sibhusky

Day 19. Managed to miss being on Chair 1 when it stopped at 10 AM. (I kept thinking, "Where is everyone? It's a Powder Friday!") The back side was like a private club. Skied straight on the lift the entire time. It took them > 3 hours to evacuate it. Meanwhile I was oblivious to it until 11:30.

Day 18. Nirvana.

$600. Uh...No. Also, today not bad enough to leave. Only to influence which trails I took.

Day 17. Wind and visibility were issues, but good day. PXL_20260106_194049678~2.mp4

Day 16. Most of the crowds have left. Still a ton of rental gear and paper tickets, tho.

Day 15. Freshies

Day 14. Braved the crowds because the windchill was -15°F and I figured they would stay in the lodge a lot. Lined up for a chair at 8:40 and skied until noon. I love cold days here.

Day 13. Powder Day! Just dumping!!/

Day 12. Occasionally "one chair" visibility.

These are paper ticket people. Not locals.

I decided today it's not the numbers, it's actually the people themselves. Extended families blocking the entire width of trails. People flying straight down at race speed through slow zones with multiple large neon orange signs saying it's a slow zone, people coming to a dead stop right in the center of a trail with plenty of moving people all around them, cars parking so close to my door I have to go in on the passenger side and crawl over the center console, large groups in the seasonal locker area using up all the benches so that those of us who paid out big bucks (more than my pass), can't use the benches, people popping out of treed areas onto trails without looking at who is coming, people zigzagging the entire width of a wide trail in a totally unpredictable rhythm, it just goes on and on.

Day 11. "Hell Week is here!" according to a passholder talking to a lifte, and I agree, but occasionally you find a trail with a dearth of idiots.

Day 10. School is out and the Christmas visitors have started to arrive. Got some runs with friends today who are fussier than I about conditions

Day 9.

Day 8. It was my birthday and the first powder day, and they all came.

Day 7. Temps dropped. Stayed at 16°. I was dressed for about 24°. No matter, just kept moving. Fresh snow on the back. Dirt, ice, chickheads on the front.

Day 6. Due to high winds, the lift didn't open. I got about 500' in to get to the main lift area, waited around until 10:45, then left.

Day 5. Forecast looked iffy, but decided to go anyway. Got in 7K of pretty nice skiing before I left. Will try to ski 6 days this week to make up for a couple days I just rolled over and went back to sleep. Nice empty slopes.

Day 4. One area is kind of a disaster in terms of coverage. I can't ever remember is being so bad at any point the mountain was open. A good part of the front has long areas of hardpack, which a lot of people out here don't know how to ski. (Pocono girls excluded.) I didn't take pictures of the disaster area. I was too busy dodging dirt, rocks, shrubs, staubs. Morning webcam:

Low. It's very warm.

Chickenheads are chickenheads. The snow on the trees isn't really snow and it's not soft. It's rime. Humidity in the air crashes into an object and freezes. Looks great on the trees, but it's not fluff. It also clings to goggle lenses on occasion. Very irritating when you pass through a layer with the right (wrong) conditions and suddenly can't see without pulling to the side and using your Skigee.

Day 3 was a pleasant surprise

Day 2. Definitely a lot of Pocono conditions. Frozen ruts, ice, hardpack, still poking through. No crowds, tho.

Day 1 on the books

He apparently did 137K. More than any of Donnay's 100k+ days. He did that on days we have night skiing.