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1/24/2025 The plan was to get down to Waterville around 8am for a 9am open, until i checked my email and found one from Waterville. For some reason I opened it to find they open at 8am for the comp weekend. Scrambled around a bit to get going and arrived at 6:49 to some flurries and mostly cloudy skies. Booted up and made our way up tot eh lodge to get passes and spectator tickets. Upstairs in the lodge the competitors were booting up and getting ready by hopping on tables and running around the place. Slim and I were early, so headed out and lined up, being the only 2 people at the quad. The clock struck 8 and they rang a bell over the lodge to open the place! Blue should take note! Up the quad you get a good view of the course on Lower Bobby’s run, named after Bobby Kennedy who used to ski it. Took the short run down on just absolutely beautiful packed talcum powder snow, definitely the best snow of the week. Up the Sunnyside triple and right back down True Grit that’s steep and fast with some wind blown goodness on the right side. Back up the triple and took a run down Bobby’s to check out the course. This run is freaking steep and it’s amazing these bumpers rip down this and then hurl themselves off the jumps. Met up with the others and made our way down tot eh lodge Psyched that was left ungroomed and had enough natural on it to ski the bumps. The first round was staring so made our way back to Bobby’s to catch some of the runs. Standing along the course for any length of time is tough as it’s so steep. After lunch we decided to check out some woods we saw on the trail map. Found the entrance that looked a bit sketchy, well, a lot sketchy but we dropped in anyway. Bad decision!! It dropped off quick into a minefield of rocks, limbs, logs, sticks…. It was a big effort to make our way out of that mess. Headed back to the spectator area to watch the semifinals. Standing there we got cold and I heard “BEER” off in the distance, so headed back down tot eh lodge meet up with the wife in the lounge. We watched the final runs in the bar. Two of the US girls took 2nd and 3rd and Nick Page took 2nd in the men’s. Headed down to the town of Waterville and grabbed some slices of pizza before the ceremonies and came across Wayne Wong. The legs and body are beat and ready for a break. Another fun Indy/Mogul comp trip in the books!

Driving to Albany later tonight then hitting Magic tomorrow. Staying in Maine Sunday and Monday nights, planning on Saddleback Monday and probably Tuesday unless I feel like paying for Sugarloaf or Sunday River. Staying at Burke Tuesday night and riding there Wednesday. Not sure on the plan after that. Either Jay or somewhere in NH Thursday then start making my way back and probably a short session somewhere Friday. Snow and beer reports to follow after tomorrow

1/23/2025 Up at the usual 0 dark thirty and made ready for an hour or so drive over to Black Mountain. Over hill and Dale, passing by the amount Washington resort and Attitash and finally ending up at Black, a tiny podunk family ski area that exudes the original charm of skiing. The one triple chair that only goes 2/3 of the way up wasn’t running, but the main double donkey was, so we boarded that towards the peak. Up through the woods you come upon a mid station when you could drop off to avoid the peak or just hit the little LOSTBO hut where they have music blasting, a deck with fire pit and beach chairs out on the snow, which we found odd until after lunch, when the Sun broke out. Black is different in that the mountain faces South, and their motto Ski in the Sun became evident. Every trail was lit up like springtime in the middle of winter. Up on the peak you could see for miles and miles, Attitash off to the left and Mount Washington on the right. Unfortunately another mountain that would bee a hoot had it been a good snow year. They have ample snowmaking, but the real fun runs rely on natural, especially the winding Upper Galloping Goose right under the lift. We did the tour of open runs, all of which had beautiful, soft, well-groomed snow. The runs are fast and quite steep and very tight through the woods. The place was empty and we made fun when a second row of 10 or so cars appeared. We had to stop in the LOSTBO shack for kicks to see what it had. A range of snacks hung on the wall, some brats rolling on the hot dog cooker, beer, wine, etc. we opted for cider and hot chocolate and Tom the tender, a Boston transplant was very willing to tell the tales of Black and its savior Indy who’s committed to keeping the mountain going, but doesn’t want to own the land, where the hopeful co-op takes over. He also told us from where the LOSTBO name originated that’s all around the mountain. Evidently Les Otten at one time promised to buy the mountain and make the owners wealthy but backed out at the last minute after having them cut out the expert terrain at the top. Sitting around pissed at him for backing out the one came up with Les Otten Sucks The Big One and so it stuck. He also told us of Friday night skin up, party and ski down nights that sounds crazy fun. The place is tre-cool and a throwback to the old days of skiing and we were all glad to get there. On the ride back passing the Mount Washington inn, the sun was setting and lighting up the Presidentals, spectacular! Stopped at Rek-lush brewery on the way back for some dinner

Atomic Jeff, Mixlplix, Dirtwolf, , oh yeah Johnnystyle for 10 mins, Mbike too. second chair, Challenge good, really cold, Exploding beers. Short parking lot sesh, cold. blah blah blah, blabedty blah, kinda busy.

I got rid of the double post. Looking forward to the reports! Have a great trip.

Night session at Blue. Better price tonight than an epic ticket at Ski Roundtop or even old Shawnee. Scored a very close spot at the top at 4. Stellar packed powder conditions surely top tier for Pennsy. Certainly appreciated the ability to ski the trees especially off of coming soon, and I even had the antique skis out so the rocks were no dramas. Wish they were still open to 10/11/midnight rather than 9 it was still packed at closing bell. My first ride on the main street sixer (last few times I was here in the spring and it was not running); still ambivalent, I miss my old pal the Hall double doubles which always had a short line and got you to the top in style without skiing the silly runout at the valley lodge. They need to put some disco lights on the runout like they have on the tubing area, those looked sweet. People here were not doing a great job fitting themselves in quads and sixes on the lifts to capacity. Barneys bumps were bulletproof but the snow right next to them was loose and made for some nice turns. Sidewinder was quite nice and turnable maybe nicest snow of tonight. Razor's edge was fast and is always a treat. Good to see that all the ski clubs are here and having fun. Agree with 11/10 rate of the day. Other stats include 4 for 5 (Don't worry, the mini meisers are 1/2 size) aiming the beverage containers into the rubbish buns, 2 swooshes unaided by the chute - Surely room for improvement. Vail took away the shooter chutes from under the lifts at Ski Roundtop™ just like they took away the Ski(™) from Ski Roundtop™ because Vail is lame - Now they have a pile of garbage under the lifts - metaphoric in a sense. Blue wins this time. Blue Knob also wins because the lower mountain is open tomorrow which you should definitely ski while you can.

Took off work next week...no idea where I'm going but probably drive north starting tomorrow night for an indy pass adventure.

@JFskiDan should have to give his GS cookies back for no shout out Skied with the family for 4 runs until they went in for hot chocolate. Had solo laps until the lines and cold made me say parking lot time. Lazy was surprisingly bad for how cold it is. Sidewinder was my ROTM.

Welcome back. What have you been up to the last 17 years?

Alas, out again. First weekend was self preservation, second weekend was a party, now I'm still in the Caribbean. Is skiing still a thing? Help me remember. One day I might see the light again.i hope it's still Blue.

Whitefish is a fantastic mountain and the town is better. Absolutely one of our best trips of the 30 we took to the West. Go! You won't regret it.

1/21/2025 The wife’s another year older and time for another birthday “week” ski trip up to NH, specifically for the World Cup mogul competition at Waterville, but also hit some Indy mountains too. Out of the house at 6am and into the freezer, big time! Decided to stop at Catamount on the way up as I’ve never been. The lowest temp along the ride there was -1, but bounced anywhere from there to the teens. Rolled into Catamount just after 9am, booted up, hit up the counter to get a pass using the Indy and out to the freezer. Looking up the mountain, only 1 of the 3 expert runs, Ripper, has snow on it. The other runs on looker’s right were open and they were blowing on the blues far looker’s left. The mountain is basically beginners on looker’s left and the more fun stuff on looker’s right off the Ridge Quad. Unfortunately that quad is a donkey, so it’s slow up and quick down. The place is similar to Blue but much more spread out and slower lifts. Ran down the blues which has some nice, soft freshly blown and groomed snow that was fast and edgeable, with a few slick spots in the center. Did a run down Ripper that was quite dark and lots of marbles, but it’s got some giddy-up and a nice roller at the bottom for some good air if not absorbed. Hit up the bar for a beer with the wife and headed off Brats at One Love brewery…

Its an end of life high-speed lift. The Sullivan was the same age and CBK literally ran that thing until it fell apart and put somebody in the hospital.

My friend and I skied to the Maroon Bells today. Longest I have ever XC skied, 12.5 miles. Thought we would coast down, but no, still had to work. Think my shoulders are the most sore. It hurt just taking off my backpack. temps were mid 20’s and overcast. Strong head winds after mile 3. They run snowmobile tours and that company puts in a classic track. Was great in some spots, disappeared in others. Looking forward to a very lazy morning tomorrow.

They should build a big bubble over the mountain and just turn the ski area into a giant water park. You know its what they want to do.

It's been a minute since I rode in that kind of temp. Rolled in at 1°. First hour you could really lay it down. Fast as you want. Some granola clusters here an there but nothing to stop the fun. After nine lines grew pretty quick. Toes started gettin chilled by 9:30 so called it... Shout out to Becky Boo for comin through with the cookies. Perfect for snackin on the drive home...

Wow Johnny style. Haven’t seen him since 2018, thought he was in Aspen.

KSL Resorts is the operator of Camelback and runs the resort. EPR Properties is the REIT that actually owns the property and leases it to KSL. EPR owns the property at Camelback along with several others including JF/BB, Hunter, Mt Snow, Mad River OH, Alpine OH, Boston Mills, and Northstar CA. https://eprkc.com/portfolio/experiential/ski/ Some people did not know that and it is traded under symbol EPR.

Been riding Brekenridge, Stowe and Loon a lot depending on where I can stay. Since IKON I'll pick up a few days at Blue. I went to Camelback for the first time in about 10 years last year and was disappointed both visits. I won't be going back especially since they are not 100% open this late in the season. Management 17 years ago did a hell of a lot better job than what they are doing now. When I was there they used to rent about 5 or 6 industrial compressors to increase air so they could have more guns running at max capacity and worried about getting fully open then go back over it and make it deep to cover bad weather. Obviously from what I seen is that Camelback cares more about the water park and hotel more than the skiing part of their business. It is pretty bad that I can go to Camelback because it is included on my IKON except for parking and won't even go there it is so disappointing. Their parking prices for the weekend are higher than parking in the heated Vail Village parking garage for a full day. It is insane. Their season pass prices Blue/Camelback with the add on is as much or more than a full IKON pass then from what I read you can't even get early access if you go to the other mountain in the morning because the computers don't even talk to each other. What a joke. There is too much to unravel in a post about how bad it is.

First time putting down a back blunt same way today !! 😎 My Movie 8.mov

I’m sure he’s a little salty that they now charge super seniors like $70-80 for a season pass instead of free.

But now he is 77. Hope I’m still in the line at that age.

What a morning.....There are few things better than formation flying with the crew on a Friday morning with most excellent conditions. Razors was absolutely mint, at one point I took half a turn to take it all in. Sun shinning Atomic out front, gss and nm on the wings, everyone just arcing the shit out of it and you get that feeling where you feel bad for non skiers. Like wtf did you do this morning....close the Johnson account? All of it is very very good but it's hard to turn down max slutty razors so it was one other and then a razors, rinse and repeat. Beg,borrow, steal but get out there and get some before it's a memory and we are back to the regular stuff. I cannot recall a better stretch in recent years and I don't know that it had this kind of grip.

we got 6in here in MS. whole city shut down for 3 days. no school.

Climate change is a major problem at Camelback mountain this season, you know. That's what someone on Facebook said. Climate change is why only 2 lifts worked for half the season and why less than half the trails were open, because some of the trails like Marjorie's face a certain cardinal direction that makes snow making difficult and the northwesterly winds that hit at a certain angle must cause trails like The Rocket to spontaneous combust during peak snow making hours, and those warm winds must also cause a freeze thaw cycle in the grease used to lubricate the ski lifts which is why most of them are broken, and only a few that arent exposed to those angles which deflect the climate change are still operational.

@AtomicSkier and I did some more recon on another area near blue last night. ~950 verticals. Has the potential to be a very fun little lap but needed a bit more snow to really go.

1/22/2025 Well, the original plan was to head over to Mt. Abram today, but then I looked at when they open to determine when we needed to leave and discovered that the mountain is t open today! Change the plan, as other Blue bumpers are headed to Ragged Mountain, which I had planned to hit on the way home. Got into the car at 7:15 to -9 and headed South towards Ragged. The temp ranged between -12 and -10 all the way down. Arrived at the mountain about 8:45 and froze my fingers hitting up in the lot. A short walk to guest services to get my $5 card and back out to the frigid cold. The Spear Mt express was the only lift running at the open, so up I went. After a pic or two, down Flying Yankee on a pristine, Deer Valley-esque groomer. Snow was truly packed talcum powder groomed to perfection on a rolling, winding, fairly steep run where they run their races. So much fun!! Next I took Cardigan and Turnpike just to sample what the masses run and it was another gorgeously groomed packed powder run with lots of huge rollers for kicks. Finally took a run down the liftline on Showboat and Showoff which was again glorious packed powder on a fairly steep run. The other Blue bumpers showed up and we repeated the above runs because the Summit Six was having issues. After a lunch break, they got the Six running and we took runs down the trails off skier’r right. The most fun was Raggae Glades, the only open woods. This place really deserves a repeat when all the trees are in play. They place is loaded with tree runs, none of which were open due to lack of snow. Ended the day with a few beers up in the lounge and the over to Woodstock brewery for dinner. Definitely recommended but it does get crowded! Meatloaf Horseshoe!

Becky boo said her first (and hopefully last) toboggan ride was "so cool." From what her instructor said a boarder was out of control and basically plowed into her on switchback. After some theatrics (and some tasty treats from Enjo's grill), she was jumping around the house in no time. Girlfriend earned a coconut gelati for being a trooper through it all. Before the exitement at the end of the day I enjoyed main street as my ROTD.

Won't ride it if you paid me.

WTF that place has gone to crap. Not wasting time there this week.