PeterC0523

Yep, worst conditions ever. At one point, we skied several runs without seeing anyone else on the mountain. Employees at the base lodge said that they only saw 10 people in the lodge all day. Only saving grace is that there were no lift lines (or anybody else on the mountain), and we went with a couple good friends and had good company during the trip.

That's good advice, never thought about trending the annual Jan thaw like that. We'll have to keep that in mind for next season. Our early Jan trip to Vail last season was even mediocre. Not terrible conditions like this Okemo trip, but no fresh snow at all.

Just to update everyone on how it went this weekend... Friday was AWFUL! We had freezing rain for the whole day, the entire mountain was literally a sheet of ice. It got so bad that the liftees were dressed up like crab fishermen from The Deadliest Catch (in the yellow rubber suits), and were harnessed to the lift lines with larger rubber hammers pounding off ice!! At one point there was thunder and lightning, so they had to shut down the lifts for a while. Definitely the worst conditions I've ever skied in. Saturday and Sunday were ok thanks to their grooming crew. Variable granular conditions on top of ice and hardpack. Some of the runs weren't too bad with loose granular once the sun came out. And with our luck, Okemo got ~6 inches of new snow the day after we leave.

That's a good point. Lots of good runs may compensate for crappy conditions. I'll be sure to bring my hood.

We have a long weekend booked at Okemo, skiing this Fri Jan 11 - Sun Jan 13. Forecast looks like temps will return to normal by then, but it might rain there on Fri. Think it's worth the trip or should we bail? If we cancelled our reservations, we'd lose the deposit (~$220) between 4 of us. I wonder how the warm spell left the mountain and how much damage the rain will cause. Damnit! Wish the cold weather came a few days earlier, then the rain would be snow!!

We ended up going today and had a good time. Wasn't a whole lot open and it was hard pack conditions in the morning, but once things warmed up the runs were a lot nicer. There wasn't much of a lift line, so we got a lot of runs in. Spent most of the day on the three double diamonds, White Lightning was a lot of fun.

Ok, thanks for the info. Will there be NASTAR tomorrow? If so, which run are they closing off for that?

Think sno will be worth a 2 hour drive tomorrow? We were planning on visiting sno for the first time tomorrow, but according to their site only ~70% of the mountain is open (including bunny slopes). Maybe we should just stay local tomorrow and hit up Blue... ??

Use the normal as the "cleaning wax"... hot wax as you normally would, but scrape while it's still warm. And follow with the cold as the "final wax" and leave it for an hour or so before scraping, overnight ideally.

I use either OBJ warm or normal as the "cleaning" wax. Then I follow with either cold or normal, depending on how long I want it to last, as the final wax. The normal will last ~3-4 days excluding any slushy conditions. The cold wax lasts longer and doesn't seem to ride any slower in normal/warm conditions. IMHO, the only downfall of the OBJ cold wax is that it's a little more difficult to scrape once you let it completely cool. The only waxes you need to fully clean and wax is the OBJ normal and cold. If you want to mix, I'd definitely recommend putting the cold wax along your edges, cuz the wax there will wear significantly faster than anywhere else.

What, use base cleaner to get it out? We tried the "cleaning" wax technique at first. but it didn't even come close to getting all that red/orange crap out.

Like skitzo said, leaves a trail of green in very wet conditions. Made our bases look like crap, so we wanted to get it out. I had to use multiple coats of base cleaner to get all the color out from a white base. And I hate using base cleaner, dries out your base and strips all the wax! Normally I just hot wax with a softer wax, then scrape before letting it cool to much to clean my base.

Check out this thread for some more info on diamox and adjusting to altitude. http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2733 One of the general stores at Lionshead in Vail also sells this stuff called Altitude Adjustment. It's an herbal mix that will supposedly help you adjust quicker. I tried it the 2nd day I was there and I did feel less shortness of breath. It could have also been the additional day that my body had to adjust. But anyway, here's the link for more info on that stuff. http://www.altitude-adjustment.com/

You have to ski Vail's Back Bowls, they are absolutely amazing! And try the Buffalo Stew at "Buffalo's", it's a restaurant at the top between the Front Side and the Back Bowls.

Thanks for all the input! I plan on joining either KOPSC or Tiroler at the beginning of their next membership year. We blew all our snowboarding funds on a trip to Vail this year, which was well worth it. My fiance would prefer to join Tiroler since more of their members are closer to our age group and their meeting and bus departure locations are slightly closer to us. But I'm having a hard time letting go of KOPSC since they have more trips and require members to be 21+ (little kids running around on the bus = ). No offense to any parents or anything. Hrm... decisions, decisions...

Socially oriented as in they're best known for their non-ski activities? Or that they're just a friendly group? I'm mainly interested in joining a group so that we can go on trips to VT and out west for a discounted price. Both my fiance and I are in our mid 20's so a group with more people around age would also be a plus. Tiroler seems to have more people around our age group than KOPSC, but KOPSC has more trips.

I'm also looking into the Tiroler Ski Club. I don't think they have any sort of age requirement.

I'm interested in joining a local ski club, primarily for the trips. I checked out a bunch of ski club sites listed on The Eastern PA Ski Council and The King of Prussia Ski Club seems to be a nice fit. Anyone here a member of KOPSC? Any recommendations or comments regarding KOPSC or any other local ski clubs? Thanks!

Thanks everyone for all the info. Both my fiance and I are pretty healthy and spend ~20 mins weight lifting every weekday morning before work. Since this trip is so expensive and since we'll only have have 3 days on the slopes I REALLY don't want to lose a day because we're not feeling well. So, I talked to my doctor today and asked for a prescription for Acetazolamide. I also found a website with some dosage recommendations on taking Diamox to acclimate to the higher altitude, see below: Anyone ever take diamox according to the recommended dosage above? Here's the link to the site: http://www.skitrips.net/faqs/altitude.html Additionally, we're planning on getting camelbaks and no alcohol or caffeine our first day there. We're also planning on doing some light activity the first day, like walking around the village or something. Anyone have any info on Vail's Back Bowls? Both my fiance and I started snowboarding about 3 seasons ago and can comfortably shred all the trails at Blue except the double-blacks. Think we'll be OK in the Back Bowls? One of my co-workers insists that I have to at least check them out and that we should get a guide one of the days.

I'm going on a trip to Vail at the end of Jan 06. This'll be my first time outside of the pocanos and some co-workers have warned me about the difference in altitude. They've recommended a camelbak to stay hydrated and told me that we may feel more tired than usual and experience some nausea when we first get there. Anyone have any tips to combat the lack of energy and nausea? One of my buddies suggested taking gingo baloba for a week before the trip to increase my blood circulation. He also said to talk to my doctor and see if there's anything prescription that would help, maybe even some vitamins/herbs from GNC.

We go to elk every xmas and after reading this thread I was about to call my parents and tell them to cancel our xmas vacation and see if they can get the deposit back.

The blazertech driving lamps and catz fogs used a lotta juice. And I had a 600 Watt Kenwood Amp powering two 10" Sony Xplods. So whenever the bass hit hard when I had the stock battery, all my lights would dim for a second. The yellow top helped and I was able to run everything just fine.

That might be my fault... Refer to posts 10 and 26. my bad guys...

Sounds sweet, I love M3s. I got to test drive one a few months ago when we were shopping for cars for my dad. The shifter is silky smooth! Who's Jeff BTW? What's his alias? I can't wait to try mine out in the snow. I've already got a set of all-season tires on, just gotta wait for the white stuff now!