New to the East
- Thread starter moresnowplease
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icelanticskier
New member
Patrick":eahvarve said:And before the finger pointing get to Portsmouth, there is no way I'd compare soomeone that skis like 50 days in a row and that has 100 days in a season with a ton of backcountry experience's opinion with others that might be simply.
hey! that was 52 days in a row and 119 ski days this season and i may add another 7 days to that total in chili and a few weeks! ok, now that the #'s are straight, both geoff and i live pretty close to one another and have never met. what's up with that?
everyone has their own views and likes/dislikes. people base opinions and such on previous experiences. some of us just have stuff dialed a bit differently and have much more/better previous and ongoing experience to base our opinions on. as far as snow quality goes, i don't like to ski on less than desirable snow, so i don't. i also don't care to ski with crowds, so i don't. i do prefer to ski bc as it brings me to great snow and no crowds whenever i go. many folks would rather get good/great skiing with mostly just lift access and wide open easy cruising, steep or not steep terrain.
east/west, marc_c, patrick, admin, geoff, HARV!!!, jamesdeluxe, rob, me.........all just livin the dream as best we can on snow and mountains that we prefer.
IT'S ALL GOOD! O
rog
icelanticskier
New member
Patrick":3m8zvfwq said:
yer all invited!
once my bud get's back from vancouver this week, we'll tee up some plane tickets from boston to santiago. we'll most likley be in the areas of valle nevado and maybe portillo. we will have skins with us to get to better snow/terrain if need be. i'm just stoked to make some turns. we should be down there between the 24th of august and the 2nd of september. i'd be happy to buy you a beer.
rog
Geoff
New member
icelanticskier":2ihc0xcb said:Patrick":2ihc0xcb said:And before the finger pointing get to Portsmouth, there is no way I'd compare soomeone that skis like 50 days in a row and that has 100 days in a season with a ton of backcountry experience's opinion with others that might be simply
hey! that was 52 days in a row and 119 ski days this season and i may add another 7 days to that total in chili and a few weeks! ok, now that the #'s are straight, both geoff and i live pretty close to one another and have never met. what's up with that?
I bailed out of Portsmouth, NH last October. I sat out the economic meltdown in Killington where I could live comfortably on an unemployment check and not hit savings. At the moment, I'm just starting a consulting / telecommuting thing.
I can't ski 52 days in a row any more. Things start breaking. I have no idea how many days I skied last winter but it was over 100. I didn't miss any powder days or corn snow days. Other than no snow in March to speak of, it was a pretty good winter.
icelanticskier
New member
Geoff":1oalg99b said:
sounds like a great way to spend some off time to me. get up every day and have the option to ski whenever it suits yer fancy. good call!
rog
J.Spin
New member
I inquired about the separate forums a few years ago in a follow-up post from one of my Lost Trail Powder Mountain reports. You can read along in the discussion from that point if you click on the linked text (in the context of the recent posts here, some may get a kick out of the way Tony starts the second paragraph of his response). The idea of combining forums was shot down fairly quickly at the time, but since Harvey broached the topic I figured I would mention it again. Back then, I found it a bit frustrating that I had to post my reports in different forums, but mostly I found it cumbersome to try following all the different forums in a casual manner. Since that time, I have used the technique that was suggested in that thread, I now go to the main page and use the "View New Posts" link. This works fine, but this is still the only forum that I have to monitor in this manner, and the typical visitor coming to the forum out of the blue isn't really going to have that option. I have no idea if this forum is visited mostly again and again by the group of regulars that frequent it, or if there are a lot of impromptu visits from other people that don’t post, but presumably newcomers will have to initially choose one forum and view that. It would seem that posts in a forum like the Midwestern one are going to get shortchanged on casual viewing, because aside from someone who has specifically gone to that forum because they are interested in Midwestern skiing, how many people are casually going to look at what’s going on in there? There could be a fantastic report/thread in the Midwestern forum that might be enjoyed by many people, but casual readers are never going to see it. There is clearly a level of activation energy involved in web browsing, and the more effort it takes to get to something, the less it is going to be seen.Harvey44":16wbhkrq said:
With regard to the incessant east vs. west arguments that develop here, there’s no doubt that a substantial portion of them simply evolve from some of the First Tracks regulars that enjoy that stuff. I don’t know how much (if any) of the rivalry is derived from the separation of the forums, because I’ve seen it happen to some extent in unified forums as well. But, having a forum setup with somewhat arbitrary geographic designations is inherently divisive, so it isn’t likely to foster an optimal sense of equality and cohesiveness among a community. I think there are various examples throughout history where attempts at “separate but equal” have shown that the concept has some deficiencies. Splitting of some sort becomes necessary in forums when the level of traffic simply makes it impractical or impossible for people to enjoy the experience (imagine if everyone at easternuswx.com had to discuss each big snowstorm in one thread – it would take up hundreds of pages and be unreadable). I just haven’t found that the forums here are at that level of participation, so I’m still not sure why the forum divisions are necessary. Perhaps by this point having the separate sections is a hallmark of the First Tracks discussion forum, so maybe people have grown to like it that way.
-J
rfarren
New member
Admin":296oz8yi said:Well, I'm open to discussion on merging the regions. Let's hear some input from the peanut gallery.
[ Post made via Mobile Device ]
No!!! Separate but equal works just fine for me!
Besides, I don't think the east vs. west is really a big deal. I'm sure when we all meet in person as has happened, we all get along. I'm sure the next time I head out to SLC I could meet up with Marc C, or Admin again, and have a great day, drink a beer afterwards, and have a generally great time. After all, we all love skiing, even if we don't always agree.
J.Spin":296oz8yi said:
Speak for yourself, I check all the forums.
Ice - you da man.icelanticskier":1fi44o8r said:
With regard to the separate forum thing - I was just wondering about why the whole thing is so darn contentious. At this point, unless there was a turnover in the regulars who fight this ongoing war, I'm not sure that would change anything. We could go the other way and have a separate forum - like they do at TTips - for contentious and politically charged stuff. Mitch is pretty laid back like Admin, but he'll move stuff over there from time to time. That way if you don't want to face that stuff you don't have to. Or we could use the General Forum for that.
I'm not saying I'm innocent here. I've thrown gas on the fire too. In the beginning it was kinda fun. But it's the same thing over and over. Heck you guys may feel the same way about my incessant Gore reports. But at least it's SKIING.
It's natural to want to like what you've got. I can see why Utards get cranky when someone says their culture/whatever sucks and I can see why Easterners get cranky when someone says our skiing sucks. Hell I came this close to reviving Jspins Powder Mtn thread when I read Tony comments. Like I told a very bummed former regular last spring... in the end it's just some blinking lights on the internet. Let it go.
IMO new blood could really help FTO. Moresnowplease came in as a new guy with an interesting topic and he got 2 pages of insight and 8 pages of sameoldsameold. Not exactly a great welcome. Be great if a moderator would separate out the stuff that isn't relevant and return the OP's thread to usefulness. Call the new thread the East/West Food Fight and automatically move that stuff over there in the future. Kind of a nazi-moderator thing. I'd be a nightmare if I ran this thing. :shock:
Admin - not sure how you put up with it sometimes.
I honestly don't think that the east/west foodfights are a result of the way the forums are organized, and I don't think a "big cauldron" format would put an end to these arguments. There are mature, above-the-fray types like Jspin, who see both sides of the coin with equal clarity and avoid lobbing hand grenades at others... and then there are the rest of us who like to get in the mud.
:stir:
I can understand why the new Utards get angry with the many uninformed statements and half-truths about their adopted home state, but at the same time, a lot of the comments from the west -- even from people who lived back east for decades -- are often colored by a need to convince themselves (and others) that their lifestyle choices are best for everyone.
Combining the forums ain't gonna change that.
:stir:
I can understand why the new Utards get angry with the many uninformed statements and half-truths about their adopted home state, but at the same time, a lot of the comments from the west -- even from people who lived back east for decades -- are often colored by a need to convince themselves (and others) that their lifestyle choices are best for everyone.
Combining the forums ain't gonna change that.
It's a long thread so I didn't read it all, and I apologize if I repeat anything that has been said. I live in NYC without a car, and getting away to go skiing to places where I want to ski (northern VT, Sugarbush/Mad River Glen and north), is difficult. For the past two seasons I have been a member of Mirarmar ski club (miramar.org), which I think is a very good arrangement. They have bus trips pretty much every weekend of the season up to their lodge at Sugarbush. They normally ski Sugarbush on Saturday and Stowe on Sunday. Sometimes if enough people want to go the bus will stop at Mad River Glen on Saturday as well as Sugarbush. You have to go as a guest 3 times before you join; I suggest going as a guest once or twice and seeing if you like it.
There is also another club called Swiss Ski Club, which also has a lodge by Sugarbush. I haven't ever gone on their trips. I know though that only have a couple bus trips a year and instead car pool up to VT.
To give you an idea of ride times, Killington is 5 hours, Sugarbush 6 hours, Stowe slightly more, and Jay maybe 6.5-7 hours (only did that one once and it was a while ago). Renting cars from Manhattan is quite expensive -- by the time you are done with taxes and insurance, it may be $100/day for an economy car (and if it's mid winter, you probably want something better than that).
There are also day trips run by at least one ski shop (Emilio's Ski Shop) to the Catskills and Southern VT (I think they might actually go as far north as Okemo actually), both midweek (I think) and weekends. Hunter is about 2.5 hours from Manhattan. Southern VT you are probably looking at 3.5-4, depending on the destination. IMO, it's generally not worth it to go to Southern VT over Hunter.
Good luck!
There is also another club called Swiss Ski Club, which also has a lodge by Sugarbush. I haven't ever gone on their trips. I know though that only have a couple bus trips a year and instead car pool up to VT.
To give you an idea of ride times, Killington is 5 hours, Sugarbush 6 hours, Stowe slightly more, and Jay maybe 6.5-7 hours (only did that one once and it was a while ago). Renting cars from Manhattan is quite expensive -- by the time you are done with taxes and insurance, it may be $100/day for an economy car (and if it's mid winter, you probably want something better than that).
There are also day trips run by at least one ski shop (Emilio's Ski Shop) to the Catskills and Southern VT (I think they might actually go as far north as Okemo actually), both midweek (I think) and weekends. Hunter is about 2.5 hours from Manhattan. Southern VT you are probably looking at 3.5-4, depending on the destination. IMO, it's generally not worth it to go to Southern VT over Hunter.
Good luck!
Patrick":cxerl7ef said:
No problem. I hope moresnowplease was around to read it too. I like living in NYC, but I immediately will admit that one of the biggest downsides is the difficulty in getting away to ski. But there are a few options, even though none are as nice as being able to hop in your car and pull up to a northern-VT ski area in a comfortable drive time. Especially since I often have a lot of trouble getting friends to go skiing, the ski club bus trips work out great, since I can just do it on my own, and it is still economical (lodging, transportation, breakfast, dinner, and happy hours included, plus great discounts on lift tickets). Renting a car and finding lodging alone can make a weekend of skiing quite expensive.
rfarren":j4vgaawl said:
At least worth a try. What's there to lose if you are going to be spending money on skiing anyways? I'll try to remember to PM you when I'm going on one of the bus trips.
Another great thing about the trips for me is that signup doesn't begin until the Sunday before the following weekend, and if it doesn't fill up, you can join last minute. Since I sometimes get stuck at work on the weekends and generally don't know for certain when that's going to happen ahead of time, the flexibility in being able to decide almost last minute is very helpful.
Bluebird Day
New member
Goddam!!! Do you guys sleep? I've been off the Board for a couple of days and this battle is still going. I recently went onto to YouTube and looked at some vids of off piste skiing at JH and it reminded me of the terrain that I love so much (Hobacks, Rock Springs). You can never find lift access like that, or anything you can skin to, in the EAST. But, the EAST is where I live and make a living and I will take every day I get on the slopes, East of West.... 
Heh, you have to admire this guy's persistence.Bluebird Day":18mr8erw said:
Bluebird Day
New member
I just had to get in one more dig......... :stir: This is a good way to pass the time before the first snow falls....... which will be out WEST! \
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