Leaderboard

Heard on the radio that they’re doing walk-in, no-appointment vaccines for anyone 18 & over at the Fairground this week, in case anyone here from PA is still looking

I had my first mask refusal at work. I said to customer are you going to grab your mask from your car and he said I don’t need a mask I had my shots so I sent him on his way.

I think this most recent downward trend is beginning to account for more and more of the general population being vaccinated. Hopefully it keeps going down until it levels off. All of our household (sans my 11 yo and 8 yo) are officially vaccinated.

I’ve wanted to go there.

Figured it's about time I got around to posting a trip report for this one. I had been planning on hitting up tucks the first weekend in May pretty much since before blue closed. Lots of people said they were in, then out, then back in, the out again, so it actually came together pretty last minute. I ended up driving up with Vince from Buckmans, some of you may have met him at blue. We left my house in philly around 4pm or so, just in time to get slammed with NYC rush hour traffic. Great start to the trip... After the delay from traffic and getting a bit lost in New Hampshire trying to find gas without cell reception for gps, we made it to our campground around midnight. Except that the campground was closed, and since we didn't have cell reception, we never got the message to go to a different campground. After driving around aimlessly for about 45 minutes trying to get cell service, we got a hold of the rest of the crew we were meeting and found out they were at a camp site about 20 miles away. All said and done, we ended up getting to sleep around 3am, got about 3 hours of sleep, and were up with the sun to begin the real journey. The campsite we stayed at was about an hour drive from the Tuckerman ravine trailhead, and after a quick stop for breakfast where I found out my debit card no longer worked, we loaded up our packs and started hiking. Mount Washington in our sights Half mile walk to the trailhead from where we parked. 'Twas a bit crowded, to say the least. The first mile or so of the hike was done in hiking shoes, with all our gear strapped to our packs. 60lbs on your back with an ill-fitting pack was a rough start. Luckily, I brought skins, so after a mile of dirt and rocks, and another half mile of intermittent dirt, rocks, snow, slush, and mud, the snow became consistent enough to skin. While skinning in and of itself is not really any less tiring than hiking, it was a huge relief to lighten the weight of my pack by trading 35lbs of skis, boots and bindings for a pair of shoes. The last stretch gets too steep to skin, as I found out when my skins gave out and I started sliding backwards, heels unlocked. Luckily, there was no one behind me to take out, and I managed to grab onto a tree to stop. Skis back on my pack, it was hiking in ski boots with some pretty exciting rock scrambling for another half mile, with the bowl in our sights the whole time. Finally made it to the base of the bowl, after about 3 hours of hiking, skinning, and climbing! After a short beer and snack break enjoying the scenery and the radness of people sending the icefall, we started the boot pack up to the top of the bowl. As is evidenced by the photo, I think this was the sweatiest I've ever been in my entire life. The first line we chose was about 45° sustained, passing 50° in some spots. Snowboarders were basically using their boards as ladders the entire second half of the boot pack up near the head wall. I was pretty much crawling up the snow. Finally up top, the view did not suck. Photos do it no justice. After a flask of miscellaneous whiskey(?) made the rounds, it was go time. Ready to drop Probably the steepest sustained pitch I've ever skied. There was a lot of check turning, and it wasn't pretty, but it was definitely rewarding to know that is pushed my limits, both by testing my fitness just to get to the top, and to ski the line we skied, which was down between the two big rocks you can see on the left of the photo. The beer at the bottom was much deserved. After relaxing and watching others get rowdy or get destroyed, it was time for round two. Since we were pretty cooked at this point, we opted for an "easier" route. Not quite as steep, but the run would be a bit longer and allow for more turns instead of just trying to manage speed the whole time. This dude with the air of the day, rode straight into the icefall, aired it out about 50 feet, and straightlined out like a boss. Sweaty but freezing at the same time, we made it to the top again. Drop in was a bit tighter than we anticipated. But opened up for some nice spring turns. After that run, it was nothing but the hillman highway runout and then a mile or so of hiking back to the trailhead to end the day. Totally exhausting, but totally worth it. We also got to see a some pretty rad views on the drive out.

Oh Lordy Bahahah and I was just watching a Rogan clip about vaccine passports.

The worlds first fully vaccinated flight on Qutar airlines.

Indy adds Powder Mountain Utah, West Mountain NY, and Mt. Ashland Oregon. 40% price increase to $279. Blackouts added on Cannon and Saddleback weekends in January and March, Magic on MLK and Presidents Sat/Sun (but not Mon), and Waterville Christmas/New Years/MLK/Presidents. More mountains could be added before the season starts. Not quite as exciting for us here in PA as I had hoped.

Rumor has it Big Boulder needs more help in the lift area than Frost.

From inside the circus tent

Back at it. Skin lap at Stratton on the way to Jackson NH, skied almost top to bottom with a little fast grass thrown in for fun. Made it to Tuckermans Saturday morning. The hike up was mud, rocks, slush and snow, we did skin a bit towards the top. Boot pack up right, they got about 6” of snow on Thursday night and we had first tracks in right. Really heavy cream cheese snow. Boot up left En-root to Hillmans. We skied down Hillmans and to rope 7, then back to hiking on the way out. In total it was 8.2 miles,4100’ of vert, 7.5 hours, 4 beers, 2 liters of water and countless snacks. All in all a great day in the mountains. I suck at taking pictures so this is the best I have. After a few more beers and snacks in the lot we were on the road to Killington for the night and gondola laps on Sunday. They reported 30ish trails and the skiing was damn fun. Great way to end April skiing. On to May! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Check out this time-lapse of Blue over the last 35 years: https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=40.81216,-75.52762,12.134,latLng&t=0.43&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20201231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0

i bet they all want a piece of that apple bottom lol

At the start Beginning of the hike Still hiking Putting skins on More hiking after Hojos Boot pack up Right Gully Ski yoga Right Gully from a distance Boot pack up Left Gully The hike to Hillmans Hillmans Highway The last snack break Hike out Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk