roll call 12/31

[Barb]

I want to see some new faces. I'll be hanging out with these 2.

[method9455]

I'll be there for 1st chair at JF. Is it at 8 or 9 though? Normally JF opens on 9 on a monday, but tomorrow BB is opening at 8, so I think it is 8 at JF as well. I'm thinking of leaving here to get there at 8:30 and split the difference. Best case I'm too early and I can get 1 run before the lifts open since you start at the top anyway. Worst case, a couple people got tracks before me. It should be a mad house by mid day since it is going to snow tonight and everyone and their mother will be there.

 

I look like this:

 

My name is Kevin, I'll be with two asian kids who are intermediate-ish I guess. I have not snowboarded with them in like 6 years so it will be interesting.

[method9455]

well, it didn't snow at all here. hopefully it did a bit there. I'm leaving now, I'll be there at 8.

[RidgeRacer]

We got about 6 inches - just got finished shoveling it. I'll be back on the hill tomm. Hopefully there will be no one there and the trees will be skiable, oh and hopefully Floyd's will be open.

[method9455]

Went up today, got there early about 8:30ish. Headed straight down challenge and took the east mountain lift up. They had groomed most of the mountain but there was plenty of untracked to be had. Rivershot turned to shit almost immediately, 6" of powder on top of ice is bad when there is a holiday crush of gapers snowplowing it around. The trees are ok, they where better after the last storm, this one was a lot dryer it didn't hold as well. If we didn't have that warm up in between it would be amazing, but I would say its about 90% of what it was 2 weeks ago. Another 6" would seal the deal, I got a few rock hits but not much. The run of the day was Floyd's. It wasn't open but I saw two guys get the first poach and I rolled right in behind them. They have made a lot of snow on it there are huge whales, but really tight together so it is almost like a pillow line, as close as you are going to get on the east coast anyway. And with 6" of untracked, it was probably the best half dozen runs of the year I've taken. Then we wanted to try something else. Looking back we probably should have just lapped that all day. The only lame part was the bottom, the whales where so high on the run out that it was hard to get through unless you went to the low side, but they had tripod guns setup and I didn't want to damage the hoses so we hiked out each time rather than risk cutting them. We like the snowmakers, no reason to make their work more difficult. I bet it will open real soon it just needs to be flatened out - my friend couldn't handle the pillows that well, they are basically vertical on the back side I got air off almost every one. Really something to try but by tomorrow it might be beat, by 10:30 it was pretty tracked.

 

By 11 the powder had been chewed up on every open trail, still some in trees and near the edges but it was piling on the ones they hadn't groomed and it was getting nasty with ice in between. It should groom out well tonight though.

 

We head to the park since it was soft. Lots and lots of gapers, probably a 5:1 gaper to park rider ratio, maybe higher, There where only about 10 guys landing anything other than the two flat boxes. I only think I saw one other person land the flat-down clean all day besides myself and the guy I was with. That rail was better. They should setup another flat box before it, right now there is this bump that is a jump that only throws you like 5 feet high, it is basically and ollie pad. It used to have the blue barrel bonk but they pulled that out. The first jump was trashed for some reason, I couldn't put my finger on it. It was like gaper central with people standing on the knuckle, and the ramp was bumping and the landing was a little too steep and pot holed. That could have used another pass with the groomer. The second and third jumps are butter, one is about 10 feet and the other about 15, great for building confidence. You get some good height. Then I followed the flat box into upslope rail line. THe other side has two down slope rails, one looked good but one didn't. I didn't try them though, I have a love affair with that upslope rail, it slides so nice and not many people hit it. I think all the good riders where at Boulder so the park was empty of people trying to hit stuff. I had a few run ins with the gapers but with a loud enough drop in call before each feature people move. I love the panic in peoples eyes between the 1st and 2nd jump and between the 2nd and 3rd jump. You land at a good clip, yell drop and straight line in a tuck to the next to get enough speed, and they're doing the pizza and fries as you zoom in and they freak out like OH SHIT I SHOULDN"T BE HERE. I rarely saw gapers in twice after they realized, but there where just so many of them. I saved one kid from decapitation he was laying on the knuckle and you couldn't see him so I waved off the guy coming in behind me, I had a bad feeling rolling in to the jump for some reason and when I came around I saw him like making snow angles on the landing. I told his parents they should probably keep him out of hte park if they weren't going to supervise. The mom was like "thanks for the warning", I guess she couldn't read the signs.

[RidgeRacer]

Went up today, got there early about 8:30ish. Headed straight down challenge and took the east mountain lift up. They had groomed most of the mountain but there was plenty of untracked to be had. Rivershot turned to shit almost immediately, 6" of powder on top of ice is bad when there is a holiday crush of gapers snowplowing it around. The trees are ok, they where better after the last storm, this one was a lot dryer it didn't hold as well. If we didn't have that warm up in between it would be amazing, but I would say its about 90% of what it was 2 weeks ago. Another 6" would seal the deal, I got a few rock hits but not much. The run of the day was Floyd's. It wasn't open but I saw two guys get the first poach and I rolled right in behind them. They have made a lot of snow on it there are huge whales, but really tight together so it is almost like a pillow line, as close as you are going to get on the east coast anyway. And with 6" of untracked, it was probably the best half dozen runs of the year I've taken. Then we wanted to try something else. Looking back we probably should have just lapped that all day. The only lame part was the bottom, the whales where so high on the run out that it was hard to get through unless you went to the low side, but they had tripod guns setup and I didn't want to damage the hoses so we hiked out each time rather than risk cutting them. We like the snowmakers, no reason to make their work more difficult. I bet it will open real soon it just needs to be flatened out - my friend couldn't handle the pillows that well, they are basically vertical on the back side I got air off almost every one. Really something to try but by tomorrow it might be beat, by 10:30 it was pretty tracked.

 

By 11 the powder had been chewed up on every open trail, still some in trees and near the edges but it was piling on the ones they hadn't groomed and it was getting nasty with ice in between. It should groom out well tonight though.

 

We head to the park since it was soft. Lots and lots of gapers, probably a 5:1 gaper to park rider ratio, maybe higher, There where only about 10 guys landing anything other than the two flat boxes. I only think I saw one other person land the flat-down clean all day besides myself and the guy I was with. That rail was better. They should setup another flat box before it, right now there is this bump that is a jump that only throws you like 5 feet high, it is basically and ollie pad. It used to have the blue barrel bonk but they pulled that out. The first jump was trashed for some reason, I couldn't put my finger on it. It was like gaper central with people standing on the knuckle, and the ramp was bumping and the landing was a little too steep and pot holed. That could have used another pass with the groomer. The second and third jumps are butter, one is about 10 feet and the other about 15, great for building confidence. You get some good height. Then I followed the flat box into upslope rail line. THe other side has two down slope rails, one looked good but one didn't. I didn't try them though, I have a love affair with that upslope rail, it slides so nice and not many people hit it. I think all the good riders where at Boulder so the park was empty of people trying to hit stuff. I had a few run ins with the gapers but with a loud enough drop in call before each feature people move. I love the panic in peoples eyes between the 1st and 2nd jump and between the 2nd and 3rd jump. You land at a good clip, yell drop and straight line in a tuck to the next to get enough speed, and they're doing the pizza and fries as you zoom in and they freak out like OH SHIT I SHOULDN"T BE HERE. I rarely saw gapers in twice after they realized, but there where just so many of them. I saved one kid from decapitation he was laying on the knuckle and you couldn't see him so I waved off the guy coming in behind me, I had a bad feeling rolling in to the jump for some reason and when I came around I saw him like making snow angles on the landing. I told his parents they should probably keep him out of hte park if they weren't going to supervise. The mom was like "thanks for the warning", I guess she couldn't read the signs.

 

Wow...I'm kinda glad I didn't go yesterday after reading about those crowds. Whats up with Floyd's (and Lehigh) by the way? Those whales have been there for a solid week now if not more. Getting more open will allieviate some of the crowding. Regardless I'll be back tomm and hopefully I'll be parking right up front again.

[method9455]

Yea I was really disappointed by the crowds, had it been a normal monday I would have been getting untracked all day but it was the most crowded I have ever seen JF. Good for them money wise, and a girl I met in the parking lot said the day before was even busier. It was somewhat disappointing but no body was doing the stuff off the trails so it was still doable but I got a lot more rock scrapes this time than last, this was a lot fluffier. If we hadn't had that warm up in between it would be amazing. I loved the dirty looks a lot of people where giving me from the lifts, some guy actually yelled at me from the lift when I went onto floyds (not a patroller). Meanwhile on my ride up I saw a patroller riding below the lift line on east mountain. Ah open domain policy, it is so nice. You said it on Alpinezone, but I agree, it makes the mountain feel so much bigger than it is. I'm faster than the kid I was riding with but he was consistantly beating me to the bottom by a good margin because when you go in the trees it forces you to make so many turns it slows you down. The only part that sucked was at one point I tried to get deeper into the woods coming off the top of the east mountain lift to the right and I ended up in a patch of thorn bushes, which scraped up my pants a bit but no rips so it was ok.