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Hey All, I’m back from another fun session at Blue mountain. I arrived at the lower lot at 830am and it was 33 degrees under partly sunny sky’s. In the house were Atomic Jeff, Johnny Law, Bethlehem ford crew, Root and a couple hundred boomers. First run on razors was a carpet on the top half and still ok lower down..very nice. Next run on coming soon was really bad..solid and uneven and lower paradise wasn’t that good. Challenge looked bad but was pretty smooth and forgiving, lapped that’s again then another Main Street. Lazy mile was very good as well and then ended the session with a couple more runs on challenge. The snowmaking cannons were blowing in a few spots and Challenge and Coming soon reminded me of a Tom Cruise movie cause only the Top Gun was on. All in all a decent AM session. I’m hearing rumors that they are trying to stay open until the first weekend of April. I guess Mother Nature and crowds will determine that. I also finally hit day 50 today in a semi slacker season for me and sold a tombstone on the drive back into work. JADIP

The new snow blown on Coming Soon has consistently been the best on the mountain for the last two years now. Whatever guns they put there need to be used more often.

Monday, March 13, 2023 Butler Gulch / Jones Pass Trailhead @Schif and I worked remotely in the Denver area. Shut down our computers at 3pm MT and packed up the car. since day lights savings time just happened, the sun sets at like 7pm’ish so we drove to Jones Pass Trailhead / Butler Gulch for a quick touring sesh. I’ve done this a few times, read the avy reports, and knew we were going to stay under treeline. The goal was mostly to exercise and try out the new gear. as we got there, the Jones Ridgecat Tour company was loading up their bus of people and here’s Schif splitboarding it up past the ridgecat. There were a few others touring. It was a mellow go but glad we got out. We’re basically like cody townsend and elyse saugstad if they were out of shape Pennsylvanians without a TGR deal or sponsorship. Mike skinned up a short section to hit up some powder turns. then we headed back to the car on the cat track as it started to snow. we snapped a photo at the bottom … talked about the Henderson Mine and molybdenum, then headed into Idaho Springs. we strolled the Main Street of Idaho Springs. I snapped this photo because I know this forum has train enthusiast and then we got a small beaujoes pizza (“Colorado style”).

Not quite the umbrella bar but nice break after a few bump runs

Today was super good, particularly for later in the season. Always dope to show up and see the guns going pretty hard and there is no evidence they are closing soon. Challenge was rotd which is rare but it was full steam ahead kind of snow and it's a real treat when you get truly let them fly. From early on in my skiing days to now the roll over at the top is a great way to start a trail. I didn't think coming soon was that bad but I think it was very dependent on what lane you were in as it was very firm underneath. Crazy it's Pina colada weather out now

Sunday, March 12, 2023 —— 5:30am Thornton, CO The gang left for Loveland at 5:30am. It was a struggle bus as the clocks sprung forward. We arrived to Loveland early at 7am. Brian & Schif got the basin breakfast with gravy. I got the burrito with green chili. We stopped in the ticket window for our ridge cat card. And we’re in line by 8:10am, about the 4th chair or so. Me & Brian rode up with a liftie who told us to hit up Spillway to Richards Run. Schif took Tigers Tail to Cats Meow which is skiers right after you get off the lift. He said it was dust on crust. Brian & I had an amazing fun on Spillway & Richards. I did it twice. We migrated towards 4, ptarmigan (aka Parmesan), 9, and 8. It was a powder hunt and so fun. Here’s a short video that my brother took of me & @Schif around 11:30am, Loveland started bombing runs around on the ridge. It was pretty cool to see the dynamite and the watch/hear it run out. the yellow is a group from the ridge cat and the pink is some dynamite and avalanche mitigation Even at 11:30… between the 8 and 4, we kept finding some powder stashes at the end of the day, I felt like this kid though. we had some cuties and a beer. This beer was rad. It’s a raspberry blonde. then Loveland chili cheese friends 😍 After Loveland, we drove back to the Denver area. We went to the gym mostly for the hot tub - steam room - sauna and cooked dinner at my brothers’.

These are the best times at Blue. So good right now

Love it ! Especially the skiing ants pic ! @antman12

Day 35.

Edibles are your friend in that case. Edit: West coast weed friendly states might be limiting the terrain too much. States with recreational to choose from are California, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Alaska, and New Mexico.

Ski two days…one day of skiing for all that travel is nuts. Or do both..we have long daylight hours now.

Salty you will get a confused emoji from me henceforth.

3 more feet forecasted for this week.

Heck no. I have a 🐕

March 16, 2023 Vail, CO — @Schif and I woke up at the Evergreen Lodge. Earlier this week, the reports were showing about a foot of snow. We woke up to only 5- 6”. Booo. but it was still great. We had some coffee and microwaved breakfast We took the Lionshead Gondola up. There were about 4 people ahead of us in the singles line. We dipped into Game Creek again. It had some untapped powder but got tracked out quickly. If you watch this video, mute your sound because I’m clearly out of breathe. This is after a couple runs. 😂 We dabbled on the front then headed to Sun Bowl and down Wow & Windows. It wasnt quite crust on dust... It was like crust on dust (in a frat boys house where the cleaning lady never came.) It was thick crust. Around 12, we were at the top of Blue Sky Basin. Had some water, carrots, and granola We skied all over. Got lost. Used the find my friend with EpixMix. I rested then we reunited. I skied about 20k of vert. Schif got 36k of vert. He’s insane. we cracked some champs & beers, freshened up and hit up the apres scene. but first - hot pocket. This is my fav post skiing hotel snack. I don’t care if the top of mouth is forever burned. We strolled to the village and we saw a @GrilledSteezeSandwich lookalike. Then we hit the George for their happy hour. It was $5 beer & cocktails and discounted food. We got duck quesadillas and buffalo fries. Duck quesadillas were amazing!! it was a cool scene. I loved it. We chatted with at least 4 Lehigh valley people, Penn State alum, and a pittsburgher. we headed back to the concert in the village near the ice skating rink. there we’re free high noon “samples.” We snagged a lot of samples. I really wanted their ski outfits though. Someone… Did some shots with strangers while the Sponges played house music Then we stopped at Frost and found some rad acoustic music and eventually headed back. it was fun but the scene really ranged in vibes. It felt like the apres ski concert area was trying to be Whistler but there were just too many khakis and furs in the concert area to really hype it up. We’re finishing off the champagne and beers, while Schif is saying “We are” & I reluctantly respond “Penn State” while penn state plays Texas a&m in basketball.

March 15, 2023 Vail, CO ——- On Tuesday night, Brian dropped @Schif and I off near Coors Field and we strolled downtown. I was blown away by McGregor Square. They had bars, stadium seating, and an arena style tv & surround sound- it felt as if you were in stadium. It was awesome. We had a rental car reservation through Kyte. It was significantly cheaper and I loved that we were able to specify AWD/4WD. On Tuesday night - We loaded up the Dodge Durango, watched some Ted Lasso with the gang, and went to bed. Wednesday, we woke up at 5:45 and we’re out of the house by 6:15am. No traffic to vail, so we checked in to the hotel mostly to get our parking pass at 8:30. I was surprised the room was already ready. We both had pretty low expectation for the Evergreen Lodge because it was the cheapest accommodations in Vail. But it’s great and so close. It’s next to the ice skating rink, library, and hospital near Lions head. We dropped our gear. Picked up a coffee and danish from the lobby and strolled to Lionshead. Eagle Bahn Gondola was closed so we took the lift to another lift to the top, then dipped into Game Creek. Snow was the best on the north facing slopes like the front and blue sky basin. We doodled around the entire mountain. We saw this area and I was reminded that @Johnny Law told us to pack pocket dogs to grill. We should have listened to him. But instead we stopped at the Dog Haus for a girthy dog with a Hot Mess Blonde Ale by Vail Brewing. We hit up Poppyfields which was fun then it felt like it funneled you into a natural half pipe. The tight gully can be seen in the white narrows. We skied about 50 miles, 30k vert and we’re both exhausted. We came back to the hotel and had some cookies, champagne, and beer. Appetizers of champions. We napped then hit up Vail Village for a couple of hours. We saw these ice skaters, and couldn’t help to think they were paid by Vail to ice skate - they were legit so good. … but maybe I’m just use to the shit show of an ice skating rink in Center City Philly. We stopped in Frost for a beer. Schif had a Coloradan IPA. One of my fav runs was off of Pete’s Express, so I had Pete’s Stash by Vail Brewing. Awesome day and went to bed excited to do it all again

I have nothing to do but go home and watch documentaries on ancient Egypt until I fall asleep on the couch. Probably hanging out till close it's too nice. Easily the best night session all season

Still here. Too nice out here too leave

I thought lazy, switchback, and challenge were very good this morning. GSS was right about challenge looking bad but being good, weird. Razors was ok as was widow to midway. There were some very sticky spots from a couple of the fan guns. One was on main across from midway. We watched from the lift as people almost faceplanted when they hit it.

Tonight's gonna be a bomb night sesh. I'm down

My spidey senses are thinking maybe Schifdawg proposes to Nancy at the top of Vail…

Think about it salty

24th

The end of home stretch right before you turn right for the quad. Do you have anymore super easy questions?

That’s blue mountain PA…Blue mountain Canada only has 720 vertical feet. I think it’s time for a name change for Blue…

Nope. My hands get so cold. If he thinks I’m degloving, @Schif doesn’t know me

Three years ago we weren’t even skiing on march 16th and they haven’t even set up pond skimming yet…people can poo poo this season but we were skiing in November and might go to April.

I don’t think I’ve ever been over where you park.

Your my boy Blue!! Late sesh starts now, report back later.

This was funny 🤣 Seems like a nice variety to start at least for someone whi hasnt been yet. My eyes are on Colorado.

Dont bring safety supplies to Boulder after this weekend, cause they are closing.

Shut up salty

Thanks for the interpretation. @DiMe you don't need to smoke plants to have a good time, just breathe in that fresh Rocky Mountain air and that's all the high you'll need, just like John Denver says.

Love the train photo 🙌

Following. Just a quick trip with 2 days free. I'm debating on skiing one day and hiking the other vs skiing 2 days.

I think @toastman jinxed Coming Soon by recently saying it has had the best conditions ever.

Safety risk on airplanes? Ever get in a car?

Hahaha but to be fair - we’re also working remotely and not completely on vacation mode while in Denver.

Will be more like this.

@saltyantLike this. I want to see some mad steezy Breck youtube videos! SaveInsta.App - 3043130259076659211_4294057.mp4

As warren miller once said,”if you don’t take that dream ski trip this year, you’ll only be another year older when you do”.

That looks awesome. I need to get out west so I can get mad steezy on some natural cliff and rock drops. I'm still virgin to the west coast mountains.

You can come to Breckenridge... but you would have to share a bunk bed with two other dudes.

Or do I not know the difference? 🤣

they must have received my handwritten letter very nicely asking to stay open until my return.

Just got home from what was probably the best PA powder day of my life. I have only been to Elk once before roughly 15 years ago. I left for Elk with grass showing and light flurries in Stroudsburg, things changed immediately after hitting the Mt Pocono line getting onto 380. The ride was smooth but sketch once off 81 and headed up to Elk. I ended up every so gently sliding my truck onto the shoulder less than 0.5 miles from the parking lot in an awefully precarious way. I came to a stop in the worst possible spot roughly 2 feet from a corrugated pipe culvert that if I had fallen into, would have ended my day. Fortunately a suby with two burly skiers stopped and was eager to attempt to give me a push away from the ditch. Their efforts worked. I thanked them profusely and within less than 5 minutes from dead stuck without help to back on course! I arrived in the upper lot, because I had no idea where to park or claim my tickets at 9:00am. Now that I am reacquainted with Elks layout, in the future I'd opt to park at the Quad lot. I found my way to the robot that spit out my 4 hour admission for the day. It's kind of strange having no interaction to get on the slopes these days when visiting new resorts but I kind of like it. I made my way up the B lift and without a clue where to turn at the top with low visibility I followed the sounds of fellow steezers shouting "OMG, This is amazing!" "Leave the edges home today!" Which led me onto Delaware cutting fresh tracks but craving more pitch! At first sight of a black diamond trail sign I found myself making my way down Tuscarora floating down with a shit eating grin, knowing for certain now that I had made the best possible decision today. The following few runs I hit the rest of the blacks on the double chair side before making my way over to the quad where the real goods were to be found. ROTD was unquestionably Chippewa as one of the few black diamons Elk seemingly leaves completely ungroomed through the season to bump up. The falling snow and the wind had this run set up perfectly with the VW sized bumps filled in with fresh and frequent near knee deep drops surfing the tops of each powder bump. Nose up and pointed downhill and those giant hard VWs under the fresh were of no concern to tripping up an advanced steezer. My only regret today was being cheap saving $13 buying a $67 4 hour ticket instead of the full $80 ticket for the extra fee hours. Today was paradise.... If you blindfolded me and took me to Elk today I would swear on my life I was at a small New Engla d or Upstate New York resort. INCREDIBLE. Still dumping when I left, prob a rate of 0.25-0.6"/hr the entire time. The grass picture was the Tannersville exit for Camelback on the way home. Elevation was everything for this storm.

Some pics

Hell yeah on visiting red rocks!!! I really really want to get there at some point.