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Day 5 - Kicking Horse Packed up the trucks and set out for Revelstoke, but first a detour at Kicking Horse. Arrived in the lot about 8:00am, got our paper tickets, booted ip and loaded the gondi just past 9:00. It was warmer than yesterday at the base, so went without midlayer puffy due to the extreme nature they say about the mountain. Up the Golden Express gondi overtop Boo the grizzly’s mini reserve and up to the top. Winds were gusting and I was second-guessing my decision to go puffyless. Unfortunately the little sun that was visible down below had vanished behind flurries and clouds which made for vertigo-inducing runs in the bowls. Took It’s a Ten to Northern Lights just to get a lay of the land. This place is serious steep and every run a mogul field. They only groom some of the greens and around the base and maybe off the Catamount (we didn’t go over there) everything else is bumps, bumps and more bumps. There was about 4” of new at the top but there were pockets of deeper as I found out personally. Down a knoll and into a gully in flat light got the tips too deep and binding check! Double eject, somersault in mod air and landed in a pile of perder. Took a few to dig out the skis. This place is serious steep, much steeper than Jackson. It’s been called Jackson on steroids and that’s definitely true. Checking out to bowl where they had the Freeride tour was incredible. It would have been far better had it been bluebird. Tried out Sluiceman and Flying Dutchman, the latter was better since the woods provided relief from the whiteout. Next lap er took Stairway to Heaven to the top. More whiteout sent us down Redemption Ridge and into McFadden’s way which held a lot of good snow in the trees. The next run the sky brightened a bit, so we dropped into Fuez bowl off Redemption Ridge. The snow was great but the lighting was horrible, making it difficult to see where to turn. Ended up running Porcupine a few time which was a marathon of bumps, too to bottom but held wonderful snow and little traffic. They should really change the name of this place to Kicking Ass as that’s what it does to people! Bolted Kicking Horse around 4:00pm and arrived at Revelstoke digs about 5:00pm. Decided on pizza because it’s too late to start cooking anything. On the road to Kicking Horse… Kicking Horse… On the road to Revelstoke… Revelstoke digs… Dinner…

Blue skies at the top

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.

They ultimately reported 9 inches today but there were some very deep turns to be had on the mountain. First run I decided to get up to the top of lift 2 and I skied right under the lift and it was deep. Skied the what chutes and a bunch of steeps while waiting for the backside to open. Caught the rope drop on Hunziker bowl and it was very very nice. Snow started again at about 10 am and it dumped until about 2:45. Free refills were had all over and especially in the trees. Rare for me any more these days to do a bell to bell session but I skied hard all day with a short break to eat it was so good. Ran into my kids’ group a couple times and they were having a blast. Sadly tomorrow is my final day here. pics in no particular order:

Friday 2/24: We flew United from PHL to Denver flight 3:30pm flight. The airplane seemed old and didn't even have movies to watch which sucked. We arrived with no issues. I think it was in the 40's when we landed. We got off the flight and headed towards baggage. Our bags showed up very quickly and so did our ski bags. Unfortunately, we saw a guy take a ski bag that looked exactly like ours but we assumed he would have checked the sticker. He clearly didn't because we grabbed "our" ski bag only to find out it wasn't ours. So we rushed to customer service who called and got in touch with the person. He was on this way to his rental car so he eventually looped back around. It was really frustrating because who doesn't check the name on the bag. He was very apologetic though. We headed over to Budget to get our 4runner. It took quite a while but no issues. We were finally on our way to Breckenridge around 8/9pm. Dark drive but clear roads which I was thankful about. Our house was about 15 minutes outside of Breck and sat about 11,500 in elevation so we were all huffing and puffing. Saturday 2/25: We slept in a little bit and headed to the mountain around 9am only to find traffic was terrible because it was a gorgeous blue bird day. After about 45 minutes of driving and finding parking, we got a spot and finally headed to the gondola to hit the mountain. Perfect day of skiing. A bit warm but we cruised blues all day on Peak 7 and 8 with 2 of the people who aren't super great skiers. We stopped for lunch and a beer than headed back out for more runs. We ended up calling it quits around 3pm. He headed back to the house and sat in the hot tub. The other half of the group went off and skied alot of the mountain. it was super crowded since it was such a nice day but it was a nice low key day Sunday 2/26: A lot less crowded. We had no issues driving into town and finding parking. We were on the mountain around 9:30am with clear blue skies again. We skied Peaks 7 and 6. We ended up calling it a day around 1pm so my husband and I could walk around town and grab food and drinks. We had hopes of doing a group dinner in town Saturday night but it was snowing pretty hard. By the time we were ready to leave 1 car was stuck in the snow so we stayed in and made dinner. Monday 2/27: Best day of skiing. No crowds, fresh snow, blue skies. We got to the mountain early and took a few easy runs to warm up. We did a bunch of tree runs. After lunch we headed up the t-bar to horseshow bowl. We got on the t-bar and Nick sat a little hard and the bar disappeared from my behind and I was dropped haha Luckily it was only about 20 feet so we skied back down and got in line again. Second attempt at the t-bar was successful. We had alot of fun in the bowls. We skied until close and took the easy trail all the way down to the parking lot. The group met up and we headed to dinner at the Kenosha Steakhouse. Food was alright but good atmosphere. It was our last night so we ate and walked around a bit. Tuesday 2/28: Flight home was uneventful. It was a fun trip. I hadn't been out west skiing in a few years so it was nice to be back. That's all I got for now.

Did 8 runs, mostly off Chair 3. Couple of chair 2, amazing the difference in visibility. Snowed all day, hoping for clearer skies tomorrow

We have been watching the webcams. Going to boot up. Maybe hang out at bottom, looks clearer.

Just got home from another afternoon at the Blue the Only True mountain Pennsylvania has to offer. Arrived in the lower lot at 1:15 to see no PASR activity or much of any activity at all. I knew I made the right decision to sleep and then come in the afternoon. Started the day lapping Come Around 9 times from the Main Street Express without ever sitting next to another person. Bounced around for another 11 runs on snow that never got slushy as one might have thought with the temps hitting near 60! Some poop 💩 stains resurfaced in the usual spots. Especially the bottom of Switchback was quite bare. Coverage otherwise is still great and deep enough to push around to for hopefully another 3 weeks. All in all JADIP.

He has a goat phobia and the goat snuggle zone is returning for the weekend

Yeah

it made the trip to the western peak great again.

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.

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…

Finally got the kids out for a night session. Really enjoyed the snow. Grayson's first run down Coming Soon tonight, he crushed it, for a pizza turner anyway. Best moment of the night for me was when we split up and he and Pops did Widow Midway Lower while Bubba and I did full Main. Stopped to wait across the intersection while Pops sent him ahead down Midway and as he got to Main he did a full, unprompted, head-turned uphill clearance check. So proud, lol.

Surprisingly well...But there are some spots a showin...I would say another week for sure...after that it might be just weekend openings....

I'll be there.

I will be there again Sunday for opening with some spare shots for the lot.

Blue Saturday, Elk Sunday. Have to use the Warren Miller passes before everything melts.

Planning to ski Hunter 3/7, Stowe 3/8-9 Might hit JF Sunday 3/5 and some combo of Catamount/B.East/Magic/Greek 3/11-12 Should be the best stretch of skiing yet this season

Apparently it's improving Thursday, March 2, 2023: 10:30 a.m. update: We're cruising around on 2-3 inches of new, low-density snow with variable depths stacked off-piste. I blasted through some pillows for a quick taste of the white room out there. Visibility on the lower mountain is improving. The upper mountain remains in storm mode with light snowfall, moderate winds and gusts, and very low visibility. 8 a.m. update: Snowfall has tapered off and we've picked up an inch or so in the village since this morning's report! The upper and lower mountain currently has incredibly low visibility (even by Big Mountain standards). We're talking full on sonar conditions. Trust your gear, trust the slope and trust your feelings out in the abyss!

I like it, too. The chair itself is high for for the tiny folk in our party but hopefully in a season that won't be an issue anymore... I love the ease of access to widowmaker. We hardly ever went on it previously because we avoided the doubles. My hope for next year though is they figure out some way to ease congestion for getting on the lift - or getting off the snow. Its like a game of chicken to get through people and the sea of skis left at the edge of the snow. I love that we never wait in line anymore though.

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.

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

The thing about Indiggio reports is that he delivers..somebody asked where you were Sunday at Blue and I said check PASR…if all y’all ever go to Verbier, let Matt edge and Salty know about it. They only require one bunk bed.

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 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.

Ok

Probably we oughta be thinking about talking about considering when will be the day of gaping. Everyone loves doing it Sunday, so is 3/19 the only logical choice? Pushing to 3/26 too risky?

I think it depends on the day…but it’s sort of like this song of the OG six pack isn’t running and just the quad and new lift. @Dirtwolf was saying he wants to get into meatloaf

Was really nice tonight, pretty soft smooth and fast, I love when expectations are exceeded!

I’ll be there Saturday with the “Chair for Death 2.0” thanks for the buddy pass salty.

Another good late afternoon/early evening session...Same great conditions.....This weekday pass has worked out great....Not the biggest place and can be frustrating when it gets a crowd...But nights like tonight...when nobody is there...it's a good time....

Planning on montage Sunday but if not then I'll be at Blue

The van will be at Blue this weekend on display for WinterFest if anyone wants to check it out and talk to the builder.

Wow, nice.

ugh i guess

Nightmare is a double black. im not even sure skiitoolives kids are double black diamond skiers yet. Nice work.

i like all the posts, and like the lift. I am most thankful for the early season lot/lift options. I think parking up top might be a thing of the past now. yeah, it does turn into a cluster fuck in between the 2 sixes, i would like to think there is some good explanation as to why they are so close to one another, but we live in a very imperfect world, and maybe this is what you get when you remodel an old ski resort, basically having to put things where they need to be VS where you would like them to be. Who knows, maybe there is an ancient burial ground that the new 6 is encroaching upon. They could try to work on the getting off part of it a little bit more, but its all good.

It is very comfy

Oh snap, Ski2Live is hating on Blue again…stupid Mother***er

The top of the mountain is honestly irrelevant to me unless the gladed areas off Snake are open. And based on topography doing top to bottom runs confines you to the least exciting parts of the northface. So I'm not really troubled by it. It is nice that the northface lift ride is kept to reasonable duration by not covering the lame part of the mountain. It's like the cool layout Blue had for half of their trails before they removed the lifts with smaller lines that let you skip homestretch. It's all about Rattler, Cannonball, Smoke, Boomer, White Lightning with occasional variety from Lower Fast Track and Lower Runaway.

Keeping an eye on webcams. Yesterday was bluebird on north side, zero visibility closer to base. We definitely won’t be skiing at 9am! We were told yesterday, any tickets we didn’t use would be refunded. I thought that was pretty nice.

I think the new lift is a positive addition to my favorite pocono ski area. I enjoy the different perspective on the ride up, more to watch. The placement of the top station provides much better access for a windowmaker/midway/chute, or vista/burma run. The bottom station could have been moved up 20 or 30 feet to give more loading space? It has helped a lot of people discover the joys of the little gap side for better or worse. At the same time, it seems to have lessened the crowds on the other side of the hill. It changed the lift use dynamic; the quad seems to have longer lines and the old six gets noticeably less use (when it's open).

Not like it's worth anyone switching from Montage to Mtn Creek or Blue Knob to get a better deal. Perhaps this brings them close enough to prices of Blue and Camelback that some will make that leap. Moat likely it will lead more folks to switch over to the glory of the Indy and/or Epic passes.

Enjoy pow mow @PSUFly. Place is enormous. Don't get lost.

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

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.

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

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…