skipatrol

I vote for a 7 springs subforum. I patrol at 7 Springs and end up skiing at least 25 days a year there so I could definately contribute.

Leaving the area is legal as long as its through an open gate, but once you leave the boundary of the ski area you are considered to be out of bounds. There is no avalance control outside the ski area boundaries. It is an extremely bad idea to ski out of bounds without a tranciever, probe, shovel, a partner, and avalance knowledge. There were actually two seperate accidents last year from skiers without avalanche equipment or knowledge leaving Snowbasin and skiing off the back of the No Name Area (out of bounds). There was one fatality and another guy was burried up to his neck but dug himself out. Here are the reports: http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/Accidents/Ac...n%202-17-07.htm and http://www.avalanche.org/~uac/Accidents/Ac...yon,2-27-07.htm.

That chute in the fifth picture is out of bounds and it looks to be a hell of a hike from the top of the Strawberry Gondola.

Chances are if a trail is closed the Knob, it is probably not worth skiing. They are usually very liberal with their trail openings.

check out this news article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080103/ap_on_...airlift_death_2

You can call me alpine-Scott.

Winds are a bullshit reason?

As a pro patroller at Camelback I can say that lifts at Camelback are never closed due to the potential of an evacuation. I can also say with almost absolute certainty that no resort in the world would close a lift due to the potential of an evacuation. We can reach the liftlines of all of the Camelback lifts in minutes, even the Stevenson. The Stevenson unloading is much more exposed to the prevailing western winds on the mountain. That is the reason why it may be closed on some days while the Sullivan is turning. All too often, Papasteeze, your arguments are based upon a misunderstanding of the facts. This last one was no exception. I suggest you check the accuracy of your information before you post again, as each one of these ignorant comments destroys your reputation and whittles away at your credibility. Its at the point now where I wonder how anyone could ever take you seriously.

Coming from Philly, Bedford is your best bet. It is around 20 min from the mountain, on the way, and you can find some cheap hotels. It is definately worth the trip from Philly.

I was at the Knob on Sunday also. Classic Knob with probably 50 people there all day on a Sunday. The wind on the eastern side of the mountain was relatively calm the whole day. Extrovert was awesome. Ungroomed snow whales down the whole thing. No need to have any other trails when that's open. The western side of the mountain was pretty windswept and very windy, especially at 7 pm. The repair shop guy who is there in the afternoons did some work for me. He's a great guy and does some quality work. Its definately worth getting a tune there.

The Knob is sick. Upper Extrovert should be open this weekend. Western PA skiing is very underrated.

I've been a skier for almost all my life and a patroller for the past 6 years and I'm willing to admit that a snowboard is probably better designed to take a toboggan down on steeper terrain. The main technique for taking a toboggan down on steeper terrain on a snowboard is a heel slide as compared to a slideslip on skis. The heel slide is definitely a more natural position than a slideslip and I'm sure it is more comfortable over long distances. In reality, toboggan accidents are so rare that they are almost non-existent. I guarantee that it is safer to ride down the mountain lying in a toboggan than it is skiing, boarding, or snowblading down. (Definitely a lot safer than snowblading.) All patrollers that are certified to take down toboggans are highly proficient regardless if they use teles, alpines, or a snowboard. Refusing treatment or transportation down the mountain due to someone

There have been plenty of ticket sales this past week. Christmas week is one of the big money-making weeks of the season. Also, MLK weekend is coming up soon. The pattern for the past week has been to make snow on all of the trails that we are currently skiing at night. During mountain operating hours, they have been making on Marjies, Sullivans, John Baily, and Lower Cleo/Home Again. In highly marginal conditions, I'm pretty sure that is all they can do. Even the rented suplementary compressors are running in the morning. If you did a little investigative work on my user name, you would realize why I am not the one being mislead. I believe you are misleading yourself.

It is one thing to make comments based on the facts, but we see time and time again that Papasteeze bases his arguments on made-up information. I hope that no one takes his comments seriously. CB has been making snow every chance they get to the point that they shut the guns off at the last possible second. There have even been a few nights where they plan to make snow and the snowmaking crew is in all night, but it doesn't get cold enough to blow. There have even been a few nights where they started up the guns for only a few hrs until the sun started to come up. If you think they aren't making as much as possible to save money, you're crazy. They need as much snow as possible just to stay open and maintain their trail count. Having to close the mountain for lack of snow would cost a lot more than the cost to make marginal snow. In addition, the weather patterns lately have been creating temperature inversions. Therefore, some nights Blue (at a lower elevation) can have better snowmaking temperatures while CB is too warm. Also, CB did make snow on 13 trails on Sat night/Sun morn. Sure they didn't make on all of the trails simultaneously, but they made a decent amount of progress. It wasn't a lie as Papasteeze claims.

CB has had 4 ways down from the top since Christmas, not two.

Just a quick note. On Wednesday, Marc Anthony, Upper Cleo, Honeymoon, and Spinx were being groomed until 9 AM because they wanted an extra hour to make snow on them. They were opened at 9.

A brief primer on Climate Change from someone who studies it in grad school. First of all, I would like to state that while skiing is my favorite thing to do, the effects of climate change on the ski resort industry is nothing compared to the effects on human civilization in general. I want to refute some of the points that skierdaddy had. Skierdaddy states that there is no evidence that fossil fuels have caused global warming. While we may never be able to experimentally prove a direct relationship between greenhouse gasses and global warming in the lab, all theoretical calculations and science in general make this connection. Global temperatures do fluctuate but a graph of annual temperature vs. time looks sort of like the Stevenson at Camelback. (Rolls and small bumps early on, then a steep increase of a much greater slope as you get to the upper mountain) This steep increase starts at our industrial revolution. While we can

I've been an eastern PA skier all of my life, but started skiing at Seven Springs last season. It does not compare to any of the eastern resorts. There is more natural snow, the trails are rediculously wide, and you can pretty much go anywhere there is snow including in the trees. The snow quality is considerably better than eastern PA and their snowmaking is rediculous. Every trail is lined by tower mounted HKD guns. Also it is usually a few degrees colder in Western PA than the poconos. Most of the acreage is on the backside which has a pretty decent vert (750 ft) and headwalls at the top and bottom of the mountain on the diamonds (no runouts). The only issue is that the lifts are all pretty slow except the six pack which can only be used to go across the mountain or for the novice slopes. They usually have nice handmade bumps and only groom half of some trails. They also have 275 acres which is at least 150 acres bigger than the next biggest in PA and bigger than Hunter.

I'm not a regular at The Knob, but I went up there a couple times last year. The Knob is awesome, the snowmaking is pretty iffy, but the mountain is great. The vert is pretty decent and the expert trails use a large amount of it with no runout. Extrovert is steep, even comparable to something like lower k27 at Hunter. There are also some crazy gladed trails but I got the impression that they are rarely open.

7 Springs is much taller than Bear Creek. What you saw from the hotel was only the front side of the mountain. The back side has a vertical drop of 750 ft and has a bunch of really wide diamonds and some really good glade skiing. Its definately an awesome mountain.