indiggio

Unfortunately they don't get enough traffic to ski them in and the run is too short, but they are a nice diversion from Barney's. The other problem is that they're on the wrong side and don't get any sun to soften them up.

I'm wondering what they're gonna call the new trail. Looking up from Paradise, it's got a bit of steep goodness to it, unless they grade the shit out of it. And usually the other side is all scraped off...

Guess they put all the grooming effort last night into Razor's and Switchback. Thought they'd at least break down the whales on Challenge to let them dry out a bit... Guess not.

Typical first day conditions after grooming newly blown snow. First few runs down them are usually pretty good, but after the crowds get on them, up come the cookies, marbles, golf balls, etc.

Not necessarily. If the storm comes in heavy after the nightly grooming, they leave it go. All depends on the timing.

That happened on one of the storms last year. It was pumping at home, but by the time I got to Blue, it was barely a flurry.

Thinking about it, it might make sense to take the Lehighton exit. The turnpike will have more traffic and be better cared for. If you take 248 into Palmerton, it's also got more traffic, so should be better as well. Finally, you're coming in the backside and you avoid the possible Mountain Drive shit-show, unless you're into that... Downside is a bit longer drive on turnpike and higher toll. As with any drive in the snow though, it's a crap shoot as you never know when someone else has had a bad go of it.

I've got at least one pole I carry around at all times. Would I get scanned?

The way up during a snowstorm is usually a cluster-F. People with inadequate vehicles getting stuck end up blocking the way for those that have no problems in the snow. Sometimes it's better to take the long-way round through Palmerton.

Just got back from a quickie 2 hour session up at Blue, now I'm sitting here with a Tiny stout to recap. Rolled into the lower lot just after 6pm. I didn't notice the temp, but when I left the house it was 28. The place was quite empty, save a few school buses, but they didn't carry over much to the runs. Rode up the 6 to see that the guns were off on Challenge and Razors, with groomers working the middle in earnest, just below the first headwall. They've got a few features already set on Central Park, but the rest of the run was maybe 2nd groomed. It needs another pass before they open it. Looks like they didn't get a lot of production on Razors at the top, probably due to the winds the past couple of days. Challenge has got some mammoth whales on it, one in particular looks like some kind of ice-fanged monster. They haven't started grooming on Challenge as of yet, but I suspect they'll have it ready by the weekend. Looking farther East, the guns were still blazing on Nightmare and Dreamweaver. Took a run down Paradise to see what it was like and found the snow to be in excellent shape. Lots of hard pack in the middle and talcum powder like on the sides. Anything you desire could be found. Rode up the quad to check out NMDW. At the intersection of NM, DW & Paradise, it doesn't look like they got a lot out of the snowmaking, again probably due to the wind. They've got a bit to go yet to get that area covered as the wells there aren't that big either. Nightmare has some decent wells, but a lot of the snow is up on the hill, Paradise and Danielsville. Lazy had similar snow to Paradise, but the middle was a bit more scraped, mostly due to the crowds. As I rode up the 6 this time, lo and behold, on come the guns on Sidewinder. Went over towards Main Street and looked down Switchback. They've got it rough-groomed now and were still working the middle section yet. It's a tough call if they'll get it opened by tomorrow or not. Ya never know Blue's plans. Made a few runs through some newly seeded bumps. They're spaced way too far apart at the moment with some deep ruts in the troughs. They need to have more people ski them to get them in shape. However, the lower set of bumps are in much better shape than the ones up top. The lip on the right of Main Street was still in superb shape with lots of scraped and fresh snow. Lots to play in there. As I was nearing the end of the session, they brought the winch-cat over to Razors, so they'll probably get to working the headwalls with it tonight. Hopefully they'll at least rough-groom Challenge so the snow dries a bit. Looking like this weekend is going to be a pretty good one at Blue.

Exactly who's supposed to get it...

Only thing this storm is going to bring are the crowds....

The good ol' 0-24" prediction, leaning strongly towards the 0...

Bah! Euro has it going south.

Ditto! Since the trail is quite covered, the snow doesn't blow away as much and easier.to cover.

It's a possibility they get them open by Thursday, but with the wind howling, more snow was settling in the woods than in the whales.

I'm back home from a much better session at Blue mountain than yesterday, bringing my confidence back at bit in the mountain, the snow making and grooming. I arrived at the lower lot at 7:30am with the temperature a balmy 17 degrees under crystal clear, blue skies, with a roar of the snow guns in the distance. The lot was virtually empty, as ours was the only car across from the base lodge at the time. I took my good old natured time getting ready because of the temperature and wind blowing. Since I took my time, I didn't get in line for the first 6-pack chair, but it didn't matter as the place was pretty empty, which surprised me a bit. Perhaps now it was too cold for people to come out?? Guns were blazing on Challenge, Nightmare, Dreamweaver and Switchback all day, with a few of the fan guns going off all over for an annoying glaze to the goggles as you passed through. This became much worse towards the afternoon, especially on Razors, as they hadn't adjusted the mix on Challenge and the wind was carrying most over to skier's left on Razors. If you stayed left, you had to stop at the bottom of the first headwall to clear the goggles. Since I didn't need to hustle to get tracks down Razors, I took a run down Paradise which had some sweet, mixed cord to cut up. Some fresh was mixed in with the granular to make it a fast and smooth run. Next was a run down Lazy to see how that was. Some nice snow from the fan gun at the top followed by a coat of new on the run again mixed with the granular, not bad. Finally took a run down Razor's. The top was quite wind-blown (which only got worse towards the afternoon), but below the first headwall, the snow was very nice. There were still some grooming ruts here and there, but nothing like yesterday. Main street bumps were glacial and NOT fun at all. The rest of Main Street early was meh. Still marbles in the middle, but the right lip had some blowoff from Switchback, so there was plenty of fun to be had along there. Crowds never really materialized the entire day. Both the quad and 6 were running, but yet again the 6 bit it in the afternoon, causing everyone to bail to the quad. They had to break out the organizer for a while, but eventually got the 6 going again. They also were limiting the 6 to 5 riders all day. We ended up lapping the quad anyway. Temps during the day came up a bit with the blazing sunshine, but it also brought even stronger winds which pretty much carried all that was being blown at the top of Challenge and Nightmare overtop to Danielsville. Mt. Mik probably has some nice coverage now. The rest of the afternoon was spent finding nice snow along the edge of Paradise (no SP were out), Lazy and Main Street, which resulted in some nice thigh burn. There was some talk of this storm on Fri/Sat on the lift, but I'll choose to believe it when I see it.

No didn't stay all day. Decided to bold when 6 went down and quad was having issues. I know you have a far better memory than I, but in my opinion they didn't seem to put much effort into the grooming.

Had to be the absolute worst grooming job that I've ever witnessed in all the years skiing at Little Gap/Blue. Appeared as though they put some effort into Razor's (obviously), then just put a modicum of effort around the rest of the mountain. To top it off, on the most crowded day of the season so far, have the 6-pack go down forcing everyone over to the quad, then having it go down a few times too! Yesterday was definitely not at top 10 day at Blue. We'll see what tomorrow holds.

Definitely best day and conditions of the season. Once the sun came out, the bumps turned spectacular with very spring-like conditions. Unfortunately they took a beating from use (some bare spots in troughs were coming up through) as well as a hoard of ski patrol doing drills across both lanes and pushing all the loose stuff into the troughs. Why they can't just use one side of the bumps or the other is beyond me??? They also choose to all stand in the middle of the bumps causing us to divert out just for them. Where's the etiquette? The bumps ended up getting quite deep and still remained soft towards the end of daylight, so more fun was had along both sides of Main Street, also to avoid all the collisions occurring down the middle! I think today topped the number of collisions that I've ever seen at Blue before. People were semi-poaching Razors around 2ish, so we headed over there to find someone pulling down the tape at the top, but the "race" was still going on on Razorback so they fenced everyone over to Falls. The top headwall of Razors was all soft and bumped up, which made for a lot of people wanting to go down but having a rough time of it. For some unknown reason, the Quad was stopped for a pretty long time (10-15 mins) which had us bail over to the 6. There was a slight crowd there, but only a few minute wait tops. They didn't use a 6-organizer all day. Final runs down Lazy found lots of little jumps on the left hand size every 10 yards or so. I don't know if they were built on purpose or what, but they were quite fun to hit on the way down. Really felt like a March day at Blue out there today.

The rich get richer...

Because the race team is pitching a fit that Razor's isn't open. Obvious who runs the show at this mountain...

I seem to recall it too.

I'm wondering where they're going to build it? North of the existing lodge? South is close to retention pond. Are they going to move that? Perhaps on top of the school hill?

They say Paradise is open.