Robert2

YES 5 degrees or 50 degrees rain snow cosmic storm If the lifts are running I'm riding.

You are forgetting I AM Grizzly Adams.

I don't get it. What does this mean as an answer to HOW WAS BLUE and you answer PWNED with a kick in the teeth. Maybe I'm too old for the slang but I just don't get it.

Timmy bus.

Forgive my ignorance.... but what is this you mean by "line cutters" and 15 minutes to get scanned in? Does Blue mountain have 15 minute lines at the lifts and do you get some kind of ID barcode scan every time you get on the lift? Is it that crowded at Blue ?

Holy shit. I didn't know that when I was writing my TR. We are not that far apart... Blue and BB.... it is the same weather systems with very little altitude difference so I would think that Blue would have frozen just like BB did by 4:30 sunset. I got some of my fastest speeds ever tonight. I called the ball on that one yesterday too. I said that the warm rain would make for fast slush or blue ice today and thats exactly what I got. Sorry to hear about Blue closing. I found the Blue TR from today. That had to suck.

Just got home from BB. Got to BB at 2PM in light rain and 55 degrees. By 3 PM lift opening time the rain had totally stopped. The surface was groomed since yesterday's riding and all footy craters and death biscuits were gone with the same as always cord hardpack. By 4:30pm the temperature plummeted into the low 30s and the snow pack did its thing... froze over into boiler plate hard as steel cord ice. Since nobody ruined the surface when it was soft..... because no one wanted to play in the rain everyone was bitching about....... by the time it hardened into boiler plate there were very few marks and it was smooth as glass and VERY fast riding. Not for the frail or faint hearted. ICE is NICE SPEED is GOOOOOOOOOOOD. Had the place to myself all night... again. How was Blue Mountain tonight?

I just called JFBB and asked if the lifts were running at BB during the rain and the answer was YES.

It rarely snows enough in December to keep a ski resort open so we get real lucky to have such great snow making at JFBB. We NEVER rely on natural snow for the base and then the pile of man made snow is really nothing more than snow cone solid ice.... 4 feet deep of hardpack. This needs cord grooming to keep an edge riding. IF THE LIFTS ARE RUNNING I'm THERE riding. 5 degrees or 50 degrees... dress for it. Last year the only day I remember that they shut down the lifts once the season started was during a THUNDERSTORM. Quit your bitching and go ride a hill in the rain. A rain suit costs $25 now at Kmart so you can ride all day and still be dry. Why complain about warm or wet skiing? I guess you've never been to a wet T shirt contest.

Finally back to daily riding. Will be at BB daily until JF opens next week. The conditions were absolutely superb Monday and today.... standard JFBB groomed hard pack. I had a blast on the new Burton Air. Tonight and tomorrow we are supposed to be warm and rainy so by 3 PM opening time we may have some really blue solid ice or mashed potato slush tomorrow. Both fly like the wind so I'll be there all night even in the rain.

The rain stopped in Jim Thorpe.... which is halfway between Blue and Big Boulder. Temps dropping tonight, into the 20s then stay real cold for a week so all PA skiing should be great this weekend.

I went today. Conditions are great , same as mid winter. Groomed hardpack. Wear armor. Real slick and real fast. The dollar toll road is misleading. Its no short cut. Time is what you rate a short cut by. By the clock, not by the mile, it takes 11 minutes to get get from the entrance of Jack Frost on route 940 to get to the Lake Harmony entrance on route 903 if you ride the "long way" around by going to 115 then 903. If you do the speed limit on the dollar toll road it takes 11 minutes to get from 940 to 903. So its the same amount of time. Save the buck. Also note that 940, 115 and 903 are state highways with salting and snow removal plans while the Lake Harmony toll road has no great snow plan and you will get stuck on hills by Split Rock lodge and the Lake Harmony lodge. Been there. It sucked.

Got a link? I found very little about structure on racewax.com Maybe I missed something. Do you sell this nylon brush? Why wouldn't a tech use your wax? Maybe.... but then if the ski shop tech is stripping and waxing the board once a week then perhaps clogging isn't an issue. I've used MAxx Waxx when I ran out of zardoz. Given one over the other I'd rather oil the board. I was looking to find a wax that was a real wax, a tech can use it wax, not a daily rub down wax. If there really isn't anything more slippery than zardoz then I'll keep using oil.

I don't drive. I take a bus to JF daily. I can't haul the board on the bus. I keep my snowboard in a locker at JF and I don't have any good work space for working on the board at JF. This sort of bothers me once in a while but I figure they have people who do this for a living so why not support their income. So I paid the ski shop techs for the last 2 years to wax the board once a week. Since I go daily week days I've never seen much of a press for the ski shop techs to be stacking wax jobs back to back all day long. This is not the case at all at JF. I always TIP the techs and they don't go home until the day is over so saying they do sloppier quick jobs would probably offend them. MY question in this thread was asking about waxes verses teflon fluoropolymer oil. I rub down the board with ZARDOZ NOTWAX every day before going out for 3 hours and found it very helpful to shoot flats and craters and cut out "snowgrab" when the snow is warm. IF there is such a wax that produces as much slip I'd like to use it when I run out of teflon oil.

I'm not looking for quick easy application. That just turned out to be how zardoz worked. Just wipe it on before riding. What I am looking for is a wax that slides as well as oil. When you say Either you have too much wax or lack of structure ..... HOW is this something I can cure to get the same slippery ride I get with zardoz oil.... using a wax? I don't have a lot of control over the waxing of the board. I hand it in to the ski shop at JF and they give it back all tuned up. Most of the people who do wax jobs have been doing it for years so I'd have to believe they know what they are doing. If I wanted them to use a different wax I figure they would take it. But still.... when you say I might have too much wax.... they scrape the board and I don't think there's too much wax. And lack of structure? How can that be measured... and cured... if that causes suction?

OK Mr wizard.... then this question is for you.... I have been using ZARDOZ NOTWAX instead of waxing with block wax on my snowboard. At the end of the season when the snow gets sticky I found regular wax done by the pros in the ski shop really did nothing for the sticky snow. But slather on notwax oil and away we go. Zardos makes wipes or a felt pad applicator that you drip some of this zardoz oil on and apply to skis or a snowboard. Its something like $15 for a tiny bottle. A bottle can last a week. So whats the science behind this stuff compared to using YOUR waxes? I'm always up for trying something better but so far what I have found is that a waxed board will stick to the snow in flat spots and craters where a zardoz oiled snowboard will shoot the flats and pop right out of a crater. Its made a big difference for me to the point where I don't have to stop and unstrap and walk out of the crater or walk a flat spot. On the downhill side of this logic is how sticking snowboards burn out knees and shins but not when I use zardoz. I slide..and fast.. and no knee burn from a grabby board. I've been told that zardoz, being an oil, just wipes off the board after a few runs but my experience has been 3 hours of slide time before sticking so maybe I got lucky. zardoz is made of flouropolymer oil ..... DUPONT KRYTOX R901. This KRYTOX is food grade teflon lube used in food processing machinery. I'm not sure but I think you can eat it and not be poisoned. http://www.zardoznotwax.com/grx/sci.jpg I can't find ANY consumer source for this stuff and there is only one other product on the planet you can buy that contains KRYTOX oil and that is Finish Line Stanchion Fluoro Oil Bike Lube. Yep. Bike oil. And I really do think it is the same stuff. The zardoz plastic bottle and the Finish Line plastic bottle looks the same, the oil feels the same, the slick ride is the same. It looks like the same product but with different labels stuck to the bottle and packaging. BUT the bike lube is $5 cheaper and available everywhere while the ZARDOZ is only sold in ski shops and real limited stock. So what I want from you... the chemist ... is to tell me what wax or oil I can use that is as slick as this fluoropolymer oil when I run out of this stuff. If I could I would buy a gallon jug of KRYTOX R901 but its not a consumer retail product I can find and at $10 for 15 grams it looks like a gallon could cost $1,280. From AMAZON for $10 Finish Line Stanchion Fluoro Oil Bike Lube - 15g Bottle - S10000101 Stanchion Fluoro Oil is a pure DuPont liquid fluoropolymer oil. It is a surface treatment that is distinctly different and better than solid fluoropolymers like PTFE .

No thank you. I don't need a ride. I Live near BB JF now and I ride the Timmy bus to JF daily weekdays. I posted this MARTZ bus info because I figured somebody may be screwed for a ride some day and nobody really shows how to pull this off with public transportation. I take buses to Philly a few times a year. We just started having cab service in Jim Thorpe last year that cover the Split Rock, BB, JF ...Blakeslee.. area. Without the cab service you could not really do BB or JF without a car. Which meant you couldn't do it by bus if the closest you could land here was 6 miles from JF with no hope of seeing the slopes. Once we got cab service the game changed. You can get near here by bus then take the taxi for 10 minutes. Its snowing real heavy now in Jim Thorpe.

Oh...exaggerating ... OK I thought someone had a good lead on some travelocity gnome deal or something.

That Knights Inn is 3 miles up 940 from the MARTZ bus stop at McDonalds. So one night and transportation could be done for less than $150. Could be down to $100 if you split the room cost 3 ways.

I couldn't find any price less than $420 to fly to Utah and airport to hotel bus fees of $68 then $280 per night for hotel. Then buy a lift ticket. How can it be almost cheaper to fly to Utah?

Sometimes renting a car is not an option. Some people don't drive. Sometimes timing is no good for car pooling. But if you really want to get here Saturday and have $200 to blow on the hotel and transportation you WILL get to ski a night at BB and a day at JF and still make it to the bus home on Sunday afternoon back to Philly. $200 is a lot cheaper than trying to get to play at other ski areas. When I tried to get to Vermont and out west this year I found transportation and hotel costs to be way over $1000. I'm something like any 15 year old kid. I don't drive so I have to figure out how to get around and not depend on anybody else to make sure it works out for me. Just to get from an airport to a ski resort can cost $200.

There's been some car pool banter so I figured I'd throw this out there. MARTZ bus line leaves the greyhound bus station at 10th & Filbert at 11AM and drops off at Route 940 and 476 Mcdonalds at exit 95 off the turnpike. Round trip ticket is $56. Local cab service is called Jim Thorpe Taxi (570) 325-5466 which charges $3 to get in the cab plus $1.75 a mile. Mcdonalds is 6 miles from JF. MArtz returning to Philly daily is 1:45 pm and on Fridays and Sundays is 4:50 PM so I don't see any way to day trip this in just one day. There are local motels withing 5 miles of JF and BB. $200 should cover transportation and one night stay.

Well guys... now that the snow is here I figure we'll all get to get the lead out on the slopes. I'm going to miss the first weekend and weekdays attending two funerals. Live long and prosper people.

Snowboarding is back in full swing next week so kayaking is done until spring time. I know the local kayaking schools. I never considered doing river kayaking and lake kayaking isn't radical like whitewater but keeps a body in great shape and balance until the real fun starts again on the snow. Doing a five mile run around a lake every day for 6 months probably added at least another winter of life to my body.

Cold water is the last thing on my mind. Drowning is first. That's what I worry about. I try to stay out of the water. Most of the lake is no more than 3 feet deep when 100 feet from the shoreline so flipping would smack your head on rocks. If you fall in the best thing to do is walk out of the lake.