poaching payday

[Kid A]

no not mtb. appears burton is throwing down $5,000 to anyone that submits the best footie of their snowboard poach experience in any of the four remaining resorts in NA that still don't allow boarding. anyone know all four. pretty sure 3 of them are taos, deer valley, alta and ???

[Abui]

Originally Posted by Kid A

no not mtb. appears burton is throwing down $5,000 to anyone that submits the best footie of their snowboard poach experience in any of the four remaining resorts in NA that still don't allow boarding. anyone know all four. pretty sure 3 of them are taos, deer valley, alta and ???

Disappointed, thought this was about a trail called "payday".

[un-kola]

Originally Posted by Kid A

no not mtb. appears burton is throwing down $5,000 to anyone that submits the best footie of their snowboard poach experience in any of the four remaining resorts in NA that still don't allow boarding. anyone know all four. pretty sure 3 of them are taos, deer valley, alta and ???

Think I read recently that the New Mexico resort started allowing boarding as of this year.I could be wrong about which one though.- Lloyd

[emfc]

the end of an era

Taos Ski Valley to Finally Welcome Snowboarders

By Carson Bennett, 12-15-07


Taos Ski Valley opened yesterday with more snow for the first day than they’ve had in thirty years. Three thousand skiers showed up throughout the day. My friends and I were among the first thirty or so, at 8:15am, racing for first chair.
As we stepped off the shuttle from the parking lot we were greeted by a Taos Ski Valley employee. He had some announcements. “Only the front side is open today. We have seventy eight inches of snow, and plenty of powder. The back side will be open on Saturday. Oh, and we’re opening the mountain to snowboarders on March 19th.”
Did I hear him correctly? I stood on the first step of the stairs to the ticket office and looked around at the other skiers. Most of us looked confused. “Snowboarders? But, this is Taos.”
Taos Ski Valley has never allowed snowboarders. It has been a purist ski paradise since it opened fifty-five years ago. Now, only Alta, Mad River, and Deer Valley will still prohibit snowboarders.
The news was all over the mountain within minutes, and was the main topic of conversation all day. I heard mixed reactions on the lifts, in Tenderfoot Katie’s Cafeteria during lunch, and from my friends who have been skiing almost exclusively at Taos for years.
“It’s the end of an era,” my friend Randall said. “It was inevitable, but I hate to see it happen. It’s going to change the whole culture of this place.”
I rode up Lift 2 in the afternoon with a man in a green wool hat and well-worn ski pants, and asked him what he thought. “I’ll tell you what I think. Those f***ing knuckle-draggers are gonna ruin this mountain. They’re gonna f*** up the lines, scrape all the snow off Blitz or anything steep, f*** up the bumps on Al’s. And you know they’re gonna be lying around the mountain like a bunch of god damn slobs,” he spat. He shook his head in disgust. “That’s the end of this mountain.”
The most common remarks were something along the lines of Ernie Blake “rolling over in his grave.” As legend has it, Ernie Blake, the legendary founder of Taos Ski Valley, made a dying wish that Taos would never open to snowboarders. As his granddaughter (and TSV Marketing Director) Adriana Blake told Albuquerque Journal reporters, “It’s a lie; it’s totally not true. His death-bed wish was that his grandchildren—and there are thirteen of us—have college educations…and he died in 1989. Snowboarding then wasn’t an issue. It would have never occurred to him.”
According to the new TSV snowboarding website, the Blake clan made the decision for family reasons. “Taos has a long-standing tradition of being family oriented, and now with so many young people snowboarding, we are turning away more and more families, particularly families that traditionally come to Taos. Opening to snowboarding allows us to refocus on being a family oriented mountain.”
Opening up to snowboarders will bring more families, more people, more business, more money—but what else will happen? More restaurants? More condos? Higher ticket prices? Over-crowded catwalks and narrow runs? Will Taos devolve into the next “family oriented” mega-resort, or will it be able to maintain its home-mountain culture? We’ll find out, I suppose, in March; when we’re all standing at Taos in the same lift line for the first time.

Originally Posted by Kid A

no not mtb. appears burton is throwing down $5,000 to anyone that submits the best footie of their snowboard poach experience in any of the four remaining resorts in NA that still don't allow boarding. anyone know all four. pretty sure 3 of them are taos, deer valley, alta and ???

Mad River Glen, Vermont

[Collette]

Originally Posted by Kid A

no not mtb. appears burton is throwing down $5,000 to anyone that submits the best footie of their snowboard poach experience in any of the four remaining resorts in NA that still don't allow boarding. anyone know all four. pretty sure 3 of them are taos, deer valley, alta and ???

Not worth the hassle/trouble IMO

[Kid A]

not sure if anyone ever checked out the footie that was shot/posted on burton site...but link if interested. some good stuff

http://www.burton.com/poachers/Default.aspx

[cryan]

Alta, Deer Valley, and Mad River Glen are the remaining 3. They offered up the contest before Taos began allowing snowboarders this past season.

[Wicked Smot]

Skiers need to chill....

Just curious, does anyone know if there are any parks that are snowboards only? I'm not saying there should be, just wondering if they exist.

Holding poles is ghey though...

[speckledtrout]

isn't there still a mountain in aspen that doesn't allow snowboarders? i can't remember the name of it, though. aren't i helpful?

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by Wicked Smot

Skiers need to chill....

Just curious, does anyone know if there are any parks that are snowboards only? I'm not saying there should be, just wondering if they exist.

Holding poles is ghey though...

one winter a buddy and me built a kicker coming of his deck that we would session for fun. no 2 plankers allowed...does that count

[stinkyrider]

Originally Posted by Wicked Smot

Skiers need to chill....

Just curious, does anyone know if there are any parks that are snowboards only? I'm not saying there should be, just wondering if they exist.

Holding poles is ghey though...

The answer to your question is Big Air Green Valley Snowboard park in the San Bernardino mountains. It's off the highway between Arrowbear and Snow Valley. The place is so tiny that I don't think they even have a dedicated website. But yea, that's the only place in the US that's boarders only.

http://www.skiresorts.org/unitedstat...ifornia/60.asp
http://www.rsn.com/cams/uscabigair/profile_stats.html


BTW, I've seen quite a few snowboarders with collapsable poles in the backcountry. They are happy to grab a pole or two when trekking through knee deep and findthemselves stuck in a flat spot.

[Rockinthecasbah]

isnt green valley some crazy chrstian u say a bad word and get kcked out place

[surlygal]

They have a few *snowboard only parks* in MN & WI too, but these, like Green Valley are not really for us *real* boarders to freeride, they're kickers and such for huckers...

I get the whole Skier vs Boarder mentality, it's really frustrating to be carving down a hill on ski's or a board and have to dodge *butt sitters* who think they can sit anywhere.

When I taught kids snowboarding - I had 2 rules:
1. wear a helmet
2. don't sit in the middle of a run

When riding with Maddie this year at Summit my biggest worry was her skill set and her abuility to get around anyone sitting on the run. We are teaching Maddie to use her edges and carve down a hill. Then she'll learn the park, but you need control 1st.

When your paying BIG $ for a lift ticket you should be able to actually ride and not worry about *bad manners* on runs.. Thus making some private resorts, Skiers only - sad as it may be I do understand it We Boarders are the new kids on the block and need to earn respect.

<rant over>

[stinkyrider]

Rant on..
I don't hate boarders at all. I just hate the boarders at the local socal ski resorts. The lack of etiquitte on the slopes from the socal local morons are enough to send a snow snob like me into hysterics.
My biggest pet peeve are the people who's bravery/balls are unevenly matched with their skills. I see a lot of dudes who've been boarding for half a season but think they are Terje Hawkinson. Then they end up plowing into a class of ski school children at break-neck speed because they didn't know how to control their speed or direction. I don't mind if they hurt themselves but please don't take anyone down with you.

On the other hand, I suppose the same thing could be said skiers at the local places too.

I don't find boarders to be annoying at all when I travel to bigger resorts. Many of the more harder core boarders you find there are much friendlier and seem to know what the hell they are doing. A lot of the boarders I've enjoyed the slopes with at the big resorts are actually pretty cool, but the socal boarders make me cringe with disgust.

[surlygal]

I hear you about the local thing...
Like I said nothing was worse than watching a little girl ride down the hill (your little girl) and see the out of control *pros* going stright for her. Fortunantly for us Maddie spent a year in lessons and came out stong with edge control. It was pretty cool to see her turn at the drop of a dime and miss what could have been a really BAD crash. We would try and ride behind and in front of her to kinda create a buffer between her and the rest of the folks on the run, but she likes to be in front (where did she get that?) so often she was on her own.

I can't wait to take her somewhere BIG so she can ride free - like Neil & I have had the chance to do

The best part was listening to people as she'd go by:
We heard - "look she'd doing it!" more than once..

[speckledtrout]

Oh boy, Stinky and Surlygal, you two sure hit the nails on the head! the local riders in Socal are the rudest of any riders in the world. and no, that's not an exaggeration, in my opinion.

the problem is that most of them hopped right from their skateboards to the mountain without learning (or a desire to learn) about the rules and etiquette of the mountain. Between the attitude and the trash they leave behind, I have never seen such a lack of respect for the mountain. It's really disheartening. I try to take one big trip out of the area every winter for my birthday just to escape the local attitude.

[Rockinthecasbah]

we used to get bored on weekends when it was crowded we would see how many people we could take out without touching them.. lol.. we never took out little kids though, mainly big dudes who thought they were cool

[Elisheva]

I've been skiing for many years and I tend to ski double black diamonds (when I can handle them) to avoid boarders. Why? Because they scare me to death. I've been taken down by a 275lb male boarder because he was boarding out of control. I take no issue with fast skiing or boarding. But please, remain in control. I'm a responsible, working mother and HELL NO, I don't want to go down with you and spend my day in the ER assessing my injuries because your ego is greater than your IQ.

Also, if you're gonna buy a lift ticket and your #1 goal is to get drunk, please do me a favor and stay in the bar; don't hit the slopes!! That's safer for all of us and helps keep the lift lines shorter!

[Kid A]

Originally Posted by Elisheva

I've been taken down by a 275lb male boarder because he was skiing out of control.

that may be the problem right there...boarder that was skiiing.