SallyCat

@saltyant I day Tru Dat because I'm a Who Dat.

That's a choice, not your destiny. It's easy to become a competent intermediate; It takes a shitload of work to get off that plateau and become a really good skier. I'm still stuck, and I work like hell. I'm at Blue right now giving my legs a break. Blame the conditions if you want, but look around at all the people styling that icy hardpack. I want to be like them. I look forward to skiing with you someday; we can commiserate!

Very true; the couple of times I've had issues with shops it was because I wasn't assertive enough/didn't ask for what I wanted clearly enough.

Perhaps as the season progresses, the excellent example of more experienced passholders will cause this to be more generally true. In the meantime, I was almost knocked over by two people behind me who shouted "two" when the lift attendant looked our way and then bolted forward, between the four of us who were in front of them. I had to ski forward to get out of their way and then shuffle backward to get back in line. Another young fellow skied up directly beside me and before I could say anything, shouted "ONE" to the attendant. My interest in this issue is more anthropological than logistic. Why, for example, did the young man choose to sit with five random strangers from one part of the line over five random strangers from another part of the line? Interesting. There was quite a line later in the day, with an attendant on hand. The race kids got their own chute, but the VIP gate opened to the general corral. None of this earth-shaking in importance, obviously; I try to only gripe about things that have an easy solution. The conditions on Sidewinder were terrible today, for example, but I understand that that's a big, weather-dependent operation and that they blew snow the previous night, which impacts grooming, etc., etc. and it would be churlish to complain. But Blue could easily throw up some netting to create a VIP chute at the quad, so I figure why not bring it to their attention so they can address it? (I sent them a brief, very polite message, btw.)

Just when it warmed up the runs got pretty chalky and scraped. Still fun, though. Stayed until 1:30 ish. The crowds definitely came, but it wasn't overwhelming. Certainly there are more pressing global issues for humanity to contend with in these dark times, but the social contract that governs the VIP/Season Passholder lane at the six-pack lift is badly in need of reform. It seems that many passholders bring through the gate with them a radical libertarian worldview, a sort of queue-based ego-anarchism that causes them to slide alongside some number of other VIPs, look the traffic-directing liftie in the eye, and say "ONE." It is indisputably in the interest of all VIPs that everyone form groups of six whenever possible, because this moves VIPs off the line and onto the lift the fastest. The political philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would say that forming groups is consistent with the General Will, which is synonymous with the best interest of the community as a whole and the interest of each individual within that community. Rousseau goes on to say that an individual who acts in a manner contrary to the General Will must be compelled to abide by it. "this means nothing less" he asserts, "than that he will be forced to be free." Despite the ominous, Jacobin undertones of that statement, I feel that it is the duty of all VIPs to set a good example and form groups, so as to show the occasional ego-anarchist the benefits of belonging to a civil society. On another note. the quad chair line appears to have been designed by a Marxist with a sense of humor. There is indeed a "VIP" gate, but once though, the Important Person finds him or herself on line in the general corral with everyone else. The result is a long stretch of time spent in the company of non-Important Persons, and one can't help but assume that the designer of this arrangement is playing a long game. Over time, those on line will no doubt come to see themselves not as "VIPs" vs. "Day Pass Holders" but rather, in a collective assumption of class-consciousness, will identify solely as "Customers." When that day comes, the VIP line at the six-pack chair will become unsustainable, and perhaps even fall to the revolutionary zeal of the Customers.

27.5 was fine (I wear a men's 10.5 running shoe). 104 mm wide was absurd. I'm eventually going to have to get a race boot if I want a good fit width-wise, but I'm not good enough as a skier to be in a stiff boot. Hence the Zip Fits: you can cram a lot of filler in the heel and ankle area and sort of make up for a too-wide recreational boot.

They don't do mounts or repairs in house, they ship everything to one of their shops down south I think. Got my first pair of ski boots there. My feet are like 94 mm wide. They put me in a boot with a 104 mm last. I didn't know any better until I did. Then I was pissed. Went in to try on a particular pair of boots that I knew they carried (Reviews said it ran narrow, but I wanted to see for myself). Asked for my size (26.5). Very cranky shop assistant measured my feet and said he'd bring e a 27.5 because that's what my feet measured. I said I preferred to size down and he looked at me like I had four heads. He eventually got me the 26.5s but he was a pissy jerk about it. I think I've told this story before, but at one point he literally fell of his stool. Onto the floor. Their tent sale is lame. They are in Whitehall.

That's actually bullshit. Did the manager tell you that or the counter girl/guy? Sheesh, how hard would it have been to just give you a rain check for one ski demo? Especially since the purpose is to sell skis and you presumably paid sixty dollars for the demo. It's the sales/retail side of the store that annoys me a bit. The shop does good work, but I wanted to talk to the tech today, just for a moment, to hear what he had to say about the binding, not have some teenage sales girl blow me off. Like I said, they could promote themselves as a bootfitting specialty shop like the Boot Lab at Windham under Marc Stewart or Nick at Mount Snow. JD is on par in terms of skill. And because the Lehigh Valley utterly lacks a decent bootfitter, that would be a significant draw. But I think they just coast on the money they make selling expensive clothing to New Yorkers in a cramped, underwhelming shop. Which is a waste of potential in a market with a real demand for a serious, high-quality ski shop.

^Absolutely agree with everything here. Even if they could have done anything, I never would have expected them to do the work right away. That's why I went in there in street clothes prepared to pick up another day. I've just been sort of reporting my experiences. I haven't been the least bit disappointed with anyone I've worked with in this process (Except for Volkl's quality control). In fact, everyone from the online shop to Blue to the UPS guy who helped me with some customs forms has been fantastic.

Also, #5: I really appreciate everyone here for taking the time to consider my issue and offer suggestions. I learned a lot even if I had to ship back. So thanks!

I should be clear about a few things: 1. I only bought the skis online because they were not available anywhere locally in the size I needed. I didn't save enough money to make the hassle of waiting, paying for mounting, etc.worth it. I just didn't have another option if I wanted to get on them this season. 2. I have no quibble with Blue's shop regarding my binding. I just wanted a professional to put eyes on it and make sure it was indeed unfixable. I would have kicked myself if I'd gone through the shipping process only to find there was an easy fix. I actually thought it was funny that they were like "Yup. Broken!" which was what I thought anyway. 3. Slight annoyance at the clueless sales staff aside, I have always had very good experiences with True Blue when it came to the actual work. JD was positively heroic about molding my boots for my difficult feet and he even took a look at my ZipFIts and gave me some super-thin snowboard boot laces from the shop to try to reduce the liner volume a bit. He's knowledgable and patient, and actually listens to and problem-solves with you. And they've done some mounting and grinding (lol) that I've been very happy with. 4. Buckman's is awful. I meant to suggest that the bar is pretty low around here.

Exactly right. It was worth a try and didn't press the shop to do anything. It was the retail girl at the counter who took them back to the shop--I had to explain a couple of times what I wanted them to look at; I never talked to an actual tech. That's the one thing I'm not crazy about at True Blue. I don't really want to talk to retail people about repair stuff if it means everything gets filtered through them to the shop techs. I'm sure she was like "Some ugly old lady came in and said something ...'blah, blah, loose screw. or whatever' ...I don't even know. What should I tell her to make her go away?" I went in there last year to try on a pair of boots. The salesgirl was really nice and all, but she kept asking me what color my skis were to see if the boots "matched." I would never have gone back there for anything boot-related if someone hadn't insisted that JD was a good bootfitter, and it turns out he is. But Jeebus, with a little staff training they could be a much better regional option than Buckmans.

Blue Mountian shop tech after inspecting my binding screw: "It's broken."

https://jerryoftheday.net/blogs/best-of-jerry-of-the-day

You've seen me ski, you know I'm a Jerry.

Good, because I would NEVER hijack a thread.

Yes, very fun ski!

That was me; you don't want to book me, I suck. Was only going to teach five-year-olds.

Snow day.

Not on my watch. I love that there are like 8 people total on this entire forum, and in just four hours I received nearly 80 replies to a query about an obscure binding problem. Unrelated, but I can't figure out why I'm so behind on my grading...

You spelled "mountain" wrong. Buying a bike is fun for perspective. On your way to sell your plasma and harvest a kidney, you'll think "remember when I thought $600 skis were unreasonably expensive? That was adorable."

Today's Flow Chart Request for Binding Help | Salty Insult (accidental/friendly fire) | Genuine Helpful Advice |

True dat. I couldn't find a shop that had 172s in stock, so I went online. Ha ha, I'm not really justifying them--there's no justifying the price; I'm just saying I want them and was able to make it happen! ? I don't plank, nor do I ski on women's skis.

Is that that stuff companies like G-Form and Demon make body armor (formerly known as "padding") out of now? D30 or something? I have a spine protection vest and knee and elbow pads that are thin, light, and flexible, but they harden on impact so that when you fall, they offer a surprising amount of protection.

Yeah last year's RTM 84s don't seem to depreciate; they cost almost as much as this year's so since I was going to spend a big chunk of cash anyway I figured I'd get the latest model. Like I said, I sold a bunch of stuff on Ebay, which added up to the price of the new skis, so it's even-steven. Except for having to wait forever. I may still take them to Blue and see what the shop tech says. If he can get me on them tomorrow with whatever jury-rigging they can come up with, I wouldn't care about resale value or anything I'd just be happy to be on those skis.