It's kind of snowing right now, but it won't really amount to anything useful for the hucks, good trees, or super steep inbounds terrain. Cool you were getting after it though.

Yes.

Noodly meaning very soft. It's going to be super squirly when you get it to higher speeds. Noodly skis chatter, boards you just have to make up for the dampness with your legs. Park boards are made similarly but they have different flex patterns and will have lots more pop. If you are new to riding, then the board is fine. If you want a flexy board for park, it won't be nearly as fun as a real park board. Sorry I didn't see you other question before. Based on this question I think you only ski, and this will be your first time snowboarding. With that in mind this is a great deal. Anyways... Yes all snowboard bindings are trasferable. You just screw the supplied screws into the inserts provided. Also, you will have any number of options on how to setup your stance, and it can easily change. Much better than that system the skis use where you destroy your skis by changing your mind how you want things setup.

I'm with Melissa.

Beginner gear is noodly an edge can be resharpened, but obviously only so many times. The boots aren't part of the deal. I would imagine they want to keep the bindings because decent bindings can easily out last a board, not because the bindings are broken.

The board will be total garbage. It will be noodly, but not that much fun. No pop, worn edges, probably no base. For $25 bucks though, like you said you can't really expect or complain too much. I guess if you wanted to learn to ride, it would be a good way to see if it's for you, then buy some real equipment.

If it was a skectchy ride, then I guess I went to strawberry park. There are roads like that in the poconos if you know where to go, and like that sort of thing. All the girls there had boyfriends in tow and I was getting light headed after about 40 min in the hot pool so I bounced before it got dark. ... Next time I'm bringing a date for sure.

Hey nick, this was a cool thread, but those pics take ages to load. I never want to click this thread because it's so brutal waiting for my scrollbar to work properly. Just sayin.

Nice. In other news I was at Steamboat and the hot springs today. Both were fun. I got some pictures I will post up soon, to try to convince SK to come here next year. Hey SK, if you are reading this, the hot springs are clothing optional after dark. They have chair, bed and floating messages there.

SCREAMIN SEAMAN!

Dibs on the artifact pending photos.

Dope. Also, you are looking rather dark sir.