Robert2

Bright blue sky 30 degrees and groomed hardpack with an inch of sweet N low powder today. Very fast rides all day. JADIP http://www.djjohn.biz/s/index.html DOIT

The rain stopped at noon and I had a very dry day. Even saw saw blue sky at around 3PM. The rain lubed things up real nice and the riding was very fast everywhere. The surface was a mixed bag of very hard spots peeking out of the deep granular snow cone powder. ICE is NICE ......speed is good.... so armor up and go ride. I always wear knee pads ,wrist guards , and a helmet so I don't fear the hard spots. It was all groomed real nice so I found my fun today. JADIP http://www.djjohn.biz/s/index.html DOIT

Drizzle all day made it real wet and fast like softserve ice cream. VERY fast rides. Great day. I wore Kmart rubber rain suit pants over the usual snow clothes so I never got wet sitting on the lift but everyone else looked like the rain dance at Woodstock. Wet gloves...cold fingers seemed to be a problem for a few people. Bring dry spares instead of trying to figure out how to dry them for quarters. JADIP http://www.djjohn.biz/s/index.html DOIT

Yea...thats my wife

Its like riding a yoyo with the temp popping up and dropping down again daily. Winter was back today. Temp was below freezing last night so all the wet slop froze like concrete and it all groomed out real nice for today. The surface was hardpack cord with the nice sweet N low ground up top layer...some places 3 inches deep. Riding was very fast today. Each shot down the hill was a good pull.... like winning a slot machine. Big smile all day. Its been a long day. I just got home from playing a cello gig. JADIP http://www.djjohn.biz/s/index.html DOIT

Bright blue sky at noon and warm 44 degrees. I wore less layers and had welcomed the bit more freedom of motion too. The surface was groomed cord and melting so it was a lot like snowcone ice you eat at the carnival. It was wet and slick and had no stickyness like yesterday. Any snow that collected on top of my snowboard turned to water and dripped right off. JADIP http://www.djjohn.biz/s/index.html DOIT

Rained like a somnabitch all night in Thorpe but I never don't go to JF just because its raining here. It often rains in Jim Thorpe while snowing up on the mountain. Jack Frost is sort of the snowcapped peak around here. Sure enough... driving up 903 from Thorpe everything turned white on the peak. At 12:30 when I got out there was no more rain. The surface was very soft... mashed potato soft.... I couldn't find anything to edge on. It was all that pesky slow ride stuff the new skiers like to learn on. My ZARDOZ NOTwax liquid Teflon fluoropolymer oil wore off after 11 fast shots then the surface was too sticky for me. It will all freeze tonight. I'll be back tomorrow. JADIP

Blue skies and powder today. The powder made me work harder to get up to speed and stay at speed. No lines at the lift even though there was the average Friday influx of skiers. JADIP

All that new snow made for soft powder today. The surface was soft enough to make a 2 inch heel print when walking in boots. Not any lethal boiler plate today. This was the stuff all you skiers have been waiting for. Get some. JADIP

They are getting a bit ratty. They came with mitten liners. Basicly nothing more than Polartec mittens that fell apart from jamming the rollerblade wrist guard into it every day. So I bought a 10 yards of Polartec fabric and made replacement mitten liners. I was just blown away by the $75 price tag on the new Burton mittens so I figured I'd spend half that much and buy 10 yards of Polartec and use it to make the TWO mittens and line jackets and still have enough left over for 3 sleeping bags.

Yesterday's slush froze solid into solid concrete with todays temps in the 20s. Everything was groomed with nice cord covered with fine powder.... like sweet and low. It almost sounded like a screeming jet engine. They fired up the fan guns after lunch and this softened up the sruface quite a bit. I just found the perfect strip of boiler plate near the tree line and lapped the same strip over and over again all day. Sort of like Ground Hogs Day with Bill Murry. JADIP

The music playlist is mostly 60s 70s 80s classic rock. The burton mittens are 15 years old. The windsheild wiper chunk was added 5 years ago or so. Lots of gloves now have an ice scraper now. I never really needed an ice scraper as much as a windshield wiper. And wats up with the leggings bullshit? I guess they are not called leggings..... I guess you just call them snow pants.

Ice storm last night plus rain made today wet and fast. They did groom last night so there was perfect cord to ride...... with the added lubricant of the falling rain water. I could hear the rain sometimes while on the lift hitting my shoulders and helmet when lower volume parts of my IPOD songs were playing but it never bothered me. I wore $15 Kmart plastic rain pants on top of my snow leggings so I stayed real dry even when sitting on puddles on the lift seat. The windshield wiper I have sewn onto my mitten worked great. Just a few swipes before shooting down the hill. JADIP

Clear blue sky all day. The surface was groomed hardpack. Some boiler plate where the kids scraped of the snow. The kids had off from school today but there was no real crowds or wait time at the lift. JADIP

I've gotten a bit mellow in my old age. I'd say I play a "SWEET" fiddle more than I play a mean fiddle. http://www.strangebrewopenmic.com/Ashokenfarewell.mp3

When you stand at the edge of the abyss ready to go downhill in 8 degree air temperature with howling wind pushing UPHILL and the ground up hardpack ice tick tick ticking away like a sandblaster louder than your MP3 player on your goggles...... you have to dress like an astronaut. Fan guns everywhere. All day today. Partly cloudy sky with blue and bright sunshine peaking once in a while and the fanguns made rainbows again. Howling nonstop winds did a real good job of stealing the blowing snow and carrying to the next hills so I found some real prime boiler plate right next to the tree line and fan guns for most of the run down the hill but then had to cross into the new slow soft snow to get to the lift. The wind made the lift seat swing like a swing in a playground. Way cool. I was toasty all day. JADIP

Flow bindings have one strap that covers your whole instep compared to two straps on a standard Burton binding. When you step into the Flow binding you push up against the binding and close the rear trap door and it seems that closing that back door is almost impossible if everything is adjusted to the tightness I need to be in control. So I leave it just tight "enough" to not have to battle with closing it. Any tighter and it would feel as tight as a ski boot. Being that tight would cut off circulation and make cold feet. That sort of leaves it a bit mushy as far as too much flex when actually riding down the hill. BUT THATS OK because the foward foot does ALL the steering when carving and the the rear foot just goes along for the ride for 35 seconds then gets out again. The Burton binding has much better support and control without being crushing tight because it is two straps and there is a rotation adjustment on the back support so its more tailored fit.

The rain passed over JF and left before I arrived at 11AM. The lift seats were not soaked.... didn't get me wet wearing plain snowpants. The suface was a bit slushy but very well drained so I found NO hydroplaining. This surface was hard enough to ski without sinking but had enough of a slush give to make edging work. Plenty of of control and great speed all day long. Fog rolled in around 2:30. Very cool to play in the fog. I have a step-in FLOW binding mounted as my rear foot so I never actually had to sit down in the wet snow to strap in. JADIP

Blue skies until late afternoon. VERY fast rides on groomed hardpack again. Someone asked ANY POWDER yesterday. YES lots of powder everywhere. The newbies explode in a cloud like a duststorm when they land badly. Today was college day. Lots of young people to avoid running over on the hill but nothing crowded and no wait for the lifts. I rate today as a solid TEN for my riding pleasure. Now tomorrow looks like its going to be wet T shirt day. Heavy rain tonight will make fast slush. Water skiing is great!!!!!! I'll be wearing rain pants and stay dry sitting on the lift. 5 degrees or 50 degrees. I'll ride any time. JADIP

Perfect groomed hardpack. Great riding. JADIP GET SOME

I had a late start today with the TIMMY BUS getting me to JF after noon. The temp was 34 degrees which usually means sticky melting mash potato snow but NOT today on PLANET JACK FROST where water stays frozen on warm blue ski sunshiny days. The surface was very hard and as always groomed to perfection. I saw two kids who broke their arms today. Apparently they never heard of wrist guards, knee pads, or helmets. But for those of us who can ride on boiler plate or sugar or mashed or anything else mother nature hands us..... today was THE day for speed under a blue ski. JADIP

WMMR days are always real blast. A HUGE party everywhere. There's a great live band in the Cantina on the ground floor and the 2nd floor bar E2000 has live WMMR broadcasting. If its cold the drunks avoid the hills and the lifts are not crowded. The crowding looks JUST LIKE EVERY BLUE MOUNTAIN FRIDAY NIGHT. So if you are used to skiing with lots of people then its no big deal. I'd go but my bus service can't allocate the time for getting stuck in traffic getting in and out twice in one day. Go real early .... park before 8 AM ... and traffic won't be a problem. At 11 AM the traffic will look like the Schuylkill at 5PM.

Those rainbow makers blew a lot of snow last night. Tons of powder everywhere. This was the stuff that left footprints 6 inches deep if you gave a good kick. Slowed me down a little so I had to adjust at working to make speed. I'd rather carve on boiler plate ice or cord hardpack. Tomorrow is the real sh** show. I'm not going. JADIP

The fan guns were blasting all day under blue skies and made rows of rainbows all day. I'll bring a camera tomorrow. Lots of deep powder everywhere. JADIP

GSS:Tell us the truth R2D2...it was too cold out. It definitely was not too cold out for me. 10 minutes before the bus was supposed to pick me up I had to make PLAN B happen real quick. Normally I dress for the heated bus ride and dress out for snow when I get to JF but with this quick change of plans I put on the snow clothes and had the bus drop me off one mile up the hill at the pharmacy. So the mile walk down the hill was no big deal in 25 degrees. I only get one bus ride in morning. Its by appointment only. So I burnt that ticket getting to the pharmacy and lost my trip to JF. Its just something I had to do for my wife. But you would't know what that means. Or did you get married? I thought you were single. There really is no such thing as too cold for snowboarding. Snowboarding clothes are loose enough to bend all day long dealing with the bindings each time we get on and off the lift so I have lots of room to put on another layer against the cold. Snowboarding boots are huge compared to the plastic spaceman boots you guys call ski boots. I can wear snowboarding boots almost as loose as slippers and wear thick alpaca wool socks which are much warmer than the thin merino wool ski socks. And since I have not driven a car in 10 years and must walk everywhere I wear my snow clothes all winter on and off the ski slopes. So no. The truth is that it defintely was not too cold for me today. I'll be out there tomorrow. There's nothing more I can do for my wife if she's still sick tomorrow. She'll just sleep all day.