steezeninja
Active member
I just returned from my trip to Copper to see the US Freeskiing Open. The US Open was very sick by the way. Anyways, after being in Copper, I started to compare it to my own resort, Taos Ski Valley.
Copper has a sick terrain park. Not as good as Keystone's terrain park, but it was fun indeed. I enjoyed Copper's rail gardens and features in the Catalyist park. Catalyist park is very fluid and fun.
Taos, on the other hand, has the worst terrain park that I have ever skied on. It took the managenment five months to make up their minds on the park, and two days to build it. Something is not right here. First off, our jumps suck a left nut. There is no flow in these jumps. They are crooked and not set up right. The first jump is probably a 20 foot gap. The second jump is a 15 foot gap to a flat landing. Your speed has to be just right or you will either overshoot or knuckle. The third and final jump is a another 20 foot gap. It has the best landing out of all the features in the park. But from the second jump to the third you have to carve right to hit the third jump, because the jumps are not aligned. The rails and boxes at Taos are terrible. The lips onto the features are above them. So you launch onto the box or rail and land flat on it. Another thing about the boxes and rails is that some of them are crooked. The terrain park is built for pussies and dumbass'.
A good thing about Taos is that we have the steeps. Taos' terrain is great. But the greatness of our terrain does depend on our snowfall amounts. When there is no snow in Taos, there is nothing to do. When there is no snow in Copper, they have a great terrain park to jib in. They even have a superpipe. Taos doesn't even have a quarterpipe! The nearest halfpipe to Taos is at a small resort 40 minutes away called Angel Fire. They're halfpipe is flat and is hard to carry speed in. But it is better then nothing.
I look at all the good skiers from other resorts and compare them to me. Maybe if we had the same features as they do, I would be a lot better of a skier then I am now.
One thing that I took for granted was lift lines. Copper's long lift lines have open my eyes and made me realize how cool it is to live in a small resort. I love getting my pass checked and getting on the lift in less than a minute. But the short lift lines in Taos are canceled by the long lift rides up the mountain. It takes about 20 minutes to get from the bottom of the mountain to the top.
Taos has no activities for the youth. Taos is all about the rich old people. Taos holds its annual stupid wine festivals that nobody cares about. Where are the movie premieres? Where are the competitions? Where are the rail jams? I can tell you where they are not. They are not in Taos. Nothing is in Taos.
The shops in Taos are not that great. They dont have the stuff you need. There is no variety in the shops. I have to order all my stuff from the internet because none of the shops in Taos have it. Thank you www.jibij.com for saving my ski season. Josh Bryant your the man. But the shops do help out the local teams a little by providing us discounts on stuff. Us poor ski bums really appreciate those 15% discounts.
Taos doesn't understand the evolution of skiing. It is stuck in the hot-dogging days of skiing and it cant shift gears to the newschool age of skiing. When will Taos finally shift, no one knows. Maybe Taos will change when Mickey Blake is out of his seat of power. We need new management. That new management probably wont come until I am out of this place and somewhere where the skiing is actually progressing.
Copper has a sick terrain park. Not as good as Keystone's terrain park, but it was fun indeed. I enjoyed Copper's rail gardens and features in the Catalyist park. Catalyist park is very fluid and fun.
Taos, on the other hand, has the worst terrain park that I have ever skied on. It took the managenment five months to make up their minds on the park, and two days to build it. Something is not right here. First off, our jumps suck a left nut. There is no flow in these jumps. They are crooked and not set up right. The first jump is probably a 20 foot gap. The second jump is a 15 foot gap to a flat landing. Your speed has to be just right or you will either overshoot or knuckle. The third and final jump is a another 20 foot gap. It has the best landing out of all the features in the park. But from the second jump to the third you have to carve right to hit the third jump, because the jumps are not aligned. The rails and boxes at Taos are terrible. The lips onto the features are above them. So you launch onto the box or rail and land flat on it. Another thing about the boxes and rails is that some of them are crooked. The terrain park is built for pussies and dumbass'.
A good thing about Taos is that we have the steeps. Taos' terrain is great. But the greatness of our terrain does depend on our snowfall amounts. When there is no snow in Taos, there is nothing to do. When there is no snow in Copper, they have a great terrain park to jib in. They even have a superpipe. Taos doesn't even have a quarterpipe! The nearest halfpipe to Taos is at a small resort 40 minutes away called Angel Fire. They're halfpipe is flat and is hard to carry speed in. But it is better then nothing.
I look at all the good skiers from other resorts and compare them to me. Maybe if we had the same features as they do, I would be a lot better of a skier then I am now.
One thing that I took for granted was lift lines. Copper's long lift lines have open my eyes and made me realize how cool it is to live in a small resort. I love getting my pass checked and getting on the lift in less than a minute. But the short lift lines in Taos are canceled by the long lift rides up the mountain. It takes about 20 minutes to get from the bottom of the mountain to the top.
Taos has no activities for the youth. Taos is all about the rich old people. Taos holds its annual stupid wine festivals that nobody cares about. Where are the movie premieres? Where are the competitions? Where are the rail jams? I can tell you where they are not. They are not in Taos. Nothing is in Taos.
The shops in Taos are not that great. They dont have the stuff you need. There is no variety in the shops. I have to order all my stuff from the internet because none of the shops in Taos have it. Thank you www.jibij.com for saving my ski season. Josh Bryant your the man. But the shops do help out the local teams a little by providing us discounts on stuff. Us poor ski bums really appreciate those 15% discounts.
Taos doesn't understand the evolution of skiing. It is stuck in the hot-dogging days of skiing and it cant shift gears to the newschool age of skiing. When will Taos finally shift, no one knows. Maybe Taos will change when Mickey Blake is out of his seat of power. We need new management. That new management probably wont come until I am out of this place and somewhere where the skiing is actually progressing.
