Leaderboard

Some pic. Arrived Saturday afternoon. IMG_1614.mov

C1er and BFG crew in the house featuring special appearance the Glenn Experiance. Sunny and deliciously empty, I had figured it would be more of the weekend and started a few minutes late because I'm an idiot and wore a different jacket. Everything seemed soft and super nice but I wasn't buying any of it until about a 1/3 of the way down main. Full grip, easy turning cream cheese on top of a wet hard base made for super fast super fun mega slutty arcs. Switch and Raceway were more of the same though a bit harder and midway was ratty from the start somehow. When I switched sides of the hill I ran into Glenn and we put rail road tracks down Challenge, Razors, side and coming soon. While not as nice as main all were more spring like hero snow under blue skies and super sun. My favorite condition is empty bleachers and the best part of the day was all the goof balls were not skiing. Multiple times I'd go main and Glenn switch or similar so that both of us could have the trail to ourselves......I wish the eagles could play in the super bowl everyday ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sketchy lift rumors, I rode up with two snowboard psia master dudes I've never seen before who said they are disconnecting coming soon from pdis. I was highly skeptical but if true that would be a massive improvement.

Who will be spearheading this operation? the company that wants to sell it because they cant put a hotel up top, The lady that sold it, "that wants to buy it back", or some new owner? Personally i think someone around the age of Becky Boo, or Enjo's kids are the ones that might be remotely possible to ski those conceptual trails on the left of that map. I do love me some good lift rumors though. gives us something to talk about.

Next time your there peep the long haul, at least the last time I was there it's 4938382 different lift pieces put together with all kinds of fabricated stuff. It's amazing. I don't understand really why there is never anyone there. I get scranton/wb is economically depressed but people go everywhere now and it's a great product. It's so low key you can mess around all day and miss nothing, the bar/restaurant is good and it's cheap. I do think though that its like Elk though in which the low crowds are the major factor. Both can't handle the blue crowd and would be far far far worse due to layout/lifts etc etc etc ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If I'm around when you guys go I would definitely go.

Day 38. Single digits and high winds again, so upper lifts weren't open until I left. Took a dozen runs and had given up on Chair 1 ever opening, left at noon.

Looks like that intersection is only going to get worse with CS still dropping into it per the snowmaking map. I can't even see how to could go around it.

Stellar day at Snowmass! It has been so dry here. I uphilled at Buttermilk earlier in the week and it was an icy luge coming down. Woke up to some surprise snow! Snowmass reported 2” but by the time I got there it was definitely 4”. I booked a lesson just to get a refresher on some things and my girl took me to a lift I only was on once with atomic Jeff when he visited. Everything was untracked and skied amazing. Talked to a ski patroller who said at their morning meeting yesterday, management told them the snow was so dangerous they should “ski as little as possible”. He said they had a lot of on mountain injuries. This week looks to be a little snow every other day. No major storms but will take what we can get.

It's actually going to go through the pond. Mandatory pond skimming

Everyone was around except gss, pretty warm and not crowded at all at least to start. The first couple runs were soft spongy and way better than I thought considering a billion dip and dots fell out of the sky. It fell apart quick but even all scrambly it was pretty ok and I liked sketchy ditch. Even if it was a bit icy it made a dope sound as you made turns. Super shout out to enjo, I eat alot of fries and lots of them including the shack don't make that good of a fry let alone in a parking lot. Also props to the Justin Timberlake wannabe not only rocking out but loudly singing VT old cabin in the winter, wrist sliters. I like Gregory Alan Isakov every now and again too but how much lead do you need to consume to think anyone wants to hear you ? Hilariously funny though

Had the opposite experience. First run down Razors was perfect. TCS and Challenge also great first thing. BTW, was told the boarder that wiped out on Razors last Monday morning is home from the hospital and will heal up OK.

yeah there isn't really any route that looks good. they'd have to fight the pond, tubing and some other set of manmade ponds. maybe it's in the 'nearish' term to drop another lift there (on your img where cs would be going if it went straight down). the topography of that clearing at the top is a high point on the mtn, so it makes sense why it just looks like a landing. my thinking is that the quad is prob on borrowed time and they might want to get ahead of a problem. adding another lift would allow the quad to become a dedicated bike lift, giving it some downtime (ie a break) for half the year. i don't think it's impossible to get it done by next season, but i doubt its happening -- unless they've learned how to squash the rumors like when the new sixer was being added.

Need to do a little bit of figuring the schedule but I will let you know! Great idea!

Doug turned me onto this guy and he is touring Colorado. Good overview of Snowmass. Looks like he was here last week or so before things got freshened up.

I’m planning a midweek montage day at some point in the next few weeks. PASR day anyone?

Nice report. I always try to hit Montage for my 2 indy days. It never gets crowded and their terrain and various bars are pretty fun. I've found the same conditions off of the long haul lift, seems icier on Fast Track and Runaway. Not sure if you hit Rattler but taking that to Cannonball is one of my favorite runs there

It took me awhile to get to this, but I figured it’s better late than never. I hadn’t been to Snowshoe since 2004 when I was a senior in high school, so when my parents, who have an affinity for WV, offered to take us on a trip there, we jumped on it. When we last went, they hadn’t finished Corridor H or Snowshoe Drive over the backside of the mountain, so the trip was much shorter this time. It would have been about 7 hours without any extra stops, but they are tough to avoid when you have extra people, so it took us about 8. The last hour or so on the winding WV roads were partially snow covered too, which added to the adventure. It’s been difficult to justify going to WV when the drive to Southern VT is the same distance and has much more consistent snow, but we just got really lucky this time. Outside of days in the northeast where I’ve gotten free refills all day, this was probably top 3 in terms of pure snow conditions. They hadn’t experienced a freeze thaw event in almost a month, snow guns were constantly going, and they had received 6 feet of snow in the previous two weeks. We stayed ski in/ski out at the top of the mountain. We got into our accommodations at 3 on Monday, got an hour or so the first day, went bell to bell with some stops Tuesday-Thursday, and then did another hour in the morning Friday before we left. We got a couple inches of fresh snow Tuesday night and a couple more Thursday night, so in addition to the snowmaking, there were some little refreshes in there. Overall, the mountain is relatively mellow, but has some great cruisers. It’s also a top/down mountain which is unique. There are 3 distinct mountain areas. The main mountain is where most of the lodging and village are located. Silver Creek is a little smaller, has the night skiing, and you have to take a shuttle to it. The Western Territory is where they have “4” runs that are the full 1,500’ vert, and they are fast, open, and really make the mountain ride/ski a lot bigger than the stats show. Those runs compete with some of the runs up in VT, but there aren’t many of them. They were also blowing snow on open terrain which you don’t see too much of south of NY, so that was cool to see too. There’s plenty of high speed lifts, so you can cover the mountain quickly and really rack up some runs. Most of the trip was spent at the main area. All the trails were packed powder. There wasn’t any ice. It was incredible. The main HSQ in the middle of the mountain, Ballhooter, was by far the busiest lift, sometimes having a 5 minute lift line, but every other lift was ski on/off. I spent most of my time on the Soaring Eagle and Powder Monkey lifts. Since I was there last, they also added some glade skiing. They were cut well, but even with all the natural they had gotten, there were still obstacles and they could have used another foot in there. On Thursday we took the opportunity to go to the Western Territory by walking across the road at the top of the Powder Monkey lift. It’s about a 100 yard walk. I knocked out 7 or 8 runs in about an hour and 15 minutes. There were some hard pack spots over there due to the sun exposure, but all in all, nothing to complain about. The view there is very reminiscent of out west minus the lack of above tree line views. The amenities are really nice. We stayed at the Mountain Lodge, which has a great location, but being one of the first lodges built in the late 70’s/early 80’s, is very dated. The village is great. Nice mix of shops and food. There is a small grocer at the top, which comes in handy for overpriced necessities, but make sure you bring what you need since Snowshoe is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There’s a Dollar General at the base, but if you can’t find it there, you’re traveling an hour plus for a real grocery store or a Wal-Mart. Great trip overall. I’d go back, but you just don’t get that lucky on conditions that often. When we were there, they had more snowfall for the year than Sugarbush had. Sometimes you just get lucky.

Day 37. skied with friends. 0° and high winds. The husband had a bad bike accident in September. Broke his shoulder and his femur in 2 places. This was his 2nd day on skis this season. But he's looking great. 72 years old.

Day 36. My best day since I hit 70. Perfect density snow. Went in some places I haven't been in a decade.

A bunch of us had had enough of Blue lately and decided to use up an Indy on Montage yesterday and from the sounds of the reports out of Blue, it was a good decision. Arrived in the lot just after 8am to 19' and hazy sunshine. It felt cold in the lot, so went with the extra puffy just in case. Later the sun came out and standing around in it, felt overdressed, but out on the slopes it was cold again. In all the years I've skied, I've never bothered to venture to Montage and have to say I'm happy I finally did. Even though the mountain has a bizarre layout, it's unique and a throwback. The beer shack in the middle of the mountain with a DJ cranking tunes was cool, even though we didn't stop for a beer. They had another DJ cranking tunes at the bottom of the Phoebe Snow lift. They opened precisely at 9am and for kicks and giggles we took the Short Haul lift out of the lodge area. The snow was spectacular, loose talcum powder groomed to perfection, what a concept! We cruised on down Boomer which too had perfectly groomed snow and the run had some giddy up. Passed by White Lightning that unfortunately had a Closed sign, and the reason was evident when we got to the bottom and saw a winch cat grooming the bottom headwall. Up and down Smoke which was also perfectly groomed and a lot of fun. Is it Saturday? The place is a ghost town! If it were 930am at Blue, we'd be dodging people already and the runs would be cookies, marbles and ice, but none of that was around, at least in the expert area. Giving the groomer some time on White Lightning, we went over to the Iron Horse lift and down Switch were they were setting up the Nastar course. Next to the run under the lift, there was overblown chalk that a few sampled and found quite enjoyable. The run itself had groomed powder. Up the Long Haul and now we found ourselves back in Blue conditions. They evidently hadn't put as much effort into the conditions over here and/or it has a lot more traffic from beginners and intermediates. The snow was more granular with patches of ice here and there that you had to be careful of as they'd take down an unsuspecting slider. Back over to Boomer to check on White Lightning and they had just dropped the rope. Down the in run, it reminds me of Coming Soon, flat. Up ahead there are a bunch of people just standing around. We all fly past them and down the headwall. Woo-hoo, it definitely has some giddy-up and woah that compression at the bottom was unexpected. Wow that's fun! We lapped that a bunch of times and discovered a bunch of overblow into the woods next to the run where you could actually get a few nice pow turns in the trees. Definitely a fun diversion from the rigamarole that is Blue. This place holds a lot of potential for Spring skiing and warrants a repeat then to use up the second Indy ticket.

I have forever wanted to do that. I should have tried harder with the alterra/elk thing. You know you are big time if it makes it to alpo zone or reddit.

FIFY. Montage day 2025 may warrent its own thread.

As long as it's not a crazy week at work, I'd be in for a Montage day. Monday through Wednesday is $40 lift tickets. Fridays you can rent out one of the tents at Midland for free although there are plenty of other places to sit too. I have 2 Montage tickets I got for half price if anyone needs them for the PASR day, I think they were 40 each

How is this possible? Would they cut a new trail from CS to bypass Dis?

When's the next day you can do. We can make that that official 2025 PASR day at montage if it works for everyone

I'm glad you didn't get buried in the perder.

LMK

Ah, looks incredible! Be safe and enjoy!

2 differences from yesterday to today. What ever it was that fell from the sky last night deepened the sugar to hide most of the glacier like spots. And more importantly, cheesesteaks! the skiing didnt suck, but its an easily forgettable day, until the grill gets fired up.

Skiing was meh… but enjo coming in hot again… cheese steak and wings hit the spot for me…

Nice report! Montage is great for a change of pace. I’ve got 4 passes to montage that I need to use at some point this year. Was supposed to take the fam up there today but wasn’t able to.

Yeah, we hit the Rattler connection, well some of us did. A couple of the stragglers missed the rest of us make the turn and they ended up taking the long way round. We also made a run through the trees on Branch Line that had a lot of ice in the middle and inside corners. One of the corners was a sheet of ice and most of us barely survived it without going down.

Hey All, I’m back from a fun morning at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot before 720am and it was in the low 20s under mostly cloudy sky’s. In the house was everybody except Dirtwolf and Salty. First civilian six pack to challenge which was pretty nice initially and the big roller in the middle got me..luckily I’m an agile mofo so no carnage but I don’t like that roller. I skied challenge again then Main Street which wasn’t that good. Kind of scratchy. Coming soon was ok and lazy I skied for the first time in like a month..just too slow for me to enjoy. Challenge was now thick sugar, not that good with boilerplate below and sidewinder with all the root rollers was super crowded and icy. I ended on Burma which was super slick. I’d say aside from the first few runs it was some of the worst conditions so far this season but before my JH trip blue had a couple weeks of great conditions. Let’s hope tonight’s freezing rain and sleet helps but I feel that Blue is cheaping out on snowmaking, I’m surprised they didn’t blow any overnight. Now at work, I have an appointment at 130 for art changes…groan JADIP

i dont see any chairs on the main street cam. did they put them away for the night? that would be so unlike Blue, i know. if they did put them away, i wonder if they really have any idea how to get them back out.

I have a little PTSD from the Root Roller on challenge and no I’m not gonna email Jim Doily

First runs were really great. Then it turned to crap pretty quickly. Good to see the everyone again. It's been a while with trips etc.

Rumors..and they can do a hotel or condos/quarter shares whatever but not within a certain distance of the Appalachian trail in the valley no problem but they wanted to tie hotel and condos in with slopeside and it was shot down. My dad even signed up for the email list for the condos I didn’t have the credit score back then for mountainside living and now I can finance a boat and a mail order bride and I don’t care for the salt lyfe

i dont buy into any of this KSL wants to sell, and Barb wants to buy it back. BS. Barb should continue to wipe her ass with $100 bills, and smile. And, i still dont really understand who owns the property, BMMR whatever, but KSL manages it? i dont know. but after putting in a lift of some big $$$$, i cant see how selling it, unless they are cool taking a loss, would work out. its like restoring an old hot rod, putting 100K into it, thinking you will get your money back out of it.

What bullshit this year? I feel like Blues been doing a really good job.

@mbike-ski, have fun at Jay! They have been getting a ton of snow. if you have an extra day, hit Bolton Valley too.

Got my new boots from Burton yesterday. They even gave me expedited shipping. Sending my jacket back to Picture tomorrow, they'll repair or replace it. Pretty happy my broken gear from last week is getting taken care of at no cost to me

Day 35. Upper lifts all closed due to frigid weather, negative 16 plus wind. Skied the open lift until I got bored.

Day 34. Nice to have fresh snow. -5°F, my kind of weather.

Day 33. Took a few days off. My daughter dropped off the dogs and I'd built up a lot of exhaustion with my ski schedule then all her circus made me take 3 days off. We got some powder and it was really crowded today so I didn't last long.

Day 6 and final day of my trip...stayed in southern NY last night and drove to Shawnee this morning. Conditions were actually really fun. Fast firm corduroy...light rain but much warmer than the past week up north. Mostly did the blue/black trails near the lift, but Renegade was great so I skated over there 5 times. No lift lines and being a smaller mountain, the high speed quad gets you to the top pretty quickly. Now at Shawnee craft brewing...nitro porter, pale ale, and a cheesesteak pizza.

@GrilledSteezeSandwich This will be bad for the snowmaking retention ponds.