stever2003

I think the logic is that all of the lifts (Quad, 6-pack, Main Street/Burma, Vista) provide access to a Bunny slope that is designated for slow skiing, so that all people can use all lifts without having to worry about difficulty. Honestly, it IS a nice design for a mountain. The problem is that they don't have another trail like it to leave unrestricted. Blue certainly has something to offer for everyone, but it seems like they only have a little to offer in each area. That makes me a sa-a-a-a-ad panda. I don't know, I guess you should show up at 7:30am and enjoy the good conditions before any patrollers get out there to whistle at you.

Skied there the day after Christmas, I'd say we did around 5 runs an hour. Most of them on East Mt, and the place was pretty empty that day. Maybe we could have reached 6/hr if we tried, but the lifts were just too slow.

Agreed. I think I made a post about this a few weeks ago, but I can't remember and I can't find it. If I did and you know where it is, send me the link, I'd like to see if I got any angry responses...

I like that second idea method...I never thought of that. Since you mentioned it and we're on the topic, I generally keep a pair of gloves and maybe a hat in my car, in case I ever get stranded in the cold. I really should throw a hoodie in my trunk too. It's not a bad idea to be prepared for such emergencies...you never know when and where something will break down, or how far you are from help.

Read your post on epicski...that's rough. It's a good sign that you can walk on it. I had a similar injury 2 years ago, I partially tore my MCL 2 nights before Christmas. I was able to ski at Blue again by early March. Since your injury happened about a month later than mine (in the season) hopefully you'll recover for the end of the season. Good luck.

They put it back on the list That was close.

I did it for a day at Big Boulder when I was 9 or 10. It was fun, I remember, but it definitely lost it's thrill when I started skiing. Around 11-12, I got a lift ticket/tubing pass, and took off my skis for a lil while to give tubing a shot. It lasted about 20 minutes, then I went back to skiing. Give it a shot though, make your own judgement

I just caught that too. Did Blue pull a JFBB on us? It looks like they have plenty of snow on Chute, why wouldn't they open it? I like that trail.

Ya, I didn't see anyone make it farther than halfway down that rail. I did see some kid with a nice wipeout. He jumped off the right side of the ramp to it, tipped forward, landed on the tips of his skis (which popped off after the next part, wait for it.....) then he face planted, and slid about 15 feet, over the side of the base and into the trees. It had to suck, but it was awesome to watch. If that kid didn't go home after that, he's a trooper.

I didn't go in the park tonight since I wasn't feeling like hitting anything big, but I saw the destruction on those stairs and can only use one word to accurately describe it: clusterfuck. I'm not going to go into the details because about 30 of you already did. But, a sign isn't gonna do anything because people just don't care. There is also already a sign on the entrance that says something like "Stop: Read This". A fenced maze before the stairs might be an interesting idea to make people take their skis off...I think fewer people would enter. And of course, I think the park pass is a good idea. No money, just a safety video or something to deter people who do not truly want to be in the park from entering. I don't really plan on going in much if it's crowded (and i'm usually there when it is), but I'd probably sit through a 10 minute video to get it out of the way so that I could go in when I felt like it.

--> QUOTE(Matt B @ Jan 22 2007, 10:56 PM) 129217[/snapback] hahahahahaahhaha my bbaddd but seriously did it happen? Ya...look at the first page of THIS THREAD.

Honestly, maybe park passes aren't such a bad idea. I expect a lot of you to respond to this post complaining that you would have to go through the effort to acquire the pass and that people who are new should know better and just not enter the park. However, it is not a perfect world, and people are going to enter the park regardless of their skill level. I would not mind spending a few minutes the next time I head up to Blue to acquire a park pass if it meant it would keep people who don't belong in the park out of the park. Consider the pros: the parks would be less crowded with beginners, and that fact itself makes for a lower amount of beginners that could possibly injure themselves. Please, discuss... I understand the logic behind the slow lift speed. One idea that I have would be to take a few chairs off the lift and increase the spacing between chairs. They could increase the speed of the lift and still allow ample time for loading in the station. They would handle several fewer riders an hour with this method, but if the lift does not have to stop as often, it should not make a huge impact.

2pm? i thought it was at 5pm or 6pm on sundays?

Why can't you turn up the speed? is it because of the number of people/noobs at blue, or simply because the you don't have control over the speed. when i was at JF the day after christmas, my friend and i were really the only people using the east mt lift. i asked the guy if he could speed it up, he said sure, went into his shack, and slowed it down for a few moments. then he sped it up and all was good in the world. the 6-pack was definitely going too slow yesterday (saturday), i didn't like it.

Blue's website says Nastar WILL start tonight. Sorry for the misinformation.

Got on the mountain around 10am, left around 6:45pm. My sister was with me and she hasn't skied in about 4 years so i was helping her get the hang of it again. She did mostly Burma Road, and went on Lazy 3 times but it was too crowded and slick for her, so she went back to burma. i stayed with her about half the time, with a few speed runs down main street here and there. got in 20 runs - took the main street lift 9 times, the 6-pack 8 times, and the quad 3 times. main street lift lines were ridiculous...i once waited 15 minutes (at least). snow was decent, i couldn't find much powder and my skis were tuned since i last used them and i'm not used to carving that much this year so i had some trouble at first, but once i got on main street a few times i as good. it was cold as hell at night...on the speaker at the main street lift they said to be careful, it was 19 degF with a wind chill of -3 degF. earlier in the day i dropped my gloves off the quad, just after it opened. if you saw the fool dressed in black who skied under the quad, picked up some gloves, and put them on, that was me. all in all, a good day. my sister and i had fun. I asked at the summit lodge ticket window about NASTAR for tomorrow, they said it wasnt gonna run. I talked to one ski patroller on the 6-pack who told me they were really pushing to open Sidewinder Park tomorrow. I overheard another patroller say it was gonna be open by midweek. It looks like they have enough snow down to open it tomorrow, but it could definitely use some more. I say it'll open mid-week. Believe whichever story you want.

I'm getting there around 9:30 with my sister. Black pants, black coat, white hat, the name is steve. say hi if you'd like! It's gonna be pretty windy tomorrow, I hope my sister can stick it out. Make sure all of you bundle up! Saturday Weather

cool, what do you do there? and does JFBB actually get charged less during offpeak hours?

Check out blue's conditions page. They actually opened 7 trails today! but look closer. the 7th trail was bumpy's bumps. in other words, they stopped grooming half of main street as their opening of a 7th trail. ya, on the same note, Blue Mountain actually has 5410' of vert...if i take the quad 5 times. Next year it'll be the front 5... I'll be there Saturday morning. By 9:30 at the latest, but hopefully by 7:30-8. I'm wearing black pants, a black coat, and my sister will be with me.

i'm having this same issue. it will move for less than a second and freeze for me. it will update the image after some time, but it has to buffer. this is definitely not the purpose of a webcam. same thing happens at my work. i addressed this in a topic a few weeks ago, but someone reported no issues, so i figured it was just me.

Since everyone is still wondering what might open, I figured I'd call attention to this post, which nobody seemed to notice.

I agree. Earlier in the week, the JF conditions page showed MOST of the black diamonds opening by Thursday and Saturday. They definitely showed T-Bolt Glade and Thunderbolt, Mad Tree Glade, Telstar, Floyd's Folly, and maybe Risk It. I remember being impressed that they were opening all but two of their black diamonds. Now they're only showing Thunderbolt. What happened to this report? I disagree with your idea. Unless there is some special system that the ski slopes have worked out that actually tracks the time that they blow, the main part of a commercial customer's energy bill comes from peak demand - how much energy they use at one time. I believe they do track some usage, but I highly doubt they track what time the usage occurs, and from experience, I know demand is the driving factor (used to work for PECO energy, i've seen enough commercial customers' bills to back this up). I would probably guess that something out of their control happened. Maybe they didn't make enough money last weekend and don't feel like spending much on snowmaking. Maybe an air compressor or water pump broke and they CAN'T blow snow. I'm not gonna bother guessing anymore because, unless someone gets info from JFBB, we're probably not going to figure it out.

Oops, I forgot to post the important stuff. I called the Blue Mt. condition hotline late last night (12:48am). The guy (it wasn't Dennis) said in addition to the 6-pack and six trails on Thursday, they would open Burma Road on Friday, and try to open Terrain Run for Saturday. Thought you'd like to know

My friends and I have been debating this issue, but regarding other trails. Consider Xing, or Sky Top. I never even heard of Sky Top until I looked at Blue's trail map this year and saw it was on there. i would have no idea where it was if it wasnt on the interactive trail map (put your mouse near the little island of trees at the top of the Quad). hell, "sky top" to me was just another part of tut's lane. i think they make separate trails so that.. 1) they can increase their trail count and say they have more trails open (i mean, come on...they've had 9 trails open for the last few weeks, but was really just a green, a blue, a black, a terrain park, and learning hills). I think most mountains are guilty of this one. c) they can accurately direct personnel. Lets say someone gets hurt near the top of the quad. they can tell the patrollers, "go to Sky Top". they don't have to say, the person is near Tut's lane, or the person is near paradise, or near the intersection of all those trails. it gives that location on the mountain a specific identity. If anyone can shed some more light on this issue, please do.

I've been in the habit of checking this site every day for the last 2 years. I bought sunglasses once for $25 shipped (retail $100+) and they were very nice. I think they have a flat shipping rate, so you save on shipping if you buy a few of an item. I'd recommend this site highly. Steepandcheap.com is geared toward outdoors gear. Woot.com is a similar site, but they specialize in tech stuff (really cheap flat panel TVs!) and household stuff. they do one thing a night.