yeah that was a typo, sorry...meant Eastern NA

I had a great photo shoot with myself set up, when i was skiing 2 weeks ago, but then a snow storm came in, and it all went down the drain

Skiied A-basin today since I didn't want to waste a Vail day when visibility was low. They had about 6 inches of fresh and as always it wasn't crowded a bit. One troubling part was the wind and cloudy skies in Colorado this winter- wtf? I want my blue skies!

I don't know about snowboarding but I tried skiing last week for the first time and found it extremely difficult (in La Rosiere, France - awesome resort). It basically took me almost 3 hours before I could ski more than 20 metres without falling over. And I'm actually pretty good at most sports. I would recommend that you get loads of practice before you go if there is an indoor ski slope near you. I still had an amazing time though.

A basin is always windy... you should know this!

You get a chance to check out the Montezuma bowl yet? I was back there on Saturday with about 6" of fresh and 17" in the 2 days before that. Some fantastic terrain in there if you're willing to hike/traverse around the rim.

This weekend im heading to vermont for a tune up at okemo...next weekend, im heading out to park city to rip it, ive heard they have been getting dumped on all year and what not, i just hope to get a good powder day out there...i think we are gonna ski park city/canyons and maybe head over to snowbird/alta also...ill try and post a report after...has anyone been out there recently?

I'm heading out to Alta in a few weeks. I was there last...2 years ago, and also 4 years ago.

Alta is amazing, even though it's a neighbor of Snowbird it's much better. I haven't been to Park City or the Canyons, but I understand that for pure skiing, neither compete with Alta at all.

i have been skiing one time but i was terrible (more or less i couldn'st stop to save my life). i want to start going skiing more. i live in indiana, and there are a few random beginner sslopes around here.. i'll probably wait until next year to start, any kind of advice on how to go about getting as good as possible as quick as possible? i'm 21 and have good hand eye coordination

Invest in one or two lessons (maybe private) and you will get better a lot faster.

I did a SuperG race in Okemo a few years back. The hill is a little flat but it's nice and longish and has a very good park if you're into that. It was really different from most other places I've been in terms of layout.

If you live in indiana, dont even bother...

Gonna hit up Jay this weekend too

For those who never have gone to Whistler Blackcomb if you ever get the chance GO believe me it's the BEST. I wouldn't recommend it if your a new skiier/boarder because the runs are quiet long but it's truly insane how long some of the runs are. If you head up to the Blackcomb Glacier and go from there to the bottom of the mountain with a few regular breaks on the way down it usually takes about an hour or so to do the whole mountain. They have dozens of high speed quad chairs going all over the place there's hardly ever a line up. Can't beat it. I'm about 1 1/2 hrs east of Vancouver and Hemlock Valley Resort has quiet a nice little mountain to. Tons of terrain and in a remote area so there's very few people going there. About a month ago I went there and they had 3 1/2 ft of new powder in 24 hrs. They have 20 ft of snow at their summit right now. Been such a sick year in BC I love it =D

man **** okemo this weekend. high of 14 on saturday. so not worth it. i cancelled my trip; my house will probably go empty this weekend because no one else wants to go either.

depending on where you are in indiana there's some decent (for midwest) slopes in ohio. if you're willing to travel to learn the sky is the limit. the best way to get good as fast as possible will be to get a place at a east/west coast mountain for like 2 weeks, hook up some lessons, and ride as much as possible. i say 2 weeks becasue the first week is going to be brutal and you're going to need some days off. by the second week you should be ready to go every day and if you are on the slopes all seven days of your second week with a few lessons thrown in you will be pretty good by the end.

A-basin doesn't get enough love imo. Fantastic little place and way better terrain per unit area than vail. Some really sweet steep chutes through lower-mountain cliffs over far skier's left of the area iirc.

thanks guys

Agreed it's awesome how long the runs are, but the snow quality can really suck there some times (really wet slushy stuff). Hope it's good this year.

Ya, I think you're thinking of the pali chair- it's super steep and in my opinion has more difficult terrain than you'll find at vail.

jackindacrak- zuma bowl is sick. problem is the long traverse to get to the good drops which are so far from the lift and then you get a few powder turns before you have some flat crappy trees to the lift. And I hit a few rocks, but I haven't hit it since it got some new snow (was there the first couple days it was open- didn't even try it last time because of the wind)

send me the keys man

Manu, there's also some really great drops and cornices to huck (if you're into that kind of thing) on the west wall of the Zuma bowl. You have to hike up a hill, up behind the top of the Norway chair, and then you can traverse on an easy-sloped catwalk almost all the way around, and it doesn't flatten out so much as the East side does towards the bottom, it will spit you right out of the trees on a steep run onto the catwalk by the lift.

Of course, if you're pushing your ability be careful because everyone on the lift will watch you huck that huge rock and biff the landing.

Yad, I agree that AB doesn't get nearly enough love. It's my favorite ski area in CO behind Vail - you remember right about the terrain to skiier's left, off the top of the Palivacini chair, steep-ass mogul chutes all the way down.

Only problem being that AB is getting a lot more crowds this year compared to last year due to the Zuma bowl being open, and only one extra chair isn't really enough to handle all that extra load. I'll still be there this weekend though.

high of 4 at Jay on Saturday but we're going up for 1 day. breaking out the cold weather gear.

they got another 14 inches Tuesday night/Weds, so it should be pretty sweet.

ya i think you live in boston right? i might go for a day from boston but from nyc it's just not worth it.

yeah...even from here it's tough. 3:45 or 4 hours, something like that. whats nice is that tickets are cheap - lots of hotels up there have vouchers that give you a $40 or $45 lift ticket. compared to $84 at Stowe...

also I noticed that Jay has conveniently forgotten to update their forecast for tomorrow.. they still list the a high of 19 tomorrow on their site, all other weather site disagree...

Mt. Snow is my favorite, been up there about 4 times this year.....twice the conditions were excellent and I had an unreal beyond belief incredible time.....twice the conditions were subpar and I still had a pretty good time..

Pic of fave trail:

nice photos chaps, very jealous.

i am in thailand now but am thinking of doing a season in NZ or chile in 6 months and then going to Vancouver for the 08/09 season.

anybody snowboarders here with clown size feet like myself? can you recommend any decent wide boards? the only good one i know of is the burton baron es