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ironlung
Dec 31, 2001

Disinterested posted:

Caught some turns at Highlands today before it closed, and at A-Basin. A-basin is really holding up.

I skied Highlands yesterday and was shocked by how much snow is still up there. The rock outcropping on the bowl hike is still completely buried and we are 3 days away from May. Crazy.

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Eejit
Mar 6, 2007

Swiss Army Cockatoo
Cacatua multitoolii

So sad I am working in Denver this weekend. Highlands looks so good from town

Definitely going to get a day or maybe two in at Abasin in May. So fun and I absolutely need some of that mid mountain BBQ

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Eejit posted:

So sad I am working in Denver this weekend. Highlands looks so good from town

Definitely going to get a day or maybe two in at Abasin in May. So fun and I absolutely need some of that mid mountain BBQ

The GF had a beach spot on May 19th. Big party, do come.

Anybody on here welcome to swing by. Let me know if you want the details

spwrozek fucked around with this message at 19:41 on Apr 28, 2019

Moot .1415926535
Mar 24, 2006

Yep, that's pretty much it.
Thinking about sneaking away to a-basin this weekend. Looking for a cheap AirBnB, but not sure which town to stay in. Thoughts?

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Frisco or Dillon. Being able to walk to good and drink is nice. I an usually in Dillon. Arapahoe case is great, pugs is not bad. Best brewery is outer range in Dillon though.

Moot .1415926535
Mar 24, 2006

Yep, that's pretty much it.
How far from the mountain if we aprés and have to drive back to Dillon? Was thinking a surrounding ski town where the mountain is closed (keystone?) might have super cheap AirBnBs?

Eejit
Mar 6, 2007

Swiss Army Cockatoo
Cacatua multitoolii

I doubt even Breck is all that expensive. I think Frisco or Dillon will be better than Keystone which will be hyper dead. But if you don't care about going out to eat or drink in the evenings, Keystone would be a good play

Agreed on Outer Range. I should have stopped and gotten a growler fill as I drove by twice this past weekend

Moot .1415926535
Mar 24, 2006

Yep, that's pretty much it.
I really like Frisco. Will most stuff be open?

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

It was two weekends ago. Some of the places will go on mud season break soon but most stay open.

Disinterested
Jun 29, 2011

You look like you're still raking it in. Still killing 'em?

spwrozek posted:

Frisco or Dillon. Being able to walk to good and drink is nice. I an usually in Dillon. Arapahoe case is great, pugs is not bad. Best brewery is outer range in Dillon though.

Outer Range is terrific.

Moot .1415926535
Mar 24, 2006

Yep, that's pretty much it.
We decided on Moab but I’ll hopefully be headed to A Basin later this month. The desert beckons. Will definitely try that brewery.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


11 cm fresh at sunshine and no one was here.

And work paid for the day!

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Woot, I tore the whole toe box out of my snowboard boots. Just got new ones. I never look forward to breaking in boots.

E: snowboard boots 26.5, ski boots 24.5. differences are weird

spwrozek fucked around with this message at 00:04 on May 3, 2019

Nutsack Rangoon
Mar 30, 2010

EVERYTHING IS NUMBERED HERE. THE MONSTER IS ZERO.
Maybe a sad question but: I'm moving to NJ in the fall. What's my best option for a mountain?

Varg
Jan 13, 2007

A friendly face.

Nutsack Rangoon posted:

Maybe a sad question but: I'm moving to NJ in the fall. What's my best option for a mountain?

Blue Mountain - probably the biggest option
Camelback - prob the 2nd biggest
Shawnee Mountain - family oriented place for mostly newbies
Mountain Creek - I haven't been there in a long time and can't remember what it's even like, but Yuns goes there
Jack Frost - small place with short but fun trails
Big Boulder - small place for all park riding
Elk Mountain - maybe the furthest away but has some good trails

I barely go around here anymore and just end up saving my money for trips to Vermont.

Master_Odin
Apr 15, 2010

My spear never misses its mark...

ladies

Nutsack Rangoon posted:

Maybe a sad question but: I'm moving to NJ in the fall. What's my best option for a mountain?
Go to Vermont.

Wistful of Dollars
Aug 25, 2009

Bilirubin posted:

11 cm fresh at sunshine and no one was here.

And work paid for the day!

Boooooo boo this man

Yuns
Aug 19, 2000

There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

Varg posted:

Blue Mountain - probably the biggest option
Camelback - prob the 2nd biggest
Shawnee Mountain - family oriented place for mostly newbies
Mountain Creek - I haven't been there in a long time and can't remember what it's even like, but Yuns goes there
Jack Frost - small place with short but fun trails
Big Boulder - small place for all park riding
Elk Mountain - maybe the furthest away but has some good trails

I barely go around here anymore and just end up saving my money for trips to Vermont.
Varg's write up is a very good description of the local PA/NJ scene. I am a Mountain Creek regular. It's small and crowded but it's within 50 minutes of me so we chose it for our kids ski race team and I ride there all the time. It's the closest resort to NYC so you get insane crowds of first day skiers from the city on holiday weekends. But season pass holders get 8-9 am early lift access and also the place is completely different on weekdays when it's empty. So if you know how to avoid crowds you can have a good time there. I'll attach my guide to MC I wrote a while ago.

As far as good skiing/riding go, heading to Gore or even all the way to Whiteface in NY would be adviseable. Also Southern Vermont is not too bad a drive. Killington if you can stand crowds, Okemo if you want a family friendly place filled with blue groomers etc. I don't go to PA and have never been there. My buddies seem to like Blue and Big Boulder but if I need to travel further than an hour, I'll just go to Vermont or Gore in NY.

What Mountain Creek is and what it is not

Mountain Creek is a privately-owned ski resort in NJ. It has 1040 feet of vertical on 43 trails on 167 acres on 4 hills. They do a ton of snowmaking (100% coverage). It used to be privately owned then was sold to Intrawest and is now back in private hands then switched hands again twice. The good thing about being in private hands is that it is not subject to the whims of big corporate ownership, but the bad thing about private ownership is that it doesn’t have the resources of big corporate ownership. It is split into 4 peaks, Vernon and Granite ("North") and South and Bear ("South"). North is where most of the beginner terrain as well as baby park are. South is were the full parks and racing are. The two areas are connected by a trail Southern Sojurn and a long double chair.

Mountain Creek is not a Whistler or a Breckenridge or a Killington or a Whiteface. If you’re expecting a destination resort experience, you are going to be disappointed. It’s a local resort closest to NYC and draws a local NJ/NYC area crowd.

Timing is Everything

Because is so close to NYC, it draws huge weekend and holiday crowds from NYC and NJ including a lot of first timers and novices. If you go during peak times, you are going to have to deal with crowds: at the ticket booth, at the rental shop, at the lift lines, in the parking lot. There is no way to have a crappier experience at Mountain Creek than to spend 30 minutes waiting for a bus, an hour plus in a rental line then 30 minutes in a lift line.

If you can, come at off peak days and times. Non-holiday weekdays are great especially the mornings and daytime. There is almost no one there and you can often feel like you have the resort to yourself. The experience is totally different when you don’t have to deal with crowds and you can ride right back to the front of the lift and go right back up. Any downtime is up to you. Group lessons can become semi-private or private if you go during the week and there aren’t other people to take the group lessons. This is especially common in the Kids Kamp on weekdays.

If you do have to come during weekends or holidays, come first thing in the morning or come for night riding. On Saturday and Sunday, season ticket holders get an hour earlier lift access on the main hill Vernon as well as South and Bear at 8 am. That’s an hour of fresh trails and no crowds. On weekends, a lot of local season ticketholders will just ride 8-10 am or so on weekends just to get some runs in while avoiding the crowds. There will be a slight surge in crowds right at 9 am when the lifts open to the general public.

Even if you don’t have a season pass, 9-11 am will generally be the lowest crowds until the night. Even though you’ll have to deal with crowds eventually, getting a couple of hours of stress-free riding makes the later crowds more tolerable. In addition, generally, night skiing will have fewer crowds as well if you are not a morning person. You can ride until 9 pm or 10 pm depending on the peak on Friday and Saturday and 8 pm or 9 pm every other day.

You can also go when conditions are bad. I’ve had great days of riding on which the conditions are supposed to be bad: super cold and windy or super warm and slushy or rain. The bad conditions keep crowds away and as long as you can tolerate the conditions you can get a lot of runs in. When it’s very windy, you can be assured that they will close the cab lift and will be running the triple chair so keep that in mind.

Equipment

Avoid renting at Mountain Creek. The rental line can get huge and when everyone needs to be fitted for boots it can take forever. This is the single longest wait. Rent someplace else beforehand. Try to avoid lines. If you can have a lift ticket such as a triple pass mailed, do that instead of waiting at ticket window lines. Also get your own helmets if you don’t have them. Do you really want a crappy rental helmet that who knows how many heads have been in. Also helmets are required by NJ law for kids under 18 so buy your kid a decent helmet.

The one exception to the “no rentals at Creek” advice is for kids in the Kids Kamp. They have a separate Kids Kamp cabin and the coaches there will take care of all the equipment and your kids so there is no significant wait for the parents. Just fill out the forms and drop off your kid. So for Kids Kamp, you can feel free to get the rental equipment there. Kids Kamp is pricey in fact the price went up this year but can be worth it. If you do the all day class, they even feed your kid lunch.

Parking

I sometimes pay for preferred parking near the lifts at Vernon or just over the pedestrian bridge because I’m lazy. But there are shuttle buses from the free parking lots or you can walk, and you can actually drive in to the paid parking area near the Vernon lifts for 15 minute drop off and then go to the free parking lot. If you are going to South or Bear, parking is right across the street from the lodge at South.

Lunch

The only bigger horror show than the rental line is the cafeteria. The cafeteria gets packed at peak mealtimes and there are few seats available. In addition the resort food like all resort food is expensive. A lot of people send in the non-skier to hold the tables and seats from morning and you’ll see unused seats with gear strategically placed on them. If you get someone to go upstairs at the Lodge to the pub, Schuss, at around 11:30 or so you can generally get seated there and the prices are not that much more than the cafeteria. There you can grab and early lunch then bail back to ride when the crowds are coming in for lunch. If you don’t mind paying Manhattan prices, then there is a sit down restaurant, Hawk’s Nest, at the back exit from the cafeteria. It is quiet and has a nice private bathroom there. Alternatively you can stay riding and then come in late around 2ish to eat lunch at the cafeteria dining area as a lot of people will have cleared out by then. There is a bar outside you can eat at as well but it can fill up pretty early as well. There is also a bbq and bar next to lodge close to the Sugar Slope that never seems busy.

For South they have a cafeteria as well as a sit down restaurant and bar, Kink, and a hot dog shop. The cafeteria is crowded but it's the best option because the service at Kink is atrocious. If you go to Kink sit at the bar. The wait staff takes forever. There's a hot dog place next to Kink with faster service but weak rear end food.

The peaks and avoiding crowds

Vernon (also called North) is the main peak for beginners and intermediate non-park riders. Granite is for more experienced beginners and intermediates. South has the terrain parks and Bear has racing. Vernon will be the most crowded and have the largest number of clueless people. When Vernon starts getting crowded, get off Vernon. A lot of people will ride right over to Granite from the top of Vernon as soon as it opens around 9 am. South and Bear are always less crowded but note that some Bear trails are closed for racing on a regular basis.

The Sugar Slope of Vernon has its own small lift and is the first area for novices that have just moved up to riding the chair lift from the magic carpet. The lines can get long and the slope crowded. There are fewer crowds to the skiers right of the Sugar Lift and to the skiers far right of the Sugar Lift is a small ungroomed area that is rideable. On Vernon, most of the trails have little side hits and areas where you can dip just off the groomed trail momentarily. Just don’t drop into the side with the pipes and equipment for snowmaking.

Granite is not for complete novices but has some intermediate runs. It also has the only steep run Pipeline which is now always closed.

From Granite, Southern Sojourn will take you over to South. This is a long flat traverse with several uphill sections. Keep your speed up. You may still have some small sections to skate or walk. A lot of people just take the shuttle bus to South instead.

One note if you are NOT going to hit the terrain park features, try to stay off of South and go to Bear or Granite. South is a dedicated park and just riding laps through it without hitting features is not really advisable. There are reasons to ride through: if you want to ride the Sojourn double chair back to Granite for example or if you are scoping out features before hitting them. But learn basic park etiquette and don’t ride through the landing or worse yet stop on a landing.

If you are a total beginner in the park, Twist and Independence Pass on Vernon have beginner parks to get comfortable on small hits and ride on boxes instead of going to South. There is even a free park class there on Sundays around 11 for kids.

Also note that on the weekends, Kamikaze on Bear is usually closed because of the race teams and sometimes there are racing gates on Big Bear on the skiers right side.

If you choose to stay on Vernon when the crowds arrive, stay off the main green run Horizon. Horizon becomes a total horror show when its crowded with tons of novices. Instead ride the blue runs (Great Northern or Foxtail to Garden State) until they get crowded then ride the black runs Straightaway or Zero-G which never get crowded. Note that the black runs can be icy or have moguls depending on the conditions but there will never be crowds on them. They will post on the conditions report if the run has moguls. Also if you stay at Vernon, use the singles line for the Cab. It moves much faster and they pack in 8 to a cab. When the triple chair opens, you can use the triple as well but it is extremely slow. The triple is off to the skiers left at the Cab down a short traverse. So you’ll have to balance the wait at the Cab with the slowness of the triple in deciding which to use.

Yuns fucked around with this message at 15:35 on May 3, 2019

Nutsack Rangoon
Mar 30, 2010

EVERYTHING IS NUMBERED HERE. THE MONSTER IS ZERO.
Thanks! I'll start looking at some of these. Any of them have good bumps or trees?

Varg
Jan 13, 2007

A friendly face.

I know Blue Mountain and Jack Frost make some bumps, and you can go through trees a little at Jack Frost since they intentionally blow snow on the sides of some trails for it. "Good" is not really the word I'd use to describe it though.

LostCosmonaut
Feb 15, 2014

If you're willing to drive as far as southern Vermont I would definitely recommend Magic Mountain. Decently sized area with a lot of good terrain (especially if you like steep stuff and trees), and very uncrowded especially on weekdays (that they're open, they only open Thursday-Sunday, unless they get a bunch of snow). Also they're finally replacing their old lift dating to 1962!

As mentioned, Gore is also a good area with a big variety of terrain.

HookShot
Dec 26, 2005
I have the world's worst google tan right now.

Bilirubin
Feb 16, 2014

The sanctioned action is to CHUG


HookShot posted:

I have the world's worst google tan right now.

I have the goggle + balaclava thing going on, so its like just my round red center face like a bulls eye

Not sure what I did the other day to completely wreck my calves but two days later and they hurt even more

Apparently I need to ski more to hurt less

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

I rode some pretty legit cold powdery snow today.

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

HookShot posted:

I have the world's worst google tan right now.

Ah, this is when you search for something so much, you get a monitor UV burn with mirrored search results.

japtor
Oct 28, 2005

Bilirubin posted:

I have the goggle + balaclava thing going on, so its like just my round red center face like a bulls eye

Not sure what I did the other day to completely wreck my calves but two days later and they hurt even more

Apparently I need to ski more to hurt less
I had goggles with balaclava pulled down around my chin...skin burn ended up looking like the new Joker, red nose and big rear end smile.

And some of my toes are still kinda numb. Weeks later :ohdear:. drat boots.

Yuns
Aug 19, 2000

There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

HookShot posted:

I have the world's worst google tan right now.
So jealous. I just bought a skateboard yesterday to scratch that boarding itch in the off season even though I have skated in like 3 decades.

Rated PG-34
Jul 1, 2004




Yuns posted:

So jealous. I just bought a skateboard yesterday to scratch that boarding itch in the off season even though I have skated in like 3 decades.

All the hotness is electric skateboards these days. Get with the pogrom old man

Yuns
Aug 19, 2000

There is an idea of a Yuns, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real me, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I simply am not there.

Rated PG-34 posted:

Get with the pogrom old man
:stare: Did your . . . did your phone autocorrect to that?

Moey
Oct 22, 2010

I LIKE TO MOVE IT

Yuns posted:

So jealous. I just bought a skateboard yesterday to scratch that boarding itch in the off season even though I have skated in like 3 decades.

Strangely enough, I plan on doing the same thing this summer. See how bad I am after not skateboarding since highschool.

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Moey posted:

Strangely enough, I plan on doing the same thing this summer. See how bad I am after not skateboarding since highschool.

I took like 12 years off and then skated for about 3 months before I met my girlfriend 4 years ago (read as I no longer skate). It was surprising how fast shuvits and kickflips and riding mini ramps came back.

Ola
Jul 19, 2004

The Clavicle Club is recruiting all year!

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Ola posted:

The Clavicle Club is recruiting all year!

What did you do?

Sorry for jinxing y'all...

japtor
Oct 28, 2005
How about freeboards? :raise: (or Leiftech board if you want an electric freeboard)

I have a Onewheel, which is advertised and talked about as being like snowboarding but it’s pretty different, mostly cause the lack of horizontal sliding I think. Still fun and a lot easier personally, but I’m someone with a lot more experience on that thing than snowboarding.

Its "eat poo poo" failure mode if you go too fast for the battery/motor leaves something to be desired though. Many broken clavicles on the various Onewheel groups I’ve seen :v:

spwrozek posted:

What did you do?

Sorry for jinxing y'all...
Already happened! From the last page:

Ola posted:

My skate race is on tomorrow. 37 km, forecast is +4C, rain and 15 mph headwinds. It was nice knowing you all.

Wistful of Dollars posted:

What's the worst that could happen?

Ola posted:

Many things can happen. You can for instance fall and break your collarbone, which I did.
More detailed posts after that.

japtor fucked around with this message at 00:44 on May 6, 2019

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

I thought it was more, like now both are broken

E: I now realize what he meant. I chalk it up to a lot of mountain biking and being way tired.

spwrozek fucked around with this message at 01:05 on May 6, 2019

Moey
Oct 22, 2010

I LIKE TO MOVE IT

japtor posted:

How about freeboards? :raise: (or Leiftech board if you want an electric freeboard)

I have a Onewheel

I got to cruise around town last summer on a one wheel, was fun but I wouldn't buy one.

Those electric freeboards look pretty awesome.

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Moey posted:

I got to cruise around town last summer on a one wheel, was fun but I wouldn't buy one.

Those electric freeboards look pretty awesome.

I would consider a one wheel if they were like $300 maybe. But they are kind of big to carry around. I get much more milage out of me bike.

il serpente cosmico
May 15, 2003

Best five bucks I've ever spend.
I want on my first back-country snowboarding trip yesterday. My friend and I climbed Diamond Peak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Peak_(Oregon)) and rode down the SW Bowl, eventually cut over to the ridge we climbed up on, and were able to continue pretty deep into the woods until it flattened out too much to continue on a snowboard. But we only had to hike about a mile back to the car. We only saw a dozen other people up there, despite it being pretty much a perfect day on the weekend. Everyone else was skinning, but we were boot packing it. I got some photos.

Here is the mountain poking out of the trees. You can see the ridge we climbed up. It's facing the camera and treed pretty much all the way up:


Gettin' higher (my friend is a skier):


Final walk from the false summit to the summit:


View to the north (I believe the four main peaks you can see in the distance from right to left are Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top, The South Sister, and The Middle Sister):


Tracks in the bowl we came down:


This was a good combination of type 1 and type 2 fun. I can't wait to do some more.

spwrozek
Sep 4, 2006

Sail when it's windy

Awesome man. Looks like fun!

When in doubt I am always skinning. The whole point is keeping the weight off your back.

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Rated PG-34
Jul 1, 2004




One wheel nosedives sound p scary, and the fact it could happen from mechanical failure. Also, judging by forum posts, one wheel community fanboys are really annoying, but that’s sorta neither here nor there.

The leiftech board is neat but I hear it’s a maintenance nightmare

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