Welcome to Jolly J's Twisted Life

It's been a Slice

2008-10-16T16:04:00.003-03:00

Check out my very first dabble in video editing. I borrowed all of Stefan's footage and sat down and pulled out all the bloopers. So here it is, I hope you like it Outtakes and Crashes - 2007-2008

Stefan and I have been talking for quite sometime about having an official blog for Crabbe Mountain. I mean...this blog has become the official blog for Crabbe...but as I got more busy with the GM job, it became more and more difficult for me to keep it updated. It's tough to work a full day (12-15hrs) and then write about it. I feel really badly about that. But as I make this announcement I feel a bit of a load has been lifted off my shoulders.

So with that...I'm pleased in introduce to you the new and improved Crabbe Mountain Blog. Between Stefan and I, it should be updated a little more regularly. It will still be a behind the scenes look at the workings here at the mountain. I'll just have more help.

Cheers!

Party Animals and the Non Party Type Animals

2008-10-06T18:05:00.003-03:00

Had a great time at our ASAA (Atlantic Ski Area Association) Fall Meeting and Educational Sessions last week. Stefan and I drove down early on Tuesday making a stop for breakfast along the way. Stopped at the convenience store just before Wentworth to pick up some...ahh...beverages. Ran into Anne and Jim from Marble...they were buying snacks for lunch. We arrived at Wentworth about a half hour early and hung out with Andy from Martock and Shannon from Marble.

As we got ready to start our meeting Mike from Wentworth joined us. We heard updates from NS Provincial Lift Inspector, our consultant, Ontario Ski Resort Association, Canadian Ski Council, Alpine Ski NS and Freestyle Ski NS, Nova Scotia Snowboard Association and Canadian Snowboard Federation, CSIA, CASI, CSPS, and Ski Atlantic Seniors Club. Lets just say it was our biggest meeting we've ever had. We adjourned early and decided to hold the Business Meeting part the next morning at 7:45am ouch that is going to hurt.

We then headed up to the reception up in Ducky's hosted by Ski Wentworth and sponsored Prinoth. It was supposed to go for an hour but went late into the night. More of the Crabbe Crew showed up including Tim, Crystal, Mark and Jay. Somehow most the Crabbe crew got conned into cooking. I was asked if we could run the BBQ, so I'm thinking burgers and dogs. No worries, we got that figured out last year at the passholders BBQ. Nope Steaks and Deer Meat. Wow, for 50 people. Stefan, Crystal and I got at it and boy were they tasty. Connor from Wentworth also helped us out. We then headed in to join the feast and a few more beverages. We Crabbe people always like to be the life of the party and 3 of us managed to stay to the bitter end, along with Greg and Jim from Martock, Shannon from Marble and poor Leslie. Thanks for putting up with us!

The next morning came way to early, but no worries we got at it. Started the Business Meeting, other than behind the scenes business stuff, we set the date for our Spring Meeting which will be at Marble Mountain for their closing weekend. I'm sooooo stoked about this as I want to do some backcountry skiing on the Rock. Then I got the "bad" news that the next Fall Meeting will be held at Crabbe. I'm sort of stoked to host our friends from the other hills, but I kind of enjoy the care free environment of the road trip instead of the responsibility of being the host. But it was our turn so what can I say. We were joined by Larry and then broke off into our Education Sessions including, Ski in School, Food Show, Groomer Maintenance, Accident Investigation, Food Health and Safety.

Luckily we got out early, and Shannon and I got to get in some shuttle DH runs in with Connor. Thanks Tim for driving Connors shuttle truck for us. Then headed back to the chalet for a quick shower.

That evening we headed to Big Al's in Tatamagouche for supper. The Reception this night was only for an hour and everyone seemed a little more subdued. I sat with Connor from Wentworth, Shannon from Marble, and Andy from Martock. We soon retired back to the chalet where Mark, Tim, Larry, Stefan and I played pool late into the evening. Everyone crashed except Tim and I, who for some reason thought it would be a good idea to stay up chatting until 3:30 in the morning. Ouch that's two nights in a row.

Got up bright and early for an amazing breakfast cooked by Barb from Wentworth and Crystal. It was no Crabbe Mountain Breakfast but it wasn't too shabby either, must have been Crystal's touch. :-) Just kidding Barb! Richard soon joined us as we chowed down, while hanging out with RBC Rider and Olympic Hopeful Rider Alex Duckworth. Andy described her cute as a button. I'd say that is accurate cool description. She was our keynote speaker than then left us to go speak to an elementry school. Alex you are an amazing ambassador for our sport and the Maritimes. Good luck in the future, don't forget to swing by Crabbe this winter.

For Educational Sessions we had Groomer Maintenance again and Park scapers. I presented making a plan and teamwork in the park scapers session. The Park Scapers program consists for 3 days. One classroom session at Wentworth and two on snow days at Poley in January, where we get to play in some brand new groomers and setup a park. Should be interesting to say the least.

On the way home the 7 of us stopped at a Big Stop and had a great meal. I think everyone enjoyed themselves and found the educational sessions worthwhile. It's really nice to sit at a table with people from the other hills and find out they deal with the exact same challenges that we do.

I had a bunch of errands to run in Fredericton on Friday morning and picked up some KFC for the boys for lunch. When I pulled up to the garage there was a Rottweiler with a face full of porcupine quills in his face and he wasn't too happy to see me. Actually he probably was as I was carrying a big bucket of chicken. The guys told me had been guarding the garage all day and that on Monday there were 3 Rottweilers at the bottom of the mountain. I love dogs, but I will say 1 cranky Rotti with a mouthful of quills is an interesting challenge to deal with. I really wanted to help this puppy (60 - 70 pounds) out so I baited him with KFC. Once he got a taste of that, he really gave me a hard time. He charged me several time trying to get me to drop the chicken but I retreated quickly but still kind of held my ground. I then threw a plate of chicken in the back of my truck. The pup, was now guarding my truck and the garage now. Great plan Jay. Eventually he went into the back of my truck and I was able to sneak up and slam the tailgate and back window closed. That got my heart going. He wasn't all that happy but at least now the boys could actually work without worrying about our new pet. After a bit the pup curled up and went sleep. He looked so peaceful when he's not charging me growling and showing his teeth. :-)

I then went back on the phones trying to find help from my new friend. Animal Control called back and said the the province will not pay to help a sick or injured stray dog. I told him I think it's a good dog and want to help him and worst case scenario will take the dog if I have too. I didn't want to see this dog put down. He said to give him some time and he would see what he could do. In the meantime I tried working some favors with my vet, even tried bribing with lift tickets but they were backed up and couldn't help us. I called another Vet and they said it would be $150 for the first 15 minutes and $45 for every 15 minutes after that for quill removal. That was a little more expensive than I was hoping. Animal Control called and said the SPCA in Oromocto would help us. I met him there the ladies at the SPCA were awesome, the puppy was now acting like a puppy and even leaned against me and let me rub him. The Animal Control Officer even thought he had a report of 3 missing Rottis earlier in the week and hoped that was the owners of this puppy. I said my goodbye and went home feeling happy that I helped out this poor puppy. I think we will have to do an SPCA fundraiser this winter.

I have since learned that he has been reunited with his family. And that on Saturday they found the other two, who were in pretty bad shape but they are now reunited. The fella I rescued name was Kojak. That's a pretty fitting name.

Today on my way to work, I was taking the shortcut to Crabbe as I normally do. Just in on the dirt road and around the first turn, and there are two horses standing in the middle the road. I got out of my truck to see if they would come to me. Not that I have a clue about anything horse related (other than in the Olympics the Horse should get the medal not the rider). They started toward me but soon as I started to walk toward them they ran off down the road. I turned around as I knew there was someone back on the highway that had horses. I spoke to the nice lady and she said they were not hers. I then asked for some advice on how to catch a horse and she gave some oats and told me how to hold them. I think she was somewhat amused by my enthusiasm as I stood in her drive way as a city slicker with wet hair, and shorts and t-shirt and plans on catching a couple horses. She also thought they might belong to someone at the other end of the dirt road in Hainesville. Perfect in two minutes I'm now heading back into the woods with a old beer box, some oats, a tow strap and I'm gonna catch me some horses. I'm so excited about this that I haven't even decided what I'm going to do with them when I catch them or where I'm going to take them, I don't even know who they belong to (and they got me teach about planning at the park scapers course). I drive up to them get out, pour some oats into the beer box and whistle (like it's a dog and it's going to come). I shake the beer box and sure enough here comes the big horse. I show him the oats and reach out the grab him but he is obviously smarter than I am and runs past me and my truck. Ok here comes horse number two...this guys is not as smart and really likes his oats served up in a beer box. I'm able to untangle my tow strap and attach it to the collar thingy that horses wear that go over the face down near their mouth. I then attach the other end the bumper of the truck. Give horsey some more oats and start to plan how I'm going to catch the other horse. I'm pretty much thinking I'm an animal catching god at this point. It's also about this time that my beer box oats loving friend has clued in that there are not much for oats left and I've tied him to my truck and his friend is 100 meters down the road going the other way. So this horse starts to freak a little. I take the beer box away to go fetch his buddy, now he (or she I didn't really check) is really pissed. I get about half way between the two and hear the one I have tied up whinnying (is that a word), I turn around to see it rearing up and then bucking. My poor truck is at ground zero and is rocking back and forth a bit. Ok maybe horse catching is not as easy as I thought. So I head back to the truck and attempt to untie the horse. Well he wants nooooo part of me. I'm trying to avoid being kicked as he bucks and trying to avoid getting crushed between the horse and my truck as I try to free him. This is really hard to do when the horse won't let you near you and keeps turning to show you his business end so he can kick me easier. At this point I thought about letting it go with my tow strap, but that was an expensive tow strap so I keep working at it and eventually get the horse turned around, untied and it takes off at full spring...wow! I will say my heart was racing at this point, probably don't need to finish my coffee as I'm now fully awake. Not really ever being around a horse much in my life and now being at ground zero in the middle of the woods with a pissed off horse at the end of a strap is not something I will forget anytime soon.

Long story short, I eventually found their owners and they headed off to fetch the horses so I headed off to work. Thankfully.

General Manager, local Animal Control officer...what's the diff.

Big Projects

2008-09-26T14:11:00.008-03:00

I know, make two posts then I bugger off. Well infact I've been extremely hard at'er up here on the mountain.

I think when we last spoke it was Harvest Week. I had a great harvest, how about you? I volunteered with the Ski Patrol providing first aid services at the festival. My shift was Thursday from 8pm - 2am. I was pretty stoked about that as there were a ton of acts that I really wanted to see and people seemed to look after themselves quite well so I didn't have to actually do any first aid which is always a bonus. First, I got to check out the Derek Trucks Band in the Blues Tent. Wow what a guitar player. I found the show to be a little boring other than the absolutely amazing guitar work and really musically it was beautiful. But it didn't make me feel like dancin' and that is important to me. I then checked out Keith Hallett and the Homemade Jamz Band at the Mojo Tent. What an amazing display of young talent, both of these groups rocked the place. I really enjoyed Keith Hallett. Then later in the the night I checked out Matt Anderson who is roughly from my hometown in Perth Andover, and then later on the Matt Anderson Band at the Hoodoo House. It was a great night in all. Friday night Linder and I headed back to the Hoodoo with Lloyd and Dianne and checked out Mike Cadillac and the Rockin' 88's. Another fun show.

Keith Hallett in the Mojo Tent

Since then I've been busy preparing for our gearbox overhaul and my presentation at the ParkScapers Seminar to be held at Ski Wentworth next week.

First up would be the Gearbox overhaul. Every 10 or 11 years we get our gearbox overhauled. We here hoping to send it to Dopplemayr CTEC in spring but they put us off until now. It was a lot of work and much of the work was done by hand, but we are glad to finally get it and our drive bullwheel sent off so they can get everything ready for the season for us. We hope to see them back here in 3 to 4 weeks. Then we have to get everything put back together which will be a lot of work in itself. As you can see from this gallery, it's a pretty big job.

I've now moved onto working on my presentation for the ParkScapers Course. My presentation in on Conflict Resolution and Team Building. I'm presenting to participants from most resorts that are members of the ASAA (Atlantic Ski Area's Association) so it should be fun. It seems my presentation is more on planning but I didn't come up with so we'll run with it. We have a big crew going down, there are 8 of us in total. Mark, Stefan, Crystal, Jay, Timmy, Larry, Richard and myself will all be taking in different educational sessions that will be held between Tuesday and Thursday of next week.

So on that note, the weather is not looking so great for the weekend, maybe I can get some inside work done around the house.

I'll leave you with Stefan's latest creation "Pinch Flats and Taco'd Rims" which was filmed at the Downhill Mountain Bike Races in August at Crabbe.

Cheers!

Rock and Rollin'

2008-09-10T12:30:00.006-03:00

I know twice in one week...Stand BACK!

Me checking out the conditions on Elgees a few years ago to see if it is ready to open, first tracks a nice perk to the "job".

Last night I went to the Crabbe Mountain Ski Patrol's information session for this upcoming season's Ski Patrol Course. It was really nice to see everyone that I haven't seen since the snow disappeared. In many ways, I really miss patrolling. I started back in the ol' Fredericton Area Ski Patrol Days in '96. It was a ton of fun and I got to ski with a bunch of real kick @$$ patrollers. I also got to learn the patrol culture and made friends that will last a life time. In '99 I started working on the pro patrol. In 2000 I became patrol leader of both the volunteer and pro ski patrols. In 2005 I stepped down from my position as patrol leader for the volunteer ski patrol. I continued managing the pro patrol until last fall. So needless to say with over 10 years into the patrol it is a big part of my life and who I am or have become. Over the years I've been in a bunch of patrol competitions. I've finished 2nd I don't know how many times in first aid comps. I guess I just wasn't meant to ever get a 1st place finish in a first aid comp. Maybe some day I'll take another crack at it

My favorite result of all came at a Toboggan Comp at Mont Restigouche, with a Team of Timmy, Stefan and myself. We not only dominated the course, we had enough time to do the course twice and still have time between us and second place. There was this steep mogul pitch near the beginning. I was in the handles, Stefan was my rope man and Timmy was our patient. We were the last team to go, and while we waited we watched every other team stop up at the crest of this steep pitch and then carefully pick there way down. I turned to the boys and said if I'm feeling comfortable I'm just gonna straight run it. As we approached the lip I just keep skating as hard as I could to get more speed, I yelled back to hang on. I didn't quite have enough speed to air over the lip, but as I dropped over the edge with toboggan in tow and then Stefan following on the drag rope, we pulled Stefan completely airborne over the lip. As we cruised into the switch box, we new we had a commanding lead, some teams took minutes to get down that pitch and we just did it in about 3 seconds. Stefan took over in the handles and I grabbed the drag rope and ripped the rest of the way down to the finish through a series of tight corners. Timmy was our victim in the tobo and he was laying on his belly leaning way out to the sides to the keep the toboggan from flipping over as we went around the corners at high speeds . We made sure everyone knew we had won, and that is probably why the next year, everyone took great pleasure in laughing at us as we again trying to blow away the competition. We finished first again in time, but were quite embarassed that we had so many penalties from running over gates, loosing our patient on more than one occasion. I miss those days.

Ethan hanging out with Tony the Toque

So in saying that I really want to help them boost their numbers. If you've ever thought about becoming a ski patroller. Give Carrie Sewell an email or give her a call 462-6440. Or just show up to their first class next Tuesday Sept 16th at 6:30 pm. They will be in room 322 in Marshall D'Avery Hall at UNB. No need to feel nervous these are really fun loving group of people.

August 23rd and 24th we had DH Mountain Bike Race here at Crabbe. It was a huge success.

Marcel Thomann from Ski Wolf launching off the rock drop at high speed.

Group photo of a bunch of racers

We also had a Conquer the Canuck race at the same time. After all the racing was done, Stefan and I headed out in the valley to pick up signs and aid stations from the running race.

Stefan checking out Meteor Lake from the XC Ski trails.

Here is a view of our very green mountain on August 24th.

I'm getting pretty stoked for Harvest Jazz and Blues festival which kicks off today. I'm volunteering Thursday night providing first aid with the Ski Patrol. Linda and I are hoping to take in some shows on Friday and/or Saturday. Can't wait. Hope to see some of you out there!

Cheers

Alive and well

2008-09-07T15:13:00.006-03:00

I'm alive and well, believe it or not. I can't come up with a good excuse for not updating my blog. There is barely a day that goes by that I don't think, I must remember to put this on my blog...I really have to update my blog...but alas, something always comes up or I get lazy or for whatever reason...it doesn't get done.

Tropical Storm Hanna is rolling through so I've got some time on my hands so I read my blog. From the beginning. It was a pretty good read, brought back so many good memories. I get a kick out of all the spelling and grammar mistakes. But then again I guess that keeps it real. Not really keepin' it real, but just real as in authentic and really me and my thoughts. I guess I really should have paid more attention and actually applied myself in English when I went to school. But alas...I didn't, and my wife is constantly making fun of my writing skills. I also think since most of this is just jumbled thoughts in my head, it only makes sense that some sentences don't make sense.

So since we last spoke...er...read...er wrote. Whatever. I was suffering from delusions and missing out on precious powder days due to a broken collarbone. I still think I skied more powder last year. And even with a broken clavicle, I still scored 104 days on snow. Which is not too shabby, especially considering the injuries and the number of days of actually working all day long. But then again, when your office is at the mountain...I guess I get better chances than most. My goal this year will be 120 days on snow.

So yeah, after my last post I took a run 4 or 5 days later then it was every 2 or 3 days and then back to pretty much every day. I doubt my doctor would be impressed.My second day back on snow, skinned up the Beginner Hill down Tippy to Elgees, back up Embrees to the lodge.

Getting a little braver, riding the chair and even skiing bumps.

The dummy race was awesome. Lots of great dummies and even better dummy crashes. Special thanks to Brian and his bar on skis.
We hosted the Fox Subaru Grand $lam invitational which was a lot of fun. We want to host a big time event and Fox Subaru came through in a big way for us.

Airing it over the WRX

Big Thanks to Fox Subaru for helping us put this event on.

The next few weeks I got to hear everyone talk about what idiots we were on closing the mountain on April 6th. I kept telling people that we set the date back in October, and that if the conditions and business levels were there we were going to extend it. I don't know you remember but I am slightly addicted to this sport.

We had some fabulous spring skiing days...

Me, Stefan and Timmy relaxing on a corn day

With the extended season, this meant that I had to dance around my already booked vacation backcountry skiing in Quebec. Since we were closed Monday and Tuesdays, I rented a satellite phone so I could stay in touch and still make decisions.

We left Crabbe on Saturday and drove up in the snow. In NB and most of the way into PQ it was wet heavy snow that was melting as soon as it hit the road. Once we got into the mountains, the temps dropped a bit and the snow was a bit dryer. We stayed in a "primitive" hut for the night and then joined most of our crew in the am for the slog in. It was still snowing and not wearing a backpack since my injury, I packed very smartly to help make it easier on my shoulders. So I headed up early in the fresh snow to get a bit of head start. An hour in I was passed by Pierre and Carole. It was snowing so hard and they were moving so fast, maybe 15 minutes after they passed I could barely see their tracks. An hour after that I was caught by Andrew who like me was nursing an injury, his was a knee injury that he injured about a month earlier at Crabbe. Andrew and I leap frogged each other as we were having glopping issues with our skins. Andrew arrived at the hut minutes before me. I was super stoked to make record time by me. We were soon joined by Stefan and soon after, Rob and Joel. It snowed and we partied into the night.

Enjoying the Cheeseburger picnic.

We awoke the next morning to it still snowing and low visibility. We were nervous about the avi conditions as earlier this year there was a serious Avi accident right out in front of our hut in the exact terrain we were looking to ski. We toured up in the trees following a trail that Gregor found last year. We set off quite few avalanches mostly on purpose by ski cutting once we got back to the chutes. We kept skiing to skiers right in the tree chutes to the left of the S Couloir. The last chute I skied onto, spider webbed and slide as soon as I got out onto the chute but before I could weight it. This scared me as I wasn't in control of it. We soon continued down and it got deeper (thigh) as we got down into the trees and skied through the unsettle debris fields. At lunch we learned Pierre had been swept off his feet and had a telemark ski ripped off his feet in an unpredicted slide that caught up with him. Stefan, Rob and Joel were a little more cautious and spent the day playing in the trees up on the plateau in knee deep mellow slopes.

Rob enjoying the knee deep

You can see my tracks to the right of slides. Scary

The next few days we got to ski conditions from powder to slop as the temps warmed up. We also got to watch/participate in a mock search and rescue of a bunch of hikers that were lost in the mountains. Our job was to be a hut full of simpletons in a mountain cabin. I think we played our parts to a tee. We had limited knowledge for them but did have some valuable info if they asked the right questions. The mock scenario was testing Quebec police, RCMP, Search and Rescue Teams and the Park Wardens. It was a pretty big deal as they must have had 50 or so snowmobiles and even had helicopters in use. We must have been quite a site for some of the police officers, some who looked like they had never been in the backcountry not to mention on a snowmobile. And for them to come across our hut with us sitting out BBQing, taking in the rays and enjoying some beverages on the a must have been quite a site. I'm sure we didn't make things easy on them as we watched them through binoculars getting their high powered machines stuck over and over again much to our amusement. Sound travels in the mountains so I'm sure they could hear our giggling. It also reminded us that when skiing in the backcountry, you must be self sufficient and make a plan of how to self rescue when things go wrong. Help might not be as easy or close by as one would assume. Even in a park full of rescue professionals seemingly.

One of their trusty steeds, I need to get me one of them, actually I think I am buying one of these this fallOur crew as seen by the rescuers

We stayed in touch with Bonnie at Crabbe and learned that with the poor weather on the weekend, we didn't have a good weekend business wise. This was a second poor weekend in a row. The weather for the upcoming weekend did not look good. On Wednesday I checked back in with Bonnie, still no change in the weather, rain all weekend. Stefan and I had chatted about shutting down the mountain the night before if the weather was a no go. It looks like that scenario was playing out, not to mention us cutting our trip short so we could be there to help close things down. I called Leslie and we were both on the same page, that the time has come. So there you have it, that is the story, I made the decision, no one shut it down on me while I was away. It was my decision and as difficult as it was and would be easier to make it sound like someone else made the decision, but sadly it was in fact mine. We had a great winter, no need to spoil it by staying open with not even the season pass holders were coming out to ski. Too bad the weather didn't cooperate, it would have been really something to get to May 4th.

So with a heavy head, it was back to get my skiing fix in the bc, knowing my Crabbe days were numbered. The last day, I was about to just sit back in enjoy the sun and some beverages for the afternoon, when Pierre and Carole came back and said they just bagged the Couloir D'Aigles and Mousekateer Couloir looked skiable. Mousekateer has eluded me for the past two years with it's sketchy ice fall at the steep part, maybe this will brighten up my mood. We toured in across a partly frozen lake (scary in it's own right), nothing like the feeling of falling through a frozen lake with ski gear and back pack on...how long can you tread water? Skinned as high as gravity would allow and then strapped our skis to our packs and started booting up. Pierre was a horse and kicked in a great boot ladder while Carole scampered up behind. I was in pretty rough shape and it took a little longer for me to catch them at the top for the amazing views of my next trips projects.

Couloir D'Aigles (Gregor and I, Spring 2006) goes from right to left in the middle, Mousekateer is lookers left of it, that dogleggs in the middle.

Pierre and Carol booting up

Next trips project, I think that shadowed couloir in the middle has my name on it.

Half way down. You can see the partially frozen lake that we crossed

Mmmm....jump turns

Our skin track across the lake back to the hut

I managed to make it home in time for last day. I was amazed how much snow disappeared during the week I was away. Crabbe got the same 20 degree weather we got in PQ. I was pretty beat up from my trip but still made it out for a bunch of runs. Even rode the last chair with Premier Graham. He told me that Crabbe always offers the best skiing in the maritimes, this guy sounds like he knows what he's talking about. I ended the chair lift season with last chair with Stefan, Gord and Ryan.

So there you have it. One of our earliest opens and latest closing dates in years. We were open 123 days, and had almost 16 feet of natural snow fall on our wonderful mountain. We had the longest season of any mountain in Atlantic Canada. I'm pretty stoked to have these facts and figures attached to my first year as GM. I'd say I'm pretty lucky.

I managed to get a few more runs in before the snow finally melted. I don't think I've ever seen the snow melt so fast as it did this season.

The next few weeks were a lot busier than planned shutting down the mountain. In June I headed off to Gatineau for the Atlantic Ski Areas Association spring meetings. Once every 3 years, we get together with the Ontario Ski Resort Association and the Quebec Ski Areas Association and have a big trade show and education session. Being hosted by the Quebec Association, things are pretty over the top and posh. It was held at the Hilton in Gatineau. We got to tour Calabogie and Ottawa while we were there. We also started planning for our fall Education Sessions which will be held at Ski Wentworth at the end of the month.

Summer went by pretty quick. I managed to go to Fiddles on the Tobique and Canoed the Restigouche. I also had some sort of bizarre kidney infection which meant I couldn't go outside or drink during the two week heatwave we had earlier this summer. That really sucked.

Linda enjoying a beverage on the Tobique

Our campsite on the Restigouche

I've been back to work since the beginning of August we had a Mountain Bike Race and Running Race which I'll report on next time as well as I just got back from the North East Winter Sports Summit in New Hampshire. Lets hope it doesn't take me another 6 months to update this thing.

My Mental State

2008-03-05T15:59:00.003-04:00

It's been a rough week for me. I took last Tuesday off due to the injury. Being a trooper, or an idiot, your choice, I came to work on Wednesday. It was the Kerr Ski Day plus I thought I was going to go insane. The drive over the ridge almost killed me. My clavical was popping and snapping with every bump. Spent the full day here, enjoyed meeting with the crew for Kerr. Got lots of attention as everyone was questioning why I would bother going to Poley. Didn't I know there was no snow in Sussex? But I had my reasons and I crashed and burned so that is the fact I'm living with.

Wednesday was also a powder day, so I spent the first powder of my life, starring out my window watching everyone ripping it up, and hearing the stories of how great the conditions were, and seeing the big smiles on everyones faces. Here is the video from the day... "It's Winter Here"

I then took a bunch of folders and paperwork home with me to catch up on some research....and not drive over the ridge again. So yeah...I took Thursday off.

Saturday and Sunday were almost a living hell (for me) instead of sharing in everyone's excitement with yet again another powder day, I became the center of attention. Kinda puts a downer on schmoozin' but what can you do. It's so tough for me to just to sit idle and not be able to do anything. Well I guess I can still do office work... Here is the video from the weekend..."In like a Lion"

I'm a pretty hands on guy, this year I've groomed, worked both chair bottom, and chair top. I've worked the corral area, I've helped out in the Rental Shop, cooked in the Cafeteria, bussed tables, tended bar, even Ski Patrolled. As I said I'm a hands on type of guy. So to sit on my hands...I mean hand, is just brutal.

Sunday evening, I finally gave it go, and hopped in the groomer to work on the park. It wasn`t too bad. Turning my head to back up the Terrain Park features was pretty tough, but I managed. Finally! That felt so good for my mental health to accomplish something other than paperwork. My shoulder muscles were a little sore Monday morning but it was worth it.

Monday was a rockin' day. Really busy all around, so it went pretty fast. Tuesday not as busy, but my wife is coming down with a cold so I bartended the evening shift for her. Again good for my mental health, but I still felt pretty useless, even though I make a mean hot chocolate.

I've also worked more and more without my sling, mostly just to stretch my arm out. When in public I wear it as more of a caution point so people don't bump into me. I still need the support so I can heal quickly, so I still spend the majority of the day tied up.

I'll continue about my mental health in a bit...

Current Conditions: We received about 3 cms or so of snow this morning, and are now (4:21 pm) receiving ice pellots. Temps are currently at -10. So hopefully we'll walk out of this with mostly frozen precipitation. Tomorrow and Friday look absolutely fabulous. +8 and SUNNY!

This weekend we have Flattop rockin' the Boot which is always a good time. And then on Sunday, the Dummy Race. Build a dummy and get it up here. We're also planning on having a beer garden at the Dummy Race which will be a great time. Here is a reminder of how much fun the Dummy Race was last year!

Coming Soon is a massive terrain park event. Look for more details coming out in the next couple of days. There will be $1000 for first place skier, and $1000 for the first place snowboarder. That should get some interest in the event.

I see Cole now has a blog. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery. He's even using my disclaimer. Kind of funny actually. But it looks like dragging him around Crabbe and showing him the advantages of our boundary to boundary policy has really rubbed off on him. Nice to see. Now if he will just see the light and our superior terrain, he'll be all set. :-)

Now back to my original topic....My mental state.

I woke up this morning and felt pretty good. Well once I got out of bed, because getting out of bed is probably the hardest thing to do with a broken clavical. I packed my ski gear...so I could have a pair of ski pants to wear if needed. My wife asked me why I was taking my gear to the mountain, and I told her I wanted to have all my gear in one place. She smiled. As I walked outside I thought how bittersweet the 5 - 10 cms of snow on my truck was. This will be pow day number 4 since my injury. I then got in the truck and put my seat belt on for the first time in a week. (That isn't entirely true, I've been wearing a seat belt when I'm in the passenger seat) Things are good, the bumps on the Ridge didn't bother me too much. I had breakfast, which I cooked myself because the girls in the kitchen were on break and I didn't want to bother them. Came back to the office, answered a bunch of voicemails and emails. And looked out the window at the snow swirling around. In my head it's a powder day even though I don't think I've ever called 3 cms a powder day, but this is my mental state. I look around my office, my skins are on the wall, my touring gear on the rack. Checked my gear bag, I had everything I needed....

I discretely closed the door of my office. I then layed out all my gear...so far so good. I promised myself, I`d call it off when I feel pain. I pulled my ski pants on...oh how I miss the way they feel. Pulled on a pair of ski socks, those are buggers to pull on with one hand. Grabbed my touring boots. The top buckles were difficult to get started with one hand. But things are going good. I slipped into a base layer top, no problem. (Other than getting out of bed, putting on a shirt is my next most painful experience to my day) Put on a mid layer, with a little frigging and no pain again, things are going good. I then put my injured arm into my shell for the first time in over a week. Zipped it up....ahhhhhhhhh. I then put my sling on, it was a little tight but it still fit. I rigged my radio up in a pocket, through my sling and clipped the microphone onto my collar. Put my helmet on, goggles check. Put on two gloves for the first time in well, you guessed it a week, figured out a way to use a biner to clip my skins to my sling as I couldn't carry a backpack.

I sat down, took a couple of deep breaths. WTF am I doing? This is quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever done. But it needs to be done. I'll go crazy if I miss another "powder day". Got up, grabbed my skis, and one pole. And opened the door to the office, Bonnie questioned me and I told her I had to, I can't take it any more. My radio is on channel one if you need me and walked out the door. I plopped my skis on the ground, stepped into the bindings, such a sweet sound, bent over and switched my boots to ski mode and off I skated so no one else could talk me out of it. It was too late now anyways.

I concentrated so hard on those first few turns and then continued to link short radius turns the whole way down the right side of Daves in the untracked 3 - 4 cms of "powder". Oh my god it felt so good, so quiet, and oh so right. When I got to the bottom, I skied by the corral, past the chair lift, down in front of the pump house. I stepped out of my bindings. Got down on my hands and knees and started putting my skins on. Not quite as easy with one hand as it is with two. Tearing them apart was the hard part. Switched my bindings to tour mode, stood up, switched my boots to tour mode, stepped in and started touring up the Family Trail.

I was so pumped, as I pounded my way up the hill at a blistering pace. (well blistering for me). When I got to the exit of Steve's I finally stopped for a breather. I think continued on at a more moderate pace. Stefan radioed me to check on me as I passed the exit of Pugs. This is the first time I've toured up the Family trail, normally I attack a more direct route, but today I wanted something easy but long. I then realized how much vertical there is from the exit of Pugs to the top of Family Trail. I still made good time up over the mountain. I stopped into the Patrol Hut to de-skin out of the wind. I then continued down the Beginner Hill to the Ticket Office. I was so happy I wanted to scream. But there was a Snow School group right there, and I didn't want them to be scared by a crazed one armed lunatic.

I feel so good now. My lungs feel alive, my legs feel alive, my body feels alive, I'M ALIVE!!!! Even though I only skied Daves Dream, skinned up the Family Trail, and back down the Beginner Hill. I feel like Dykeman does in this pic...

Ski ya on the flip side!

I have an Ouchie

2008-02-26T11:16:00.003-04:00

I had a pretty quiet week last week ski wise. I was really looking forward to racing on Wednesday night, but we were having some pretty serious issues with our website so I ended working on that all night. Got out for a couple runs on Thursday night on a pair of Head XRC`s. Really fast on fast conditions. Didn`t get out on Friday as I had office work to do plus I had to shape the park. Saturday I got out with Stefan, Timmy and Steph Fox. We had stupid fun venturing where others hadn`t. Our only reward was big smiles and laughing at/with each other. Then got to kick back with friends listening to the legendary Flat Top.

Sunday I got to ride next years Burton Custom Snowboard. I had so much fun riding it all morning. After I finished my paperwork and payroll, I went back out a had some more fun on it on it until close. I hit my first rail and the Horn on a snowboard. I can't say how sweet this board and binding system is. Wanna check it out for yourself? Burton Demo day is this Sunday where you can check out Burton's Gear.

Speaking of Demo's. Rossignol will be here on Saturday to help kick off the March Break. So come check out the latest and greatest from Rossignol.

Being the March Break we are also doing something wild and crazy. We are having two bands in this weekend. Saturday is Johnny Crash and the Breeze, Sunday is Big Yellow Barn. It's gonna be fun.

Now onto the ouchie...
Yesterday I was off to Poley. It was a quazi business trip. I met with Bill Anderson, their Operations Manager. We talked Snowmaking, Groomers and just business in general. I met with Jamie Hare, their Risk Manager and discussed Terrain Parks and what not. I got to do one honkin`run with John McNair as he had to go home early. He said he is going to try to make it up Sunday to check out Big Yellow Barn.

Cole Fawcett aka Poley Coley then took me on a tour to "shape my mind". You see Cole and I go back a few years ago, when he took the Ski Patrol course at Crabbe. This guy bleeds Poley Mountain. Probably more so then Poley Bear him(her) self. So we teased each other pretty much ever since. This year Cole has come up to Crabbe on a few occasions and I have been "shaping his mind". He sees the light, he`s not exactly skiing towards it. He understands how much more terrain we have to offer. To the point I think he actually enjoys skiing our terrain up here at Crabbe. Unfortunately he has been one of Poley's biggest cheerleaders (and I mean that with respect), there is no way he is going to change his ways any time soon.

So now was finally his chance to "shape my mind" on his turf. We were joined by Lisa, a cool tele-chica and her snowboarder friend Lucas. We had fun checking out things, the new peak, mostly beginner trails and intermediate cruisers. We played in the woods a bit. The "steeps", did you know Poley has a bunch of double diamonds? I think we use two different scales of trail ratings I guess.

Most of the trails on the far side feed into a beginner trail that brings you back to the lift. Along this trails there are a bunch little jumps and banks that we played on each time we came back around. I came into the jump quite a bit hotter than I did last few times. I was planning on sailing off this thing. Unfortunately there was a rock sticking up at the lip. It stopped one ski dead but it did not release. My skis are both behind me as I'm sailing through the air, I'm rolling the windows ups, doing some sort of variation of the running man. Right ski tip hit first followed by the left and it catapulted me onto my left shoulder. I heard (and felt) it pop. I tried to push myself up off the snow and my shoulder rolled awkwardly. It was extremely painful, I felt the urge to puke. Got up, kind of dusted myself off, Lucas helped me gather my gear up, skied down to the chair, told Cole and Lisa what was up. I took the chair back up, skied down to the bar. Lisa, a nurse practicioner checked me out and agreed my collerbone was broken. She got me some Advil. Cole got me some triangulars and Jamie and Lisa applied a small arm sling (my request). The funny part is Jamie has a broken arm. So here he is with a cast on his arm treating me.

Thank you guys for your patiences and your assistance.

I didn`t know what the treatment was going to be, and was worried about being drugged up and being stuck in Sussex. Being the type of person I am, I sucked it up and drove my truck with a standard transmission back to Fredericton. I have a couple things to say about that...bridges suck, the speed bumps in front of the DECH really suck, and I nothing good to say about the toll gate. How do you get the ticket out of the machine when your left collarbone is busted and you can`t turn your body without sharp shooting pain. Well you sit there, roll down the window and wait for someone to walk within earshot. Thank you to the guy that got me my ticket so the parking gate would let me in.

I then walked in the DECH, great the waiting room is packed. One side has a small child playing with a noise maker and everyone else is coughing and sneezing. Great, I`m going be here all night in pain, surrounded by sick people plus a child with a noise maker....or would I. I waited to see the triage nurse. When it was my turn, the nurse asked me what was wrong. I told her I had a broken clavical. She asks me how I can be so sure. I told her when I run my fingers along my clavical there is a section missing and when I move I can feel pieces floating around and clicking together. She asked me to discribe the pain between 1 and 10. 10 being the worse pain I ever felt. I told her the worse pain I ever felt was the first night after I broke my ribs and rolled onto them and couldn't breath or roll back off them. "So it is somewhere between that and my vasectomy". She took one look at my clavical, went and talked to a doctor.

They then moved me to admitting, then to radiology. They immediately took me in. While xraying me, I see one technician put her hand to her mouth and the other one shuddered. Not a good sign from people who look at broken bones for a living. They let me look at it...yup it's very broken. Back to the ER. Doctor comes over checks out my xray, he agrees...it's "badly" broken. He writes me a persciption, a nurse puts a form fitted sling on me, and I'm back in the cab of my truck 1 hour and 15 minutes after I left it. That has to be a record.

Had an ok Tylenol 3 with Codeine induced sleep until Alex (my puppy) jumped on the bed and decided she wanted snuggle and laid down on my upper arm and shoulder. I think I have a new all time high in pain threshold as I pulled my shoulder out from under her. I then paced back a forth throughout the house while pain mellowed out. I then popped a couple more T3's and moved my pillows to the other side of the bed so that wasn't going to happen again. Alex then crawled under the bed a got stuck...God love her.

I woke up this morning and experienced crepitus for the first time. Not exactly a pleasant feeling or sound. But I'm a pretty cheerful guy and have kept my sense of humor up through this. Here are some funny things people have said to me that made me chuckle.

- After I told the doctor I'm the GM of Crabbe and hurt myself at Poley. - "That's funny...that makes my day"

- Stefan - "After snowboarding on Sunday, and skiing at Poley on Monday, that was ski karma catching up with you"

- Poley Coley - "Poley 1 - Jolly J 0)

- Carrie "OMG...did Poley Patrollers touch you?"

Up to 30 cms on it's way...come and get it!

Cheers!

JJ's Blog - The Picture Page Edition

2008-02-18T14:10:00.008-04:00

I finally got a moment to myself...well not really I'm sitting here updating my blog. But this is good for my soul. I like writting...er typing my thoughts. I find it's a nice release, plus it's cool to hear other peoples comments.

(Making sure there is absolutely no loose snow left on the course)

Since we last spoke, we had speed week, which just about killed me. You can only work so many 18 hour days in a row. But all in all, it was success for the Atlantic Cup, so for that I am proud. Most years they want us to stay as far away as possible from the Horn with the groomer. This year with all the new snow we keep being blessed with, they wanted it groomed as every night, but as soon as we closed, so it would firm up as much as possible by morning. So instead of making our groomer drivers come in when the mountain closed to groom one trail go home get a couple hours sleep and then come back in at 4 to groom the rest of the mountain, it made more sense for me to just stay late and groom it. I must say, B Netting and the headwall of the Horn makes for an interesting obstical to deal with in the dark whether you are going up or down. But by the end of it the week, I had it figured out.

(Where's the Beef)

We also got to cook 91 lbs of Roast Beef for the racers. 91 lbs. Yes Ninety One Honkin' pounds of beef. I think that might be close to a record on our spit. It will cook a lot more, but I don't think we've cooked that much at once yet. It was a lot of fun to cook, plus to see everyone peering in. We should cook beef in the meat machine more often. Hmmm...this is making me hungry.

(given'r)

I have to apologize for missing the award ceremonies but I lost track of time checking out the conditions. Sorry about that...

(Hard at "work")

After Speed week was done, I took two consecutive days off. It was the first time I took two days off in a row since I started in September. It felt good. But being dumb, I took Alex on a 6 hour XC ski through knee deep snow on Tuesday. Not the best way to get rested up.

(Headwall of Harolds, hey were did the rocks and stumps go????)

And then of course we had a powder day on Wednesday so I was pretty exhausted for the rest of the week.

(Tree's made of glass)

After the big ice storm over night on Wednesday night, I was back at the mountain at 4 in the morning to help Fraser with grooming. We had all sorts of adventures that morning with a blown hydraulic hose and then realizing our diesel tank was empty, and due to the roads, our fuel supplier was running late. So basically I drove one groomer while Fraser got the hydraulic hose fixed in Nackawic and by the time he got back and got the other groomer rolling, I was pretty much out of fuel. So he took over with the other groomer which still had a mostly full tank. The fun never ends.

(No normal fitting pants were hurt during this photo shoot, just kidding guys, thanks for your help!)

This past weekend we competed with Snow-a-rama and Winterfest and I think we all did quite well considering the cold temps. We were also audited by our accountant. She left pleased and extremely stoked on Edwin's steak cooking skills. Even mentioned how much better it was than Wentworth's. But shhhh don't tell anyone. Sunday was also Ladies Day which was a fundraiser for Run for the Cure. Radical Edge and Elusive had a demo tent setup, plus there were massages and other activities going on in the lodge.

(Last Tuesday, our last day of making snow)

Snowmaking Update:
Speaking of Snowmaking, we have officially finished making snow. As of today our meter has been read by NB Power, so instead of taking the added expense of another huge demand charge, we are pulling the plug as we do most years at this time. No fears though, over 10 feet of snow has already fallen at Crabbe this year and we haven't even hit our traditionally snowiest months yet!

(The back steps to the office)

Weather Update:
When I arrived at the mountain this morning we had about 5 - 10cms of fresh. However it was raining. I left the mountain at noon and things weren't really doing much, we still had the new snow we picked up over night so we'll be fine. We also had not received as much rain as you did in Fredericton.

(stop it with the damp stuff please)

Today is the first day we were scheduled to be open that we did not open this season. Obviously our school groups were canceled, and I didn't feel too many parents would be driving their kids up to the mountain today, and it's not like Monday is our busiest day of the week with good weather, so I decided to give the staff the day off. We were the first mountain in Atlantic Canada to open on Dec. 8th and 9th. Closed that Monday - Thursday as planned. We reopened on Friday the 14th and have only closed for Christmas Day since. That's right, we were opened as planned for 67 consective days. Wow. It felt really weird sitting at my desk this morning and hearing no clumping of ski boots. I hope I don't have to have that feeling again until April 7th. Here is another interesting stat for those of you keeping score. We were 100% open from boundary to boundary for 40 of those days. That is pretty impressive.

(Hotdog)

I had a pretty cool, feel good moment over the weekend. I had 4 people this weekend who had not ventured into our glades before this year, and after seeing our videos decided to give it go. I'm so stoked about this. I love skiing in the trees. It's always an adventure. It's like being a kid again. Seeing the looks on other peoples faces that have ventured off the beaten path and experienced it, is pretty awesome. Those of you who haven't checked out our glades, you don't know what you're missing.

Well here is a video filmed last Wednesday while the City of Fredericton was essentially shutting down. Enjoy...

All pics and videos by Stefan Billings our Promotions and Marketing Director. Check out more of his work here and here.

It's Been Kinda Crazy

2008-02-02T20:19:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the lack of updates. It seems everytime I go to do an update I get pulled one way or the other. Let see, where did a leave it off. Oh yeah it was the "Big Wednesday" update. Yes Big Wednesday. I still dream about that day. Quite possibly the most epic powder skiing I've had here at Crabbe Mountain. And I am a powder whore. There have only been a couple of powder days I've missed out on since I started work here back in '99. I think only one or two come to mind. We finished things off with a meyheim of a weekend.

Things died down a bit from a biz point of view but from the work point of view things only seemed to get heavier. First off was rebuilding of our kitchen. Out with the old oven/grill, in with a brand new propane oven/grill and a second electric grill. Fun Fun. That was a ton of work, but it meant I didn't get a day off that week. But that was ok, because this is something the girls in the kitchen have needed for many years. I was pretty happy to help make it come true. I also like the fact that we seem to be able to keep up a little better to our big rushes on the weekend. Just think, we still have another thermostat to add to the electric grill, so then we'll really be cookin'.

We also finally fixed one of our lighting strings that has been causing us issues for the past few years. That was nice to finally put to bed. Too bad they couldn't have solved the problem for us in the fall, but frost heaves and underground wiring have a funny way of working sometimes.

I got my truck back at the end of the week. It hasn't caused me any brake issues since. Odd, I thought the problems I was experiencing since day one were "normal".

Then there was the Friday that it rained in all day up to km from the mountain but snowed here all day. Schaweet. Then the next day we got slammed again, only this time things ran very smoothly. The guys at the bottom did a kick ass job. Thanks to Timmy for helping out that day. Speaking of doing a kick butt job, every department up here was short staffed that day and everyone stepped up and delivered. I don't think I could have scripted it better. Thank you so much to our hard working staff.

That Sunday we had a staff party to celebrate the end of the National Learn to Ski and Snowboard week. It was a lot of work for a lot of staff. We learned a lot about the program and how we can improve upon it for next year. It was also pretty fun to have a mid season staff party. A few of use held'r down early into the morning. I was happy to have the next day off.

Richard and I have since built the best park Crabbe Mountain has ever had. Some have said the best Atlantic Canada has ever had. I don't know about that, but it has come together pretty sweetly. A lot of work, late nights, but we're pretty proud of it. Gonna start tweaking things and changing things up a bit this week.

The Wilson's were up last week to check up on me and the mountain. They also got to do some great skiing. On cue, I had it snow 10 cms the night they got here so they could experience Crabbe. It did make having some mandatory meetings a little more difficult to get done. All in all, I got the impression they are quite happy with how things are rolling along.

Took out Steve's tele boards last Saturday super fun. Hope to take them out again soon. Was probably not a good idea to do the day before the Everest Challenge. Speaking of which, that was such a blast. Thanks to all the people that made it happen and also to all the people I met along they way. You should try it next year. It was a lot of fun and good cause, and a great challenge. Next year I'm either going to do it on teles or a snowboard to mix things up a bit. I also did the math I sat on a chair lift for over 4 and half hours. Well, it beats sitting at an office desk all day. Once completed I had to do payroll for our staff and then worked until midnight reshaping our park. The fun never ends.

This week was even more craziness. I won't even get into Thursday. Here's some comic relief for you.

I got in my truck here at the mountain to go do a liquor run. Started as it normally does. Drove to Nackawic, stopped outside the Save Easy. Signed off all our paperwork. Got back in my truck, started it and then drove around to the loading dock. Loaded all the booze into my truck. Hopped back in the cab and went to start it. Nothing. Well something, it was cranking over but it wouldn't fire up. Long and the short of it, ended up having to call Mazda Road Side assistance to come get my truck. I also called Stefan to come help haul the booze back to Crabbe. Stefan got there first, so we loaded him up with as much as he could take. So he headed back to Crabbe to drop off that load while I waited with the other half of the beer and for the tow truck to show up. Of course it gets there before Stefan so I unloaded the remaining booze onto a palet. The tow truck driver says, "hey didn't I pick up this truck in Zealand a few weeks back". You know, it's not a good thing when the tow truck driver recognizes your vehicle. I don't think I'll be keeping it past it's warranty period. Ok back on topic. So there I was, in the dark, behind the liquor store in Nackawic sitting on a pallet of beer. Honestly, one of those moments where you think to yourself....self, when I took this job...this wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Either way, it's a funny story that at least I'm laughing about.

Last night it started snowing a few minutes after we got the last load of booze from Nackawic. We probably got about 10 cms before the ice pellots started around 10 or so. Odd weather -11 and ice pellots. This morning, at opening it switched back to snow. And man did it snow hard. Turned out to be a great day...to bad there weren't more customers here to enjoy it. Their loss!

So there you have it. Hopefully I'll be able to do more updates, more often. I'm sorry about that.

I'll leave you with the park video Richard made.

The Perfect Storm

2008-01-05T20:50:00.000-04:00

Wow...I wonder how many blogs I've started off with a Wow? I'm physically too tired to go check. I had planned on doing a New Years Blog with Hello 2008 kind of like last year. But we had a schedule mixup on New Years Day so I started out working chair bottom and it's been pretty much a whilewind since then. Bill Rogers had the very first chair of 2008. Once we got the staff in and got dug out (again) I headed up to help out at the bar and that is where I spent a good part of they day. Hot Chocolates with Whip Cream were the drink of choice. I getting pretty good at the swirling the whip cream. My first few were pretty scary looking...but still very tasty I bet.

Then it started to snow...and man did it ever snow. I woke up on Wednesday bright and early. I quickly got my snowblower fired up and blew a path out of my drive way. And then off to the mountain I went. First problem was crossing the dam...there was only one lane plowed and the nice people coming in the opposite direction didn't believe in sharing their lane in the least bit so I burried my truck into a snow drift. It wouldn't have been so bad but all the snow landed on my hood and windshield so I had to stop, get out, remove the snow from my windshield because my wipers weren't moving anything. Then back in the cab and forwards...backwards to work my way out the snow drift. The same thing happend on the ridge as well. This time I needed to do a little shovelling to get rolling again. Got first tracks through the Hainesville Road which was first gear with my head out the window, because my hood kept getting loaded with snow.

I thought I had a tough drive to work, until Big Larry told me about his. As he was driving to the mountain, he saw a plow truck coming up behind him so he pulled over to let the plow by. To return the favor the plow guy burried Larry's Car. He had to get out his passenger side and it took a half and hour to get his car unstuck from the snowbank the plow pushed up against his car. Then once he got to the hill he had to wade through knee deep snow to get a groomer to plow a strip in the driveway so he could get into work.

Once we got our staff in, we somehow managed to get the lift fired up on time. I shared first chair with Tim Smith. We decided our first run would be Norms to Tippy to Harolds. And let me tell you it didn't disappoint.

Tim likes to turn, I like to go fast.

I stopped and snapped this pic on Harolds. Tim pulled the first rule of a powder day (there are no friends on a powder day) and left me behind. I don't blame him, I would have done the same.

My next run was to pull the rope on the Chairline so it would be ready to go once the groomers finished up on the Horn. I must say, I've skied in a lot of different conditions at a lot of different places. I don't think I've ever had a run like I had. After my second turn every turn was a full on face shot, to the point my mouth was filling with snow and I was having trouble breathing. In between turns I was wiping my goggles so I could see where I was going. It was epic. Unbelievable. Pure insanity. And I was soooooo loving it. I soon joined up with Stefan, Tim and Leo and we sessioned the rest of the mountain. It was a lot fun letting the boards run in the deep stuff. In places (sometimes entire pitches) it was honest to goodness waist deep snow. Here are a few pics I snapped.... enjoy

Bottomless

Stefan

Tim

BillnZ

Leo

Leo, I'm quite sure powder magazine will be calling for this one.

Stefan

Couple of side notes...I don't remember ever ripping as fast through Steve's Drive Thru as I did over and over again Wednesday. Jamie Willis owes a lot of people a lot of beers. There still no friends on a powder day. No I didn't sell my soul to the devil for these conditions, but if you want to volunteer I wouldn't be upset with you.

Once my body finally gave out on me around 3:30, I had to drive home to pick up Linder and a liquor order. On the way home, my rear brakes decided to catastophically fail, both rear brakes were laying on the axle, brake lines sheared off, brake fluid everywhere, emergency brake cable snapped off. Gotta love frozen brakes systems. Thankfully Lloyd and Diane picked me up and then picked up Linda and lent me their truck for the night so I could get back to work. I ended up taking Thursday off as I didn't really have any wheels. Mazda finally came through for me on Friday with a Rental truck so I was back in business so to speak.

We've been full out here all week. Thank you for your patience around the mountain today. As you know we had a few people here today. We are still working out the bugs of our new corral system at the bottom, which is a little hard to do when it's full from the time we open to the time we close. From what I understand, there are not a lot of happy people with it. We have signs on order and are going to reconfig one more time before we scrap the idea. I personally believe it will make things run much smoother once we have the bugs worked out of it. I could be wrong, but bare with me on it.

Once again thanks for a successful holiday period...I'll leave you with some eye candy.

Goodbye 2007

2007-12-31T07:47:00.000-04:00

So here we are New Years Eve. What a year it has been. The weather was so good to us in 2007. With dump after dump to end last season with more of the same to start this season. We are truly blessed with the snow we have gotten to play in. Wow. This year has been quite a roller coaster ride for me personnally. New House, New Job, it's been a lot of work. But I think it is worth it. I think we are putting out a pretty good quality product. There is lots of room for improvement, and we will continue working towards that. Thank you for making Crabbe Mountain part of your lifestyle.

As I type this it is currently dumping outside. I have to make a run to the bank as we are running low on change. I just picked up change on Friday. Gotta love busy weekends! It just sucks that me being in town always seems to happen on a powder day. So I'm awake, can't fall back to sleep, I know it is snowing, I know the conditions are going to be epic, but alas, I must wait for a freaking bank to open.

Yesterday was a day dreams were made of. It's the reason we all do this. We left the far side of the mountian ungroomed on purpose. As Stefan stated, Powder to the People. And was it ever awesome in the morning. I can't tell you how the afternoon was as my legs had given up by then and I had to do payroll. Either way fun time was had by all.

Conditions Update:
Today we are open 22 of 22 trails. The only exception is the headwalls of Harolds, Norms and Elgees. I can see those possibly opening after this new storm. We'll have to see how things go. I just got off the phone with Fraser, he and Big Larry are grooming out the Far Side so it will be nice and smooth under the new snow that is coming today. We should see about 15-20 more cms of snow when things finish up tonight. Ski Patrol will be putting out some snow fencing in trouble areas to help catch some of snow that may get moved around in the winds later today.

Terrain Park Update:
With these continued snow storms the park features have been not been reshaped in the past few days. My plan was to reshape last night but with the storm coming today it would have been pointless. I will be reshaping everything tonight after we close.

Snowmaking Update:
Snowmaking should hopefully fire up in the next day or two. We have a couple priorities and they will have to do with timing. If they are only firing up for the night they will concentrate their efforts at Chairtop and Chairbottom to build up depths. If it looks like they have a larger window, they will be working on the Ski Out Terrain Park, Upper Daves and Gregs Way. The Gregs Way spur line has been connected and is ready to rock.

On that note, I would like to thank all of our customers for their continued patronage. Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Check out the latest video by Richard Cote, our Terrain Park Manager

Cheers!

Boxing Day Blues

2007-12-26T12:20:00.000-04:00

I hope Santa found everyone. I was blessed with a very good Christmas with my family. I got a new ski jacket (actually had it for a couple of weeks now), XC Bindings and Boots to complete Linda and my XC setup. We even went out and did laps around the backyard yesterday. I also got some nice comfy slippers. What did you guys get?

It's been a busy few days. We've been sorting out an electrical problem in our Night Skiing Lights that we have been working on since I started back in September. Well it's not that bad. We had a small problem this year. We thought we had fixed it in September as the problem went away after we made the scheduled changes. Turns out when snowmaking started back up and started running the lights at night, the problem had gotten worse. So a bunch of troubleshooting later with our two electrical contractors and we finally found the problem at about 3:00pm on Christmas Eve. Turns out it was a problem at NB Powers end. Called NB Power, they arrived on the scene at about 5 o'clock and we had their end of the problem fixed by about 7 pm Christmas Eve. Not much fun working late on the Christmas Eve, but I thank Mark for sticking around as well as my wife Linder who was stuck here waiting for me.

We kept the groomers off the snow until early this morning to help the snow dry out some. Fraser and Big Lar did an awesome job fixing things up this morning. We also pushed out the snow on the Ski Out which is really nice and soft skiing right now.

Conditions Update:
We are currently riding on 6 trails, Beginner Hill, Ski Out, Daves Dream, Gregs Way, Humes Flume, and the Kings Horn. We start night skiing tonight as well. Most trails are machine groomed/hard pack, and are in much better shape than you would expect. Tomorrow looks like we will be getting some snow which will be nice to see. Right now it looks like 5 - 10 cms or so...it's still early and we'll be keeping an eye on it as it gets closer. They are also calling for Fluries on Friday, Snow on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. Schweetness! We have a terrific base on almost every trail, it won't take much for us to open most of the mountain back up again. In the mean time, come on out and enjoy the most open terrain we've had open at this time of season in many years.

Terrain Park Update:
We still have 10 features out on the mountain. We were hoping to start doing some shaping in the park over the next couple of days. We'll see what the snow brings tomorrow and go from there.

Snowmaking Update:
Zilch, nada....looking at the forecast they might be able to work their magic again on the weekend. Which doesn't sound great but then again with the incoming snow, we might be in the clear anyways.

Check out this old retro video that Stefan uploaded.

Until next time keep the slippery side down.

Getting ready for a Rockin' Weekend

2007-12-20T19:24:00.000-04:00

WOW!

What a storm on Sunday/Monday! We received about 30 cms of snow give or take. Some places seemed really really deep. Check out the video below. I know I dove in head first to get a real close inspection of the snowpack.

Since then, we were able to open up pretty much the entire mountain. We had the Chairline closed because they were making snow on the Headwall of the Horn and hoses were stretched across both entrances. That is done now, so we should have 22 out of 22 trails open going into the weekend. Now in saying that, Elgees, Norms and Harolds headwalls are not open so technically we can not claim that we are 100% open. When was the last time we had this much terrain open this early in the season? We're pretty stoked on the conditions. Yes we are pretty lucky with the conditions mother nature has blessed us with. In fact we got a couple more cm's today which would have been like riding on butter. Unfortunately (sort of) I had to go into town at noon for a Christmas Party (mmm....Chinese Food) and run some errands. I was pretty bummed for not skiing today, but I guess I'll have to get used to the fact that I can't play every day.

Snowmaking Update:
Snowmaking has finished up on the Kings Horn early this morning. Yesterday we had a small slab Avalanche on the Headwall of the Horn. Crown Line were probably about 16 inches deep. Pretty serious stuff considering the weight of man made snow. Luckly our workers were clear of the area when it happened. However it was not unexpected as the boys were warning each other of the fracture lines and stayed clear the area. Once the fracture lines appeared.

Fracture lines expanding.

Avi Debris.

Check out more snowmaking pics on our Facebook Group. In other news, I expect the Premier Race Trail in Atlantic Canada to be open from top to bottom tomorrow. Stoked? The boys have moved the guns to Upper Daves and the Terrain Park and Fraser has been spreading out the snow and grooming it out nicely. I know we mentioned they would be working on Gregs Way. Gregs Way is a spur line which means they have to manually switch the Daves Return line to couple with the Gregs Spur Line. This would require a shut down. So instead we will hold off on Gregs until after we have a shut the system down. Then we can move the coupler from Lower Daves to Gregs. In other words we are progressing much faster that planned. No kidding eh?

Terrain Park Update:
As I mentioned earlier snowmaking has commenced in the Ski Out Terrain Park. You can see the lights are on tonight on the Crabbe Cam. I'll see if I can re-position that camera tomorrow so you can see some progress when I'm back up to the mountain in the am. I just got off the phone with Richard who is putting the remaining skirting and puck board on the A Frame Rail on the mountain. Currently we have 1o features spread out from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the mountain. That does NOT include the Jibs that were built in Diddle Daddle Glades. Needless to say we have the best early season park conditions ever. EVER!

So what are you waiting for? This weekend is going to be prime. We're expecting a good crowd out on Saturday. To prepare for it the Ski Patrol ski packed the T-Bar line and we have T-Bar lift attendants scheduled in for Saturday to help keep the lift lines down so you guys can spend more time riding and less time waiting in line. Isn't that the way it's supposed to work?

Here are some of the projects we are working on....
We are currently upgrading the Disconnects for the Night Skiing Lights that project is supposed to finish up Friday or Monday. Nothing like cutting it close eh? We also have to replace the disconnect on the Patrol Hut as Timmy and the boys have not had any heat in the past two days. Let me tell you, they were none to impressed coming into that Patrol Hut on Wednesday to find no heat the temperature INSIDE the hut was -20. Ski boots are a little hard to put on at that temperature. Luckly Gary moved a space heater to the hut to give the boys a little heat until we can fix the faulty disconnect. We also received our new to us 36" Grilltop yesterday. We are trying to get it installed after the Hill Lights are finished. We would love to have it operational for the Holidays. It more that doubles our current grill space which will be at a premium over the holidays. We've also had some snowmobile issues (nothing is ever easy) this year (I've had two rebuilt in the past two weeks) so I haven't been able to work on the XC trails. We hope to have our loops behind the lodge groomed for this weekend. If that is not enough track set trails for you, cross the road and check out the Slippery Mitten Trails. Brian tells me he was planning to track set his trails today. Sweet and I just finished off Linda and my XC gear. I guess I better remember to mount those bindings!

With that I'll leave you with our latest powder day video. Also if you have trouble getting time off work on the powder days...we are here to help. Click here for your get out of jail...I mean work free card. :-)

Without further delay..."Days Like Today"

I Can Feel It Coming In the Air Tonight

2007-12-15T16:22:00.000-04:00

Everyone is making predictions on what we're getting for snow over the next couple of days. I've heard people as a low at 15 and as high as 60cm. My guess is somewhere around 30. We'll take whatever we can get. I'm pretty excited to see how things pan out. In fact, Stefan didn't ski today to get as much work done as possible, so he could save his legs and log some serious ski time over the next couple of days. I didn't go through the same preparations. I got 5 honkin' runs in today with my buddy Lloyd. Elgees was probably my favorite, however I was still enjoying my little stash on Tippy but a few more people have been enjoying it as well.

We currently rockin' about 14 trails and conditions are absolutely amazing for this time of the year. Don't take my word for it, come ski it for yourself.

Terrain Park Update
We currently have the following features from the top down:

Wide Flat Rail - Urban take off
Wide Flat Box
Flat Down Box
Rainbow Rail
Mini Flat Rail
Kids Fun Box - Mini Pyramid
Down Flat Down - Urban take off (Going out as soon as I'm done this to finish setting it up)
Flat Box
Double Pipe Hand Rail - Urban take off

Snowmaking Update
Our snowmakers shut down this morning after finishing up the bottom half of the Horn. With the in coming storm, we decided to give the boys some time off and let their hoses dry out so they can run more efficiently when they set back up. When they fire back up, they will be heading to the Top of the Horn Spur Line. Once completed they will work on Upper Daves, Gregs Way and the Ski Out Terrain Park to finish off this side of the mountain.

Gonna finish this up so I can get home at a decent hour to rest up for tomorrow!

Cheers

Keep on Rockin' in a Free World

2007-12-13T11:36:00.000-04:00

Don't know why but that song is in my head as I type this.

The weekend was a success from just about every level. The tremendous outpouring of thanks, the videos, the pictures, the shear joy, plus seeing everyone back on the slopes, was awesome. Thank you so much for making our opening weekend a success, it sure makes this job worthwhile. We were once again the first mountain open in Atlantic Canada and we couldn't do it without your support. From our end it was a logistical nightmare, but I think we pulled it off. Even though we had snowmaking troubles, got short shipped food at the last minute, it was far better than I had hoped. Thank you again.

I guess I never really finished off my last post. I actually skied the bearing down to the snowmaking shed, where I met Big Larry and our service provider, who quickly reassembled our pump motor and ran a quick test. Since then, we have been making snow pretty much 24/7. The only exception was the small snow storm that blew through the other night which dropped another 10cms of snow. Those are the reasons we like to shut down. :-)

Monday was quite a site up here. I think the majority of staff that actually came in to work seemed like the walking wounded, walking around shell shocked. I was here and couldn't believe how quiet it seemed. Don't get me wrong, the staff that were not here, definitely earned a day off. Most of the staff were back at it on Tuesday finishing up the jobs we pushed off so we could open a week early, like painting floors in the lodge, and shampooing carpets in our buildings. Things like that. I actually took Tuesday off and it felt great! It was my first day off in weeks. I might even take a day off next week. Crazy...I know.

I came up early yesterday with plans of skiing some powder, but got roped into grooming to pack down the newly fallen snow so it would not blow away in the high winds that were forecasted last night. Good thing as it was very windy. It made painting the skirting on the rails last night a little more interesting and challenging.

Terrain Park Update
Tonight Richard and I are going to break down and move the park to various parts of the mountain to free up some real estate on the Beginner Hill. I'll give you a full run down as soon as we figure out where everything is going to placed. I scoped out a few locations, we'll definitely setup at our old faithful location, but we are looking at some more sweet spots to make things a little more fun. Don't forget, Helmets are Mandatory on all Terrain Features. Stefan and I painted the skirting on all of the features that are currently in use last night. Richard is going to try to skirt and put puckboard on our remaining features we didn't have out last weekend, so we will be good to go when our full on park opens.

Snowmaking Update
The Terrain park update flows nicely into this update. The boys were back up and running early Saturday night when the temps dropped enough. They worked on Daves Dream to finish it up and slowly moved the guns to the Flume. They were able to finish the Flume before the storm on Tuesday. They began setting up early last night from the middle cutoff - down on the Horn. It probably won't be open on Friday, but if I was a betting man, I'd say it will be a go for Saturday. Once they finish the Lower Horn they will move up to the Upper Horn spur line and start blasting the top half. Things are looking good.

Possible Trails and Conditions Update
Beginner Hill - Mid Winter Condition
Upper Daves Dream - Thin in places
Daves Dream - Mid Winter Conditions
Gregs Way - A couple of thin spots
Diddle Daddle - Powder
Diddle Daddle Glades - Watch for underbrush
Little Brave - Powder
Glades - Upper Powder, Lower Part is Closed
WarDance - Marginal
Sunvalley Glades - Watch for underbrush
Humes Flume - Mid Winter Condition
Bottom Half Kings Horn - Excellent
Top of Harolds - Marginal
Top of Tippy - Marginal
Lower Elgees - A couple of thin spots but very good coverage

***Please note this is projected list and some of these trails may not open, official trail openings and closings will be ongoing throughout the weekend as conditions change. Please consult crabbemountain.com for up-to-date conditions***

I'll leave you with a video from opening day.

Richard just pulled in so we are heading out shortly. You can see us working on the Crabbe Cam.

Nothing Is Ever Easy Updates

2007-12-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

This blog is all about giving a behind the scenes look into what is goes on at the Ski Area. Well this post is pretty much that in as true to color as I can offer and still keep it PG.

Nothing is ever easy. I think I'm going to adapt that as my new moto. What we've gone through over the past few days has lived up to that. We're making the attempt to give our customers what they want. They have snow in their backyards to they want to come out and have some fun. Sounds easy to do. Wellllll...

Last post I mentioned about a ticking sound in our Water Pump for our Snowmaking system. It was a bearing going bad. No problem, our service provider checked the system over and ordered a new bearing. Said it would be in Thursday. Not problem. Thursday he shows up, takes the pump head off and realizes that there is not one but two bearings in there and the one he doesn't have, fell apart as he disassembled it. So there was no way to put it back together. So he had one shipped in air to arrive this morning. At this point the courior company has misplaced it. Many more pulling my hair out and four letter words.

I'm trying to get another one shipped Air Canada to arrive sometime today or tonight to get it installed. So the long and the short of it, our snowmaking system is down until I can get the bearing and get our service provider to get it installed.

So at this point here is what we are offering this weekend.

Beginner Hill - Mid Winter Form
Daves - Good Coverage for the top 1/3, Mid Third has some thin spots, Bottom Third as some bare spots
Little Brave - Powder
Glades - Powder w/some thin spots

I skied Daves a few hours ago and was able to hold high speed carves from top to bottom. I don't think I would bring your brand new skis. It is still pretty thin as it is Early December.

Terrain Park Features
Wide Flat Rail - Urban Style
Wide Flat Box
New Double Pipe Handrail - Urban Style
New Pipe Drop
Long Flat Box
New Flat Down
Rainbow Rail
Shorty Rail

We are going to try to add a few more features by tomorrow and through out the weekend.

Roast Beef Rail Jam is still a go.

I'll try to give more details as I get them later today, but I do have to run to try to get this bearing problem sorted out.

***Update - 1:15pm***
Just got a call....our Bearing arrived in St. John's Newfoundland this morning! Just Lovely!

***Update - 2:18pm***
We have another bearing on route to an airport in Toronto, shipping to Fredericton via Air Canada to arrive soon...still waiting for flight numbers.

***Update - 6:56pm***
New Bearing flies in tonight. I'm meeting the plane at 11:30. Service Provider and Big Larry are going to install at 8:30am. We'll test it tomorrow and be back in the snowmaking game tomorrow night. Time for a beverage.

After working on the park until 4:30 am this morning and dealing with this over the past 30 hours. I'm a tired boy.

See ya in the morning.

Oh yeah....this is what 157 Burton Snowboards in a pickup truck look like.

***Update - 12:51 am***Bearing did not land in Fredericton, they can't tell me where it is because their call center is closed. It may come tomorrow at noon....or it may not. I bet someone in Nunavut probably received our bearing this evening. They probably have a better chance of getting it than us at this point. So frustrated right now. Going to bed to get a couple hours sleep.

***Update - 8:20am***Our package is now registered with Air Canada Cargo, scheduled delivery is Dec. 10th. Ok we sent man to the moon in the 60's but now in 2007 I can't get a box from Ontario to New Brunswick, using 2 different shippers, paying a premium for Air Service. I called Cargo in Toronto and told him the scenario, mission critical, yadda, yadda, yadda. On hold for a while, and then the guy comes back to tell me it's my lucky day, it will be on the next flight arriving in Fredericton before noon. I'm not holding my breath because I was promised by Air Canada that it would arrive last night at 11:00. Stay tuned!

***Update - Noon***The Bearing has landed! It's on it's way, or service provider is on his way, Big Larry is on his way. The parking lot is packed, people are stoked. Life is as it should be...now if I could just go for a run or two.

Mother Of An Update

2007-12-05T16:22:00.000-04:00

Monday was pretty mellow for the most part all things considering. Just head down hammering. Pro Data was in and fixed some network jacks and ran a new line for the webcam. I then began the painstaking job of trying to make the webcam do what we want it too. Turns out we didn't have the correct firmware, so I went to download the firmware and the internet crapped out due to the storm. No problem we have backup internet now. Went over to the lodge connected to the Aernet Wifi Zone. Downloaded my update, then hooked back up to our network, applied the firmware. Go check the website link, no go, internet is still down. Eventually gave up and went home in a snow storm. Also spent the day trying to get a ticking sound fixed in our snowmaking pump.

On the drive home I got side swiped by a deer. Saw it at the last minute, it ran into my back bumper. Both truck and bambi survived. The rest of the drive home was not much more fun. My trucked seemed to have a magnetic attaction for the ditch.

I got up early on Tuesday and broke trail for the most part getting to the mountain. Had to keep it between 40 and 60km/h any faster and the snow coming up over the hood of my truck got a little too difficult to manage. Ironically I finally met a plow at the Crabbe Mountain end of the Hainesville Road. We then drove the rest of the way to Crabbe doing 30. Grrrr.

As I pulled in the parking lot Stefan txt'd me to tell me he finally shovelled his way down George St. and was now on Regent and on his way. I quickly grabbed my backcountry skis and started skinning up the Terrain Park. Snow was variable a bit of drifting going on but it was good none the less. The then hit up Upper Daves and had a decent run, oddly I was having trouble getting my skis to float, but I had fun none the less.

I then skinned back to the garage and jumped in the tractor and blew a path out the parking lot and back, so the staff could get in the driveway. On the way back to the lodge Stefan made it in. He quickly got changed and we headed back out to do some product testing. We skied the Little Brave and then down onto the Glades. Conditions were pretty sweet. Still pretty soft and we were touching down here and there, even though we were both on powder skis.

Fraser was out on the mountain packing down the base. Larry was at the snowmaking shop with the pump technician. He took a snowmobile down. Nice.

They we started talking....Should we open this week...what's it going to take...would we be ready...it's not as easy at flipping a switch and we're open. Especially when we were still planning on having another week to get ready.

When we got back to the office, the phones were ringing off the hook. We have 4 lines coming in and all 4 lines were lit up. The best I could do was check my messages, return calls and then check my messages, and so on. I did an interview with CBC and the Daily Gleaner. Every call is..."Are you open", "When are you opening", "Why aren't you open", "You should be open". At the same time trying to get the webcam to upload images to our FTP site.

We were supposed to have managers meeting on Wednesday to make sure everybody was on track to get open for the next weekend. We need to make sure everyone is on board. Can we even pull this off....physically...logistically. The phones keep ringing. Stefan is doing more media interviews. Ok lets have an emergency Managers Meeting right now and make a plan.

We sat down figured out what needed to be done, what we could get by with and what it's going to take to give the customers what they want.

Crystal began ordering food and bar supplies. Gary went back to work on the chair. Larry continued to work on the pump. Bonnie got on the phone arranging float money with the bank. Wendy put her team to work tuning rental gear. Stefan and I were on the phones returning messages and doing more interviews. A very hectic week just got even more hectic.

Today I went exploring in a groomer to check out the far side. Lower Elgees looks really nice the headwalls are in pretty rough shape. I see someone tagged Norms, the headwall didn't look like much fun, was it? I finally got the webcam to upload pics but only when it senses motion. We'll keep working the bugs out of. Please be patient, and understanding that it's not my biggest priority at the moment. Getting open for this weekend is, but at least we got it functional. I spent the rest of day fighting with our ISP to fix a problem we've been working on for 3 months now. Not impressed but it looks like I may have made progress today. We'll see.

I still want to get the skirting on the rails painted, prepare for the Staff Meeting tonight, organize the Roast Beef Rail Jam and get us in the position to open. I'm a sucker for punishment...why not.

Snowmaking Update:
Snowmaking started back up and running late this morning, they are working at the top of the mountain to give us a good base for the unload area of the chair. They are also blowing from the bottom of the Flume to Chair Bottom. Once they finish up across the top they are going to start working on the thin areas on Daves with hopes of getting it in decent shape. If we can get to and from the chair we should be able to open up even more terrain. We'll announce what we're opening on Friday at noon.

Terrain Park Update:

That pretty much sums it up. Kind of where we left off last year with our year ending jam. DJ, draw prizes, and fun. Oh yeah, we're going to be serving up Norm's Famous Roast Beef. Norm is going to teach me how to rig up the spit, which is something else I got to add to my long list of things that need to be done by the end of the week. I know, a jam session on December 8th. Crazy huh? Why not add some Roast Beef to the mix...you know you want some.

Well with that I'm off to meet our staff for the 2007-2008 season.

See you here on Saturday.

PS. I almost forgot here is another promo videos. We really need to find some more skiers and riders who like driving through snowstorms to be in these videos.

Bout time I get back at'er

2007-12-02T20:13:00.000-04:00

It's December, so I better get my game face on and start updating on a regular basis. I'll be honest with you (not that I'm ever not honest with you) it's been a lot more work than I thought keeping this thing updated this year. As we get closer to opening day, I can foresee things mellowing out a bit. I know the last few weeks have been hectic. This week week will be pretty nuts for me as well as we'll be hiring all our staff, so going through a massive pile of paperwork is something I can say I'm not really looking forward too.

As most of you know we are now making snow. We had a few logistical issues to sort though before we could fire up earlier in the week but for the most part those issues are now sorted out. We now have a new whole new raft of issues to deal with so the storm on Monday and Tuesday is a welcome sign in more ways that one. It will give us a chance to shut down and work out a few more of these issues.

One a positive note, the snowmaking head we had Lloyd from Ed's Shop on Keswick Ridge build, is working flawlessly. At first it was freezing up a bit, but they put bigger nozzles in and it is working ticketty boo (sp?). With the shut down we will take a spare head back to Lloyd so he can finish the other two heads now that we know it will work. We're pretty stoked about that.

Terrain Park Update:
Richard and I both worked all day Saturday and Sunday skirting and putting puckboard on rails. We got everything done except the A Frame and the Down Flat Down. We also need to add some paint to the new skirting, but we need it to warm up a bit for that. Obviously we're not in a big hurry for that to happen. :-) I will also add that I don't think may hands have been as cold as they have been in the past two days. Nothing like working for hours on end with bare hands, while getting pummelled by snowmaking spin off. brrrrr.

Comp update:
Nothing new to add other than it's gonna happen this Saturday. Joel and I are going to put our heads together tomorrow to lay down the details. I've heard Rails and Roast Beef, might be the title. Generator, Snow System, DJ and tents are booked. I promise to update you as soon as I know more.

Snowmaking Update:
Snowmaking is coming along great. They have guns placed from the top of the Beginner Hill to about the bottom of Upper Daves. Coverage is good, especially on Daves where the wind is working more in our favor. They will keep blasting until the humidity rises too much with the incoming storm. They will probably be shutting down sometime Monday afternoon. At this point we're not sure when they will be back in as we're getting conflicting weather reports for Thursday. One says snow, one says cold, we're not fussy, we'll take either.

Most of my friends are away on their annual fall ski trip to Sugarloaf/USA. I gotta say I wish I was there with them. It's always a good time. I did however get to do turns this weekend. I actually just came in from a test run of the Beginner Hill. The snowmaking whales were pretty fun. Richard joined me for one run before he had to leave to go back to Moncton. Good times though.

Tomorrow morning I meet a rep from Pro Data who will be running some new network lines for us. One of which will be for a our webcam. Pretty excited to finally get it up and running. I wonder what type of trouble we'll have in getting it synced on our site? As I've learned in this business, nothing is as easy as it would seem.

PS. My thought and prayers go out to a really good friend of mine DB. Get better soon buddy!

Thanx

2007-11-25T18:18:00.000-04:00

Thank you for the overwelming support this past weekend. Our attendance numbers were up which is awesome considering the Santa Clause parades in both Fredericton and Woodstock as well as the Hot Shots Rail Jam in Moncton. Everyone seems really excited about the upcoming season which is really awesome. I got to met lots of people and see old friends again. I think the most special moment was when formal General Manager Norm Hull approached me and began questioning me the same way as I used to do to him back in the day when I was patroller. You know when are you going to start making snow? When are you opening? How many trails are going to open at Christmas. It was all in good fun and I hope to sit down over coffee with Norm soon for a chat.

It was great to have all the support of all the booths that made it out and for everyone who came out to join. Once again thank you so much. It makes my job worth while.

Once everything died down after my speech and the door prizes, I got to hang out with some great friends and enjoy a beverage or two and check out some of the videos that were playing on the new TV, courtesy of Wacky's. I was really nice a relaxing.

When I got home my friends Lloyd and Diane were over and served me some delicious tacos. We then settled in downstairs and played the Wii. Too much fun. I was a bowling god last night.

Today we continued working on our Glades. Thanks to Todd, Jay, Matt, Timmy, Calvin and everyone else who joined us. (Sorry I forgot some names). We got things thinned a little further down on Diddle Daddle Glades to the next turn. And then we worked away on another top secret location, located somewhere in the middle area of the mountain. It will pop up on the trail map the next time we publish one. But we can't give up all our secrets. :-) Maybe that will be a little incentive to get more people out helping to make our glades better.

When I got home tonight Alex and Linda were both snuggling in a chair which I had to snap a picture of.

With that, I'm taking tomorrow off...sort of. And will be back at it on Tuesday. Snowmaking should start soon, stay tuned, we'll keep you in the loop.

Cheers!

Flurry of Activity going on

2007-11-22T15:14:00.000-04:00

There has been all kinds of stuff going on around the mountain this week. So much in fact that it had to take a day of crappy weather to be able sit at my desk for any period of time.

Let's see, what has been up since our last chat...We began painting the bathrooms. We're not entirely finished but you should notice an improvement this weekend. I wrote and passed my ski patrol exam over the weekend. Now I just have to find time to do my practicals and re-cert on my CPR. We were at the Shediac Bay Ski Club Ski Show and Shop on Saturday representing both Crabbe and Wentworth. I got to have supper at the Pumphouse in Moncton with John McNair of Outdoor Elements. We had a chairlift evacuation training on Sunday. The changing area in the Ticket Office now has a fresh coat of varnish. Our Rails have all received a new coat of paint and are setup in front of the lodge. The boys have laid hay all around the snowmaking pipes. K-Line has been in to change the bulbs for our Night Skiing Lights. Aernet Wireless has been in to install High Speed Wireless Internet for the Thirsty Boot. Lots of activity. I'll fill you in on the rest at the Open House.

Last night Stefan and I picked up 3 Rails for Wentworth from Richard Cote and delivered them to Kerr Controls to take them to Wentworth. Today, I then picked up 157 of Wentworth's snowboards at Kerr to bring to Crabbe to be tuned on our Wintersteiger. 157 Snowboards are rather heavy, especially when loaded on a trailer driving back to Crabbe in an ice storm.

Soooo Open House. We're set to go are you. We're moving the festivities up to the Thirsty Boot Lounge this year. A little more intimate, a better view and a change. Change can be good, right? As you can see from the picture above the girls in the kitchen have been making sweet trays that will be for sale. It will be your last chance to get a deal on a season pass. Ski Mitt will be selling at 25% off. We have a bunch of door prized to give away including a 2007-2008 Season Pass, plus someone will get to pick to see if it will be someone from Crabbe or Wentworth that will win the big trip for 4 to Stoneham and Mont Sainte-Anne. Should be fun! So come pick up some stocking stuffers, some cheap logo wear at the Ski Mitt, pick up some holiday baking, enjoy some munchies, check out the booths, eat some BBQ, enjoy some munchies, have a beverage but most off all, see all your friends you only see during ski season. I hope to see you here.

Cheers!

First Tracks 2007 - 2008 UPDATE

2007-11-13T13:34:00.000-04:00

It is what it is! I got up this morning to the cheerful sight of a yard full of snow. Will today be the day? I wussed out a few weeks ago on first tracks. I sent a quick txt to Stefan to tell him to bring gear as today may be the day. I got up here early. Things were looking pretty good. A whopping 5 cm base of packy snow. I got a reply from Stefan, his gear was packed and he was on his way.

Around 10 or so Stefan burst through the door. We hummed and haaa'd for a bit and then called it. Today was the day! We quickly geared up. I was kind of bummed I forgot my climbing skins, but oh well, backpack and rock boards it was.
Moi

Stefan

We decided the top pitch of the Flume would have the best conditions or maybe we are both getting old and didn't want to play launch the drainage ditches on Upper Daves. Nah, it can't we're getting too old, after all we are excited about skiing on 5 cms of snow and hay.

I started off, while Stefan video taped. As I slowly picked up speed, I went through that whole diagnostics check in your head. Alright how do I do this again. That first turn is always a little shaky but everything just clicked and we were off to the races. I then stopped so I could get some pics of Stefan and realized the snow hadn't exactly bonded with the glass below and my feet slid right out from under me.

Stefan came down to join me and we took turns video taping and sessioning the top pitch. My first complete run, I rode all the way down to the cutoff below the headwall of the Horn. And I gotta say, conditions were actually pretty good. My next run, I forgot to switch my boots from walk to ski mode. Not the most graceful run I've every skied and ended it with a slow motion roll over at the end. We have it on video so you'll be able to get a chuckle at my mad skillz.

We took a bunch more runs and had a blast. We then hiked up to the top and straight ran the Terrain Park. Super fun and I didn't hit anything. Stefan hit a big rock that threw him for a loop but no real damage done, so life is good.

It's good day of skiing when you're hauling vegetation on your gear. Check out the dead leaves and grass on the end of Stefan's Pole.

Ripping up the POW POW!

Just after we got back to the office and got changed and back to work, Gary mentioned he had to go run the chair for an hour or so to test some newly installed equipment. Too bad we didn't know about this earlier or we could have had lift access first tracks. Either way we had a blast and I can't wait for the next snowfall. Video to come maybe as early as tomorrow! Stay tuned...

JJ's Blog Exclusive: Samsquanch Siting at Crabbe!

***UPDATE*** - 8:30pm

Lest We Forget

2007-11-12T18:17:00.000-04:00

While many of us are enjoying a long weekend, I'm sure everyone paid their respects to our Forces both past and present. Without them we would live in a much different world. Thank you for the work that you do and please stay safe.

Saturday was our first glade thinning day of the year. George and Eric got an early start and took care of Steve's Drive Thru and Pugs Powder. They reported quite a few blow downs but for the most part things were in good shape. Todd, Stefan, Calvin and I went after SunValley Glades and got it cleaned up. There was a lot of underbrush growing in. There is also a new surprise in here. We also talked about making it longer and wider, but that will be for another day.

We then moved down to begin work on finishing Diddle Daddle Glades. We joined Jay and Ryan who were already hard at work. We had some progress, everyone except me worked near the top and cleared out a couple of bad widow makers and worked on a few features.

I worked on the bottom part trying to get a hole punched through at the bottom. I ran into some saw troubles, so I didn't get as much work done as I wanted too. We're going to need a bigger crew to get this one finished before the snow flies. Our next glade thinning day November 25th, which is the day after the Open House. I hope more people can come out and help us out.

My buddy Denis is in town from Calgary for a visit. We went out Mama's to check out Big Yellow Barn. Darryl and the boys rocked the place. It was funny the number of people that approached me to say we had to book them for the Thirsty Boot. I can assure you, Darryl and I have already been in talking about it. Just haven't set actual dates yet. Hope to do that in the next week or so.
The band finished up early or on time by Mama's standards so we hopped in a cab and headed over to the Snoot to visit Mike for a bit and then onto the Diplomat for some early morning munchies. It was a great night had a good time hanging out with Denis again. Gotta make a trip back out west to visit him again sometime.

Linda and I went up to Crabbe for a hike on Sunday, brrrr it was cold. We picked up some firewood and called it a day. Alex had a blast and was totally wrote off when we got home.

Today we winterized the barn or should I say rearranged everything in the barn. Moved the tractor to the back, the snowblower to the front. Had a bon fire to get rid of some left over wood and boxes from the move and renos this summer. Another chilly day! :-) Some snow coming tonight.

I'm back up to the mountain tomorrow to start another fun filled week. This coming weekend we are off to the Shediac Bay Ski Clubs - Ski and Snowboard Swap and Show. And then Chair Evac Training on Sunday. Should be a fun filled weekend.

With that I'll leave you with this years East Coast Ski Thriller "Wanderland" by Meathead Films filmed entirely on the East Coast.

Cheers

To Ben Eoin and Beyond

2007-11-07T15:11:00.000-04:00

I spent the past few days in Cape Breton at the Atlantic Ski Area Association Fall Meetings hosted at Ski Ben Eoin. Other than the semi annual meetings, there is also an Educational Series. I brought Jay Sullivan our Snow School Director and Mark Graham our Assistant Operations Manager.

An hour before leaving on Sunday, Leslie called saying that Wentworth (our planned destination for the night) was without power due to Post Hurricane Noel. We decided that rather getting up at 3 in the morning to make our meetings, we would leave as planned and hope for the best. On the way there we passed two convoys of Hydro Quebec Trucks, not a great sign. As we drove through Amherst we tried Leslie again, still no power. Plan B was to crash in Truro. When we arrived in Truro, we were greeted by big bright blue flashes lighting up the night sky and all of the street lights going out on the highway. Not a good sign. Leslie still didn't have power, and all the hotels were booked, so we continued on. We crossed the Causeway into Cape Breton shortly before midnight and found a place to stay, The Skye Lodge. We woke the lady up that runs the place (oops), who didn't seem to impressed with checking us in but did so anyway. We then polished off a couple of beverages before crashing for the night.

When we awoke the next morning, realizing we had plenty of time, we drove back across the causeway and had a delicious breakfast at the Big Stop. We then continued our journey at a relaxed pace. We arrived at Ben Eion an hour early so we kept driving to go find the Delta in Sydney. Mission accomplished. Got back to Ben Eoin as the rest of the crews were arriving. Members from Brookvale, Poley, Wentworth, Martock, and Ben Eoin were all present.

We got down to business pretty quickly with the General Meeting. We discussed ASAA promotions, agendas and what not. We got a review of our stats from last year from Sylvain Audet which was very educational, as well as a quick presentation from the head Randall Kennedy, Passenger Ropeways Inspector (Lift Inspector) from Nova Scotia. For those who don't know Nova Scotia is on the cutting edge with their Lift Mechanic program and Randy is a key to this.

Soon after Mark and I headed out the join the rest of the Lift Maintenance and Ski Patrollers and we went over Chair Evacuation procedures at each of the mountains and gave pointers and took notes on what others did that we liked and didn't like and how we can all improve our systems. Very informative. We then rejoined the Business Meeting still in process. We got a briefing from Michael LaMothe from CSIA and Dan Genge from CASI before breaking for the day.

Fast forward to the Delta, we're all checked in and then joined everyone at the Cash Bar and Dinner, which was fabulous. We got great news that Marble Mountain crew had finally arrived after being delayed on the ferry during the storm. Leslie introduced me to the Anne and Shannon from Marble. Anne, GM from Marble said she recognized me from our Videos. I was pleasantly surprised to know that she had seen them. We sat with Cathy from Poley, Leslie, Andy from Martock and Mark from Nifty Promotions. Mark, Andy and I had great discussion about park maintenance. Thanks for the great advice and conversation guys.

Soon after dinner we were kicked out for the banquet hall, and headed upstairs to the Crown and Moose, there we did what most people do at conferences and partook a couple of beverages, a few laughs and lots of great stories. I hung out with Jamie and Nelson from Poley for bit, as Nelson questioned me about our blog, and then hung out with Shannon, Anne and Cathy. Cathy from Poley wussed out on us and crashed early. Soon Shannon said he was heading off to bed. I started to give him a hard time about giving in early, but then he mentioned he had been up since the day before due to traveling in the storm. I figured that was a good enough excuse for me. Also I'm going to need a tour guide when I head backcountry skiing at Gros Morne in the next year or so. We eventually got kicked out the bar and headed up to the hospitality room and ended up hanging out with a mixed crew from Wentworth, Martock and Ben Eion. Jay had pulled pin earlier in the night, I gave up around 1:30 am or so. Mark was still having a good time when I left.

Everyone seemed a little show the next morning. I would have overslept, but Jay gave me a wake up call. I mistakenly set my alarm for 7:30pm. Oops. We were running about 15-20 minutes late due to waiting for breakfast. We were a little worried about being late but arrived at the same time as everyone else except Poley who was there about a half an hour early or should I say actually on time. We soon broke off into groups, Lift Mechanics had a meeting with Randy and then we went over developing an apprenticeship program to help keep a steady stream Lift Mechanics getting qualified so that we don't run out of quality trained people. I'm quite privy to what goes on behind the scenes of a ski area and even I was blown away by how in depth these programs go, I think someone from the outside world would be flabbergasted. While Mark and I were at the Lift Mechanics Seminar, Jay was at a Snow School round table with all of the Snow School Directors present, going over retention of Instructors, how to recruit more instructors, uniforms and what not.

We broke for lunch and then we had a round table discussion on Terrain Parks hosted by Mark Fisher of Nifty. A lot of good ideas went back and forth as all of the major terrain park designers from Atlantic Canada were involved. Thanks guys.

We then hit the road, Mark slept across the seats in my Golf for a good part of the trip home, he complained his stomach felt sour...I wonder why. The rain hit hard and heavy from Moncton - home just to add insult to injury. I want to thank Jay and Mark (who was quite a trooper, especially on Tuesday) for partaking in the meetings and we will use many of the ideas we came up with to make Crabbe Mountain a better place to both work and play.

Now it's back at'er, getting ready for the Glade Thinning on Saturday, the Shediac Bay Ski Show next weekend and the Open House the week after, basic day to day operation stuff. So many things to get done, so little time.

Stefan tells me it was snowing at Crabbe on Tuesday. Yeehaw!

Cheers

First Measurable Snow!

2007-10-30T10:34:00.000-03:00

I got home late last night but made sure batteries and cameras were ready to go ,and colder weather gear was packed. I was set. Slept well, very well.

Linda got up around 6, and said everything was white. It didn't take me long to fly out of bed and let Alex out to play in the snow. She was a little timid at first walking over to the deeper snow on the lawn and cautiously putting her paws down in it. Then she took off running and jumping for joy. It was like watching her become reacquainted with an old friend. I know her and I are so much on the same level. I quickly showered and got ready to go to "work", kissed my wife goodbye as she sheepishly just shook her head at me.

I took this pic of our patio furniture on my way out to my truck, thinking to myself, it's been a few years since I've skied in October.

Raced as best I could to the mountain, heading straight to the top. There was more snow at my house then at Crabbe, oh well. There is about a cm here, enough to make Gary's job a little tougher working out on the mountain, but not enough to slow us down any up here.

Didn't bother with skiing, it was a little bony and not really worth wrecking a perfectly good pair of rock skis for. I'm starting to question my dedication.

As I type this and wait for "hi speed Internet" load my pics, the sun is shining and snow has pretty much melted but it was a great site to see, with more to come! I'm stoked, are you.

Ski ya later!

Twas a good swap and a great weekend

2007-10-29T16:39:00.000-03:00

My weekend started on Friday with setup for the swap. I had my truck filled with rental gear up to the top of the bed rails, plus plus the tent, the lights, the season pass computer, all our paperwork etc etc etc. It didn't leave much room left for me. Stefan and I setup for the most part, Jay met us there for a bit but then had to leave to take a shower???

We started to hook everything up and quickly realized that our phone line was dead...again...this year. So I called our local phone company and they dispatched someone a couple of hours later who came and hooked things up. I'm not going to mention names here, but every year we have to hook up a phone line, it's a hassle as the local phone company doesn't understand why we need it, why only for two days, why I get so upset when it doesn't work, and why I get even more upset with they forget to disconnect it after we are done. All this for connection charge, and a full months service, but c'est la vie.

Tim Smith helped me get our rental gear sorted and added into their inventory. And everything went smoothly from here on out. Leslie arrived around 6 or 7, right after Stefan, Jay and I had finished eating supper. Sorry Leslie. She did however give me a hard time for forgetting our price lists which came up again and again. By the end of the day our knees and backs were killing us but when we tallied up the days sales it made things worth it. We then retired to Duncan Young's place for beverages and munchies (mmmm yum...thanks) before heading home to bed.

Got up early, but still didn't get to the swap until 8:30, made a quick coffee run for our crew and we were good to go. Before they opened the doors I took a quick stroll down the isles hoping to find some tele gear. Nada. Oh well maybe next year.

The line up went from the front doors to the end of the building. Diana and Bonnie joined us and man were we busy. After lunch, Bonnie and Diana called it a day (thank you so much for your help). Leslie left soon after but was still giving me the gears about forgeting the price lists (Yeah I know you reminded me as I was packing and I still forgot them. Stefan and I held'er down as they say and Jay came back and gave us a hand tearing down and loading my truck back up. It was great day, sales were good. I got to meet lots of people and everyone I talked to was so positive about the upcoming season. I'm very stoked too.

I got home around supper just in time to change into my costume. Linda's costume absolutely ruled. She made it her self. We then when to Lloyd and Diane's to begin our night of party hopping. We then took off for Kevin and Tanya's Annual Halloween Bash. We stayed there for a few fun filled hours and then it was time to head to the next party back on Keswick Ridge at Ethan and Rebecca's place. Again what a great time, got to see some people I hadn't seen in a long time. Thanks to Linder for carting us around and getting me home in one piece.

I was a little slow moving around on Sunday morning around, my joints hurt from standing on the cold concrete floor for the past two days and I'm sure the festivities from the night before didn't help my cause much. Did some work around the house and then headed up the mountain with Alex. Unloaded the left over gear from the swap, did some paperwork and then had a great mountain bike ride with Nick, Amos, Ethan, Kaelen, Jason and myself. Ethan was still in his spiderman costume from the night before. I wasn't really dressed for the cold wind so I called it quits a little early. Alex had a blast and didn't move all night.

I'm taking today off, if you want to call it that. I've called the mountain twice, talked to Leslie for an half hour or so, picked up a new camera for the mountain, updated the website and now I'm writing this. So I guess this is what a day off is like.

Tonight we are supposed to see some flurries, nothing to get the boards out for only a cm or so which likely won't accumulate but I'll try to be up early to see if I can get some pics for ya. In the meantime I'm going to leave you with this little adrenalin rush. It's not snow related but it is very....WOW!

Think Snow!

Welcome to Jolly J's Twisted Life

It's been a Slice

Party Animals and the Non Party Type Animals

Big Projects

Rock and Rollin'

Alive and well

My Mental State

I have an Ouchie

JJ's Blog - The Picture Page Edition

It's Been Kinda Crazy

The Perfect Storm

Goodbye 2007

Boxing Day Blues

Getting ready for a Rockin' Weekend

I Can Feel It Coming In the Air Tonight

Keep on Rockin' in a Free World

Nothing Is Ever Easy ***Updates***

Mother Of An Update

Bout time I get back at'er

Thanx

Flurry of Activity going on

First Tracks 2007 - 2008 ***UPDATE***

Lest We Forget

To Ben Eoin and Beyond

First Measurable Snow!

Twas a good swap and a great weekend

Nothing Is Ever Easy Updates

First Tracks 2007 - 2008 UPDATE