kate

i thought this was funny: a direct quote from a 6 year old girl i rode up the lift with today, "the black diamonds at bear creek are easy. they're really hard here!" if tomorrow is anything like today, it's a great time to go up. it's all really soft, spring-timey snow, very few icy spots, and noooooo crowds whatsoever.

It's awesome to hear you guys say that elk is one of the more friendly mountains!

i don't think the crowds at elk are bad at all, especially considering it's the busiest holiday of the year. I'm an instructor, so the lift lines and lodge don't really affect me too much, but i'd imagine they'd be the only crappy part. the mountain is 100% open, so once you get up on the hill it doesn't feel too crowded.

It'll probably still be pretty nice. We have the best conditions we've had in a looooong time. They're doing a pretty good job of keeping it well groomed.

I haven't been there since friday, so they might have put up a few more features, but here's what they had: a big jump with two kickers... i'd say they're like 15 and 20 feet or so, but i thought they were really nice. a little roller jump a pretty nice spine All the rails at elk are really small and ride on but they have: a battleship, a crainbow, a rainbow box, a rainbow rail, a c-rail, and a flat-down.

I went to blue today... I went there for the "terrain park" challenge. On the website it said "skier x, boarder x and terrain park challenge." but it was really just a boarderx and skierx. the weird part is that it's part of the jeep terrain park challenge, which is a freestyle competition... so that means todays winners get to go to shawnee for a slopestyle competition. I'm not sure how winning a boarderx qualifies someone to compete in a regional freestyle competition, but whatever. Since i drove 2 hours to get there, i decided to race anyway. I've never done boarderx before, so i don't really what makes or breaks a course, but this one seemed pretty sucky... They wouldn't let the girls go more than 2 at a time because it was dangerous. Other than the competition fiasco, my first impression of blue wasn't that great. The terrain was great and the park is AMAZING, but it seemed like someone cut me off or ran me over every run... that has never happened to me at elk before. Hopefully it was just a rough day.

i know what one you're talking about... i don't think it worked for whoever tried it because when we went to check it out there were no tracks in the snow on the other side.

does anyone know the website for the photographer that was there?

the kid that got 3rds name is jon, he rides elk with pat all the time. i was there in all white with a sapient board... i didnt even make finals, i sucked yesterday. It was still a really fun day though.

i'll be there tomorrow... does anyone know if there's a girls division in the rail jam?

elk does it at their fall festival, most of their trees are pine trees though, so there isn't a ton of foliage, the view is pretty kickass though.

there is an article about this on transworld right now.. that is sick.

Kate all of the rictor beez were in the competiton.2 of them placed to but i forget their positions.. oh my bad, i figured they werent there cause our elk guys nearly swept it.

wow, the rictorbeez sound amazing. it's too bad none of you were at the montage rail jam so we could see some of that skill.

i'm sure there are lots of terms to describe them. Kind of like jump, kicker, booter, or whatever.

I really need a new board so i'm pretty sure i'm getting a sapient seduction. I'd like to get new boots, i was thinking either northwave topaz or vans dakides. i'll probably get a new jacket, gloves, and a-frames too.

HAHAHA.... that picture is of my friend brendan! thats awesome!

man, i wish i was there sooo bad. it looked way fun. but i just couldn't make it.

here is the video i was talking about. sorry it took so long. it's just my friends and i messing around mostly. I didn't get many good shots because i always wanted to ride instead of tape. my part is especially lame, but oh well. oh yeah, there are some shots from the montage rail jam of just random people, so sorry if anyone is in it.

i have some video... i don't have the right capture software on my computer right now so i can't post it yet. I made a video at school though and it has a lot of the footage from that in it. i should be able to put it up sometime next week. Maybe i'll burn all the comp footage to cd and bring it home too.

skiing in may would not be a waste of money!

this sounds awesome! crew from elk would go for sure. my sister and i have a battle of the bands to play in may 5th though so i hope its not that day too.

i voted other cause i love a good down box too... but a c-box comes in a close second, they're just fun.

it looked really nice! i'm working on a little video now. its nothing spectacular and its my first time ever trying to make one, but its wicked fun.

they did it last year too... before that it was always just a big air comp.