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Stacked turns is part o their avalanche mitigation program, as well as preserving it for others. It didn't really matter, there was so much pow to be had. There was only one time, on the second half of one of the runs, where our guide asked us to figure8 his tracks. As for the report ... we arrived at the Telluride airport at 7:35am to meet our chopper at 7:45am. As were pulling into the parking lot it flew overhead and set down on the ramp. Quick boot up, we walked into the FBO with skis on our shoulder, met up with the pilots, and we were skids up in a few minutes after a quick safety briefing. Thanks to @skiincy for some of those sweet airport shots! It was a quick 6 minute flight over the San Juans to Silverton, before we did a few spirals down into the valley that Silverton sits in. We checked in, got our tickets, and got grouped up with a fun group of guys around our age, mostly from CO, who had some "let's see if these PA guys can hang" comments that quickly faded after we left them in the dust as they were huffing and puffing on the first hike. Our first run was a heli drop, so all 8 of us piled in the Bell 206 chopper that had brought us to Silverton only an hour previously. Landed on top of a peak, kept our heads down, and the bird lifted back off for us to enjoy a perfectly sunny and calm bluebird day. Our guide briefed us on the run, and turned us loose one at a time. After a couple thousand feed of pow turns, we ended up back on a cat track that takes us back to the bus, which takes us back to the base area. We then headed up the lift and started a 40 minutes hike up the ridge to some *amazing* turns. A quick drop in, and some traversing across some rocks, and we were ripping another few thousand feet of even deeper snow than the heli provided. Again, to the cat track at the bottom, to the bus, and back to the lift. Third run was a quick 5 minute hike at the start, and a 5 minute hike at the bottom to get back to the cat track. Again, a few thousand feet of untracked pow. It was starting to get repetitive Fourth run was about a 20 minute hike below a cliff band to more untracked. At this point, we were cooked, skied to the gully to the road, picked up a bus, and headed back to the base area where our chopper was waiting for us to takes us back to Telluride. All in all, an amazing day, amazing skiing, with amazing friends. It wasn't the deepest snow I've ever skied, but it was the steepest, smoothest, longest I have. It was 100/10. The weather couldn't have been better, either.

My chauffeur just dropped me off in the middle of the road to get back home. This morning at Blue was one of the most memorable days I have ever had there. Holy cow. I ended up skinning to the bottom of my road to get picked up by @AtomicSkierfirst thing this morning. An absolute magic carpet ride. The drive to Blue wasn't terrible since there was a bit of a break in the weather. Once we got there and got out on the snow there was about 8-10" of snow on the ground. Pretty significant delayed opening because of chair icing up and needing to be spaced out. Once the lift started spinning we knew we were in for a treat. First run was down Razors and the only other track was from ski patrol. Next run was down Challenge which had tracks but was still silky goodness on the sides. After that it was a game time decision for the next run and I wanted to hit up Coming Soon. There were 3-4 tracks down coming soon and so I followed them in. PASRs followed behind. The top was a bit wind blown but still very skiable. Once you got to the last headwall that dropped into Paradise it was heaven. The last headwall offered endless powder shots. So good we did it a second time after. The turns on the last headwall are fantastic. I wish I would have taken out my camera to take pictures or video but it was just too boner city the stop the bouncy, flowing turns through the titty sparkles. Overall it was a 12/10 day. That. Fucking. Good. Lots of PASRs in the house. All of us came back out to the lot with smiles the size of dinner plates. Beers were consumed. Stories were told. It's a good day to be a skier in PA. I hope others post video and pictures that they took, because today was a gem 👌 Fuck. Today was fantastic.

Super solid morning up at Shawnee. Arrived around 9. 12° and light breeze. Used my Indy pass for the first time. So easy. On the snow a little after 9:15. Took a run off of the HS quad to check out snow. Great snow. Got to the bottom and threw on my skins. Ended up doing 3 skin laps. Not many places around here allow it but SP was super chill about it and would wave on their way down and were chatting it up at the top. No designated trails so it’s players choice on the way up. One way to make 12° Feel warm is to earn your turns I was soaked with a long sleeve and a shell. Around 2000’ elevation gain and no lift lines on those laps 🤣 Ended the day with a few more runs off of the quad and called it. Really excited to get back here again!

I spent way too much time on this.

Ski season up here took its time arriving then dumped four feet on us all at once and it was so much snow you couldn't move the first day. For a few days all the backcountry rock stars from up around Stowe were down here in little ol' Brownsville because Ascutney got hammer-slammered with powder in a storm that didn't go much further north than White River Junction. You never saw so many Sprinter vans and Labrador retrievers in our parking lot. Then two weeks later it rained and washed ALL of that snow away and that's how Vermont winter rolls. Then February arrived and kept giving and giving and it was amazing. Nobody could stand the Epic-Pass lines at Okemo (even weekdays were nuts) so we did lots of AT skiing on Ascutney. I work 24-hour shifts and have way more days off than my friends, so I taught myself to snowboard. Got some snowshoes and earned my turns and bruised my tailbone. I can ride a T-bar on the board no problem but still can't figure out how to get off a chairlift without it looking like a disaster from an I Love Lucy episode. I'm drinking coffee this morning and waiting for the New Yorkers to go home so I can get in some springy-soft runs at Okemo this afternoon. Here are some random pics from this season: One day it was all glare ice on Ascutney after some rain, and we were all bummed not to be able to ski. Then around 3pm the guy who runs the groomer decided to make some passes, so we followed him around for a little sunset touring and fresh corduroy: N The community T-bar runs until 4pm weekends then it clears out fast. I had a firepit and a whole powdery mountain to myself lots of evenings. Skinning up near the top of Ascutney is great fun and the snow was unbelievable last month: I retired from teaching and work as an EMT for a fire department, so I drive a fire engine now. This is so much more fun than grading papers and I have five days off every week!

I first came to Utah in 2000 with all 30 some members of my family and for at least a decade straight a group of us came every year so I for sure will always have massive rose colored glasses for Mormon adjacent skiing. I left Newark yesterday at 7am Est and was skiing at 1245 MST. They got 5 inches the night before and no one was home, so I ripped the big dog groomers where fun and low effort intersect. Keno, Tycoon, Naboob they have endless fast interesting medium pitch groomers served by endless high speed lifts. I had to be back at the airport to pick up family members but I racked up 17 runs of by far the best snow I've skied all year. We went Thai from in town and I ate mad Penang curry and passed out fat and happy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was supposed to snow like an inch overnight but we woke to it nuking and six inches on the ground. Massive, wet, PNW like flakes it was most definitely very un-Joseph Smith like. My brother and I were out the house early on a mission to get Steins untracked, we found 30% water, mariana trenching snow. It's kinda windy windy and the snow is coming down 2" an hr kinda hard so vis is negative ray Charles on the skate from the top of Wasatch. I can find it in my sleep but I almost end up down Powderhorn it's all just white. All my money is on finding the pines on the left before the first headwall. The wind is coming over the back and left side will be plump if I can find some vis. Left side trees show up right before my luck runs out and bam its on. Boot deep chunder turns, where the snow comes off in sheets. My brother who was 15ft behind me is who the fuck knows where, you still can't see shit but I'm not stopping. , Where it's normally hot to trot its all straight down the fall line and you can jump off everything........ Best run since I went to the pnw and I still can't see anyone out. Peeps did eventually show up but until 1pm or so we did nothing but untracked........... Easy right off Ontario bowl nobody home, all of lady Morgan except the green nobody home, pretty much anything in the woods nobody was home. My brother claimed best sleeper day since the Pow Mow days. It was the sloppiest snow I've ever seen in UT and it was so, so, so much fun. Dinner was low key Italian from the place at the St Regis top golf because we ate mad seafood at Rime for lunch. All of my pics look like the second one just white and trees but my brother got one of me later in the day so you know I'm not joshing.

The gang is all here @mute1080 @enjoralas @Benm @JFskiDan @RidgeRacer @PSUFly. It’s super cold, the sun is shining, the snow is fantastic. Everyone is enjoying themselves so far. Everything is open and groomed to perfection or bumped up nicely. Some would say it is like skiing in Vermont, but without the drive.

Another successful PASR adventure. @EdBacon @skiincy Wally @Mixilplix @mbike-ski myself, and Jordan - a guy I know from trail running joined in. We met at the reservoir parking lot trailhead and were off around 8:00. Under clear blue skies and plenty of sun we made our way up an unplowed reservoir access road. After 1.5+ miles and 800+ vertical feet of skinning up, we made it to the top where it flattened at the observatory. Wally was pleased to finally be there. After a quick break for photos and to pack our gear way, we made it back down the access road. The pitch at first wasn't super steep, but as it progressed it got plenty steep. No worries about keeping up speed. The snow on the side of the boot/skin pack was fantastic and there were plenty of little logs and rollers to pop off of. After we got back down, Wally was tired from chasing @skiincy the whole way down so her and @Mixilplix went back to the lot. The rest of us went back up past the reservoir and up Furnace Creek to make some more turns. Jordan and I broke trail and picked our way up about 400' of the backside of Pulpit Rock to get some turns in the trees, and good turns were found. I know some others took photos and I'll let them share them here too... After 5.5+ miles of skiing and 1500+ feet of climbing we called it a day and enjoyed a few beverages in the parking lot before heading out. Everything today exceeded expectations and it didn't feel like we were in Pennsylvania. It is wild to continually get good turns outside of a resort in PA. This season has been a treat so far and it has been a blast enjoying it with the PASRs!

Adventure is seriously underrated, often dismissed as a flight of fancy or a trivial diversion. Something if time allows, something only after all the serious work has been done. I think if you made me sum up today and this whole week it's that adventure is like truffle that makes everything taste good but for your spirit. The first line NM spotted, moments after we could see the place thrusday morning was up Palmyra peak. A ribbon of white along a rocky ridge led to a seeming shangri-la, a rock rimmed ramp of HR Fluff and Stuff. We inquired with the local bar keep as to conditions yesterday and like any fine keeper of ales she gave us word that their few tracks past the first gate.The snow swept in around 8 and by the time we started marching up the ridge the wind was wipping flakes into a snowglobe like frenzy. NM the Himalayan mtn goat was first to the prize but as a fine gentlemen let me go first. I got to dive fast and sweeping into a perfect ramp of piles of pow. As the steepness faded slightly a apron of deep untracked was revealed. Full pow bounce in effect, knee to waist blower in 1000 vert rock cathedral all to our lonesome. Pictures cannot do the experience justice, the scale of the place. That little green dot is NM in the apron. We had a bald mtn run immediately after which yielded the deepest turns of the trip possibly. All this the day after a full day of diamond dust, after a day in helicopters skiing stupid long lines of untracked under perfect skies, after a 8 inch pow day on a empty Wednesday in Telluride. I met Barb, I laughed until my sides hurt. To say it was a good trip is a slanderous beytral akin to 9/11 lol Adventure then was what this was all about and to do so now under such onerous living conditions is what it's all about. Formally then to everyone thank you ! Super shout out to Atomic for making this all happening and being the most finest host. Adventure is far easier to find then good people to do it with.

Here is a picture of @NMSKI from this morning at 11:15am. Not a lift line in sight, either.

Definitely a nice day with awesome visibility. Could see Philly and Manhattan.

Just finished up a quick 3 days at my favorite mountain Taos Ski Valley. This was the first time that we’ve gone as a family and I didn’t put my kids in ski school. Skied a bunch with the family which was a blast. It’s nice that my kids are good enough now to follow me around some fun terrain, and I got a kick out of showing my son the steeps in west basin which he had never hiked to before. The weather was warm and sunny all three days but the snow remained nice and chalky so everything was in play aside from some slopes that face south which are rarely good anyway. On day 2 my kids and I shared a lift ride with pro skier Connor Ryan (@sacredstoke) who I was familiar with from a fifty project episode and also “Spirit of the Peaks” Movie. Awesome friendly guy and we had a great conversation and shared our stoke for skiing. Highlights were skiing Kachina with my daughter and seeing bighorn sheep up top, and taking my son into Stauffenberg and St. Bernard in west basin which are some of the most legit steeps in North America. Wish I could stay longer but I’m blessed to get it in if even for just 3 days.

Drove up here Sunday. We had a little r@in on our arrival, then temperatures plummeted, with a light dusting of snow during the night. Monday at Sugarbush was less than stellar. Flat light and icy. Didn’t even bother with Castle Rock, as there were warnings all over of thin cover. Slide Brook Express Quad not running 🙁. Got about 6 inches of snow Monday night, then a sunny cold day. Conditions at Mt Ellen just about perfect. Looks like another sunny day on tap today. A picture of the sweet cabin I rented and some more pics of mountain

Skied 2 days so far at Taos and it’s been full on spring conditions, like 50 degrees. Everything has softened up at about 11 and it’s been nice. Lots of bumps so far, a couple hikes to the West Basin gnar and many Kachina laps. K4 and St . Bernard have been the best so far. A couple more days to come.

Closed on this place today, 3br 2 full bathroom, decent sized lot, 20mins to the beach 20 mins to the bay. Property tax less than $2200 a year.

Back at it. Skin lap at Stratton on the way to Jackson NH, skied almost top to bottom with a little fast grass thrown in for fun. Made it to Tuckermans Saturday morning. The hike up was mud, rocks, slush and snow, we did skin a bit towards the top. Boot pack up right, they got about 6” of snow on Thursday night and we had first tracks in right. Really heavy cream cheese snow. Boot up left En-root to Hillmans. We skied down Hillmans and to rope 7, then back to hiking on the way out. In total it was 8.2 miles,4100’ of vert, 7.5 hours, 4 beers, 2 liters of water and countless snacks. All in all a great day in the mountains. I suck at taking pictures so this is the best I have. After a few more beers and snacks in the lot we were on the road to Killington for the night and gondola laps on Sunday. They reported 30ish trails and the skiing was damn fun. Great way to end April skiing. On to May! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Skied 545-715 with the fam. 62° when we arrived and 58° leaving with super soft snow. Got a fist bump from @antman12on our way out to the snow and the rest of the hill was empty. Most likely the last day of the season for my little one so it was nice way to end it.

It was a great way to end the trip. Snow report listed 5” but the sign at the lift said a foot of fresh snow. Depending on where you were with the wind, it was both. Took the 830 bus and there was a little crowd for the Silver Queen lift. On the lift shortly after 9 and went down paradise to the paradise lift. Little wind blown on top but boot deep fresh in spots lower. Down it again to Lower Treasury which had untouched snow. Wasn’t the lightest snow and made you work but it was grate. Down something else to SQL and said byes to @AtomicSkier. Kept lapping woods, bumps, and packed pow until my legs hurt. Pretty much stayed Horseshoe to international area down to SLQ with occasional runs to Paradise lift. Caught the 115 back and the roads in down were already dry. Had a ton of fun and my legs are worked. It was a good day.

Spring skiing was in full effect today and we had a great time. Kids did a 3 hour private lesson which was pretty much a mountain tour and they loved it. The instructor let them hike one of the ridges and ski off it and they now think their shit doesn’t stink. I did a few of the main favorites, Alberta face, glory hole, and even did the 25 minute hike to the top of Alberta peak and skied chute 5. Skied a bunch of bumps with my son in the afternoon. All in all it was a great day.

Skied from 530-745 in 28° light rain. Snow was good and it was empty. We’ve graduated from Valley School to Vista this week and were lapping that until they closed the Vista chair at 7. The kid had no issues on Vista so moved on to Burma with success. Giving Paradise a shot next but Vista felt great instead of the Valley Hill. Didn’t really notice the rain since we were skiing slower. Outer wear was soaked by the end of the session though.

In Ferris Buehlerian style I postponed work and hit the road for a super exclusive xxxlub in the Skills. Somehow it's winder than Blue, like every trash can must be in the Hudson windy but the bright sun makes it warm. While technically snowing it's so light it evaporates as quickly as it appears. For an exclusive xxxxluub the lodge looks like the first class lounge at the Scranton Wilkes-Barre international Airport circa 1973.....which I kinda love. Appropriate for the greater Winkle area the upper mtn pod has been asleep foprp a bit and it's the lower quad and the sixer thatmnemonic goes to the other nipple top. The quad pod had 3 legit ways down all pretty much variations of lazy mile. While excellent look out the window skiing probably not the thrill your looking for. The sixer pod though was the star of the show with 9 or 10 legit ways down, all good smooth super grippy snow. A short shot called the wall held soft moguls but I thought the best was one called like maverick and wheelchair, trail maps don't concern me. Long razors like straight shots with nobody home I mostly ran those. Around 230 being the good worker I am, I decided it best to get to work and now I'm driving past the scenic lamington River. Super good day and worth checking out during the week, particularly if you have an ikon.

I'm seriously feeling the post Jackson Hole blues right now as I slump into my desk chair to stare at my computer for 8 hours and catch up on emails and work BS. After a few runs yesterday morning before heading to the airport, travel back was a breeze through ORD to PHL, and I rolled back into the kunk around midnight. After thinking about it the whole way home last night, I can say is that JH is a place that feels very different from anywhere else I have skied before. My two big takeaways are: The sheer consistency of the steepness across the mountain. I like the natural feel of the mountain. It is like skiing as Mother Nature designed it. My 4 days were the perfect intro and got a taste of everything there is to offer. Yea, the first day I was not feeling well and made a vomit deposit in the hobacks. On second day I felt like a weakling due to not eating at all the first day. Had some terrible vis days and some sun at times. A little sad about no pow other than an angry inch but oh well. Last run off the tram down a sunny Rendezvous bowl then ducking under the clouds to bottom before heading to the airport was a perfect way to wrap the trip up. Can not wait to get back. Thanks to the boys @GrilledSteezeSandwich @AtomicSkier @mute1080 @NMSKI for being fantastic guides and showing me around. Oh, and a word of advice... Never trust a fart...

Both flights were delayed about a half hour but both my bags and I made it on time. I planned on taking Uber to the hotel but from when I landed until I got my bag, it went from $35 to $85 for the trip to town. One of the no wait taxis outside did it for $40. Room was ready early so quick change and headed to redeem my Indy pass. Full view of Snow King from the hotel room so had to do it. Little bit of a struggle for the ticket agent but we were on the snow by 1245. Lines were non existent and I had the Gondy and quad to myself. I didn’t even know they had a backside but the Sun Bowl had the best snow and ended up there for half of almost two hours I got to check it out. Milder terrain on the back side and slower lift but some trees and ungroomed to play with. Got scooped by Atomic after SK and he even had a beverage waiting.

Hiked down and up Blue this morning....This is what I saw....

Tucks has always been something I wanted to do if the opportunity came along, but never pulled the trigger. After seeing the 50 Episode from Tucks, and this report, it quickly moved up my list. I graciously joined the boys @Justo8484 @GSSucks this year for the adventure and it didn't disappoint. Due to weather concerns on Saturday, Tucks was moved to Sunday, with a Stratton skin on Friday, Killington on Saturday, and then the big event on Sunday. It proved to be an awesome decision. We did a T2B skin lap at Stratton with great conditions as a gear test. Did a few beacon searches, crampon tests, etc. A skiff of fresh snow on top of corn meant you could let it run top to bottom. Awesome snow. Killington was skiing great on Saturday with temps in the mid 50s and 22ish trails. @mbike-ski happened to be camping in the area that weekend so it great to see him at Killington about to enjoy his first May ski day ever. Was pretty hard to sleep in anticipation of Tucks so we were all up pretty early, geared up, and hit the trail a little after 7:30am. Hiked for about 1.5 miles, switched to skins for another 1+ miles up to Hojos, put the skis on the pack and finished the hike up to the bowl, where we donned helmets, crampons and ice axes for the boot up Right Gulley. After a steep climb up, we were greeted by low winds, and great looking snow fields up to the summit. We threw back on the skis and skinned up the summit, climbing over 4000ft from the parking lot to the summit in 4h 45m ish. Celebratory pictures, beverages, a snack, and we plotted out descent down the snowfields with Hillman's in mind. The snowfields were very interesting snow. Super smooth, but I'd call it slippery spring snow. Fun route down through rocks, where we threw the skis back on the packs, and hiked to the top of Hillmans, stopping to have some charcuterski, and then gear up for the descent down Hillman's. I dropped in first to perfect spring conditions down through the choke. We all worked our way to the bottom, rock scrambled to the Sherbie, and then skied down to rope 7, where we put crampons on to descent the slippery Tuckerman's Ravine Trail 1.6 miles back to the car. The weather was perfect, the snow was great, and the cherry on top was getting up to the summit. No action shots from me, as I really didn't want to be pulling out my phone in some bad places. Others do, so they may end up here. Was a great experience and hope I can do it again some day. Overall, it was 10.5 miles of hiking, booting, skinning, and skiing, climbing ~5000ft in 8.5 hours start to finish. Rolled out of the visitor's center parking lot just after 5pm with 8+ hours of driving ahead of us.

Keeping a watchful eye on the storm rolling up the coast early in the week had me hoping we could be in front of it before it hit, but that proved to be out of the question as it decided to move faster than initially forecast. As the snow began to fall Sunday night, I was hoping for the worst, a quick changeover to rain so it wouldn’t take an eternity to drive from Hellertown to Lake Placid. We needed to stop in Wilkes-Barre to pick up the son and then head on to upstate NY. Awake all night, I could hear the pitter-patter on the skylight. Since I could hear it, it had to have switched to sleet or rain, but couldn’t tell which. Finally got fed up and looked to see the road out front just wet. At least part of the ride would be easy. Checking the radar showed a mixed bag of precipitation all the way to Lake Placid. Rain in the Lehigh Valley, freezing rain around Hazelton, sleet and then snow up in Scranton-WB all the way up. Wonderful! Left around 5:45am to get to WB after the kid’s shift. Usual 90 minute drive took 2 hours. Wet snow started just above the Blue Ridge and continued into WB. After packing the car, I could see some blue skies breaking through, but radar up North showed different. The entire ride on 84 across to the NY thruway was white knuckle, snow-covered. Most if the thruway to Albany was clear sailing until Lake Gorge when the snow began to fall again, but good. More gestures to slow down followed from the wife, which just made me drive even faster! The drive on 9 & 73 was Interesting and fun, over hill and Dale, back into the wilderness. Who found this place for Olympics is beyond me! Just then the ski jumps come into view, cool! Checked into out cozy tiny home & then went out in search of beer and food. Just down the road is Big Slide brewery, so we picked up a crawler of their Giant Double IPA which was quite good. Also picked up some Lake Placid brewery’s Shredder IPA. First choice for food was Smoke Signals BBQ based upon numerous recommendations including @RidgeRacer, but passing by it didn’t look like it was open, maybe the holiday? Dunno. Son made executive decision for pizza, so it was a Supreme and garlic cheese bread from Bazzi’s pizza, both of which hit the spot. Gonna be another chilly one at Whiteface tomorrow with a high of 7! Time to suck it up! Ski The East! Spicy roads… Ski jumps… Around town… Supreme pizza & beer…

Impressed that they are still open. Blue has exceeded my expectations this season and provided us with some fantastic conditions. As always, I'm looking forward to getting back next year after the improvements that we have heard might be coming. Conditions today were as expected with some trails definitely better than others. @Benm got his planks out on the snow, legally. Donuts and beer in the lot. Its been a great season with you all! Hopefully I'll see some of you out on the bikes 👍 Also, Blue day #800 since keeping track of stats in 2005/06 season.

Finished up our time in Taos today and we had a great trip. Snowed 1 or 2 inches overnight which was a pleasant surprise and after 3 really warm days it was a little cooler on Friday. I skied with my kids all day Friday after they had done ski school for the first part of the week. They absolutely rip now and are going to pass me soon. Took them down Al’s run for the first time and they were both talking about how easy it was. Stepped it up after that to their first Taos double black (west blitz trees to spitfire chute to west basin) and they navigated it perfectly. Kids at top of Al’s kids skiing Al’s little man entering spitfire chute Daughter in west basin son in west basin son and I on Al’s

Seemed like the poconos got skunked, and I didn't have the time to venture into the majestic mountains of New York or New England, so we undertook a mission a little closer to home. After digging through the NELSAP archives and the be-all-end-all of information that is Facebook, @GSSucks and I set our sights on Snow Bowl, a defunct ski area about an hour from NYC in northern New Jersey. I left home around 5:30 with a friend and we met @GSSucks about 2 hours later where he was pulled off on the side of the rode like a creeper. Car said 5°, weather app said -6° wind chill. Fueled by rice crispy treats and coffee, I booted up and we started our ascent. Minor wrong turn took us into what might have formerly been a snowmaking pond. Luckily it was all dried up, but it made for a spicy descent with skins on and heels loose. After we found the trail again, the uphill was relatively easy and uneventful. No one else was there, so @GSSucks set the skin track and we tried to keep up. Once at the top, one could theoretically see the NYC skyline, or at least the old trail map says so, but I saw no buildings. Oh well, the snow was good and we had it all to ourselves. We transitioned from uphill to downhill mode and took our first lap. Top 1/3 was a little scrapey and wind blow, but once the pitch kicked up and we got a little farther down the hill, the snow in the loosely spaced trees was great. Probably about 5-6", with some deeper pockets from drifting. We did four laps in total, for just shy of 1500 vert, with our last run having the best snow of the four. At under 2 hours from home, it's a great option for me when coastal storms skunk the Poconos but deliver farther east.

Turns out, the snow isn’t happening until tomorrow afternoon, so today is a beautiful sunny day. Figured we’d try the smaller disconnected area served by First lift in the morning. Only one bus stop away. Could’ve walked really, if it was not for boots. Got there 10 mins ahead of opening time, but the doors stayed closed until 8:05, which was extremely annoying, but then, only 3 stations away, was the skiing area that we were after. Beaaautiful, albeit very windy. Spent some time on the ridge walk while they were opening further lifts. Now back at home eating and preparing to take a train to Kleine Scheidegg to ski until the closing time.

It's been fun, but it only keeps getting better. Thanks everyone!

Forgot to post this on Monday night since I got drunk from celebrating, but I finally finished my PhD at Widener University and hope to never take a class ever again. As difficult and time consuming as it was, I really enjoyed it and would 100% do it over again if I had to go back in time. Even though it is already official, the "official" ceremony won't be until May when I get to wear the fancy doctoral regalia. Looking forward to celebrating with @AtomicSkier Sunday morning with a Truly enjoyable gravel ride if anybody is interested. Hopefully this doesn't mean the end of my student discounts and now that I don't have my school commitment as an excuse, I'll have to find something else to use to get out of things that I don't want to do 😂 Also, this does not mean that you have to call me Dr. Toast.

Got here last night, skiing DV as I can wake up at 830 and make first chair at 9. Warm, currently working overtime on my Goggle tan. Groomers were firm and smooth first thing and now turning to a delicious slush. Off trail was brutal boilerplate but maybe late afternoon I'll see if it's soft. Empty run after run and oysters at the top, fine living for a Monday.

Had another sunny spring day at Wolf Creek today. Things started softening up in the sun at about 10:30 am. I skied some with the family and went for a few nice walks along the ridges by myself too. I made the long hike all the way out to Horseshoe Bowl just to say I did it even though the snow there wasn’t great. The staircase up to the knife ridge was a cool experience. Did another hike/traverse into Montezuma Bowl which had really nice snow surprisingly. I never really thought about it, but the Alberta lift area is basically one huuuge glade and is so much fun to explore. Skied a lot of spring bumps today as well. Tomorrow we’re going to Monarch and looking like maybe a pow day on Friday.

Took advantage of (likely) the last day of touring the Pennsylvania steeps for a bit with this upcoming weather so I decided to check out an area that I've been eyeing up for a bit. With this last. 6" of dense snow I figured it should be safe to give it a shot. Ended up taking about 20 minutes of skinning to get to the zone I was interested in. Once I got there I made my way down through a Shicola Chute of tight trees which then opened up into a vista of the valley below. The snow was creamy and soft. After 750' of some good turns and a few areas where I had to pick my way through, I made it to an old logging road and started making my way back to a stream bed down the valley that I was going to skin back up. It was starting to get warm and the sun started to pop out as I was making my way up. After clearing some denser trees it opened up quite nicely. The sun was super warm and I had to shed my jacket and gloves climbing back up 750' of mountain. I looked down and saw my shadow and knew, like the groundhog, that my winter turns were not over. This area that I was skinning up was way more open than anything else I've skied on this ridge. As I was going up I knew it might be my last set of turns so even though the snow was getting heavy I decided to go for it. Snow was more cream cheesy with the sun being out, but it was still nice with some rocks to pop off of. Skinned back up and skied back to me car to call it a day. These last 3 weeks have been surreal and it hasn't felt like PA. It might not be crazy stuff, but I definitely feel more comfortable getting out on my touring gear and putting it to use. Hopefully this won't be the last time this winter. Enjoy the mediocre video.

Whoa. I’m gonna drink all the beer now

Edgie wedgie for the win! Got there a little later than I’d like, but for about 2 hours in this morning. Paradise was for sure best conditions, but the freeride word tour line is starting to get worked in nicely. Good little 3-4 hit line. Came back up in the afternoon for a little bit of school hill action. Went to summit to get a season pass and just skied up there. Unfortunately there were no magic carpet rides to be had, because someone didn’t show for their shift... got a little bit of extra workout today carrying a 30lb weight up hill repeatedly. First day on real skis, lasted about 1.5 hours with a break to explain how snowguns work, and she only fell twice, and wants to go back tomorrow. I’ll count it as a success! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It will be interesting to see what happens with my offices reopening the office plans. As of now, we are still planning to open July 13th with some strict guidelines in place but with numbers on the rise again I don't see many people coming back to work. In fact, I do worry a bit since I have been on contact with my family. My parents are in their 60's and my mom has health issues and depends heavily on my Dad so I don't want either of them to get sick. I will probably limit my time at the office. Also, for those who I am not facebook friends with - I got engaged last week! my boyfriend (fiance..? weird) had big plans for the proposal and he kept waiting for things to get somewhat normal again but they really haven't. And with the numbers on the rise, instead of waiting any longer he decided to pop the question at home. Pandemic proposal.

Had a nice first day at Taos Ski Valley. Kids are in ski school for the next 3 days so I skied a bunch with my wife and kids today. Was nice and sunny and about 3-4 inches of new snow to start. Kachina peak lift opened around lunchtime and we decided it was time to take my son up there. He skied Main Street to Nastar Chute and handled it great. Since that went well I could see he was ready for another extreme steep, Castor. Skied a lot of trees and groomers and all in all a great day. Got lots of pics of my son. Need to get the little son of a bitch to take some of me next time.

First day on a western trip so of course everyone was up way too early despite not getting nearly enough sleep the night before travel day. Pope was up from about 4am to 7 then managed about an hour more of sleep before breakfast. I was up from about 6 and stayed up. Not sure what time Homie woke up but he was awake on the living room sofa when I hit the head at 6. Took a look out the window and saw that there was about 3 inches of fresh snow covering all the chairs and tables down around the hot tub, a nice bonus. Breakfast in the room, we had ventured back out the night before for room provisions and a dispensary for Pops and Stephen. Stephen decided to make eggs and bacon and home fries for breakfast. Good, but much more than I typically eat that early, ski trip or no. While prepping all the gear for Day 1 the night before, gave Pops his lift ticket. Homie says “Oh yeah, where do I get my lift ticket?” Uhm, in the mail, at your house. Turns out he remembered that it did come and he even packed it — and then switched to a bigger bag, and left it in the other one. 🤦‍♂️Luckily he stopped by the ticket window first thing and they were able to cancel the old card and issue a new one. Didn’t even charge him $20. So with Pops feeling shitty enough that he wasn’t even coming on Friday night, we decided it would be smart to stay low on the mountain for the first day and ease into things. During the previous evenings excursions he was price comparing those Oxygen boost canisters. Funny enough, the mercantile at the WP base village was cheaper than Safeway so he popped in to get one. But it also got me thinking that renting an oxygen concentrator for him for the room could only help increase our chances for a successful week so I went ahead and ordered one for delivery this afternoon. At the base area there was a pretty decent corral for the gondola, but we bypassed it anyway and took the Gemini express over for a couple of short green runs to get the day started. Hopped on the Discovery double and skied down to the Prospector express. Made 6 runs off the Prospector hitting all the various green and blue groomers accessible over there, and mixed in a ride up the Looking Glass lift, first center pole no bar lift for us. It’s also a “passes over your head” after you disembark lift, thankfully no head injuries. After our trip up Looking Glass and down Mock Turtle, Pops was feeling alright to go a bit higher so we took a ride up the Olympia express so we could run Whistlestop to March Hare to White Rabbit. Where March Hare split to White Rabbit I elected to continue on March Hare while the others zagged to Rabbit. The bottom of March Hare ended up being a nice pitch, but short, filled with mild soft bumps so glad I was alone, but I enjoyed it. Took another ride up Olympia because I wanted to run Lonesome Whistle. Doodled in some super low pitch, wide spaced trees on the way down Hook Up to get to Lonesome Whistle. Very enjoyable run down Lonesome Whistle and it was about noon by this time, so we decided to grab a bite and get in to warm up. I knew exactly what I wanted to eat. The Bison chili at Sunspot. WP is having a promotion in Feb, they have 9 different spots that have chili on the menu around the mountain. If you eat 6 bowls you get a free celebratory beanie and sticker. (Also 25% off each bowl of participating.) As a big chili fan, challenge accepted. Where last years Jay Peak trip was the trip of poutine, this week will be a chili-fest. Took the Looking Glass up from where we were so we could ski down to the Explorer express. Went via the green Alan Phipps which was the most popular run of the day for Pops and Homie. Could really let them run down that trail and we all notched our fastest run of the day on it, for as much as the WP app can be trusted for that stuff. Explorer up to Sunspot and we went in for lunch around 12:25. Got my bison chili and it was quite good. Got my punch card to keep track of my bowls. Realized afterward that the cashier gave me my punch card and didn’t punch it. Now I have to eat 7 bowls of chili this week. Starting to seem unlikely. Spent about 45 minutes there and we decided we were about done for the day. I had been wanting to run Cranmer all day so I decided to take that to Larry Sale for a nice blue run down, and Stephen joined me until he took a wrong turn off Cranmer and went down Village Way instead of Larry Sale. Pops decided he wasn’t pushing any more and downloaded on the gondola. Overall a great first day. We put in 14 runs for 9300 vert, skied 10 miles. Got a bit of a late start with the side missions, and combined with staying low on easier slopes we didn’t get much use out of the fresh, but it made for a nice surface at least, and found a few small pockets to cover the tips in a few places. The fresh snow seemed a bit sticky, especially around the lift boarding areas, so Pops and I were looking to try to drop the skis off for a tune. But when I realized the only place in the village to do so was farther than I wanted to walk in my ski boots right then, we decided to just head back to the condo. We’ll drop them after skiing tomorrow Ended up just spending the rest of the afternoon and evening lazing around the condo. Didn’t even hit the hot tub today, though Its definitely on tap for tomorrow after skiing. Burgers and fries in the condo for dinner. NEXT - Ski day 2 or can you take me high enough?

It was a good day at Elk. First ski day of the season for me and the closest I have got to Vermont since March. Freezing temperatures in the morning warmed up to 40s for a blue sunny day, but not too the point of too warm I don't think. Snow surface softened up nicely on most of the trails and was quite good except for a few heavily trafficked or shaded spots. Generally the trails got slicker again in the afternoon. There is still natural snow cover in the area. I am not sure what conditions will look like later this week with the temperatures, they may or may not be able to blow tonight yet. It was busy but lines were not bad at all especially after they started up the north double next to the quad to get all lifts spinning. Ski on north lifts, lodge side was a minute or two wait until after lunch. Excellent snow surface for telemark skiing and there were a half dozen other guys I spotted. I switched over to downhill at lunch to avoid the slicker spots later in the day and to rip some runs. Also I did leg day tuesday for the first time in a while which was not a forward thinking move. Tunkhannock - nice snow, icy patches, not quite bumped up yet but it was getting there Lackawanna - ungroomed, bare spots, was somewhat icy Seneca - ungroomec, bumps starting to appear, bare spots Wyalusing - very good shape Susquehanna - mint 👌 Slalom - good Delaware - narrow spots got icy but it was regroomed mid day from like 2:30-3:30 and was pretty nice afterword Tioga - slick, crowded 🎳 West slope - soft, nice condition Lower tunkhannock/spurs - good soft surface Wissahickon - crunchy but not too slick Lenape - good shape in morning becoming icy in afternoon Natural cover has been poached and there seems to have been attempts to make snow on the yet to be opened trails. Terrain parks are not open. The ticket printer by the north lifts is convenient even if you order on your phone while already there. Just make sure you get the email because there is nowhere else with your qr code unless you talk to guest services... Also it would be nice if you could ski back to the north side parking lot at closing time rather than taking the shuttle since patrol ropes it all off like half an hour before although I do understand they need to sweep it.

Up in Marble and things are coming along. Went thru almost white out conditions on Vail Pass to get here. Siding is done, concrete floors getting polished starting tomorrow. Waiting on the inspectors to decide to drive from the other side of the valley before we can do insulation and close up walls. Fingers crossed by July will be ready for CO inspection.

On the snow at 9 with a warm 25° and blue skies. Redeemed the Warren Miller tickets and didn’t even have to pay the $5 for the RFID card like the sign said. Lap on Delaware and then headed to the quad. Worked skier’s left to right hand finishing that side with 3 laps on Tunkhannock. Favorite run was Tunkhannock to Lackawanna Spur which wasn’t groomed. Upper Lackawanna was closed even though they blew on it last night. The firm cord snow makes you feel like a rockstar, especially on Lower Tunkhannock below the lift. No lift lines and ski right on. In for lunch now, Broken Heels and Chippewa Chicken sang before hitting the rest of the trails. No eating if your sitting at the bar, found out first hand.

Yessss

EPIC day at Hunter w/ @GSSucks and @Justo8484. @GSSucks caught up with me somewhere on 87 and arrived at Hunter ~6:50am. Geared up started our skin right as the sun was coming up. This was my first real skin adventure, as my Jacobsburg State Park adventure with @toast21602, @mbike-ski, and @Mixilplix was more to test the gear, and practice changing the skis from uphill to downhill, etc. It was low 20s when we started with a nice breeze which helped regulate body temps. The alpenglow was spot on as we headed up hill. It's a ~1.75 mile tour with 1600ft-ish of gain (I think) and it took us about 50ish minutes with a few stops to adjust venting, take pics, etc. Pretty efficient method to travel uphill. Gear test was pretty successful I thought. We were back down at the car a little after 8 to meet up with @Justo8484, change into dryer clothing, and head back out for a day shredding the gnar. First few runs were 10/10 awesome groomers but lines started to form and stuff got more scraped off. Skied until about 1:30pm with a beer stop somewhere in the middle. Well worth the drive to ski some nice conditions, fast runs, and get a little uphill practice in. TFTI @GSSucks.

Hey All, I’m back from another fun day at Abasin. I arrived at the mountain at 830 and there were only a handful of people. I was booted up with ticket by 845 and only two people in line at the black mountain express. I rode the second civilian chair with some guy who hadn’t skied there in 20 years. Then over to the lenawee lift in 2” of new snow...basically breaking trail.. Up Lenawee and did the run to the left of powerline first all the way to the base and it was all untracked on top of groomer. Did a few lower laps go really milk that perder which was less wind affected then the upper mountain then back to the top of Lenawee and I took the rope tow and skied a run in montezuma bowl which was dust on crust. That area gets the spring conditions first and so the underlying snow wasn’t the nice styrofoamy snow of the front face or what I skied in the Beavers area earlier. I was really skiing runs fast and slowed down the pace a tad with some exploration. Took a fast Humbug I believe to lower mountain still leftover perd to the new Pali chair which now has a safety bar. I skied into the beavers area from Pali the wind up there was fierce and took Davis and did some single black off chutes which had nice ungroomed snow below the fresh. I didn’t see a single person on that run. I normally like to stop at the mid mountain lodge for Bloody Mary, beer maybe a soft pretzel but didn’t do that today, it probably would have just been me and the bartender as it was so quiet at Abasin. Visibility was also better than I expected. I skied another front face run by then everything on the main runs was choppy but the new 2” transformed the primary conditions into more winterlike. Back in Silverthorne I went to a strip mall taco place first and the line was pretty long so went to noodles and company and had buttered noodles with a pork topping and Caesar salad then ate some gummies and had a little nap. I think I’m gonna buy another ticket at Abasin for tomorrow. Can’t resist the lack of crowds plus it could snow more overnight

I woke up early this morning since it was snowing and had a big drive to Monarch and they were reporting 1 inch as of 5:30, but it dumped for a few hours and we had a nice 6” of fresh in the morning and major dumpage from late morning through the rest of the day. Lots of nice powder turns and the first pow day my kids have experienced. What a cool little mountain Monarch is. It’s not that big and has small vert but the vibe was amazing and there was some really fun terrain. Nice steep runs from the top of panorama along the continental divide and some nice trees as well. I hiked Mirkwood, which is the “side country” area there and between the fresh and wind deposited snow I was getting knee deep in spots. It was awesome to see my kids get the hang of skiing powder and everyone is pooped!

I ordered this book at the beginning of the pandemic not knowing the outlook of the season and I started studying. The goal is to check off all of the lines eventually. Huge props to [mention]mbike-ski [/mention] for joining and leaving his house at 3am to make an early push for the summit. Started today with Mount Graylock and skiing the Thunderbolt Race Trail that was built by the CCC in the 1930’s. This was a class A race trail and has a ton of history, there is so much ski history in the north east. This is a great video on the Thunderbolt if you have any interest. We met at the trail head ~730 and it was a warm 5 degrees, till we got skins on and booted up we could not feel our fingers. We took our time on the skin up and made the summit in about 3 hours, chilled at the summit for a bit then started our way down. The snow was great and the skiiing was supper fun natural soft bumps the whole way down. Ended the day with about 6.5 miles and 2600’ of vert. I’m ready for the next one! Done and claimed View from the trail head to the summit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Let me wet your appetite while I sort through the footage .... here is a view of what we skied first run (off the heli). Most of those tracks were from other heli drops after us throughout the day. They're very adamant about stacked turns down the fall line, keeping it tight to other tracks.

Today was good good. These opportunities don't come often in PA, so I had to try and pull it off today in between teaching and meetings. Pulled into the upper lot around 10:45. Parked in the first spot at the entrance. Booted up, skins on, pack filled, and headed back out. They plowed it pretty wide so there wasn't much space next to the road. I decided to head into the woods which were fairly open. Took that all the way down, skinned back over to the opening to find the cut. Just over a half mile in, I was where I needed to be. I made a right and skinned to top of the pitch before the line started to descend. I got there and it was completely untracked. I knew it was going to be a good run, or untracked because it was all grown in. Skins off. The first pitch only offers a few turns, and is a bit more hairy than I remembered. I got a handful of good turns there before if mellowed out again. At the base of that pitch I could see everything below all the way to the power line cut that was my access back. It was open, untouched, and delightful. I was able to get a few dozen fantastic turns down that face to the bottom where the power line was. I got to the bottom and there was nobody there to high-five so I did clapped my poles together a bunch to let out some of my excitement. Took a second to shed some layers because the power line traverse back to the road was about 1 mile. Skins on, and off I went. Not a bad traverse. It took me about 20 minutes and the worst part was navigating over some creeks that I didn't know were there. Got to the road, skinned up to the Burma lift, and then skied down to the 6er and took that ride up to see how the snow was. 5 minute lift line. Skied back to my car. Now sitting in a meeting and plotting when I can do it again if it doesn't get baked in the sun tomorrow. Start to finished took about 90 minutes even with stopping and waiting and all that jazz. 4 miles round trip. It goes, ladies and gents. There is no better time than now to hit that up. Another fucking great day to be a skier in PA.