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Hey All, I’m back from a fun morning at Blue mountain. It was in the upper 20s when I arrived at 8:35am. In the house were Atomic Jeff, Johnny Law, Rodney, C1er, Gary and Oz. First super summit safari six pack ride stopped twice, always happens. First run on Main Street was variable, velvety groomed and manmade, then some crispy snow lower. Over to the quad and first nightmare dreamweaver of the season which had pretty nice grooming and some skiffs of new manmade. challenge was so nice, one of the first runs this season at Blue I said this is really good. Repeated challenge about five times. Each run stayed good, mostly empty and it was one of the few runs they didn’t blow on so super consistent. Homestretch and Barbs way had mini cookies. Ended the session with a Raceway to Chute to lower main which was good until lower main which was a little scrappy and then Widowmaker to midway to lower main and midway kind of slick wet manmade. I left at 1030 and the temperature was up in the mid 30s and still blowing on Switchback. I’ll be back on Thursday AM, time to sell a tombstone.

Today was le tits part deux, Challenge was even better than yesterday with a little more stiffness it could hold against the ski. When Challenge is good two days in a row its like I must be having a stroke and all of this is in my mind. It's so much fun to truck down that mother getting airs and ripping big arcs. I didn't mind the herky jerkey stuff probably becuase they are already slow with no wax so I was really enjoying upper main and especially NWDW. There is enough room even if you dont want to get booter Crunk but it's soooo nice to formation fly and get a bit blue angels. Le chute continues to be prime and I got one decent launch today. Weather was perfect, great crew and good snow........ shit was a dream on Monday but two days in a row I must be on peyote.

Haven't been here since our kids were little so I figured I'd use my Indy Pass to get a day of carving under blue skies with not a cloud anywhere. Got a ton of runs in off the Tomahawk HSQ which also provided some nice convo with total strangers on the way to the top. As the sun warmed temps to the mid 40s the snow got softer & a little sticky here & there so I stuck to the shady side wherever possible. Base was impressively deep in many places. Machine groomed packed manmade that was groomed fine in most places but a little...weird...in a few others as you can see from the photos- choppy & "gouged" is the only word that comes to mind. ROTD was Delaware. All in all a very pleasant day.

Rode from 11:45-3:45, surprised how empty the place was. Great conditions, did at least half my runs on razors. Kicking myself for not doing challenge after reading y’all reports, but figured I rode it so much on the weekend I’d get my razors runs in. Nightweaver was my ROTD. Gotta reiterate that man the place was empty

Blue has to hate it but man is it nice when it's like the days of old. No 84737293 people lined up 30ft in front of the gates so no one can get through and then using two lanes. Most importantly no fuck heads endlessly dicking around in shitter stance with absolutely zero awareness. I think that group was psia, makes sense but most of those dudes are single trick ponies, hence their love of perfecting stupid little c turns and stopping every 20ft to have a confab on edge purchase.

Getting another big storm. I have an avalanche class in Silverton that starts Thursday morning. We planned to drive here the day before. But the storm is rolling in now and tomorrow is going to be heavy. So we made the executive decision to come to Silverton today and stay an extra day. Once we got to Ouray, we could see the hell we would be driving into. Red mountain pass is not one of my favorites to drive on a clear sunny day. At the top and all the way down into Silverton we were in a white out pretty much. Glad we made it. Just got word that Red mountain pass AND Molas pass from the Durango side will close at 10pm tonight with no time listed for reopening. So not sure what will even happen with this class. Forecast says 1-3 feet by Thursday morning. Towards the bottom of the pass heading into Silverton.

We were just talking this weekend at Blue about how they won't let ticket holders travel uphill during the day or an hour before opening, but let race parents walk in sneakers up trails and across Paradise without a lift ticket. Would love to start the day with some uphill.

Buoy pop for right around the 17th. Which is Pres weekend. If you thought January 7th was a shit show, if this pans out that will look like a practice shit show.

Imma be that old dude that takes trips to Canada in a bus from the old folks home for cheap drugs. And get off at Jay.

Uphill at Shawnee on Friday? @mbike-ski@mute1080(angry Ryan cant come) @AtomicSkier @anybodyelse ??

It’s also fairly controversial that ORDA operates those areas. Having the backing of the NY state government means they can invest millions annually into projects that may see frivolous to some (the belleayre gondola for an example). This is creating an issue where the state run ski areas are competing against private businesses. The owners of plattekill are not too happy about that, and rightly so, as people have to drive past belleayre with their shiny new lifts to get to a smaller ski areas whose investments are directly related to how many skier visits they get rather than how much tax revenue the state brings in. As for Elk…I feel like there have been rumors about the sale for years but it never happens. It may be more that elk is a fairly big ski area for PA, and other areas of that size are being gobbled up by epic and ikon such as camelback and blue. I would expect blue and camelback to be full ikon within a few years to compete with vails stranglehold on PA. I could see vail being at least interested in elk as their only pocono areas are JFBB which are super small. Ikon is the superior product in the pocono-ish area.

Wanted to hit it today but a huge accident on 80 East cost me so much time I switched to Shawnee which is much closer (see my TR). Made lemonade from those lemons as everything turned out good. Will hit Montage with my Indy pass some other time. Really wish Blue was on it but they "went Epic"

Montage posted one picture of me from today...

Went up tonight 6-8 and had a kids night. Our trail list was Pdis, Lazy, and Burma on repeat and all the side hits they offer. Definitely a firm base with sugar but still had a great time. Crowds were mild and around 7 they disappeared almost completely. Nice to have it empty. Guns turned on for Switch at 7 and looked to be the only trail getting touched for now. Is there a gofundme for Blue so they can buy light bulbs? Keeps getting worse and every trail we were on have sections out.

When I did snowboard psia I saw this all the time.....

I love plattekill and would much rather ski there but I'm definitely not the type of customer resorts are after. I would guess the same applies to you but blue gets my pass money and that's really it. I'm there all the time and quick to bitch when they make mistakes. Now loyalty and ponying up before the season is worth something but if they had their way it would be all single day family with rentals and food because then they make bank.

Yea but, you're a typical girl in a jeep. You'll be fine. Native (from Jersey) lol

Off by one week. Ugh. Got the one pow day at least...but damn "Up to 3 FEET of Snow Forecasted to Fall this Week February is off to a snow-filled start and we're absolutely loving it! It's been dumping all day up on the mountain and this storm is just getting started! OpenSnow is forecasting up to 15 inches in the next 24 hours and up to 3 FEET of snowfall throughout the week!"

Platty also attracts free heelers in winter & MTB in summer. I'm glad they're doing better & love skiing there- I like all the ungroomed terrain cuz it means less crowds on those trails.

Having trouble locating hi-vis hats for this friday at this point. Lets try for next friday.

Can't make it Friday morning unfortunately. Unless Shawnee turned into Keystone with fresh pow as pictured, then I'm in.

Except Lazlo knew the deal at platty when he bought it and so does everyone else in that area. He has zero pockets and no investors of merit, its like hickory being pissed at Wyndham. Platty doesn't compete with Bell state or not and it's the states job to make money with its assets. Plattekill has to market the difference in experience and profit from that, straight up they lose to bell everytime or Hunter or Wyndham and they all lose to WF/killy which is 2/3 hrs up the road. Full disclosure I'd much rather ski platekill but to claim they can't compete due to state coffers is bullshit. It doesn't compete because they have a niche product most snow sports people are less interested in. Elk will always be on VR or KSL'S hit sheet all you have to do is look at a map but it's not a great place to run a real estate scam so it will be less tempting.

This was my 8th (and shortest unfortunately). Always have a great time here. Glad for all your JH posts in from the past to convince me to visit this beautiful place.

I'm not sure that comparison carries much weight TBH. ORDA is just that...a govt funded agency that manages not only the ski areas but all of the Olympic sites etc. it exists because they held the Olympic games...twice and annually holds major events. Denton is a backyard hill in Potter county PA....aka the middle of nowhere. The only event they hold, I'm guessing, is maybe a pie eating contest in the lodge? I'm driving the distance for the ORDA resorts because the all around experience will be infinitely better. Philly, NY, NJ etc aren't doing that drive for a lesser product that they can get in less than half the distance in the Poconos.

Blue is Ikon and definitely not in the category of Indy resorts.

Rode at BC for little over an hour after work...Conditions were kinda meh...Hardly anybody there ...

Same. It won't be those conditions but Tomorrow or Wednesday night...

Huh? It’s snowing today in Jackson hole from Stilson lot to ranch lot to village lot to the mangy moose to the peak. I’ve been back less than 5 days, skied twice at Blue and worked a couple days and I wanna go back already. Any Eddie Money fans!!!

I had a few days just as this crew departed and it was pretty much more of the same type of weather. Of course with my luck as I depart the snow arrives. 🥲 i feel bad cause I did not realize 49er is literally across the street from Mountain Modern. I would have stopped by to say Hi. 😔 @GrilledSteezeSandwich i had a French speaking crew on Mountain Modern bus offering everyone an early morning flask swig. They were from Montreal and I was invited up Tremblant anytime. They could really drink lol Another guy from Exton, PA was staying out there ski bumming for three weeks. How I wish I could get that to happen for me. 🙏 Headwall and anything in Casper was closed during my stay. It is what it is. There is always next year. By Friday people were going out gates and my group had a short discussion about going up Cody. The intel was it was chalky snow up top but the bottom third of Rock Springs was a miserable sheet of ice heading back into the Hobacks. Deal breaker So alot of our days started at Casper where the piste runs were groomed AM not PM. Not the steeps you want at JH but fun edgeable snow. The fog layer seemed to stay away from there. Early lunch then over to Thunder and Sublette for some corn snow mogul laps around Ten Sleep, Cirque, Laramie area. I don’t have pics yet but some North Trees were decent lines also cause hardly anyone was going in there and well when visibility was good it was nice. Pic from Top Looking North I believe . Pretty big crown (red highlight) and slide path below it from earlier in week. those rocks behind us at Sublette sign should be mostly snow covered looks like April not early February It was fun times regardless of conditions Teton Thai up at the Bilkage had some really delicious food. I recommend, just get there before 530pm before the rest of the gsper hoards.

Back home. Was a really nice trip…got to spend quality time with my kid, three excellent ski days…a bluebird / groomer day, a good tree day and a powder day, got a brand new helmet worth a buck forty for free courtesy of snowbowl, had excellent pizza and gelato, got a chance to check on the land and area around there, had two on time flights that arrived early and were half empty, racked up Starbucks points and realized that despite wanting one forever, I’m probably not a jeep guy (did come home to a broken fridge though) Till next time. See everyone at blue next weekend.

I tried using my phone at Jay and it said I couldn't because I was in Canada.

A grate reason to ski only in the daylight times.

I thought they had gone back after they split from Epiq and not everything was pay. It just dawned on me too Vail resorts had to sell Abasin to Canadians due to antitrust when they just owned Vail and BC. How can Alterra and VR end up owning all the resorts and that's ok ? Is WP city owned or Alterra ? Aspen Ski Co isn't theirs but they are in on KSL....Mother fucking capitalism.