volklyokel Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 What an adventure! Everything from the drive up, amidst snow, to the amount of powder on the runs themselves, which was about 4 to 8 inches. The groomers left everything alone, which made it perfect. The triple lift was open in the morning, so I made runs down Mambo (warm-up), then Jack Rabbit, Upper Rt 66, Upper Shortway all with various finishes to get back to the bottom of the triple. After a short break, the turned off the triple and started the Rt. 66 double lift from the bottom. That allowed for a couple of nice runs on Stembogen and one run on Edgeset before finishing the day with a lazy ride down Mambo. Damn, I did too much skiing at Whitetail yesterday. Oh well, if it keeps snowing all night long, tomorrow could be epic up there. Powder was almost the champaign variety, but had a bit too much moisture in it to be truly champaign. Nonetheless it was at least 5 inches across everything and some corners had about 10 inches that had blown in. Very fun to find those and with so few people on the Mountain today, it was easy to make first tracks in the corners even in the early afternoon. A nine on a scale of ten kind of day. Pretty hard to beat. But then, there's tomorrow... Pictures... It was snowing like stink for a good part of the day so these photos look dark and dingy... Unidentified skier in powder on Jack Rabbit (near the top of the run) Same guy heading down Jack Rabbit from same vantage point A view of Deer Run, from a point on the lower end of Mambo Alley A view across Stembogen Bowl - drop in anywhere you like. More tomorrow in this same thread. Haven't had dinner yet, Doug, so I don't know what to tell ya! Italian sounds good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0xidee Posted February 13, 2007 Report Share Posted February 13, 2007 Hey good news just found out classes tomorrow are cancelled. First time they have cancelled schoool since the early 90's. That means I will try to be there at opening. Looks like conditions should be amazing with all this snow we are getting. I'm gonna try and get there right at opening, and if you see me yell and I will give you a $5 off coupon. Look forward to seeing you sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volklyokel Posted February 14, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 What a weird weather day. Got there and was among the first to head down the hill at 9. Had to wait for the lift ops to clear snow from the bottom loading zone. At 9am, the temps were about 23 degrees with freezing rain (yes, you CAN have freezing rain well below the freezing point). I was having to clear my goggles of their frozen glaze on my first run down. Within 15 minutes it switched to a nice heavy snow. 30 minutes later we had ice pellets falling from the sky, then back to a nice light and fluffy snow 15 minutes after that! The light snow flurries lasted for a good couple of hours, maybe adding another inch. Then the low pressure went around us and man did it begin to blow. I left about 1:30 and the temps had made a nosedive to 11 degrees. Tomorrow's going to be a bitch with cold temps and wind. Today's 13 runs and 11,000+ feet puts me above 100,000 for the season (still less than 10% of Doug's pace!) The skiing was pretty decent for the most part. All the green runs had been groomed as well as a few of the blue runs. But some of the harder blues were left ungroomed, mainly because the resort was claiming it was a "powder day." With a 1/16 to 1/8 inch crust on everything, I'd hardly call it a powder day. People did well off piste and on the ungroomed stuff if they were good at skiing crud. By 10, the grooming team realized it was more dangerous than fun, and began to groom parts of the remaining blue and single black runs. I met up with n0xidee around 10, made runs with him down Mambo, Jack Rabbit, Deer Run and Stembogen. Nice guy. More than half my age, but I had fun meeting him and trying to keep up. n0x, did you try Edge Set? What did you think? Here are today's pics: A couple of Boarders coming down Jack Rabbit One of the Boarders face plants and waves (at the same time) n0xidee at the top of the steep section on Upper Rt. 66 n0xidee part way down the same steep section n0xidee passing me and flashing that famous red backpack More tomorrow. Maybe a little sunshine would help too, for the photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0xidee Posted February 14, 2007 Report Share Posted February 14, 2007 Hey hey hey just got back a little bit ago from a nice little 5 hour session. Wanted to get there for opening but went out to my car this morning and had like a half inch of ice on it. So I didnt get onto the mountain until about 9:30. Took 2 runs before seeing Volkl. Did a few runs with him then he went in for a break and I continued. Did some runs mostly down Jack Rabbit because it was groomed. Met up again with Volkl. We did two runs and they opened up the lower chair lift so we moved down there hitting Stembogan. It was getting really windy and Volkl and I went our seperate ways. I did a run down Stembogan, a run down Edge Set, a run down High Hopes, and one more down Deer Run. Edge Set was alright. It was ungroomed to it was still pretty crusty, and with my thin skis, things didnt go that well. After that I went into the lodge. I had done a total of 15 runs. Grabbed some nachos, sat and talked with Volkl who was packing up for a little. Then went back out and did 5 more runs ending the day with a total of 20 runs with a vert of just over 16k. Left at around 2:30. It was great meeting a fellow PASR and thanks for the pics! More of you should come and enjoy the Knob! P.S. Anyone wanna give me a pair of skis? mine have no edges left, not even worth waxing, and too skinny to enjoy any days we get powder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volklyokel Posted February 15, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2007 Today was sweet! Cold as a son of a gun, but sweet. A good amount got groomed last night, so everything was "packed powder." Made riding down effortless. I arrived around 9:45 with the temp at 2 above. Fortunately the wind wasn't near as bad as it can be up there. With the morning sunshine, you could make about 6 or 7 runs before getting so cold that you had to go in. I hit all the blues and all the single blacks, racking up 15 runs for the day. Made my first trek, in a couple of years, down Lower High Hopes. Much easier than I remembered it, so maybe I'm a little better skier than I was a couple years ago. Made lots of runs down Deer Run which was wide open and with good edge grip. Jack Rabbit was simply a blast. Here are a variety of photos. Had to take my right glove off to take a shot, so I didn't take too many. Deer Run (Blue, looking down, from top of steep section) Deer Run (looking up as skiers coming down) Extrovert looking down (one of the steepest runs in PA) Extrovert looking up (Double Black Diamond) Lower High Hopes (under the chairs - the direction I went) Stembogen Bowl (with a couple of skiers heading down) Stembogen Bowl (a few seconds later) Last day is tomorrow. But I've had a great time here. No complaints. Tomorrow's report probably won't get posted until Saturday, since I have to drive back home. Thanks for reading and looking at the photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volklyokel Posted February 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 nice pictures...extravert looks sweet.. Did you notice how few people there are on the slopes? Weekdays are awesome here. No lines for the lifts or at the bar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splooshie Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 (edited) I arrived around 9:45 with the temp at 2 above. Fortunately the wind wasn't near as bad as it can be up there. With the morning sunshine, you could make about 6 or 7 runs before getting so cold that you had to go in. you think thats bad, when i was up in tremblant last weekend it was -20 degrees midday without the windchill. there were gusts of wind of up to 40 miles per hour. it was cold. Edited February 16, 2007 by splooshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0xidee Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 Today was supposed to be a demo day, did you get around to trying out any new skis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
splooshie Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 (edited) Today was supposed to be a demo day, did you get around to trying out any new skis? who me? because last weekend there it was a demo day, and yes i DID get to try out the new armada LTD 2008 skis. they were sick. Edited February 16, 2007 by splooshie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
n0xidee Posted February 16, 2007 Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 were you at blue knob? no. is this the blue knob forum? yes. so why would I ask you if u were at the demo? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volklyokel Posted February 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 Today was supposed to be a demo day, did you get around to trying out any new skis?n0x, I saw nothing about demo day, unless they set-up later in the day or were over by the rental center. If they had a demo day, it sure wasn't very well marketed on site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volklyokel Posted February 16, 2007 Author Report Share Posted February 16, 2007 This is my last report from Blue Knob for this year. Today was a repeat of yesterday, just busier. It seems that lots of people decided to get an early start on the Prez Day weekend, so there were more teens and families out there today. Even with the extra folks, running two chairs (expressway triple and Rt 66 double) kept lift lines to a minimum. The longest line I encountered was with a half a dozen boarders all yakking it up--I simply scooted around them and they didn't even notice. Conditions were the same as yesterday, packed powder all around. Some trails had wind-blown powder stashes hidden in the corners. I basically ran the same runs as yesterday including at least six runs down Deer Run which was smooth and fast for working the ski edges. No photos today as they would have looked almost like yesterday's, except that there might've been a person or two going down the runs this time. It was a tad bit colder today and I didn't want to expose my fingers to operate the camera. Clouds were blowing through real fast. You start a run in the sunshine, where every lump and bump would show, and then part way down, a cloud would come through and you'd have totally flat lighting and you'd kind of have to feel your way through the terrain variations. So, four days and eighty bucks later, Blue Knob is definitely worth the price. Where else can you ski for $20 per day? Hope to get back next year, during yet another awesome snow-event weather week. Next series of trip reports will be in early March from the Wasatch Front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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