Big decision: Where to get my next season pass?

I have a big decision to make this up coming fall to either buy the season pass I usually get which is the Cannon, Bretton Woods, Waterville, and Cranmore pass or get the Loon, Sunday River, Sugar Loaf pass. Ive been thinking a lot about this topic and feel like I need to make a change with mountains and try something new. Ive been to Loon about three times and liked a lot, I wouldn't say I love it like Cannon but im sure once I get use to the mountain and find the real good skier trails it'll be a blast. The other thing about buying the loon pass is will I even make the trip up to Maine to hit the other mountains on the pass. After thinking about it I probably would because I would like to take a trip up there and find a cheap hotel for a week or something and really get my moneys worth for those mountains. So all in all I believe ill buy the Loon pass and hopefully I wont regret it. 

My last day at Cannon this year.

New Hampshire's overview of ski resorts

This is something that I found interesting since I’m from New Hampshire. Pretty cool stuff here, it lets you see what the mountains have for just about every topic you would want to know and some brief history.

http://www.onthesnow.com/new-hampshire/ski-resorts.html

Tuning Tips

Today’s post is an instructional piece explaining how to tune your skis yourself, this process may not be the professional way of tuning your skis for a race but it will do for the normal skier. In order to successfully tune your skis you may want to have a bench with clamps that will hold your ski steady. The first step that I usually do is clean the entire ski off, that way there is no dirt being rubbed into your ski. Second is prepping your side walls if they need to be cut down a little, this is done with a side wall cutter. What this does for you is it makes your edge stick out a little more so when you’re carving on your edges it will be all edges and not your side wall making you turn better. After the side wall is trimmed you then start to sharpen your edges. What I do before I start sharpening is that I take a permanent marker and make a line down the edge to make sure when I sharpen them I hit the entire edge, this will ensure accuracy when trying to sharpen your entire edge. To sharpen your skis you will need a file guide and a file set. These can either come in a kit or bought separately at a ski shop.  

After the edges are sharpened next step would be to start the prepping process of waxing your skis. First thing you want to do here is use a waxing brush to get out all the old wax and dirt from your bases, after you clean the base you should be able to see the pores in your ski. This will give you a better layer of wax on your ski. If you have any deep gashes in your skis like mine did in the photo be sure to fill it with a polyethylene repair candle.

 What you do with this is take a lighter and heat up the candle until it catches fire (this flame is not big at all) it will then start to drip, make sure these drips get into the gouge that you’re trying to repair. After covering this area with the polyethylene be sure to let it cool and then scrape off the excess with a razor blade or file making it level smooth with your base. Next step is to start the waxing process, use the hot iron and place a piece of wax to the iron and let the wax drip onto the ski, be sure not to overdo it because you will be scraping for a long period of time if you just cake it on. After you make a nice line of drips down the entire ski you then want to start with the hot iron from one end of the ski and spread the wax evenly to other side making sure the wax is hitting the entire base of the ski.

Let this ski dry and start on the next one repeating this entire process. When the wax is cooled you are then ready to scrape and brush the ski of the wax. First thing you want to do is scrape the ski’s edges with the scraper and then using the whole scraper to go down your entire ski taking off the excess wax.

After scraping as much as you can off the ski with your scraper you then will brush your ski with the wax brushes. For my skis I used three different types of brushes, each brush has a different degree of fine bristles which buffs the base of the ski. After buffing the ski out with the brushes it is now complete and ready for slopes. 

Tuckerman’s Ravine, northeast skiers must.

Mount Washington’s Tuckerman Ravine is something that every east coast skier should do once in their life. It’s the tallest mountain in the northeast of the United States reaching about 6,200 feet into the sky. Skiing the ravine takes some time and preparation as you will have take a about two and a half hour to three hour hike up to the ravine with a backpack tied with skis on them. The difficulty ranges from moderate to expert for the terrain that you will be skiing. This hike seems tiring and daunting but it’s worth the view and just to say that you skied Tuckerman’s Ravine.

K2 Kung Fujas

K2 has come out with another model of their Kung Fujas which is a pro model series developed by Pep Fujas. These skis are the ultimate all terrain skis, they’re wide, soft but yet firm, and twin tipped. The all terrain rocker plays a big part in the performance of these skis as it’s a mix between camber and rocker giving you the ability to ride these anywhere from powder, to bumps, to the park and then on to the groomed runs. All around a great ski and yet another great model from this series, this is why I own a pair of these.

Rocker and Camber

Rocker skis vs. Camber skis.

Rocker skis have become more and more popular in today’s market and has started to break into the North East. A rockered ski is more for powder because they’re shaped like a noodle in which they give you the ability to carve better in powder, lets you stay on top of the snow, and just basically gives you more control. This style is very popular out West. In the North East we may not need fully rockered skis but companies are now coming up with skis that have some sort of rocker in them. Camber skis are the basic ski that you see people use especially with racers, this style is popular because of the control it gives you on packed powder, it’s a flat ski basically. Now ski companies have came up with the idea of adding rocker and camber into one making skis that can perform in just about anything such as powder, groomed trails, glades, bumps, and park. Overall I like the rockered style skis and have bought a pair that have the all terrain rocker and now I love them. Before you buy you’re next pair of skis look into this and decide yourself.

 

More Snow

New England is finally getting some consecutive winter storms that have been helping out the ski areas for the vacation weeks and in hopes of a longer season. This weekend we got several inches of snow that made the skiing superb and more to look forward as we look to the middle of the week and weekend.  

Finally some Snow

We just had one of the sickest weekends here on the east coast due to two winter storm systems colliding and dumping plenty of snow with some areas over two feet. This entire weekend I was up at Whiteface mountain Lake Placid, New York in which had incredible conditions with over a foot on Friday and about another five inches the next day. It was my first time skiing Whiteface where the 1980 Olympics were held, the mountain was tall and steep which kind of reminded me of Cannon Mountain but on a larger scale. The fresh powder made Friday’s skiing insane even though they weren’t able to open the summit chair lift.  One of the cool things about this mountain is that it’s in the Adirondack state park area which means when you look out off the top of the mountain all you’ll see is just untouched natural mountains surrounding you.

After my three night stay in Lake Placid it was time to hit even more fresh snow on Cannon Mountain. Today’s conditions were fast and hard with softer conditions throughout the morning. The front five were prime in the morning in which I was able to ski multiple times but I was disappointed to see that the right side of the mountain was still unopened (Mittersill and hardscrabble).

Tomorrow is another day of skiing for me in which I’ve been lucky to go four times in the past six days with these great conditions. Waterville Valley will be in my next stop and I’ll have a recap of that day and some pictures coming soon. 

(Whiteface)

Introduction

Skiing in the northeast is something to be proud of. We may not get the most snow or have consecutive years of good winters but once we get a steady weather pattern and some snow on the ground the icy east coast comes alive. A lot of our mountains here aren’t the size of the ones you’ll find out west but with small things you get big things out of them.

In this blog I will talk about pros and cons of the northeast and how we should all take pride in skiing here. In my direction for this blog I basically will be blogging about latest conditions, tips on how to tune skis, information about mountains, skis areas you must try in the northeast, ski types, and general information about skiing. My idea is to have this viewed from other northeast skiers that all have the same interest and insight and which will hopefully inspire other people to ski the northeast. Another thing that I want this blog to do is just give people that excitement to actually get up and go skiing after reading this and viewing some of the videos and pictures that I intend to put in.

I think overall this blog could be pretty helpful in terms of where to ski next or what ski is right for them, what the conditions are like, history of the north east, trends and etc.