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I ordered this book at the beginning of the pandemic not knowing the outlook of the season and I started studying. The goal is to check off all of the lines eventually. Huge props to [mention]mbike-ski [/mention] for joining and leaving his house at 3am to make an early push for the summit. Started today with Mount Graylock and skiing the Thunderbolt Race Trail that was built by the CCC in the 1930’s. This was a class A race trail and has a ton of history, there is so much ski history in the north east. This is a great video on the Thunderbolt if you have any interest. We met at the trail head ~730 and it was a warm 5 degrees, till we got skins on and booted up we could not feel our fingers. We took our time on the skin up and made the summit in about 3 hours, chilled at the summit for a bit then started our way down. The snow was great and the skiiing was supper fun natural soft bumps the whole way down. Ended the day with about 6.5 miles and 2600’ of vert. I’m ready for the next one! Done and claimed View from the trail head to the summit Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wow what a way to end a just about perfect ski trip. Skied open to close with a little burrito break in there. Started off the morning with some really fun groomers, then skied some very fun bumps with @AtomicSkier. The sun was trying to come out for a minute and we headed over to revelation bowl to see if it was nice over there. Skiers left was just about the flattest light you could imagine and was practically vertigo inducing. Did another run down the right side which was much nicer. Even a few semi fresh turns in there. We came back up the revelation lift and we noticed the gate to the gold hill chutes was open. @Johnny Lawand I skied gold hill 1 which was very nice up top with an extremely sporty exit. Next up we decided to take a walk. Took prospect express up and took the skis off and headed up the hike to access black iron bowl and palmyra basin. Took us about 35 minutes and a couple sketchy climbs then we decided to ski mountain quail, which I’d had my eye on from afar all week. Huuuuge cornice then nice soft steep snow all the way into palmyra basin. Next up we decided to hike bald mountain which was more challenging of a hike than I expected due to no boot pack for part of the way and post holing in deep snow at one point. At the top we were treated to knee deep untouched blower. I guess that area doesn’t get skied much. In the afternoon we did some fun groomers. Now beer o clock. Law in Gold Hill 1 The climb to Mountain Quail and looking down untouched pow on bald mountain before law wrecks it and law subsequently slaying it

Sorry to let you down! It lightly snowed all day and lighting wasn’t too good for pics but it was a really fun day. Did a bunch of groomers with an inch of fresh on top and skied some steep bumps under the plunge lift a couple of laps as well. Law and I explored town for a bit after skiing and was a great day overall. Here are some lifestyle shots since the phone didn’t come out while skiing.

Started from the Hamburg reservoir parking lot. Bunch of cars. Lots of folks walking their dogs and taking the AT up to Pulpit Rock and the Pinnacle. Hiked straight up the Lehigh Valley Amateur Astronomical Society/cell tower access road. Not a hard hike at all. There was a solid boot pack about two feet wide the whole way up. Go of the boot pack and you sunk in to your knees. The entire rest of the road surface was deep powder for long stretches. Saw one set of tracks from somebody else with the same idea, and one guy came ripping down from the far side of the reservoir on my hike up. Way to get at it. Strapped in at the observatory then started down. Was a sweet run. Passed a couple groups of folks coming up. I waved. The pitch is really easy. If it were a groomed trail it would be a green "easiest way down" the mountain sort of trail. Could really lay into any big turns but still felt great to float on down for 800 vertical feet. Ate some Trader Joes blueberry fig newton bars then got back to the car. Up and down, including some time taking in the view at Pulpit Rock totaled 2 hours. Not bad at all. So far this year I've bagged three powder days, all hike-to and avoided resorts in the process. Will definitely be doing more hiking for turns in the future as it feels great, is free and you have pow practically to yourself.

What a great start to the Road Trip. It’s been a fun week with @skiincy @Barb @Johnny Law @NMSKI so far. My first Tride day was a perfect blue bird day. The boys first day at Telluride was an unexpected 10” diamond dust powder day. Silverton was fucking boner doner tits mcgee. @NMSKI said he even saw titty sparkles. I plan on skiing a few pow runs tomorrow AM before heading to the airport with @NMSKI, going for a run in Montrose, and then heading to @Barb’s place in Crested Butte. I’ll be there for the next 3+ weeks. I’m hoping to see @mute1080 at some point. My buddy Tom is also flying out for a few days. After that, Aspen most likely. And to finish this off, it wasn’t perfect powder skiing at Silverton. On the lower part of the heli drop, a tree ripped my pole right out of my hand. I wasn’t pleased.

I just went through this thread and realized I can’t road trip with salty - I’d strangle him Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

maybe still caught in the netting?

Conditions today we're like Tony the Tiger....they were grrrrrrreat! Razors was a beautiful carpet first thing. Conditions held throughout the sesh. Crowds on the other hand didn't. Shit show is the only way to define it. Enough of the negative however. Twas a fun morning with the PASRs

Sorry @GrilledSteezeSandwich ... yesterday was anti-climatic compared to the day prior. We shall see what today brings. Last day for the boys!

@GrilledSteezeSandwich took rope drop a little too literal and pulled the fence down at opening.

fucking gaper.

Elk you can close your eyes and fall down like any pa Hill. Knob your crashing into a rock, tree or the mid mountain Jimmy buffet themed bar or the school bus in the terrain park the kids smoked weed in. It's the polar opposite of Elk. If elk is skiing in Vermont like stowe, the knob is magic. It's the crack head brother of PA skiing and if you like that kind of thing, maybe platekill is the next closest but that's almost too clean. Magic I think is the closest other place that is so rowdy.

Trail Coming Soon all day long over and over again. I know not nearly what you guys had last week but it was incredible today. Skied 8-1ish. One run on main st, one on challenge and one on sidewinder. All other runs were TCS. What an awesome day! Tomorrow is game day call depending on how freezing is the freezing rain Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looks like 8-16” in Crested Butte thru tomorrow night. Hope your drive isn’t too bad. Driving home yesterday I didn’t see asphalt the first 2 hours and Monarch Pass was white knuckle conditions. Husband was very pleased I was home to take over dog walking duty since it was -5 this morning.

Platty is like the old hippie of the group. Blue Knob is your friend from high school who randomly shows up at your place halfway through a bottle of Jack telling you he got tickets to see Metallica... the next state over so you gotta drive him *now* dude but its gonna be epic, just trust him. That said, the Knob is a great place. I hope it holds on. Fun fact: it used to be a USAF radar station for missile defense.

I seriously thought that fencing was going on the lift with us.

If it was a manual like Salty’s we could’ve push started it

Lines at the doubles stayed pretty nice all morning. Main St side got long for a bit right before they opened the Burma, but the wise skier went under and loaded from the Burma side. Once they started loading both the wait dropped back down to 6-10 chairs, up until I quit at 10:45

They are really handy to have. i have this one. Tomorrow when Dougs car wont start i can demonstrate.

went down to the beach to catch a valentine's day swell tomorrow and woke up to my car covered in a nice icy shell this morning. i ❤️ 30° and raining. this is the east coast weather i'm used to, so glad we're finally back to reality...

Got some Pizz..

Good time to order a pizza.

Too bad I'd left already, i have jumper cables in my Chevy Sonic. Not that either of us would know how to use them

Its for real

I can hear your voice in my head telling this story like we're standing in the parking lot of Blue. Crackin' me up!

PASR has been filled with a bunch of trash from Salty, but lately there have been some fantastic reports and this is one of them 😍

going to add this to the list....

That's so fucking sick !!! PA lines are so cool because they are soooooo rare. Bravo 👏👏👏

Am I seeing things or were your skies momentarily off of the ground right when you lost your pole?!?

100% stellar trip fellas! It has been fun watching from afar, but I really look forward to chatting about it in the lot the next time you are around.

Conditions were pretty nice today...Crowds were expected......number of runs were limited to how long you wanted to wait in line..........Some early runs with Antman an Glen...Fun morning at Blue..

Stop number 2 on my indy pass was blue knob. They got a ton of snow over the past couple weeks, and were pretty much 100 percent open... More on that later. Did a solo trip because most of my riding buddies revuse to day trip further than 3 hours. Waze and Apple Maps show the drive would take 4.5 hours, but google maps said 3hrs 45min, which was the most accurate. I left at around 445 since their website says they open at 9. more on that later. There were for sure some good views along the Turnpike. Its super boring until after Harrisburg, but then younger some really nice big mountains. I got to the rest stop just before the series of tunnels and blue knob updated their snow report. Everything opened except a couple glades, but they open at 10...website still says 9. fun. Blue knob is remote. It out there for sure. The access road is one of the sketchiest roads I've been on. Surface wise its in great shape, but a small one foot tall pile of snow is what separates you from a 1200 foot drop into the valley. There was so much snow. more than I've ever seen anywhere outside of Vermont. snowbanks taller than my car. since I was aiming for 9, and they now aren't opening until 10, I sat in my car for an hour and watched YouTube. Surprisingly fast tmobile lte in this area. While there, there was an update to the snow report...All the trails I was most looking forward to would now be closed for snowmaking. I got my indy ticket from a lady who made it seem like I barged into her families Christmas dinner and started begging for food. The views are amazing, and when you start out you see a tangle of lifts and chairs. Only one lift would run, but never any lines so who cares. more on that later. the slope side houses and cabins made it feel more built up then expected, and due to the steepness of the mountain, the lifts did not feel slow at all. kind of like Plattekill. There is a severe lack of signage on hill. I was trying to get to a blue run and ended up on a natural cover bumped lift line (which was fun as hell, even on a snowboard since everything was soft). It was about 7 degerees so I didn't take many photos. I rode groomed trails, glades with mandatory drops, powder, and some sketchy spots on the natural cover trails but nothing too bad. This lift had 2 mid stations you can get off. Notice how low it is right here. On what was going to be my last run of the day, the route 66 lift seem to do an emergency stop and it bounced like I’ve never seen anything bounce before. The trail underneath of it was already questionable due to its super low clearance with the lift, but I didn't realize how low until now. The guy on the chair in front of me had to lift his legs out to avoid having a skiers gopro hit his legs while we bounced. It seemed like I was mere inches off the ground each bounce. The lift started moving again really fast, stopped abruptly again and began bouncing and my ass was coming off the seat. It felt like I was riding El Toro at six flags and my board is once again almost touching the snow on the trail underneath of it. I stated to get nervous. Ive been on Main Street lifts at blue fully loaded and had something similar happen, but this was a whole new level of sketch. I questioned just stepping off the lift (not jumping, legit stepping) but I wondered if I did that and got injured due to a lift failure if I would not get a settlement for not following the lift rules. this happened for like ten minutes straight. I told myself when I get off this lift that this was a sign for me to leave or something. The lift started again and continue as normal and the locals just shrugged it off. I mentioned it to the lifty and he said "welcome to the knob!" ok...... So, final thoughts. Best terrain in PA. Hands down. Needs some lift improvements and maintaince. the resort area was nice and a good amount of condos and slope side options. There is absolutely nothing outside of the resort though. I don't mean to get into politics, but most of the trump signs in the area had pence's name crossed out which I thought was genuinely funny but also a bit WTF. the restaurant options seem to be sheetz and only sheetz. I wouldn't day trip it again, but I would go back for a long weekend.

Hey All, I’m back from a fun and long day at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot around 720am and a minute later the random employee park facing the wrong way in the row. I saw Mrs Snowbunski early on who parks out in Kansas. The temperature was in the low 20s under overcast sky’s and also in the house were Toast, JFDan, Mute, Ryan, Boo Bear, PARidge, Mixiliplix, Salty, Schifdawg, Enjorales, Indiggio, Tarpenhead, Eddie, Falco, Charles and many more. Got my new mounted up skis and booted up fast enough to make front row of the gates. Gates opened and my pole got caught in the net and took it down like a long section and I was able to extract my pole from the netting with my fingers but not before missing both the first and second civilian six packs. First run down challenge was nice firm packed powder...I skied it a second time then Main Street which was softer packed powder on the top and a little semi light chop lower down. Switchback was also nice and I managed an empty run on that. Sidewinder was nice until the last section which had some icy spots and lower lazy was nice snow but busy. I skied a run on the nightmare to dreamweaver park and with flat light and a ton of features was just ok. Also skied tuts lane to connector to lower widowmaker to midway to little gap to Burma to shuttle to lower park. I wanted to ski another run but lines were getting long. Nice parking lot with some beers and chips and even a jack daniels lemon honey drink thanks to Schifdawg. Back in October I had my starter replaced on my car due to a recall and on cold mornings the car doesn’t like starting and sometimes takes an extra try. Well the inevitable happened today and my car would not start. I got a tow company from lehighton to come within an hour and the guy was really nice and I enjoyed some pizza while I waited but the it wasn’t the battery as the battery pack didn’t help and he tried one or two other trucks to no avail. In the meantime i called Ciocca Subaru in Allentown to have my car taken in and set up a loaner car. Then tried to get an uber but none were available after a few attempts. I called my friend Steph up and she came up from allentown and gave me a ride. As it was her first time at Blue it took awhile for her to get there and so I called Ciocca subaru back to say that I wasn’t gonna make it in time before they closed so set up loaner for Monday at 740am. My friend initially went into ski patrol Main Street chair employee lot but found me at lower lot. Was super nice of her to give me a ride and shes having dinner with a friend tonight so I gave her a $100 and said dinner was on me which she appreciated. So now back at hotel house carless and skiless. I left for the true mountain with one ski boot and returned with none..JADIP

Lmao. You and I both.

Kinda related to Blue Knob...Gravity Hill in Bedford was kinda cool. I remember making my buddy (who wasn't drinking) drive us there while the rest of us were intoxicated. https://www.gravityhill.com/index.html

Theres a glitch on this thread that's deleting a lot of important posts. @AtomicSkier should check into that

Good to hear ! With a little bit of money it could be even more amazing but is in a bad spot. East wall glades would challenge any skier, at least back in the day they were boney as fuck. This and your Catamount TR are super cool and I love small unique areas. Suicide six is on the indy pass and if your coming back from Jay or something its cool af. The front pitch is short but steep and the trees skiers left and far right are pretty good for 600 ft. Its small so only if your in the area but worth a stop for the history alone plus maybe the coolest name in skiing. Pats peak too in NH is a wild little hill, for awhile the only eastern skier in the fwt was from pats peak.

That sounds grate. We should invite @AtomicSkier, maybe he'll offer to pay for heliskiing for his 2 best buddies.

It may not be Colorado, but this line in PA is still pretty damn good. I was able to get some video too for those who want to see it. This afternoon I took a ride over to Blue again to get in a lap on the same line that I did last week after the storm. After a few refresher systems that came through the last week I was hopeful that things remained in good condition. Ended up doing almost the exact same loop as before. The conditions were a bit better than expected since everything remained mostly shaded. The snow was soft and I didn't really break through to any crunch except for when I took my skis off to put skins back on. The skin out is almost as enjoyable as the run down. Its really nice and scenic as long as you don't look up at the power lines 😂 The stream crossing is a getting a bit more spicy as well. Not much separates from a fall a few feet down off the ledge anymore.

I knew it was too good to be true 😔

@eaf I only skied 89 minutes today. Sorry for disappoint

That sucks...

Accuweather...

Nice. I’m just assuming there will be freezing rain every day for the next week

Road trip?? We can take a helicopter from Stratton to Okemo can hire @SallyCat as our photographer.

Damn it.

Yeah well his wife is immunocompromised. Everybody has the right to protect themselves as much or as little as they see fit. My dads friend had really bad Covid he and his friends all got it at an open mic night at a bar. He was in the hospital and on oxygen..70 years old.

Yes, and a decrease in hospitalization 👌

Got it