last day of Jan '08 TR

[IrishSnow686]

Got up to Blue at 8:15am. Got my ticket and was ready to go.. got 3rd or 4th chair. Made my 1st run down Lazy for a warmup run. Snow was very crunchy as the morning was pretty cold. Rode the lift up with an older guy, he said he took his 1st run down Razor's because Paradise was closed. He said the snow on Razor's was great, so I had to take a turn at it. Snow was very nice and soft. After those 2 runs, I kept in the park the rest of the day. I think that is the 1st time I have been to Blue where I didnt do more that 1 run down the other trails. The park was in nice shape and seemed to get better as the day warmed up. There were alot of little kids out w/ their parents. One guy on the lift with his kid said he was from Monmouth, NJ and they had a 1/2 day so he just took his kid out for the whole day to go skiing. I guess alot of kids had 1/2 days as well. The park ettiquete was non-existant today. Twice I was the only one strapping in and was as far from the stairs entrance as I could be.. but still 2 people managed to run into me and knock me over! I saw many cases of people going in for their run only to have a little kid or a parent ski right next to the person who had to bail out. Depsite this, if you could time it right you could basically have the park to yourself. It seemed as these groups moved together at the same pace. So if you could get ahead, your next run was smooth. Unfortunately, I timed it wrong and as I was going for the 2nd jump set in the park, a little kid came out of now where from my right, looking over his shoulder for his dad while pizza wedging. As I was about to hit the ramp, the kid bumps into me and throws me off course. I go off the side of the jump, down and into the woods. Luckily, I had a helmet as I hit a small tree w/ my head. My knees got pretty banged up from the boulders I slid over and got a few cuts and scrapes on my elbows and chin. I consider myself very lucky to not get seriously hurt, but it was enough to end my session. I was feeling great and could have easily gone until 3:30 or 4 but had to end at 2pm. Going into that jump, I looked to see if my line was clear, which it was. The kid and his dad were way off to the right. From what I can guess, the kid saw the jumps and wanted to see what they were all about... but looking over his right shoulder when he needed to be looking uphill. The best part is, neither him or the dad even stopped to see if I was ok. Blue really needs to impliment the Park Pass. The stairs just do not cut it and its only a matter of time until someone gets seriously hurt, whether its an experienced person from someone who does not belong in the park or vice versa.

[IrishSnow686]

Blue really needs to hire some SmartStyle co-ordinaters....Was there a ski patroller presence in the Sidewinder park????

 

Not one patroller in the park the entire day that I saw. In my 5 1/2 hour session, they only 2 ski patrollers I saw were at the bottom of Sidewinder Park where it runs into Lazy Mile and they were fixing the rope they use to close off the trail at the end of the night.

I kept thinking during my day how funny it would be for someone to be standing outside the stairs to the park w/ a bull horn preaching SmartStyle. They could use some marketing material such as pamphlets to help spread the word.

[toast21602]

they were in the park first thing this morning. i rode the lift with a few as well who were talking about the steps up to the park and how they think it makes people more curious about what is there. when i was there today i saw a kid ride up the steps and then his dad tried to ski up and fell over and he flipped out because he didnt know how to get in. i loved it. haha.

[romemadman]

smartstyle in the park was not there today, on one of my runs through terrain run,w/ the nasty mini pipe, i hit the flat down box and heard a noise onthe boax behind me and there is three kids on snowblades on my a$$ about to fall on me , bu i got off and shout at them askin what the hell they were thinking.

 

avoided sidewinder cuz we saw so many ppl who had no idea at the top and didnt want to deal wiht that, and i think i saw that dad fall that toast was talking about

 

 

but other wise it was a good day. taught my friend to snowboard. She was pretty confused at first but then she started to gain her balance and gettting healside turns, te toe side wasnt workign out so well so she stuck wiht her healside most of the time. i was suprised at the fact taht she did really well getting off the lift even wiht me jsut guiding down on the side of her, but she took some hard falls and called it a day soon after we went back out after lunch and so i met back up with all my friends one who had never touched a board before, but surfs and skate, very well, picked it up so fast and went down chute, and down challenge wiht us and hit the jump at the bottom of sidewinder and got air

 

the snow was really nice today, took one rune down challenge and the snow was awsome. on some trails there were a few ice spots. the snow held and edge really wel for carving, switchback was empty all day and i ripped down that with long straiht turns and lazy was nice also

 

all in all so much better than being in school

[GARNETandGREY17]

smartstyle in the park was not there today, on one of my runs through terrain run,w/ the nasty mini pipe, i hit the flat down box and heard a noise onthe boax behind me and there is three kids on snowblades on my a$$ about to fall on me , bu i got off and shout at them askin what the hell they were thinking.

 

avoided sidewinder cuz we saw so many ppl who had no idea at the top and didnt want to deal wiht that, and i think i saw that dad fall that toast was talking about

 

 

but other wise it was a good day. taught my friend to snowboard. She was pretty confused at first but then she started to gain her balance and gettting healside turns, te toe side wasnt workign out so well so she stuck wiht her healside most of the time. i was suprised at the fact taht she did really well getting off the lift even wiht me jsut guiding down on the side of her, but she took some hard falls and called it a day soon after we went back out after lunch and so i met back up with all my friends one who had never touched a board before, but surfs and skate, very well, picked it up so fast and went down chute, and down challenge wiht us and hit the jump at the bottom of sidewinder and got air

 

the snow was really nice today, took one rune down challenge and the snow was awsome. on some trails there were a few ice spots. the snow held and edge really wel for carving, switchback was empty all day and i ripped down that with long straiht turns and lazy was nice also

 

all in all so much better than being in school

 

yea i was at blue today and i was suprised how nice it was..... razors was maybe in the best condtions of the year and there were no ice balls on the sides