12/31/09 TR

[method9455]

Went up to Shawnee today with my girlfriend and her two younger sisters. One is a complete never ever gone snowboarding beginner and the other has gone two or three times and can link turns down most trails, but we figured it to be primarily a teaching day. I brought my new Line Prophets and went skiing for the first time in 7 years.

 

We got to the hill by 8, and bought tickets. 4 students tickets at $36 each on a holiday is super sweet, especially when at 21 I'm getting charged adult prices everywhere else. We went up and started our first run by 8:15. It was snowing pretty nicely by that point, with maybe a half inch on the ground, and ultimately 3 inches by around 12 fell. Shawnee was also running about 60% of the guns scattered around the mountain - which is a lot of guns. Only one or two were sticky so overall it was about 4" of new snow on the ground. It made for a soft learning surface which was good, because if you scraped away that you could see the previous surface which was basically groomed ice.

 

It took me about 2 runs down a green trail to remember what the hell I was doing on skis, but by the end of the day I had hit all of the trails at the mountain. The girls definately improved a lot today. Between 8 and 11 there was literally no one else around us. We took a break at 11 and a lot more people were there after that so we took some different trails, but still never waited in a lift line. We broke up a bit because I was started to really crank down the runs so I took a few on my own which helped me remember what going fast felt like. I only fell twice, in exactly the same spot. I'm fine on a even trail really no matter how steep it is, but when it starts getting bumping I get rocked pretty hard.

 

I took a run throught their park. I have twin tips so I figured while I would be doing rails I might want to try a jump on skis. I hit a 5' and a 10' to warm up. I cleared both to the landing and rode away which was cool, but seriously, how did I ever do jumps on skis? The toe bang on the front of the boot is awful and my boots felt great for the rest of the day, I just can't handle that. I also see what people are saying about needing the ramps higher when you are skiing, I can only jump like 4" off flat snow, where as I can ollie probably 18" off flat ground. There might be technique to it but I just didn't get it. I did a bit of skiing backwards too, but I don't foresee any more forays into park skiing for the time being.

 

As for the mountain, grooming was excellent, the surface was good, and the snowmaking impressed me. The downside was at around 1 the wind kicked up and a lot of snow started migrating into the woods, hopefully the surface won't get scoured too much. The only thing that sucked was the park. They have quality jibs now but really don't set them up well, and the jumps are awful. The jibs could use the ramps about 3' wider, and about 6" lower. The jumps could use the landings about 10 degrees steeper, the front side of the table should be about 40 degrees steeper, and the deck should be actually defined. All of them are basically a 100' long mound of snow that is rolled over into an arch, with a 3' ramp placed arbitrarily on it. There are no knuckles, there are no tables, and it is a horrendous waste of snow.

 

Did you know they had a staircase jib? I didn't.

 

We left at 2:30 because we were tired and the wind picked up, which made it a 6 and a half hour day. The younger girls and I were exhausted, skiing works a lot of different muscles I haven't used in a long time and they fell about a thousand times each. So Danielle drove back and we all were snoring by the time we made it to Delaware water gap. All in all, it was a real good day and due to the prices we will be going back to teach the girls more.

Edited December 31, 2008 by Kevin.

[Papasteeze]

shawnee....... an often overlooked gem here on PASR for taking guests to. Excellent report!

[DiMe]

What about Alpine Mountain? No one talks about them on here, I've never rode there though only drove by it.

[phillycore]

Shawnee is fun... I went there last year for the first time and had a blast... it's nice to get out to different places... variety is nice...

 

Never been to alpine but wondered the same thing....

[Nivosity]

I was out at Shawnee on new years eve day also. Got there about 10 am and stayed until about 4. When we got there the snow was absolutely amazing, and it was still coming down. Good soft snow with a nice day. But around 2 o clock the wind got almost unbearable to the point the lighter people had a hard time moving across the non steep areas, I saw a few people stopped dead in the their tracks.

 

This was actually my first time at Shawnee and the mountain is superb, I took a quick liking to their park because it's the only one that has such a nice long jump set out of any of them, the one at Blue Mountain is decent but in too advanced of a park for me to feel comfortable learning.

 

I will definately be back to Shawnee this year!

[poop]

fuck shawnee and all the kids that come out of it

 

 

Alpine is a really small place. I used to ski there back in the day (5-11yrs old) . It's really old and the lifts are by far the slowest in the area. I mean, if you want a nice day of skiing and an empty mountain i guess its not too bad. It's a really good place to learn IMO. I haven't been there in 2 yrs, but when i did go i just parked my car at the top of the mountain and hiked all day lol...

[Justin]

Toebang is probably the worst part of skiing. Try knuckling a 30+ jump, I've lost many toenails from it. If it's a steep landing then you ride away real smooth and easy...you were hitting little jumps and probably landing flat which can sometimes give you some toebang. If you're gonna do that kind of stuff shift your weight backward when you land. Also hopping onto rails is a weird thing at first. It's all a mental game and getting over catching your tips and shit on rails. After a week or so it won't phase you much.

 

Probably the biggest difference I think between skiing and snowboarding is getting the basics down. It's a lot harder and frustrating starting out on skis than it is on a snowboard. On the other side of the spectrum, I find that once you get the basics down on skiing it's a lot easier to progress. That's how it was for me at least. Last year was my first year skiing after snowboarding for almost 8 years. After 1 year on skis I've progressed wayyyy farther than I did on a snowboard. That's what I like about it, I don't get frustrated too much because I learning new stuff is a little easier for me. More confidence too.