March 5, Crystal Mountain

Sadly, this is no longer a trip report thread. Perhaps it should be moved to Random Tracks...

I will wait to make my comments in that area after some calming deep breaths.

Bruce Baker

This site has reached it's end for me. lame, lame, lame. I no longer will visit and I'll go back to what I have always done, hike it, skin it, ski it.
Lame, lame, lame.
It should be about the mountains and it's like standing in a lift line with a bunch of loud mouth folks.
lame, lame, lame.
I have disconnected, see ya in the hills not on this LAME SITE.
ski ya latter.
Bill

This site has reached it's end for me. lame, lame, lame. I no longer will visit and I'll go back to what I have always done, hike it, skin it, ski it.
Lame, lame, lame.
It should be about the mountains and it's like standing in a lift line with a bunch of loud mouth folks.
lame, lame, lame.
I have disconnected, see ya in the hills not on this LAME SITE.
ski ya latter.
Bill

I agree. Hear , Hear!
Bill ,  I hope you can still hear me but there are people over on the TR section posting about telling old ladies to **** off and boasting about it and accusing them of feeling entitled because of snowshoeing in a skin track at Paradise. Lame, Lame, Lame.
IN THE TR SECTION FOR GOD'S SAKE. !!!!!!!
I'm sure you'll be equally appalled by that behavior as the behavior exhibited above.
Please come back, if only to tell them how lame they are as well.
Thanks Bill.... I for one will miss you.

Chris.

All of that and a bag of bull chips ! Offt is right on with the kids being the future of our sport, and from what I've seen the future is very bright. I sat out this years FWT,( Jr Extremo to you) couldn't even ski to Blazing Elk or A basin to watch, but as the mystics say I was there in spirit. Crystal has launched some pretty fine freeskiers, perhaps you watched the Warren Miller segment with Ingrid Backstrom ? or maybe the clip with CM freerider Tyler Cecanti ? or maybe you've heard in passing of Arne Backstrom ? How about Mike Hatrup, think he has something to do with K2 for all you Coomba and Darkside frontside skiers. how about Laura Odgen, a nice little lady that is more than capable of kicking several collective butts in the BC, perhaps a guided tour of Goat rocks in Far North with her would change your mind, with or without the mandatory airs. Point is Crystal has made a room for these kids to rip in a controlled, limited access venue for 2 whole days of the season. I've gone weeks without seeing tracks on Elk Chutes, and BTW Elk Chutes are not the Grubstake traverse. How about we trash can all the pile on'ers and cling ons for that matter. Piste was dead on in rising to the occasion, these kids don't deserve to be slammed for pursuing their sport in an organized manner, from what I've read about the last week's snow conditions, if the closure of 1 venue for 1 day 2 days running seriously infringed on one's skiing choices perhaps signing up for the snow shoe tour would be appropriate. Party on, see you next season.

They all had very well executed runs.  You should be very proud of your kids I know they all ski better than me.

Craig, thanks man. We missed you up there. Sorry you're not able to ski.

Matt, I've never suggested there's no room for improvement, though I would respectfully disagree with your statement that most of them need to learn to turn. Some do, many are pretty damn good. We all have room for improvement. Also, what people need to remember is that in that environment they are skiing for points and - whether they've made good or bad strategic decisions - they are trying to meet the judging criteria which definitely influences their approaches to the lines vs. skiing them the way they would if they were just skiing them on a normal day.

What I keep trying to say is that as young kids they should be applauded for sticking their necks out at all, and that most of us - by no means all of us but most - wouldn't have dreamed of doing that stuff at that age, and are probably not willing or capable of skiing those kinds of lines under that kind of pressure even as adults. They deserve as much support and praise as we can give them, not criticism and derision.