NJSkiFamily

Atomic, I thought about your comment that your fastest time was when you hit a gate. But I also have in my mind how Racerchick tore her ACL in a race because she hooked a tip.

Ski999 1) Do you still have that link to Al Hobart's "Complete Carving Made Easy" DVD? I think that would help Mbike with the idea of setting up those little markers above the gates. 2) I am a victim of waiting until I meet the gate and then starting the turn which washes away all my speed. I understand the concept of setting up the little markers above the gates and using them to start the turn. But when I'm actually on the course itself, my brain seems to think that if I start the turn that early that I will crash INTO the gate and not go around it. Any advice? I know you've talked about making that leap of faith and just doing it but its so hard. Should I just run the course at very slow speed and to heck with the time and just work on technique?

I will admit that I used to think you guys were all exaggerating about this. That it couldn't be that bad and you just wanted to have the parks to yourself. Well, I stand corrected. The complaints are very, very legitimate. What I saw at CB on Saturday was downright scary. The park was crowded to begin with and there were plenty of kids in there that had no idea what they were doing. I saw a girl (about 10yrs) drop into the half pipe and immediately fall flat on her face and one of her skis came off (she didn't even make up the other side wall). A kid boarder then drops in and also immediately falls. Further down on the pipe, two young boarders almost collide. Even worse was seeing a kid about 5-6 yrs old cross into the landing area of one of the boxes and get taken out. Thank God he wasn't seriously hurt. And the worst part of all was that I was probably the only parent in the park. These kids were in there with no adult supervision. I had no idea it was this bad. The mountains need to address this now before a kid gets crippled/killed. I think the resorts need to build beginner parks. You have bunny slopes for novice skiers, why not bunny parks? Have a place where everyone (adults and kids) can safely learn without putting themselves and others at risk. The only group ski classes that should be allowed in the parks are those at the intermediate/expert level. Why on earth would any instructor take kids who are still pizza wedging into the parks!?!?!?! That's my 2 cents.

If anyone passes a newstand today, check out the front page of the Wall St. Journal. Funny article on ski racing at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland. I guess Bono doesn't participate in this one.

Skidude, it wasn't deliberate.....honest......(did you see me?)

Metz, You just made somebody's day.

CB was great yesterday. Props to the snow making/grooming crew - it certainly didn't seem like we've had such a warm winter. Snow was soft but never really slushy - again amazing given the sunshine and warm temps. Even though the snow was soft you could still get some speed. Saw a lot of people fall down and keep going and going and going on the ground. All the trails were in terrific shape - even high traffic ones like Honeymoon Lane were fun. Boy, everyone sure came out of the woodwork yesterday. Saw someone wearing a leather jacket - never saw that before. There was the usual crowd of people wearing jeans. Big props to the lifties - they did a terrific job filtering people onto the lifts. Even though the lines were long you never really felt like you were standing in line too long. Lots of people on slopes they didn't belong on - Big Pocono was a perfect example. We avoided that trail for that reason. The park was way too crowded, if not downright dangerous. I saw a terrible collision between an adult boarder and a little, little kid. Totally the kid's fault. I saw the whole thing unfold right below me. I told every "official" looking person that it was the kid's fault. I finally got to meet skimom and was totally psyched to meet Metz. Metz, I told my son you're feeling the same frustration being less than a second from a silver - that's making him feel better about himself. I actually outlasted my kids - that's the first time that's happened in three year's we've all been skiing together.

I was reading accuweather this morning - we need the first of the two storms to pull down the cold air. And we know that cold air bottled up in Canada is just waiting to spread its wings.

Two winters ago we were eating at Cameltop and my son was reading the trail map and pronounced the trail as "Julius K-czar". The couple at the table next to us darn near spit out their lunch when they overheard that. I much prefer "cheeser".

We were at Elk over MLK weekend and they don't do NASTAR so we missed that chance. My husband is totally out of commission as he's still not 100% recovered from his bout with pneumonia. I wear a black Giro helmet with white Anon goggles. Easiest to spot is my daughter - she wears a pink jacket and yellow helmet.

We're shooting for Saturday at cb to do NASTAR. The kids can't wait. This will be our first chance at doing NASTAR this season. My daughter and I were camping this past weekend so no skiing. As much as we love skiing, weekend camping trips at YMCA camps are not to be missed.

Putting pressure on the little toe of the uphill ski is exactly what my ski instructor at Smuggs told me to do. Its a great visual to use in the turn. We practiced that many times in the class. Far better than worrying about weight distribution between the uphill and downhill legs. Both my instructors at Smuggs used ski racing techniques to help teach better turning skills. One neat one was to ski without the poles and when you want to turn you stick your arm straight out at a 90 degree angle to your body. If you want to make a left turn then stick your left arm out perpendicular to your body while keeping the other arm at your side. Do the same with your right arm when making a right turn. It looks silly but helped with getting both skis on an angle.

I agree with the responses of getting a private lesson and specifically ask for terrain park training. I'm in the same position. Both my kids are terrific skiers and they have discovered the parks. I have a 9 year old and 11 year old. I think the trend is for the resorts to start offering group classes in the parks and incorporate that as part of the lesson program. We ski a couple of times a year at Smuggler's Notch and all the intermediate/expert kids' ski classes go into the parks. That's where my kids learned to do the pipe and smaller jumps. And yes, it would be a big benefit for all the resorts to have a beginner park for the kids. Heck, I'd even try a beginner park.

Do you think the new owner had something to do with this?

5th place in his first race is awesome. Was that the best from the CB racers?

Doug, While we were there the trails under the Madonna 1 lift weren't open (including Freefall). They are now. The trails under the Sterling lift were open and its fun to watch people go down those trails. One time I was riding up with my instructor and we would critique the skiers going down. It always gives me heart attacks watching the boarders try to make their way down those steep bumps. I know what you mean about seeing the different colored ice waterfalls. We'll be back at Smuggs in February and I so want to ski Doc Dempsey's. Can you describe what a "snow fence" is at the top of Sterling? Is this right when you get off the lift?

From the pictures it looks like inflatable boogie boards that you ride on your stomach. So maybe you can control your direction like a sled. I've never heard of it before. Its only offered at night after the slopes are closed. My kids did the lower part of Doc Dempsey's with their group class. I never have because the only way to get there is taking the Upper FIS trail and I always thought I wasn't good enough to ski it. But I tried skiing Upper FIS this last time and was so happy I made it down in one piece that I flat out forgot about Doc Dempsey's. But I won't forget next time. Can you tell me what exactly "steezy" means. I'm way behind on my lingo and I'm sure there are others reading this who also want to know.

Great news, Doug. You got a medal and the incentive to come back for more. Terrific night all around. And now you're probably hooked on racing. We tried doing NASTAR last year after hearing about it on this site. Funny story about that.....one of my very first posts on this board asked about how to do NASTAR and two members got into a really bad fight in their responses. The topic got locked before I could even post a "thanks" for the information. When we did our first NASTAR the rest of the family all got medals but my time was dreadful. It was a real eye opener that I needed to work on my turns.

We're dying here........with anticipation.

Here's our long trip report from Smuggler's..... We spent Christmas break at Smuggs. There was decent snow coverage but the base isn?t very deep. Northern Vermont has gotten a fair amount of snow but not consistently cold temps so all the mountain creeks and streams haven?t froze. So anytime the temps warm up the snow melts quickly. And Smuggs doesn?t have the greatest snowmaking capacity so they were just trying to keep up with what melts. They hadn?t even blown any snow to cut the superpipe. The family race course was not set up, either. But there was enough open to make everyone happy. Okay, the double blacks weren?t open but there was plenty of ungroomed blacks and glades open to satisfy the experts. My husband gets the courage award for not letting the flu and having a fever stop him from skiing. He said he was fine so long as he kept moving on the slopes. It was stopping to eat that was the problem. We?d return to the condo at the end of the day and he?s just crash until the next morning. Skied for 4 days and each day was drastically different. Day 1 was typical December day with temps just below freezing, sunshine and good hardpack snow. The more heavily traveled trails iced up by the end of the day. Day 2 had the temps warm up and the forecast was for steady rain by mid-day. That kept the majority of guests indoors and the mountain was a ghost town. The warm temps made for terrific spring-like conditions and softened all the icy parts. The rain held off until dinnertime. It was a terrific day. There was a steady rain beginning around dinnertime but it changed to snow around 10pm. It snowed for about 15 hours and we got about 7 inches. Of course with the cold temps, all the slush on the mountain froze. And it looked like the mountain was groomed before everything froze because you could see the frozen tracks on the ground. So day 3 was cold, windy and snowy. The entire mountain was basically a sheet of ice as the wind blew all the fresh snow off the trails. The glades and ungroomed trails held up better. Day 4 saw colder temps and the groomed trails were better. The snow was really scraped off the glades and ungroomed trails so it was better to stay on the groomers. We took lessons each day and had terrific instructors. Yes, they remembered me from that freak accident I was in last year (someone in my lesson class lost control and skied into me so hard I was knocked unconscious). I wanted to improve my turns and both my instructors borrowed ideas from the race team which worked really well for me. My husband?s class spent all their time on the bumps and glades. My kids? class had a wild time skiing everything the mountain had to offer: steeps, bumps, jumps and glades. The instructor had his 10 year old son with him equipped with a radio so the son could ski down the trail and stop to radio his dad to send the class down while the dad stayed behind to watch everyone?s technique. He taught everyone how ski the jumps and do 360s on the ground. Very interesting how kids ski differently than adults. My son would not complete his turns and couldn?t control his speed. My daughter would not keep her hands in front of her. Kids also tend to keep their bodies too stiff and if you tell them they need to flex at the knees they instead bend at the waist. And just like us adults, kids get too far into the back seat as well. We had a great time even with the changing conditions and my husband?s flu. We were bummed that the family races weren?t running but we accomplished what we wanted to learn. It certainly didn?t feel like Christmas week as the crowds were small and lift lines were minimal. Things new at Smuggs this year??airboarding for those 13 and older. Snow walking classes for people who want to hike the trails. Freestyle group lessons in the terrain parks. One piece of news I?ll pass on??.this summer Smuggs will break out the TNT and blast the top part of Upper Rumrummer and make it wider. That trail is waaaay too narrow at the top for the amount of traffic it gets.

Papa, you're in the wrong thread......

Ski4Food, What a wonderful idea. I don't know if its true up in your area but in NJ the local food books are seriously short of donations because everyone gave so generously for the hurricanes. I'm sure any donations you get will be greatly appreciated. BTW.....where is Brantling?

I like Greek Peak's idea better...........doing something for the less fortunate is more in keeping with the Christmas spirit than watching a bunch of Santas coming down the slopes.

What a story!!!!! Siblet must be really dedicated as most people would have just taken the next plane home after going through all that. I, too, was nervous when I first read through the story.

Awesome!!!!!