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First time at Stratton for a quick trip and really, really enjoyed it. It was fun to rip groomers with some decent vert and great grooming. Had a blast and look forward to getting back there again thanks to this lovely new Ikon pass.

Oh, forgot to include some food pics for GSS.

Friday last day Another ☀️☀️☀️day. Snow shower came through just after close. Nice day. Started with some Mineral laps as that gets the sun first. Then sone plays over in Little Cloud area. Rasta chutes etc. The northeast facing aspects seemed to hold that nice chilly snow during this freeze/thaw cycle. After lunch getting into Cirque Ave some other fun stuff off the path. West Baldy, Peruvian area lots of goodies in there. Then to finish the day with some live music in the plaza 🍺 Forecast for snow tomorrow afternoon. 😢. I really thought about changing flight to red eye to get another day in but honestly, We all are pretty wiped out. Was pretty good and fun week even though snow conditions were not what you’d expect here but weather is always a roll of dice in trip planning

Gore-juice day

I didn’t go today 😥, but I did have scrapple at breakfast

What a fun day. A big thank you to all the snow makers, groomers, lifties and ski patrol and all the staff at Blue that made it happen. I knew it would be a great day when the bald eagle made a low flight against the blue sky above us while we were booting up. Magnificent sight.

Day 52. Winter is back, thank god. I skied Monday and left after 3 runs because conditions were too high risk. Got 7" since then I and more on the way. Visibility left something to be desired, but snow quality was excellent.

@RidgeRacer you should probably do that...

Stratton will always hold a special place in my heart. It was my first “big mountain” trip a long time ago in a galaxy far far away. I remember seeing it on the road as you approach the mountain thinking holy shit this place looks massive. really thinking hard on getting an ikon pass next year.

Debating a weekender up there in a couple weeks, if their snow holds

Biggest pile of snow I ever seen.

Made it up after work for a short session. The photo shoot was weird and there was a surprising number of beginners out of their element. Saw way more people walking than expected between the struggle on the flats and newbies going down the expert terrain. One guy asked me on the lift if my Black Crows were a special edition for the band… Talked to an employee/friend that said the quad was stopping because they had a big gap up top between the wood and snow. Apparently it was ready to go and then melted and people were eating it. Had to call a cat out to fix it

Another beautiful day here before the snow comes in later tonight. Skinned up the Elk Camp side of Snowmass in a t-shirt today. Was 49 degrees when I got back to my car. I like this route. Not quite as hard as Tiehack. Just under 2 miles and 1300’+ elevation gain. Made it up in exactly 1:30. Had a quick lunch at the top of the gondola and skied back down. Light crowds, snow was mushy and soft.

Decided on Castlerock Peak grand reopening after closing for the season twice already. It had reopened for the storm 2 weeks ago and closed again shortly after until today. From the friends I made on the chair this was the best this peak has been this year. This is now the best powder day I've had in my life, absolutely Ikonic preserved 16-18" on the peaked other than the ridge hikers from yesterday afternoon at 2pm when Heavens Gate opened. Although I am not a fan of lines. On a day like today I appreciate why this is an intentional crazy wide spaced double chair. It keeps the drop in traffic to a very minimum by design, JADIP. 20240322_131820.mp4

Hell yeah! I wish I stayed north this weekend. This March is an absolute banger! Going back first and 2nd weeks of April.

Great for the ponds when they blow perder in late June

No need to worry about a drought.

The rain has stopped and now the Santa Anna's have begun. God I hate PA weather

On my list of videos to watch and his kicking horse video was all time.

Remember 9am opening tomorrow.

I can’t believe they’re open today.

It's a deluge for sure. Decent amount of flooding in spots up here

If you get an Ikon base plus or full ikon you can come visit me and ski Aspen next year with Dan. Just sayin….

Blue is usually open until 9pm and their online store usually works. They used to be open until 10pm for night skiing but scaled back to 9pm because the majority were quitting like 7-830 plus cost savings.

Some funky snow for sure, not corn, not sugar, not slush - rode the lift with a montage instructor and she called it doughy which I thought was pretty good adjective. Fun just the same

This is why quad stopped. They had to fix the ramp because people were eating it getting off the lift. We had a front row seat. Quite entertaining IMG_8784.mov

The sun was bright ☀️. The snow was everything from boilerplate to pure slush. And a little bit of nice chalk in between. mountain reported 21” last week but the Cirque traverse was pretty rocky. Welcome to March sunshine. Great Scott was actually decent just the drop in was sketchy. Had a little late morning show as two guys had hiked up the peak and went into a (as I heard) a rarely open line called Pipeline. Winds were calm up top which I guess I can count as a win.

I was out here about same time last year and it dumped all week. I stayed in Midvale. LCC road had a lot of avy closures that week and I was only about to get here one day. Solitude and Brighton the other days. So this go around I stayed near slopeside.

Think I rode lift with airhead Dreamweaver snow very nice and soft but crowded Razors moguls not too big yet to rip and are soft, middle sections a but icy, bottom is very nice Burma road is just slow Run at the very top of vista Actually quite nice

Tonight has been quite enjoyable and coverage is actually pretty great for what's open all things considered. That one area in airheads pic is probably the worst of it. No cookies semi-soft but sticky kind of snow not bad at all. Not crowded but it feels kind of crowded because most people are hanging out on either nightmare dream or razors. Just did a Burma run that was actually quite enjoyable maybe my best Burma run of the year LOL

Fun couple hours, still light crowd. After the sun went in things firmed up a bit . Razors bumped up a little but to much pizza traffic it’s starting to get icy. Had fun patch hopping Razors near the woods on skiers right . I think I’m done for the season ☹️

Conditions are interesting...some chunky snow, ice, and slush. Gonna ride until shortly after 3, I've just done razors a few times. Lines may get long later with only running the quad

Not from today, but a teaser for an up coming Trip Report

Map showing weather forecast for Blue this weekend

Today started with a nice snow shower. I hope the crew over in Park City has a piece of that. It softened the surface up enough to make fir a very fun day. Visibility up top was pretty bad most of the day. The mountain staff posted signs “Experts Only” so I think that scared off the tourists bad the lift lines in Mineral were pretty short. 👍 The most fun for me was getting into some of the chutes and trees over in Little Cloud area, My post yesterday was a wet avalanche debris. Kind of scary.

Strike 2

Well today I totally sucked and only made it one mile up Tiehack before I decided to transition and come back down. The temps were low 40’s when I arrived and brilliant sunshine beating down on me. Still got in a solid hour of good cardio so I am satisfied. Buttermilk closes 3/31 and it’s getting quite mushy. All mashed potatoes on the way down.

I did that trip years ago, purg is worth a visit and Durango has a super dope Nepalese place called Himalayan Kitchen. Get the yak shi momo for sure. The drive from Silverton to Quray is redonk redonk, like pull over every 10 mins and look at shit. Telluride is soooooo pretty and by setup one of the coolest ski towns.

Salty are you back now ready for blue tomorrow.

Wooooooo

@saltyant likes those. ok I’m done here. Ski you tomorrow Root remember 9am opening