Glenn

I haven't spoken with anyone that said it was good. At best even from the riders on here who I respect for being worlds better than me found at most 1 or 2 features that were decent or fun. Rhodo is a small step forward in a LONG road (well at least at this pace) to get the park up to shape even for pocono standards.

So just to clear up, it was the parking lot staff not the park crew that told you to leave.

I'm not trying to start a flame... just an honest question. How is the title of this thread not giving away race results?

I was there on wed during the snowstorm, so I have no clue what things are usually like. There weren't big crowds, but the highways were closed by the time I left, and most of the roads getting to elk were plowed once at best (in 2 feet once was not enough). There wasn't anything tremedously steep. The steepest terrain is in a section of woods called the "ozone" by a local I was with. We didn't ride it, because he showed me on our last run. We rode trees most of the day, and I hit a super fun cliff on wissahickon once, but didn't want to spend the effort to get there again. I'm not sure if it's possible when there isn't fresh snow, but when I hit it, the impact was hardly noticable off a 8+ foot cliff. The bump runs were fun, but I only did 1 or two runs down them. Overall the mountain seems fair long and drawn out with nothing getting too steep at one spot. There is a wide variety of trails. For a experienced recreational skier that just free rides, this will keep you interested all day. The bumps are the only real technical riding (and not nearly as tech as barneys bumps, or WL), unless you duck into the woods. Someone else mentioned some cliffs, so if thats your thing, this mountain probably has more than anywhere else in pa. The mountain is in the middle of no where so it's ski snobs, and back woods locals. It's a better type of crowd (IMHO) than what you will see at CB, Blue. The snow quality I experienced was great (remember 2 feet of snow), but in the bumps there was some hardpack on the back sides of a few of the bumps that had more traffic than others. With this in mind, I can't imagine the snow would be THAT different than others in the poconos, but crowds may be the difference maker in comparison to some other places. My ticket on wed was $15 with my college ID, and was good form open-4:30, or alternatively 12-close. They closed at 4:30 when I was there due to the weather. I had a blast and would go back any time (especially on a wed). Just like all mountains it has it's own flavor, and I can recommend it. My personal riding preferences lean elsewhere, so I wouldn't really ever consider a season pass there (not that I could afford it, their season passes are PRICEY). Definitely give it try at some point mark, but I wouldn't bother trying to do the 2 mountains in the same day. There is a pretty good drive between the two, and IMO it just isn't worth it.

Skizilla knock off the attacks on papasteeze. Feel free to argue, but your childish attacks aren't welcome. I think CB opens the parks later because they have a park pass. Their park crew checks passes, but I also think they do some basic maintence work first thing in the morning. If they are on hill doing work they can't be at the gate. I could be wrong.

The snow at CB on tues night was some pretty good stuff for the poconos. I rode at elk yesterday during the storm. They got around 2 feet when all was said and done. There was a layer of freezing rain from early in the day, but by the time I got there at 11:30 through 4:00 when I left the snow was fairly light, dry, and coming down very hard. Sorry CB didn't get the best weather, but on the bright side, I doubt CB had the accesibility issues that Elk had going on yesterday.

Yep, someone already mentioned it another thread.

I normally don't do these, for a variety of reasons but today was really great so I thought I would share a little. I left stroudsburg at about 7, just when the roads were starting to get bad. This is a fairly typically time for me to leave and head off to the mountain. Late night session are great because you never have to wait for a chair, and most of the people there either stick to the easy trails or can really ride well. The ride up wasn't too bad, My outback has great handling in the snow, so most of my attention on the road is spent on keeping the other people from hitting me rather than worrying about loosing control myself. Keeping a resonable speed helps as well. When I arrived tons of people were leaving, so I was hoping they didn't close... a guy in the parking lot assured me they hadn't. I rode alone because most of my friends decided to get drunk tonight, since there probably won't be classes tomorrow. The primary condition was powder and the secondary was packed pow and a bit of hard pack in spots. The hardpack wasn't an issue at all, because there was so much powder around anyways. The whole mountain was tracked up enough that I didn't get a run where I was on totally silk smooth virgin powder, but with how fast it was coming down, I usually had a good layer of snow between me and the last track that came through. There were tons of piles all over that were totally untouched. I spent the night on my free ride board trying my best to make some decent turns on the blacks. Even though it was just the sullivan open this could have easily been the best day of the year for me. I thanked a couple of the lifties for working during the storm (the roads were pretty bad), they appreciated the recognition. If all goes well I'm headed to Elk tomorrow morning EARLY in the AM. I'm hoping for more of the same there!

If it is snowing tomorrow as hard as it was tonight, there will be fresh stuff all day long.

Any chance I could try the guitar out? I wouldn't mind having a cheap backup axe.

They close it somewhere around 9, usually 9:15. It's not that bizarre. I've been with beginners that take close to a half hour to get from one side of the mountain to another. They have to get everyone off that side, and on the other, while sweeping all the trails. It's goofy or bullshit, all mountains that are large enough have some system to slowly close off the distant areas of the mountain first, as they close.

I've got a blackout day at CB, so I think I will be traveling somewhere. Haven't decided where for sure yet.

Danger, you came into the CB forum and posted a report, which no one else who rode that day agrees with. You included "if you think blue mountain sucks ride CB", then later made excuses why your report wasn't accurate. The poll is funny to me, and apparently 7 others.

It was the end of the night and they were closing that side of the mountain for ski patrol sweeps. They do it everynight, and while some may bitch, I have no issues with it.

The 2 boards are setup differently... otherwise I would just have 1 board. One is a park board, with a wider stance, 15/-12 and the more comfortable strap. The other is a free ride board, with a narrower stancer, 20+ (don't remember)/-9, and gets the pressure points. The riding style on the two is totally different. So, it could be the boot fit it could be something totally different. The bindings aren't extremely comfortable in the first place, and if I can find an affordable way to get more comfortable ones I will.

Actually I think the ramps are fairly steep at CB, but the transition is too abrupt. Having a small radius ramp is fine for small jumps, but if CB wants to have big jumps they need a bigger radius ramp (ie, the pitch changes slower until the proper pitch for take off is reached). I personally think CB should get some smaller jumps dialed in first, as I don't think ANY of the jumps right now are worth hitting. Agreed that landings should be steeper. Agreed that ramps need to be much wider, and also more consistant width wise. The outter 4 feet of any jump on either side isn't worth hitting right now, so that takes 8 feet of usable lip width off of every jump. For many that doesn't leave a whole lot of room.

BC had one 2 years ago. I want to say I've hit some others in the poconos but I can't remember when/where.

So boots mold to your feet over time. I'm going to take a guess they mold to your bindings as well. I'm getting some pressue points riding one board, and none on another board. They are the same model but have different years heel straps, so they are shaped differently. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had problems like this, and if anyone has multiple pairs of boots for different board. The pressure points aren't bad, and I don't have the money to buy a second pair of boots right now anyways. Just kind of curious if the different bindings is the cause, or if I should looke else where.

Boulder had one when the boulder park was setup like a boardercross trail. They had boarder cross gates on a big drop-in and then a channel gap with 2 - 25foot table tops. This was about 6 years ago, and I could barely get down the trail let alone hit features properly.

I agree with yellowsnow on the progression aspect 100%. The laurel park was the most fun today it's been all year, with the highlight being the up box - flat box, because it was the longest jib in the park. The jumps were way too long for both the lip size and the maximum safe speed to ride through crowded park. I got one lap through rhodo before the stevenson closed tonight (I arrived around 8 pm) so I did't hit anything any features. The flat bar looked to be a resonable setup. Jibzilla looked alright, but I think it would be more fun at the bottom of LG right before the lift rather than in the rhodo park, where it's a bit to steep to really explore the variety of ways to slide it. Not a big deal, but its a better use of the terrain/feature in my opinion. The jumps like some serious speed was required, no one was in the park so I didn't see how much it took to clear them. The wallride transition was looking not so great. The up-down still scares the crap out of me. Both the flat-down-flat and the up-down were setup with the lips well below the rails. The up-down is probably a 3 foot gap vertically as well as several feet long. No comment on whether that is a good or a bad thing. I'm still working up the will to hit the one. brtndom says it's fun, so I gotta figure it's worth riding. The rhodo park has some features that I want to try out, but overall I'm still not thrilled about the park.

My understanding is anything sick MC had going for it BB does as well. I'm not sure if MC fell off totally, but what I'm hearing is that most of the MC park riding scene moved to BB... that says something. I don't know anything about what Stratton, K, Winter Park or Park City has going on in terms of parks, but I do know that CB doesn't have the same type of vert to work with as they do. Drop ins, and outruns are important and setting up features that need tons of space just doen't work for this area and particularly CB's park trails. As PapaSteeze pointed out to me before the really good park designers not only understand HOW to build features they also know WHERE to build. ... I'll try to find some pictures and point some things out.

You can see Killington from whiteface's peak, it's a pretty good distance away. Not sure what else is up there.

CB's green bump run is fun, but I'm not it's worth spending an entire day on (arguably neither is barney's bumps). You might want to ask the Sno people if White lightning has bumps right now... if you like bumps you could easily spend all day on that. Altenatively when I was last at frost they had 2 ungroomed bump trails, 1 a blue, the other was a diamond, both lots of fun!

The bumps are open. I think it's just a safety precaution.

I'm working on getting equipment together, would you be willing to teach a total noobie? I have extremely limited sking experience, but I'm a pretty good snowboarder.