indiggio

Unbelievably cold morning to start the day off at 9 degrees, no wind, dry air. Cool valley clouds coming down mountain road to lot. They're blowing snow mad on bottom and full-tilt on Challenge, Sidewinder, Central Park and Finish Line. Snow was the best that it's been at Blue so far this year, IMHO. They finally opened up Nightmare and Dreamweaver about 9:45 after finish grooming shortly before. As expected, lots of chunks, marbles, ditches, etc., but it was breaking up fast with the crowds hitting it pretty hard. It started to become a pinball run about an hour after it opened. Lines at both the six and quad weren't too bad at all, at most a 2-3 minute wait. The six lines were shorter than the quad. We'll probably see Challenge open tomorrow or Wed as they've got nice deep wells on it. With any luck, we may see Sidewinder by the weekend!

That's the route that I was going to take if/when PennDot ever does close the bridge.

Ditto, but at Little Gap.

Hey, it looks like they added some new cams on the BM website!!! http://www.skibluemt.com/SkiBlue/the-mountain/mountain-cams.aspx They look pretty damn good! Why The F are they wasting prime snow blowing water/pressure/cold on Home Stretch? It doesn't add to capacity. They need to get Burma open to get more people off the already crowded runs!

I finally remembered to start it yesterday with about 5 runs to go. When you're done you hit the pause button and it uploads the data to command central. From there you can view your runs overlayed on a Google Map of the mountain and even do some virtual race or something crazy. I just wanted to see if it worked, how accurate it was, etc. It seems pretty accurate as I was doing a bit of carving down the run out to the six-pack and even they showed up.

So has anybody else given this a whirl? http://www.alpinereplay.com If you've got a smartphone (iPhone or Android), you download their app and start it running when you start for the day. It tracks your travels, speed, etc. Kinda interesting if you're into stats. Android app will track airtime and number of jumps. iBone users are SOL Hardest part is to remember to start it running.

How can we hijack this discussion?

The weekend should be interesting. Thinking that people are going to forget the 60+ and rain this week. The snow squalls are gonna bring people out, I'd bet.

I've got Line Prophets, so I think my opinion is a bit swayed by being so used to skiing on them. Since the BBRs are only like 90mm vs 100mm, edge to edge was much quicker. I needed to only shift my weight slightly for them to hook up and that they did. With the soft snow yesterday, they carved really well, which made them a lot of fun to ski on. I didn't quite like the super-sized shovel, though I understand it's purpose, I think it's a tad too large. The other thing that I noticed was that I got a feeling like the ski wanted me to be more in the back-seat vs my Line's. I kept finding myself on my heels, which had me a bit off-balance. I kept trying to force my weight forward, but through a turn i noticed a shift rearward. Perhaps it's a function of the "waist" being behind the center of the boots on them, I dunno? After the demo, I kept that in mind when going back to my skis and I didn't have the same feeling. My weight was balanced throughout a turn. Granted I only took a few runs on the BBRs, so I can't say it's a shortcoming of the skis. I believe that over time a skier will get used to and adapt to any ski over time, but that was the impression I got right off the bat. I'm glad I got to demo them. Unfortunately around these parts, demo days are few and far between compared to the bigger ski areas, which make buying skis difficult.

Good ol PennDot changed the closing date yet again, now it's 1/16/12. They must be tight on cash and had to go to the smaller font for the 6, it can barely be read when flying past the sign.

Conditions this afternoon were indeed great, save the white out visibility at the top of the mountain. Otherwise, snow was very easy to carve. Lots of bare spots coming up through on almost all the trails. Had to check out the Salomon BBR demo to see what all the hype is about. I'll stick with the Lines I'm on...

Looks like the changed the closing date, now posted closing Jan 11, 2012.

Looked to me like they made a first pass over it, just needed another death cookie cutter runthrough... Fully agree, they were unbelievable. Attempting to stop on them was madness, you just rolled over them sideways. Had to keep to the side of pretty much all runs to get to some nice, soft manmade Pocono powder.

Spectacular night of skiing tonight at Blue. Snow guns a blaze on Razor's, a few on Challenge, lower park and a few other junctions, all dropping curtains of gold snow from the backdrop of the lights. The snow itself on all the open runs was gold as well. Lots of freshies to be had on the edges, with some hard pack in the middle from a day of scraping. The run of the night was definitely Main Street, with soft stuff from top to bottom along the right side and nary another soul to be seen. However mid way down, there was a full section of marbles, which made stopping or edging nearly impossible. For the long run, the six pack to Tut's, Lazy to Falls was also fun and mostly empty, so it could be pretty much wide open. There were also some fun drops on the sides. The place was pretty empty to my surprise. I thought there'd be more high schoolers, but it was non-stop from the top onto the lift. Was a bit apprehensive about going up due to the wind and cold early on, which made booting feel like the arctic. Clouds covered up the moon and stars, so by the time we got back to the car, the temps rose and it was rather comfortable. Spectacular snow and empty runs and lifts made it well worth the trip. Looks like Razor's will be open for Sat. as they have lots of deep wells on it. Challenge, from the looks of things now, not, unless they hit it hard the next two days. It also looked like they had enough snow and made a first pass over Nightmare, so it may be open Sat., if not earlier. Lower park will also be open, as it's got some deep wells too. Burma (if anyone cares) is bone dry, as it Sidewinder, both Upper and Lower. We may even see Chute open come Sat. or earlier, as it's also got nice wells on it.

Yup. Today around 1pm.

What more could we ask for, right?

Looks like Blue is now honoring neighboring employee season passes as well. You'd think Blue would be as generous to their season pass holders, like letting them on the mount 1/2 hour early or something???

Thought of that too, but I suspect that friends are gonna say "How much for how many runs? Forget it". People with passes are gonna go no matter what, because they've already paid (somewhere) and want to get something out of the money already spent. The whole thing just boggles my mind, which is why I started the discussion. Why would a competing business do such a thing? I doubt you'd ever see Camelback make an offer like this...

Crowd was significantly smaller than expected today. Probably threat of rain kept people home or at work. Lots of BM racers out. Definitely saw a few BC boarders there. 6-pack was having issues too, late start, stuck a few times for brief periods. Snow was soft and slow, but overall a great morning to be on the slopes. Hope this rain moves through quick and doesn't do a lot of damage.

Yeah, it would be interesting to see the breakdown of season passes by type. Personally, I think most people buy the unlimited, but I don't know either. I'm only going by the people that I know and what they buy. I'm merely stating that I don't think it's going to change anyone. If you go to BC, you're gonna still go there. Hell, like GSS says, it may serve to drive some BM passholders elsewhere. It could hurt BM in the end.

I was thinking the same. But also, just how much coin do they think they're really gonna make off food and other? Even though they have signs to not bring outside food, people will still do it, so they probably won't make much there. Rentals? Season pass holders don't rent. Nothing there. Since terrain is limited, they won't bring up friends. Who's gonna pay holiday rates for what little terrain there is open? I just don't see it. Paying it forward perhaps... How far does good PR go anyway? What's Blue's season pass cost compared to BC? Would people switch if the difference is big and a longer drive, just because Blue let them ski this year? Unfortunately Blue is losing money each warm and/or rainy day. I'm sure it costs a boat-load to cover the runs, only to have it run down the slopes as water. Just grateful they're open...

So the management at Blue thinks "Who's brilliant idea was this to allow other mountains passholders to ski here?"...

Oh yes indeed. Blue gets the people that don't want to continue riding up to Camelback or beyond. But now that they opened to other pass holders, there's less incentive to go elsewhere. Why buy the cow, if the milk is free?

I don't see the gesture converting many, if any. I do agree that it's gonna make Blue more crowded, so Blue season passholders are the ones that get screwed... We get nothing positive out of it, and have to deal with more crowds. Unless Blue has some deals with the other mountains, I only see them getting more food revenue? Some crazy business management going on there... BC is gonna have a tough time, with almost an inch of rain predicted for Tues./Wed. 69 News showed their slopes prior to Christmas and they had just a few wells where the guns are. This weather blows big time.

Saw that Blue is going to honor other mountain's passes until they open. Guess it's a nice thing for them to do, in the spirit of Christmas and all.... Conspiracy theorist in me says Blue must be getting some kind of kickback from other mountains?