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A bunch of us had had enough of Blue lately and decided to use up an Indy on Montage yesterday and from the sounds of the reports out of Blue, it was a good decision. Arrived in the lot just after 8am to 19' and hazy sunshine. It felt cold in the lot, so went with the extra puffy just in case. Later the sun came out and standing around in it, felt overdressed, but out on the slopes it was cold again. In all the years I've skied, I've never bothered to venture to Montage and have to say I'm happy I finally did. Even though the mountain has a bizarre layout, it's unique and a throwback. The beer shack in the middle of the mountain with a DJ cranking tunes was cool, even though we didn't stop for a beer. They had another DJ cranking tunes at the bottom of the Phoebe Snow lift. They opened precisely at 9am and for kicks and giggles we took the Short Haul lift out of the lodge area. The snow was spectacular, loose talcum powder groomed to perfection, what a concept! We cruised on down Boomer which too had perfectly groomed snow and the run had some giddy up. Passed by White Lightning that unfortunately had a Closed sign, and the reason was evident when we got to the bottom and saw a winch cat grooming the bottom headwall. Up and down Smoke which was also perfectly groomed and a lot of fun. Is it Saturday? The place is a ghost town! If it were 930am at Blue, we'd be dodging people already and the runs would be cookies, marbles and ice, but none of that was around, at least in the expert area. Giving the groomer some time on White Lightning, we went over to the Iron Horse lift and down Switch were they were setting up the Nastar course. Next to the run under the lift, there was overblown chalk that a few sampled and found quite enjoyable. The run itself had groomed powder. Up the Long Haul and now we found ourselves back in Blue conditions. They evidently hadn't put as much effort into the conditions over here and/or it has a lot more traffic from beginners and intermediates. The snow was more granular with patches of ice here and there that you had to be careful of as they'd take down an unsuspecting slider. Back over to Boomer to check on White Lightning and they had just dropped the rope. Down the in run, it reminds me of Coming Soon, flat. Up ahead there are a bunch of people just standing around. We all fly past them and down the headwall. Woo-hoo, it definitely has some giddy-up and woah that compression at the bottom was unexpected. Wow that's fun! We lapped that a bunch of times and discovered a bunch of overblow into the woods next to the run where you could actually get a few nice pow turns in the trees. Definitely a fun diversion from the rigamarole that is Blue. This place holds a lot of potential for Spring skiing and warrants a repeat then to use up the second Indy ticket.

Everyone was around except gss, pretty warm and not crowded at all at least to start. The first couple runs were soft spongy and way better than I thought considering a billion dip and dots fell out of the sky. It fell apart quick but even all scrambly it was pretty ok and I liked sketchy ditch. Even if it was a bit icy it made a dope sound as you made turns. Super shout out to enjo, I eat alot of fries and lots of them including the shack don't make that good of a fry let alone in a parking lot. Also props to the Justin Timberlake wannabe not only rocking out but loudly singing VT old cabin in the winter, wrist sliters. I like Gregory Alan Isakov every now and again too but how much lead do you need to consume to think anyone wants to hear you ? Hilariously funny though

For anyone on the fence the roads are fine, takes super long to defrost your car. The McDonald's lot is fun fun fun and there are so many idiots out but it's all nbd

i dont see any chairs on the main street cam. did they put them away for the night? that would be so unlike Blue, i know. if they did put them away, i wonder if they really have any idea how to get them back out.

It’s ugly for sure, I made steak on the grill at 7 last night and by 11 pm it looked like this.

Theyll be lucky to get more than a decent inch. Currently pinging like a MF here. Womp.

Stellar day at Snowmass! It has been so dry here. I uphilled at Buttermilk earlier in the week and it was an icy luge coming down. Woke up to some surprise snow! Snowmass reported 2” but by the time I got there it was definitely 4”. I booked a lesson just to get a refresher on some things and my girl took me to a lift I only was on once with atomic Jeff when he visited. Everything was untracked and skied amazing. Talked to a ski patroller who said at their morning meeting yesterday, management told them the snow was so dangerous they should “ski as little as possible”. He said they had a lot of on mountain injuries. This week looks to be a little snow every other day. No major storms but will take what we can get.

It took me awhile to get to this, but I figured it’s better late than never. I hadn’t been to Snowshoe since 2004 when I was a senior in high school, so when my parents, who have an affinity for WV, offered to take us on a trip there, we jumped on it. When we last went, they hadn’t finished Corridor H or Snowshoe Drive over the backside of the mountain, so the trip was much shorter this time. It would have been about 7 hours without any extra stops, but they are tough to avoid when you have extra people, so it took us about 8. The last hour or so on the winding WV roads were partially snow covered too, which added to the adventure. It’s been difficult to justify going to WV when the drive to Southern VT is the same distance and has much more consistent snow, but we just got really lucky this time. Outside of days in the northeast where I’ve gotten free refills all day, this was probably top 3 in terms of pure snow conditions. They hadn’t experienced a freeze thaw event in almost a month, snow guns were constantly going, and they had received 6 feet of snow in the previous two weeks. We stayed ski in/ski out at the top of the mountain. We got into our accommodations at 3 on Monday, got an hour or so the first day, went bell to bell with some stops Tuesday-Thursday, and then did another hour in the morning Friday before we left. We got a couple inches of fresh snow Tuesday night and a couple more Thursday night, so in addition to the snowmaking, there were some little refreshes in there. Overall, the mountain is relatively mellow, but has some great cruisers. It’s also a top/down mountain which is unique. There are 3 distinct mountain areas. The main mountain is where most of the lodging and village are located. Silver Creek is a little smaller, has the night skiing, and you have to take a shuttle to it. The Western Territory is where they have “4” runs that are the full 1,500’ vert, and they are fast, open, and really make the mountain ride/ski a lot bigger than the stats show. Those runs compete with some of the runs up in VT, but there aren’t many of them. They were also blowing snow on open terrain which you don’t see too much of south of NY, so that was cool to see too. There’s plenty of high speed lifts, so you can cover the mountain quickly and really rack up some runs. Most of the trip was spent at the main area. All the trails were packed powder. There wasn’t any ice. It was incredible. The main HSQ in the middle of the mountain, Ballhooter, was by far the busiest lift, sometimes having a 5 minute lift line, but every other lift was ski on/off. I spent most of my time on the Soaring Eagle and Powder Monkey lifts. Since I was there last, they also added some glade skiing. They were cut well, but even with all the natural they had gotten, there were still obstacles and they could have used another foot in there. On Thursday we took the opportunity to go to the Western Territory by walking across the road at the top of the Powder Monkey lift. It’s about a 100 yard walk. I knocked out 7 or 8 runs in about an hour and 15 minutes. There were some hard pack spots over there due to the sun exposure, but all in all, nothing to complain about. The view there is very reminiscent of out west minus the lack of above tree line views. The amenities are really nice. We stayed at the Mountain Lodge, which has a great location, but being one of the first lodges built in the late 70’s/early 80’s, is very dated. The village is great. Nice mix of shops and food. There is a small grocer at the top, which comes in handy for overpriced necessities, but make sure you bring what you need since Snowshoe is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There’s a Dollar General at the base, but if you can’t find it there, you’re traveling an hour plus for a real grocery store or a Wal-Mart. Great trip overall. I’d go back, but you just don’t get that lucky on conditions that often. When we were there, they had more snowfall for the year than Sugarbush had. Sometimes you just get lucky.

2 differences from yesterday to today. What ever it was that fell from the sky last night deepened the sugar to hide most of the glacier like spots. And more importantly, cheesesteaks! the skiing didnt suck, but its an easily forgettable day, until the grill gets fired up.

I’m planning a midweek montage day at some point in the next few weeks. PASR day anyone?

Started the car 5am..Cleaned what I could from the sidewalks and salted...Cleaned the car off...Got dressed ...shotgun some coffee..on the road 6:15...Only part of the of the drive that had snow/ice was over the hill at Sheetz...Took me about an hour to get to Blue..

I'm really glad i took the alternate route this morning. my normal way was still hot garbage on my way back.

Nice report. I always try to hit Montage for my 2 indy days. It never gets crowded and their terrain and various bars are pretty fun. I've found the same conditions off of the long haul lift, seems icier on Fast Track and Runaway. Not sure if you hit Rattler but taking that to Cannonball is one of my favorite runs there

I’m going to head there just for shits and giggles. In kunk we got mainly all sleet and there is a small crusty layer on top.

Light snow falling up at Blue and the quad, at least, is running...

If conditions aren't good tomorrow, at least we'll have some food in the lot!

I have a little PTSD from the Root Roller on challenge and no I’m not gonna email Jim Doily

If he’s allowed to leave the state/country lol

First runs were really great. Then it turned to crap pretty quickly. Good to see the everyone again. It's been a while with trips etc.

Hey All, I’m back from a fun morning at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot before 720am and it was in the low 20s under mostly cloudy sky’s. In the house was everybody except Dirtwolf and Salty. First civilian six pack to challenge which was pretty nice initially and the big roller in the middle got me..luckily I’m an agile mofo so no carnage but I don’t like that roller. I skied challenge again then Main Street which wasn’t that good. Kind of scratchy. Coming soon was ok and lazy I skied for the first time in like a month..just too slow for me to enjoy. Challenge was now thick sugar, not that good with boilerplate below and sidewinder with all the root rollers was super crowded and icy. I ended on Burma which was super slick. I’d say aside from the first few runs it was some of the worst conditions so far this season but before my JH trip blue had a couple weeks of great conditions. Let’s hope tonight’s freezing rain and sleet helps but I feel that Blue is cheaping out on snowmaking, I’m surprised they didn’t blow any overnight. Now at work, I have an appointment at 130 for art changes…groan JADIP

Sleet rain and a bizarre chemical smell being reported by a bunch of people in my area. Electrical odor?

I actually only took 4 other pictures while skiing. This is probably the least amount of pictures Ive ever taken on a ski trip. I prefer to live in the moment instead, like Kumbaya and shiet. Plus all ski pics tend to look the same after awhile.