indiggio

Not the rain, but the fog that I'm worried about...

Was thinking the same thing. Hopefully this is a quick heat up/cool down that doesn't cause too much damage.

So said their FB post...

I've seen articles on this and WFMZ just did a blip on it. I find it hard to believe just looking around at Blue on a weekend day. http://www.wfmz.com/news/news-regional-lehighvalley/Snowboarding-going-downhill-in-popularity/-/132502/18299144/-/eaagbi/-/index.html

Just got back from a morning session. Left the house at 7:20 with the thermometer reading 9. Got up to the mountain about 8:20 with at temp at the summit of 14. First run down Chute to Main Street showed the guns still going on the entire Main Street run. Chute and Main Street had a bit of marbles which I thought was surprising. There weren't many, but they were in batches, probably from where the big wells were blown. Took a run down Paradise which had super soft, man-made powder. It was squeaky chalk and quite slow. I'm sure the lack of wax on my skis didn't help at all. They were grooming Challenge, so instead took Razors. The top headwall is hard as a rock and a sheet of ice. The only new snow was the overblow from Challenge. It was fast until the first flat. Felt like they blew some new snow there. Challenge finally opened about 9:30 and was surprising soft right off. I skied past the two SP who had took the tape down. When I got to the bottom, I got whistled and accosted for poaching the run. After a brief conversation with the SP and a bit of radio chatter, things got squared away and they let me go. Later in the day it seemed like marbles were coming up to the surface as more people skied on it. Finally around 11, Switchback opened to superb conditions, except for a small stretch of marbles in the middle. Otherwise it was fast and quite carveable. They've started grooming Sidewinder and building some features. They've groomed a tabletop at the bottom and have some rails set on the sides. I don't think it's gonna be ready for tomorrow. Lower Sidewinder was also closed with hardly any grooming to it. Nightmare and Dreamweaver were closed, but nothing being blown on it, nor did it look like it had any grooming done to it either. Took a couple of runs through the glade just for fun to see what they were like. Since nobody had gone through, it was just hard, man-made piles. Lastly, there were no bumps anywhere to be had. Main Street was groomed flat from side to side. I suspect they'll probably seed some, maybe tonight? JADIP...

Wouldn't the place be empty at that point?

Ya talked me out of it. Took vacation day tomorrow instead. Like skiing in the daylight better anyway.

May need to do a bunch of after-work runs. Gonna be cold!

Post pics!

Haven't come across that as of yet. Have to be on the smellout. I don't doubt you. Bet it gets pretty boring on lift duty when there's no crowds.

Hell, I smell it pretty much every ride up when at Blue! I've never had any issues with the lifties at Okemo, guys on South ridge are a trip, blastin' Reggae. Always pleasant. Perhaps it was more the skiers/boarders than lifties?

Okemo is a great mountain, if you have small children. I think it's geared towards them. A great beginner Vermont ski area. We'd been taking trips there with young ones for years. As expected, even they got bored with Okemo and since progressed to skiing/liking Killington far more. I believe the pub is Killarney's. There's also Tacos Tacos for some Mexican explosions (Woo did I get a bad dose of food poisoning from that place!). We want to venture to the more northern areas in the next few years. Just dread the extra travel time.

Sit around watching people wash their car and just after they're done...<bombs away>

They like the wide-open farmlands, mainly a bit south of here. Seem them all the time in the farms around Raubsville.

Yes, elderly (90's) father who refuses to leave his house who needs lots of assistance.

After this (and the last few) winter(s), so ready to get the hell out of PA...

Duct tape is cool!

Ditto. I'm a bump survivor (and often times not even that!), not a bump skier.

Nah, don't really chomp for that one. Mostly just newly open trail curious.

Vacation day from work, 4.5 hours skiing, beers in fridge for tonight, no work tomorrow... Indeed a good day!

It was an interesting day today at Blue. Went to the bottom to see what was up down there. For some reason, there was nobody manning the lift lines, so a bunch of outlanders made their way right to the pass readers and nobody gave them grief. So once they did, we all did the same. Lower Paradise had been groomed, so we thought it would be open, but once we got to the top, no dice. It hadn't even been touched by a groomer as of 8am, so down Tut's and over to Main Street, which was nicely groomed and fast. Made the 6-pack lap again, but took connector over to the park and took a run down Chute. It was quite hard and they didn't push the wells entirely across the trail, keeping a ditch with ice boulders on skier's left. Another run up the 6-pack around 8:30 or so, saw a groomer heading down Paradise from the top. Perhaps they would open it today? A later ride up around 9 had the grooming fleet behind the tape at the top, just left of the 6-pack and the SP setting up tape to keep skiers off Razor's and Challenge. People were wanting to go down Paradise, but SP wouldn't open it for another half-hour, so we went on our merry way. Crowds were surprisingly light early on. Thought there'd be more out, but I guess not as many had off today. This made lapping the mountain easy until about 10, when crowds starting appearing. Main Street from Midway on down started to look like an ant hill. This made for some interesting spectating from across Chute. Lots of collisions, people skiing right off the sides of Chute and Main Street. One really odd sight was a group of 4 ski instructors skiing down Chute backwards, in a reverse stem christie sort of way At one point the last instructor bit it and was fighting to get his skis back on. Very bizarre. Back up the 6-pack around 9:45 and Paradise was now open. Took a run down and it was all marbles. Guess they wanted all the grooming they did to re-freeze. Took a run down it later, around noon or so and the middle had broken up a bit, but the sides were still rollers, as expected. The lower part, just after the last sharp left turn had quite a bit of natural snow on skier's right, which made for some pleasant sliding to get away from the marbles. Now that people are on it and the groomers can get a few more goes at it, the surface should be good. They were still blowing full out on Razor's, Lower Sidewinder and Falls. Nothing going on Dream Weaver, Challenge, Sidewinder, Switchback, Window Maker (even though it was open) or Burma. There also were no features in the lower terrain park.

It's a government plot...

Delaware?

Mmmm... Pretzels (with mustard or peanut butter) and beer!

A giant tesla coil. That would be cool, a nice lightning bolt between ski/board as you approach.