EdBacon

It was a coincidence, I swear.

Jack Frost was good today. Almost everything in the woods on the East Mountain is filled in. We had it all today: glades, cliffs, packed pow on the trails and stashes that lasted all day. You could drop into glades which had maybe one or two tracks in them until lunchtime. The base set up from the last two storms has held together well and the 4 inches or so they received last night rode soft and buttery today. I had no problems with rocks or debris except on the lower portion of T-bolt glade. The trails were riding great too: packed pow and ample pow along the sides of most trails. The place was practically empty. I shared the east mountain with maybe ten people all morning. Didn't get to Mad Tree or the glade skiers right of Telstar though. Maybe next year if the conditions line up again. Video evidence:

Doesn't Camelback groom everything out though?

Platty party tomorrow. Blue jacket, blue helmet, black pants and K2 Raygun with a white topsheet. Don't be a stranger in the singles line.

Staying in Woodstock tonight. 35 and raining in town, no snow on the ground. Drive a half hour west to Belleayre and there's 2-3 feet and its still coming down.

Magic Mtn is similar too. Place is a blast if they have enough snow.

Its where I'm gonna be regardless tomorrow morning.

Belleayre and Windham are out now too apparently.

Power just went out at Hunter.

Temps are falling way faster than originally forecast. A lot of the Catty's are already reporting 12+ inches and we got another 24 hours of heavy snowfall to go. Somebody over on AZ said the snow quality wasn't that bad, as temps were around 29 degrees.

Booked for the weekend. Looks like im driving up tomorrow. Roads should be fine, the Hudson Valley will be mostly rain. This storm is gonna be super elevation dependent. We're staying in Woodstock, so we probably won't even hit snow in town. Gonna be a choice between Hunter, Belleayre and Platty on Saturday to see who got the goods. Hopefully the rain changes over quick.

There's a good chance you'll be dealing with wind holds tomorrow. Hopefully Tomahawk stays open.

Belleayre and Plattekill this weekend. Anyone else gonna make the trip?

That's a shame. The other option is Plattekill but thats a hike.

Think I'll head up over Jack Frost. I need a little diversity anyway. Are there tree runs at Elk?

Freezing rain that far north? Damn. And it even mixed in the Catskills. Magic might be good but I'm not driving that far.

How are they making out today? Did Frost beat the rain? Otherwise I may try Elk.

I hiked and rode down last winter after one of the storms we got. It was actually pretty fun. Met a guy there who was skinning up to get some turns.

I don't think anything ever happens to Happyland. They seem pretty committed to keeping the glades they have now open. They've since put signage up and made it pretty semi-official. The only thing that didn't get signage was Elevator, incidentally.

Yeah... it doesn't look like that anymore.

My guess is you might be able to pick a path down after they've blown a lot of snow. Unfortunately with the rain they got there isn't a ton of blow over. They only started remaking snow over the weekend and I'm not sure how much attention they gave to River Shot. If they had a week where they just solidly blasted River Shot then I'd give it a go. It sucks because you can't see down the damn thing from the top to figure out what its gonna be like.

Hey I just realized I have a Camelback 50th Anniversary sticker in my desk drawer. Anyone want to buy it off me? It's in mint condition, never been used.

Were you able to ski it without natural? From what I understand it was too difficult for them to clear brush on such a steep pitch for a trail that doesn't have snowmaking. It's a shame. It was a unique trail. Probably the most difficult thing in the Poconos. I honestly wouldn't mind if they let some of the trees grow in to make it into a kind of gladed run, and just keep the briers clear. They still do a great job on the other glades though. Even Risk It, which is probably stupider than Elevator.

Elevator doesn't look doable, at least looking over the edge of River Shot. Lots of brush in there. A couple tracks went down but I don't think anyone did the whole thing today. It's just really choked up and 8 inches is not enough on top of nothing. It might be more open skiers right after you come out of Elevator Glade, but again, 8 inches on top of nothing isn't enough for me to attempt it. Happyland is always the most consistent, for whatever reason. I think the big fan guns they use on Challenge just make less dense "snow" so it doesn't ice up in there as much from the blow over.

Best day of the year so far. Get at it.