phillycore

I've just never been to sno / montage and seriously want to get there this season. Being as I don't get to go that often (once every other weekend due to finances and an agreement with my wife ) I kinda have to make my rounds when I can... I've skied at JF,BB,CB,and Blue a zillion times but have never skied at Elk, Sno, Shawnee, Alpine, and Bear Creek although I did ski at Doe Mtn when I was like 12. Then again blue is a lot closer and I haven't skied there this season when it was 100% open. Not to mention that it is super bowl sunday and my buddy Ed wants to get home early (to Newark, Delaware area) so he can show off his new 57" tv to his relatives... I personally could care less about the super bowl as I have Tivo and neither of my favorite teams are in it.... I could head to shawnee too as I've never been there and my oldest son is skiing there tonight and tomorrow am. hmmmmm decisions decisions....

Special Ed and I are supposed to head up to sno tomorrow, but we may change plans and go to blue... who the hell knows where we're going....lol

Is there a ski finder type of thing on the web somewhere that will assist me in finding what is the right kind of ski for me??? sidecut, size, stiffness, etc??

How about you do me the favor of explaining to me why... Honestly, there is this size standard that has been around forever and a day now. I see the whole weight distribution concept and all, but then why is it that I can use 95 and 99 cm skiboards just fine? My icelantics have the same surface area as a 180 cm ski pretty much so I know why I'm fine on those, not to mention that they are an extremely stiff set of boards to boot. I've always just felt more comfortable on shorter planks. They are more manueverable for starters, and the only thing that I feel that they lack compared to the longer ones is the speed. I'm not against returning them, hence the reason I asked on here. After I read the initial reply about them being a foam core, I pretty much decided they were probably not right for me as they woul not be stiff enough to handle even half of the weight I'm carrying. Let's face it here, out of 1000 skiers on the mountain maybe 2 are within 25 pounds of me. I'm not an idiot here, I feel lucky just to be able to ski as good as I can for someone my size. A lot of people my size can barely even walk, but with that being said.....I'm all about getting better and if larger planks would help me in doing so then I'd probably try it. I know for a fact that they will not help me when I take my trips out west and spend 85% of my time in dense glade runs. This is where my icelantics come in, but a lot of my skiing time is done locally and aside from skiboards (which are nothing more than a play toy for me pretty much) and my scouts I don't have anything else any longer. I do prefer the twin tips as I spend a lot of time spinning around and they keep me from catching a tail edge. I've asked around on other message boards in the past and noone seems to have a good explination of why the size chart is the way it is though. (laymans terms of the benefits would be great) I've seen people of all different weights, heights, etc.. on all different sizes of skis, skiboards, etc.. and nothing seems to explain why a such and such sized person needs to use a such and such sized set of skis. As far as sidecut and all that is concerned, I don't know diddly about what is good and what isn't and when is benefits you to have a deeper sidecut vs one that isn't. I'm not a ski racer nor would I ever be, and the majority of the people I do go ski with are not as good as me which doesn't help me improve either. In fact about the only time I ski with people on my level or better is when I do go out west. Granted the majority of the people on this site are better than me as well, which is one of the reasons I'm here to begin with. So with that being said, it would be appreciated if people on here helped me out . I've been considering unloading my skiboards as they are just collecting dust, in favor of a pair of skis which is why I jumped on the 420's.....but if they aren't the right thing for me than I'll return them and hit the idea board again. I just need something inexpensive so a leftover model is great for me as I could care less about the topsheet design, etc.. but it needs to be good for east coast trail use and my size (6'1" 275-285# usually...lol) I'd prefer twin tips, but I'm not ever going to do anything on a rail, or box and jumps aren't really my thing either honestly... I like glade runs which we ain't got around here and trails, groomed and not. So butter zones and all that mean squat to me.....especially since I don't have a friggin clue to what they're for anyway. So if you'd like to help school a brother than please do...

I know they are going to be undersized....but I'm so used to short boards now that I don't think I can handle the longer ones anymore to be completely honest.. For my size I'd need the longest pair they make and even then they'd be short.. I just figured for the poconos they'd be fine to mess around with. For the $ I couldn't let them sit there... I have never bought anything from sports authority other than ski pants as far as equipment goes...

I went to sports authority to pick my son up a helmet... (got him a Giro Bad Lt. for $39.97 = )~~ ) While I was there I wandered by the skis they had on clearance... The last thing I Really need is another pair of skis... but.... They had a pair of 2003/2004 Salomon 1080 / 420 Spaceframe twintips for $124 brand new in 151/161/ and 171 They looked pretty solid and for $124 I had to pick them up. I got home and did some internet research to see if it was a good deal or not and I can't find squat. Dims are R14.8 SC 114 / 80 / 108 for the 161cm ones They are the same as the Salomon 1080's but without the base graphics. They have the same topsheet and construction but have a black base which is fine with me as they look better that way when they get p-tex'd down the road... I'm just wondering if $124 was a good deal or not for these. It seemed like something I just couldn't pass up on...

mailing check out tomorrow....

powder to the people outback express http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/uploads...2_143_26351.jpg

Found a couple on my sd card that I didn't erase... http://www.paskiandride.com/forums/uploads...2_143_23730.jpg

Yeah, pics, video, etc... but we all put it on the one guys laptop and we're waiting for him to send us all out a disk... When I get the disk, I'll post some shizzle up... lot of funny shit on there too..

I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK Skied Breck on day 1, Cold as all heck... -8 degrees windy and snowing.... pretty much hit the whole mountain with the exception of the park and green runs... Skied out of our condo down the 4 o clock run to the snowflake lift.. then worked our way across the mountain peak by peak, trail by trail to peak 10 and down mustang... the traverse at the bottom totally sucks bawlz... looooooooooooong and flat... worst traverse we had all week by far. LOT of rocks on the top of the mountain off the imperial lift. bunch of glade runs which were fun... didn't stop for a break until around 3 o clock then rushed it so we could work our way back to the 4 o clock run and skied back to out condo on ski side. snow was packed hard, and runs were quick. not too much powder at all honestly.... especially for Colorado. Vail on day 2, Drove out to Vail from Breckenridge....parked in the garage, then headed out through the village and then caught one of the first 5 chairs. We headed straight for the back bowls and spent pretty much all day messing around in the trees. Vail is absolutely HUGE... I mean MASSIVE... There is really something there for everyone of any skill. Lots of pow stashes in the woods and they groom almost everything which could be good or bad depending on your likes.. Lots of LOOOOOONG traverses in the back bowl areas but you can get enough speed not to require pushing if you play it smart and keep your speed up. Blue sky basin is a cool area and the champagne glade is enough to kick almost anyones butt. HUGE bumps that wrapped in and out of dense trees and even a few hidden cliffs mixed in. Temps in the 10's to 20's in the sun with great fluffy snow really made all of us like Vail sooooo much better than Breck. We took a 30 minute break at 2 Elks lodge around 12:30 then closed the mountain from there. They Really have a good system of getting everyone towards the front of the mountain by closing the lifts in time sequence from back to front. I think we pretty much caught the last lift each time and maximized our time there very good. Ended the day going down pepi's face which is really steep and at the end of the day completely scraped of any loose snow whatsoever.. Vail kicks major ass... and I'd ski there again in a heartbeat.. then headed for Keystone for day 3... We originally planned on going to A Basin on the third day, but changed our mind after realizing how small it was. Switched it up and headed out to Keystone... After a great day at Vail we were worried about how it would stack up. Well we got there really early and caught the first gondola with a regular. He pointed out exactly where to go for what we were looking for. The Army Special Forces were there doing some training as well. We headed straight down mohawk then back to the outback express.... skied down wolverine which is a bumped up black glade run.... then moved on to the Grizz. You can get seriously disoriented in the Grizz as it's a really dense tree area with DEEP pow stashes, tight turns and plenty of root jumps. Keystone was quickly becoming kickass.... After messing around in the tree runs and mogul runs for most of the early morning we decided to hike up to the south bowl and drop in for even more deep pow stashes, tree runs, and a natural revine half pipe which turned into a traverse with tons of whoop ti doos and what not.... totally sick.... we then worked our way back to the outback express lift and paid the snow cat powder to the people express even farther into the back country. This time we took the north bowl and rode the ridge line out pretty far. I saw a sick untouched line on the third ridge over from the top of the bowl and wanted to hit that, but the three others I was with had other intentions. They were sick of working there way across the ridge line and wanted to drop in on the 1st ridge line. It looked like a nice line, but it was one of the closest ones to where the cat drops you off and also one of the most taken. This is where my day got really hairy... Instead of doing the smart thing and just dropping in where they wanted to, I figured I could traverse the other two ridgelines and meet them where the two connected together just below the initial line. I wasn't high enough on the ridge at this point to ski over top the line and drop into it. I did see one other set of tracks heading into the trees and out through. I headed towards those tracks and into the trees... The PoW was seriously deep and well over the top of my boots. I was moving pretty good and kept following the tracks into the tree line. The tracks then headed to the right or to the upside of the ridge and I cut around the same tree to the left side into the untracked area.. BIG MISTAKE!!! I found myself plugged into a waist deep powder stash in the back country by myself. Exactly the reason why you aren't supposed to be by yourself in the back country. JUst for a visual here... I'm 6'1" tall and damn near 300lbs plugged up to my waist in pow in a remote tree line. I'm pretty much screwed at this point. I pushed my poles down deep to try to get some leverage to lift my skis up so I could get moving again.... Not happening... my poles aren't even hitting the hardpack. I then start working my skis up and down the best I could to try to pack the snow below them..... not happening..... I end up flipping myself head first into the stash. Everything goes black and I'm now under the snow pretty much. My right ski stayed plugged when I flipped forward and then rolled over onto my back. At this point I pretty much atrained every muscle, ligament, etc.. in my right knee and ankle. This is the point where I for the first time in my skiing life become scared for my life. I prayed to the Lord to help me get out of there safely as I was in some seriously deep trouble. I know I'm with three other guys who will come looking for me if I don't show up at the bottom, but they don't know exactly where I'm at. I've been stuck for approximately 15 mins at this point and I've torn my right leg to shit. I haven't seen nor heard a single person the whole time, so I'm getting ready to panic. I laid there for a second to get my self together and then grabbed onto the trees around me. I then basically pulled myself up branch by branch until I could sorta crawl forward a little bit. I managed to hang onto this tree enough to get my skis above to the top of the snow. I then worked slowly towards the open area the best I could. I fell another 2-3 more times and managed to keep working out of it towards the open area. I then spotted another set of tracks and desperately worked myself towards those as fast as my body would let me. The pow got less and less deep and my speed increased and increased until I managed to meet with the tracks and follow them to the revine area below. I was in some serious pain, but I was out of trouble. The only thing I wanted to do at this point was get the F out of there as quickly as I could and towards the traverse where I knew there would be other people around. The traverse meets up with a trail and then heads down to the outback express lift. My friends were at the lift base waiting for me, and have had been there for 20 minutes waiting. I learned a serious lesson at that point, one that I should've been smart enough to know already. I let a good line get in my head and I wanted to ski it bad... in the end, I F'd up my knee and ankle but I know that no line in the back country is good unless you have another person taking it with you. I skipped the next run and waited at the lift base until my friends got back down... I did end up skiing the rest of the day in some pain and Keystone was sick. I really didn't realize how bad I screwed myself up until I took my boot off at the end of the day and my ankle pretty much buckled and swelled up without the boot supporting it. All in all it was a killer trip and a ton of fun..... I learned a valuable lesson, and got a lot of great skiing in at three great and very different mountains. Going to take it easy for the next week and hope to be back skiing the poconos on super bowl weekend... The day after I returned from Colorado (Thursday) my father in law passed away. I had to carry him down a flight of steps with the funeral home people and assist them in getting him into the hearse/suburban on a stretcher. So pretty much things have sucked since I got back home.... So please excuse the weak ass TR for me...

Hey ski thanks for the link.... He has a LOT of great tips on there...

Just got done waxing 3 pairs of boards... I tried this Demon hot wax this time around... never used it before but it totally kicks.. Then I coated them with some swix F4 just for good measure... What wax do you guys normally use?? I normally use Dakine hot wax and follow it up with either some swix f4 or some race paste

Mexican sounds good..... rrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeal gggggggooood

Haven't been to any of those three yet.... = ) Leavin the wife and kids at home... going with 3 friends. I actually have another digicam, an really old p.o.s. $100 walmart job that I'm going to attempt to bring with me as the batteries seem to die like mega quick on it... like every 4-5 pics...lmao Either way I know someone there will have a cam. Anyone been out there before that has some good eat suggestions, or good pow stash areas they are willing to give out??

We're staying in Breck and can literally ski in/out our condo.... kick ass!! I'm super stoked!!! Skiing Breck the first day then Vail the second.... then either A-Basin or more Breck on day 3 I only wish I didn't leave my new digicam outside in the rain and get it all fubared..... yeah wifey wasn't too happy bout that one..

leaving in like 5 mins, but heading out to Blue today If you see me hit me up and say hi!! I'll be wearing Black Dawkins jersey, grey pants, black helmet 6'1" BIG fat dude... on icelantic scouts aka short FAT boards my buddy is a snowboarder.....grey jacket / orange helmet 5'10 or so... not fat dude on a burton 7 Give a shout if you see us Grilled Steez or anyone else from here.. John

I'm heading out to BB in 20 mins.... Sporting my Dawkins Jersey

woo hoo I've never been to sno mtn / montage but want to go somewhere new.. how far from Philly is it?? I've only been to... JF, BB, Blue, Camelback, Spring, Doe (when it was Doe), Killington, Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee I'm trying to get all the east coast Pa ones in by the end of this season so I can say I've done them all since I didn't lock into one mountain with a pass this year... Shawnee, Sno Mtn, Elk, Alpine (even worth it though??), Bear Creek (has it even changed any trail wise since the Doe days??) Any others I'm missing within 3 hours of Philly / Delaware border??

NO RAIN!!!! get COLD.... PUHLEEEEEEZ no mo rain.... go away dangit...

Jackson was my first visit out west for just that reason..... everyone I've ever talked to said it was unreal... It is just that unreal. I made sure I got out there before they took away the tram, and I'm glad I did. I can't wait to go back there again but I'm waiting till the new tram is in place. The guy I ride with all the time has been to snowbird and solitude and said they didn't compare to JH, but he also visited them thanksgiving weekend and they weren't fully opened so I can see that it's not a fair comparo. Tahoe is on my high list of places to visit as is Whistler/Blackcombe but with 3 kids and a limited budget cost is a major factor for me. $150 round trip makes Denver a lock for this year when I was only planning on hitting up Stowe/ Jay Peak this season outside of the Pa slopes of course. Winter Park, and Aspen Snowmass are on my high lists when it comes to Colorado, but I'm down with skiing anywhere that has snow in reality.... and honestly anything has to be better than what we got going on around here this year.

ellifino lmao

Honestly.... we haven't booked anything yet... we were just looking at that date as I already have off work the Monday after the Super Bowl.....lol Were waiting to hear back from another guy if he can go or not. I personally have only been to JH when it comes to out west... so anywhere is new and worthwhile to me. Any of them you've been to better than the others?? None of us are park skiers/boarders fwiw... powder kicks though...

southwest.com Trip Date Day Stops Routing Flight Routing Details Depart Feb 03 Sat N/S BWI-DEN 2369 Depart Baltimore (BWI) at 1:15 PM Arrive in Denver (DEN) at 3:20 PM Return Feb 07 Wed N/S DEN-BWI 575 Depart Denver (DEN) at 7:50 AM Arrive in Baltimore (BWI) at 1:00 PM 138.80 That sick or what??

Hey FWIW Jackson Hole is in the Teton's not the Rockies...... hee hee