volklyokel

I was out yesterday morning on RT's slopes. The resort basically had 2/3 of the bunny slopes open with Minuteman and Lower Lafayette's Leap open too (intermediate). Considering there were only a couple of days to blow snow this past week, I was quite impressed with coverage and care. The whole staff seemed happy to be out and I saw lines of instructors getting some pointers on how to give lessons, so the whole team is definately gearing up. I only racked up 6350 feet of vertical (about 1.2% of Doug's season total!) in the morning, but it was great to be the first on the new Fife & Drum triple lift (three minutes early, too) and to make first tracks on the hill and to finally begin my own very delayed start to this year's season. I have a lot of skiing to get done in order to recoup the cost of my season pass and to get ready for an early March trip to Utah. I realize that today and tomorrow's rain will put a severe damper on the three day weekend, but the temps look good by Wednesday for some serious rounds of snowmaking. Next weekend ought to be pretty good across the state! Wax-up boys and girls. Give my kudos to the RT team, Joe.

Damn! That low pressure that was over BC last week, weakened as it came across Canada, and all we're going to get is a weak cold front passing through today. It might allow for a little night-time snow making to freshen the slopes. What really hurts is that there is a huge south-to-north jet jutting up into the Yukon and the south part of the NW Territories. I hope that it weakens too, as it moves east. Otherwise, we're into a warm regime for the next 7-10 days. The time is clicking on my season pass and I haven't even been out once! The cold air across the north pole looks wimpy and lacks much southward "punch" in the western hemisphere.

I'm no meteorologist, and I too was called "the weatherman," when I was a kid because I always knew what was going to happen. I don't rely on long range forecasts like Accuweather, but I do look at helpful weather resources on the Web. Based on these five web sites, you can begin to get an idea of what might happen over the next seven to ten days: 1) Ramsdis Water vapor loop - to see how the atmosphere is currently moving. 2) Polar view of Global Jet Stream - to see where the "oomph" (highly technical term!) is in terms of atmospheric angular momentum. 3) Polar view of high altitude temperature - to see where all the cold air is "hiding." 4) Wind speed and sea level atmospheric pressure - to see how the atmosphere might be set-up to "pull-down" some of that great Canadian air mass. I love Canada just for it's awesome air masses. 5) The change in barometric pressure - to see whether the circulation might be increasing or decreasing. Based on these five web sites, I too am hopeful that we should be in a colder regime in about a week. That large low pressure cell off the coast of British Columbia, if it makes it's way across Canada (and maybe dips south a little), would really help to drag cold air in behind it. I'm encouraged that it is a deepening low too. If something like that could come east and park off the shore of Newfoundland, we'd be set-up for a pretty decent batch of cold through the holidays. All we'd need is a nice tight low pressure to come-up out of Oklahoma and give us a foot of snow and we'd have it made. Too far out to tell, though. I miss the Skiing Weatherman, because he worked this same way, using global information to base his predictions.

I'd hardly call myself a "regular," but I go there for a week just about every season. The lodge is really campy and, on weekdays, very chummy. I always meet great people at the knob. Mostly die-hards, even the retirees know how to boogie down the black runs! The chairs are exceedingly slow. A bottom to top high speed quad is really needed to replace the pair of pokey dual-seat lifts. As noted, the snowmaking is not the operator's forte and neither is their grooming. It is a challenging mountain, one that advanced intermediates and experts will love. For those climbing the learning curve, it'll get you! Beginners will want to stay on the practice slope for a while before venturing down Mambo Alley. The trails are a tad narrower than most places. There is good vert to be had, especially on Deer Run and Extrovert. Don't overlook the fun drops on Jack Rabbit (blue) and on upper/lower Expressway. When the natural snow cooperates, it is among the best places to go for glade skiing. Last year, the glades were open for only a few days. If I lived closer, I'd be happy to call it my home mountain.

I remember that, last year. Only down here in southern PA is was not exactly powder, it was more like clotted sugar. Last year did have an awesome start and then January sucked. I'd love to see a nice solid stretch of cold air. When's the Skiing Weatherman going to bring his site back to life? I keep getting this message: Don't forget to keep an eye on this polar map of the temperatures: http://weather.unisys.com/upper_air/ua_nhem_850.html Its an upper-atmospheric temp map, but it correlates very well with surface temps. Watch for big lobes to dive down from Canada. that's what we want for snow and for favorable snow making. Deep low pressure systems parked near the south end of Greenland and off shore of Newfoundland help to pull the cold air down into the lower 48 states. And high pressure circulation over northern California/Nevada helps too.

I belong to about a half dozen other ski boards and I keep coming back here because I can always get a good laugh over here. Its such a chummy group. You all have probably flown past me on the mountains and didn't even know it. Look for a two-year old B&W PASR sticker on the back of my helmet and say "hi" when you go by.

Received in the mail the latest brochure and trail map for Roundtop. Looks like a few changes coming this year. They replaced the Fife & Drum double with a Dopplemeyer Triple. That'll keep the bunnies and beginners happier with shorter waits. Also, it looks like the Recruit Super Half Pipe has been transformed into a terrain park (according to the trail map) and that Lower Exhibition goes back to be wide open again, instead of having half the slope be a terrain park. I'm a happy camper with this as I doubt that the Recruit Pipe was ever open for more than a couple of days last year, if that. Along with these new things are 15 new snowmaking towers, and lots of new rental skis for children and adults. Bravo, RT crew and admin. Looking forward to another good season. VY

I'd be hard pressed to place Blue Knob in any category with the resorts of Vermont. Nonetheless, it is located about half way across the state of PA. Between Bedford and Altoona. Since I don't know where you're starting from, I can't be sure how far away it is for you. Maybe 4-5 hours' drive. Starting from Philly or the east side of PA, it would be hard to visit Blue Knob for just a day. You'd probably need to spend a night or two, which is how I do it: drive up, spend the night, ski all day and then drive back. Makes for a nice overnight trip. Volkl

I don't know if it's quite "half," but a there are a fair number of places to run through the trees. And they're only open in seasons with ample natural snow. This year was a tough one in the glades. The lifts are slow, the lodge is totally lackluster, but the runs are challenging. Still worth a trip over to check out. Work it in next year, especially if we gets some good snow dumps. Volkl

Roundtop sent announcements today that they will open one last time on Saturday and Sunday, March 18 & 19. Thanks and kudos to the Roundtop team for working it through a rather tough winter season. I don't think I quite broke even on my season pass, dollar for dollar, but the 140k of RT/WT/LM vert memories were worth every penny. Thanks to the new GM for keeping RT running smoothly. Thanks for the lift-ops for keeping a good sense of humor and keeping the value of customer joy high. Thanks for the ski patrol for responding quickly to downed skiers/boarders. Thanks to the groomers for keeping those pass-by-pass drop-offs smooth. When a resort has the attitude that the customer ought to walk away satisfied, that's when it works. You guys (and gals) did it again. I look forward to next year. Volkl Oh, and thanks to the ski-school team too. Although I didn't have any direct contact with you all, I saw you working out there and helping newbies get their riding legs going.

ThinkSnow, You have the right idea. Some of us realize that western skiing is more than elbowing one's way onto a high speed quad, then racing back down non-stop to elbow your way back onto a high speed quad and do it all over again. First, there are the views to soak in. The enjoyment of variable conditions on runs that drop 2000+ feet. The willingness to stop and take photos of cool places and untracked stashes. Its about having a smile on your face whether you're heading downhill, across hill, fluffing in the pow, or riding back up on slow-poke double chair. Its about meeting people and making some new friends. I'd rather have a blast on a lazy, well-paced 10-15k Jackson day than cope with the silliness of breaking 35k. This is the difference between rat-raced easterners and laid-back westerners. Don't just go to Jackson Hole: BE Jackson Hole. The locals in the Wasatch absolutely despise the rat-raced easterners. Have a good time in the pow. Volkl

'Tomic. Its easy to rack-up big vert on familiar east-coast groomers. Runs at Jackson are, literally, individual adventures. Its not quantity that counts, its the quality of the challenge. If Jackson gets hit with big pow, ThinkSnow will be pushing it to hit another 15k tomorrow. In Utah, last week, with all the powder, there was no way I was going to accumulate vert the way I do here on the little pea-sized hills of PA. When you're making western runs down places you've never been before, you tend to slow down and look. It's a piece of cake to fly down the runs you've been down a thousand times before. Take yer time ThinkSnow, and savor every second of your days in Jackson. - Volkl

I have family in Utah, and opted to do "family things" with them. They don't ski (can you imagine?!? ) so we went bowling(!) one day, then took a trip out to Strawberry Reservoir to look around and get info on snowmobiling (for next year). All in all, it was an awesome trip. The best powder I've ever had the pleasure to ski on. The days at Snowbasin, Snowbird and Solitude were the best. I plan to change my approach next year. Spend a couple of days at Snowbird, at least one day each at Snowbasin, Brighton and Solitude. I'll skip the Park City resorts and I've seen enough of Alta to last a while. The only thing I regret about this whole season is that I didn't reach 300,000 vert feet. Volkl

Have a great time out there! Hope you get some nice powder to chomp up on. VY

Train - my legs were mush too, after five consecutive days of skiing, three in powder. I thought it was just that I'm getting old. At Alta on Friday, I mostly rode groomers as the powder was mostly tracked out. I had first tracks on Rollercoaster, off the Sugarloaf lift. After several rides down runs off Sugraloaf, I made a run off the Supreme lift, had lunch at Alf's, then popped up Sugarloaf again to make a run down Collins Gulch. My plan was to ascend the Collins chair for one last run through Albion Basin, but when I saw the rope tow back to Albion Base, and I felt weakness in my legs, I opted for the tow rope shortcut, and called it a day early as the place was getting too crowded for my tastes. Next year, I'll be sure to put a break-day between pairs of ski days. Here's a Friday shot (3/10) of the Ballroom area at the top of Collins Gulch. Still good powder to be found. Volklyokel

Fifth day. Next to last, was spent at Solitude. Nothing groomed. Again, we were treated to an additional 10-12 inches of powder. It was an awesome day, running down whatever/wherever you want (except in the closed avalanche-prone areas). I started the morning in severe snow (tough visibility) on the Moonbeam lift running the greens and blues, just to warm up and get the powder legs in gear. I linked up with a nice couple who have never skied powder. They were quick to learn and we moved over to make runs off of the Sunrise lift before lunch. After lunch we headed up the Summit lift and worked our way down runs, Dynamite and Broadway, with a few excursions down unnamed, lesser tracked, parallel runs. Regrettably, I failed to make a trek down Honeycomb, which I'll bet, was just fantastic. It was a totally incredible day. Here is a shot of me working some powder edges. Alta tomorrow, then back to the balmy east coast on Saturday! Volklyokel

Fourth day of skiing out here with two more days to go. I opted to run Snowbird, today. It was a good choice for the morning, with about 8 inches of overnight powder on top of everything, and an additional 3 inches as the day wore on. The afternoon runs were trickier in that visibility really fell off, and, since it was my first Snowbird visit, ever, I took it carefully. I didn't rack up much vertical, at something less than 13,000 feet. I started out in Gad Valley, riding both Gadzoom and the Mid-Gad lifts several times, running Big Emma (to warm up) and Backasswards. I did each of those a couple of times, until I took a run called Lunch Run, and caught a whiff of lunch cooking in the Mid-Gad Lodge. I stopped and refueled there. Then I popped down Bass Highway (and adjacent tree lanes) to catch the Tram at about noon. The Tram line is a stitch: the locals are reasonably friendly and the group in front of me had some awesome deep snow gear. One guy had a pair of boards with waist widths that were wider than the shovel width of my own K2 Recons. That same group later (after running Mineral Basin) screamed down Peruvian valley doing jumps including some vertical inversions and 720 degree twists. Truly impressive! Here is a shot of what it looks like in the tram with 124 other skiers/boarders. A real riot. Just glad that the ride is only about 8 minutes. I've put about six other photos of Snowbird out on the photo web site (link in the first post). The powder was lighter and fluffier than the stuff I rode on yesterday at Snowbasin. I will begin to make Snowbird and annual destination as I had lots of fun there and only scratched the surface of what can be done there. But beware. Do not link up with locals. You'll probably die. Volklyokel

Today's resort was Snowbasin, north of Salt Lake City about 30 minutes. We were treated to a ten-inch powder day and everyone was seen with big smiles. I ate lunch at the John Paul Lodge at 11:30 and only five people were there. I guess no one even wanted to stop skiing to eat. I began the day by being in the fourth gondola to go up on Needles Express. We quickly "raced" over to Strawberry Bowl, making first tracks along side of the groomed Main Street. The snow was not exactly "champaign powder" as this little dumping came from the south. Not as thick as concrete either; soft and with tinge of chunkiness. Just plain old fun. I made another run over in Strawberry before the masses really began to show up. Then I worked back over to work a mix of powder and groom in Middle Bowl and Porcupine Bowl, taking a lunch ride up on the John Paul chair and then a post-lunch run down the Wildflower Downhill. Because of such a big day at Deer Valley, yesterday, and the fun of the powder, my legs faded early and I opted to call it a day at just under 13 thousand feet and 6 runs. Six runs doesn't sound like much, but at Snowbasin, we're talking upwards of 3000 foot drops for the longest runs. Here's a photo to whet your appetite. This was early in the day before everyone discovered Strawberry Bowl. Go where you want! Enjoy! Tomorrow? An "easy" day at Alta? - Volklyokel

Second Utah ski day was spent at Deer Valley. Weather was cloudy all day long and we had little impulses of snow showers pass over on occasion. Forecast is for snow this week, especially on Tuesday night and Thursday. I had a big day here recording more than 21,000 feet of vertical. I visited every summit and ran lots of runs that I hadn't run before. I detuned the outside edges on my Apache Recons and they're performing beautifully. I began the day up on Bald Mtn, running blues Keno and Nabob to warm up with and check the Recons. Then I stepped up to run steeper double blues, including Wizard, Tycoon and Stein's Way. After that I moved over to slopes on Flagstaff Mtn. working runs off the Red Cloud lift that I'd never been down before. Then I took the ride up the Silver Strike Express to the top and slipped over to the Empire Lodge for an early lunch (you get caught in mega lines if you wait to have lunch closer to noon). After lunch, I rode up the Empire express and ran Supreme (blue), but the conditions up there were not as good as one would expect. I had wanted to make other runs off of Empire, but the crowds and sloppy conditions deterred me. Instead, I worked back across and ran a few runs on Bald Eagle Mtn. Notably Big Stick, which is one of my favorite drops at Deer Valley. It was a bit gloppy, but still lots of fun. Next time down was to work my way over to the lower Deer Crest area, where I'd never gone before. I worked my way all the way down to the bottom of the Jordanelle Gondola along US 40. It was very wet and slow there, but hardly anyone else was going that way, so I enjoyed taking my time and soaking in the views of Jordanelle Reservoir. I've posted four photos from the gray day. Click the link in my opening post to see them. Here is a shot of someone heading down a blue run on Flagstaff Mtn (I think). More to come daily, this week, presuming the roads to the resorts aren't closed. Volklyokel [correction] This was taken from the top of the Empire Express:

Thanks for the replies! I'm going to Snowbird on Wednesday. Have a lift + tram ticket. Keep an eye on this thread. I'm taking the weekend off to do family things, but Monday through Friday, in the coming week, I will be posting daily resort reports. A different resort every day. Volklyokel

Spent the first day at Brighton. I only ran 14,000 feet today because I spent a lot of time de-tuning the Recons. Man, my shop in MD really put an unruly edge on these things. Very squirrely, almost like my feet were trying to do two things at once instead of acting as a steering unit. That's what I'm used to with the Volkl's. Not a good start to a week that I had hoped would be really sweet with a set of nationally sold-out skis. I'm certain it is merely a edge tune issue. I am taking them into a local Utah shop and asking them to reset the tune. Conditions were pretty good, packed powder most everywhere on-piste and lots of tracking on the ungroomed runs. I started on the Milly side and ran some blues in order to begin to test-out these Recons. I worked my way over to the runs off the Crest lift, then to runs off the Snake Creek lift, ending the morning with a couple descents off the Great Western chair. I basically took it easy, trying to get used to the wideness and over-edginess of the Recons. I've started a new photo gallery and shots will be posted daily, as time permits. Here is shot of a couple of boarders who were debating on heading right, into steep double black territory. Taken on the Great Western Trail. More Monday night, after a visit to Deer Valley. Have a good weekend everyone. Keep it cold back there for me! Volklyokel

Train, I just got out here tonight. I'll be hitting Brighton tomorrow. The forecast is for snow on Tuesday 3/7 and Thursday 3/9. Hope you're coming soon because it might be pretty doggone good out here. Volklyokel

From Elk, looking north, between the local hills of East Mtn and Sugarloaf Mtn, you'd be seeing the lumps and bumps related to the southwestern edge of the Catskills, which pick-up around the PA/NY border, not too far from Binghamton. VY

Kragan, I head out to Utah today (3/2) and I'll be keeping an eye on your reports. I hope we both get good weather. And I hope you connect up with some good rental skis. Remember; "if they ski like crap, take 'em back!" Get them tuned the way you like, or try a different ski. Try to make daily ride reports, if you can. I know some in the PASR forum enjoy reading them (Doug reads everything!). I always do, even if I don't offer a response. I'll be skiing Brighton tomorrow and I see the WX report calls for snow. I might need chains to get up Big Cottonwood, or I'll take my bro-in-law's 4 WD truck. Enjoy the *real* hills. Volklyokel

For those further west and in southern PA or in Maryland, don't neglect visiting these two places: Ed's Ski & Cycle in York, PA and The Ski Shoppe Limited in Reisterstown, MD (No web site that I can find. When you visit, ask for Van.) Volklyokel