NightRider

Funny, that's what I used to believe of the surf cams back out in Cali when I lived out there. Then again no one was collecting for season wave passes.

I don't think anyone over there knows how to debug the thing. It'd be nice to have a more stable connection to it, but they run a wireless link to the cam. Traffic to it seems to have climbed so it very well could just be locking up from the load. I am not sure on the link to BC, but since they have WiFi in the hotel and restaurant area, I'd think they are running at least a good pipe to the facility. Would be nice if there were a hard line run to the cam to make it stream better.

Yeah, I was planning on getting over there but got tied up at work. Was hoping to hear more about the new plans. Hopefully the thin turnout doesn't stop the attempts to have these meetings!

Second vote is 'snow surfaces' though BC did a damn good job trying to save the whole hill after the warm we had that froze into a brick. But a holiday weekend is a showcase period so having the trails in top shape puts BC's best foot forward. Third vote is 'tickets' in that it'd be nice if off-peak passholders were extended a slight discount on peak day tickets ($5 or $10 off perhaps). I brought three full-fare visitors (+ rentals!) to BC because it is where I go and support. Others may do the same, so the break for offpeak passholders would probably pay off in spades.

Ha, I saw you out there too Mark! Though the 3 seconds it takes from standing to carried-away-by-lift-chair didn't lend itself to much 'hello' time given how crazy it was on Saturday. As for the faster lift plea... I think Mark addressed the inability to really put a high-speed quad in given the spacing requirements between chairs and the short line length to the top (since BC is a smaller mountain). Do they make upgrades for the drive system in these things? Always posed the question to friends 'if you had $1M and wanted a lift, who the heck to do call?' -- maybe you know as GM of a resort, perhaps these people have answers as to how to juice up the speed on that quad. Seems pokey, especially when it gets busy, and that isn't to note the frequent stops/slowdowns for kiddies, newbies, etc (which is to be expected). Another idea to further the point made by skierboy08 is to make the A chair for the parks only. Perhaps a way to help implement potential park-pass initiatives -- you can check for passes right there at the lift. No pass, no lift, no lift, no park...

I wonder if there has been any behind the scenes progress on the turn-tubing proposal and the park pass debate. Clearly a stab has been made at the minipark suggestion. I know I've seen some features built based of drawings handed in last time (I know I saw 1-2 of mine). I have a short list of questions, hopefully their answers will be forthcoming.....

The minijumps were pretty iced. They blew snow over everything all over the hill and groomed, but the minipark was still suffering from the melt/freeze issue. Negative tone aside, the size of things was good. The flat boxes, I thought, were the right size and such for the target audience. And yeah, they make it a much smaller price to practice nuttier moves on and off the boxes without the need to tumble 3-5 ft. off. For a first setup, not bad at all...

I will start with an appology for this b!+ch and whine post... Sorry, but after as much snow as we got, there really shouldn't be any excuse that the pipe is not in top condition. BC invested $1m or some large sum in a park bully and a pipe dragon yet it appears to be underused... The pipe was in dismal shape today. There were a few people I spoke with that were equally bummed that the park was not in better condition. It did look like the park crew came out late today (5ish?) as the top jump with flat-down rail got opened up after a little manual tweaking. Honestly though, with good temps and a lot of snow, everything should really get re-cut with the cat. Not to mention the small park was absent of any mini-tables, gaps, etc... I hate to complain when I know there are people who work hard over there to make things happen, but frankly now is the time to be showing off the BC's commitment to the park...

All I know is if they keep going "'til the well runs dry" AND we get the dump they are starting to predict (crossing fingers) we could actually, just possibly, put the idea of seeing BC stay open through March. That'd be very nice...

The ideas about the beginner park sound great. I hope that those of us theorizing this will draw people to their correct skill level will see that happen. When are you trying to have the next park meeting? Personally any day really works, maybe not as late as last time if at all possible -- seemed a lot of the younger guys couldn't stay the whole time as it got later on a school night.

Great info Mark. I too have noted that March seems to have a drop based on my own observation. If the push was put behind the park (which it clearly seems to be), and maintenance was kept up with given the typical warmer conditions, I think the park crowd would certainly still make it a point to 'ride out the season'. I like your angle on the cost cutting, makes sense to me. Interesting point as well about the power, I know lights must be a big part of it...

Just yesterday I was up on the lift above the dropin point for the top booter. One of the local ripper crew (identified only by the ability to pull flips) ran into this issue. He properly called his dropin and as he made his approach, a mother (?) and young child made the decision to cut across the leadin to the hit. Well our flipper was flippin' out floating F-bombs ("what the F are you doing?" etc etc) for getting cut off. I don't think this is what we were trying to say about an amicable method for expressing to lurkers that they should not be cruising the park with small children. Especially when they themselves are barely remaining upright (as i have seen experienced parents guide their kids through the park and that, I think, is acceptable).

I agree with the intermediate terrain point wholeheartedly. ...not to mention 'super park' means even more risk due to conditions -- you need snow, and this year's schenanigans with 60's in mid-January make it tough. Out west, they wake up to a foot of snow and expect it. You get help like that, it is just a matter of massaging it into place. Here we beg and plead only to get a major -rain- event that turns the place to a block of ice. A thought I've had for some time is (a question to Mark/grooming crew) what equipment is available to churn up the base to get it loamy again? I know there is that chain bar that beats the snow into submission, but is there anything else? Seems what happens a lot when it gets very icey is you see the groomer tracks in the ice where they made the pass over it. Is there anything that uses more of a crosshatch type of pattern to better chew the ice up (better 'granular' quality) and help minimize the edge-catching properties of said groomer tracks? Lastly, and I know I'm getting pretty far out here, but since we're talking about it..... Out west I've seen them section off the park (for us it'd be closing one park or the other) and bring out the cat for a midday/evening groom. Between this and the great efforts of the park crew, the hits would stay in premium shape. Again, I admit this may be out there, but I'm trying to think out of the box here...

Spring conditions are super fun (yesterday was a blast, albeit a bit slow in sections). Being willing to close the mountain and pull remaining caches of snow from the surrounding areas to continue to pull of the maintenance of the park would be a bold and most likely rewarded move. On a side thought, Mark, does management have reasoning assigned to the drop-off of skier traffic come spring? Do kids get out of school and parents take them elsewhere? Do people just get tired of winter? The answer to this may influence my thought process on this. Especially seeing how season passholders already paid their money. I am sure the driving force here is how many day-raters can you lure in to continue to drive positive cashflow (afterall the rest of the facility and staffing has to be there I suppose).

I said $120 for the pass and $25 for the ticket. I assume the pass is with regard to 'regular rate'. I pay $160 now by buying as soon as they go on sale and do so with a few friends to get the best rate possible. I would put my riding time at well over 80% in the park, so not accessing the rest of the hill wouldn't be a big bother. The only time it might be a bummer is if I come up with someone from work or something and they don't do parks and are much less skilled putting them elsewhere at BC. Perhaps the reason I put the ticket vote higher is to balance the price-crowd ratio. If it were too cheap, there'll be a million people in the park. Good for business, bad for the local crew and general safety (it already gets a bit nutty when there's a good park crowd there).

I was there today from about 3:45p to 5:45p. Just in time for the sun to come off it. Got solid. From what I heard from one of the guys there earlier was that it was nice. Some of the landings were a little trenched so it had to be softer earlier on. I tend to wreck in the ice, but that is not to say there were not a number of gnarly individuals throwing down despite the iceyness. Now as for conditions, hopefully someone will post pictures since I saw someone taking them in the park... Cascade Park: gap (15'-ish), small tabletop (12'), splits to same comp setup (two rails, C box), and small tabletop down at the end. Note there is now a nice starting spot heaped up on the left side before the rail section. Main Park (left side): twin booter (left low, right high), showtime booter (big! 25'? need lots of speed to clear it, perfect distance from top booter), rainbow rail, S rail, twin tabletop (15', left low, right high), rollercoaster rail. (no more dragontail/reverse rainbow rail) Main Park (right side): battleship rail, low rail, wall ride (set up decent), can't really make anything for the tabletop but can still hit the rollercoaster rail. Halfpipe taking shape but super chunky inside. Guess it was a rough cut to get the walls in place, need more snow to finish it out. Dimensions look alright with what appears to be about the same pitch as last year. Personally I think some of the trannys are a bit lipped up and could feel it in my knees pretty quick. Someone on the lift said the same thing to me so this is at least two men's opinions... Other than that, a great setup! Now if I can get out of work early and get a second run at the setup when it is a little softer and has a better feel...

Could be worse... Could be so slow due to the mud and rocks that are everywhere... Amen for this cold snap! Looked like they got blowing in all day long, not just night. Hopefully after the next day or two, it'll be time to push all this around and make something productive out of it...

Since the park is closed until the comp, will there be a set amount of practice runs? If so, when will that time begin? Thanks.

That's quite a lot of auxillary space. How much do you and the other planners feel can be developed into productive space other than the aforementioned turn of tubing? I don't think the money would be well spent on a h.s. quad. The upgrade awhile back of the B lift to quad status helped tons. If A lift could go triple or quad, that'd probably solve peak time load from the main base area. I don't think I've ever really seen issues over on F lift (line-wise) even though it is the longest lift run. Seems the heavy traffic is that base area due to the park, etc. Sat, Sun, and even Mon night should yield cold enough temps to blow. However the real challenge for the snow crew is going to be the delightful breeze (20-25mph; 40+ gusts) on Sat and Sun. Too bad the timing just didn't connect to allow for blowing before this comp today. With the rain and all, will they pull the plug on it? Oh, one other thing... I know it's been rough, but I wanted to mention that the lift crew should check the line lanes for exposure given this snow issue. There was some gravel and such coming through enough just to expose the tops of the small rocks and one of them laid a nice gouge in the bottom of my brand new board. I haven't checked with the tuning shop, but I know they're going to need to grind the thing pretty good to repair it. This is at the park/tubing side entry to B lift. Esp. the 'double' and 'triple' lanes.

Uhhh... It hasn't been cold enough to blow for some time now (with exception for a night or two last week). This heavy rain from yesterday evening certainly didn't help. Anyone know if they are still planning on reworking the Cascade park for the comp?

Mark, First off, I am glad to hear of the well-rounded plans. I was already happy about you mentioning the 90' tubing-turn at the park meeting so the rest is equally great. The most important is that the owners are into it as well (they have to sign the $1.5M check, ha!). Anyhow, I just want to add my vote for additional lighting around the park. The main area tends to be around the top/middle of Cascade, near the first merge point from Black Bear. Tends to be darker in there. Other areas aren't too bad. A bit more on the Cascade side of Black Bear Park (skier right to use your term).

What's there (BC) is ok given the snow situation. However the drop in for the top booter needs love (really working down to ground since so many check their speed right there). The spine needs a reform since the sides are getting sliced off and getting tight almost-vert. The two mini's over in the little park are super fun but someone got pretty worked over there last night (around 6:45p 1/9). Proof little stuff can still bite you. While on the topic, a place for a perfect little booter is at the top of the "pipe" (just aside of the wall ride). There is a small hump there that you can grab a little air before heading to the dragontail/urban rails. If there was a little more build-up, it could be productive... Just a thought...

The rollercoaster had a gap open in the middle and was screwing people up... It is tight if you are just trying to 50/50 the thing, but I think the proper strategy for success is to ride up and olly to boardslide the first hump then boardslide it the rest of the way. Saw one guy working this out and almost had it licked. The other was 50/50 the first hump then transition to boardslide at the bottom trough, seemed more difficult that way though. The dragontail (aka reverse rainbow, etc) was being hit by almost everyone. Some sick bastard was front-flipping off the end -- how exactly does one even begin to try pulling that -- I digress... Anyhow, many 50/50's and boardslides going down over there. Almost impossible to get stuck at the top (on-ramp) so it was a little easier on the learning curve.

Sounds like some people were peeved but the bottom line is this: the policies are not new and have not changed in a long time... The week between xmas and new years is considered a holiday, as is 1/16 and 2/20 (please see the bottom of http://www.skibearcreek.com/rates/season_passes.cfm). I hate it too since at work, things are slow and I can bail out early... But instead I wait until 4p. Keep in mind this is vastly superior to my former mountain, JF+BB. Their policy was offpeak meant weekdays only. None of this after-4p stuff. Keep in mind also, the offpeak passes pre-season/multi discount is quite good. I am sure opinions may vary, but once I was in the realm of old-enough-to-pay-full-price, their deals were vastly superior to paying well into the $200's up at JF+BB... Just my $0.02...

If you read this when you get back, post how things are looking... I'll prob. hit it after work tomorrow if things are turning around.