Glenn

Less stress on the knees, you won't look like a clown walking around in your boots, and WAY more aesthically pleasing... you should definitely give it a shot. Your height isn't really important, only weight and shoe size. Assuming you have the proper snowboarders foot size of 9 you will be able to get any normal board. If you rock 11s you should think about wide boards. You should be riding anything from 150 (pretty short) to a 155 for a beginning board. Even that may be a pinch long. You know the routine, go to a shop and they will have a better idea.

So, Whiteface officially "opened" today. Lifts typically open at 8:30 but there was a message that said the lower mountain lifts would have a delayed opening to de-ice them. This in mind, I assume the gondola will open from the base and the mid-mountain quad will de-ice for the first hour or two I am there. Temp was 25 degrees when we left the house (15 minutes from mountain) and it was lightly snowing all night, but less than an inch accumulation. I'm guessing yesterday it was in the high 30's or even 40's so I wasn't exepcting great conditions due to thaw/freeze. I arrive at 9:10, pick up my season pass, with my brother and sister, just before 20 or so other people show up and get in line behind me at the counter (sweet timing). So with passes in hand we head towards the gondola. It comes into view and the cabins are not on the cable... LAME. Next the quad comes into view and there are lift attendents there but no one on the lift. The chairs are turning very slowly. Ok, fine maybe a half hour or so. We wait about 10 mintues then notice people are hiking the slope. If figure sure why not. My brother and sister followed. Not sure how far my sister got (she turned and went down way before I did), but Zaldon and I climbed about 800 ft of vert and strapped in. We had a solid 200 vert feet of fresh lines through cat tracks, so we hiked further than anyone else at that point. It was a (breakable) crusty groomed texture with pure sugar underneath. Almost at the bottom we caught up with my sister and decided to just hike up with her on here second run. We took another run of about 400 vert feet and called it a day. (Zaldon over dressed and was complaining how hot he was getting hiking). My sister I think would have been game to hike for another hour or two. The story from the lifties was "we plan to open in an hour" all day. By the time we left they were running the lift in reverse getting a chair through the house 1 every 10 mintues maybe. They weren't doing ANYTHING to clear the seats. I suppose there could be heaters at the cable attachment in the housing that was helping the situation. Either way, it didn't look like they would be opening the lifts any time soon. I'll be back there tomorrow. I'll try to get my sister to bring here digi so I can post some pics.

DOH!!!! I totally forgot about this. Hopefully they haven't been taking up precious storage space. I'm in the adirondacks right now, but when I get back in PA and have my schedule for this week I'll get in touch with you about picking them up.

I'll chime in and be a civil as I can. No doubt there will be some fanboys of other areas that put down any area that is not their area. I'm not speaking about them. There will also always be people which will have the bad experience when most others find the good. I'm not speaking about them either. My malcontent with CB has always been the decisions made, not the conditions or size of the mountain. Sure the location is obnoxious, but it wasn't a deal breaker, and I'm not going to blame CB and trash talk the mountain because of who shows up. To say they couldn't blow earlier is a lie. To say they would open as soon as possible if it were at all possible is a lie. CB for as long as I have ridden there (not very long compared to guys like ski) have made there decisions to cater to the weekender crowd. Since the weekender crowd will not show up this early, they will not blow. CB has the facilities to put together a great park, but since it's not their target market, who cares. Simply advertising a park is enough to get the weekenders there, and most will hit a jump or two in laurel glade and feel good about themselves. Now, I'm not saying CB should change it's business plan. But couldn't it throw the more "core" (I hate that word) skiers/riders a bone once in a while. Or at least not make decisions that will clearly irritate us. Mostly I'm talking about the horrible lift closures last year, but the park pass did little to improve the park situation as well. The jumps weren't any better, and the jibs only slightly so. The pipes continued to get cut for the weekends or not at all. Anyways ski911. I continued to ride CB for years despite my issues, simply because of location. As such, I really tried to make the most out of it. It was HORRIBLY frustrating to see all other ares in the poconos doing the basics to keep the pass holders happy, as well as using their business plan to focus on a target market. CB's continued success and decisions regarding operation and closings makes it at least appear that they could care less about their pass holders. Their money comes from busses coming from high schools and NYC on the weekends. Many of us here are fairly resonable, and those of us that are will stick up for an area. It's hard to stick up for an area that closes lifts for rain, snow, wind, lack of crowds etc etc etc. It's also hard to stick up for an area that hypes its park so much in all it's media releases, then follows through with unarguably the worst park in the region. It's also hard to stick up for an area which claims it will open at the first possible chance, when other areas nearby warmer (just slightly) conditions opens a week before. I'd be curious to see what other passholders have to say, but I feel that sentiments about the area are similar. Again, I really don't hate CB. IMHO they have some of the best cruisers in the poconos. It's a great place to take less experienced riders, and you can't beat full mountain access through 2 high speed lifts. You can go from one side to the extreme other in less than 15 minutes (assuming the lines aren't bad). Thats awesome. I do have issues with CB and will until they turn things around.

I don't have much to add on the pa pipe scene that wasn't already stated. I will say that Whiteface has a legit superpipe every year. They are one of the olympic training areas, and as such have an olympic superpipe. Other than that, whiteface is pretty out of the way for most people.

dec 3

If the pole sits there for more than a day, I don't care if it's a rangers or not, it's fair game. I bet you could get 2 dozen poles just walking the lift at any area around here.

Except with CBs reputation 200 kids would show up to CB and 800 would go to boulder. Also CB doesn't have tower fan guns all over the place. It seems they would need to go through way more effort for way less profit.

... more time to munch on the snack you've packed.

Doh, I can't spell and spell checker lead me astray.

I seem to remember Craige saying 6,000 was a typical weekend. Even 80 per acre would be misleading, since at any one time a large portion of those actually "on the hill" will be on the lifts or in line. Not to mention all those who left early, or are in the lodge.

What on earth do you mean? They are friendly and helpful. And they have that whole welcoming saying for the new guys JONG! It really builds the commodore.

Call me dumb, but on my park board I'm slow to fix core shots.

... don't bang your skis together on the lift.

PS Hi toast, t*maki, philly, zaldon, missdemeanor, racwaxdotcom, and lib. This thread is bumpin!

I think that is just the paint wearing off. It doesn't look like its got sidewall construction, so it's not very rugged on the outside. So it will look like crap, but it's perfectly fine. Though the pics are still out of focus, and I'm only guessing at what you are complaining about.

Yeah, way to go, a mod tries to help you out and you call him an ass.

Look, we aren't repair shop guys. Some of us know a thing or two about fixing our own gear. We'd like to help, if you can give us some useful info. Working from pictures is the only way to go, but if you can't provide good pictures we can't help. Reposting the same bad picture doesn't help, even if there is a narration. We can't see if there is a crack, an edge separating, a core shot, delam, etc etc etc. A shop can tell you what the real problem is AND fix it for you. Take it to the shop you bought it from. If it's a manufacturing defect, they will fix it.

This thread is worthless without pics. Those country flags you posted just aren't going to cut it.

Doesn't look like you are doing that bad for snow.

... I thought I put you on mod preview. Oh well, no time like the present.

My dad headed up a company for a few years funded by an entrepreneur as an offshoot company. This particular Entrepreneur would not move forward on any project unless there was an expected gain of 25% of invested monies, and if a particular venture wasn't pulling in 25% of invested monies, he would cut off the funding. At the time (maybe true today?) he could turn a 25% profit in the money market, and that was a better use of his funds. The 25% could be wrong, but I remember hearing it and was surprised at how high a percentage profit he wanted. ... so in the case of CB, if they spend their money and put in say a new lift and it generates a 3% increase in profits, or they install a new concession stand for camel beach and it turns a 15% increase in profits, then even though both are profitable, they should only spend money investing in camelbeach, until that market is depleted. Or so goes the theory stated above. Likewise if upkeep costs for camelback turn less profit than upkeep costs for camelbeach, then camelback will either not be kept up, or will more likely shut down. Still... I don't see it happening any time soon. In the case of the entrepreneur he could invest in the money market year round. Camelback is winter only and camel beach is summer only. Though they draw from the same funds, they are mutually exclusive markets, and making money year round is kind of important, especially for the big wigs with offices.

As long as camelback ski area continues to make money it will remain open. The focus of the resources certainly appears as though it will shift in the long run.

You ride your carpet or couches over painted rails? I can't get rail paint off of anything, and I scotch guard all my soft outerwear. On the bright side, I don't rock white gear. If you don't fall, or you don't mind huge smear marks on your pants it works out.

You should pass along more posted videos and less elvis contests.