The Challenge: To dispel the myth that skiing and snowboarding need to be expensive activities. Each participant will have a budget of $200 to get as many days on the mountain as possible between Nov. 1st and May 1st. The three main options will be 1. small forgotten ski hills, 2. backyard trails and parks, and 3. backcountry hiking only.
The Rules: A day will be made up of either 4 or more hours lift accessed or 2 or more hours of hiking. Cross country skiing will not be counted. Expenses will be any cash spent from the time a participant leaves their house until they returned home. Gas expenses will not count towards the budget. No illegal means will be utilized. Days will count upon submission and approval of expense report. Talking your way into tickets is allowed. Winner will be known through-out the land as a hero and a champion.
The Poor People: last updated on 11.03.2006
- snowboarder
- 13 years riding
- quote: "There wasn't much to do, all the bowling alleys had been wrecked, so as I spent most my time looking for beer."-Bob McKenzie "Strange Brew"
- target total days: 20
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
- skier / tele
- 10 years skiing
- quote: "and do yourself a favor, become your own savior." Daniel Johnston
- target total days: xx
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
- skier
- xx years skiing
- quote:
- target total days: xx
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
- sledder
- 22 years sledding
- quote: "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Then quit. If you fail three times in a row, you're probably best off doing something else."
- target total days: more than 3 days
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
note: photo found by googling "Cinadr"
- skier
- xx years skiing
- quote:
- target total days: xx
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
- snowboarder
- 5 years riding
- quote: "It can't be that hard to blog." -Kevin Sweeney
- target total days: 15
- total days: 0
- total $ spent: 0
- total miles driven: 0
- episodes:
We would love to have more entries, if you would like to participate, please contact me at nathaniel@badcolonies.org
PMW Day 1: Thanksgiving
Represent
On Friday, the family and I rolled over the big hill to Waitsborough for a rail jam at the Big Picture. My buddy JJ helped organized and managed to pull off a really chill set-up. I’m old, so I don’t know who won or anything. I can tell you that the Harman brothers are real good. This was as close as I got to an action photo the whole weekend. The new rails and such that Superparx built for Sugarbush look really tight. Props to Pure Snowboard, The Buzz, Sugarbush and the Big Picture for putting on a great contest. Hopefully it becomes an annual gig.
Warmth, beer, frontrow seats, not too bad of an evening. The daughter got a “Snowboarding is not a crime” (anti-Mad River Glen) t-shirt and promptly dumped a cup of hot chocolate on it. Being a father rules.
Yesterday, I decided that spending $29 for a half day ticket at Sugarbush was a better idea than sitting on my butt. It certainly seemed questionable once I hit the parking lot. I met up with my sister and shredded gnar for awhile until my legs felt like manure. There’s a tiny speck of white up there somewhere.
Couldn’t complain about the liftlines.
Jibbonks
I could go on a big rant about how bad the conditions were, but in the end it was a ton of fun. However, I will say this is the worst Thanksgiving conditions I can remember. Lil Sister on the hill, first day is good regardless of the conditions
Okay, the greatest brainwashing of all time is the fact that skiers actually think bumps are a good thing. I have a theory, back in the early 80s, Regan was prez and ski equipment was much improved. All of sudden people started to question conditions. The ski areas were scared so they hired Karl Rove. Karl spun the story and got bump skiing into the olympics. All of a sudden, all the skiers were like, “yeah those bumps are killer, I hear they are as big as cars on Outer Limits.” I don’t buy the bumps are good bs and I didn’t vote for bush.
We all hung at my mother’s farm for turkey day. The daughter likes chasing animals and the scary Emus like chasing daughter
Tranquilty and Bob, inverses
The Waiting Game
The essential ingredient to any winter downhill activity is snow. We don’t have any. While it is still early in the season, this is quietly building as the worst early season in recent memory. This is a big deal for the ski areas of the Northeast, Thanksgiving is an important weekend for the big boys, it sets the tone for the entire year. Right now, no one can even make snow. Fret not kids, Coles Pond Weathercam and the NOAA are predicting snow from Friday through Monday.
In the meantime without any snow, the coach has us training hard. We braved the big hill behind our house on Saturday and got these shots. More later…Seth
This week marked the biggest day of a father’s life, a child’s first unprompted Lebowski quote. Yesterday when the phone rang, an unprompted, “Phone’s ringing, dude” was uttered.
Press Release: Three Days for $69 at Mountain Creek
Vernon, NJ (November 13, 2006) – Winter is coming fast and it’s not too soon to start thinking about holiday shopping or hitting the slopes. Mountain Creek’s “Triple Play” card offers three full-day lift tickets for just $69 (a $177 value), making the Triple Play one of the best winter deals and a great holiday gift. This amazing offer lets you, or someone you love, enjoy three full days riding or skiing for just $10 more than a full-day lift ticket!
This year Triple Play cards are available at Mountain Creek, on the web at mountaincreek.com, at 26 Kings Super Market locations in New Jersey and Long Island, and 31 Sports Authority stores in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
Give the gift that gives again and again and again. The only catch is that the Triple Play must be purchased by December 24th and is valid every day of the coming 2006-2007 season, except Martin Luther King Weekend, January 13-15. The Triple Play card is easy to use, just bring it to any ticket window, have it swiped and exchanged for a lift ticket and hit the slopes! It does not include admission to any special events, and it is non-refundable and non-transferable.
Mountain Creek’s combination of the best snowmaking in the East, a winter forecast calling for a snowier than normal season, a jam-packed event calendar, plus the outstanding value offered by the Triple Play card will allow skiers and riders to get out and enjoy themselves throughout this winter.
Mountain Creek offers other pass programs to fit your lifestyle, including Season Passes and Creek Cards which offer significant savings, and discounts on Season Passes are available through December 10, 2006. Find out more at mountaincreek.com.
###
ABOUT MOUNTAIN CREEK
Located less than 50 miles from New York City and owned by Intrawest, Mountain Creek boasts state of the art snowmaking with skiing and riding on 46 trails over four peaks accessible by 11 lifts. A vertical of more than 1,040 feet combined with a huge network of terrain parks, the region’s only Superpipe, the single largest snowmaking installation in North America and world-class lodging facilities have quickly made Mountain Creek the premier resort in the region. A true four-season destination, Mountain Creek features summer family fun at Mountain Creek Waterpark and Diablo Freeride mountain bike park, as well as luxurious townhouse-style accommodations in Black Creek Sanctuary or in The Appalachian, the resort’s only ski-in-ski-out hotel, which also features meeting and conference space. www.mountaincreek.com
ABOUT INTRAWEST
Intrawest ULC is a world leader in destination resorts and adventure travel. The company has interests in 10 resorts at North America’s most popular mountain destinations, including Whistler Blackcomb, a host venue for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Intrawest owns Canadian Mountain Holidays, the largest heli-skiing operation in the world, and an interest in Abercrombie & Kent, the world leader in luxury adventure travel. The Intrawest network also includes Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort in Florida and Club Intrawest - a private resort club with nine locations throughout North America. Intrawest develops real estate at its resorts and at other locations across North America and in Europe. Intrawest is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. For more information, visit www.intrawest.com.
Coles Pond Weathercam
While bumping around the New England Lost Ski Area Project, I found this get weather site. The Coles Pond Weathercam page is constantly updating with the latest weather conditions from Walden Pond.
From the Coles Pond Weathercam, here’s an explanation of the technicals;
The heart of our weathercam page is now a wireless DAVIS VANTAGE PRO 2 weatherstation, which transmits current weather data to a console inside our house. The inside display is then hooked up through a Davis ‘Weatherlink’ to the serial port of a desktop computer. Then Ambient ‘Virtual Weather Station’ (or VWS) software is used to FTP the data to this website every ten minutes, where it is then displayed on the weathercam page. (By popular request, we have removed the auto-refresh from this page. To view the most current data you will need to refresh or reload the page manually) The Davis equipment, VWS software, and much more are available directly from the Ambient website.
Build your own snowboard or skis
I went into the clinic today for an HIV test for my year long Russian visa. Whilst waiting for the jabbing to commence, I flipped through the pages of a ski magazine. Pretty mundane stuff really, that is until I hit the pages describing the skibuilders.com website and how they are making their own skis. You really need to check this out.
From skibuilders.com
Always wanted your own pro model ski, but can’t ski like a pro? Why don’t you just build it yourself? It sounds crazy, but building a pair of skis (or a snowboard) is not out of reach if you’re the average garage tinkerer. The first step is you build the ski-making equipment, then you prepare the materials, and finally you put it all together to form a ski. In the end your hard work pays off, and there is no better feeling than skiing on a pair of skis that you designed and built yourself. This website is designed to show you how to build your own ride.
There are three of us involved in maintaining this website and it is dedicated to documenting our homemade rides and skiing adventures. The three of us share one common passion: telemark skiing, but the information we present is not limited to telemark. In fact, you can also build alpine skis or snowboards using the information contained herein. So please find descriptions about all of our projects, as well as notes about equipment, and ski design. There’s even a forum to share information with other SkiBuilders throughout the world. Please feel free to contribute to this unique community to help advance the art, science, and knowledge of skibuilding. Have fun! - Kam, Kam and Kelvin.
From Grafsnowboards.com, check them out.
There are many reasons people decide to build their own snowboard. Sometimes it’s a great way to combine your love of snowboarding with your need to create. Maybe it’s dissatisfaction with the generic boards out there on the market. Perhaps you have an educational project where you’d love to do something involving snowboarding.
This website is intended to demystify the processes involved in building snowboards, and to prove that not only is it possible - but you can actually build some amazing rides. We hope to create a place where people can share experiences, learn some new stuff, and build a knowledge base. We don’t claim our approach is perfect and do not consider ourselves ‘experts’. We’re just reporting what we did and what we have learned.
Weather Predictions
From Farmer’s Almanac
Snow, and lots of it, is also forecast for the nation’s midsection, parts of New England, and the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. “The Great Lakes and Ohio River Valley may be the only area spared the extreme cold,” reveals Sandi Duncan, Philom., Managing Editor, “but this is not to say this area won’t be without its cold spells and significant snowfalls.”
The Canadian Connection
Here are some options just over the border, added plus is the enjoyment that comes from laughing at not just French Canadian skiers, but the French Canuck skiers that go to the cheapest ski areas in the region. As far as I know, all the prices are in Canucky. There is a decent Google map at this link. You could always go curling and really make a day of it. Some of the lodging and ticket deals are really good.
Mont Gleason - their website is not in English so its tough to get a good read. I believe an all day ticket is $24 of funny money. It just outside of Sherbrooke.
Owls Head - not a bad website, some really crazy deals, $37 typical, $15 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and a card for deals there and Mont Sutton.
Mont Orford - Regular ticket price is $45, there are some deals available, terrain looks good,
Others to check out
Mont Sutton - $48, but it may be less for 2W and III, whatever those are.
Ski Bromont - $52
On the Cheap 2006-07 Calendar
————————————–
Calendar of Deals - to be updated through-out the year
————————————–
Sunday, 11/26 - Okemo - Food Bank Day 3 cans and $25
Sunday, 12/3 - Stowe - Food Bank Day - 2 cans of food and $TBD
Sunday, 12/10 - Mt. Sunapee - “Cares and Shares” day - 5 non-perishable food items and $25
Friday, 12/15 - Attitash - Free
Friday, 12/22 - Sugarbush - $5.50
Thursday, 2/1 - Stowe - Groundhog’s day - $TBD
Sunday, 4/1 - Bromley - 2 for 1
————————————–
The Weekly Deals
————————————–
Killington - $36 any Tuesday or Wednesday for NH/VT
Jay Peak - $39 any day for Vermonters
Okemo - $29 half day on Sundays for NH/VT
Smuggs - half price on Fridays $29
Snowbowl - $25 midweek, $39 weekends
Bromley - $25 midweek
Burke - $39 any day for Vermonters
Cochran Ski Area - $18 any day
Bolton Valley - $26 any Monday or Tuesday for Vermonters
Ascutney - $25 half day Sunday, $29 - Snowboarders on Wednesday
drink Awake Coffee
© 2006-2007 NaBe Design - All Rights Reserved - Reproduction of content for commercial purposes without expressed written authorization is strictly prohibited
