Montagna Bleu isn’t for lovers - 2/14/21

[enjoralas]

Or it must not have been this morning, because the crowds arrived super late.

Hey, I’m back from a nice session at Blue Mountain the Thru Mountain. I arrived at about 8:40 this morning because I’m fat and lazy and like sleep a lot. Thankfully reports of the death of good skiing weather had been greatly exaggerated and it was some temperature betweeen 0 and 50 degrees at the base and a different temperature at the top, as evidenced by the fact that it felt different.

In the house was JFDan, MBike, Indiggio, Tarponhead, Mixiplix, NaCl, Nastar Glenn and probably a bunch of others but like I said I got there super late. Even though I was 40 minutes past open I was only about 1/2 way down the row, so the crowds didn’t heed the opening bell either.

Booted quickly and got in line for the 6, line was just about back to the spot where the nets end. The real end, not the spot Steeze drug them to yesterday. Played the single skier dance of shuffling into a line when Salty spotted me from the left VIP line and I shuffled some more so he could join me. He had already made 5-6 runs he said, and snow was good. Some rando invited himself on with us and we were both okay with it. He kept pretty good mask etiquette for the ride.
 

We decided to ski down Sidewinder to the doubles as has been my MO most days by about 9am. I just find it easier when skiing solo or with Pops then trying to deal with the dance at the bottom. We made 7 runs off the Main st chair and never waited more than 4ish chairs except once when a Jerry/Geri couple left three chairs go empty as they prepared to board, and then Geri dropped her rental poles and they had to stop the lift and give them to the next chair. Can’t complain about lines like that on El Presidente Dimanche. 
 

We skied most everything you can off of the doubles, and Salty said he wanted to get in the glades so we did a Sleepy Hollow to Upper Main and I cut onto Switch while he missed the cut and ran main. After that we decided to carry speed into the Baumer glade and skied that. While in there Salty suggested pushing in deeper and we did a long meandering technical trek down some bike trails with semi-sketchy cover and ended up over on Sidewinder.

Back to the double and we talked about Coming Soon. I hadn’t even seen it with snow in it yet so we decided to make our way tot he quad and run Paradise so I could stop at the intersection and check er out. So down Lazy to Sidewinder to Challenge to Falls to Homestretch we went and did just that. 
 

Could tell it was bumped up front the intersection and I don’t do bumps, but realized it might be another 4 years before it’s open again so it had to happen. Up the quad and had a fun fun down it, didn’t ski it well by any means and added to the free base grind I got on the bike trails earlier. Finished out Paradise and showed Salty a little pop out I like when there’s cover, skiers right down toward the bottom. Nothing gnarly, just a low pitch run, hard right, quick hairpin left and back to the piste around the last turn.
 

Salty hadn’t skied around the features on NightWeaver yet this year so we did that and it sucked. Couldn’t find a flow. Had plans to finish with a run on Challenge, but on the bottom the quad was 7-8 people outside the gate and 6 just as bad so it was quitting time.

Saw Mixi, MBike and Glenn (briefly) in the lot so popped another Mike’s and chatted. Salty said he was gonna go back out so I set up the Monsters for his BSL and told him to take a few rides on them. Mixi and MBike left, Salty and I got pizz, and I rolled out. He was having a great day, so maybe he’s still there. 
 

I really want to get a real night session in this week, but probably won’t. At the very least, ski y’all next weekend. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by enjoralas

[enjoralas]

https://youtu.be/USZGwmSXF8c

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Enjo, I notice you’re skiing a lot longer sessions than you used to..WTGAI...

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

51 minutes ago, enjoralas said:

https://youtu.be/USZGwmSXF8c

Wahahahaha 

[JFskiDan]

Conditions were nice, the freezing fog sucked on the goggles. Since i wasnt diggin the low vis issues, i cut out around 9:15 or so in favor of getting home early to take care of some things starting to stack up at home. 
saw Mix on the side of the road on my way out breaking his board in half. 

[saltyant]

Today was the funnest day I've had at True Bleu this season, maybe ever. Rolled in at 745 and made it to first in line at Gate 7 by 753. Earned first civilian chair and was very excite so I posted about it on PASR, but then my post got deleted due to an ongoing forum glitch.

First run was Challenge which was mad steezy. Had the whole run to myself which was cray-cray as usually a bunch of PASRs are on it doing Mach 3.5. Goggles iced up like a mother which made it challenging to see on Challenge. I raised my goggles and then my eyes watered due to reaching hypersonic speed.

Next did Switchback and it was an amazing smooth carpet, I think I saw titty glitter or whatever the saying is. It was Tits Boner McGee. 

Then met up with @enjoralas and we skied some mad technical glades. The run through the bike park glades between Lazy Mile and Sidewinder was the most difficult run I've ever done in PA, but we made it out and clinked our poles as a high five.

This run should be called "WTF???"

Afterward we messed around various trails, going in and out of woods and I did some grate side whoop-de-doos. I really enjoyed the short cut thru the woods off Paradise. Then Enjoralas did Coming Soon for the first time and it was my second time. Nice moe ghouls, just a bit of thin cover in some spots but not bad at all.

After we hung out in the lot for a bit and talked to MBikeMike, Mixilplix and Nastar Glenn about Mantras and Kendos, and Enjoralas and I went for some delicious wood fired pizza. He got pepperoni and I ordered buffalo steeze pizza.

Then Enjoralas was nice enough to lend me his Monster 108's. Thanks!! I did 2 runs on Paradise and 1 on Lazy Mile. Felt much better in the chop on Lazy than my RTMs, and I cut right thru it and wasn't getting tossed around. But they are beasts and a lot more effort to move around, as I like doing short turns. I would really enjoy them on a Perder day or in spring time chop. 

Also rode the quad a few times with @indiggio and @tarponhead as they continued to lap Coming Soon, and I didn't even get strangled yet.

Edited February 14, 2021 by saltyant

[toast21602]

Glad you tried those skies! Nice report. 

[saltyant]

Later swapped into my RTMs to mess around off piste more, and skied under the Quad (top section) which I accessed from the woods to the left of Coming Soon. Exited by blasting along a narrow track on the hills to the right of P-Dizzle, which was a bit white knuckle as I was going fast. But made it out OK.

Also skied under the Main Street/Burma chairs from Coming Soon  Come Around and down, which was a blast!! The last part right before the lifts is mad steep and narrow, but I made it the whole run without falling.

Overall a grate day and it was really fun doing a lot of stuff I've never done as it felt like a new mountain. Now time for SUJOPO. JADIP.

Edited February 14, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

@saltyant nice report is it just my dirty mind or talking about being strangled after coming soon sound a little kinky to me??

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Wow salty skiing off piste...back in the day if you skied off piste at Blue mountain the ski patrol would be piste off, now they don’t even care. 

[saltyant]

2 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Wow salty skiing off piste...back in the day if you skied off piste at Blue mountain the ski patrol would be piste off, now they don’t even care. 

Haha. Yeah, I ducked under the closed sign and thought maybe a ski patrol would yell at me from the Main Street chair, but I was listening to Iron Maiden in my headphones so if he did I didn't hear him. 🤷‍♂️ I was like whatever, it's too much fun.

At Camelback I remember riding the lift with ski patrol and they'd be radioing other patrollers about people skiing out of bounds. I wonder what happened to them? They probably had to watch a safety video or something (the horror)

Edited February 14, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

7 minutes ago, saltyant said:

Haha. Yeah, I ducked under the closed sign and thought maybe a ski patrol would yell at me from the Main Street chair, but I was listening to Iron Maiden in my headphones so if he did I didn't hear him. 🤷‍♂️ I was like whatever, it's too much fun.

At Camelback I remember riding the lift with ski patrol and they'd be radioing other patrollers about people skiing out of bounds. I wonder what happened to them? They probably had to watch a safety video or something (the horror)

I had to watch a safety video at cameltoe for skiing a closed run in 1996..there was like 18” of new snow and only Marjorie’s delight and another run I think justin Timberlake or Julius Caesar salad was open.  They spotted me and my friend through binoculars.  After we watched the safety video they issued us new tickets. Was already like 1 or 2pm but back then I always skied till 5 or whenever the day pass expired. 

[indiggio]

Woke up this morning to find that no freezing precip had occurred overnight as predicted, so another spectacular day at Blue!!

One run down Challenge to start because they weren't loading the quad and the rest of the day spent lapping the bumps, rocks and woods of Coming Soon.

Even had the pleasure of riding the lift with @saltyant a few times as he tried out @enjoralas Monsters.

Wow @saltyant WTGAI expanding your terrain repertoire, impressive!

Edited February 14, 2021 by indiggio

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

2 minutes ago, indiggio said:

Yet another spectacular day at Blue!
One run down Challenge to start because they weren't loading the quad and the rest of the day spent lapping the bumps, rocks and woods of Coming Soon.

Even had the pleasure of riding the lift with @saltyant a few times as he tried out @enjoralas Monsters.

Wow @saltyant WTGAI expanding your terrain repertoire, impressive!

Nice report. If you had alpine touring gear, you could skin from the top of the six pack to the top of the quad for Cumming soon. Amazing that it’s been open almost two weeks on all natural snow and fingers crossed we might have a net gain to the snowpack this week. 

[saltyant]

5 minutes ago, indiggio said:

Wow @saltyant WTGAI expanding your terrain repertoire, impressive!

Thanks Indiggio! I always have the most fun doing more challenging terrain than I'm used to. If the roads are good tomorrow morning I think I'll practice bumps on Coming Soon most of the time, particularly early on when the quad line isn't long.

The line wasn't that bad when we rode together, but by 2 pm the VIP line stretched well beyond the gates and it was a bit too long for me, so I headed over to the doubles which had much shorter lines. I stayed 'til about 3:30 and would have skied a bit more but was too thirsty.

Edited February 14, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Tomorrow will be less crowded than today @saltyant a lot of season passholders have work. 

[saltyant]

7 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Tomorrow will be less crowded than today @saltyant a lot of season passholders have work. 

Will you be there tomorrow? Will you have a loaner??

I'm going, the storm isn't supposed to start until Monday night. This morning the roads were completely fine despite a winter weather advisory (though there was goggle ice in the air)

Edited February 14, 2021 by saltyant

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

11 minutes ago, saltyant said:

Will you be there tomorrow? Will you have a loaner??

I'm going, the storm isn't supposed to start until Monday night. This morning the roads were completely fine despite a winter weather advisory (though there was goggle ice in the air)

Nope after I get my loaner I’m going into work.  

[enjoralas]

Yeah, the Monsters are a ski you really have to work. They want to be on edge as much as possible, and they’re heavy. Glad you got to see what a wider and stiffer ski can do for you though. I think something mid-90s to mid-aughts underfoot and stiffer than your RTMs, with some tail rocker would suit your ski style pretty well. You seem to throw your tails around a lot and that should make it easier with a bigger ski.

[tarponhead]

Shout out to Indiggio for texting me the road report and getting my a$$ outta bed. Skied 10-4:15. All runs on TCS, even last one when we loaded chair at 2 ticks before 4:00 and thought ski patrol would have TCS roped off but they must have forgotten about it and I was able to avoid having to ski some other trail than our private exclusive one. Glad Enjorales and Salty got the goods too. Amazing as it it seems, I had no urge to strangle Salty today


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saltyant]

14 minutes ago, enjoralas said:

Glad you got to see what a wider and stiffer ski can do for you though. 

Thanks again for letting me test drive them. I took them on Paradise and Lazy Mile as those were likely the 2 most choppy groomers of the day. As you've said, they plow right through the chop which is fun and I didn't feel myself struggling in it as I do with the RTMs. Conversely, they are harder to maneuver around than what I'm used to.

Something between my RTMs and your Monster 108s should do me well for an all-mountain ski.  I still think I'd use the RTMs for tight glades where the short length of 170 cm and small turning radius come in handy!

Edited February 15, 2021 by saltyant

[eaf]

Salty, these Monsters would not do you any good in perder because they're heavy, and they're fully cambered skis.

They'll do in chop, but not because they're stiff. It's because they're wide, long and heavy. Where they will not carry you over due to geometry, they'll just plow through due to weight. Would be even better if you kept them on edge, then they would also cut through.

I don't get the obsession with stiffness. Are you heavy? Carve a lot? Like to workout? And anyway, what stiffness do you mean? Torsional? Longitudinal?

And yeah, R23 is a big R.

[saltyant]

5 minutes ago, eaf said:

Salty, these Monsters would not do you any good in perder because they're heavy, and they're fully cambered skis.

They'll do in chop, but not because they're stiff. It's because they're wide, long and heavy. Where they will not carry you over due to geometry, they'll just plow through due to weight. Would be even better if you kept them on edge, then they would also cut through.

I don't get the obsession with stiffness. Are you heavy? Carve a lot? Like to workout? And anyway, what stiffness do you mean? Torsional? Longitudinal?

And yeah, R23 is a big R.

I don't intend to keep the Monsters, as Enjoralas just let me try them out to see how wide skis feel compared to RTMs. Quite a difference. I just assumed they'd be good in powder 💁‍♂️

I don't understand a lot about stiffness, so I'll do vigorous research on it before I decide. TFTI

Edited February 15, 2021 by saltyant

[RidgeRacer]

Take it to the ski selection thread

[RidgeRacer]

Tomorrow will be less crowded than today [mention=13055]saltyant[/mention] a lot of season passholders have work. 

I'll be there at some point this morning. Probably before 9. 100% being lazy