volklyokel

Sorry I'll miss the PASR gathering. I'll be at Roundtop on Friday, but not Saturday or Sunday. I prefer not waiting in lift lines on weekends. Hope everyone has fun. Volklyokel

Great shot of Stembogen Bowl, Ullr. Its a shot of the top which is really fun because you can jump in wherever you want to (easier at the far end). The rest of the run is like skiing in a forest lane, very narrow, but not too steep, until you make the last turn and drop at the end of the run. Interesting view looking up Extrovert. The lift, in the distance is from where I took my shot looking down. Thanks for sharing. Maybe a few of the PASR gang will venture over that way to check it out. Volklyokel

After four days at Blue Knob, I was ready for a change of venue and popped through Whitetail for six hours before heading home. The snow guns were on when I arrived around 10:45 AM, but they shut them off around 12:30 that afternoon. After that, the clouds broke for a while and everyone was treated with some very nice packed powder in the sunshine. I ran everything except Exhibition, which was mildly bumped up (I've seen it "worse"). The terrain park on Angel Drop was busy since one of the the nearby school districts had the day off, yesterday. The highlights, for me, were running Bold Decision and Far Side. The Photos: Looking up the final drop of the Far Side Looking down the "big" steep on Bold Decision. Kind of reminded me of a smaller version of Deer Valley's Big Stick. To get to the black-diamond runs, you have to follow Drop In. Here it is from the top. The view from the top of Limelight (blue square). Perhaps the best shot I took all week: A view from the top of Angel Drop. (another blue) And here's a view of the Whitetail cafeteria. This is a nice cafeteria. If I had to complain about one thing about skiing at Whitetail, it's that the slopes lack much variability. The descending pitch stays about the same for most of the blue runs, no matter which one you come down. You can't blame Whitetail for that situation, as it is just the way the mountain is. I do like the variable pitches found on Far Side and Bold Decision. V

Yeah. I was on my own out here. But folks are friendly and I hooked up with different people every day. Worst moments: (1) Getting soaked by a snow gun, losing vision and running into the brush. I didn't "eat wood" but I tried some twigs. (2) Spinning wheels on steep hills, Monday morning, forcing a 15 mile detour (wrong tires for this weather!) (3) Discovering that it is not smart to try to turn with one ski in powder and another in a groomer track. Best moments: (1) First tracks on Deer Run, Wednesday, with 3-4 inches of powder. (2) Finding a guy's wallet and helping to reunite him with it, with nothing missing (funny thing is, that is the second time I've done that at Blue Knob, Must be the altitude ). (3) Taking photos and short videos of people skiing and sending them to them as mementos of a good week at Blue Knob. Utah reports & photos will start in early March. Planned: Brighton, Snowbird, Solitude, Deer Valley & Snowbasin. - VY

I think this will be my last of the daily feeds from Blue Knob. I feel like I've pretty much skied the place out with nearly 60 runs in four days. Although, I have to admit that every day has been unique and it has been great to be here as the ground crews have worked to rebuild the place after the January from hell. Tomorrow, on the way back home, I'll make a few runs at Whitetail to end my PA ski week. Today still featured great powder skiing, with about 5 inches total to play in. The groomers were kind in only grooming in select places, so powder hounds could enjoy the fresh snow. Expressway and Deer Run saw no grooming overnight. Weather was superb with blue skies for the most part. The temp was cold though. I doubt the mercury crept past 20 degree today. Winds started to pick-up a little after the noon hour. Doug, you asked whether anyone had tracked across closed runs, but it would not be advisable, unless you don't give a hoot about scoring your ski/board bases. There is no "base snow" under the 5 inches of powder on the black runs (may not be true for Stembogen, tomorrow - they're blowing crazily on that run). In the photos listed below is a little sequence of some folks working off the edges of Jackrabbit (blue) which was open and, in one case, paying the price for it. Here are the photos. Five total: These first three are like a little sequence of "action" on a blue run called Jackrabbit. 1) Successful trailblazing 2) Uncertain trailblazing 3) Painful restart View at the top of Rt. 66 View of a well-tracked Deer Run at mid-day So to summarize, some of you PASR folks ought to make an overnight trip out. The lift ticket prices come from the mid-1980's. The food isn't too bad, but at 2006 prices. The Apres-Ski is minimal, but M

Day three was a TREAT! We've gotten about 4-5 inches of champaign powder up here, over night and during the day. Amazing conditions all day long. The snow guns are turned-off on all the open runs; Run Out is open and the crew is putting some hard work into getting Stembogen open by the weekend. If Mother Nature continues to cooperate. There could be ten inches of new, natural snow to work with. Blue Knob benefits from "lake effect" snow squalls in a way that the eastern and southern PA resorts do not. With the good conditions, it was "crowded" all morning and early afternoon with maybe 50 people on the whole mountain! I made first tracks down Mambo Alley (warm up run) and Deer Run. Upper and Lower Expressway were challenging. especially after the groomer left some bad 10-inch step-offs between the fresh powder and the groom track. I learned the hard way that it is unwise to ski with one ski in the groomer track and the other in the powder! Here are today's sampling of photos. Because of all the snow falling and gray skies, I didn't take too many. A view looking back down Chair 1 (at Lower Rt. 66, closed) A View of Extrovert - one of the most radical steeps in all of PA (also closed) The grounds crew, breaking snow-gun ice off a lift The top of Mambo. The summit view of Blue Knob. More tomorrow - this week, I'm climbing the stats ladder little by little. Did 15,000 feet in 14 runs today. Peace everyone - Volklyokel

From what I've heard, be prepared for slow chairs and some of the most challenging skiing in the east. I've never been there, but I too have read some very intriguing articles and reviews of the place. - VY

Tuesday's Report. Cold with higher humidity. Snow guns still roaring, got soaked by one, doggone it, and lost all visibility until I could stop amid the brush along side the trail. Packed powder was the story, for the most part, with mounds of blown snow to cruise over, which have a tendency to throw you forward if you're not ready. No one was here today. Maybe 20 people, total, from 9 am til 2:30pm. I've posted more photos. Links below: View from Blue Knob State Park View from top of Summit down towards green slopes View of Upper Expressway (Blue) View of Lower Expressway (turned around and took the shot) Further proof of how ugly the lodge is (This answers Doug's question about apres ski activities.) I chose to stay in Bedford, PA. Blue Knob has a nice five-day deal. I have a 5-day, day pass (9-5) for a total of $85. If you want whole day pass (9am to 10pm), they're only $95, total. Bedford offers lots of motels, a few B&B's, all of which are pretty reasonable in cost. The area is more of a haven for summer tourists. It is quiet here. At the Best Western, there can't be more that 20 rooms being occupied and the place has something like 114 rooms. Hoping that tomorrow the guns will be turned down (or off). Looks like Run Out will be open tomorrow and they'll probably run the double lift from the very bottom. But, none of the runs on the lower part of the mountain will likely be open, unless they've been blowing like mad on Stembogen. More tomorrow - thanks for looking. I know some of you are wondering whether the place is worth a trip. Blue Knob has a couple of mottos to bear in mind. One is "The Skier's Mountain." This place is about skiing or snowboarding - not much else. The other motto is, "Ski good or eat wood." The trails are narrow by most standards, especially the black runs (which aren't open at the moment). When this place receives a generous amount of snow from Mother Nature, the tree skiing is among the best in all of PA. A guide book calls Blue Knob, "the Mad River Glen of the mid-Atlantic." That's a pretty good description. See you tomorrow, and be kind to one another and the PASR staff. There's some funky threads goin' on around here. Enjoy the good skiing!! - Volklyokel

It is in dire need of some upgrading. But the people are nice and the food is good.

Monday's report: Got about 3-4 inches of dry powder, but the winds were blowing like stink, so you had to look in the corners to find the stashes. Groomed packed powder for the most part, but the snow guns were going gang busters and keeping your goggles clear was the biggest fight of the day. Couldn't have been more than 30 people on the whole mountain between 9am and 3pm. Busses brought school kids at 3:15, so I made my escape then. Here is a list of photos to check out: View looking up Deer Run from Lower Mambo Alley. View looking down Deer Run from the top of the steep. View from chair of Lower Expressway. View of ice sheets at the bottom of Upper Expressway. View of Lodge interior. It was 11:30. Where is everyone? Only the "upper mountain" is open. They are blowing snow big time on Run Out. I'll bet that will be open in the next day or two. I have no idea about Stembogen or any black diamonds. Those were closed today. More every day this week. - Volklyokel

I don't have a report yet because I just got here. But I hope to be out on the slopes every day this week. From the BK web site, it looks like only the "upper" part of the mountain is open. With this week's cold weather I'm hoping they'll be pouring on the snow. A few inches (or some dumps, hell, I'm not choosy) from Mom Nature would help too! Stay posted. I should be adding daily feeds and links to photos of what things look like over here. Have a good week, everyone - 'bout time we got some below freezing temps! Volklyokel

You got divorced while being on skis or a snowboard? Maybe it waqs BECAUSE of the skis AND snowboards you got divorced! The best thing I've done on skis was to boogie down Minuteman at Roundtop in order to alert the Ski Patrol of another skier with a broken leg. Sorry, I didn't realize this thread was about crazy acts of courage. The best thing I do on skis is help other downed skiers & snowboarders. I don't mind picking up booters and hucksters. - VY

Looks like that cold weather isn't coming this week! The southern PA hills are hurting! From the US National Weather Service (sorry the alignment doesn't paste into here very well): Highs in the 40's and 50's and lows in the 30's just don't cut it! I was really hoping, a couple of weeks ago, that the ski weatherman's long range predicitions for the beginning of February were right. He talks up a good storm, but then they don't happen! Volklyokel

That's exactly what Liberty has posted on their double blacks: No Rentals Permitted, and, generally, I'd say it works as a pretty successful deterent. Roundtop used to have signs like that, but this year, the signs seem to be gone. I favor the idea of no rental equip in the double blacks. But of course, non-mountain rentals would be harder to I.D. - VY

Sorry I didn't see you Fresh - It was a very nice morning and early afternoon at RT yesterday. Well, with the exception of the 90 minute delay in getting the Minuteman lift running. We had to wait too while the grooming crew "built" a connector between the bottom of Minuteman and the Ramrod triple. The parks and smaller half-pipe looked to be in pretty good condition. If you came for an afternoon and evening ski, I hope you had fun. - VY Here's what you missed, Fresh - empty slopes! Three Mile Island smokin' in the background. Nothin' like skiing on well radiated slopes!

I'll keep my eyes open for you; the person with the machine guns and stuff on their twin tips. I hope to be there at opening, 9:00am. See you then, FreshSki. The park on the lower end of Exhibition looks like they've spent some time building. We'll find out how it is after they've had a couple days of blowing snow on it, tomorrow. - VY

I can't speak for the conditions of the park, but RT is blowing snow during the day today and they blew last night and will continue blowing tonight. I'll be up there tomorrow (Friday), but you won't find me in the park. I'll be running Upper Lafayette and Ramrod most of the morning and early afternoon. I might give the Apache Recons a workout tomorrow. Me = blue jacket, grey helmet, white pants, red boots, whitish K2's. Cheers - Volklyokel

There have been a couple of night-time opportunities for Liberty to make snow, they've added 3-5 inches here and there over the last three weeks. But because of the lack of full days below freezing for quite a while, it's a little ragged around the edges. Many of us are hoping for a cool-down across February. Check out their web cams. V

Nah. No trouble. Today, skiers were supposed to recite the responsibility code to a Ski Patroler and receive a certificate for a free softdrink in the lodge. I asked a patroler on a lift if I could get a softdrink certificate if HE could recite the responsibility code. He said he couldn't and gave me a certificate! Conditions at RT today were pretty good until about 1:30 when the temp reached 60! Then the bottoms of the runs were a bit slushy and everybody I spoke to said they could feel the snow-melt sheeting under their boards/skis. Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit toasty too, with a high temp near 60 again. Then it cools off. Volklyokel

Man, I hope so! I'm planning on doing five days of skiing at Blue Knob from Feb 6-10. And with a Utah trip coming in early March, I need to practice and stay in shape! This has been very funky for the last three weeks. We had such a good start going in December! Volklyokel

The spring conditions were fun for a couple of days, but the southern PA resorts haven't been able to blow snow for over a week and the granular conditions are getting old. The National weather service 7-day outlook for southern PA is for the temps to remain about the same (mid 40's for daytime highs and around 30-32 for night-time lows). Folks might like to keep track of a couple of other resources. Here is a map of the northern hemisphere temperatures (the colored part, the white lines give barometric pressure), as seen from above the north pole. It is very useful to monitor "lobes" of cold air that might be heading our way. And here is a similar chart of the jet stream, which also helps to see how the atmosphere is pushing air masses around. For example, the fact that today's jet stream is so "flat" (i.e., it lacks north/south loops across North America) means that we're in a pretty steady temperature regime for a good while (the next few days). The best set up for us is to have a nice loop cross over Alaska and send cold air down across Alberta and the midwest. Such an event would help drop us down about 20-30 degrees. You might think that this is too much info for the average PASR snow hound, but this is the data that Accuweather relies on, when making their 10-day predicts... Volklyokel

The rain that fell overnight was not enough to keep us away from the slopes at Roundtop. Managed to log a big 17,630 foot day with 41 runs from 9 am until 4, with a lunch break thrown in. I was up there with a large Czech family and they tended to ski hard and fast. Here is a shot of Martin (15 years old) who found a little jump to take at the bottom of Upper Lafayette's Leap, not far from the park. Conditions were great for edging. Packed powder for most of the day. A little wet in the morning, some brown spots on Gunbarrel. Ramrod had some moguls, but not severe ones. Heading back on Friday... Volklyokel

The gals look to be be CB staffers, with the blue vests and all. Check in the office. I'll bet they can fix you guys up. Maybe not with her, but who knows? The GM prob said get the two cutest chicks in the office out there for a photo with Santa. Can't see much evidence that the gal on the left even gets out on the slopes. She probably works in the accounting office. What you don't know is that Santa is a chick too! JK VY

They must've renewed it, or got things back in order. It's working at 6:45 on 12/23 - Volklyokel

Hope you southerners got out today because the next couple of days might be a little sloppy. The started off well at 9AM, and conditions hung in there until about 1PM when the bottoms of the runs got a little mashy. Nice crowd, not too heavy, at least until the Minuteman lift went into "off" mode for about 7 minutes in the early afternoon. We all found out how to make a lift line in a hurry. Shot from the top of Ramrod (double black - meanest thing open at RT right now): Merry Christmas snow hounds! Volklyokel