Friday 11-23-07 roll call

[method9455]

I'll be up, hopefully for opening at 10, with the girlfriend, to try and remember how to snowboard, its been so damn long, almost a whole year. Not sure if I will be hitting anything, I was going to "take it slow" since I have so many days planned, don't want to get hurt on the first day - but you know that won't happen, I'll be hitting some shit.

 

Red jacket (or black hoodie depending on weather), grey technine pants, white helmet, white/black checkerboard anon's, and a brown/tan Jeremy Jone's pro. If you see me the names Kevin. Don't know what my girlfriend will be wearing/riding.

 

And if anyone going up has a PASR sticker, I need one badly

[Tyler]

i might be there in the pm, not sure yet. could be some awful conditions with this weather.

[Capitaaa!]

It's going to be like a bad band on Friday...a Puddle of Mudd..

 

lol Classy

[method9455]

I have no doubt it is going to suck, but so long as they are open I'll bust out the rock board and go for it, you have to realize my desperation here, last day snowboarding was 1-4-07, and i'm going to have a concert the weekend of Dec 1st, and finals around the weekend after, so I won't be able to get out again until Dec 15th - and thats just too late in the season. I'm hitting Belleayre on Saturday though so they should have better snow. So long as JFBB is open, we'll be there.

[Barb]

We are driving up tomorrow and plan to be there around 4pm. If my kids are not too tired maybe we'll go. I at least want to go get their pics taken for their season passes so we don't have to deal with it Sat am.

[AtomicSkier]

It doesn't look like there will be alot of PASR shitheads up there, so I don't think I'll head up tomorrow...

[Tyler]

count me out, i have tickets for the flyers/ caps game

[Papasteeze]

We will be there later in the day, early evening..

[xNick11]

Meee!

 

Morning-Night

[bigdaddyk]

I might head up for an hour. Just checked the web cam and they are blowing on Freedom and other trails. I want to head out early because I'm heading to the Woodlands with friends...Girls Gone Wild is there Friday night .

[method9455]

I was expecting mad slushy/muddy weather, I looked on the webcam at about 10 last night and saw a bunch of dirt on freedom but enough coverage to give it a go. I checked at 8 AM this morning and freedom was covered solid and the guns where going. Got to Boulder at 9:45 (they are open 10-10) and went in to get my season pass. Temperature was 26 in the parking lot, and lots of guns going. It took a while since the girl at guest services was new, but whatever I got a chance to talk to some people. (By the way regular tickets rate only $20). More than one local came and found out it was just freedom park and decided to bag it. One of the girls in guest services said they where hoping to get one or two more trails for tomorrow if they could. Based on what I saw, they might have a shot for it. I heard some of the snowmaking guys on the radio and they said they still had enough water to run a few more guns, which is impressive given how many guns where already running, pulling this number out of my ass, but probably 50+ fan guns and a few dozen tripod guns. Boulder park was white when we got there, almost looked skiable, as was freedom park, but everything else had tops 2-3 inches, grass poking through. They shut the guns off on freedom but not because of weather - either water or because they didn't want to run it with people on it. Regardless, coverage was great.

 

They ran every fan gun on Boulder Park all day. Also little boulder and tannebaum where maxed with all their fan guns and some rolling fan guns and tripods. A bunch of rolling fan guns at the base of freedom park connected it to little boulder, and a lot of guns on the tubing park. Merry widow only had the installed fan guns, they were not hitting it terribly hard. While boulder was top to bottom white, merry widow had one part where a gun wasn't running and had a 50 foot from patch to patch, so don't expect that tomorrow. They where also making snow on Bunny Schuss but I couldn't see how much. The only trail that had 0 guns on it was Mittiweg as far as I could tell. I think if the weather held for 24 hour snowmaking, they could have 1-3 out of little boulder, tannebaum, and boulder park open for tomorrow depending on how much base they want for it. I left at 1:30 and they were not shutting guns down yet, it was still 30 in the parking lot. So maybe they were able to make it 24 hours which makes such a difference. If you have two days of 12 hour nights, you lose so much time to startup and shutdown that it is a lot less than a 24 hour day. If they started at midnight last night they have 34 hours of snowmaking before opening tomorrow, that is equal to 3 nights of 12 hour snowmaking at least so it is possible. Too bad I can't make it tomorrow but looks like they are going strong.

 

As for conditions - a little sticky but I used my summer wax instead of fresh so hard to say if it was the fresh snow, the wax, or both (probably both). It wasn't unbearable but combined with the low pitch it wasn't like you can bomb it. (Oh and I was wrong, freedom is 250-300 vert not 150, it was a lot bigger than I remembered it). Edge to edge coverage no mud/rocks/grass on the area you where skiing on.

 

The park setup was perfect for early season. 2 medium length 6" wide flat boxes, one with no gap, into one with a 4" gap. Probably 25' each. Then on the left was that wedge you have seen in the videos. It was interesting but the landing was all bumped up so I wanted to save my knees, on the right side there was a roller you could get 3-4' of air off that was, although I ate shit on it one time that was embarrassing. Then into a short double barrel, 5" gap. Then a short super wide box, small gap. Then a longer double barrell. That was the only one I didn't get first try it was a little more difficult than the rest but mad satisfying. Then the only double option, big butter box left, battleship box right.

 

I'm glad they made it all in a row instead of double options. I like the double option when it is a park but you could get a lot more hits in one run this way, which is good when there is actually a lift line like today. Plus it gives more room to ride, you could free ride on either side of the hits no problem. Crowds weren't an issue but there where definately 200-300 people today, but the lift doesn't really put people up the hill fast enough to make it an issue. About 1/3 where hiking the first two boxes after that no one was really hiking. All the ramps where solid except the wide box got destroyed at one point but the park crew was taking care of it. Landings where more bumpy but thats hard to fix without breaking out the cat.

 

All in all, excellent excellent product for late november. more park features than Mountain Creek had in mid january last year. There are only two rails that aren't super easy (battleship and the longer flat bar) but thats ok, everyone has to warm up. Good job Big Boulder, I'm very impressed.

 

 

and the bottom so don't look for that tomorrow.

 

It looked like an all out snowmaking session mountain wide. It is faster to say what WASN'T getting snow made than what was. It looked to me like everything but Mittiweg, although I couldn't see Stizmark or Draugganger and I don't think they where getting covered. They turned off the guns for most of

 

 

 

(By the way, is lower Stizmark the trail that goes behind the tripple that goes to the top of freedom? There is an obvious old trail that comes from up mountain and connects to the top of the tubing park). Boulder park looked solidly white when we got there, but grass was clearly visible on on everything else. By the end of the day it looked

 

 

Guest services said they where going all out to get one or two more for tomorrow but it was based on how much they could pump out overnight it will be an early morning decision. Boulder Park and Tannebaum looked like possibilities today at 1:30, about 6 inches down at that time with 24 hour snowmaking weather. Merry Widow is definitely a no go there was one spot where a gun wasn't running so there is snow top/bottom with a 50 foot gap in the middle, they where making snow on Merry Widow, Bunny Schuss, Tenneabaum, Little Boulder, Boulder park, the little area next to Freedom and the skier right tubing run when I left at 1:30 today, and will probably fire up the guns on Freedom