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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

2/22/25 Wow, that was one helluva night. All the times I’ve been to Colorado the altitude hadn’t really bothered me but this time was very different and unexpected. Tried going to bed but it felt like my heart was gonna beat outta my chest and was sucking wind just sitting doing nothing. How the Hell was I gonna ski tomorrow? God it sucks getting old! Didn’t sleep a wink and managed to cobble up an egg and cheese bagel and banana, all the while sucking down water and Gatorade Zero to ultra hydrate to help with the altitude. Went down the list of mountains to visit and having spoke with some others, the recommendation was to skip all the big resorts on a Saturday and hit Loveland because most skip it for the biggies, so that’s where we headed. All the times I’ve been out here, I’ve never got to ski Loveland, so it’s another notch on the belt and sticker on the helmet. Arrived in the lot about 7:30 with the sun lighting up the ridge. Kinda chilly but not too cold. The area got a bunch of snow last week, unfortunately none in the forecast for us this week. Maybe some flurries at best. The lot was filling up fast with a ton of racers. Headed up Chet’s and down a blue to the 2 lift. The groomed snow was superb for giant arcing turns and the edges were still soft. Up the Ptarmigan and down into the bowl there was soft, piles of chowder everywhere. Up the 9 and down, the snow wasn’t as good as elsewhere, so punted going back up there. Runs off the 4 were somewhat the same. Didn’t find much off the 8 either, so we made our way back to the other side. Spent the afternoon rummaging in Cat’s Nix trees. All in all a very good first day. Can’t believe it was such a good day after last night’s horrors. Dinner was Costco frozen lasagna and Caesar salad, not bad.

Great weekend at Snowmass. Had a friend come visit. Bluebird and warm both days. Light crowds surprisingly. New boots are $$. That bootfitter at Highlands knows his shit. Natalie in Powerline Glades skied Longshot for the first time. I think it just opened last weekend. It is indeed long. 3 miles and 3275’ of vert. The first 2 miles are bumps and trees then it’s just ungroomed crud. Our legs were pretty toasted by the end. hiking up views at the top signs tell you when you are 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way down. definitely a run that’s more fun with a friend then solo.

Schweitzer Monday, Lookout Pass Tuesday, 49° North yesterday, Silver Mountain today. I only had about 2 hours before I had to catch my flight so I figured I'd squeeze in one last day somewhere new. I'm glad I did. In addition to the snow that they received over the last two days, the continued snow overnight into the morning, and the wind, the conditions were 9/10 fantastic. Definitely some of the best off-piste turns of this short trip. Silver Mountain is unique. You need to take a gondola from town to get to the actual resort which is a crazy 3.1 miles long and was once the world's longest gondola, but is now 5th longest. Originally named Jackass Ski Bowl, the first GM for the place was actually from Big Boulder. Today, the place still has a small mountain vibe when you get up there. The original double still stands and gets you access to some of the best terrain on the mountain, with the exception of the North Face glades which have some ass-puckering chutes and trees accessible through gates. The best stuff I've skied in a while. I wish I had more time to enjoy this place because the crowds were small and the lines to ski were pretty much endless because I only saw one other person while skiing anywhere off of Wardner Peak. Only a few pictures because it was snowing and I was short on time. Gotta say, Idaho was not high on my list of places to go but I would replicate this trip over a long weekend again anytime. The places were great, the people were friendly, the snow was good, and for a "holiday week" the places were empty. Thanks for reading my random reports.

Driving to Albany later tonight then hitting Magic tomorrow. Staying in Maine Sunday and Monday nights, planning on Saddleback Monday and probably Tuesday unless I feel like paying for Sugarloaf or Sunday River. Staying at Burke Tuesday night and riding there Wednesday. Not sure on the plan after that. Either Jay or somewhere in NH Thursday then start making my way back and probably a short session somewhere Friday. Snow and beer reports to follow after tomorrow

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.

Yes only two runs down from the top and conditions were usual blue (aka not great) but I was skiing with the PASR crew and THAT was great; not to mention, the guns were ablaze under the sunshine and the weather was perfect. Overall an awesome opening day! looks like chute to lower main, as well as come around are really close to opening up. Happy ski season all!!

FSC FTW!

I got up there today super good groomers but no upper mtn though I might have been late. It was a super cool spot and apparently the air port is there but I never heard it. The brewery is open again Thurs to Sat and they built some kind of stage thing for music and what not. I got the best nap with the door open and a super view out of the door. Day 2 - Snowbowl I had to rally straight from the bowl to the party so sorry for the delay but I got moderate wastey pants in the craziest house I've ever seen. I left Taos at 4am to get to the bowl around 11, mostly because I planned this trip totally ass backwards but I was stoked to ride as I've heard so much about it. First thing I went for the bowl as you can see it from the lot and it calls to come ride. Sadly it was closed, not sure if I was too late but it looked like super sweet terrain and a reason to come back. The promenance of the hill is redic and the views are high class particularly for its size. I went white lightening or whatever the one is off the catwalk first about a half a dozen times. The sun side was super soft perfect but the shade was super slick which made for a dope challenge. Groomers were most excellent, super soft with relatively low crowds. I ran Sundance to logjam like 1000 times, its just a perfect hoot of a trail to put the hammer down. I ran super groomer after super groomer in the sun with mostly no crowds. Two days in a row of superb skiing, I'm on to some other stuff for a few days but I want to keep this train going. The question is back to taos or over to mammoth and June ? Thoughts?

Awesome trip with a great crew, and it went by way too fast. I’ll remember the day we had at the bush for a long time. I love spring skiing just as much as about anything and we sure skied our asses off! Agree with Law that there was no place better to be than with a good group of guys post skiing stoke, drinking a heady topper while the sun is about to set over the mountain. pics of various places:

Saturday, sugarbush. Sometime in the middle of the night @Johnny Law showed up. He headed to the resort a little earlier than us, as we were thinking 10:30 to let some stuff soften up. Firm-ish conditions up top, with softer stuff towards the bottom. The sun started doing its thing and softening stuff up that was in the sun, shady stuff was just a little pokey, but getting there. 1 pm we met up with jeffs buddy nick for some nice laps at castlerock. Terrain at CR was a little limited, selective at times, but still went. Big fun bumps with a good collection of rocks mixed in. Finished off the day with a few runs off heavens gate, ran till just after 3pm or so. sugarbush rocks, sugarbush skied well, and has real nice coverage. That was a pretty energetic day, as even @NMSKI said he was pretty much drained.

Gore-juice day

Today was special. If this is it I’m satisfied.

Today was awesome. So much fun. I'm never eating again.

2/24/25 What would a bump trip be without hitting Winter Park? The other three on the trip have never been and I hadn’t been back since I was out with the wife in the 90’s. The place sure has changed a lot! On the road just after 7 to clear skies and warmish temps but still very windy here but they’re calling for overcast and 1-3” at WP. Up and over the pass, we’re immediately met with falling snow. Looks like a good day! We parked in the Mary Jane area lot as we figured we’d end up there at the end of the day. We planned to meet another Blue skier that the others know later in the day, so since the others have never been here, we’d tour WP side before meeting up. Up the Super Gauge and down groomers to the Olympia in falling snow, the snow and trails were excellent. Got the meetup call, so we didn’t get to spend any time on the WP side, so headed back to MJ. The Panorama was running so we headed up to the peak. We were going to take a lap bc of the line, but decided to wait. Good call bc they shut it down shortly after we got on. The wind was howling up top, but down below there was no wind at all. After lunch it was MJ time and he ugh ton queue the sun come out. I wanted to revisit Trestle in particular bc I accidentally drug the wife down it years ago due to a wrong turn. Never heard the end of that. Trestle was wall to wall, too top to bottom bumps. It’s tucked away so the snow was still very good. The rest of the afternoon was spent picking off runs off Derailer, all of which still had good snow, but temps were on the rise and we all had a helluva workout. Dinner was simply frozen pizza.

Well this storm definitely delivered! In 36 hours I would say we got a solid 22-24” here in Marble. Hard to tell because the last round was wet and everything compressed. But the webcams at Aspen show big numbers. The Aspen base cam had a line down the stairs at 8:15. They opened 20 new trails since yesterday when I checked. After shoveling out our property (and our neighbor), I took my XC skis and skied my neighborhood. One street was plowed but most of it was untouched. Just a lot of animal tracks. This time of year my house does not see a lot of sunshine, only about 3 hours. So on sunny days, we try and sit out for the solid 20 min or so it bakes our porch. And here it is! Our full 20 min of sunshine.

Some Seneca Lake ridin’ and sippin’

I had looked earlier in the week and saw some snow, but it looked like it was mostly northern VT I was planning to just go to Blue on Sunday, but made a late switch Saturday night and never looked back at the weather.

Yesterday was awesome. Great way to cap off a great season with everyone. Thanks @enjoralasfor the tasty food and @Dirtwolfaka Yung Gravy with the keg. I tried my best to help kick it

Yesterday was one of those special days... First run of the day was probably the most joyful run of my life. Jacket all flappy and hair free flowin... Was determined to kick the keg before leaving and after review of the video evidence, I got home at 7:03pm. Thank you to those late stayers for your contributions to this valiant effort. Nothing like spending nearly 12 hours at Blue hahah. Everything was about as good as it gets. Great VIBES. Fantastic FOOD. Delicious DRINKS. Great SPICYYY spring conditions. If that was the last day of Blue's season, I am 100% content.