NJSkiFamily

I'll admit up until today I was getting nervous about the conditions. It was nirvana back in December and I thought we had used up our luck. If Robin's Run is open then they've gotten a boatload of snow. We'll be stompin' in the glades for sure.

Smuggs just went 100% open with the new snow from yesterday. We'll be there in 9 days

Sigh.....we can only dream of conditions like that. Always seems you get the big dumps when we get the lousy weather. And its pretty lousy today. At least it was warm for the Giants parade in lower Manhattan. That was cool to watch on TV.

Okay - I'm jealous. (sigh) Its darn near 60 degrees and raining here.

And to answer the original question......I would give VT a try. Carefully research the different mountains and pick one that suits your needs.

Pharaoh was just as bad on Saturday. Was the Raceway lift running on Sunday? It was shut on Saturday and that kept everyone off the Raceway trail.

The 15 day forecasts on Accuweather are schizophrenic. I've seen it change dramatically in one direction only to change back a few days later. Drives me crazy. I have a love/hate relationship with it.

Exactly......so glad Elk doesn't have a high speed quad. I much prefer a longer/slower chair lift ride if it keeps the volume down on the slopes.

Yup.

Glad somebody is seeing snow in their backyard. We have not even gotten our sleds out of the attic.

After two weeks of all of us battling colds/flu we finally hit the slopes today. Conditions were a mixture of soft snow and frozen granular (snowcone). The most important thing is that the snow was edge-able - complete opposite of MLK weekend when I couldn't hold an edge anywhere. Crowds were bigger than I expected - greenie trails were crowded but even later in the afternoon those trails didn't get skied off anywhere near as bad as you'd expect. The Raceway lift was not working and that was a major pain in the a$$ as it forced most people onto the Stevie lift. That, of course, meant the Raceway trail was in fantastic shape and empty. One of my favs of the day. Marjies was great as well. Soft snow, plenty of it, little/no ice. Wow. Rocket was AWFUL!!!!! Holy cow, what happened with the grooming???? Its like the grooming machine sucked every inch of snow off that trail. It literally was a flat sheet of ice and you could see the tracks from the grooming machine clearly etched in the ice. After experiencing that I did not try Cliffy. Too bad - I forgot CB made snow on that trail and my kids and husband skied it as the last run of the day and said it was just fine. The bumps on lower Cleo got groomed over not the right snow conditions for bumps (though Marjies had some at the top). Saw one of our local elementary school teachers at Cameltop. It was cloudy the entire day and the snow started to get more cruddy as the day wore on and the temps dropped. Not a bad day and we were just relieved to have the whole family healthy enough to be on the slopes.

Your TR is doing fine so far.....keep it up!!!!

Some sports medicine people are now advising alternating heat and ice as a way to deal with muscle injuries......ice controls the swelling, heat gets the blood flow going.

I was reading one of the accuweather headlines earlier this week and they were complaining so far they've gotten all of 2 inches of snow in their part of PA all season. MotherNature must be off on some extended Caribbean cruise right now.

Got my bowl of popcorn ready and putting up my feet on the table.....I'm ready.

Smuggs has done a really good job beefing up their non-skiing/riding activities. They've got lots of snowshoeing tours and hikes - including ones that venture into the Notch itself. Plus lots of crosscountry trails. Plus other indoor activities for those who don't like being out in the cold....painting classes and such and listings of events going on in town. My husband constantly hears from other dads at Smuggs who are envious that I like to ski as their wives hate being out in the cold. But there is enough for the wives to do that they continue to come to Smuggs. I talked to one husband who's wife is just happy being at the resort and having the condo all to herself so she can relax and chill out while the rest of the family is on the slopes. And the great thing about Smuggs is that all the lodging is ski in/out. I'd say the majority of people ski a couple of runs then head back to their condo. I've been in group lesson classes where everyone except me only skis during their lesson.

If it was super crowded then maybe it was good we didn't go. It was crowded enough on MLK weekend. We're aiming to go on Saturday as we seem to be gettting over our colds/flu. BTW Skilift.....don't be surprised if your son is still sore in a couple of weeks from his fall. If he is then have him see a physical therapist/chiropractor. They've got better equipment to deal with muscle sprains/spams than popping anti-inflammatory pills (which I find never work).

I know, I know..... I am determined to do that in a few weeks when we're back. I think it was a fear of taking a bad fall and getting hurt at the beginning of the season. If I'm getting 25% off the cost of the uber-expensive Smuggs then I want to be around to ski it!!! The resort gave me 25% off the cost of both trips this winter. BTW....always read all your mail from your resort. The letter offering 25% off the cost of our vacation looked like your typical marketing junk mail you get. You know the kind....."thanks for the reservations....looking forward to seeing you.....yadda, yadda, yadda....." Instead it read......thanks for staying with us last year, we know you didn't have great conditions last year when you came but we'd like for you to come back so we're offering 25% off your 2007/2008 vacation.

Wanted to go on Saturday to see CB's 45th birthday party but it wasn't meant to be for us as we've been hit hard by colds/flu. How were the conditions? It was super icy on MLK weekend. Hopefully with a week of snow blowing, conditions were better.

And hopefully a lifelong lesson. Glad its nothing serious. I also second getting a freestyle lesson. The parks are fun but the margin for error is nill. My kids took a freestyle private lesson at Smuggler's Notch last year. I went along as well. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

I was thinking about that same article when I read this thread. Wasn't that doctor 35 years old and look what happened. Your son is lucky all he got was a sore back and I'm sure some vicious whiplash as well. That's why we're jumping on you. And if he took a fall like that I would have taken him to the first aid area to get him checked out.

I agree with the others - please don't ever try "experimenting" in the park. I never let my kids on any feature in the parks without having been taught by an instructor on how to do it.

Holy cow - do you have some more details on what happened? That is awful. Was it a collision? We were at CB on Saturday and the entire mountain was so icy - I definitely skied in defensive mode. I don't mind icy conditions but something just didn't feel right the entire day. BTW....how are you doing? Yes, it is does seem we're hearing about more serious injuries and fatalities this winter. Very sad.