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1st turns of the season here if you can call 'em turns. Full moon and 8" of snow in North Creek NY. The hill behind the Airbnb is big enough to do about 5 turns on the xc skis, I've done about a dozen laps so far. Will be at Gore tomorrow, very hyped, hoping they can get the summit open. Finally feels like winter after 60 degrees last week - driving up the thruway, no snow there, but cars coming southbound with snow on them. We pull off the northway and the car temp reading starts plummeting as you go up in elevation 22, 21, 18, 16, 11, 10, 6... very nice

Back from a short morning at Frost. Got there about 930 temperature was 24°, nice and sunny. They were blowing snow on challenge. DeMattes was nice and groomed and they had some fresh snow on one park with the left side left a little powdery. They only had one top to bottom left running, and it got really crowded about 1030. Even coming from Jane’s Lane you had to take that one lift at the bottom of one park. Looks like college is out and there’s no place else to go other than frost. There were a lot of lifties from round top and liberty. Had three snowboarders sitting across the middle of DeMattes right at the top of the head wall nicely spaced out to take up most of the trail. Don’t know what they are thinking. Will try to get there right at opening tomorrow morning. not a good picture, but I didn’t want to stop on the trail and waste time.

Some valley guns are back to crack a lackin’. They appear to be satisfied with Lower Main for now, although Upper Main is still getting dumped like high school me. And if you zoom waaaay in on the upper left hand corner of the valley cam, there are clear puffs of joy coming from up in the vicinity of Paradise or possibly Free Fall (puke) dare we hope?

Went to Eldora today. They are now only allowing close in parking for 3 plus occupants in the car. So we had to walk a bit. Beautiful warm sunny day. Crowds were low but since such limited terrain opened it felt a bit busy. The whole backside of the mountain is still closed. Since they had a recent death of someone going too fast and slamming into another person, they had ski patrol perched mid run on each run. I actually appreciated this because I have heard it has been nuts everywhere this season. That being said, my 6th run, I was skiing on the side of the trail making small turns; I hear a snowboarder that sounded close but I thought, “they always sound loud.” With that I see him in my periphery and he came in hot, his board slammed against my ski edge, then he pushed off of me with his elbow. I honestly don’t know how I stayed upright. I stopped, a bit freaked, and yelled “you motherfucker!” As loud as I could. He didn’t stop, didn’t apologize. When I got to the bottom Shannon happened to be there and the line was getting longer so I told her that was a sign for me to be done for the day. Weather was beautiful but conditions were meh, we really need some fresh snow.

Good to get out, since Saturdays weather in the Poconos was total shit. Conditions were pretty much to be expected after a warm spell, then some moist, then a freeze. Didnt get scanned once while we were there. So, basically, i still dont have any idea if my pass does in fact work. It was crowded. I havent been there for a few years, but i can tell you from the cars in the lot, to the lift lines, that got pretty significant by 10:30, it was crowded like a holiday weekend crowd, from years past. Granted, not lots of places open this weekend around here. So Epic pass day 1 is in the books. I hope i can get my Epic days in to where the price point is at a level of where @skitoolivelovestoski would be proud of me.

Wow take that up to Blue so they can open Sidewinder.

Current GFS for Christmas day. Our buoy may not be totally full of shit.......

oh wow humble brag

@saltyant and @toastman this is getting good. Blue needs a tuts Lane camara.

Definitely the longest stretch of snowmaking to date. Looks like they had to shut some stuff off in the Valley, but i would say within the next few hours that stuff will go back on.

Ugh my bad. I meant Wednesday. I'm going to Belle anyways but was just wondering

No but maybe upper Main Street, Burma and lazy mile. Remember on Friday Blue opens at 9am. A lot of people seem to show up early on Xmas eve but it’s not considered a holiday.

I think it already has been? They started the guns up yesterday morning and have been going since then. We're in 48 hour range now going into tomorrow morning.

Spotted the groomerz pushing some decent piles of snow around at the bottom of the Main St cam, specifically toward the Burma side of the lift. Seems like a good sign.

Nice blue can groom that in for us for some sweet packed powder on 12/26

Nice start Dan! 2 days at Hunter in so far for me. Hoping to over next 2 weeks hit Stowe and either Okemo or Snow on Epic; and Jay, Bolton Valley and maybe West on Indy.

FIFY Always a chance. With these temps, should have them open.

Gotta start on Razors so they have snow for the racing. They need to get that open ASAP to get BMR off all the other slopes.

A frozen lazy river to skate on would be cooler. Would be like the canals people skate on in Ottawa Canada during the winter.

Unless I missed it, don’t think I saw it mentioned here, but apparently Free Fall is the decided name for Coming Soon.

100% blowing on Paradise

WOOOOOO!

I don't have the ability to delete, but thank you for brining this to my attention. I see my post so I'm not sure why it says that twice. Seems similar to the other glitch that I reported which I have not heard back on. Hopefully soon.

Stoke rising across NEPA. It's off the chain actually. Let's gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Yeah if I have to stop I usually do it on the downhill side of a slow sign, to have a bit of protection.

I’m glad you’re ok Barb. The few times I’ve skied with slower people it’s freaking scary. I’m used to being the one doing the passing(safely) and being passed by most especially close is nuts. If my boot is bugging me I’ll wait till the end of the run to fix it if I’m on a regular ski trail...I don’t feel safe just standing still in the middle of a run.

We received a truckload of completed Memorial stones today delivered from Vermont and some of the crating had snow on it. Apparently they just received 6”. Here’s some Vermont snow in south whitehall Pa

Thats interesting....i did see a liftee wearing a helmet that had a sticker that said "I love Liberty" I thought both the liftee wearing a helmet, and the sticker were kinda odd. He also had on what i would consider a ski instructors jacket.

It's only Belle...not like I'm spending the winter in Crested Butte or anything 😘 Side note...it really wasn't intended that way but can see how it came off that way so my bad there.

i'm not really thinking in terms of people coming for ice skating in particular (even tho there are no places remotely close, so it might attract people just for that). i'm more curious about how it would help in attracting groups where some people dont ski. i'm sure that families have chosen against a ski resort for a fun day out since there weren't options for everyone in the group. and i'm strictly talking about a simple, no-frills, outdoor thing here. not that they need the money, so it doesn't really matter. but it'd be a better alternative to tubing for those who don't ski but want to come along for the day out.

They aren’t open tomorrow

Chances for Burma / upper main tomorrow?

Sounds pretty close to what lazy mile is normally like.

I say we cover lazy mile in ice and turn it into an ice skating derby similar to red bull’s crashed ice events

They aren’t going to put in an ice skating rink. No market for it in Palmerton.

Probably good for them to do since they may never open again.

Wao now you're deleting your own posts too.

Yeah go ski it and let us know how it is. Thanks.

I haven't been following the situation. Will Challenge be open by Friday?? I'm off work so I'd like to do some hardcore skiing that day.

WTGAI