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2/23/25 Well, going with Loveland yesterday and really avoiding the crowds, we couldn’t believe how empty it was for a Saturday morning, we decided to hit up Eldora which would be another new notch for all of us. Unfortunately the winds have picked up and are forecasted for the next 2 days, at least. I hate the wind! Up and over the pass and down into the town of Black Hawk. This place is a gambler’s dream! There are casinos on every block!! WTF?? Arrived in the lot about 7:30 and the winds was already howling, but it was a warm wind too. Hopefully it wouldn’t affect the snow too much. It was another big race day here too and they had a couple of runs set up with gates already. Chatting with a SP, he suggested staying out on the Corona lift to keep away from all the race activities. Up the Alpenglo and down Around The Horn to get out to Corona area, the snow was perfectly groomed packed powder: fast and edgeable. The plan today was to hit up some woods and from the Corona base the Salto glades and West Ridge looked interesting. Unfortunately when we got to the top they were closed. We dropped into Brian’s glades and they were so crazy tight you couldn’t get a rhythm going, punt! Up the Corona again we chatted up a mountain guide who suggested the Gully Glades. He said there were two entrances, both are good. Stopped at the first entrance and it looked tight as Brian’s, so opted for the second. Gully’s is far more fun. The trees are just a tad more apart and you could get a nice run going. There’s a steep section in the middle that you have to watch for, otherwise a ton of fun and we spend most of the day in there. We went back to the base area for lunch and then went back to Corona. Everyone must have been at lunch, as there was no line at all. Decided to hit the Indian Peak lift just because it was running. No line at all, but slow. Didn’t find anything there so went back to Corona. Up the Corona, we saw they opened up the Salto Glade area, so we headed in to check them out. Out to the West Ridge to the boundary and the wind was howling. The ridge is fucking steep with gigantic bumps. Looking over the edge puckered up the sphincter a bit. Dropped in and the snow was great and had a fun run down the bumps. Called it a day after that workout! Dinner was leftover chicken pot pie and lasagna.

2/22/25 Wow, that was one helluva night. All the times I’ve been to Colorado the altitude hadn’t really bothered me but this time was very different and unexpected. Tried going to bed but it felt like my heart was gonna beat outta my chest and was sucking wind just sitting doing nothing. How the Hell was I gonna ski tomorrow? God it sucks getting old! Didn’t sleep a wink and managed to cobble up an egg and cheese bagel and banana, all the while sucking down water and Gatorade Zero to ultra hydrate to help with the altitude. Went down the list of mountains to visit and having spoke with some others, the recommendation was to skip all the big resorts on a Saturday and hit Loveland because most skip it for the biggies, so that’s where we headed. All the times I’ve been out here, I’ve never got to ski Loveland, so it’s another notch on the belt and sticker on the helmet. Arrived in the lot about 7:30 with the sun lighting up the ridge. Kinda chilly but not too cold. The area got a bunch of snow last week, unfortunately none in the forecast for us this week. Maybe some flurries at best. The lot was filling up fast with a ton of racers. Headed up Chet’s and down a blue to the 2 lift. The groomed snow was superb for giant arcing turns and the edges were still soft. Up the Ptarmigan and down into the bowl there was soft, piles of chowder everywhere. Up the 9 and down, the snow wasn’t as good as elsewhere, so punted going back up there. Runs off the 4 were somewhat the same. Didn’t find much off the 8 either, so we made our way back to the other side. Spent the afternoon rummaging in Cat’s Nix trees. All in all a very good first day. Can’t believe it was such a good day after last night’s horrors. Dinner was Costco frozen lasagna and Caesar salad, not bad.

Arrived to row 3 at 840 to a minimal crowd. Only had 1 ticket window open and wouldn't have been a problem if one person didn't hold it up. Did notice every table inside was taken with boots on them so we expected a school group. On the snow just after 9 and up Iron Horse. First run was Snake to Fast Track. Super nice soft cord and able to slut it up as some would say. Without warning Lower Fast Track turned ungroomed. We stopped and skipped over on Pusher to Lower Runway with was also ungroomed. Besides White Lightning, I believe those were the only 3 ungroomed. The ungroomed was pretty smooth, just firm to start with exposed glacier sections. The buses showed up around 10 but pretty much stayed off Shuttle and Short Haul lifts. Lapped everything up top with Lower Runway-Rattler-Cannonball bottom finish our favorite. Snow was great, grooming could have been better. Not terrible but probably driving too fast with all the cat track marks. Caught @RidgeRacerwhen I was coming out of Rattler and took a couple laps with him after Boo went in. Long Haul was open so had to ride that and did a White Lightning to finish. One thing I wasn't ready for is after loading the Iron Horse chair, it get to 3 inches off the ground in about 15 feet . My knees did not like that and it was awkward to deal with. The other lifts were similar but not as bad as that lift. Soft snow and light crowds always make for a great day. I still don't care for the layout and taking two lifts to the top but it's good for once a season.

2/21/25 Slim, Rick, Donny and I boarded our United flight out of Philly on time, only to sit there at the gate for 1/2 hour due to snow in Denver and they were delaying out bounds to stagger arrivals, at least that was their story. We arrived only like 15 minutes after schedule anyway. Got a big Denali rental and headed for Costco to load up on supplies for the week and headed up into the mountains. Home base would be the lower level of a big house in Georgetown just off 70. Talking with a local, they said a judge built the house then got caught cheating on his wife so they had the sell it in divorce court. It’s a really nice 2 bed, 2 bath and lots of space with a gated driveway to boot. They say lots of people think the place is a hotel and pull in asking for rooms to rent. Dinner was Costco chicken pot pie and Tiramisu cheesecake for dessert.

Hey All, I’m back from another fun AM session at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot around 830an and it was mostly cloudy with the temperature in the upper 30s. In the house were Atomic Jeff, C1er, Rodney, Oz, Bethlehem Ford crew and a handful of others. I began on the super summit safari six pack to Main Street which is now full width, they moved Barney’s bumps to Coming soon. Main Street was nice soft cord on the top half and a little firmer lower down, next was razors which was very good and good grooming, a little firmer than Main Street. Challenge was great hero cord for 2/3 of the way and right before falls got a little crumbly, falls is always pretty bad and a compression after the falls. I repeated Challenge then coming soon which wasn’t that good scrappy and firm and lower paradise was similar. Back to challenge and razors and razors had a good amount of Boilerplate and clouds increased which I think slowed down the melting. Back to the SSSS and I wanted the fresh cord on come around an X-ing..Main Street still ok until the bottom which was a pit of stiff crud. Last run I was gonna do switchback but a bunch of herbs were beginning on switch so I skied an empty lazy which was decent more winter like than spring to boardercross to Central Park to the men’s room to my car and now sitting in my car outside work rocking out to Ludacris and texts galore from office manager. JADIP

Great read, thanks for sharing.

He's like 40000mg too deep

Day 43. The worst fog I've been in, in 25 years, on the Ant Hill today. I couldn't figure out where "down" was to look for the next fog ball. Tried following people, but they rapidly disappeared and I had to wait for another. Fortunately, Flower Point wasn't as bad and there was skiing bliss to be found on its silky snow. If only that lift wasn't so slow!! Mixed in a few chair 5's to break it up, but it's no speed demon, either. Could have skied that stuff all day but the slow lift and dumping graupel finally sapped away any warmth.

Eldora and the whole Indian Peaks Wilderness area always gets super windy. It’s a running locals joke to not even say the word wind while you are there. Glad you got to check it out. It’s a fun little mountain that is super close to Boulder. Those casinos are nothing like AC. Tired little places, went once and never felt the need to return.

Day 42. A real mixed bag. First run was a confidence-destroying slog through windpack, looking for blown-off areas or chopped up stuff. Headed to back and found Saturday-level crowds. Then went over to Chair 2 for mashed potatoes and cottage cheese.

Great weekend at Snowmass. Had a friend come visit. Bluebird and warm both days. Light crowds surprisingly. New boots are $$. That bootfitter at Highlands knows his shit. Natalie in Powerline Glades skied Longshot for the first time. I think it just opened last weekend. It is indeed long. 3 miles and 3275’ of vert. The first 2 miles are bumps and trees then it’s just ungroomed crud. Our legs were pretty toasted by the end. hiking up views at the top signs tell you when you are 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way down. definitely a run that’s more fun with a friend then solo.

Got to Greek around 9 this morning. Did Olympian and another 2 runs off the quad while waiting for the other lifts to open...then hit Aesops Glade and another glade off of the oil rig lift a few times. Then over to lift 4 for a few runs. Coming out of Labyrinth glade, I decided to straight line back to the groomer towards the bottom. Good thing I had some speed, as I had to jump over a creek bed. Not a big gap but it was probably a 5 ft drop if I fell in. Hit Electra which had some good powder...unfortunately I kept following the trail and ended up below the lift at another creek bed. I had to hike back to the lift, which kinda sucked. Hit a few groomers after that and back to the car to switch boards...then most of the same trails on that board Pretty good day overall. Most of the glades and mountain bike trails were open. Rode until around 2 and hit Beer Tree Brewing on the way home

A mix of solo and with peeps. I've gotten around a bit but home base has been the Kedron Inn, Ransom tavern is there and all the places on the access road are skanky to some extent.

Picked up 2 new boards on clearance this week. Been riding the Salomon Super 8 all morning, love it so far. I'll test out the Lib Tech T Rice Pro after my beer and lunch break. I know, snowboarders aren't cool but I'm having fun

I had it next on my list to keep the weirdo tour going but peeps showed up and I wanted to ski with them. -----‐--‐------------------------------------ 2/20 Killington Was dope, conditions were prime the sun was out and it was quiet but nothing worth reporting on. 2/21 Loon I will preface this by saying this is snow sports industry type stuff and may be interesting to no one so feel free to stop reading. If you are familiar with the snow sports industry you are familiar with the Vail vs Ikon/Ksl but there is a third player we often forget about that is blowing unprecedented amounts of money to try and eat both their lunches in the NE. Boyne at some point realized all of boston is driving by nh and loon to ski the River and the loaf and VT 2 hrs west has people hanging off the rafters. So in 2020 they went all in and announced Loon 2030, their plan to build the most advanced resort in the US. You can read it here if your interested - https://www.loonmtn.com/flight-path-2030 In 2020 they put in the most advanced lift in NA to go 900 vert and like 2/3 of the way up the hill. Every lift has loading conveyors and two have laser overlays for your loading position. If you know me I had to go check this out. What's the verdict ? The lifts are impressive and what they want to do would put an truly insane number of people on the hill. The 8 can do 3500/hr and there plan is to put in like 6 more. The terrain is good with alot of blue twisty crusier types and some reasonable steeps. The views are quite excellent with alot of peakyness around for the NE. That's the good but the reality is they don't currently have the lodge infrastructure to support 1/20th of the people they stuff in there and even more importantly the acreage. No where in NH is above 400 and that isn't nearly enough during the week let alone on a weekend. Cool place with a dope 4 person gondy and lots of narrow old school NE twisties and there plan is impressive but not nearly there yet. If they really want to play with the big boys they will have to add a sizeable amount of terrain and more expert type steeps. I would only go there Monday through Wednesday, no shit, though I did have a good day there. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I have more skiing to do but none of it is probably interesting in a report kinda way. It's been awhile since I spent this kind of time up here and I what I'll always come back for is the straight up uniqueness of it all. There is no state with anywhere near the number of super famous wooden bowl makers or artisinal llama cheese. The snow was most excellent, like February 2014 kinda depth and it was dope as fuck to ski it.

Bought a tricycle

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.

Here’s a good article on an Indy pass road trip from Salt Lake City to Missoula Montana. @PSUFrankenstein @toast21602 would enjoy.