Your Favorite Pitch

[lemon boy]

Okay, so tell us about your favorite pitch. Not a whole run just some piece of a run or a feature that is guaranteed to put a big ol' smile on your face. Preferably one at your home mountain. Something that is basically going to get skied.

For me it is easy and there is no contest: The Spine at A-Basin rules over them all.

Roll off the lift, damn winds blowin wait for the crew or if solo just get all buckled down adjust the poles. Spine-Rock Garden? Yeah. Move on down the ridgeline a ways and drop into the little cut just below the rock band. Burn off 20 vert to pick up a head of steam and crank a big HUGE left hander across a face that is ALWAYS PERFECT BUTTER. There will be a nice long plume of crystals flowing out behind you like the contrails from a B-52. Arc maybe one or two quick rights to long lefts heading across, going really fast now. Sometimes a small secondary cornice is here and I admit to occasionally turning the whole thing into a big faceshot for just MY pleasure, fuck everyone else. Who really cares at that point? Watch out for the gapers contemplating the rest of the pitch. Now you've got a choice, if you've previously decided on it you can keep that big left going and ski the alleys or the face or something but no, not you, that's never what a spine run is about, no. Right where the corner is you bind all those big sweeping lefts that have been keeping you goin on that long but fast face together and compress into a hard but not really tight right which carries you down into a steeper and more straightforward multiple fall line. Watch the rocks here, it's kind of thin...ahhhhh hell goin way to fucking fast for watching rocks sorry skis. Couple of high speed bumps sitting around here, use them for the transitions. There's about three or four facets to the pitch here, all good. Bang here comes the tree island if you're whipped you can pull up here and wait for the posse or just wait for the posse but if you're feelin good and are goin to the rock garden then keep goin, blast the couple of features and trees here bang one final turn on the left side of the gut and go rollin across main street (watch for gapes, stumps, rocks and bumps) and pull up in the trees.

WHEEWW! That was good!

[basom]

always was a fan of the sinker...... but a good cut fastball always leavs their heads ringin

[Steven S. Dallas]

Sloooowwwww pitch...

edit: sorry, Friday morning goofiness.

[acostiga]

the wakefield knuckler: always makes for good viewing, very high possibility of embarassing strikeouts or towering home runs.

[bad_roo]

Step out at the top of the Marmottes II gondola in Alpe d'Huez and march left just as all the gomers turn right for the easiest black run in the resort, Clocher de Macle, or - as we disparagingly refer to it - Macclesfield. Instead you'll need to pole a little way past a series of warning signs to a rollover. Beyond the lip you'll see Lac Blanc a couple of hundred metres below you. Tucked out of sight from you, the hordes of gapers, the worst ravages of the wind and most often the sun is a pitch called Les Balcons, often the place with the sweetest, grippiest, chalkiest snow in the Alpe d'Huez bowl.

It maintains a steady 38 degree pitch all the way to the bottom where you've got to choose whether to make the long traverse across the lake or rejoin the Lievre Blanc piste a little way to the left. Sometimes there are moguls; more often than not it's billiard smooth and the speeds you'll attain will be quite terrifying. The Random Chas Factor can usually be relied upon to throw a magnificent beater somewhere en route as ambition overtakes talent.

Happy days.

[Mcwop]

All of J-Hole. Consistently steep pitches everywhere - especially the Hobacks and the adjacent ridges.

[gincognito]

Originally posted by bad_roo
The Random Chas Factor can usually be relied upon to throw a magnificent beater somewhere en route as ambition overtakes talent.

Brilliant! "...ambition overtakes talent." I love it.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and it's funny cause I can so see it),
d.

[lemon boy]

sniffle. At least roo gets it.








hmmmmmm











not so sure that its a good thing to be on the same wavelength as Mr. Roo.

hhhmmmmmmmmmmmm

[StormRider]

I’d have to go with Pedro’s fast ball. It’s still nasty. Derek Lowe’s sinker is the shit as well. Timmy T-Ball’s knuckler just scares me too much. When it’s on it’s great for sure, but when it’s off it is WAY off. There is just no telling how good it’ll be.

As for skiing: JH had a pitch above Bernie’s Bowl open a lot this year which I hadn’t seen open much at all before. It about doubles the length of the run and there is a nasty little rock band (and I don’t mean Poison) between it and Bernie’s proper. The rocks don’t require air but if you are not careful they could rip an edge out. So it’s a little bit of a technical spot between to wide open areas. I dig it.

[jdabasin]

I'm a sucker for the trees under the Priest Creek Chair at Steamboat. Not steep, but often sweet and oh so soft in them trees!!!! it's been a few years though....

[bluewood_skier]

I'd have to say a Randy Johnson slider. Wow does that thing have some movement.

[CS]

A short pitch, but very worthy.

High Sunspot, Alta. Best hit on a big storm day, when Backside is closed so few people head up the ridge, and the winds are blowing, filling in your tracks as you ride the lift back up for more goodness. Drop in just past the gate to High Notch, just beyond the big rock band on the left. Drop in, bank a left, the snow starts to churn. Crank a hard right, just before the scrubby pines, enveloped. Point 'em throught the trees, pop a little rock (if early season), pop another left, submersion. It's open now, the traverse out to thirds is just below. Carry speed, you have a canvas, crank one last turn, whiteroom. Smile.

[TheDingleberry]

Eaphus.

[iceman]

It's either Joe DiMaggio for Mr. Coffee or George Foreman for his grill. Too close to call.

[bad_roo]

Ivan Lendl and the Charlatan Belt is a close one...

[half-fast]

my favorite pitch to hit was a breaking ball that started middle-in and broke away or away and down

[bad_roo]

Can I be next to make a baseball gag? Please!

[half-fast]

Can I be next to make a baseball gag? Please!

I had to-look at my avatar!

[iceman]

What is Bowlin's Running Indian?

[bad_roo]

Originally posted by half-fast
I had to-look at my avatar!

Some fat dude with no head doing the hokey cokey?

[Blurred Elevens]

My favorite pitch is the skyscraper I skied in Denver last March, it was a solid 90 degrees, but it wasn't anything sick like inverted pitch.

[bad_roo]

Originally posted by iceman
What is Bowlin's Running Indian?

http://www.autohobbies.com/indianpc.JPG

Tat stores of the South West.

[iceman]

Are you a client?

Hey, whatever happened with you and Mrs. Roo moving over here?

[PaSucks]

Im going to have to vote for anything Pedro throws. That guy has more movement on his fastball then most guys have on thier breaking balls. Although Wakefield's knuckler can be impressive as well.

I would have put an actual ski run in here but as I have never been out west, and the only places up North I have been to are k-mart and stratton, I do not have any runs under my belt that are worthy of this list. Woe is me.

[Duder]

South Back Crystal Mountain. Silver King to be exactly. Totally epic on a good (epic) day.
I also would recommend ALL of Mt. Baker on a powder day (which is usually most days) as well as most ALL of Alpental.