2008 summit location poll

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Rusty Nails (#1, UT)
Big E (#2, BC)
I Forget, Tyrone maybe? (#3 CA)
Don't Bother (#4 CO)

Big E had it down, start with him. (I'd say Rusty too, but I don't think he's around much).

Also perhaps:
Buzzworthy (UT minis)

oh so I DIDN't have it down? SCREW YOU MAN!

[Phill]

What happened this year that is don't bother worthy?

[Yossarian]

What happened this year that is don't bother worthy?

It was never a widely organized event. People did get together in SW CO, but it wasn't organized the way past events had been. Thus, I wouldn't bother talking to anyone about it for the purposes of getting tips on how to do it right.

[Yossarian]

Rusty, Big E, and Tyrone (sorry buddy ) all organized daily schedules, resort itinerary, meeting places, times, ticket discounts when possible, lodging arrangements when possible, evening shit at bars, raffles/giveaways, charity stuff, etc, etc, etc.

This year, 10-15 people got together and had a blast, but it wasn't the same thing in terms of planning.

[Phill]

It was never a widely organized event. People did get together in SW CO, but it wasn't organized the way past events had been. Thus, I wouldn't bother talking to anyone about it for the purposes of getting tips on how to do it right.

Oh I thought it was organized with different resorts on different days, with a couple backcountry days thrown in or was I reading about something else. Anyway either way I'm excited about montana, should be kick ass.

[grrrr]

Tyrone did a fine job. Just don't ask him about the "curse".

[grrrr]

Rusty Nails (#1, UT)
Big E (#2, BC)
I Forget, Tyrone maybe? (#3 CA)
Don't Bother (#4 CO)

Big E had it down, start with him. (I'd say Rusty too, but I don't think he's around much).

Also perhaps:
Buzzworthy (UT minis)

CO was #5. Four was Whistler/WA.

[Yossarian]

Sorry grrr, you're entirely right.
I missed those two years, thus the blank spots in the memory banks.

Phill, yes, that's how it was supposed to go, and it's the same idea as the others - a mix of resort days, b/c days, cat day options, evening parties, etc, etc.

The only problem is that none of it happened except for that which the people themselves organized for themselves. There was no real centralized planner/planning.


As you say, however, let's talk about the future instead. It's been years since I've been to Big Sky. And I've never been to Bridger...
I could get very stoked for this years...

[The Reverend Floater]

'Ghee, Teton Pass, Jackson.

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

CO was #5. Four was Whistler/WA.

wasn't there a Jackson summit too?

2002 - Utah
2003 - interior BC
2004 - Tahoe
2005 - Jackson
2006 - Warshington/Whistles
2007 - Colorado
2008 - Bozeman, moontuckistan

(jackson & warshington might have been flipped on the years...I can't remember)

[Yossarian]

Fine, okay, I get it. I suck. I only went to the first two (three, if you count the Zeroth one with 12 of us in Nelson the year before).

[The Reverend Floater]

I've never been to a single one so I feel I should pick.

Driggs it is! See you guys there!

[slippy]

[Lexi-Bell]

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuckkkkk....................... .

the area deserves it though, for sure.

G, Congrats!!

Slip was right though, keep it at BS/MLB, no need for Bridger. Bah.

I'm (just al little) like Leroy; no hookups, no idea for discounted tix, pretty much no clue about much at all. But if you need some help, don't hesitate to gimme a hollah!

Oh yeah Jumper, welcome home mang.

[steve]

fkna.. i'm psyched..

like, i want to book airfare right now psyched.

-steve

[Jumper Bones]

Well I guess the first step is to arbitrarily pick some dates, obviously built around the Bridger Freeride. What works best in summit lengths - a little over a week or so?

[Yossarian]

At first it was just 3-4 days, a long weekend. And that's how the UT minis have done. The good thing is less organizing, less chaos, more people at once, better parties, and people can still ski on their own or in small groups if they don't want to deal with the clusterfuck of skiing with a ton of people (not many do).

But there's always a pushback on the scheduling side, and the last few years it's been a week, encompassing two weekends, so that more people can make one of the two weekends.

For what VERY little it's worth, I'd say we should ditch the mamby pamby consensus crap beyond a certain point and go back to the heavy iron fist of rule. There seems to be interest in Montana, you've been appointed by someone to rule, so I say pick a damn weekend right now, don't take any beef about it, and simply tell people to put it on their calendar and plan for it NOW if they want to make it. Shit will still come up, but there's simply no way to hit spring break for the college kids, coordinate with comps at the same time, do it when conditions are good, satisfy everyone, etc, etc, etc.

My .02, do 4-5 days centered on a weekend, like that one with the Bridger comp. Thursday-Monday or something. Announce it, start to work on it, plan some cool shit, delegate when you need but stay in charge, and PIMP/PROMOTE it to the masses endlessly, and it'll go off.

Picking it now at least lets people have a change to work around it as stuff comes up. And knowing that despite all the interest, you'll probably only get 50 people max (maybe 75 or 100 at absolute most), you can spread those people out over 9 days, in which case you'll probably only ever have 10-15 people at a party/event, or 4 days, where you'll get 30-50 people at night. Don't expect or plan for people to necessarily ski together at any one time, they'll break up and splinter and re-group as they want (which is good), unless you plan a specific event, like the Cat ski day in BC, or a booter session somewhere, etc, but you can/should arrange/announce an Itin of venue/locations, depending on if you can get discounted tickets, where crowds will be better/worse, etc.

Example: I don't know the dynamics quite well enough, but let's pretend Big Sky and Bridger are super busy on weekends, while Moonlight is not. So, you might do THUR Bridger, FRI Big Sky, SAT Moonlight, SUN Cat Ski for those who want, touring for others, any resort for others, and MON back to Bridger or Big Sky.

You'll figure it all out, that's why you're in charge.

[steve]

For what VERY little it's worth

as little as your opinion is worth, mine is worth much less, but i'm going to spew it off anyway: i agree 100%.

-steve

[Squatch]

Yoss: that is good stuff.

I'll either make it or I won't, I'll do my best but will inevitably be sketchy, unpredictable, and probably mooching off anyone and everyone like the dirtbag I am if I end up making it. The more momentum you put into it, though, the more people like me will want to attend. I didn't go to the summit last year because I saw Max [not] planning that shit and had advance notice of the suckage imminent. Eventually, everyone else figured it out too and it was a huge failure.

[eldereldo]

Aftre skiing at BB, Big Sky and Moonlight last spring, and seeing the terrain possibilities it looked like a Montana Summit this year would be a great idea. So I am all over it. Only issue I can see is the same one going to Alberta, CO is snow conditions are highly variable year to year. So if you plan on going, be ready to make the best of what you find. Of course that seems to now also apply to those previous guaranteed snow havens of Utah and Tahoe, so what the hell.

But since we have decided on 2008, how about a poll on 2009 .....

[FrankZappa]

I'd like to suggest an international longboard chinese downhill Claudine Longet invitational event.

EDIT for CL Invitational background--------

Related Claudine Trivia

Season 1 Episode 18 of Saturday Night Live featured a skit titled "The Claudine Longet Invitational," which parodied the shooting incident, showing skiers making runs down the slopes until they are "accidentally" shot by Claudine Longet, resulting in abrupt wipeouts.

SNL Transcript
The Claudine Longet Invitational

Written by: Michael O'Donoghue

Tom Tryman.....Chevy Chase
Jessica Antlerdance.....Jane Curtin



Tom Tryman: Good afternoon, this is Tom Tryman!

Jessica Antlerdance: And this is Jessica Antlerdance!

Tom Tryman: And, of course, we're here in Vale, Colorado, to cover the Claudine Longet Invitational! This is, of course, a men's freestyle skiing competition!

Jessica Antlerdance: So, without further ado, let's go to the slopes. Well, we certainly have a beautiful day for it, Tom.

Tom Tryman: Right you are, Jessica. And, of course, first out will be Helmut Kindle. Helmut is a 24-year-old Frenchman - I'm sorry, he's a West German. And this is his second run of the day, I believe. He had an initial time of 41.8. Looking very good here.

Jessica Antlerdance: That's right, Tom. But Helmut injured his ankle last month, and that's bound to affect his performance here today.

Tom Tryman: He caught an edge there, but he seems to be okay, he's in good shape.. actually, I think he's a little..

[ a shot rings out, as Helmut falls into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: Uh-oh! He seems to have been accidentally shot by Claudine Longet! Yes.. and I'm afraid Helmut Kindle is out of this race!

Jessica Antlerdance: Yes, it's a shame, but that's all part of the exciting world of professional skiing, Tom.

Tom Tryman: Well, he definitely seems out of it, Jessica, and I couldn't agree more. Now, here comes the man to beat - we're going to be seeing him in a second. Of course, Jean-Paul Baptiste. A 28-year-old civil engineer from Verne, Switzerland. And he's strong, he's agile, he's got a great deal of power, Jessica.

Jessica Antlerdance: He'll need all the power he's got on those mobiles, Tom.

Tom Tryman: Look at the way his legs absorb those shocks, as he manuevers his way down this bumpy terrain. There's a very nice move there, a lot of spring, he's really playing this hill.

Jessica Antlerdance: It's easy to see why he won a Bronze Medal in Innsbrook. He's a strong skiier, and a fierce competitor.

Tom Tryman: Mmm-hmm! Well, I would have to say, it's a very fast time up to this point. Uh.. he's doing very well - and there's a very nice move - uh.. I would say, at this halfway point, he's gonig to take third, or maybe even a second-place..

[ a shot rings out, as Jean-Paul falls into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: Uh-oh! Uh-oh! It looks to me like he's been accidentally shot by Claudine Longet!

[ Jean-Paul regains balance on his skis ]

Jessica Antlerdance: Just grazed, I think, Tom..

[ second shot rings, as Jean-Paul falls back into the show ]

Jessica Antlerdance: Oh, no! That one got him, he's down! No, he's down this time.. no, no! No, he's getting up!

[ Jean-Paul continues to ski downhill, albeit a little awkwardly ]

Jessica Antlerdance: Always the mark of a fine athlete is the ability to recover in diffivcult situations.

Tom Tryman: I can't believe he's going for the finish line.. and -

[ third shot rings out, Jean-Paul is down for good ]

Tom Tryman: Oh, no! Again.. again, he's been accidentally shot by Claudine Longet, and, this time, I think he's down to stay, Jessica.

Jessica Antlerdance: We're running a little late, Tom, so let's just cut to a few highlights of this event.

Tom Tryman: Alright, let's do that.

[ show skiier falling into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: Uh.. here, she mistakenly dropped her gun and it went off.

[ show skiier falling into the snow ]

Jessica Antlerdance: Uh.. here, she was just showing the gun to a friend.

[ show skiier falling into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: Yeah.. I think she was just cleaning her gun here, wasn't she?

[ show skiier falling into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: And, once again, of course, showing the un to a friend.

[ show skiier falling into the snow ]

Tom Tryman: Here, I think she just put the gun down in the snow, and it went off by mistake.

Jessica Antlerdance: That looked almost like skeet shooting!

[ Tom and Jessica laugh playfully ]

Tom Tryman: You must mean ski shooting!

[ Tom and Jessica laugh more sardonically ]

Tom Tryman: Oh, well. This has been Tom Tryman.

Jessica Antlerdance: And Jessica Antlerdance.

Tom Tryman: Here in Vale, Colorado, at the Claudine Longet Invitiational.

Jessica Antlerdance: Ski shooting, that's very funny! [ laughs ]

[ fade ]

[schuss]

The most important thing is to plan, plan, plan. Then plan some more. Get in touch with everyone in the area and try to hook up discounts/party nights. You'll get bitching no matter what you do, so try not to listen to that piece too much.

[Eldo]

Montana in February would be great. But stay away from the Presidents Day holiday weekend. Busiest non-Christmas time at most resorts.

I think the holiday is Monday, Feb. 18 in 2008, so avoid the third week of Feb.

A Summit starting on Sat. Feb. 23rd, the date of the BB freeride comp, and stretching until the following weekend might be ideal.

See you kids there!

[Jumper Bones]

Yeah Big Sky tends to get absurdly crowded (by BS standards) on 3-day weekends, because everybody in No and So Dak and MN load up in the cars/buses to come ski there...or so it seems. Douches up the tramline something fierce since they go up for sightseeing...

I think going from the 23rd to the 2nd or whatever would be great. Question for the working mags though - from a vacation days/time off standpoint, is it better to schedule something with weekends as the start-stop days - since they might not count as vacation days used? Eg, sat-week-sunday, only burn 5 vacation days.

I ask because it might be nice to start things up a bit earlier than the comp, maybe like thursday or friday, to give those competing a chance to ski/recon Bridger and dial in their lines...

[TreeRat]

as a three time summit attender, I would agree mostly with Yossarian. but I like both weekends in the mix. I taking a week because I am a working stiff.

If there are no preplan "beer's here at 6:00" or meet here in the morning it breaks down quickly. The groups break down. but you have to have meeting places.

Tyrone Shoelaces did a great job in CA. Jackson seems to have a bunch of people pitching in and worked out. CO sucked.

The CO skiing was great, but I have never skied so much on my own at a summit. The only day it seemed like a summit was at Silverton. and I think that was we just because we had to meet at the same time and place. :-)

That's my .02 and it worth about .0000001 so take it with a grain of salt.

Tree Rat