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Good to be back out...

Sounds like you need some RTM’s. See you next weekend (hopefully)?

As an aside the ice comment was a joke (although conditions are definitely not good). I have to say... I'm grateful beyond belief to be out here.

I know I haven’t been particularly active lately. It’s mostly because I have been too busy at work to spend any serious time riding. There also haven’t been many worthwhile days to ride. I don’t mean to be a total doucher, because I’m super stoked some of you got up there, but I seem to be the only one who got really lucky on all accounts. I was headed to Vermont on Friday, and after looking at the forecast, and realizing I was going to be driving through the storm the whole time, I decided that I should head up Thursday night, get a room, and hit Plattekill in the morning. Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of Hunter or Windham, and when there are goods to be had, I’m not hitting Bell, even if it is closer than Platty by a solid 45 minutes. So, after work on Thursday, about 4:15, I got in the car and headed north. It started raining almost immediately. I booked a room at the Hanah Mountain Resort, which is about 15 minutes from Platty, and pulled in about 10:30. The room cost $82, was a little dated, but it was clean. It had just started some mixed precipitation when I went to bed, but I had high hopes for the morning. I woke up early to about 8” of snow on the ground. I packed up and headed to Cassie’s Cafe in Roxbury for breakfast. I sat down at a high top table with two old timers from the area and passed the time with conversation while waiting for my food. Following an excellent breakfast burrito, I headed to the mountain. I was probably the 15th car in the lot at about 9 AM. It was snowing hard. I went inside to get my lift ticket, and surprise, they were running a special where the first 50 people received a $25 lift ticket. I booted up and was on the lift at 9:15. There was never a lift line all day. Both the double and triple were running all day. We found on later in the morning, via a mountain employee, that ALL other mountains in the Catskills were closed, EXCEPT for Plattekill. There was a huge cheer from everyone in the lodge. That’s when I knew I should never doubt my instincts. The early snow was wet, but later on in the day the temp dropped from 28 to 24, and it became less dense. The base was rough due to the fact that it was 50 degrees the day before, but it was quickly changing. Despite everything being open, there wasn’t much of a base on the natural trails or woods, so we mostly kept to the snowmaking trails. If you had a pair of beater skis, everything would have been in play. About 11:15, after 7 leg burning runs, I decided to head in to dry off and get a drink. When I went back outside an hour later, everything had changed. The wind had kicked up, the temps had dropped, and the snow was lighter. I went down the lift line of the triple, and I experienced the deepest east coast snow I have ever had. The snow was knee to thigh deep. The wind was wind loading everything skiers left. The snow was dumping, and it was free refills all afternoon. I had to hit that trail three times straight before heading back to the double. After a random run down some winding trails, I decided to hit the trail skiers right of the lift line. It was exactly like the triple lift line. Deep, wind loaded, and fresh every run. I decided to spend my last 3 runs of the day there. It was too good not to. After 14 runs, and knowing I had a 6 hour drive (with snow) to the Bush, I headed out. My back leg was completely shot. The parking lot was a complete disaster with 5 foot drifts in places. People parked too tight for the plow to get through, so I had to borrow a shovel from Laszlo, who was out shoveling the entrance doors to his lodge, to dig myself out. I have a ton of respect for that guy. He is out there doing all the hard work everyone else does. After 30 minutes of digging, spinning my tires, and being immensely thankful for backing my car in, I was finally on the road. The GPS decided to take me on Rt. 30 to I-88 to I-90 to I-87. Rt. 30 was one of the toughest drives I have ever done in the snow. The falling snow, combined with the winds, left for a surface that didn’t look like it had been plowed for hours. I was one of the very few idiots on the road, and there weren’t even tire tracks from other people to follow. Half the time I had to look at the line of telephone poles and estimate the road being 20 feet to the left of them. However, as I approached I-88 the snow began to lighten. After a couple miles on I-88 the road was clear and I was able to get to normal speeds for the rest of the trip. All in all, it’s probably a top 3 east coast ski day after Valentines Day 2014 and Le Massif 2017. If I had left before lunch, it would have been nothing to write home about. However, the wind loaded sides of the trail after lunch were some of the best powder I have ever had. All in all, it was a great day. I’m glad I did it. I was able to take some pictures, but it was all before lunch. It was too cold with the wind and snowing too hard for me to take my hand out to get my phone afterward.

I’ve been to platty 2x and both awesome days! Wish it was closer as it a looooooong day trip but well worth it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Gaper day is everyday you are there! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

FWIW Jerry the awesome parking lot guy told us they are planning to shut down 3/18. He also said he gets the blue 4x4 thingy up to 120mph so...

Today was mediocre. What is great about today is that Dom is back out on skis. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sidewinder is decent.

Feeling really good. Taking it easy and skiing reeeaaallly slow. Partly because it's the right thing to do and partly because there's more sugar and ice out here than a goddamn Rita's. Dude way to get out there, good to see you out swinging again.

Be fun to see more of you next season. I'll probably continue to pick up a triple ticket to Camel each year. I like blue, but like some variety too.

Yep. I'll be at the True Blue next season. I'll miss Camelback but felt I could use a change in venues to keep my interest in skiing. Who knows, if Blue disappoints next season I might end up back at Camelback. I have to say, the VIP line at Blue yesterday was faster than all the single lines at Camelback today. But Blue wasnt nearly as crowded yesterday so not sure if that's a fair comparison.

Today was super dope, sun, beer, amazing grilling and pretty good snow. Life doesn't get much better.

Hey All, I'm back from another fun day at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot around 720am and in the house were Nastar Glenn, JFDan, Atomic Jeff, Toast, Root, Ryan, NMSki, Johnny Law, Tele Matt, Schifdawg, MBike Mike, Mrs snowbunski, Enjoralea, Enjorales dad and many many others. Temperatures were in the 30s with moderate winds and mostly cloudy sky's. The quad isn't running because it's currently damaged..I think a chair hit a snowgun or something. First civilian chair twice as we got out of the gate a little early typical blue clusterfuck. First runs on challenge, sidewinder and Main Street were great soft cord. Snow was considerably better than yesterday. Looks like they reseeded barneys bumps i made repeats to challenge and Main Street then hit up lazy mile and Root was the fastest..must have been using the blue wax. Skied more sidewinder and more switchback and liftlines were getting semi long on the six pack with no quad running but no real line for the Main Street and Burma chairs. Nice parking lot session and great beer and food thanks to enjorales and tele matt!!! Still not that warm windy sort of sunny. Looks like possible snowmaking temperatures the next two nights and a likely snowstorm Wednesday. I'm off work tomorrow will be at Blue tomorrow morming. Anybody else??

Afternoon all, I just got back from my first day at bear in over 3 years. Woke up STILL without power. Took an ice cold shower due to no power and did a little foam rolling as today was my first back to back riding days in a few years. Pulled into the parking lot around 8am and was instantly taken aback by the lack of snow. I haven't checked but I would have to guess it rained here on Friday rather than snowed. They were selling all day tickets for only $25 so credit to them. Quite a few trails were closed including both Sasquatch and Extreme which are my favorite none park trails at Bear. The park set up was a nice change compared to riding the same park at Blue. They have a couple fun rails/setups that I really enjoyed but I only took 4 runs thru the park. I then went over to the back side and rode both timberline and grizzly twice each. By this time I was pretty bored and had about an hour to kill before my sister and nephew arrived so I went and grabbed a vanilla latte at the cafe thats located up in the hotel/spa part of the resort. Sat on one of the decks for awhile until my sister and nephew arrived.My sister then proceeded to zip tie her glove to her pants/ticket...fool. We took about 8 runs mainly down a couple of their beginner trails for awhile. I was happily surprised by my nephews progression since I last rode with him about a month ago. Hes able to link his carves together now and its finally starting to "click" for him! We grabbed some lunch and did a couple more runs before calling it a day. I definitely dont see Bear making it much longer but it was good to get back there again. The drive up, lodge and some of the trails brought back A LOT of memories from my close to 10 years holding a pass. Thanks for reading!

The guns are on.

I thought she said you could do solos. It was the visible beer cans that people complained about?

I’ve got the peanut butter filled pretzels already.

Sunday. Just dress normally.

Nice seeing a Salty report again..WTGAI

I think they will easily make the 25th

I expect to be there. Can bring a dozen donuts, a pouch of Big League Chew, and a broken can opener.

So he seems reliable!

Wow. Thanks dude. No joke when I see you all next weekend hugs may be in order.

Storm totals from last weeks storm. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yes sir.

I had a hangover earlier from today's drinking in the lot. Just had soup, apple slices, an Arnold Palmer and water and I feel like $399 bucks. Probably be more like late morning for me at blue. I wanna sleep in a little.

I'm gonna SU first before I read this!!!

Feeling really good. Taking it easy and skiing reeeaaallly slow. Partly because it's the right thing to do and partly because there's more sugar and ice out here than a goddamn Rita's.

Boom!!!!

Salty I'm flattered that you love my analogies so much. Im not kidding I'm feeling special right about now.

I'll say a few words, if I may. The CB may have been lying about 18" of fresh snow, but they didn't lie about epic skiing. Today was really, really and unexpectedly good. The only two things that were spoiling this winterfest were moderate-to-strong headwinds and crowds that gradually built up to midwinter peak levels. To give CB credit, they opened up most of their lifts. Expresses worked from the very beginning, and around noon three slower bottom-to-top lifts were running as well. While snow was generally decent everywhere, I saw some ice on the top of the Cliffhanger, but that was more of an exception to the rule. The best trail was Rhodo Glen, they clearly did something special to it to prepare for race training in the late morning, but despite the race, parts of it were open to the public all day. I'm glad I saved my tickets to come today. Some people in our company were upset to learn that The Loft is doing the demo sale next weekend rather than today. Because we ran out of tickets for this season.

Ill prob be up tomorrow morning. Nothing like being hung over for two days. Freaking lightweight

I was gonna do a trip report, but since I lost my tagging privileges forget it. I'll just post this pic and use some hashtags. #powpowpow #sundayfunday #18inches #sickbird #JustLikeRockyIVWhenHe'sTrainingInSiberia

You can tell where all the real powder is!! People came prepared. I should've bought CB pass.

I found 18"!! They didn't lie after all.

Midwinter conditions. Fast, firm snow. No "pow pow" in sight, but an awesome turnaround for the season. And they lied about 18". Cold and windy.

After a busy day of work Friday and sneaking in some peeks of the radar, juicy forecasts and trip reports we found our unit at Greek was available and decided to head up. My cousin was flying back from Seattle and needed her car dropped off at ABE and we had to pick up mrs snobunski’s boots at (closed) blue mountain and headed out around 6. Eight and a half hours later we arrived at Hope Lake Lodge...spent 2-1/2 hours STOPPED on 81... first time Ive ever watched two amazon episodes (boardwalk) and had beers in traffic. A little slow moving this morning but had breakfast and were on the hill just before 9. Greek just can’t catch a break this year and only got around 6 in, with lots blown around. Junior and his girl were gonna meet us but 81 was still,impassible and ended up at j frost. Without the snowmaking power or push Greeks in a bad way But everything ski’d pretty well, spent most of the day lapping mars hill (chair 5) alternating between the groomed and dense chop. Did an obligatory R/A Woods off of #2, was full of snow snakes and mrs s got bitten good...odyssey was tits maggee but realized it too late in the day for laps The thing is love most about Greek is the slow lifts and lack of crowds get me in my mellow GP groove. All in all another Classic day with good snow, intermittent snow showers, good food and beer and even ran into a few old friends from trips past. I hate trip reports without pics but an also lazy with taking them Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

You know tomorrow is Sausage Sunday at Blue? Enjoy funning yourself tho.

Haha raisins ledge! Derp! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes they gloriously cover Razors and Razorback top to bottom with bumps

i bet you think that post was about you.

I was thinking more along the lines of bear hug for you.