rgrwilco
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Posts posted by rgrwilco
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2 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:
Nah then there’d be a ton of traffic on the learning hills. Just funnel things to lower park, Central Park and homestretch like normal. A lot of the Burma folks are also going to want to get to the original six pack(challenge chair) or quad to get to paradise as well.
I wouldn’t be shocked if the whole vista lift area was turned into the learning area. Then little tommy could take his lessons while parents get sloshed in the nicer lodge. The small ski school area above the summit lodge can be extended longer with the carpets moved off the valley school slopes.
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31 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:
Yup shuttle will be much busier. The days of just being able to fly down Main Street or Switchback onto shuttle are over except when it’s real empty..maybe they’re set up the nets like the bottom of coming soon to keep speedsters from flying onto shuttle.
If I had to guess looking at google earth and based off the advertised vert of the new lift, Burma should extend onto valley school east, then have Main Street extend onto valley school west, and have them separated in some way. It would keep the congestion down on shuttle.
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1 hour ago, RidgeRacer said:
I'd pay $60 but they should donate all proceeds to charity.
I like the charity idea but not the charging passholders. I get that they have already been closed, but this opens up some room to get creative with what constitutes a ski season.
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2 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:
I don’t see Blue ever building a new valley lodge. It serves its purpose and is very utilitarian and there’s already a fancy lodge at the top. It’s not about having enough snowmaking to open top to bottom, it’s that they’d need to open with two lodges instead of one which is much more labor intensive but it could be the case if the new lift from the valley to the top of Main Street actually goes in.
The only thing i've heard about a new lift was from that guy who basically got laughed out of the thread. Has there been any talk about it?
Knowing blue and their history of opening new stuff, they will cut the lift line and clear it over the next 10 years then add the lift without announcing it. It will sit for a year then open on a powder day, then have a naming contest in the off season.
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2 hours ago, saltyant said:
Jack Frost is better than Blue during early season. They both run slow lifts, so that's a wash... but Jack Frost has more than one top-to-bottom trail open, unlike Blue where skiing a congested Midway a billion times gets monotonous.
Obviously Blue is better once they get the Valley open, but JF it is for me the first few weeks of the season.
Is blue ever going to build a new valley lodge? I agree their early season stuff all spills onto midway. In the low light midway is often under its hard to see all the bumps that form from everyone sliding to a halt at the bottom. I would think their snowmaking should be powerful enough to open top to bottom right away.
These new lifts at JFBB are going to feel like a high speed compared to what they are replacing.
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Shawnee is great…I didn’t realize they moved their park to the other side of the mountain. Last time I was there it was on bushkill and they had the best jump line in the poconos.
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8 minutes ago, RidgeRacer said:
Did they say why? That absolutely sucks.
broken bullwheel bearing at the summit
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4 hours ago, RidgeRacer said:
Saturdays storm could bring a foot to WF. Leaving Sunday morning for LP...hoping for Empire, lookout below, cloudspin etc. to be open next week. Or maybe I'll strike gold with the slides...of course I probably have a better chance on winning the power ball.
Just saw on facebook that lookout lift is closed for the rest of the season. I was looking to get up there in the next couple weeks. The lookout mountain area is never open any time i plan to go to WF. I accept full responsibility and I apologize.
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absolutely. I have a plan to hit up magic, saddleback, jay, and west in one trip.
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Please pardon my formatting and grammar. I'm posting from a phone.
In the fall, I started a new job that has turned me into more of a semi-weekend warrior, for better or worse. This, coupled with a shitty snow year, has really impacted my plans to wring every dollar and then some out of my indy pass. I was able to use my two days at montage in January, and was finally able to branch out a bit in February. no trip reports from montage because they were pretty basic. random fact: this is my second year in a row of not riding a high speed lift.
Greek Peak 2/5/22
This was the best day of the year. There was the gnarly ice storm in PA, but greek got 8-14 inches of the good stuff. It was interesting to see the changes on the drive up. It went from bare ground, to ice covered trees, to a ton of snow. When I got to greek it was still snowing and the roads were still covered.
Last time I went to greek, I was unable to ride their longer stuff off of lift 4 and 5. And that would be the same today. They really got a late start opening the lifts, and lines started to build in an "epic" fashion on their main quad. Thankfully the double next to it and lift 3 opened shortly. Conditions could only be described as the epic that vail wishes they were. It was one of those point your board in any direction and your fine days. Fresh tracks in the glades, fresh tracks under the lifts. I even had some completely untracked trails off of lift 3 as I was one of the first people up after opening.
So that was it. I rode a ton of pow, and left. And on thew way out i realized lift 5 was open (without access from lift 4) by way of a shuttle from the base lodge (not advertised). Oh well.
Bosquet 2/20/22
I found myself in the Pittsfield area and knew I had to stop. Its not on the indy pass and super small, but I like the idea of checking new places out. Bosquet is operated by the berkshire/catamount people and you can tell some improvements have been implemented. This trip was right after the great new England blowtorch event so conditions were spicy. The mountain feels like a larger bear creek, with a montage-esque setting. to get onto the access road you turn right into a large shopping plaza, and there's houses and condos and whatnot. it also overlooks the city of Pittsfield and you can see the trails from many spots in the city. the parking lot is easy to get into and right off the road. The lodge is new and nice. They were using the overflow lots, however i never waited in a line. not bad for presidents day weekend.
none of the trails were anything to write home about. the owners also clear cut a ton of trees (they did the same at catamount and Berkshire east) to install the new summit lift. you can tell this is causing a conditions nightmare/snow retention issue near the summit. Despite being small and not really interesting at all, I would still be psyched to have a place to go an scratch the itch right in town. If you want something better, Vermont is really close too.
Mohawk 2/27/22
Mohawk is the smallest of the 3 mountains, but it was super fun. The lodge is old school, right on a large pond, and the staff was awesome. Busy day but short lines. The snow was absolutely perfect (except for one spot that looked like someone forgot to shut a hydrant off).
My favorite trail was chute. it doesn't look like much going up the lift, but its narrow with some great rollers and small twists. on the lookers right of the mountain there are some short, but winding trails through pine trees at the top. Speaking of the summit, it is heavily wooded with pine trees so views are not really a thing here. Mohawk also seems to have a really large uphill following. There were multiple uphill routes with great signage, and i would see at least 10 people skinning every time I was on a lift. There was also a "mid" mountain lodge that had a lift going right over it.
the only annoying thing about the day was the racer kids. I forgot how much i hate groups of racer kids. There was an entire trail closed off for them, which i understand. But they rolled in groups of over ten across the rest of the mountain, would stop in the lift lines to group up and were impossible to pass, and would just block off trails waiting for the rest of their group.
Hopefully I can squeeze one more day in before the season is over. I need a miracle march to keep magic as a viable destination for my final day of the season. Hopefully the weather is better next year. on the way home i saw ski lifts that appeared to come out of nowhere. the ski area is thunder ridge NY. The photos make it look mellow, but the trails seen from the road are really steep in person, and apparently there's a whole backside and separate ridge than what's visible from the road. I am really starting to enjoy smaller areas, so i added it to my list for next season.
Okay. These last two photos. The website keeps adding them to the end of the post, despite deleting them and editing multiple times
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I prefer montage to blue but only off the long haul is running.
I think blue handles crowds better as there is more space in the valley. Montage rarely gets crowded, but when they do it’s kind of a cluster f*ck. There isn’t really any space around the bottom of the lifts at the tage, and I’ve seen lines actually start to go back up the trails at the north face lift. And since the lifts are slow the lines take longer to clear out.
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It’s definitely the trees.
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I’ve been drawn to the PNW for years and never went. In the classic snowboard film “bikecar” they get to mission ridge and bachelor during spring and those places have been top of my list since. And crystal.
But there’s also a lot of really interesting and quirky places like hoodoo, white pass, willamete pass.
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The conditions and open trails at catamount seem to be on par with what they had to offer when I went in early season last year. Are they having snowmaking issues? It’s been cold.
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I’ll never understand why people feel the need to bring a Bluetooth speaker somewhere and just blast music out of it, seems to be a new trend or something. Ive notice it a TON on golf courses lately.
I was atop a high peak in the Adirondacks a few years ago. Starting hearing some sort of mumble rap from below tree line. Group of dudes emerge with two ue booms paired together, each with one in their water bottle side holder thing on their backpacks. No water to be seen anywhere.
These “dudes being dudes” thought the speakers were more important that water.
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And “Plaza”, although not a trail it’s no longer listed.
F*** man. I knew it was over but this is just a gut punch. Might give their pro shop a call tomorrow to see if they have any Big Boulder Park apparel.
Post here If they do.
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Big boulder park is no more. Thanks for the memories. The best parks are gone. Maybe this is old news but I just saw this new map for the first time
Also Preston and Steve confirmed vail will no longer be hosting the cardboard derby race thing at Jack Frost.
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No kidding! I was there today too. That place is awesome
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This is deer run. Steeper than a normal blue for sure, usually has bumps on one side.
Lower extrovert was open when I was there last year and was pretty awesome.
http://pasr.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/monthly_2022_01/20210219_114702.thumb.jpg.ff95439b7cd6e602e4fc662df8f322e4.jpg
That explains two things
1. Why I felt particularly crappy about my abilities
2. They need some better signage
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Well Blue Knob is open full vert to the bottom, they have glades open now, and are blowing Deer Run which based on last year's pattern would seem to be about the last intermediate they might blow before starting Stembogan. Then maybe Jack Rabbit, then fill in the bowl, then with any luck they can help out Extrovert a bit before the spring meltdown... maybe this weekend's snow will help them out a bit.
They are so gosh dang slow I want to go spend my $$$ there on food, cross country, merch, the works but can't justify the drive until they get a black or two open. Well at least I should be able to get there President's weekend when everything else is blacked out and packed crowded.
If I remember correctly, deer run was steeper than anything rated black at most other PA hills
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DC ski has a really good writeup/forum posts on blue knob if anyone wants to get into a rabbit hole. Apparently there used to be a lift from the condos and cabins to the summit with a trail under to ski back down, with expansion plans past stembogen or whowever the hell you spell it.
I went last season after a few of those big storms and they had a ton of snow. the snow on the side of the road was taller than my car, yet all the trails werent open, and they had 2 snow guns running despite being 7 degrees.
According to some over a DC ski, the place operates with only 30 percent snowmaking capacity actually functioning. couple that with a crappy start to this winter, this is what you get. the knob desperately needs to be sold to someone who can fix the snowmaking system, fix the lifts, and market the hell out of the place. Its relatively easy to get to, just a few minutes from the highway. the one way up is sketchy AF, but the state park keeps the other way up very well maintained. there is nothing else like it in the area, and with vail monopolizing the resorts in the area, now is the time for Blue Knob to seek some investments and upgrades.
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I believe Montage did/does that
Montage’s midland area is pretty awesome. The firepits area the real deal with a yuge stack of wood ready to go.
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Not really good at spelling it either. [emoji1787]
But anyways, i see no data that suggests anything more than a few stray flakes that may wet the ground. Maybe [mention=511]toast21602[/mention]has seen something i missed.
Looks to be another southern storm. Hopefully the freezing rain we get in south jersey tomorrow won’t result in any avalanche conditions after the storm Friday at my local backcountry runs
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#HunterParty 4/3/22
in Other Mountains
Posted
Looks like fun!
Do they charge for uphill? asking for someone who misses hunter but doesn't want to give vail money.