joegm
New member
i put this up not to disuade anyone who is intent on going to loon to ski on the weekend, but to maybe disuade anyone who is only considering going to loon on the weekend...a novice skiing family member home on military leave brought me out of exile a few days early. when i asked my buddy gil if he wanted to tag along, u can imagine where he told to i could stick the offer of a free ride up and back <BR>loon on friday- i firmly stand by 2 main points of the sick bird manifesto- 1) there are no bad conditions ... only bad skiers and 2) a bad day skiing is better than a good day at work.... this will be brief, becasue it's not good at all.. trying not to engage in to much hyberbole here... the conditions at loon on friday were the worst ski conditions that i have ever skied on in terms of how an average regular skier would see it...i think the conditions were pretty similair to a few years ago when that skier died at loon after falling and sliding down under the ropes at the tripler trouble/ double dipper intersection...only now that poor guy probably would have skidded to a stop on the grass... i find it hard to believe anyone but true expert skiers and hard core racers would find anything remotely redeeming about the current conditions at loon ( and i assume a lot of other places after reading that cannon post ) right now... ice , i find, is a term that gets thrown around a little to easily when describing ski surface conditions...but not today... loon is literally an ice base with mounds of frozen gran scattered thoughout....this place is in a lot of trouble... the trail count by their count is about 25... there are probably 10 total routes down to A lift on the whole mountain. it was stunning to see how much it deteriorated in the last 17 days since i've been...it was gray out of the gate and began puking little tiny snow balls about 10... it was about 28 at the base and about 20 on top with some wind...it was jam packed but i think some of that was becasue of the lack of open terrain... the gondy was a solid 30 min wait and the quad was a solid 15 from 10 till 1:30. all u weekend warriors/ holiday skiers out there have my admiration.. it don't know you do it... i don't think i could. it was really not fun skiing loon's offering on friday with the combo of pure ice/limited trails/fast skiing recreational skiers.... u were out of your mind if you did not constantly keep lokking back over your shoulder to see who/if or what was bearing down on you. i felt really bad for 1) my little brother 2) all the rest of the novices 3) loon !!!!!- there's not a lot they could do about it... they have walking boss open for steep.. and it's almost unskiable ... the top part of flume is white grass... they were blowing like crazy on lower flume and all the main junctions... i'm not even going to address the mogul situation because as we all know, moguls come from snow... and loon doesn't have any!!!!!...it's no more than a 20 inch base, in the best spots...good stuff to work on drills... good stuff to wear a tight suit and ski around a pole or two...other wise, as the eclectic weather man bruce shwoegler used to say " it pretty miserable out there, folks ".... and i don't blame loon one bit on this one... they just don't get snow and do get rain... and a hundred million skiers... alright there URL, JOKES OVER NOW...A LITTLE SNOW WOULD BE MOST APPROPO. ( IN LOON'S CASE ABOUT 7 FEET MIGHT FIX IT ) <BR> fyi... back next week ( weds thurs fri ) for a 3 day'er from K for the freeskier mag / glen plake downhome tour which rolls into town on thursday.. freeskier and plake are throwin a bash at the wobbly barn thursday night... should be some good bumps and jumps being thrown down on thurs and probably some ragin at the barn on thurs night , if anyone's around
