indiggio

There were a lot of cars in the lot when I left, but the expert slopes were still virtually empty. We did make our way over to the beginner/intermediate area to leave and found where all the people were as it was packed. Going through there was like being back at Blue on a Saturday at 11am, dodging families, beginners, etc. Luckily we found the extended Lower Sidewinder-like snake trail that nobody was on so we could avoid the masses to get back to the lodge.

They're in a bad spot and from what I hear, not marked at all by SP. The light is typically flat in that area which makes the rollers disappear until you're on them. If they're going to leave them overnight and open Razor's to the public in the morning, the rollers need to be painted or marked by a lollipop or sticks.

Yeah, we hit the Rattler connection, well some of us did. A couple of the stragglers missed the rest of us make the turn and they ended up taking the long way round. We also made a run through the trees on Branch Line that had a lot of ice in the middle and inside corners. One of the corners was a sheet of ice and most of us barely survived it without going down.

Driveway is 1" of SOLID sleet that I can't even scratch off with shoe. Must have rained and froze everything up. Punt!

A bunch of us had had enough of Blue lately and decided to use up an Indy on Montage yesterday and from the sounds of the reports out of Blue, it was a good decision. Arrived in the lot just after 8am to 19' and hazy sunshine. It felt cold in the lot, so went with the extra puffy just in case. Later the sun came out and standing around in it, felt overdressed, but out on the slopes it was cold again. In all the years I've skied, I've never bothered to venture to Montage and have to say I'm happy I finally did. Even though the mountain has a bizarre layout, it's unique and a throwback. The beer shack in the middle of the mountain with a DJ cranking tunes was cool, even though we didn't stop for a beer. They had another DJ cranking tunes at the bottom of the Phoebe Snow lift. They opened precisely at 9am and for kicks and giggles we took the Short Haul lift out of the lodge area. The snow was spectacular, loose talcum powder groomed to perfection, what a concept! We cruised on down Boomer which too had perfectly groomed snow and the run had some giddy up. Passed by White Lightning that unfortunately had a Closed sign, and the reason was evident when we got to the bottom and saw a winch cat grooming the bottom headwall. Up and down Smoke which was also perfectly groomed and a lot of fun. Is it Saturday? The place is a ghost town! If it were 930am at Blue, we'd be dodging people already and the runs would be cookies, marbles and ice, but none of that was around, at least in the expert area. Giving the groomer some time on White Lightning, we went over to the Iron Horse lift and down Switch were they were setting up the Nastar course. Next to the run under the lift, there was overblown chalk that a few sampled and found quite enjoyable. The run itself had groomed powder. Up the Long Haul and now we found ourselves back in Blue conditions. They evidently hadn't put as much effort into the conditions over here and/or it has a lot more traffic from beginners and intermediates. The snow was more granular with patches of ice here and there that you had to be careful of as they'd take down an unsuspecting slider. Back over to Boomer to check on White Lightning and they had just dropped the rope. Down the in run, it reminds me of Coming Soon, flat. Up ahead there are a bunch of people just standing around. We all fly past them and down the headwall. Woo-hoo, it definitely has some giddy-up and woah that compression at the bottom was unexpected. Wow that's fun! We lapped that a bunch of times and discovered a bunch of overblow into the woods next to the run where you could actually get a few nice pow turns in the trees. Definitely a fun diversion from the rigamarole that is Blue. This place holds a lot of potential for Spring skiing and warrants a repeat then to use up the second Indy ticket.

Light snow falling up at Blue and the quad, at least, is running...

Sunday morning drive could be spicy...

That's how I thought Sunday was, you'd feel you're fine in a turn and then next thing you know you've slid 20' sideways on a sheet of unseen ice lurking just below the surface. Later runs down Challenge had parallel sheets of ice running down the headwall where the freshly blown lipstick had been scraped off the pig underneath. Then you encountered the booter mid run that sent you airborne if you weren't paying attention.

Yup, we say that too. It's not the quality, but quantity. Gotta get all the slopes open, regardless of how shitty the conditions.

It boggles the mind that other slopes can just blow small whales and leave them alone (not push them totally flat) so that they don't create marbles/cookies. Pretty much every slope I went to up in New Hampshire last week does this and the snow was excellent. The belief that ski trails need to be flat as glass is incomprehensible. It's skiing! Undulations are part of the fun, just look at Coming Soon's ditch.

What else do you do in cemeteries now then?

Unfortunately it's somewhat low-tide condition-wise up there. Waterville definitely had the best and most snow, but even they didn't have everything open.

1/24/2025 The plan was to get down to Waterville around 8am for a 9am open, until i checked my email and found one from Waterville. For some reason I opened it to find they open at 8am for the comp weekend. Scrambled around a bit to get going and arrived at 6:49 to some flurries and mostly cloudy skies. Booted up and made our way up tot eh lodge to get passes and spectator tickets. Upstairs in the lodge the competitors were booting up and getting ready by hopping on tables and running around the place. Slim and I were early, so headed out and lined up, being the only 2 people at the quad. The clock struck 8 and they rang a bell over the lodge to open the place! Blue should take note! Up the quad you get a good view of the course on Lower Bobby’s run, named after Bobby Kennedy who used to ski it. Took the short run down on just absolutely beautiful packed talcum powder snow, definitely the best snow of the week. Up the Sunnyside triple and right back down True Grit that’s steep and fast with some wind blown goodness on the right side. Back up the triple and took a run down Bobby’s to check out the course. This run is freaking steep and it’s amazing these bumpers rip down this and then hurl themselves off the jumps. Met up with the others and made our way down tot eh lodge Psyched that was left ungroomed and had enough natural on it to ski the bumps. The first round was staring so made our way back to Bobby’s to catch some of the runs. Standing along the course for any length of time is tough as it’s so steep. After lunch we decided to check out some woods we saw on the trail map. Found the entrance that looked a bit sketchy, well, a lot sketchy but we dropped in anyway. Bad decision!! It dropped off quick into a minefield of rocks, limbs, logs, sticks…. It was a big effort to make our way out of that mess. Headed back to the spectator area to watch the semifinals. Standing there we got cold and I heard “BEER” off in the distance, so headed back down tot eh lodge meet up with the wife in the lounge. We watched the final runs in the bar. Two of the US girls took 2nd and 3rd and Nick Page took 2nd in the men’s. Headed down to the town of Waterville and grabbed some slices of pizza before the ceremonies and came across Wayne Wong. The legs and body are beat and ready for a break. Another fun Indy/Mogul comp trip in the books!

1/23/2025 Up at the usual 0 dark thirty and made ready for an hour or so drive over to Black Mountain. Over hill and Dale, passing by the amount Washington resort and Attitash and finally ending up at Black, a tiny podunk family ski area that exudes the original charm of skiing. The one triple chair that only goes 2/3 of the way up wasn’t running, but the main double donkey was, so we boarded that towards the peak. Up through the woods you come upon a mid station when you could drop off to avoid the peak or just hit the little LOSTBO hut where they have music blasting, a deck with fire pit and beach chairs out on the snow, which we found odd until after lunch, when the Sun broke out. Black is different in that the mountain faces South, and their motto Ski in the Sun became evident. Every trail was lit up like springtime in the middle of winter. Up on the peak you could see for miles and miles, Attitash off to the left and Mount Washington on the right. Unfortunately another mountain that would bee a hoot had it been a good snow year. They have ample snowmaking, but the real fun runs rely on natural, especially the winding Upper Galloping Goose right under the lift. We did the tour of open runs, all of which had beautiful, soft, well-groomed snow. The runs are fast and quite steep and very tight through the woods. The place was empty and we made fun when a second row of 10 or so cars appeared. We had to stop in the LOSTBO shack for kicks to see what it had. A range of snacks hung on the wall, some brats rolling on the hot dog cooker, beer, wine, etc. we opted for cider and hot chocolate and Tom the tender, a Boston transplant was very willing to tell the tales of Black and its savior Indy who’s committed to keeping the mountain going, but doesn’t want to own the land, where the hopeful co-op takes over. He also told us from where the LOSTBO name originated that’s all around the mountain. Evidently Les Otten at one time promised to buy the mountain and make the owners wealthy but backed out at the last minute after having them cut out the expert terrain at the top. Sitting around pissed at him for backing out the one came up with Les Otten Sucks The Big One and so it stuck. He also told us of Friday night skin up, party and ski down nights that sounds crazy fun. The place is tre-cool and a throwback to the old days of skiing and we were all glad to get there. On the ride back passing the Mount Washington inn, the sun was setting and lighting up the Presidentals, spectacular! Stopped at Rek-lush brewery on the way back for some dinner

1/22/2025 Well, the original plan was to head over to Mt. Abram today, but then I looked at when they open to determine when we needed to leave and discovered that the mountain is t open today! Change the plan, as other Blue bumpers are headed to Ragged Mountain, which I had planned to hit on the way home. Got into the car at 7:15 to -9 and headed South towards Ragged. The temp ranged between -12 and -10 all the way down. Arrived at the mountain about 8:45 and froze my fingers hitting up in the lot. A short walk to guest services to get my $5 card and back out to the frigid cold. The Spear Mt express was the only lift running at the open, so up I went. After a pic or two, down Flying Yankee on a pristine, Deer Valley-esque groomer. Snow was truly packed talcum powder groomed to perfection on a rolling, winding, fairly steep run where they run their races. So much fun!! Next I took Cardigan and Turnpike just to sample what the masses run and it was another gorgeously groomed packed powder run with lots of huge rollers for kicks. Finally took a run down the liftline on Showboat and Showoff which was again glorious packed powder on a fairly steep run. The other Blue bumpers showed up and we repeated the above runs because the Summit Six was having issues. After a lunch break, they got the Six running and we took runs down the trails off skier’r right. The most fun was Raggae Glades, the only open woods. This place really deserves a repeat when all the trees are in play. They place is loaded with tree runs, none of which were open due to lack of snow. Ended the day with a few beers up in the lounge and the over to Woodstock brewery for dinner. Definitely recommended but it does get crowded! Meatloaf Horseshoe!

1/21/2025 The wife’s another year older and time for another birthday “week” ski trip up to NH, specifically for the World Cup mogul competition at Waterville, but also hit some Indy mountains too. Out of the house at 6am and into the freezer, big time! Decided to stop at Catamount on the way up as I’ve never been. The lowest temp along the ride there was -1, but bounced anywhere from there to the teens. Rolled into Catamount just after 9am, booted up, hit up the counter to get a pass using the Indy and out to the freezer. Looking up the mountain, only 1 of the 3 expert runs, Ripper, has snow on it. The other runs on looker’s right were open and they were blowing on the blues far looker’s left. The mountain is basically beginners on looker’s left and the more fun stuff on looker’s right off the Ridge Quad. Unfortunately that quad is a donkey, so it’s slow up and quick down. The place is similar to Blue but much more spread out and slower lifts. Ran down the blues which has some nice, soft freshly blown and groomed snow that was fast and edgeable, with a few slick spots in the center. Did a run down Ripper that was quite dark and lots of marbles, but it’s got some giddy-up and a nice roller at the bottom for some good air if not absorbed. Hit up the bar for a beer with the wife and headed off Brats at One Love brewery…

Congratulations to the both of you!

Do they have designated routes up?

You probably felt right at home with the ice, coming from Blue!

Bah! It's a dry cold! 🤣

It's a fun drive on the motorcycle too!

I agree with Paulie, Blue does groom too much. They should groom early to level off the snow and push the scraped stuff back towards the middle, then just blow a little on top and leave it. Yes, the runs are VERY short at BC. By the time you get going, you're already at the flat and lift, but it is a great little family/beginner mountain to get you prepared for the mayhem that's Blue. Also having so many intersecting trails is a PITA too.

@saltyant I laughed more at these knuckleheads' posts... I can't believe they know @RajeevGuptaSucheeta too!

Lots of resounding reviews...

@RootDKJing for Canada forecast to be correct!