Johnny Style Posted June 6, 2011 Report Posted June 6, 2011 (edited) I boycotted Nastar at Blue last year due to their poor choice of moving their existing Nastar race course to a new flat trail aptly called "finish line." Well, it looks like I wasn't the only one. The Nastar statistics just came out and Blue ranks a dismal 106 out of 120 resorts. The link can be found here: http://www.nastar.co...s-1-with-nastar According to Nastar, the true measure of a resort's program is something called "Racer Days." Blue had 189 unique ski racers this past year but only 322 racer days. What does that mean? It means that many people showed up to race just once for the "novelty" factor of the new hill, but not many came back. I hope Blue is listening. First they killed mtb riding in the Summertime, next they will kill Nastar. If you are curious and don't want to click on the link, all the other PA resorts were ranked in the 30-50 range. However, I have no data to compare this to. Perhaps this is an improvement for Blue. Maybe they were ranked 120th two years ago and 106 last year is an improvement. Doubtful. You can ignore the people as much as you want Blue Mt., but the stats do not lie. Move the race course back to something with some real pitch. Touch the sky. Johnny Style has spoken. To think, I actually represented Blue Mt. at the National Championships two years ago. Edited June 6, 2011 by Johnny Style Quote
RootDKJ Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 I agree. If they are going to race on a green trail, then use all of Paradise. At least then you'd get some speed going, and more people signing up for bomber runs. Quote
AtomicSkier Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Serves them right. Management won't even listen to the race team anymore. Every race coach echoed our complaints whenever I mentioned it. They were just as annoyed. Quote
mbike-ski Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 (edited) yea i agree a billion percent finish line was just dumb. last i heard big changes on the way hopefully it will happen next year is there a way to see 09-10's ranking? i'd love to see how much it dropped Edited June 7, 2011 by mbike-ski Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Blue just doesn't care about racers. I only had a season pass to Blue for a year, but since Ray passed away, things have progressively gone downhill... Not to be a total asshole, and I'm sure I'll get some type of half ass joking response from GSS, but who do they care about? I have seen very few improvements that cater to anyone specifically. From the outsiders point of view, the only true improvement to the hardcore skiing community has been the VIP line. Unfortunately, that coincided with shorter operating hours. I understand that Blue has become an area that only cares about the bottom line. It doesn't appear like they would miss the season passholders at all... That may not be the reality, but that is the way I am starting to perceive it... Quote
Johnny Style Posted June 7, 2011 Author Report Posted June 7, 2011 yea i agree a billion percent finish line was just dumb. last i heard big changes on the way hopefully it will happen next year is there a way to see 09-10's ranking? i'd love to see how much it dropped I too would like to compare the data. I noticed that the Blue Mt. website does not say which trail Nastar is held on. They used to do that. Perhaps that is the big change. Power to the people. 1 Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Even frisbee golfing is a half ass attempt at them trying to become a year round resort... Shits weak... They don't even need parking attendants. If they want to increase the bottom line, they would scrap that pronto. I only get back to Blue once or twice a season now, and its usually only for a morning session, so it doesn't really bother me, but if I were a local that didn't have any other good close by options, I would be really pissed at the direction the mountain has taken. Its really lost alot of its soul... Quote
RootDKJ Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 I only had a season pass to Blue for a year, but since Ray passed away, things have progressively gone downhill... Not to be a total asshole, and I'm sure I'll get some type of half ass joking response from GSS, but who do they care about? I have seen very few improvements that cater to anyone specifically. From the outsiders point of view, the only true improvement to the hardcore skiing community has been the VIP line. Unfortunately, that coincided with shorter operating hours. I understand that Blue has become an area that only cares about the bottom line. It doesn't appear like they would miss the season passholders at all... That may not be the reality, but that is the way I am starting to perceive it... I disagree. We saw lots of improvements this winter. New deck is pretty nice, I even saw a PASR leave some cookies behind on closing day. Really nice of him to help break in the new deck. All the lifts are painted Blue, that's gotta count for something. New trails and glades...what what? Snowmaking is somewhat better, but the grooming could still use some work. VIP line seals the deal though. Quote
Johnny Style Posted June 7, 2011 Author Report Posted June 7, 2011 FWIW, I like the presence of the parking attendants. There were too many vehicle break-ins a few years ago. These guys seem to be deterring that kind of behavior. Now the armed guard on the other hand... Quote
RootDKJ Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 FWIW, I like the presence of the parking attendants. There were too many vehicle break-ins a few years ago. These guys seem to be deterring that kind of behavior. Now the armed guard on the other hand... +1 Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 I wasn't saying they weren't making improvements... I like what they've done in some respects (lodge, deck, mini village with increased consumer offering, new trail (although I'd love to see a widened mountain footprint instead of cramming trails in between other trails (although there was a ton of space there)), and glades (though in their current state they are more of a sideshow attraction (they need to be like Pats Peak, NH and have snowmaking in the glades instead of blowover lol), but my point was that they are sacrificing long term member loyalty for the one day user (which I understand makes financial sense). I would rather them be around then not around if that's what these improvements mean, but they seemed to be fine the way they were before Ray passed away. I just hate watching a good mountain slowly having it's soul sucked out... Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 What are trail restrictions etc like in the Blue Mountain area? I don't hear much hoopla about it like in VT, ME, and NH, so I kinda figured there was less? Is the permit process as difficult? Or is it easier because much of the land is privately owned? Quote
toast21602 Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 blew it with the elimination of mountain biking. Quote
toast21602 Posted June 7, 2011 Report Posted June 7, 2011 Two years ago me and Atomic Jeff were in Barbs office for our meeting. On her wall there was a large poster showing the land they own..it extends at least 3/4 of a mile past Paradise. Enough speace for a pod of perhaps 4-6 runs and a lift...I have no idea about the permit process with respect to cutting new ski trails..Nightmare-Dreamweaver was poorly cut in a few spots..just kind of wonky..and when it rains it runs off into the trail... anyway it's about that time.. it doesn't rain in PA Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 16, 2011 Report Posted June 16, 2011 Was anybody able to find Blue's Nastar ranking from past years? I looked for awhile when the thread started, but had no luck... Anybody know a Nastar insider? Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted June 16, 2011 Report Posted June 16, 2011 Nope... If I were closer to the mountain, I would look into it though... Quote
tarponhead Posted September 7, 2011 Report Posted September 7, 2011 (edited) I have seen very few improvements that cater to anyone specifically. With regard to bumps, Blue has stepped it up considerably due to the local bumpers being so proactive. (Disclaimer: I suck at bumps but that does not stop me from trying... and again and again...) Not a lot of experience here but when I went to CB last year they were not even close to what Blue offers. Edit: If they got rid of last years NASTAR course (and move it back to raceway) it will be nice not having to ski around the monstrous February 6-pac lines to get to the VIP on the 4-pac Edited September 7, 2011 by tarponhead 2 Quote
Rodeo Steve Posted September 14, 2011 Report Posted September 14, 2011 For me, Blue lost all hope when they stopped serving fried oreos. Quote
Kyle Posted September 14, 2011 Report Posted September 14, 2011 For me, Blue lost all hope when they stopped serving fried oreos. Quote
Ride Delaware ? Posted September 15, 2011 Report Posted September 15, 2011 Fried food is bad for you, but fried Oreos taste so good... Definitely a step in the wrong direction lol Quote
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