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I second @RidgeRacer’s comments. Grate night skiing. Snow was so good we expanded our terrain and notched Nightmare and Falls off the kid’s list. Half the age I was when I did them the first time 💪 Saw @MattEDGE stretching out his groin from the lift after the bumps on Main. He’s got some quality stretches. Tried to catch up to him but no dice.

Hey All, I’m back from another fun session at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived in the lower lot at 830am and it was 31 degrees under mostly sunny sky’s. In the house were Atomic Jeff, Root, ZZSlope, Bethlehem ford crew, C1 and a few others. First civilian summit safari lift and began on Main Street which was a western groomer..11 out of 10 conditions but Nightmare dreamweaver was 12 out of 10…was so good kept lapping that then back to Main Street which was getting semi spring like on the bottom part, back to nightmare dreamweaver then I skied razors which was very good….a little firmer than the others but so smooth. The quad stopped for about 5-6 minutes while we were on it and I saw it stopped for awhile later while skiing razors. I skied Widowmaker once and it was real nice cord but midway had mini cookies. Ended my hour and 20 minute session with a final run on razors and peaced out. Not often you have sunshine, comfortable temperatures and such nice snow. What a turnaround from Friday when the mountain was so brown. JADIP

Booked flights for Utah, flying out Monday evening 3/20, return flight is late Friday 3/24. Should get 4 full days in

Aspen just announced they are extending their season until 4/23! Woohoo

Back at 6 with the fam to 34° and the best night snow conditions this year. Met up with friends and the kids only wanted to stay on Lazy and Burma for the side hits and Yeti park. Both were smooth cream. Even got to share a lift ride with @mbike-skiand friend! Peace’d around 8 and didn’t even get a beverage down because we had to do a bathroom break JADIP Side note, does any night people think this is the most lights out collectively on the mountain in recent years? They did fix the big dark spot on Lazy but Burma has a whole corner out, usually down to dirt because no one can avoid it. Trails End is also a pretty dark finish.

No one cares. Take it to the breckenridge thread. Tonight is the bomb dot com. Fantastic almost spring like but not really kinda snow. Everything is fast without having to worry about holding an edge. Top tier night sesh for sure

Day 4 - Banff Arrived at the lot around 8:15 to partly cloudy skies and cold temps. I’m still trying to get used to this Celsius crap. Banff is an oddball layout. You start out in a lower lodge where you can boot up and then load a gondola up some 18 minutes to the main resort area. The main area is a cluster where many of the lifts load in a spoke fashion. God help those who come here on a weekend as the central area would be mayhem. Rode ip the gondi and arrived in Sunshine Village right at 9am. We were going to start on lookers right and loop around the mountain, but the Wawa quad was not yet running so we headed up the Angel Express quad. Pretty much everything is above tree line skiing, wide open snow fields. They received a couple of inches overnight which made the groomers fast and light. We got lucky in that the ride to Banff it was flurrying and cloudy but at the mountain it was partly cloudy with breaks of sun. You really want to go here on a clear day just for the views which are unbelievable! We pretty much toured the entire mountain, finding stashes of untouched powder in the trees. After lunch we headed down to Goat’s Eye mountain to lap some tree runs there. On the next ride up, SP dropped the rope off the right of the lift. We could see a large powder field to hit, but coming down Cleavage wee missed the turn. Regardless it’s some serious terrain as right across the valley is Delirium Dive where they host World Freeride Tour comps. We could see some crazies coming down the chutes over there. Finished up the day heading all the way back to the top of Lookout mountain and doing a peak-to-creek run all the way back down to the cars, a real thigh burner after a hard day of skiing. Dinner was in house, salad, spaghetti with Italian sausage, garlic bread and cheesecake, followed up by an IPA and gummies. Morning views… Ski tree… Various mountain pics… Downtown Banff…

Just got back from day 2 at Taos ski valley. Was super windy this morning and lifts were on hold until about 10 am. Dropped the kids at ski school and skied a couple runs with my wife and mom before I decided to ski some woods off the backside. After that took a 15 minute hike up highline ridge and traversed over past the tresckow ridge and twin trees chute to a rarely skied area called eagles nest. I had never found it before and I was up for an adventure. Found my way in there and was rewarded with an untouched powder line. Had a bratwurst for lunch and then skied some steep trees. After that took a hike up to west basin and broke my pole while whacking my boot to get the snow off. Skied a very nice Zdarsky (5th chute) and it was very weird not being able to pole plant on one side. Took lift 2 back up and saw my kids and instructor coming up 7a and I tagged along with them down longhorn which is a legendary Taos steep. Hoping it’s not too windy tomorrow then looks like a storm rolling in. Trees Eagles nest kids on longhorn

I like it, with come around being the only park option this year you can lap it without touching butts on the Vista chair. It would suck without it and Vista not spinning midweek.

Skied at BC from 6-7:30ish....Nice spring conditions...It's been spring conditions all season.....Really nice evening on the snow...

Late afternoon session was a blast today. Fun snow and no crowds.

Side note same!

I like it. Trails are more crowded but I like it.

Trip report slacker here. Yesterday was awesome, snowed most of day. When it got foggy up top, we moved lower. Snow was lovely untouched powder. Today was sunny for most part. Did one of the bowls, some bump runs. Last bump run, ended up on Thousand Turns, then to the bottom . I know what they mean when they say fog! Literally couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces at the bottom. Returned to North Side and Hellroaring Basin rest of the day.

I now like starting out my day doing Widow to Chute, it's mostly empty the first few runs except for some top lodge gapers merging from Vista. The walk to the new lift is a tad shorter than the others which is better for walking in ski boots. Plus there's usually no one there except for @theprogram4 and his cup of Wawa or McDonalds coffee. But don't tell anyone how great the new lift is or everyone will want to do it.

And doing a damn fine job of it I might add. 😂

Just got home from another afternoon in paradise at Blue The only Real True Mountain in PA. The snow today was even better than yesterday! It was glue in flat spots like on tuts, lower burma and the bottom but anywhere with pitch had amazing snow. They groomed out all the wonky shit beautifully. Come around park jump run in was nice and smooth and the lip was solid to get some mad steezy air. Had a progressive 7 laps through come around and 4 more off the quad. Anything with pitch today was near perfect! All in all JADIP!!

Today was 12/10 ... no wind, sun was out, and the trails were perfect. NMDW was the run of the day. The turns were perfect. I was really sluttin' it up for the lift.

It’s pretty nice today.

Lights out is fun. I always giggle when going through the dark areas. It reminds me of a fun house! Side note I'm going tonight.

Thank you for you blessings beer jesus!

That’s dope you are getting the kid out so young. I saw you guys from the quad a few weeks back and she was killing it. I feel blessed I got into the sport in 6th grade, but getting into it in early elementary age would have been amazing. Same with Walt and his kids

I had meetings all morning and stuff tonight so I could only get up around lunch. Snow was fantastic, soft infinite grip spring cream cheese. Saw root in line and bfgs crew was bbqing but otherwise pretty quiet.

Lucky her! It looks like she's having a wonderful inversion day!

I've skied both as have some others. If it was me it would come down to a couple of factors. How much driving you want to do ? What I'll call the party rocking factor and the big dog weather. UT is probably much faster to get around and to and from the airport. There is an early morning direct on Delta from phl that pretty much someone from my family takes every couple days. It almost always goes and you can be skiing by 1130 noon same day. BCC and LCC have been a complete cluster fuck though it sounds like your not looking there. Washington isn't that much harder as Seattle is convenient and generally out of the winter weather but the hills are spread out more and some are a bit of work to get to, like Baker. The big factor I would say is weather. UT probably has the best odds for big ass pow days in the lower 48 if you're just like showing up. It snows alot and potentially huge amount particularly this season. The PNW on the other hand can be just as good but generally has more fickle weather with alot more rain as the hills are also alot lower. Also it's way way way heavier snow though at least personally I do like the cement it's not the 3% diamond dust in UT. The PNW definitely kills on the culture/party rocking factor. UT is alot better than 20 years ago and you can get fancy wasted at the vintage room and what not but it's either going to pricy or not as good. Any random brewery will also be alot better than whatever they are calling the new Squatters but UT does have good beer. The terrain is very different, the trees and general way they look too. UT is very pretty in spots and also very ugly. PNW looks like Jurassic Park during winter and is insanely green. Volcanos are fucking dope but so are bristle cone pines. I don't think there is a right answer but I would also think about adding a day at the big dog hills in either area. Pow Mow can be the best pow day you've ever had but it's not Alta or the Bird even remotely. Mission Ridge in Was I heard has been running like Steven's Pass last year and just the drive to Baker is a great adventure. UT has better hotels in better areas if your not spending any real effort in looking. You can just roll into Ogden or something and the Best Western will be decent whereas parts of Washington they are closer to the population centers. Also and I'm probably not objective but UT has better Mexican food as they have alot more Mexicans. Red 1 preferably, Red 2 is pretty much the same but never Blue when in SLC.

Travel day yesterday was grueling. Park n Ride off 33 at 3am. 1st flight 630am, landed in Dallas barely had a layover. 2nd flight from Dallas to Missoula around 1230. On to the bus, quick stop for groceries, liquor store and place that won’t be named on a public forum. Got to the resort at dark, got all our stuff in. I got 5 tickets, we’re here for 6 days, so we decided to take today. Just checking out the resort and taking bus into Whitefish.

I meant to create this topic the other day but got sidetracked. We spent like 60 pages speculating and talking about the new lift but since it’s been open it’s just been an everyday part of skiing Blue mountain the true mountain. The new lift has created a certain strategy..the quad started loading 4 minutes earlier than the two six packs the other day which created a mad dash.. New six pack is good for..skiing with a group, getting the upper parts of runs not accessed by the OG six pack and the quad. If you do park at the top or want to go to slopeside it gets you there fast. I also like skiing lazy mile to the falls from the super safari summit if I want to get back to the quad. Liftlines dramatically decreased Bad: upper Main Street now busy..switchback busier..that whole shuttle lower park area sea of people during busy times and some really like to show off their carving on an 8 degree slope I can think of a lot more positives than negatives about the new lift. Do I miss the old Main Street and burma chairs, a little but with them removed you don’t have people flying down lazy to the Main Street chain at the same time as people are flying down lower Main Street to the shuttle. I actually slow down quite a bit there now cause it’s more congested. Even in slow snow with unwaxed skis coming from burma I can coast from burma no problem but for some getting from burma to the super summit safari is an adventure. They may miss the burma chair.

Only complaints are that people only load 3 or 4 to a chair even when it is busy, and it comes almost to a complete stop when unloading, so you can’t jump off of it early with some speed like you can the quad and Challenge Express (although I noticed today they packed snow at the front of the unloading platform so you could hop off a couple of feet early with a little bit of speed). Also the limited area at top (and bottom) tends to collect a crowd. Comfy chair though, and I like the spring assist bar

Couple pics from today. Skied hard and too lazy to write much. Looks like some snow tonight and tomorrow morning. Snowed an inch or 2 this afternoon and freshened some things up a bit.

Classic

STFU GSS that’s lyrics from a Whitney Houston song…but seriously without love where would you be now.

JH is to expensive for Ski2Live, Eaf will want to stay slopeside and be late for first chair because he’s finishing his pancakes with huckleberry syrup and prune juice. Matt edge will definitely buy a custom made cowboy hat and sit on the saddles in the cowboy bar and end up in jail or the mayor. Salty will probably be preyed upon by some cougar..maybe Stacey’s mom. Gonna be radical. We bunking 2 or four to a room?

Don’t do that…I heard that Skiing magazine voted Breckinridge a top 5 resort. It’s the best I always hear people in the hot tub in Jackson hole talking about Breck and keystone as well. Are you going with Ski2Live and Eaf?

Buy it now for the discount before the kid turns 10.....

Maybe I'll cancel my trip out west in a few weeks and just ski the western groomers at Blue Mountain which is a True Mountain.

I think ski resort operating expenses have gone up faster than inflation as a lot of their costs include electricity and labor. I guess accounting for inflation montage should have only raised prices $35. Assholes.

@Johnny Law, thanks for the info! Sounds like Utah is probably the best option. Washington sounds awesome but the things I was worried about was the snow quality and the driving. Not that I mind a lot of driving but in shitty weather, it's not enjoyable. I'm not set on doing beaver mountain as it's kinda out of the way unless it looks really good. I'll check out the other mountains too

Wow. Better just stay home.

Montage upped their prices by $50 for next year - which is a bit more than rate of inflation New passes now $549 Renewing passes now $499 Presumably Indy Add On will again be available Still cheaper than Blue or Cbk (unless you consider their teen/child rates which Montage does not offer). More expensive than Shawnee's prices for last year - but we will see what Shawnee does this year.

Thinking about an indy pass trip the end of the month. Either Utah (Powder mountain, Beaver mountain, maybe pay for a day at snow basin) or Washington (White Pass, Mission Ridge, probably pay for a day somewhere else). Any of you guys ski Washington before? @Johnny Law? Utah might be the easiest choice because its probably less driving once I get there but not really sure. Flights are about the same price to both destinations

I’ll be back tomorrow for the opening bell. My foot feels hella good now…I’m hoping it was just a muscle sprain. I told atomic Jeff I didn’t have FOMO today due to all the powder in Jackson hole but the fact that I brought it up meant I did…something about natural snow just skis different. Way to get after it to all who skied today..I think the 3.25” blue received will groom out nice cause it’s beefy snow!!! Sleep time…this is the second wind this ski season needs!!!

I’m partially at fault for the pizza dough flying away. Enjorales was doing nice moderate tosses and I said those are blue square tosses let’s see a black Diamond toss and a rogue gust of wind caught the dough. It’s bananas.

Sorry, don't read this in the AM. The trees have been getting less and less spaced out over the years. There's the "tree farms" either side of George's Gorge, but they've gotten pretty dense. East Rim Face used to be nice and may be tomorrow if we get what is forecast, but ever since they put in chair 5, it's been pounded. There's some okay trees left side of Hogan's East. A bit steeper ones left side of Outside Road. Easiest to dip a toe in and then exit at any point is Good Medicine. Quite spaced in the middle. But, increasing steepness AND they face South, so snow is sometimes not so great. The good thing is you can traverse out to the right at any point. Number one thing is, ski with someone who is going to really keep an eye on you. Remember, if you go into a treewell and they are downhill from you, they are going to have to posthole UPHILL, possibly in snow up to their crotch, while you could be suffocating. Don't go in the trees with someone who plans to "meet you at the lift" or get carried away by the powder. (You might as well go by yourself, they would be useless. And, being by yourself, you'd be more careful.) Try to look for the path taken by others before. The snow will be more compacted. Straying 6 inches off that line could have you waist deep very suddenly. Don't become the next statistic on my list of deaths in tree wells here. If you've found that special, reliable partner, the trees in Big Timber (unlabelled, to the left of Ridge Run after Outside Road and before its final pitch) are really nice.

Rare weekday appearance....didn't want any FOMO....In a season of meh conditions this was a real treat... May have been the sloppiest snow to come out of the sky,but it made for a super fun time at Blue...Light opening crowds kept stuff in good shape....Best day in a long time......

Day 3 - Lake Louis Left the house at 7:15am and arrived at Lake Louis around 8:15am, with light snow flurries the entire ride out. In the lot we saw a heli-ski helicopter circling. Unfortunately we didn’t hear anymore the entire day. Much colder today, with temps starting out in the low double digits. The mountain and those that surround it are truly magnificent. Pictures never do them justice. First runs were lapping the Jupiter lift as there were Ikon issues again, but they’re better here as a radio call got them fixed. A few inches fell, so the early groomed runs were soft and fast. Headed over to the Glacial Express and up the Top of the World Express to find some 6”-8” had fallen at the top that made for a nice, smooth run down Helen’s and Kernahan’s. Back up the TotW and the sun was out. Decided to try the bowls now while the sun is out as the forecast called for clouds to roll in. Dropped into backside via 1st Gate and down Rodney’s Ridge which while already pretty cut up, there were pockets still there for the taking. After breaking for lunch, headed up the Larch Express, eyeing up Tower 12 and the Lookout Chutes. Seeing cliff signs all the ride up, decided to do some recon via Bobcat to check things out. Having not seen any real cliffs, went back up and down Tower 12. Big mistake. Lots of rocks and thin snow made it a rough go and bailed to other areas. Spent the rest of the day lapping trees off TotW lift. Morning view… Random pics… Elk by the road on way to dinner…

First day skiing, took the tour from 1030-12, then spent the rest of the day mostly on the north side. Visibility wasn’t bad. Took about a 45 minute break, got 18 runs in

OMG. It’s Krazy Kathy.

Yup she’s in the steezy jacket behind and to the left of the yellow jacket person in front of the trail map.