Introducing me and my gear

[CathyG]

Hi everybody, I'm CathyG and I live in Scottsdale, AZ where if it snows we make national news. :) I ski at Snowbowl in Flagstaff, AZ. Normally I'm a green run sikier but will be hitting the slopes hard with my skiboards. Last year they were open like 3 days with really crappy snow. This year we got dumped on by our standards so as soon as I hit $100 bucks I'm headed up to there. Its almost $50 for gas to get there and back plus a $47 lift ticket. The people there are really cool though and it's the closest so it's very worth it. I got some Christmas cards today that popped me up to $70. So I will go as soon as possible. I should be able to go on Monday. This will be my first year on good skiboards. I spent last season on snowblades which were better than skis at least. I got my dad's Canon Heritage's with Bomber Elite bindings since he can't use them due to a medical condition. I got ski boots for my birthday last year and didn't get to use them at all that season so I'm really excited.

Oh and to see why Snowbowl can't make snow go to www.Reclaimthepeaks.com :mad:

Anybody else in AZ on this board?

[tyberesk]

welcome hopefully you learn a lot and meet some ppl on here u can ride with

[anaesthetic]

Welcome Cathy,

Nice to see more female riders ou there.
Hope you have fun this season.
Let us know how you get on.

[Manlenium]

Welcome and enjoy.

[tyberesk]

good luck with the snowmaking installation along with the resort upgrades as well....i hope everything works out well for you

[CathyG]

Snow making would have already been up and running if it weren't for the courts. They come to a decision then one side appeals and the court changes their minds and then the other side appeals. It's getting absolutely ridiculous. The way they're going it will go all the way to the Supreme Court before a "final" decision is made. Making snow with reclaimed water and adding a few acres of trails does not "fundamentally violate the religion" of the American Indians. Good enough for me. That's the only problem being discussed in court. Scientific studies have already proven that it is ecologically sound so the environmental groups threw all their money into some sob story about the white man trampling more of the Indians land and blasting frozen sewage onto it. Snowbowl is only 1% of the land there and simply wants to develop more of the land that is already part of Snowbowl grounds anyway.

The park could really use the snowmaking to avoid a bust year like last year. Snowbowl is one of the 10 oldest ski areas in the country and just can't survive losing that much money on a consistent basis. The lifts are slow and old. But the employees are great and it's mostly locals or people from Phoenix.

Sorry about the mini-rant but I love Snowbowl and without snowmaking if it has a few more bust years it will probably be shut down. I never hear anybody gripe about high priced lift tickets or season passes. They know Snowbowl needs the money. :(

[zapmeister64]

Sorry to hear that your local slope might be closing. I hope that everything turns out for the better soon!

[CathyG]

It's not currently in any danger of closing. If we hadn't got any snow this year it might have gotten close to that. But we have good snow this year and people are flocking to Snowbowl so all is good. :D 30"base currently. Bunny(school) slope is closed but everything else is open.