[martis]

martis, who are you? It's one of the kirk's here...

We should be up to check out frankenstein this weekend, now that the traveling is done for the dh season should be up for building as well.

what's up dude. i was a bit of a casual rider through the first half of last year, then got really into riding again, bought a session 77 and started riding every weekend through the last half of the season. over the winter, i decided that i hated my job enough to look into seven springs for work building trails. joel eventually hired me on, and i've been working there since early july. he's mentioned you guys a few times... i think i remember you and your brothers from last year... you had a transition, right? and one of your bros was on a silver session? i think i rode the lift with you and brunger once or twice.

regardless, you and the rest of the crew last year did a killer job on the trails, and joel said something about you guys coming back, which would be awesome. hopefully you find frankenstein to your liking, although i'm the first to admit that it needs fine-tuning in a few spots. i've mentioned it in this thread before, but everyone now involved has a really proactive attitude towards getting new terrain built, and it's paid off nicely. with weekend-only riding from next week on... there's a lot that can be built during the week, and with more people who know what they're doing... it's going to progress pretty quickly.

i should be working friday and saturday this weekend... say what's up. i'm the only park crew guy with a beard and a bike that isn't a kona... so i should be hard to miss.

 

[manhattanprjkt83]

cool brother, ill be up on saturday (i think), i need to talk to joel anyway...

Stoked on the new stuff, might be building here at the end of the season...black transition blindside with a carbon 661 helmet.

 

[martis]

cool brother, ill be up on saturday (i think), i need to talk to joel anyway...

Stoked on the new stuff, might be building here at the end of the season...black transition blindside with a carbon 661 helmet.

sweet. see you up there tomorrow. i left early today after spending all morning with chris and brandon in the second to last section of frankenstein. i spent a good bit of the time scrounging around in the woods looking for medium sized rocks (and avoiding poisonous snakes) to fill in some gaps in the between-the-bridges rock garden... probably the scariest one on the mountain. the other guys were getting the 6x6s mounted on the footers, and according to them "we WILL have this done today". haven't talked to them, but if it wasn't finished today, tomorrow is definite. before i bailed, i took another run through the entire section with a rake, and cleared out some of the better lines. it's amazing how many different surfaces you ride on through the 100 feet or so of trail... dirt, ladder bridge, rock, spongy mulch-like dirt, another ladder, more spongy dirt, decomposed tree, dirt, rock, clay, then another ladder. while we were building, chris made light of the fact that we've spent about a month working on a section of trail that it will take about 30 seconds to ride through. unbelievable.

assuming this section is finished, of course, we should be immediately focusing our attention on some new projects. probably by tomorrow afternoon we'll be off in another section of the woods with our brush axes and mattocks.

for anyone coming up tomorrow or sunday, it's going to be a good weekend. amazing conditions, frankenstein at 100% completion... plus the 24 hour race is going on, so you can cheer for (or heckle, depending on how heartless and mean-spirited you are) the endurance XC crowd in between runs.

 

[martis]

we can finally close the books on frankenstein: the last section opened yesterday with myself and chris taking a few test runs on it, then taking down the tape. chris and brandon worked well into the night on friday to complete the second ladder. as expected, it's the gnarliest, funnest hundred or so feet on the mountain. got some very good feedback as well as lots of "hey, good job guys" comments as we were cleaning up alongside the trail. there's going to be some fine tuning here and there as the trail sees some more traffic, but for all intents and purposes: frankenstein is 100% open. assuming i'm not too much of a zombie to bring my camera up in the morning, pictures should be up by tomorrow night.

time for a new trail.

 

[jvnixon]

http://www.sicklines.com/courses/pennsylvania/seven_springs_course

Frankenstein Helmet Cam for those who are curious

 

[martis]

this week starts "build time". all of the trail crew will be working on dedicated build/maintain days twice a week, for the remainder of the season.

we did some preliminary scouting for a new (almost) top-to-bottom trail, and long-overdue maintenance on existing trails monday, as the weather was less than favorable and we ran out of "rainy day work" to keep us busy.

i'm assuming we'll all be sitting down on thursday or friday to, more or less develop a bit of a "game plan" for our build period. we have two existing corridors scouted out, which should be built and open fairly quickly, assuming we don't change anything about them... which is always possible. there's lots of ideas floating around, but the point is... more new terrain is definitely on the immediate horizon.

as far as maintenance goes, there's lots that needs to be paid attention to. we're more than aware of the condition of the showtime jumps. it's highly doubtful that they'll be rebuilt this season, as the winter wreaks havoc on them. we ARE planning to work on them, but they'll most likely be overhauled in the spring. there's some serious brake bumps and exposed rock on 007. for the most part, those will be remedied this season. 007 wasn't ravaged as much by erosion and snowmelt, but by high rider traffic, which is a bit easier to work with.

ideas? suggestions? what types of new trails and features do you want to see? what can be improved upon? i always make it a point to let the higher-ups know what the riders are looking for, and maybe what we're missing.

 

[martis]

http://www.sicklines.com/courses/pennsylvania/seven_springs_course

Frankenstein Helmet Cam for those who are curious

awesome video, as always... shame you got a flat... i was looking forward to ATTEMPTING to keep up with you. not a chance at that happening, of course. sicklines rules.

 

[dagmz6s]

the Frankenstein helmet cam is making me very excited for our upcoming mancation to seven. also extremely happy to hear about the maintenance work and new trail possibilities, hopefully this will continue to be the destination for our little get aways for years to come.

 

[Arutha]

Hey Martis,

I must admit I have a jumping bug right now, so my recommendation might not be liked or even possible but what about extending superconnector straight on right after the last table instead of going into the woods? Maybe have more jumps/berms and then dump u off at the berm right before the woods at the bottom? Kind of a long A-line with larger jumps than 007. Granted it would be a lot of work though. And thanks for asking for recommendations.

 

[kmart1971]

More steeps (where possible) Rocks and Drops and Rock Drops too...More Upper/Lower EC type stuff

 

[jvnixon]

awesome video, as always... shame you got a flat... i was looking forward to ATTEMPTING to keep up with you. not a chance at that happening, of course. sicklines rules.

Thanks bud. Looking forward to seeing the new trails! The backside of the mtn is calling...

 

[Cychobiker]

Hey Guys. New to site and have not been to ss this year yet. When is the season over? I must go and if anyone wants to tag along that would be cool.

 

[martis]

Hey Guys. New to site and have not been to ss this year yet. When is the season over? I must go and if anyone wants to tag along that would be cool.

the season is done on october 25, i believe. there's usually a few good sized packs of riders on the mountain, most would be happy to have you along assuming you can't find anyone else to come up with you.

on to trail work: one of the new segments is nearing completion. it's an alternate line from frankenstein leading back into lower EC-1. it's only about a hundred foot segment of trail, BUT it contains the biggest feature in the park thus far; a ladder onto an approximately 5 foot tall rock, and a drop estimated anywhere from 6 to 10-12 feet, depending on how fast one hits it. we have yet to think of a name for it, but with the pace things are moving, it SHOULD be open on saturday.

the "glades" section has been one of the more troublesome spots on 007 for brake bumps and has generally been let go. scott and i spent a full eight hours on friday correcting the bumps and shoveling pile after pile of small gravel and rock out to some other problem spots. we haven't had a chance to test ride it, but some people today mentioned that it's a serious improvement.

the second-to-last straight, which has been a seriously rough section... unfortunately our only way to correct the problem there (no brake bumps... just lots and lots of huge boulders poking their way through the surface) is going to be lots and lots of dirt, which will probably have to wait until the spring to minimize winter erosion.

showtime has been given its most thorough raking of the season, by chris and brandon... and nearly all of the rock on the surface has been removed. however, the rain ruts still remain, and again, are only going to improve with lots and lots of new dirt. we may try to temporarily patch them up for fall riding, but if a major refinishing is going to happen, it will probably be in the spring, for the same reasons as the section on 007. winter is not kind to groomed trails.

on a bit more of a minor note, ANOTHER new section was scouted out today, and chicken wire (but not the kind that eats tires for lunch) was added to the second ladder bridge in new frankenstein. it's much friendlier than it was in damp conditions.

thanks to anyone who came out and braved the fog and wind today.

 

[manhattanprjkt83]

was up there today, nice work gentleman...So the rest of board knows they are working pretty hard to put in as many trails as the front side of the mountain can handle.

Pretty fun looking drop was completed dubbed the 'battleship' on Frankenstein today, it's an alt line that is a ladder to a rock drop to a really nice tranny run out onto the ski slope...didnt get to do it, but will next weekend.

Frankenstein is awesome, like said above though there are a few spots that are a bit slow and need some tending to, that stuff comes as the trail matures though...

7 springs is back in it...quite a few folks up there today

 

[banshee_62]

martis i was talking with jeff today and he said that yo uneed to show joel and a few higher up ppl these threads so they see what ppl like/dislike. i think it will be the best way to get the backside developed

 

[brungeman]

Great day of Dh'n yesterday!

Manhattan and I convinced a few to go, and then met up with said DH newb's from our area to show'em da ropes. They had a blast, we had a blast, and this years trail crew is killin it! The greenlight on building up the frontside has been lit, and everone is doing it right. (read: "cut it in and let rider feedback dictate the tuning")

there are a few technical/logistical issues that need to be worked out before moving to the backside, but I think you will see a handful of options coming on the frontside to really allow you to fine tune a fun run. in otherwords you will be able to make all kinds of choices on how you want to get down. There may not be room for a full on top to bottom run due to the lack or tree'd area left on the front, but you will see a bunch of option chute's put in. (at least that is the impression I am getting)

great job guys, and thanks for a great day of riding.

 

[manhattanprjkt83]

brungeman thanks for making all that dust for me to swallow yesterday i appreciated it...

 

[brungeman]

no prol'em!

 

[martis]

ah. been a few days since updates... brungeman and manhattan... thanks for the props... you guys know pretty much all there is to know about the ups and downs of the park in the past few years, and what it's taken to bring things to the point we're at now... you know what i mean.

regardless... we finished the rock drop connector from frankenstein back to lower EC-1 on sunday. it's going to be known as "the battleship" due to its... battleship-like appearance, i guess. i still have no idea if it's even been tested as i had to bail early on sunday. i know i haven't tried it out yet, but yes, it is finished, and as far as i know, it will be open for riding this weekend. it's definitely a step up to some good sized freeride terrain and not for the novice rider.

as i may have mentioned in an earlier post... i spent labor day scouting a new trail which is somewhat parallel to middle 007, and hooks up with frankenstein just above said rock drop. well, on sunday, jeff, chris, and i took a walk through the underbrush the other day and found a straighter, yet flowy-er route through the same relatively unused patch of woods. brandon and chris spent sunday (and i think monday) clearing out the corridor and i worked on benching the first 2/3 of it today (only got about 1/4 of the way through. benching by yourself is hard, and i had to bail at two. benching, if not more, should be finished by the end of the weekend). the tentative name of the trail is "slingshot" and we're looking at options for (*ahem) wooden features. i think it's a good bet you'll see at least one, and it's something we don't have anything like, so far. i have an idea for a second one, but it might just be a bit of wishful thinking. we'll see. i won't spoil the surprise, so to speak (assuming that's what we end up building...) but we do have a really nice stretch of trail to work with, and a wide, former service road to put in something seriously fun. i can't say when it will be open, but at the pace we're going... it shouldn't be very long.

i would post pictures, but i can't figure out how to upload anything with my ridiculous new phone. i'm new to the whole "smart phone" thing, and i suck at it. i liked it better when my phone was dumb. i'll steal my girlfriend's pink hello kitty digital camera tomorrow and take some pictures. those are long overdue.

 

[martis]

Hey Martis,

I must admit I have a jumping bug right now, so my recommendation might not be liked or even possible but what about extending superconnector straight on right after the last table instead of going into the woods? Maybe have more jumps/berms and then dump u off at the berm right before the woods at the bottom? Kind of a long A-line with larger jumps than 007. Granted it would be a lot of work though. And thanks for asking for recommendations.

we've considered this. HOWEVER, on any ski-able terrain (once you cross over the big dirt wall behind the table... that's technically a ski run), whatever we build needs to be flattened in the winter for grooming purposes. this is why rock and roll is as mellow as it is, and why we don't have any big sets in the middle of the slopes (believe me, it would be nice). for the park crew and most of the riders, our "ultimate goal" is to build on the north face, and a big brother to 007 is definitely something we're all going to try and make happen, should we find ourselves over there.

as far as recommendations are concerned... i always pass them along. we like new ideas.

 

[Arutha]

we've considered this. HOWEVER, on any ski-able terrain (once you cross over the big dirt wall behind the table... that's technically a ski run), whatever we build needs to be flattened in the winter for grooming purposes. this is why rock and roll is as mellow as it is, and why we don't have any big sets in the middle of the slopes (believe me, it would be nice). for the park crew and most of the riders, our "ultimate goal" is to build on the north face, and a big brother to 007 is definitely something we're all going to try and make happen, should we find ourselves over there.

as far as recommendations are concerned... i always pass them along. we like new ideas.

I have another. when on the lift, all the woods to the right of the EC shoot look like prime space. Probably have to tie in somewhere just past or in conjunction with the middle EC1 section where 007 and EC meet. Just another idea and I of course haven't scoped it so maybe it's a no go.

And again thanks for all the work, the maintence you guys did really helped.

 

[martis]

I have another. when on the lift, all the woods to the right of the EC shoot look like prime space. Probably have to tie in somewhere just past or in conjunction with the middle EC1 section where 007 and EC meet. Just another idea and I of course haven't scoped it so maybe it's a no go.

And again thanks for all the work, the maintence you guys did really helped.

oh yeah. we're one step ahead of you there. i think once upper slingshot is completed, we're going to look to that section for some new terrain.

TWO NEW SECTIONS OPEN TOMORROW (saturday). first and foremost is the battleship. happy hucking on this one. like i said before, it's our biggest drop yet. make sure you scope it out before you bomb it, though (there's an option to bypass the big drop). it requires some serious braking after the landing.

second is a section we built entirely today, called "the tank". access it via the entrance to slingshot, off to the right of 007, next to the hip after the road. it's a BIG (SUV-sized) rock with a natural up-and-over to a very gnarly roll out, another 3 foot drop back onto frankenstein directly after the rock berm. lines of sight have been cut, but be very cautious at the intersection. i haven't rode it yet, but it's a seriously advanced feature with dire consequences if you're not committed. it might be easier than it looks, i don't know, but PLEASE approach with caution and again, have a look before you attempt it. there is NO bypass for this line (impossible with the area we're working with) and it's definitely meant for the rider with some technical skill. on the bright side, assume you want the flow of upper 007 combined with the technical features and ladder bridges of frankenstein. now you can. there's a few other new options this will open up with the battleship in place.

possible runs now available:

007
ec-1
super connector - lower 007
frankenstein
rock and roll
upper 007 - the tank - frankenstein
upper 007 - the tank - the battleship - lower ec-1
upper frankenstein - the battleship - lower ec-1
upper 007 - lower ec-1
upper ec-1 - lower 007

and so on. i'm sure i'm missing some. the connectors we're putting in really add some different flavor to the runs up here. slingshot should open it up even further, with options to ec-1, frankenstein, the battleship, and possibly more trails if we can handle it. weather for tomorrow is perfect: 70 and sunny. come up and ride.

 

[JustMtnB44]

Great news man glad to hear there is some good new stuff getting built. I will be there tomorrow to check it out. I'll be riding the blue Turner Highline w/ white fork, if you see me say hi.

 

[martis]

Great news man glad to hear there is some good new stuff getting built. I will be there tomorrow to check it out. I'll be riding the blue Turner Highline w/ white fork, if you see me say hi.

sadly, i'm taking a week off to go on vacation, so i won't be around tomorrow. feel free to say hello to any of the other park crew guys, and if you need direction to any of the new features, don't hesitate to ask.

i rode "the tank" today, and it's smoother than you'd expect. we added the dirt for a step-down into slingshot/tanker, and some of the other guys spent some time carving a line to the side of 007, which consists of a hip (still needs to be completed), and a way to launch over the berm into the step-down. it's a very cool addition.

the battleship... well... i'm going on vacation and couldn't risk getting hurt, so i didn't ride it. i saw 5 people hit it. 4 made it successfully. 1 bunnyhopped off the end and sketched up upon landing... but from what i saw, there's definitely some different ways to launch this one. make sure your brakes are in order before you huck this one. the runout is steep, and stays steep. like i said... it's definitely an "advanced riders only" kind of thing.

see you guys in a week!

 

[JustMtnB44]

I rode 7 springs yesterday, perfect weather and conditions for riding. The new features are really fun! The Tank is cool, not too difficult but fun nonetheless. The Battleship is fun too, really not that difficult of a drop other than the bottom of the runout, but I like it and would like to see more features like that. I really like the bottom section of Frankenstein as well. It's nice that I can finally ride for a day without getting bored by the end of it.

 

[banshee_62]

rode there on saturday. i'm liking the way "slingshot" is looking going to be really fast and really tight. the battleship is great finally something to launch off of. keep up the good work martis see you in a week when the new shock comes in.

 

[cecil]

so whats on the agenda for the spring guys any updates?!?!?!?

 

[martis]

Right now, everyone is focused on the winter terrain parks up here, which is a tremendous undertaking and leaves little to no time to focus on the bike park as long as we have snow. As we were closing up, there was definite discussion of spring projects, however, nothing is written in stone. Some very cool ideas were being tossed around, though. The only news I have is right on the website:

Bike park passes for the 2010 season are now on sale! Buy them before March 28, 2010, and it's only $189! The price goes up to $229 March 29 - May 2, 2010. After May 2, they go up to $249, so now is the time to buy!

This really is a killer deal. Also, think of it this way: Purchasing a bike park season pass before the season starts will directly reflect the growing interest in the bike park to upper management, and may provide us with more funds with which to improve, maintain, and expand our terrain.

 

[SLOPE]

Rode there the end of season last year for the first time.
Had a blast, nice facility, looking forward to more visits in the future.

Why does everything have to be over 3 hours away.

 

[cecil]

.

Why does everything have to be over 3 hours away.

diablo, platty, hunter, blue mt. 4.5 hours for me

7springs, snowshoe, highland, almost 6 hours

3 hours is a walk in the park bro...

 

[SLOPE]

I feel your pain

 

[cecil]

Rode there the end of season last year for the first time.
Had a blast, nice facility, looking forward to more visits in the future.

Why does everything have to be over 3 hours away.

i have a 6" freeride, and a 8" dh, what should i bring there?

 

[SLOPE]

You could ride either.
I rode an 8" DH but it wouldn't bother me to ride a smaller bike either.

 

[cecil]

is there a place to lock up a bike by the lift? then i could bring both!!

 

[SLOPE]

Parking lot is pretty close to the lift, at leat the one I parked in was.

 

[martis]

i have a 6" freeride, and a 8" dh, what should i bring there?

truthfully, i would bring both. 007 is awesome on an 8" bike, but it's lightning fast on a 4"-6" jumper. whereas frankenstein, the tanker drop and the "new" section of EC-1 (aka bride of frankenstein) are a bit scary on a 6" bike, an 8" beast would be perfect.

 

[martis]

is there a place to lock up a bike by the lift? then i could bring both!!

yes, there's a bike rack at the bottom, with lift attendants on hand at all times. you can also check your bike at the shop, if need be.

 

[cecil]

thanks martis, "serenity now"

 

[martis]

thanks martis, "serenity now"

i am the george costanza of gravity mountain biking.

 

[subgdubb]

this will be my first summer on the east coast (moved from santa cruz to baltimore for grad school) and i'm planning on buying a season pass to one bike park in the area. It looks like all the viable options are about three hours away (7 springs, blue mountain, wisp). i'm leaning heavily towards 7 springs, especially with the season pass deal right now, but i've never been. it also looks like the trail crew is completely committed to the park and all the videos i've seen look sick. since everyone on here either works at the park or rides it all the time, do you think i should get the pass? the one thing thats getting me is that its tuned more towards small bikes, but i rode most of the stuff in sc (ucsc, jugs, etc) with a big bike when it wasn't needed 75% of the time. so yeah, you guys think its a good idea? thanks for the advice! i can't want to get out there this summer.