A man must know his limits, so I’m going to bite off a very small piece- otherwise known as the past weekend. The storm of the century was hitting DC, Philly, and NYC, but it took a hard right before it hit any real mountains. That is depressing, especially since I had a trip to Mount Snow planned. It was bitter cold and the wind was blowing like the frosty bastard that it is. Nonetheless, I kept my blogger radar up and made enough observations to keep you all entertained for the ten second it’ll take to read these two lists.

 Top 5 Promising Things I Saw this Year (Weekend):

1. Your average kid is out there getting creative between features. I’m talking butters, taps, slashes, and all that good stuff. We used to look like automatons that just rode feature to feature, now some of you are actually worth watching from the chairlift.
2. It’s still a fashion show. You’d think this would be a negative thing, but where would we be without our vanity?
3. My brother was riding his shiny new Moment Planks. I heard more than one kid whisper “yo dude, those are the Planks.” I remember when simply owning a pair of twin tip skis made you a rarity on the mountain, at least now you have to go out of your way to order a limited-production ski to get noticed.
4. Shitloads of kids are skiing. Until you go to a park-specific hill like Carinthia at Mount Snow it’s easy to forget how quickly this thing is growing. Again, I can remember when being under 20 and skiing was extremely rare.
5. You’re all getting really damn good. We were all reminiscing on the chairlift how being able to slide a rail used to make you the best kid on the hill. On Sunday I saw more switchups than a Level 1 video, and some of them actually looked good.

1. Ski resorts should set up “ski and stay” packages with really seedy motels such as the Knight’s Inn in Bennington. Not only are they inexpensive, but you don’t sleep all night because “No Country for Old Men” nightmares keep you very alert.
2. No more lame-ass storms that don’t even reach the Poconos or Adirondacks. DC, Baltimore, and Philly do not need snow. Although, I hear freestyle cross-country stars are getting tons of urban shots.
3. Bubble chairlifts. Mount Snow makes a big deal about their old chairlift that had a pull-down bubble cover. Why the hell are we going backwards with lift technology? It was windy as shit up there, I could have used a cool Jetsons-style bubble for protection.
4. An outerwear company to make pants with a button and strap system that would hold up the back of my pants when I have sneakers on. This has nothing to do with the weekend, but I just always think that.
5. I never want to see someone wear a “G” or “Magic” suit again. And to the kid who combined the G jacket and Magic pants…how could you do that to me?