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Last minute decision this morning to head beyond Montage, past Vermont, and cross the border to hit up Greek Peak. I saw the forecast calling for lake effect snow showers throughout the morning so I was hoping that the rain that we got overnight was snow up there. Left a little after 7:00 and got there for opening. Once I got beyond Binghamton it was a steady snow. Pulled into an empty parking lot and was pleasantly surprised with 4+" of snow that had fallen overnight with snow still falling. Redeemed my Indy Pass and was on my way. I had never been here before so I started out hitting trails off of the #1 lift since it was the only thing spinning. Best run over here was Olympian, by far, but everything else was good too. Depending on when things were groomed or wind the depth of the snow varied. Olympian was top notch. After some time here I saw that lift #4 was spinning so I scooted over there and by the infamous oil rig lift. Even less people over here since this zone just opened. In between heavy snow squalls some sun started to poke out. Trails remained empty and every run had untracked snow to be found. Got to the top of the lift to see that GP East was closed and was kind of bummed about that. Best runs off of this lift were Hercules (which I think I might have been the only person to even ski it since it was closed up top except through the glades) and Labyrinth. After some runs here, I got to the top of the lift as they were opening GP East. Jackpot. The whole place was untracked and I did 6 runs off of lift #5 with almost completely untracked turns each run. Some of the best meadow skipping I've had on the east coast topped off with a little booter onto the last headwall. A few more random runs off of the other lifts on my way back to the car and then called it a day in early afternoon. Overall 10/10 day. Would recommend. Not saying much, but this was definitely my best day of the season. JADIP 👌

Day 4 - Tippy top Forecast was calling for a partly cloudy and warm day today, so the plan was to hit the tram to ski something off the peak. First chair up to the tram base to get in line, but ski patrol had other ideas. With the temp drop overnight everything was locked up up top and they’re delaying open for a while. Took a few runs in the bowl to see if that would be long enough for the tram to open, but no. Headed down to Madison base for a quick lunch and decide where to try next. Decided to try out the Stillwater bowl. Up the Lone Tree lift, up a short pike and across a sketchy traverse we dropped into the bowl to finally find some firm wind-blown in snow. Very much worth the work to get there. Riding up the lift we could see people coming off the peak, so the tram must be open, so we made our way back to the tram and not too bad if a line so we queued up. Just as we got in line the wind began to howl, lovely. Tram line went quick and up to the top we went. Unfortunately no wind-up music like on the Jackson’s tram, just a ski patrol yelling out open trails down. Not sure of the snow conditions, we opted for the Liberty bowl which had good snow at the top but halfway down it turned to semi-frozen crud, still manageable and fun. Headed back around to see if we could catch one more tram and got there just in time to an empty line. Headed out the top shack heading for Lenin or Marx. Lenin was supposedly holding better snow and Marx looked crusty. Lenin also had wonderful snow ip top but increasingly getting cruddy towards the bottom but still fun to ski steeper stuff. Hot tub, beers and off to the Corral Steak House. Pretty good looking steaks at throwback saloon. Maybe some snow today. Random shot… Stillwater bowl… Peak shots… On the way to dinner… Saloon… Bourbon burger

Please pardon my formatting and grammar. I'm posting from a phone. In the fall, I started a new job that has turned me into more of a semi-weekend warrior, for better or worse. This, coupled with a shitty snow year, has really impacted my plans to wring every dollar and then some out of my indy pass. I was able to use my two days at montage in January, and was finally able to branch out a bit in February. no trip reports from montage because they were pretty basic. random fact: this is my second year in a row of not riding a high speed lift. Greek Peak 2/5/22 This was the best day of the year. There was the gnarly ice storm in PA, but greek got 8-14 inches of the good stuff. It was interesting to see the changes on the drive up. It went from bare ground, to ice covered trees, to a ton of snow. When I got to greek it was still snowing and the roads were still covered. Last time I went to greek, I was unable to ride their longer stuff off of lift 4 and 5. And that would be the same today. They really got a late start opening the lifts, and lines started to build in an "epic" fashion on their main quad. Thankfully the double next to it and lift 3 opened shortly. Conditions could only be described as the epic that vail wishes they were. It was one of those point your board in any direction and your fine days. Fresh tracks in the glades, fresh tracks under the lifts. I even had some completely untracked trails off of lift 3 as I was one of the first people up after opening. So that was it. I rode a ton of pow, and left. And on thew way out i realized lift 5 was open (without access from lift 4) by way of a shuttle from the base lodge (not advertised). Oh well. Bosquet 2/20/22 I found myself in the Pittsfield area and knew I had to stop. Its not on the indy pass and super small, but I like the idea of checking new places out. Bosquet is operated by the berkshire/catamount people and you can tell some improvements have been implemented. This trip was right after the great new England blowtorch event so conditions were spicy. The mountain feels like a larger bear creek, with a montage-esque setting. to get onto the access road you turn right into a large shopping plaza, and there's houses and condos and whatnot. it also overlooks the city of Pittsfield and you can see the trails from many spots in the city. the parking lot is easy to get into and right off the road. The lodge is new and nice. They were using the overflow lots, however i never waited in a line. not bad for presidents day weekend. none of the trails were anything to write home about. the owners also clear cut a ton of trees (they did the same at catamount and Berkshire east) to install the new summit lift. you can tell this is causing a conditions nightmare/snow retention issue near the summit. Despite being small and not really interesting at all, I would still be psyched to have a place to go an scratch the itch right in town. If you want something better, Vermont is really close too. Mohawk 2/27/22 Mohawk is the smallest of the 3 mountains, but it was super fun. The lodge is old school, right on a large pond, and the staff was awesome. Busy day but short lines. The snow was absolutely perfect (except for one spot that looked like someone forgot to shut a hydrant off). My favorite trail was chute. it doesn't look like much going up the lift, but its narrow with some great rollers and small twists. on the lookers right of the mountain there are some short, but winding trails through pine trees at the top. Speaking of the summit, it is heavily wooded with pine trees so views are not really a thing here. Mohawk also seems to have a really large uphill following. There were multiple uphill routes with great signage, and i would see at least 10 people skinning every time I was on a lift. There was also a "mid" mountain lodge that had a lift going right over it. the only annoying thing about the day was the racer kids. I forgot how much i hate groups of racer kids. There was an entire trail closed off for them, which i understand. But they rolled in groups of over ten across the rest of the mountain, would stop in the lift lines to group up and were impossible to pass, and would just block off trails waiting for the rest of their group. Hopefully I can squeeze one more day in before the season is over. I need a miracle march to keep magic as a viable destination for my final day of the season. Hopefully the weather is better next year. on the way home i saw ski lifts that appeared to come out of nowhere. the ski area is thunder ridge NY. The photos make it look mellow, but the trails seen from the road are really steep in person, and apparently there's a whole backside and separate ridge than what's visible from the road. I am really starting to enjoy smaller areas, so i added it to my list for next season. Okay. These last two photos. The website keeps adding them to the end of the post, despite deleting them and editing multiple times

And 2 different mtns in a single day counts as 2 ski days. (puts flame suit on)

Rode with BenM at opening, bfg and crew were there but otherwise not a ton of pass holders. Between the weather and them blowing I didn't expect much but razors looked mint from the chair and first run down we were semi shocked to find really really nice pretty soft perfectly blue smooth full beans snow. So nice you gotta do it twice. Ben found the super nice skiff on upper main, a solid half inch of spongey effortless cord sadly led to a normal junk show lower main. Coming soon has been groomed full width and they have mastered the sponge with those guns, just super nice zero effort sponge cake all the way to the wall. Rumor has it no sixer until 3pm but the quad wasn't too bad as nobody was using the 4 person line. Super super nice day, always good when you expect a brick and it's actually quite good. Rando on lift was talking like he was in the know and said they are pushing for end of March.

Couple runs off of jet lift to start the morning

There was a skunk under the quad this afternoon which really made me feel connected with nature today.

Yeah did one run off tram, nothing too crazy, just a top to bottom run...2 laps on timbuktu and one on kitzbaugh to end the day

I’m willing to bet it won’t hurt the sale of ford excursions at all

NY Frequent Skier Card is coming out to $79/day over 6 days

Jay is off I off the hook. 4’ in last week

Skied 2 days so far at Taos and it’s been full on spring conditions, like 50 degrees. Everything has softened up at about 11 and it’s been nice. Lots of bumps so far, a couple hikes to the West Basin gnar and many Kachina laps. K4 and St . Bernard have been the best so far. A couple more days to come.

Finished up our time in Taos today and we had a great trip. Snowed 1 or 2 inches overnight which was a pleasant surprise and after 3 really warm days it was a little cooler on Friday. I skied with my kids all day Friday after they had done ski school for the first part of the week. They absolutely rip now and are going to pass me soon. Took them down Al’s run for the first time and they were both talking about how easy it was. Stepped it up after that to their first Taos double black (west blitz trees to spitfire chute to west basin) and they navigated it perfectly. Kids at top of Al’s kids skiing Al’s little man entering spitfire chute Daughter in west basin son in west basin son and I on Al’s

absolutely. I have a plan to hit up magic, saddleback, jay, and west in one trip.

If politicians had the kinda control over gas some people think it would be under a dollar.......I thought I read this week they agreed to add 31 million barrels if so that should help in a week or two.

Considering pairing that with Indy but leaning towards just getting the Indy and maybe other discount plans next year

Nice report. Wait till Sunday when the alarmists and dingdongs like Ski2Live think 5 feet of base vaporize in one warm day.

Nice to hear that there was a drastic difference in the positive direction compared to last night. Chances of conditions staying good until RAW? I am thinking low...

Pocono rankings: 1. Blue 2. Elk 3. Camelback 4. Montage 5. JF

first - I wouldn't go to camelwhack if it was free. I'd scratch that off the list right away. like many have said, montage is a well kept secret. every time I've been, it was pretty dead and the lower half of the mountain is all "expert" terrain, so it funnels the crowd even more. the terrain is also a bit more interesting (IMO) in comparison to blue. in your specific case though, being equidistant to montage/blue AND primarily skiing off-peak, I'd go blue. the lifts and snowmaking capacity are just far superior. you'll get a longer season, and probably twice as many runs on empty midweek sessions due to the high speed lifts. that long haul lift at montage is agonizing...and at blue, you can ski top to bottom runs with a high speed chair back to the top every time. if you said you only skied weekends though, I'd probably say go for montage. blue can handle the crowds OK, but at this point they're operating at like max capacity far too often. you'll have much shorter lines at montage on a weekend which cancels out any gains you make from the high speed lifts at blue. if you are considering blue though, I'd jump on getting a pass ASAP. they have been restricting the quantities a lot. I missed the boat this year, and was PISSED.

A ski day is a day you skied...this is not open for discussion or interpretation unless one of the MBAs like @Schif and @skiincyhas any input.

Theres a share available…..might be good for you. Easy swing at $10k.

you must've sent them through @Mixilplix 's phone, lol

@toast21602 says as long as you pull into the parking lot it counts

Welcome to PASR. Honestly if midweek low crowds is your only criteria Montage is probably going to be your best bet. That said....all things considered Montage is great but however there's way less variety, terrian, slower lifts etc than blue. North face is fun but skiing solely that for a whole season would probably get old and skiing the full vert at Montage is sorta cumbersome. No sidewinders, paradises, switches or NMDW (RIP) at montage. Also going from JFBB to blue is going to feel like you're going from pop warner to high school...trust me, I've been there. To me there's only one option. Follow the light.

Just bought my Indy Pass for next season. After 5 days of use, and hopefully some more this month, it was an easy choice. They have a payment plan that spreads the payments out until next season so it is ~$25 a month and isn't even noticeable on the CC. Pumped to keep checking out some new spots and old classics.

When was the last time you were at blue? a few of us have a free buddy pass if you want to check out Blue Mountain this season. if you’re cool, it’s a good scene.

I'm at $70.60 over 3 days (1 Belle two upcoming at WF). Don't use it on weekends though. Will likely skip it next year

As it seems likely I will be parenting the kids full time next year, the extensiveness of the blackouts Ikon base pass has over school holidays and holiday weekends makes it a poor fit for me, and the full Ikon pass is quite expensive.

I would think it should hold up ok, the sun is super strong but the temps aren't bad. Plus if it's quad only until 3 it would keep the traffic down. They blew for real last night depth is up across the hill.

Just trying to figure out if an Ikon pass could work for you.

Got 10 days on it which isn't a bad deal though not a steal. Not sure if I will get anymore as I.seem likely to have kids with me 100% of time now and I got them Indy Passes. Going for our 13th 3 person Indy day at Montage tomorrow is a bona fide steal.

Cameltoe isnt my fav. Nothing kills the vibe of skiing a mountain like when the lift takes you over the sesame street water park stuff. Its no where near as prevalent at Montage. The lure of low crowds at Montage.......that will wear off quick, a trip down razors, challenge, or Nightmare/Dreamweaver (before it gets all fucked up with park crap) will most likely have you reconsider the low crowd deal at Montage. dont get me wrong, im a fan of montage. i would pay to go there, before i got a free ticket, close up parking space, and gourmet lunch at Toe. Who made snow last night in the area?

yea I should of qualified that the guns were starting to come on all over the mountain on my last chair ride / run last night

If the woods are in play find a partner and hit the boundary past Timbuktu and hitchhike back, you will not regret it

It sounds like it will be better tonight than last night as yesterday morning wasn’t that good and sounds like today was good.

I prefer montage to blue but only off the long haul is running. I think blue handles crowds better as there is more space in the valley. Montage rarely gets crowded, but when they do it’s kind of a cluster f*ck. There isn’t really any space around the bottom of the lifts at the tage, and I’ve seen lines actually start to go back up the trails at the north face lift. And since the lifts are slow the lines take longer to clear out.

Woah.

Yea it was horrible and should have been closed. Lazy mile west side was as good as it got. I quit and hilt the bar the hazy Dechutes on tap was pretty tasty

Ok yesterday I’m good for two ski days. I took my skis off went and took a leak and came back out. I think I’m gonna like this new definition I probably hit 600 days this year.

Hahaha, we were planning on heading there this weekend but no vacancie$!!! It's great to see the LE machine pumping out snow again! This is why we loved the place as the was the norm almost every day it seemed Oh and @toast21602 TFTI!

Cool place ... would definitely visit again. Maybe stay in @mbike-ski's timeshare next time....I've always said was an amazing investment. timeshare talk @JFskiDan

Good call on going further north. Nicely done!

Blue obviously. Montage is good for a once a decade visit and camelback is terrible...short runs and scummy people.

I have chosen Blue, the last three years. Currently im equal distance between Blue and Montage but previously lived 10 minutes from Montage and held a montage/sno season pass for several years. Now, my biggest draws to Blue is the high speed lifts and also the consistent longer season ( early opening date and later closing date)

Day 3 - Even warmer Arrived at the base to partly cloudy skies and 28 degrees. Following yesterday’s warmup and puddles frozen seen in the ride over, we knew the lower half of the mountain was gii oh no to be firm. Decided to take the 8-pack out and look for some groomers on Andesite side. At the top of the lift, it looks like about an inch fell, which should make for some fine cruising, not! We couldn’t find a groomed trail over here at all, just frozen crud from yesterday. Back down to the base and up to the bowl, which should have better snow and visibility was far better than yesterday and the bowl didn’t disappoint. Lapped the bowl until everyone else on the mountain came up and the liftline became unbearable. Headed down through the woods to the one smoke shack nearby for lunch but it was occupied, so we took the Challenger back up and down to the base for lunch. After lunch we found a nice pocket of snow on Buffalo Jump but the snow has turned to mush and the run outs were becoming unbearable. Took a run down the park to check out the hump line but the snow was so slow that you could barely make it over the landing edge. Time to call it a day. Back at the house, hot tub, beers, grilled chicken & potatoes, nothing to write home mom about. Another warm one on tap for tomorrow. In the bowl… Found another one… Tagged… Chatting with Daryl…

Yeah so cheap and still good Yeah! Went to crystal lounge today (Wednesday) again. I have to draft todays write up about the glacier. The Blackcomb Bowl and glacier was amazing.

Tuesday I woke up and was so excited to have my skis and my low light goggles. My legs were on fire from Monday. The heavy snow and the piles of ungroomed terrains / moguls made my legs jello. Skiing Whistler might be the complete opposite of somewhere like Deer Valley. I haven’t seen an inch of cord at Whistler. My legs felt trashed … like I just ran a marathon. But like a normal person who is sore after a marathon. Not like how Atomic continues to run and ski after a 50k race. So … Tuesday morning — I returned my rentals and grabbed breakfast at Gone Eatery. I had a chai latte and mushroom breakfast bowl while I took some work calls. I took the Whistler gondola up and chatted with Schif who is in Dubai and was drinking with one of my college friends. i saw a sliver of blue sky on Tuesday. I would love to see the full view. I started off on Whistler side and tried to find my brother. He was on Peak Express and I asked if I would like it. My brother described the Whistler Bowl off the Peak Express chair as “the cliffs are steep and deep. And the slopes are butt puckering scary. Visibility was nonexistent when I went down. Huge powder moguls and steep slopes. It’s legit butthole puckering terrain.” The above pic is looking at Peak Express. So … i continued to explore parts of Whistler. I was surprised by the snowballs rolling down the sides. In Colorado, it typically signifies that something is about to slide. Blue sky? Don’t worry. The visibility was variable throughout the day. By 12pm, it was back to low visibility. I went in for a quick lunch and to get my charger. Had a protein shake & headed back out. By 2pm, it was big Flake energy at the top. Then raining mid mountain. And slushy and misty at the base. I was soaked as I skied back down. My brother went back slightly earlier. He hit up the Olympics museum and said it was smaller than the one in Park City. He went to Pizzeria Antico and got margherita pizza that was on happy hour. Odd that they gave him scissors to slice his pizza with….. I missed happy hour but wanted to try a different pizza. I popped into Pangea for a Butternut Squash flatbread with feta & spinach. The Pangea hotel was weird. It looked like a WeWork for recent grads in China who like skiing. But the flatbread was delicious. The cocktail menu was full of ineundos like Citron My Face. i opted for a beer and kicked ass at Connect Four.

Day 2 - Warmer Outta the house to wait for parking lot tram to overcast skies and upper 20’s. Didn’t get much out of system overnight, maybe an inch. On the tram a few raindrops were felt. Since some snow fell, decided to head for the bowl fist thing. Up the lifts the drizzle turned to snow, great! It would continue to snow off and on all day. Up to the bowl, visibility began to drop. Into the bowl turned white out, not good, but enough to make you unable to see bump abs so we bailed. Looking at the wind direction, maybe the Southern side would be clearer. Headed around the mountain to the Shedhorn lift past all the mega-million dollar houses of the Yellowstone club. The plan was to head for the Dakota lift area but it was closed. We later found out from a worked that they rarely run it, mainly because of maintenance issues. The employee didn’t know if it would be running this week or not. Bah! Visibility was better over here but the snow coverage was dust on crust pizza b pretty much all the trails. Had a long lift stop and during so the snow stopped for the time being. At this point it was nearing lunch, so we headed back around the peak. Decided to head all the way down to the Madison base to eat. With the rising temps, the snow was getting really slow and sticky. After lunch we tried to stay in the upper parts to avoid the sloppy snow. The snow has mostly stopped so went up to give the bowl another go, but even without the snow, the flat light made skiing it not fun, so we went looking elsewhere. Headed down and up the Challenger and found Little Tree. This thing starts out mellow and gets progressively steeper, then tightened into a chute, unfortunately with little snow and lots of rocks. Fun! Lapped Challenger trees, but the snow had gotten too sticky, so headed home. Hit tub, beers then down to Big Sky for dinner, edibles and some groceries. Had a $17 bison burger at Choppers, pretty good and prices were not outrageous. Random shots… Madison base… Another safety shack tagged… Bison burger…