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This morning was good. It was cold, but good. The snow was great on everything that was open. Challenge and Sidewinder closed to make snow and the lower parks were closed for grooming. Gun were off first thing but back on now. They put out a ton of snow since Sunday. I might head up tomorrow morning too. Looking forward to everything being open soon. @indiggio there were bumps on Main Street!

2018/2019 favorites

Wear a fucking helmet.

I found the best ski tow ever. The only problem is that my daughter will kill me if she sees this. So IDK, perhaps I should just cancel my return flight and ride this back and forth, back and forth...

To close the Hidden Valley subject, here are some pics from it. Basically, it's a long, 11km return trail that undoes both the winding climb of the bus and the Lagazuoi lift. It goes and goes surrounded by peaks on both sides. At some point it passes a waterfall area. Difficulty ranges from blue to red, but overall it's a sightseeing track. It brings the skiers almost back to the point where he boarded the bus, but is about 1km short. This final km can be conquered by taxi, cross-country skiing or a horse tow, like in the pics above.

Today was all about a trip to Hidden Valley and the adjacent Cinque Torri area. It's far, three valleys by ski, then a ski bus, then a few more lifts to get to the farthest point of the day - the Five Towers. Honestly, the trails aren't any better than in the valleys much closer, quality-wise. They're much longer though, emptier, and since there's so much snow in the mountains this year (sorry, Venice), sometimes it feels like skiing in the plains. Yeah, there's a groomer, but if you want you can just go sideways and get lost. So, I took the first lift up from the hotel, and was so rushing to get to the destination that had to spin wheels on local slopes for some time because the next connecting lift wasn't running yet. Followed the Sella Ronda circle counterclockwise till I reached Alta Badia - the final area before the bus hop, took me 90 minutes to get there, then boarded the bus, and after following winding roads for 15mi or so got to the bottom of Lagazuoi lift. A picture from the top of it is in the previous post, but I didn't take the lift yet. The lift would take me to the 11km Hidden Valley trail back, and I didn't get to my towers yet. So I passed the lift line, crossed the road and entered the Cinque Torri skiing area. Like I said, piste-wise it's hardly anything special, but views were different, and that's all that matters here. Alas, after some time skiing the same place you get used to it, and so like a junkie, you seek for something new, something different, something far, doesn't matter if it's any better, you just want to take in more and more... The only limiting factor is that you must get back to your home area by 4:30pm, for everything gets closed for grooming at 5, and lifts are starting to shut down before then. You can miss the last lift by a few, and land in a different town of the same valley, that's fine, just take a ski bus to get home. But if you miss by far, then IDK what can possibly help. If passes are closed, look for a place to stay overnight. Anyway, somewhere below is a pic with the Five Towers. Luckily (with all bussing, exploring, trying all the trails in the way, etc) I got there by noon.

Then I would be able to go higher than this.

Damn, I wish I had one of these on the trip!

Any bumps before March is a bonus.

Lol “site”

Yes, I knew you weren’t Toast or GSS, not the right body type for either, and the RTMs threw you right under the bus. Got out on the snow around 830, had lots of runs skiing right on to the lift. About 1030 the crowds arrived. The quad stopped around 1245, and the lines became unbearable. Quad started again after about an hour, but lines were still too long, hung out in the parking lot til around 4. Snow was really nice today, weather was perfect.

They're heavy on polenta, lasagna and goulash. If you get to the German country then inevitably simple things like sausages and fries pop up. I had a deer yesterday. It was like beef, structure wise, just some special taste, which I'm not even sure wasn't due to spices. Yeah, I did some off piste in Alta Badia yesterday, the snow is great this year, but if you want to get far, like today, speed and groomers is all that matters. What I can't place yet is grappa. Finished one blueberry bottle, it was like a sweet liquor. Today got one with Erbe Alpine, and it's smelly, yet bitter, brrr.

So I guess the bitching and moaning on social media isn’t working, huh?

Sad. You should probably keep that to yourself.

Your post is like how I order steak. Well done.

bump the chute!

BenM hands forward ass up in the moguls. I see you caught up on days in the stats manager..attaboy!!!

Well I guess we're stuck in shit town then with no recourse. Awesome. Amazing how a TR touting the fact that grooming was actually good and giving props to the groomers turned into this.

People aren't driving 20 miles for seasonal pay at Blue Mountain. They are driving down the road from Palmerton or Kunkletown.

My work is constantly criticized, then I improve it, making what I produce even better. I have no way to delete my boss' or co-worker's comments and they're all out in the open of our group for all to see. In my opinion, It's a cop-out to hide/delete comments/suggestions/criticisms made by others, just to cover up poor/no effort made to improve what you're doing. Yeah, I know that there has been feedback provided directly to Blue's management and even offers of assistance to help improve their effort, which have been ignored and obviously rejected.

This year is different because it snowed two inches right before Doc Martins holiday. A darn shame I missed this event.

For Elk's 60th they are doing $30 tix 1/25-26/2020. Considering taking a day off from Epic resorts and hitting Elk on Sunday.

i enjoyed it

All the more reason for you to ditch the board and go full send on skiing.

It was good to go today.

Wow just wow

this was today at 930 AM. not sure if it answers or helps.

Did you happen to notice if they blew some fresh on top of the "seeding" to fill them in a bit?

This is legitimately amazing

Wow Nipples is a grown up now. This is the Nipples I remember.

Wow Nipples is a grown up now.

The weekend roll call thread is gonna be sponsored by Sarah McLaughlin..building a mystery.

Indiggio is butthurt that the butthurt report he filed got zapped...and I wish I had some popcorn.

unfortunately this is the case. One pass holder not renewing isnt going to "show them" anything. We just continue to show up, continue to buy passes, i guess in hopes things get better. I left Frost because i saw things going downhill. They didnt miss me.

We're in total shit weather on weekends pattern. This entire midweek however looks beautiful.

What about them sweet blue bucks tho

Exactly. The gas money out and back would negate an hour of work

I'm seeing some moisture coming in this upcoming Saturday. Still yet to be determined the type of moisture, but it does look rainy as of right now. A slight movement of the coastal low and that could change pretty quickly. Keep an eye on it. I saw the Beltzville Buoy doing a dance this morning.

Ya get what ya pay for...

High school staff has to make up for a snow day BAhahahah ok

Or threaten to move to another mountain (actually do it if need be). They won't change anything if people continue to pony up on season passes every year. If they see a significant drop in pass revenue they'll listen.

Tried to find the post that@indiggio was talking about but found this one instead. They were short staffed because high school was in session.

Hopefully it goes a little further than the 12 year old running their FB page. Im not a fan of FB bitching, but i dont see another way of getting through to them. I didnt see the post. Hopefully the grooming will continue to improve after that hilarious Saturday where i think they let the local Boy Scout troop run the groomers. I do also think they should let Chute bump up. Personally, i like to see Main full width, but i'm always willing to share.

I must be working to a certain point. At least we know the social media person is reading the posts, but it obviously isn't going any further than that based upon the abortion on Main Street.

Pretty cool to see how similar these are to today’s Look bindings.

Just mounted these 173cm k2 power mambas that I found brand new last year. I mounted salomon STH16 bindings to these and they were obviously mounted once. Binding are drilled for 309mm boot sole length. These are a once in a lifetime find in this condition. Call if interested $150 obo Steve 570-991-1360

Few Topo pics; McMillan Peak circled, blue line is RT 550 (road up to red mountain pass) pin is where avalanche death occurred previous day. Cal Topo map with slope angle shading. West side of McMillan is relatively safe. East side very avalanche prone and all the way down east side is Silverton ski area. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Technically you can’t get jet lag if you remain within the same time zone. But who knows, may be one of his superpowers

I'm beyond tired... All's well, the weather is awesome, snow is terrific, so firm and supporting, yet no ice, and they do their nightly grooming for A+. The plan for this trip was to visit two new isolated areas where I've never been to before. One is Hidden Value, which everyone says is the prettiest place in Dolomites, and the other - Kronplatz, which is just an area that I've heard of a lot but never got to visit. It may be a good base for an approach from Austria, plus there's a ski train going to yet another area... But anyway, for today I just wanted to take it slow, refresh the map in my mind and remember the connecting lifts. It went well. I even came across a leaf zone that I didn't get a chance to see before, and it turned out to be a great place to spend a couple of hours at. A collection of blue, red and black trails, discovered a restaurant on top, right around lunch time, not too many people and snow holding well throughout the day. My biggest gripe is the stupid navigation app that they've "upgraded" since last year. Now the 3D map is a joke, and even though there's a way to browse trails and lifts offline, it can't build point A to point B routes without service as before. On top of it, it lies and made me walk sloped streets of Canazei for half a kilometer in ski boots and with skis on the shoulder. Right when I was in a hurry to get back to home area before the closing time.

Put skis on the de Havilland for some flights from the snow.....