sibhusky

Even Sibby does her own tuning. Hates doing it, but in the long run, it costs less if you ski as much as I do. The goal is to wax every 60,000 feet. I admit I skied too much this past week.... it went to closer to 75,000 this time, bad Sibby.

I've been enjoying your trip reports and am jealous of the amount of snow you DO have.

Enjoyed your report.

I of course read posts from you, JollyJake. Of course, it's not only a matter of politeness, but also safety to remove polestraps from your wrists so that the poles don't get lodged in the snow and yank you from the lift as you leave the station, etc. Simple common sense. And of course, any good skier in reasonable shape should be able to use their stomach muscles to simply stand up and ski off the lift without using their poles like some old woman. I mean, if Sibby, broken wrists, bad knee, big butt, etc., can do it, why can't these young studs do it???? If you don't have the stomach muscles, simply placing your one hand on the chair seat and pushing upwards should do the trick EVEN WHEN the darn chair seems to be down at ankle level because they haven't shoveled sufficiently. Seriously. If I can do it, anyone should be able to do it. And it's always these young MALE idiots who chose to plant their damn poles in between my skis to push off. Fortunately, I usually can spot these gapers before I get on the chair and I just don't get on the chair with them if I can avoid it. I achieve this because I usually ski week days and not holidays and there is usually no one around to care. And yes, I usually give an earful to those idiots who block the singles corral while they rearrange themselves prior to getting in line. Jake, all I can tell you is that these people have paper tickets. Where they hail from I don't know. Probably Texas...... Latest incident here - New Year's Day - Three of us locals getting on the lift. Last possible instant. OUT OF NOWHERE some snowboarder zings up, sits on the chair as it rounds the bend, not a word out of him, right before the guy on my left is about to sit down. Guy-on-left is already in the process of sitting as this happens and ends up in the kid's lap, now I have legs all over the place, I am jettisoned into the pit in front of us, along with guy-on-my-right. Two foot drop, then another one foot drop. I narrowly avoid the chair stanchion. Guy-on-right is cursing and this is a guy in his 30's, normally the super mellow type. I was fine, but I tell you, visions of more knee operations had passed in front of me. And what was this kid's problem? The line was like a two minute wait. All he had to do was ask if he could join us at any point and we'd have let him. Or if he'd found out he was odd man out in the group behind us he could have ridden alone no big deal, this is Montana. Instead, let's knock everyone over because you can't just SPEAK UP. He's saying you're supposed to do that. Everyone should just be standing up and skiing off. This isn't a race out of a starting gate. That's why you have accidents and the chair keeps stopping. If everyone would behave civilly and learn manners we wouldn't be having all these lift interruptions.

Yeah, I miss the old stats page where you could view all the stats at once without having your own stats in the way. There was more info for one thing. Also, the new stats page has some bugs in it: Top 10 Avg Runs/Day JVert88 26 JVert88 26 SERCH 24.5 aderrick 20 pcklein31 18 Timeless 18 sarasnow16 15 george 13.9 OutCold 12.5 snoskier 12.1 Why is JVert88 listed twice for instance? I saw that on Timeless as well in another table. I looked in the list of users in the upper right of the page and they are not listed twice there, just in the statistics area..... Seems like it's really buggy, so not sure why it got changed when the last one worked just fine.

Siblet uses the Fiberlene because it helps remove the excess wax. She has the clip on her iron to hold it. I don't however and don't want to burn my fingers, so I end up scraping more. I guess it's worth the money if you've got the money. I use the crayoning method on hard wax because there is where I really really hate the scraping, but on softer wax I don't worry about it as much. I have so much wax I got from a special Dr. D was running at one point that reduced use of wax isn't as big an issue to me as thoroughly protecting my bases from the hot iron.

Maybe it reflects the fact that many people were in fact arriving late and buying that half day ticket. I remember that 11 AM using to be sort of peak time, and then again at 2 PM. I'm thinking if everyone was finding themselves finally out of the rental line at 11 AM it was worth waiting one hour to get the lower lift ticket price. Making it an all day price takes that incentive away. Now you have to get there earlier to "get your money's worth".

And the place is suffering (aside from some of the fights) because of it.

Finally show my daughter Austria like I've been promising forever. Take a month to do it so we don't miss anything. Wouldn't blow it on pricey hotels, but the dollar's so weak I don't think I'd have that much left.

All I can say is I spent 21 years trying to find some jacket to keep Siblet warm in the winter, finally did it last year with a system from Eddie Bauer, the 365 system that had a down layer to choose from. First time she didn't bitch when I wanted to stay outside.

I used to be a huge fan of Thorlos until I found the Lorpen Merino Superlite sox for skiing. Go to http://www.lorpen.com/lorpen-na/ and click on Winter Sports products to see them. I got them at Backcountry, but don't see them there at the moment. I've really become a fan of merino wool lately. These socks are thin enough to give good feedback for skiing, but keep you warm. I don't believe in thick socks as it cuts off your circulation around your leg. And I think that my feet are warmer since I switched to wool instead of the Thorlo man-made fibers.

Well, I care, but I think it's about time. For that matter, I think it's time for Bode to give up. Unless, of course, he actually accomplishes something this season.

Hire a limo or a friend or a one way car rental and you've got that covered. I used to get a corporate rate on limos, $30 each way for the family, held all our ski gear in a stretch, not a bad price for door-to-door service. Probably more these days but get a buddy to do it for you and owe him a return favor. Then at the other end, depending on where you go, there is also similar stuff available, either through hotels or publicly. If you fly in here, I know the hotels will come to the airport to get you. In CO, there are buses to many of the resorts. I've taken buses in UT as well.

Actually, I have to agree. The hassle of winter driving vs. sitting on a plane in reading a book or in a warm terminal and then the snow quality differences when you get there to me said "go west" when I lived in NJ. I tried the New England route a couple times when I lived in NJ after moving from Connecticut, but I opted for the Poconos pretty soon for weekends as you had to get around the NYC area first, then there seemed to be only two lane highways into Vermont to get to the good places and it was just exhausting even getting to the Berkshires. So, for the 27 years we were in NJ, it was the Poconos or the Rockies. I think we did New England less than 5 times that whole period, each time saying it just wasn't worth it compared to flying west. (Of course at the time I was being paid pretty well and could afford the extra money and thought it well spent for the nicer snow.)

I think you need to tell us where you're getting transplanted TO...Philly, NYC, Boston, Pittsburgh?

I have a cardinal rule, "thou shalt not teach an SO to ski." I think it rarely is a good idea. I think beginners are happier with other beginners. I think it is the rare relationship that can withstand the strain of ski instruction, it is SO wound up in emotion and self esteem. I think any "money saved" is totally canceled out by the tears and heartache that results. I've heard 100 times more failure stories than success stories when it comes to this that I wish you'd talk her out of it....

I'd wait until November to decide about skiing in November, otherwise it's a total waste of money....

Siblet did the Narrows as part of her owl research work, rappelling into it from above and exiting that way. I hated the heat the whole time I was there and although the Narrows would have cooled me off, I suppose, I just really spent the whole time longing for the shade and a margarita.

Someone or other was interested. August 2009

I'd recommend you join EpicSki and ask there. There's a number of Europeans on that board who would be more than happy to answer your Europe questions. And they do reply in English..."sort of" sometimes, but they try.

One season I had the issue, but I've learned that conditions overall are dangerous then, so I go home early in the day when I feel that grabbing starting and I avoid the parts of the hill where it happens. The past two seasons I haven't seen it and the season before that I hit a tree first.

I thought I remember you guys talking about it. I certainly remember them offering a free ticket late in the season to passholders from other areas. Found this posting: http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=13613 Maybe go through old Facebook postings? I thought I'd try doing it, but I'd have to "friend" them and that's the last thing I want to do!

Not mine, sorry, but just posted on Epic: http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-...5737_1105963360

Yeah, since new management took over here, the projected opening date here is two weeks later, the projected close is one week earlier and in the spring the lifts close 1/2 hour earlier than they used to when I moved here. Also, for a while they stopped discounts on food and clothing for passholders. That is being brought back for next season. I figure with the shorter operating hours in the spring, I lost two weeks alone in addition to the three lost weeks due to shorter season. No wonder I can't keep up with Atomic!

Just goes to show you, just because someone can afford to buy a domain name, doesn't mean they know beans about their topic.....