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I first came to Utah in 2000 with all 30 some members of my family and for at least a decade straight a group of us came every year so I for sure will always have massive rose colored glasses for Mormon adjacent skiing. I left Newark yesterday at 7am Est and was skiing at 1245 MST. They got 5 inches the night before and no one was home, so I ripped the big dog groomers where fun and low effort intersect. Keno, Tycoon, Naboob they have endless fast interesting medium pitch groomers served by endless high speed lifts. I had to be back at the airport to pick up family members but I racked up 17 runs of by far the best snow I've skied all year. We went Thai from in town and I ate mad Penang curry and passed out fat and happy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was supposed to snow like an inch overnight but we woke to it nuking and six inches on the ground. Massive, wet, PNW like flakes it was most definitely very un-Joseph Smith like. My brother and I were out the house early on a mission to get Steins untracked, we found 30% water, mariana trenching snow. It's kinda windy windy and the snow is coming down 2" an hr kinda hard so vis is negative ray Charles on the skate from the top of Wasatch. I can find it in my sleep but I almost end up down Powderhorn it's all just white. All my money is on finding the pines on the left before the first headwall. The wind is coming over the back and left side will be plump if I can find some vis. Left side trees show up right before my luck runs out and bam its on. Boot deep chunder turns, where the snow comes off in sheets. My brother who was 15ft behind me is who the fuck knows where, you still can't see shit but I'm not stopping. , Where it's normally hot to trot its all straight down the fall line and you can jump off everything........ Best run since I went to the pnw and I still can't see anyone out. Peeps did eventually show up but until 1pm or so we did nothing but untracked........... Easy right off Ontario bowl nobody home, all of lady Morgan except the green nobody home, pretty much anything in the woods nobody was home. My brother claimed best sleeper day since the Pow Mow days. It was the sloppiest snow I've ever seen in UT and it was so, so, so much fun. Dinner was low key Italian from the place at the St Regis top golf because we ate mad seafood at Rime for lunch. All of my pics look like the second one just white and trees but my brother got one of me later in the day so you know I'm not joshing.

@Schif and I missed a ski weekend — but — we have a lot of leftover wedding cake that we’ll bring to Bleu soon!

Definitely a nice day with awesome visibility. Could see Philly and Manhattan.

Just finished up a quick 3 days at my favorite mountain Taos Ski Valley. This was the first time that we’ve gone as a family and I didn’t put my kids in ski school. Skied a bunch with the family which was a blast. It’s nice that my kids are good enough now to follow me around some fun terrain, and I got a kick out of showing my son the steeps in west basin which he had never hiked to before. The weather was warm and sunny all three days but the snow remained nice and chalky so everything was in play aside from some slopes that face south which are rarely good anyway. On day 2 my kids and I shared a lift ride with pro skier Connor Ryan (@sacredstoke) who I was familiar with from a fifty project episode and also “Spirit of the Peaks” Movie. Awesome friendly guy and we had a great conversation and shared our stoke for skiing. Highlights were skiing Kachina with my daughter and seeing bighorn sheep up top, and taking my son into Stauffenberg and St. Bernard in west basin which are some of the most legit steeps in North America. Wish I could stay longer but I’m blessed to get it in if even for just 3 days.

In Ferris Buehlerian style I postponed work and hit the road for a super exclusive xxxlub in the Skills. Somehow it's winder than Blue, like every trash can must be in the Hudson windy but the bright sun makes it warm. While technically snowing it's so light it evaporates as quickly as it appears. For an exclusive xxxxluub the lodge looks like the first class lounge at the Scranton Wilkes-Barre international Airport circa 1973.....which I kinda love. Appropriate for the greater Winkle area the upper mtn pod has been asleep foprp a bit and it's the lower quad and the sixer thatmnemonic goes to the other nipple top. The quad pod had 3 legit ways down all pretty much variations of lazy mile. While excellent look out the window skiing probably not the thrill your looking for. The sixer pod though was the star of the show with 9 or 10 legit ways down, all good smooth super grippy snow. A short shot called the wall held soft moguls but I thought the best was one called like maverick and wheelchair, trail maps don't concern me. Long razors like straight shots with nobody home I mostly ran those. Around 230 being the good worker I am, I decided it best to get to work and now I'm driving past the scenic lamington River. Super good day and worth checking out during the week, particularly if you have an ikon.

Sorry after I left june I went Vegas, Phoenix, Newark, its like I'm on the run from the mob and need some time to cloister and chill. Day 4 - June June is the sister hill to Mammoth where the later is gigantic and mostly newish June is smaller and old. Mammoth has some bro brah too where June is hyper chill. I rolled up a little before 8 mad at myself for not getting out of bed. June is two blue mtns stacked on top of eachother. The lower is all ungroomed blacks that with the freeze thaw are not skiable until the afternoon and are served by a awesome ancient double chair with a custom Jerry rigged safety bar. Because of this nobody skis the bottom mountain so I didn't think it strange I saw absolutely no one out. When I reach mid mtn, all the lifts are running, workers are out but I see no other customers. Fuck man did I get on the lift early or something ? J6 is running so I get on but even from the lift I can't see anyone, not a single other person. Wtf is going on where is everyone ??? I go Silverado a long blue that looks down on lake June which is absolutely perfect cord top to bottom and I still don't see anyone even down at the mid base. I take another faster even more perfect groomer down Bodie and I almost can't believe that I have still yet to see another single customer on the trails, lifts, base area like did I take peyote last night wtf is going on ? It's not until my 4th run I see another person coming up the lift and I'm 1000% serious I think I was the only one there for like the first half hour. Now it's starting to click no one is home and I can do whatever the fuck I want and j7 just opened. J7 hosts the good shit in the upper mtn and they've groomed a wicked steep groomer into deer bowl. All the way up I can see not a single person and decide I'm going to set the afterburner to 1000. From the top of the lift I do 5 massive arcs down the hill at absolutely maximum speed, I lied when I said Mammoth is fast I'm doing 10mph faster as a 1000 vert goes by in seconds. Matterhorn and Schatzi is exactly the same how fucking fast can you go taking up the entire trail jumping off anything because I'm still skiing alone. I've skied like 1000+ days at alot of hills and normally when I say it's empty it's relative to a normal day but I've never seen something like this, ever and not even close. I'm farming cord as I'm crossing only my tracks and while I can now see two groups out from the lift there's maybe 10 people out total on the entire upper mtn. All morning run after run after run I had the whole trail to myself, free to paint without rules I went ape just doing full width full speed arcs under perfect blue skies and sun, Sierra's hulking steep faces lurking in the background, June lake below it was absolutely perfect. It wasn't t-ride/Silverton or other trips where it snowed everyday but top 50 day ever skiing for sure. People did show up but I'd say at max maybe 200 people at most around 1pm. I rode the lift with someone only twice and only because I wanted to talk to this dude that ripped about where the fuck everyone was. Apparently it's almost always low crowds so Iow they don't have enough loot to replace j1 which while super cool is also super slow. After lunch I alternated between empty groomers and working lines up on the upper face. It's a moderate pitch of trees and rocks and while fun the snow never really got right off trail. The groomers though continued to deliver empty perfection. It was a super cool day and one of my favorite groomer days ever. I have written alot of words but if you read anything GO TO JUNE MTN !! PS. In keeping with tradition I saw these, fruit booting with snow board boots interesting.

Day 3 - Mammoth About a half inch of surprise snow overnight and lifts that spin at 830 and I was up and out early. Cold and up top it was hyper windy but super sun kept it from being uncomfortable. Mammoth is obviously gigantic with almost 30 lifts and 200 trails, like Sunday river it's mostly pods of 2k vert or so. As a big fan of weird lifts they have some great ones, 3 older fix grips, a two part gondy that you load in the lodge like a train station and my favorite chair 23, where it's so windy they built a hut to off load with directional tunnels depending on how you wish to unload. Where taos jams more steep on steep, Mammoth rolls over though it does have endless steeps and tech skiing. Personally I think CA skiing absolutely murders in the terrain, particularly playground terrain that is super playful tech but not actively trying to kill you at any moment and Mammoth has endless amounts of that. I went up 9 first to get the bit o fresh in the dragons back zone 2 which was good until you hit the wind scour and then it got spicy af. The groomers were perfection with low crowds and superb views. The gondy to the summit was on wind hold but I noticed they groomed a run down cornice bowl that looked like Kitzbuel. Chair 23 was absolutely rocking, the wind up top was blue like but I wanted to ski dropout chutes which are kinda famous that held decent chalky turns and the cornice groomer to st Anton. It was one of the best groomed runs ever, the steepness was perfect and it's the fastest I've gone on skis in forever. It was so good I ran it three times in a row at hyper speed Chair after chair, run after run of just perfect sunny groomers. Lower mtn I foolishly tried off trail and found deadly punch through crust that tried to send me to the shadow realm but everything else was mint and my God the scale of the place. You could ski here for a month and not get all the steeps lines. Reds Lake run, solitude, white bark bowl there were so many runs where you can absolutely fly but my favorite run in the whole place was rooster tail to dry creek. It was a steepish bowl of chalk to a choke with a monster rock wall backdrop. The line was perfect chocolate chip and once charted you could air between and over and come out the other side 1000% club super sex. The sheer amount of terrain and the amount of fun and creativity you can have is absurd. I don't know what it is but CA kills fun flowy super fast terrain and I did my best to ski as many and as much of the place as possible but I just scratched the surface. I don't think PASR does alot of golden state skiing but Mammoth is up there with the super resorts like Vail, Snowmass, etc etc where the scale alone is impressive.

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.

Every year we do a ski weekend for Mrs SnoBunSki’s birthday, so even though she’s still on the IRL for the rest of the season recovering from rotator cuff surgery, we headed North early Friday morning. First stop was a lunch break and a few runs at Magic Mountain. I’m trying to get a little value out of my mostly unused Indy Pass - I think I’m down to around 33 bucks a run lol - and check out the Black Line lift that is finally up and running. My second ride up I spotted the rope drop on Talisman and lapped that a few times, fun corn with a little walk across a grass patch to get back out. It was fuckin’ blue bird! Got back on the road to Lake Bomoseen, a beautiful evening to light a fire to watch the sunset while we waited for the other couple we were skiing with to arrive. Saturday we ski’d Killington, overcast and temps in the low thirties, conditions were rough with sugar piles and ice after the week’s rain. I ski’d tele all day as one of the other skiers was a beginner, it was fun social skiing putting new root combos together and I didnt feel like I was missing much with the conditions. I thought about hitting the Killington-Pico traverse and checked out the entrance, it wasn’t roped but didn’t look inviting either so will save it for another time. Mrs S made the best of her time The forecast had changed from rain/mix to snow and it started coming down hard during apres. Sunday morning woke up to a coating of slush but at Pico they had reported 9”. Got there at opening to 10” or so of thiiiiick snow. Tracked out the lower mountain solo while waiting for the summit lift to spin. The heavy snow was a lot of work, took a quick break followed by a few more down low then got word that the summit lift had opened. The snow was a little better up high, one of my favorite trails anywhere is Summit Glades and lapped that until my legs were cooked. The intermittent wet snow and sleet changed to full on nice snow after lunch. I went back out to do a few more summit runs with our friend but visibility was bad and I had no gas left in the tank so I ski’d right past the summit loading area to call it a day. Ended the trip with a nice dinner pit stop at Rip VanWinkle Brewing.

02/24/2024 - Travel Rick, son and myself left the house @ 2am headed for Newark to meet up with Slim, Gary, Gah skier George & Jr. for flight @ 6am headed for Toronto, then bro Vancouver. Uneventful flight and even stayed awake for all of Oppenheimer. Good flick. Since we’re actually on an Upper Bucks tour, we had to wait around a bit for the tour bus to arrive. Typical Pacific Northwest weather: rain and fog. Drove through downtown Vancouver because there’s no highway around it. Brilliant! Drive up to Whistler provided some amazing views of the Howe Sound, with mountains knitting straight up out of the water. Unfortunately I was on the wrong side of the bus for pics. After a grocery stop in Squamish, we resumed the ride into Whistler and checked into The Listel Hotel. Some pretty nice digs right next to town square. Dinner was some slices from Dat Tony’s which were delicious, the sauce was crazy good! Recommended for the food, no place to sit though. It didn’t matter since we were starving. Walked around the square a little and stocked up on essentials from the cannabis and liquor stores. Some light snow was falling and supposed to continue through the night. Leaving Newark… Vancouver airport… Vancouver… Squalmish… Witch of something imprint on the mountain… Whistler…

Currently sitting at a wine bar in Chamonix after 19 hours of travel with no issues. Philly direct to Zurich, train to Geneva, bus to Chamonix, walk. Stopped in the Black Crows store and even though I didn’t buy anything, my new skis were on display in their window and I smiled. Caesar salad at Geneva airport waiting for the bus, charcuterie in chx. The plan is Les Grand Montets tomorrow and then Verbier for 3 days. Maybe Zermatt for the last day.

Day 1 ---- Taos I don't remember when I first heard about Taos but it has always held a shangri-la like reputation so when I was going to roughly be in the area it was saddle up buckaroo. I found a cool place to stay that is basically an rv park where they've setup 60's airstreams and such, update the interior kinda plus it has next level views. I highly recommend it if you're in the area and dig that kinda thing. I woke up early and hit up Leonels for tamales, NM knows what's good but I thought they were delicious and was in the lot by 815. There were negative people around and I was getting all the good omens. The moon could just be seen right over Al's, not a cloud in the sky and two gigantic Crows were dicking around by the ski racks. It was in the 20s last night so shit was firm to start but the groomers had super nice grip and I ran the sunny blues off lifts 4 and 8. Shakalaka or whatever was just perfect set it and forget it super high speed with barely another soul on the trails. Around 10 or so I wanted to up the wager and went up Kachina. I had my eyes set on k3 but stayed up on the ridge too long and ended up in cabin chute which held surprisingly soft super nice steep jump turns with a slush bump apron. I ran main st which was better bumps but not as interesting and then k3 which held super nice buttery bumps. NM had told me about a secret dope bathroom and with the tamales in the chamber I checked it out and followed some patrolers into Hondos for lunch. I had the green chili burger and mussels both were dope and a much needed respite after 12k shenanigans. After lunch I tried to find some lines on west basin I had seen from lift 8. Like an old man getting into the bathtub kinda speed I walked and traversed my way out there twice, both times not to end up where I wanted but took two nice ramps of taters on a plate as consulation. I don't know what the names are, it may be called thunderbird but it's tight entrance called to me from the lift but I couldn't find it. By now my legs where telling me to fuck off hard just about every 10 turns so I ran Hunziker which was absolutely perfect spring super fast falling down the hill carving. I thought it appropriate to end the day on Al's and by the end it was a bit rough but you gotta pour one out for your homies. I cannot say enough good things about today, some places you ski and it's like a religious experience. Alta/Bird, JH, etc, you'll remember the way the turns made you feel your whole life. In my opinion Taos absolutely has to be on that list. Better groomers than DV no lie, I ran so many I don't know the name of with perfect snow almost alone and the steeps absolutely kick your ass. Sitting up top Kachina, behind you massive faces and ramps absolutely sparkling packed full of snow, looking out you can see as far as CO and it's like your on the top of the world. I could have sat there forever, I was fucking Ghandi on Valium.

02/28/2024 - Whistler Up at usual 0-dark thirty, went to look out the window at the forecasted deluge and wondering how we’re gonna stay dry until we got up to the snow line, much to my surprise when I opened the window to see easily 12” or more snow on top of everything and still puking snow. Definitely better than rain, but this is gonna be crazy. We debated going out and standing in the already long lines, not knowing if they were gonna start spinning on time or wait for the bull rush to subside. We decided to let the bull run and we’ll pick up seconds. With the way it was snowing, that wouldn’t be terrible. Out for a walk the lift lines snakes through the village nearly back to our hotel. Stopped for a breakfast sandwich and checked the lines on the way back to find them all but gone. All the alpine lifts weren’t running for obvious reasons and the 2 main gondolas were only serving to mid station, so it was up the Fitzsimmons and then ip the Garbanzo into a snowmageddon. Figuring visibility would be better a little lower, we headed down to Creekside through some of the deepest snow I’ve ever been in. Freshies were still available if you stayed next to the trees. Snow down low was already getting sticky and some needed to drop a layer, so we split up. We headed up the Creekside and then up Big Red. Amazingly people were coming down the lift line without abandon, but we knew what was lurking just beneath the new snow. Garbanzo lift seemed to be the sweet spot holding mostly nice snow and just a little sticky at its base, so we lapped it until we had enough. Not the longest of days, but definitely the most fun skiing through boot, knee, thigh deep snow. Dinner was feee nachos on the club.

02/25/2024 - Blackcomb Ip early as usual so searched the are for breakfast shops and came across a fitting place, Moguls. Had bacon, egg, cheese wrap that they baked after rolling it up which was pretty good. Of course it was raining in the village and pretty hard too. We made our way up to the gondy center and took the Excalibur out. Only took a couple hundred feet and the rain had changed to snow. From the gondy it was up Excelerator into heavier snow and fog. Unfortunately with the wind that was also blowing up higher, 7th Heaven and above weren’t open. Rand down Buzz Cut in the few inches of powder which was fun, but was lipstick on a pig at the bottom. Back up Excelerator as the lines were beginning to lengthen. Took the Jersey Cream express into the eye of the storm. Over a ridge and the wind rocked you like a hurricane. Headed down Wishbone to Cruiser for a nice long run through pow to crust to beginning mush at the bottom. After lunch the fog started to clear but the winds hadn’t really subsided so we headed down to the Blackcomb gondy since there shouldn’t be any lines which there weren’t and we found out why midway up. The winds were picking up and pausing the gondy. At one point we sat for 20 mins as the winds felt like they were going to blow the car off the line! People said they’ve been coming to WB for 17 years and never saw the gondy stop for wind before. You know it’s bad when the lifites are taking vids of the cars flailing. Decided to call it and head back to the hot tub. Dinner was at The Old Spaghetti Factory in high was pretty reasonable for salad, pasta, bread and dessert. Recommended. Afterwords WB on Sundays puts on a Fire & Ice show w/ slope style athletes jumping through a hoop of fire and native Canadians dancing and playing music. Sorry not many pics as it was way cold and windy. View of Whistler while stuck on gondy… Ricing the wind… IMG_8757.mov Fog clearing out… Dinner… Fire & Ice show…

Woke up at 5 to find it hat snowed 8-10....Shoveled driveway/walks/deck.....Road didn't look bad though....Don't get many chances to do non resort riding so I made my way to Pulpit Rock trail/road...Arrived around 8....Maybe 4 cars in the parking lot....About 30 with a brisk breeze...Absolutely fantastic skin up...Clouds broke for some blue sky.....The ride down was super floaty....At the bottom I put the skins back on and went around the reservoir and up the blue trail to the AT...Skinned back until it the trail had some pitch and was able to ride it back to the car ....Total distance 6.3 miles....Elevation gain 1385'....Somethin about earning your turns just feels good...One of the best days....

Really nice day up at Montage. Probably the most crowded I have ever seen the place but 75% of the people were on the learning hill. Lots of buses. I thought they started allowing uphill but it was just gapers trying to get off of the harder trails because they got lost. Long Haul was running and I rode that for the first time in my life since it was never open every other time that I have been there. Even thought the lifts there are slow, I can't really complain about the place. The snow was great and the trails are a lot of fun there. Nice to get back there and always a good time. 8.5/10 for a PA day.

In addition to hitting up Schweitzer yesterday I wanted to check out another new place. I went to a cool brewery in Spokane when I landed on Sunday and the bartender told me to check out Lookout Pass if I wanted something off the beaten path and fun. I made an early morning hot tub decision to head there even though it wasn't on Indy or Ikon. I got there to find out that they give 1/2 off to season pass holders from other places so I got a ticket for $30 which is a freakin steal nowadays. Possibly another spot that hasn't been hit by PASR? This place is a gem. It is 90 years old and has old school Powder Mountain vibes. Nothing too technical but the groomers were incredibly fun and the trees had stashes in them from the storms over the last few days. Old slow fixed grip lifts kept trails and trees pretty empty. It was a beautiful little hill and I had an absolute blast there. It was hard not to smile ripping down some runs with titty sparkles in the sky. One of the unique features of the place is that it sits on the Idaho and Montana border so you get to ski in both states on the same run or lift ride. It was also super confusing because it is also the border of time zones, so my phone and watch kept shifting back and forth an hour depending on where I was. The snow was incredible and sun filled the sky. Would also highly recommend if you're in the area. That's all. Looking for a dinner spot in town now. Then back in the hot tub to consider a place to ski tomorrow.

Schweitzer is a pretty cool place. The windy road up there was a bit sketchy covered in snow. Anyway, some fun steeps and small cliffy areas to mess around in. The trees are top notch here and the groomers were great to rip with some fresh snow on them. I really enjoyed it and I had to add it to the stat manager so either it hasn't been skied much, if at all, from people here or I missed it on the list. First time in Idaho and it really seems like a cool place to live if you're into the outdoors. It's been snowing a lot here lately and maybe a bit more to refresh things over the next few days. My hip held up for about 3.5 hours and then I had to take it easy getting back down to the lot. Check it out if you're ever in northern Idaho. Here are some pictures of the place when I remembered to take out my phone, and a food picture on my drive back for Doug.

1/21/2025 The wife’s another year older and time for another birthday “week” ski trip up to NH, specifically for the World Cup mogul competition at Waterville, but also hit some Indy mountains too. Out of the house at 6am and into the freezer, big time! Decided to stop at Catamount on the way up as I’ve never been. The lowest temp along the ride there was -1, but bounced anywhere from there to the teens. Rolled into Catamount just after 9am, booted up, hit up the counter to get a pass using the Indy and out to the freezer. Looking up the mountain, only 1 of the 3 expert runs, Ripper, has snow on it. The other runs on looker’s right were open and they were blowing on the blues far looker’s left. The mountain is basically beginners on looker’s left and the more fun stuff on looker’s right off the Ridge Quad. Unfortunately that quad is a donkey, so it’s slow up and quick down. The place is similar to Blue but much more spread out and slower lifts. Ran down the blues which has some nice, soft freshly blown and groomed snow that was fast and edgeable, with a few slick spots in the center. Did a run down Ripper that was quite dark and lots of marbles, but it’s got some giddy-up and a nice roller at the bottom for some good air if not absorbed. Hit up the bar for a beer with the wife and headed off Brats at One Love brewery…

Came up north for a quick ski weekend with the son. It was snowing when we woke up and I think they reported 2 new inches and I had heard it snowed an inch or two almost every day this week. Coverage was really good and lots of terrain was open with great conditions mostly. We skied lots of natural bumps. I finally skied paradise which has never been open when I’m here, and we found some fun woods that we had never skied before. Our favorite spot in the woods needed a little more coverage unfortunately. Castle rock was open to hikers so we made the hike on the Long Trail from the top of Paradise and skied Castlerock Run to Cotillion to Lower Lift Line. It was a blast! We did a few laps of the north lynx terrain which was all nice natural bumps. We will be skiing Killington tomorrow and it’s been snowing a little all day so hoping for some good conditions! pics from paradise pics from castlerock

It continued to snow at Bogus through the weekend and @Boo Bearand I were able to get back to the mountain Monday. The drive up was way better without bad weather slowing it down. They claimed 2 inch fresh last 24 hrs, 29” for the last week. Little overcast to start with sunshine peaking out throughout the day. Hit every lift and dipped in to the trees for fresh chest shots when I could split off. Didn’t find the terrain that difficult unless bush whacking through some trees. Awesome day and views were great. Other Boise things we hit with our friends and kids while out there: Payette Brewing, Science Center, Zoo, World Center for Birds of Prey, Brown Beard Brewing, Boise State University and 13th St Pub & Grill. Red eye back was delayed and didn’t take off until almost 1 am but still made it to PHL at 930 as expected.

Sometimes I don't want to go to the store which is less than 4 actual minutes down the road but then today I did 600 miles and since last Friday something like 3k. I got up as early as I could muster after 3 days of maximum shenanigans, its a bachelor party so to the grave but I highly recommend the boulders golf course and cake on the strip in Scottsdale. You make your own fun but some of the rowdiest shit in my life. I'm just getting to Mammoth, I scored a sweet ski in/out condo but I'm posting because my path took me about 30mins from death valley and I almost didn't make the detour. I've been lucky enough to go alot of places and drive alot of cool drives but Holy fucking shit death valley was absolutely stunning. Massive vistas in an almost alien landscape it was maybe the best drive I've ever been on. If your nearby don't miss it, it's as close as you can get to being on mars and except for the main area I saw almost no one for 50 miles.

Belle was fun today, looked like winter as soon as you turned off 28. As soon as the sun came out it was def spring. Cream cheese bumps du jour !

Hello trip report slacker here. Drove up to The Loaf Sunday, made it here in 10 hours- not bad. Spent Monday am lapping the new expansion - West Mountain. Sweet wide Blue Groomers with some woop-de-doos. Made me think of J law, you could get some nice air. Back over lapped the Superquad a bit and Timberline lift a bit. Then over to Kingpine. Today pretty much the same, just skipped West Mountain. Probably craziest trail we did was Ripsaw. Rocks, grass, frozen bumps. I’ll post the video- doesn’t do it justice. Calling for Nor’easter tomorrow, bring it on. IMG_0311.mov

Got at least ten runs on learning hill a and b. Also checked off the learning hill connector. Was surprised to see @theprogram4 and learn he was just arriving. Didn't make it to paradise but a solid session for her. Thanks @Schif for going out of your way to say hi. Good day today overall, surprised they didn't lose more snow.

Shawnee 3/1/24. Empty. Full sun made it hot and sweaty with a side of ski tan. Great snow. Thankful that they allow uphill travel here M-F. Skinning to the top of F lift is always my favorite way to finish the day. It is almost never open but there is always snow up to it from the side. IMG_6334.MOV

Fuckin dead tonight. Best beginner conditions one could ask for. Got 6 runs down the bunny hill. Great success.

On the train to Martigny then 1 transfer to Verbier. I did a good job hydrating while traveling so I'd be ready to ski and threw it all away party rocking late night in Cham. YOLO We planned to let the snow soften up anyway so it worked out. Grabbed a full bus around 11 and was lucky to get a seat. For as warm as it is in town, the snow was nice fluffy chalk up high. Groomers had some skied off spots but we were off piste almost the whole time. Some north facing slops had better soft snow but only found a couple of those zones. Stopped at Plan Joran for bite and beer(have to get back on the horse sometime right?). We talked about doing a skin tour skiers right but we were pushing time to catch our train so we split to get some laps. Still took the rocky traverse across to check it out before they headed up. Did a top(ish) to bottom for the last lap and the legs were screaming. Watch said we finished with a little over 15k vert. Verb tomorrow and mad hungry as it's 8 pm and haven't had dinner yet.

Headed for home tomorrow. A fun week, beautiful country. Only had one day that visibility was so low, I couldn’t ski. Ended the trip with 18 inches fresh snow and a blue bird day. Taking the train every where is nice, too. Price included with your lift ticket IMG_1888.mov

Visited Prospect Mountain today. Opened in 1938 and operated on and off until 1991. About ten years ago it was reopened as a backcountry and nordic ski area. This place is a blast. Lodge straight from the 1960s. Wood paneled everything. Metal wickets for your ticket. Wood fired stove with bricks on top to stick in your stinky wet boots. Homemade cookies at the counter. I got a bowl of chili. There's a designated uphill track straight up the old T-bar lift line. The split board did its job. First time using one. I think I got the hang of it by the end of the day. The mountain tops out at 2770 feet and you get around 600 feet of vertical. A good first test for uphilling since I've never done it before. The trails are still cleared so there's lots of options down from the top, plus a few places where they've thinned out the trees. They're sitting on around 24-36 inches of snowpack right now in the southern Greens. About 8-10 inches fell on Sunday and a couple more last night. Fresh tracks could be had on a lot of the trails. The lift line and two of the wider ways down the mountain seem to get the most traffic. Those were choppy pow but still pretty fun. No real steep sections except for maybe the top of the T-bar tow line. Big old cross country championship thing going on today. Lots of buses in the lot. Place was packed with high schoolers. Girls race was on during my second run. Accidentally came out of a trail onto the race track. I think they rang the cowbell for me. It was all good. Love the split board. Today was tons of fun.

Its ok today.

Untracked pow on every run…some tracks crossed, some nasties below..lots of Herbs…gonna be some good action shots later.

With the family out in Boise visiting friends and we all went to Bogus Basin today. Half an inch of rain in town yesterday so expecting a good yield in the mountain. 16 mile access road up to BB, with half below the snow line. Slow going when you hit the snow but they did a good job clearing it. Listed 7” in the last 24 hours, 17” in the last 48 and it didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t JH blower snow but everything was open and could ski anywhere. Vis at the summit was maybe 15 feet in spots but got better as you went down the hill. Couldn’t really tell where I was with the vis so it was good to be with a local. Kids quit early as they weren’t having fun in the fog and that let the dad’s off the hook and we went for the steeper stuff. Finished with Little Nugget and Liberty. Parked in lot #4. Had its own ski in/out trail and could ski right to the car. I wouldn’t want to park anywhere else.

Finally woke up to some snow!

Yes sir. Mid day peanut butter whiskey break. Still snowing, fresh lines and no lift lines all day baby. GH010039_1712240103532.MP4

Awesome time with my teens. Skied about 30k of vert today including moguls, trees, steeps. Stayed at the Christy Lodge in Avon. Got some HH jackets at an end of season sale. Boarding the red eye in an hour.

Impromptu road trip to West Mountain for some random hill skiing today. Super reminiscent of the old Blue Mountain vibe. Small place with not a lot open but thanks to Indy I got to check it out. I love these little gems that remind me of what skiing used to be. The snow was nice. Coverage good in some spots, thin in others, non existent on a few trails. A lot of fun runs here and fully open would be a total blast. If anybody gets the chance to swing by this joint I’d recommend. JADIP?

Hey All, I’m back from another fun day at Blue mountain the true mountain…closing day perhaps or likely even though it’s not officially closing day. I arrived at 720am and it was in the upper 40s under mostly cloudy skys. In the house were most of the PASRs. First I had a couple mimosas and no shortage of orange juice. JFDan brought an egg casserole and a French toast one and both outstanding. We hit the hill closer to 9am and first was paradise which was thinner than yesterday and ok. Razors edge next and it was the run of the day. It was like three runs in one..bumps and bare spots to start..then choppy non bumps then smoother. I repeated that the entire rest of my first ski session. Back to the lot for sausage, Ribs, steak and all sorts of other things..I had some of the boozy ice coffee that PSUFlyGuy brought and some of the beer Dirtwolf brought and then went back out for a couple more runs. Razors was extra slushy and more bare at the top. I hit some rocks but no damage to my skis. Lazy mike had lots of loose rocks. I wanted to do a poach of the chute and lower Main Street but didn’t. Back in the lot more food and beer and did a shot of Jack with the Boomers and the peanut butter whiskey Dime brought..hungout some more probably got a lot of sunburn, busted out a quick lap and peaced out at like 3pm. All in all fun fun fun

It's so depressing. Here are the only pics i got.

Hey all, I’m back from another fun day at Blue mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lower lot at like 712am and only JLaw and Maryland liftee in the house..not to fear many many more PASRs arrived. The temperature was in the mid 40s under partly sunny skys. First civilian quad to challenge which was pretty smooth and a little soft. Good enough for a repeat then Main Street which was super nice soft cord on top and a little choppier spring snow lower down with some skeet spots. I also repeated that then over to coming soon which was nice chop. Sidewinder was very pleasent and I skied that a few times, a few bare spots, lazy mile was smooth and fast..and empty I think because the OG six pack wasn’t running. There were a few liftlines on the quad, as enjorales said, when the OG six pack isn’t running, they have less lift capacity than two years ago. Skiing stayed well and I pressed on repeated the runs that were nice which was almost everything…I ended up skiing I believe 15 runs by 1030..would have been about 17 if not for the lines. Fun parking lot today with a sausage Sunday and Maryland guy gave me a patch with a bird he made cause I’m an early bird..well I sure got the worm today. Rumor has it this is the last week of weekday operation then weekends only, with the forecast it could be possible…so just gotta enjoy every day. I’ll likely be back at Blue Tuesday AM. JADIP

Drove up to our AirBnB in Pleasant Mount last night with no issues. House is 3 miles back on dirt roads which we weren’t expecting. Take out from the Speakeasy Saloon was good. Burgers and Buff Chix pizza were stars but the calamari and loaded fry appetizers missed the mark. Up first thing but radar was all hunter green and sucked. Plan was to wait for a gap and the hourly said it was 2-6. Upper lot was open when we showed up at 1230 and got to park close. New this year was buy one get one tickets compared to free comped tickets from The Warren Miller film. We’re here with another family and it came to $293 for the day. The one you have to buy is an 8 hour ticket(~$90) plus 3 RFID cards, even though we would have been fine with the 4 hour pass but that’s the deal. 80% of the people on the hill were racers for an event. Up Seneca for the first lift and then we hung on the quad side to avoid the racers. Couple trails had zero snow lookers left but most had edge to edge coverage. Upper Tunkhannock was closed but lower was open and I love slutting it up for the lift. Started skiers left and worked our way over until soaked through around 5. All hero snow and a good time. Thought about doing the doll house here but no PASR discount is wild. House ended up with a precious moment shrine anyway. Over to Montage tomorrow.

Vt on presidents is like a UN meeting and as such I was looking for a place to beat the crowds. Trackbiker or someone had mentioned the Bowl last week and it clicked in my head that Saturday would be Winter Rodeo. Imagine a frat party at a ski mtn or Mt Rose's beer fest but with less drinking. The day starts with a big Gs race for all the local colleges and considering who they are that is some very good skiers. Then by about noon the dj comes out and everyone really gets going. I don't know what the ratio is at Middlebury but had I known about it in my teens I would have flunked out of there for sure. Partying aside the bowl delivered the goods, from bell to bell I never waited in line and the trails were mostly empty. The snow was a mix of super grip groomer and chundery off trail. The off trail was deepish but not easy to rotate in. The groomers at the bowl are generally good however their grooming is on par with a college hill and the real star is the tree zones. My favorite is big tree off 11 but all of it was good tail gunning super soft. Liftline was the classic VT mix of excellent and shit all at the same time and I lapped that until my back said no more. I cannot speak highly enough about the bowl. You want to get away from it all or experience what magic was like before it became magic I say give the bowl a long look. It's lifts are slow and the vert nothing to write home about but it's classic VT skiing which is sadly becoming a dying art.

Well... I am just sitting here in the big apple trying to reintegrate back reality of work after this weekend. The stars aligned that I could sneak away last minute for the weekend and with a favorable snow forecast I was giddy and excited to get out there. My flight to Jackson was the last scheduled flight to land on Friday night. After some delays leaving EWR and increasing snow in JH, I was busy with a lot of flight tracking, weather checks and sweaty palms the whole flight just hoping I'd get in and not diverted. Luckly there was enough of a break in the action, and we squeaked in there using every inch of the runway. Saturday was a good day of skiing as other have said, but Sunday was even better. That first run down the Hobacks on Sunday was a run that will be seared in my mind for life. Seriously can say that it was one of the best runs ever for me. I had packed enough stuff to be stuck there for a few more days and was not so secretly hoping that I wouldn't have been able to get out yesterday. Oh well. Overall, it was most excellent way to spend a weekend. JADIP.

And I'm losing control because the power Blue's supplying, it's electrifying. Nobody home, for the first time in two seasons I saw nobody I knew. It's obviously cold but with the sun and no wind it wasn't brutal. My toes did get a bit cold which is quite the accomplishment. The snow was super mega grip western groomer. Very dry and slow for blue standards, as the water is evaporating what's left behind is like a malformed dendritie or more accurate a round with fuzzy gripy fingers. Main first thing was just set it and forget it, whatever speed/turn shape you wanted. It was effortless and pure skiing. After dicking around over by main I went Razors as with the slower snow you just couldn't get to that top gear. Razors the entire way was just do whatever the fuck you want, many times there was no one on the trail and my God is nice to let the dogs out at blue. Ditch was good but the coming soon headwall was the only not great thing I found. Alas there is bad news to share as they have put 10000 features on nmdw, lots and lots of rails including one right in the kill box of the first turn. You can still find a way through but you can put a fork in it if you like the turn. Hopefully the low crowds are maintained through the weekend.

1/22/2025 Well, the original plan was to head over to Mt. Abram today, but then I looked at when they open to determine when we needed to leave and discovered that the mountain is t open today! Change the plan, as other Blue bumpers are headed to Ragged Mountain, which I had planned to hit on the way home. Got into the car at 7:15 to -9 and headed South towards Ragged. The temp ranged between -12 and -10 all the way down. Arrived at the mountain about 8:45 and froze my fingers hitting up in the lot. A short walk to guest services to get my $5 card and back out to the frigid cold. The Spear Mt express was the only lift running at the open, so up I went. After a pic or two, down Flying Yankee on a pristine, Deer Valley-esque groomer. Snow was truly packed talcum powder groomed to perfection on a rolling, winding, fairly steep run where they run their races. So much fun!! Next I took Cardigan and Turnpike just to sample what the masses run and it was another gorgeously groomed packed powder run with lots of huge rollers for kicks. Finally took a run down the liftline on Showboat and Showoff which was again glorious packed powder on a fairly steep run. The other Blue bumpers showed up and we repeated the above runs because the Summit Six was having issues. After a lunch break, they got the Six running and we took runs down the trails off skier’r right. The most fun was Raggae Glades, the only open woods. This place really deserves a repeat when all the trees are in play. They place is loaded with tree runs, none of which were open due to lack of snow. Ended the day with a few beers up in the lounge and the over to Woodstock brewery for dinner. Definitely recommended but it does get crowded! Meatloaf Horseshoe!

Rode with non-vt mark and c1er. Sky was grey and crowds were moderate for a Monday but non existent compared to the weekends. I went challenge, Razors, nmdw then side and all were absolutely perfect cord to just arc the fuck out of everything. I was antsy in the pantsy to turn the throttle up to 400 and it was so nice to be able to put the throttle down without having to dodge endless Jerry's. I went nmdw again but it had started to cookie up some, this and the coming soon headwall got some light pebs once the top layer was off but the ditch was full on boxer rebellion. Super spongy scratchy snow and the right side walls are so big you think you're out in red Square. Main, Curtis where all total boner city but switch was nearly perfect. Excellent snow with nobody home and your coming out of that like Franz Klamerr at Kitzbühel. Super good morning and extra nice after all the crowds to unclog my chi. Hopefully the minor brick up tonight doesn't add a crunchy layer.

FSC FTW!

Started on the OG6 and Atomic, Z, Drew, Justo, Rose, and BFG crew. First run down Razors was worth the price of admission. Second down Challenge was even better. Snow was great and could let the skis run with minimal crowds for the first hour. 2 minute wait for the second hour. Longest single session with 16 runs and half of them were Challenge. They were blowing at the top of the mountain but all of it is now on the Appalachian Trail so now sure how that helped. Some marbles on the mountain where they blew which is expected. Sidewinder was still pretty firm. Lots of ski swapping between the 27.5s today which was fun to talk about the differences. I’ve never met a friend with 29.5 so apply within. Heading back with the fam shortly for a double dip. Favorite part of the day was @saltyant flying right over us on the quad. Hope you had a grate flight! Check out the epic pic.

Yesterday morning was the single best hour ive had at BC. Left extra early not knowing the road conditions and quickly realized they were simply wet so I arrived in the lot about 45 minutes before opening and was the 2nd non worker there lol. First in line at about 805 and hung out with some others till rope drop. My plan was to hit E lift so I could beat everybody else to F lift and get untrack Sasquatch. As I got to E lift I was told F lift was closed. So I took a run down and back to E lift and by this time F lift was open so I shot down there and was still one of the first people down Sassy. Single best run Ive ever had at BC. After that I hiked back over to F lift so I could hit Extreme which was simply incredible. Back up E lift, down to F lift and took another run down Sasquach. By this point both trails were basically tracked out so I spent the next 90 minutes enjoying the mountain. Simply amazing morning.

Quick test last evening of an easily accessible and relatively smooth "backcountry" PA line not too far from Blue with @mute1080 @Dirtwolf and @mbike-ski. Topped out at near 18 degrees, so figure middle of Paradise? Maybe?