CLOSED!?!?!?!?!?

[Ski]

i may not be the best speller. but i have a certen passon for history. like right now im sitting at home watching the history channle. my dvr is filled with things from the millitary, or history int. channels. when my US history teacher doesn't feel like teaching he has me do it and i rather enjoy when i do teach the class.

 

It's easy to become a teacher, just really hard to become (and stay) a great teacher.

[VTmark]

i was thinking about a secondary education with a minor in conlusing. (sp?)

[Schif]

You have to watch yourself if you're going to become a teacher. From what I hear if you get even one underage drinking charge you forfeit your right to a teaching permit.

[Sno Mountain Skier]

I dont really like it how all the skiers and riders come in here and bash cb. I for one dont like it being that this is my home mountain, and im an employeeee. Honetly everyone that is sayiny, "come over to montage". Montage has nothing on CB. CB is bigger, better, and has better snow.

 

nuff said.. im heading up

I actually think you are worng aout CB being bigger then Montage. In reality Montage has more acres of skiing then Cb does, I remember SKi999 posting the local mtns number and Montage was one of the biggest.

[skifreak]

Doesn't montage have a 1000' vertical drop?

[Sno Mountain Skier]

Doesn't montage have a 1000' vertical drop?

yes.

[Schif]

Yeah Montage has 1000 feet of vertical. Unlike CB all of it is downhill slopes. The majority of CB is just runout.

[AtomicSkier]

Yeah Montage has 1000 feet of vertical. Unlike CB all of it is downhill slopes. The majority of CB is just runout.

I love montage, but montage is a taller version of CB flipped around (with slightly longer headwalls) the runout at montage is just above you, which you never ski. I'd rather ski a mountain with a 800' vertical with no runout, then blue's 1081' vertical, with some runout...Straight down the headwall, straight onto the lift....

[Ski]

I actually think you are worng aout CB being bigger then Montage. In reality Montage has more acres of skiing then Cb does, I remember SKi999 posting the local mtns number and Montage was one of the biggest.

 

Montage has 200 more vert ft. and has 140 acres as opposed to CB's 139 (Blue has 100). As to snow quality, with 50 times the number of skiers at CB and much more uphill capacity per hour, which ski area would be more likely to have better snow by noon on a weekend? And, just a weather fact, it's colder at Montage by about two very critical degrees.

 

Look, nobody from Montage has been saying to come here, other than to ski/ride with friends. Montagers don't diss CB for the most part, we're just a little afraid of all those people.

[Papasteeze]

I went today, man was I pissed. An extra fun fact for those of you claiming "saftey" as the reason they weren't there.... The season pass office wasn't open. They wanted to save money bottom line. Tomorrow they will have tons of weekend skiers that would otherwise complain about how beat up the trails are from todays warm spell.

 

I'm with pyro, I want to ride wherever whenever on whatever. Yes I did want to ride today. Yes I want to ride early in the season, yes I want to ride late in the season. Yes I want to ride in the rain, the extreme cold or whatever else will keep the lift lines short. I'm a fiend for snow (no not coke) and it seems I may have to start selling "hot" tv's so I can go else where. Man I thought from here till spring I would have a steady supply from cb, but no....

 

I said it when they decided to open a week later than projected, and I'll say it again....

 

Thanks a ton CB for making it a great year!

 

I think it is absolute bullshit how they leave the lights on all night long on their slopes.. please.... don't say it has something to do with the snow making.. Those bulbs, all lit up on all the trails night after night is plain monetarily stupid.

 

 

EDIT: It is pretty to look at :

Edited December 18, 2005 by Papasteeze

[Ski]

I think they buy their electricity as a package and it doesn't make a difference in the cost if they leave the lights on. Not that it's efficient and not a waste...

[Glenn]

The lights are needed for snowmaking, grooming, and its a great advertisment. I can see them from my school 6+ miles away on the other side of the mountain! Also those aren't "consumer" lights. Those lights take time to warm up. The more times they are turned on/off the less life they have. Easier to turn on when it gets dark then turn off when its light rather than, turn off when the mountain closes, back on when grooming/making snow on that trail, back off till morning etc.

Edited December 18, 2005 by dthmtluncrn

[Papasteeze]

The lights are needed for snowmaking, grooming, and its a great advertisment.

 

I don't believe any of that for one moment. It is really neat to watch groomers climbing slopes at night out west - no lights there. Advertisement? At midnight, 2AM, 4AM, 6AM? to who? Those that are up at that time of night are not skiing during the day.. OK, there might be an exception or two. They aren't needed for grooming. The groomers have head lights. As far as snow making goes. the full moon alone the last few nights is plenty to see. The Snowmobiles have lights, whats the matter with those spot lights used for spotting deer. They don't move guns that often. Another waste waste was yesterday at CB, the staff outnumbered guests by 2 to 1 for the first few hours. I saw the number of 800 employed by CB. I would love to see ratios comparitively to other slopes. Naaaaa, I am sorry, there is a huge amount of waste at CB. Hopefully this new guy will take a more objective look at the details. BTW - I haven't noticed any improvement with grooming. Matter of fact. I have been watching with binoculars and if they do groom, it is quick passes, they need to turn the ice over and get it crushed up..... Huge complaint by mid afternoon was that the noobs were horrified by the really slick conditions. Even Ridge and I were doing a HOLY SHIT by 4pm... PARK CREW - It is not a free lift ticket.. Get to freakin work with teaching Smart Style to the noobs, clear jumps, repair the lips... Management, are you out there? You were last weekend, where you yesterday? Just a rant.

 

 

I think they buy their electricity as a package and it doesn't make a difference in the cost if they leave the lights on. Not that it's efficient and not a waste...

 

 

They may be on a fixed rate per KW - but I seriously doubt that they pay a fixed seasonal fee as evidenced by quite a few CAT generators running to power the compressors and pumps. Then again, maybe the primaries to the site can't handle the surge, but I doubt that too, because of the number of seasonal homes in NorthRidge that run on electric heat pumps. The heat pump in this house frequently kicks on to a 10 kw back up because it can't keep up.

[Glenn]

Hmm, I hadn't even considered out west....

 

Perhaps it's a liability issue. PA doesn't have legal backing for mountain related accidents like other western states do. Perhaps for safety reasons, having lights on to spot people poaching trails... idk.

 

Yesterday was on mountain training for instructors. That may explain employee/guest unbalance. I don't think early in the season is a very profitable time, but it is important to get things rolling so they can make money when the crowds come.

 

You know, if they didn't open till 3-4 days before christmas they could be real efficient, but that wouldn't be very much fun for us now would it?!?!

 

[Papasteeze]

Don't get me wrong... props for mother nature allowing for a great early opening.. Common sense mandates liability.. They would be better served by focusing on grooming to help provide a more positive experience for the inexperienced first day outers..

 

I saw waaaaaaaay to many people really struggling yesterday. CB is in a position now to make a move to improve things. I understand that the GM there is the stumbling block or least a lot of the info I am getting is pointing back to him..

[NJSkiFamily]

Papa,

 

I agree 100% on the grooming issue. There just wasn't enough people on the mountain yesterday to have those green trails get scraped to ice so quickly.

 

I'll admit I don't know that much about grooming machines, but the green tails are flat enough to get that ice broken up.

 

It doesn't bode well for when CB gets more crowded after Christmas.

[Glenn]

As someone mentioned with warm temps and a rapid freeze up, even if things are groomed conditions will quickly turn icey. Perhaps mid day grooming is the answer. Things will likely not be as bad (I wasn't there so I can't say for sure) as yesterday for the entire season. There is only so much that can be done to coupe with the weather, at some point you just have to realize, indeed this is pennsylvania, and indeed there will be icey days, despite whatever grooming efforts are made. Might as well learn to shred the ice as well as the pow

[NJSkiFamily]

dthmtl,

 

I understand what you are saying.....ice is a fact of life at ski resorts in the northeast. And I thought the conditions overall at CB were very good given all the rain on Friday. We were very happy.

 

I was just surprised how quickly it got icy on some of the greens even though there were so few people on the trails. And CB was blowing snow all day on a bunch of trails.

 

We stayed away from the icy trails but I sympathize with the novice families who don't know how to ski on ice or didn't know other trails had very little ice on them.

[Glenn]

I was just surprised how quickly it got icy on some of the greens even though there were so few people on the trails. And CB was blowing snow all day on a bunch of trails.

 

With a warm thaw and rapid refreeze the entire base turns from a mushy mess to a solid block of ice. You can drive a cat over it and turn up the top couple inches yielding light sugary snow. This is easily pushed aside even with minimal traffic uncovering that nasty block of ice again. You drive the cat over it again, you get that bit of sugar on top, but still ice underneath. I think it would take grooming the same trail several times before its starts to get managable. I'm not sure if that is realistic. Best case scenario is groom right when freeze up starts to happen so at least the block of ice has texture which can be ground up later, this leaves death cookies. It's largely a no win situation.

 

If it's a big issue write a letter to CB management requesting mid-day grooming.

[Papasteeze]

From my observations, the ice is 2-3 inches thick. I could stick my pole tip through it.. They simply need to flip that s**t over.. There hasn't been any thaw other than the freezing rain..

[Glenn]

There hasn't been any thaw other than the freezing rain..

 

I beg to differ. The day after the freezing rain, aka the day they closed due to "inclimate weather" Even the huge packed piles of snow in the parking lot were super slushy. Slushy = thaw.

[Papasteeze]

I beg to differ. The day after the freezing rain, aka the day they closed due to "inclimate weather" Even the huge packed piles of snow in the parking lot were super slushy. Slushy = thaw.

 

I dunno man... Your going to make me go cut a cross section of the snow right out side of the house and photograph it. The crust is hard enough to to walk on, stomp it and you fall through to the powder below from last week.

[Glenn]

I dunno man... Your going to make me go cut a cross section of the snow right out side of the house and photograph it. The crust is hard enough to to walk on, stomp it and you fall through to the powder below from last week.

 

Oh I trust you about the thickness of the ice, but I just wanted to point out that indeed there was some serious melting. At least on the surface.

[skidude]

I skipped over most of the posts here...But it seems like you guys are bitching because the trails are icy after a rainstorm...But if they spent more time resurfacing the trails that were already open, then you guys would bitch that the mountain wasn't blowing on Cliffy, or pharow, or any new trails...

 

Its Dec 18th...They will have the whole mountain open by x-mas....act like your happy.

[Glenn]

act like your happy.