jhartley

There's some windy flurries going on here in S Philly right now. I hope that means the storm is dipping a bit further south than expected and that'll bring Blue an inch or two rather than a dusting. Can the locals be kind to those of us further south and update with snow amounts? Thanks dudes.

I don't know who Rice or anyone else is, but whoever thought of putting that huge box on a banked angle like that had a really good idea. Same goes for the little barrel jib at the end. Creativity goes a long way at a mountain like Blue. You don't have the funding or space to make it a pro-level park, so you just have to be creative with what you have. Extra props go out to the person who can creatively disassemble all those ridiculous circus rails and make them into something more realistic. Oh and if anybody wants my two cents: I think it would be cool if the space on sidewinder where that big trapezoidal box was last year (in the bend next to the biggest jump) became a small features park with tires, barrels, butter boxes/pads and any other small creative stuff you can think of. That way after your knees swell up from icy Pocono jump sessions you could hike some small features and be out of everyone's way at the same time.

Last year's opening day was a blast, but it was also a mob scene. Hopefully this year there will be some other mountains opening to draw some kids away. I know Hunter says they're opening, think there'll be any other to help spread the crowd around?

Anybody ride LOVE today? I'm headed up tomorrow and I'm curious what the rebuild has brought us.

I really hope the tires and those drums they welded together don't just go on the junk heap. they were sick for screwin around with.

As this storm moves thru, can some locals please help out those of us who live further away? It's raining here in Philly, but that doesnt mean much. on weather.com it says the temps are in the teens, but they still forecast freezing rain. well anyway, some updates would be nice so we can know what to expect before the long drive. thanks dudes.

was it any less crowded on sunday? as compared to saturday that is.

Yeah man, I hear ya. So from your response I'm assuming you're on park crew at blue? And I'm also kinda getting that we can forget about it being leaned back? Because that would solve all ur problems, u wouldn't really need a vert tranny at all, just snow sloping up towards it at no precise angle at all.

Even if it is cemented into the ground, it'd still be relatively inexpensive (besides labor) to move the thing. Otherwise you have a feature sitting in cement that was unhittable and just taking up space for all of last year. Not once did I get there and find it doable. Once I begged park crue to give me a shovel so I could fix it, but they weren't interested, so obviously the thing is never gonna be well kept in its current setup

Really? is that common practice? I've never heard of that before. Ur really killin my dreams here, I thought that was atleast one change that could be made easily.

Can we get an amen if someone from park crue has read and understood the posts about leaning the wallride back? Such a simple and FREE change could improve the park a ton.

and he mentioned using a winch cat to groom landings was key, and that the angle of the slope of the landing should be about 33 degrees, which i think is kind of steep to groom without using a winch cat? I'm not up on my equipment, does Blue have a winch cat?

A couple suggestions: It seems that people in this area have gotten it into their heads that you can measure the sickness of a jump by running a tape measure from takeoff to landing. But really the measure of a good jump is an airtime:consequence ratio. Instead of building the jumps long, build them up. The actual distance is irrelevant, the airtime followed by a long, steep (read "safe") landing is a truly well made jump. For a way more interesting and informative explanation of this jump building practice see the DVD "gap session." That is the idea just on a MASSIVE scale, but there's no reason a creative person couldn't bring it down to a pocono scale. *Also someone said that the wallride is impossible to maintain in a busy park bc people just carve it and the tranny is done in about 5 minutes, and I'm with you. It just aint gonna work. BUT, if you set the wallride up with a more pronounced backward angle (lean it back), then u dont need a vert tranny at all, and it maintains itself. And finally I think we need to do away with this small features are for noobs and gargantuan ones are for experts idea. Those butter boxes, if set up creatively (ie / \ , but not as steep) can be way more fun than some quad kink rollercoaster S or whatever. Oh and the hip and turning the bus into a box/wallride sounds good. Be creative. Peace and sorry for the long post, its been a long summer.

how much of a discount does the blizzard card get you?

does blue offer a season pass for nights only?

sorry, i'm gonna withhold my "woohaa" on this one cuz they could just as easily implement a park pass system like most other mountains with serious parks. or turn the stairs around and make it a mandatory air to enter the park. that'd be better. i've always hated mtn creek cuz u have to take ur skis off to ride that gondola in their park. taking off ur gear doesnt seem like much trouble, but if you're lapping that park all day it is going to be annoying. and it leads to a huge buildup of people strapping in at the top, which makes the first few features really crowded. sorry to be negative nancy, but climbing stairs for every lap is a bit much.

i go to temple, i was at the premiere...THAT was definitely pretty hot, i wish i stuck around to get one of them tshirts they were givin out, but i hate waiting in lines.

Yeah, what do they have setup on come around?

for anyone who has seen it...how long would u say the top flat part of the swingset is? and are those rails in the pics gonna be the majority of the ones that are on the hill or does blue usually throw out some regular boxes and standard metal rails? if i can hit a couple jumps, some mellow wide boxes to learn new stuff on, and that swingset, i'd be a pretty happy man.

oh yeah, freeridintre, i forgot to mention. I'm jonkreation from newschoolers. peace.

I'm graduating from Temple in December, and I hope I'm working on park crew this winter.

What blue mountain, and every other small PA mountain for that matter, needs is someone who knows that you can market youth culture as a commodity that is accessible through your mountain. With visibility in the right places (ie. the internet), a creative park, and some well publicized youth-centric events you've got yourself a hot commodity. That is why I think they should hire me. haha.