IrishSnow686

I got up to JF that day at 11. It was a really good day out, nice and quiet! That is the 1st time I have been the JF.

I got up to the Boot at 8:20 today. It was colder that what I though in the am, good thing I brough an extra shirt. It looked like Blue got carpet bombed by a flock of birds this morning. There was green bird crap on nearly every trail! By 11 it warmed up substantially and I dropped the coat at the car. Snow softened up to mashed potatoe consistency once the sun popped out. I hit nearly every trail today. The soft snow made for a sick day, and probaly one of the last to hit some of the fun stuff off the sides of the trails. I lasted until 4:30 while only taking one 15 minute break for some water. The best part of the day was watching some of the big air and spins off the big booter while on the lift... the funniest part goes to some guy on Razors that crashed real hard into the blue barrels around one of the snow guns b/w Razors and Challenge.

I was up at BB today and was talking to two guys on the park crew. They did say they are trying to stay open until mid April, they were the 1st to open and said they wanted to be the last to close. Then after they close, they said they plan to push the snow in the parks and keep it as long as possible for rail jams. What was really sweet, is they said it would be free.... just have to hike it I guess. They were saying they hope to keep it open even when its an island of snow surrounded by grass and dirt, so that could be well into May!!!!

I still hope there is some snow in the trees tomorrow... not sure how the warmer temps have effected that. $25 for 2 mountains is a GREAT deal.

Im thinking of heading up to JF in the late morning tomorrow but the website really doesnt say much about JF's park. I havent been up this year but wanted to try a different place. I'll most likely head over to BB at 3 to see that since I havent made it there either this year. Can you still just go from JF to BB w/ the same ticket or do you need to upgrade/buy new one?

April closing dates for the mts would be awesome, especially w/ Blue doing 1/2 price tickets !!!! The only bad thing I would see from this (from a mtn perspective) is some people bitching for the years to come if they close at normal time and they cleary were able to stay open until April this year. But from my perspective, I'm just excited to possibly be snowboarind in April w/out having to drive 4 hours north!!!!!

I was just looking at the calendar of events for Blue and it looks as though they will be closing on Sunday March 25th. I was hoping they would stay open till the 1st week in April, but staying open about a week longer then they normally do is better than normal closing. From Blue's calendar of events for March 25th: "Second Annual Blue Mountain Pond Skimming Contest Last Day of the Season Sponsored by Liquid Fence Our traditional closing day pond skimming competition will mark the completion of another successful season at Blue Mountain. Competitors who successfully skim across our icy moat will receive a specially designed T-Shirt to commemorate their achievement. Will Bat Man or the unidentified skier in the grass skirt once again show up at Blue Mountain? Make sure you attend and participate in the fun! Entry and release forms will be available on line or in the office at Blue Mountain after March 1, 2007. "

Barney's Bumps has moguls which runs alongside Main Street. Other than that, no other trail has moguls. Razor's Edge and Challenge are pretty decent. I was up last night, Challenge was a bit icy up top, but otherwise in good shape.

I was just thinking about when Blue would start giving out the 1/2 price tickets. If I remember, I thought they started handing them out in mid-feb some time.. but I may be off on when. I was hoping they were planning on handing them out later w/ the possibility of staying open till at least the end of march. I would love to keep snowboaring right into the start of my baseball season. Might even have to make a trip up to VT in April

Blue didnt need to go with a 6 pack, sure another quad would have done just fine. But they did need something else other than just that one quad. Sure it was great when the crowd was huge at the quad and you could run over to the double and have 0 liftline.

Very true, I like the idea of a re-grade of Shuttle to Home Stretch. I know nothing would ever be done, I was just fruststrated from yesterday.

I mentioned this in a thread yesterday in a report from my day at Blue.. but for those who didn't read it: I suggested adding a new trail at Blue next to the lower terrain park, using 1/2 of the learing slope and returing back to the base of the 6-pack. Alot of people use the lower park if they are coming down Shuttle or lower sidewinder rather than skiing/riding that flat section back to Home Stretch. Getting into the lower park at times can be pretty crazy b/c alot of these people either sit outside the entrance or just inside.. watching people hit the jumps. Then they 'drop in' like they are going to take a jump and then ski/ride right by it never hitting one jump/box and causing many people to lose speed or avoid a feature all together. My proposal (if it has been suggested before I did not know) that a small trail be added just to the left of the terrain park (if you are looking down the mtn) and connect it to the learning slope. Blue has 4 learning hills... to me that is more than enough. The lower school hill is plenty wide to cut in 1/2 or 1/3 to give people coming down Shuttle & lower sidewinder a trail to return back to the base, avoiding the lower park and also the flat section back to home stretch while still keeping the other 1/2 or 2/3 as a school hill. Just divide it with a fence, bushes..whatever.

I decided to come up to VT for the weekend to Sugarbush.. they got DUMPED on w/ about 48" of snow according to according to the mt. Yesterday there was a huge power outage in the area that shut down the lifts around 2pm. Luckily I was not on the lift at the time, but for the people that were they used the diesel backup to get the lifts moving long enough to get the people off. Conditions are def EPIC... 4' of new snow and some fresh snow coming down today. The snow is amazing, so much powder left over from that storm. My little break is over, time to head back out... Be back to the ol' BLue on Tues.

I usually reserve the use of EPIC for powder days, but epic for one is not for another....But it should be an EPIC crowd day, especially at the top of the 6-pack. Blue should look into fencing off so people coming from the quad don't have to fight thru the crowd coming off the sixer. If I do go this weekend, it will def be 1st chair till about 10:30...any later and I start getting annoyed with the large crowds. I might even try to hit an lower-key mountain. I don't see any races on Blue's website scheduled except for Nastar on Sunday afternoon.

^LOL I knew they were still there, just wasn't sure if for some reason they were slowly removing the gladed trails. As far as I know, JF is the only resort in the poconos that allows tree skiing/riding. I never knew about them allowing all access until last year. I wonder if they will still continue to blow on some of them, or did they just let the snow blow off from the other trails being blown?

I'm thinking of going up to Sugarbush this weekend.. they got 4 feet of POW! Crowds will probaly be mad crazy up there, but if I still until Tuesday afternoon might not be too bad. If not, I'll just stay local and do the midnight madness at BB sunday night. That is the only way I'll go out this weekend. I only got about 2 inches of snow w/ about 2 of ice! haha.

I know there is already a thread about JF removing trails from its trail map. But I dont think it was even answered (at least that I could see) in that thread. Are those trails that were removed still open? Or did they rope them off for good?

It was getting near impossible to see, my gog's just kept icing up. I was wondering how the comp went. Figured the new snow would slow things down especially going into the jumps. Everytime I was on the lift, I never got to see anyone of the contestants hit one. Can a spectator get into the park to watch? It looked like the stairs were roped off so no one could get in but the competitors.

Aside from what year the images were actually taken, it was cool to see Blue as the only ski resort of all the one's I looked at the have full cov'g on their trails. Most of the other ski area's were harder to see, but the contrast of the snow made Blue look much bigger (wider trails) than other area mts.

I got up to Blue at 6:45 tonight, the snow was falling pretty good, couldnt even see the top of the mountain. There was a nice fresh dusting to an inch on the trails. That little bit of snow covered up the ice but still gave the edge something to grab when turing. Challenge was a bit icy in parts up top but bounced back pretty nicely by the end of the night. Lazy was great as usual. Switchback has icy spots around a few of the turns from when I got there until the end of the night. Paradise was a prime shape. With only the 6 pack running, not too many people ventured over there... especially the red coats. I did 3 runs total down paradise, maybe making one or two turns.. the rest was a straight shot down. Main Street was great, had some bumps building near the moguls which was fun. I only did one run down Sidewinder, but was having fun on the lower sidewinder. By about 8pm, the snow stopped and then by 8:30 the snow started back up, but was mixed with sleet and possibly some freezing rain. The sleet really wasn't that bad, but towards 9 it really started to stick to my goggles. I tried to scrape of the ice but it just wouldnt happen. A few runs were tricky to see with iced over gog's. Still, conditions were some of the best of the season if not the best due to the little bit of snow that fell. I really though we would get at least 3-4 inches while up there and def never thought sleet would fall till later. Seems like the snow totals are going to drop way down from the original forecast.

Seems like alot of schools/business' are already calling it a day and cancelling for tomorrow. With more people off tomorrow, I wonder how the crowds will be. If its all snow, heavy crowds. But I wonder if the threat of ice/rain is warding some people off from going up tomorrow. I'll probaly go up to Blue tonight and early tomorrow.

Def older images. I have google earth on my computer and have played around with it alot. I was looking at my house and my old car is still in the driveway, so some of the images can be as far back as 5 years ago. As far as the Blue picture, that must have been done at a different time. The area image is all brown, no leaves on the trees, snow on the trails. But if you zoom out, there is leaves on the trees. Look at other area mountains in the poconos, zero snow on a single trail.

How was the crowd for the last midnight madness?

Unfortunately I will be back at Blue tomorrow bright and early. I just spend the last week up in VT hitting up Okemo and Stratton for 1 day. But back to reality and living in the poconos area... should be up there tomorrow by 8am. The cold will not bother me, low teens were the highs at the bases for much of the week in VT!

Under Armour is def not cheap, your looking at about $40-$50 for the cold gear w/ the mock turtle neck. But it is def worth it, I feel naked if I go out on a cold day without it.. when its warmer I just use the normal Under Armour. Try typing in cheap under armour gear in google.. or buy directly from Under Armour website... its about $50 on there.