NJSkiFamily

Hi all, Looks like we kept missing each other. We arrived about 10:45am and skied Nile Mike, Pharaoh and Cliffy a few times then headed to the base lodge for lunch. After lunch we hit Marjies, Rocket, Asp, Big Pocono and then King Tut to get down to watch the Pond Skimming. That was a lot of fun to watch. Only 3 people made it all the way across: two skiers and a boarder. Some of the costumers were great. Then my daughter suddenly announces that she's not feeling well. On the way to watch the pond skimming, she caught an edge and took a bad fall on King Tut and hit her head (we all wear helmets). Now she's feeling nauseas. So I took her over to the Ski Patrol place to get her checked out. Hopefully just a case of whiplash. She was done for the day. My son and I took some final runs on Pharaoh, Nile Mile and Cliffy. Then called it a day. With the warm weather both my kids ditched their red jackets so we weren't as easy to spot. We're very bummed we didn't get to meet up with you. Hopefully next time.

Thanks for the TR. Longer runs + soft snow = jelly legs. We all love the longer runs but boy it takes a toll awfully fast. It always makes me laugh to read how we drive all the way to VT only to find snow conditions similar to PA.

We should be there around 11am. Look for two kids both wearing red Spyder jackets and Atomic skies who like to race each other. And I wear a black jacket, black pants, black helmet and black gogles with Fischer skies. And I'm extremely petite (meaning my kids are as tall as me). The all black ensemble is just due to coincidence and not any prior planning on my part. I'm KC and my kids are named Robbie and Kristine.

We were there earlier in the day. The morning was outstanding. Pure sugar, no slush. Things softened up in the early afternoon but not too bad. My son played some "snow" volleyball as it was "beach weekend". Cliffy and Rocket were the best trails of the day. In the morning Cliffy actually had some ice on it. Rocket was in great shape all day. You would think this time of year would just be all season pass holders, but I was surprised by the number of people who had day lift tickets.

Funny story.....my daughter and I were at CB on Sunday and riding up the Stevenson quad I could see several of the snow guns out on the trails. We happened to be riding the lift with a patroller and I mentioned seeing the guns out and asked if CB would be making more snow. The patroller tells me its doubtful - too expensive this late in the season was his reason. Look at today's conditions page - the east side of the mountain is shut. We are hoping to get to CB on Saturday - depends on how my son feels, he's recovering from bronchitis. But he's missed two weekends already and is feeling withdrawal symptoms.

The 5th was great. First time I've ever been to CB during the week (boy, I could get used to that). I just bought a new pair of skis and was testing them out before heading out this weekend and dealing with the crowds. I got there around 11am and left just before 3pm. I actually had to force myself to stop for lunch. It was just me. Half the family has the flu.

We're doing it, too. I like the no minimum number to buy as well. This season in order to get the best deal you had to buy at least two passes. That was no biggie as there are four of us.

CB did it last year and the economy was a whole lot better back then (seems like a lifetime ago, doesn't it). I don't remember that much of a bump up in crowds. But if more people coming keeps the place open longer than I don't mind.

Exactly how it was on Saturday but more like "angry sweet and low". We've been skiing CB all winter and yesterday by far was one of the worst in terms of the ice. It was really sad when you take Nile Mile as the first run in the morning and you can't hold an edge to save your life. And I had tuned the skis the night before. Marjies and Rocket were decent in the morning but by lunchtime everything was scraped off. Lots of people being carted off in sleds. Ski patrol had a very busy day.

Good lord on the $10k figure. Was most of that equipment or lodging expenses? I bought GS race skis for my kids when they got really interested in doing NASTAR races. I do have the benefit that my kids are only two years apart so when the older one outgrows his skis then the younger one can use them. Barb......its time to get some race skis. Check out Ebay. Last winter I sold my daughter's old race skis on Ebay. My son's best friend is on the Hidden Valley race team and he recently asked me where he can buy SL skis as he needs them for this season. We've been fortunate that my kids do well with seasonal boot rentals. I think I would only buy my kids boots if they couldn't find any rental boots that they were comfortable with. Good luck with your son and keep us posted on how he does this season.

Have a great trip. Can't wait to hear about it.

Thanks guys for the kind words about the pictures. Those two of my kids I got enlarged and framed and they're hanging on the living room wall. I wish you could have seen me on the chair lift fumbling to get my gloves off and find the camera in my jacket and frantically start snapping pics. I couldn't even remember where the zoom button was located. I just started taking shot after shot hoping to get a few good ones. I was just glad I remembered ahead of time to set the camera on the "snow" setting. And we were about 30 second from the top of the lift and my husband is starting to panic that I won't be ready to get off the lift.

Smuggler

You're right about that blue sky being a gorgeous shade of blue. Hope you feel better. It was close to 70 degrees here yesterday and we had a line of severe thunderstorms blow through last night. (loved the shot of Dave going off the cliff.....sigh.....would love to ski something like that)

Don't worry Melissa - I didn't view your TR negatively. Conditions on the trails varied tremendously from glorious to God-awful. And two people can go down the same trail and have different reactions. Some of the trails I could carve beautifully on and others I just struggled the entire way down. CB's front four blacks can ice up badly so the corn snow we saw on the weekend was a nice change. If I can hold an edge then I'm happy. And since the vertical drop isn't that much on the front four, I like a little variety in seeing it bump up. But I think I'm the only person on the planet who thinks that way.

I passed it on Saturday. My kids wanted to try it but they were literally exhausted by the end of the day and we had parked over by Glen Lodge. BTW.....I know you can do the bungee with no shoes on but one thing that also prevented us from doing the climbing wall is that the only shoes we had with us were our ski boots!!! Can you do the rockwall climbing in your ski socks? Other rock walls we've tried required a shoe with a hard sole on it.

CB should be open through next weekend and maybe more. At least into early April is what I heard.

Thanks, GSS. CB groomed everything last night - so no bumps. I think they might do the same tonight. Hoping it gets really cold tonight and everything firms up. I'll take ice over slush any day. I hope you have a great time and can't wait to hear about it. I cannot believe your luck that you get to ski for free after Blue closes.

You get the best snow at the terrain parks because all the traffic is by the features. So the snow on the sides of the trail is barely touched and in great shape!!! Just stay out of the landings and you have a great trail. Boxes/rails is our next challenge. At Smuggler's we've had two private freestyle lessons on how to ski jumps/boxes/rails. It was a very humbling experience. As a skier, we instinctively edge because that is what gets drilled into our heads. Can't do that in the park. With a lot of effort you can keep your skis flat on a box and go down straight. But try to go down sideways and its darn near impossible not to go on your edges. I take the jumps slow - I get a couple of inches of air and I'm happy.

Did the family's last day of skiing for this winter. The morning was very good; the afternoon was sloppy. The coverage on the trails is fantastic. Only Nile Mile is showing bare spots. Otherwise there is side to side coverage everywhere else. It looks like there is plenty of base. Okay - its frozen with corn on top but there is plenty of snow. I lost my season pass at the cafeteria and some nice person turned it into the main office so I asked a couple of employees how long will CB be open. The word I got was the plan is to stay open into April. I specifically asked about next weekend and was told yes, they would be open next weekend. I also asked how the "ski free if you bring a season pass from another mountain" is working out and they said its been doing well. Back to the conditions...... the morning was corn snow but fairly solid and fast. Our goal was to ski every trail so we started with the front four black diamonds. Marjies had like two or three massive bumps on them - more like boulders. Asp and rocket were outstanding. All groomed out and the snow was smooth and very edgeable. Hump was very good as well. Then we headed over to the laurel glade park. It was mostly empty except for a lot of little, little kids. But these kids knew what they were doing so it wasn't a problem. The halfpipe is really showing wear and tear. It had several bare spots so I didn't go in. I thoroughly embarrassed the park crew guy who was going around to each feature and raking the ramps. I told him "thank you" for keeping things safe. My kids really enjoy the boxes in this park. I can only do the wide flat box and the two jumps. I think I was the only female over the age of 20 in the park so I felt pretty good. After doing 4-5 runs in the park we headed to lunch. The only cafeteria open is the base lodge - Cameltop and Glen Lodge are closed. Around 1pm we headed back on the slopes and went over to the east side of mountain. 1pm seemed like the witching hour as everything had softened up a lot and there was way more slush than in the morning. We figured we better do Cliffhanger first before things deteriorated more. Cliffy is in great shape. There's actually some icy spots on it but the snow is smooth....more sugar than corn. Nile Mile is a complete waste of time. Bare in spots and extremely slushy. Did it once and regretted it. Pharaoh is fine at the top and slush at the bottom. Stick with Cliffy. We did the jumps in Lower Moore's Ramble and it was complete mush of slush both on the ramps and landing. Ugh. The slushy conditions in the afternoon took its toll on both kids and they were wiped out by 2:30pm. So by 3 we called it a day and mostly likely a season. The crowd was minimal today. So my advice to all you Blue people heading over to CB to ski for free......ski in the morning and stick to the steeps. Yes, we saw the Easter bunny walking in front of the main lodge. My daughter saw a ground hog under the Sullivan lift. Bottom line.....given the rain last week, conditions at CB are very good. Pick your trails and you'll be fine.

Greek Peak does like to offer the ski free if you bring a food bank donation. Good for them!!!!

Good to hear - we'll be there on Saturday.

ITA on the hot tub being a requirement after a hard day skiing. And the first thing the kids and I do after every VT ski trip is go right to the chiropractor.

I subscribe to SKI magazine. It kind of reminds me of the USA Today newspaper style of article writing - kind of scratch at the surface of things without really going in depth. So I tend to skim the articles rather than read them. I usually find one article that I find interesting. But I, too, hate the constant articles on somebody's multi million dollar dream house that is always located out west. Why should I care about somebody else's home. I enjoy the gear guide issue and the issue where they rank all the resorts. I'd really like to see them do more indepth reviews of the different resorts. Getting back to carving ski racing.....that looks very very interesting. I looked at the videos and it was hard to tell based on the camera angle but the distance from one set of pillow to the next looked very close - boy, you mis-time a turn and you miss those pillows completely. On the plus side - no gates to hook a ski tip.

You are in better shape than you think. Fresh heavy snow is extremely tiring to ski in. Plus longer vert and your muscles are screaming by the end of the trail. I remember once skiing in VT in heavy snow and feeling very discouraged until two teenagers stopped behind me and one complained to the other how tiring it was getting down the mountain. Made me feel much better.