C1erArt

About 5 miles past Saylorsburg, when you pass the Turkey Ridge apartments (I think that is what they are called) on your left, blow your horn, we are up the hill on your right. Stop at the Kunkletown general store - it is an experience.

80 to 209 to 33 to Kunkletown road at Saylorsburg?

Nice day, snowing pretty hard first thing, but cleared up around 10. 2 or 3 inches of light powder. Pretty much only hard core people out today. East Mountain crowd pretty light and fast moving. Challenge glade in pretty good shape, but didn't get into the lower section.

Was out Sunday morning, and conditions were a lot better. They must have been grooming during the snowstorm because the slopes had a lot of base, but the areas off the slopes were pretty much wind blown bare. Even with a fairly strong wind blowing up the hills the skiing was pretty good. Still without power and running a generator here in Monroe county - about half the county was without power at some point.

Not going for a season pass next year. Really got skunked this year. With the project I am on now, and having the flu over the holidays, was only put a half dozen times. You might see me at Blue a few times next year.

Out for a couple of hours before the rain started again around 10. Had some sunshine at the start but gradually clouded over. Still had a lot of coverage, but crowds were pretty sparse even with the ski for the cure day. Snow was pretty soft but didn’t get torn up too much by the time I left. Felt almost like a closing day, but they still have hoses hooked up to the snow guns so all we need is some cold weather.

Ski Tracks does have maps

Out for a couple of hours this morning, 34 degrees, soft but nicely groomed snow, flat light. Not too crowded. Challenge glade was mashed potatoie, need some boarders to go down and smooth it out. Apparently Navionics is discontinuing their ski gps app, any recommendations? Ski tracks is nice but doesn't have a map. Snow Trace has a map, but not a replay function.

5 runs at Jackson Hole maybe, 17 runs at Frost. 7 minutes up East Mountain, 90 seconds down. 8200 vertical, equivalent of 3 runs top to bottom at Whiteface. We take what we can get.

Huge crowd at the ticket booth on the way out.

Great morning at Frost, 24 degrees when I arrived, 44 when I left at 10:30. Hit east mountain right at 8, pretty quiet for an hour or so, with just some red and brown coats. Everything open today. Some nice frozen cord, Floyd's and Rivershot were in great shape, the groomers did a fantastic job with this week's weather, not pristine, but still very good conditions. About 9:30 it started getting busy, so I did a couple runs of Challenge glade (headwalls pretty bumped up, but the lower tree section was very manageable), and lapped Challenge and Tbolt until the crowds and ball bearings built up.

Just sayin' Also Sunday, Feb 11th. Radio station day this Friday.

One bad thing about Jack Frost is the need to stop at the top of the east mountain headwalls to check if it is clear. Fortunately you can check the slope out on the way up to see if it is likely that rentals are traversing the slopes.

Had a family of fairly good skiers from the Poconos get in trouble at Loon 15-20 years ago. The dad crashed on a icy closed slope after a rain/freeze event (a lawsuit claimed that the method of closing was inadequate). The daughter and son-in-law took their skis off to get him. Father and daughter died, son-in-law had a concussion.

“If you don't do it this year, you will be one year older when you do.”

So much depends when demoing on the tune. If they sharpen the side edge, and don't polish the bottom edge, they can develop a hanging burr that will tend to have the ski rail (get stuck going straight or catch an edge). Also, if you are used to a ski with a detuned tip and tail they can also be hard to initiate a turn and tend to catch edges. If they don't have the right wax, the skis can feel like slugs. My daughter would ski with us, but got into soccer, and that got to be an all year thing.

The race team seemed to be having fun on it.

One of those days I wished I switched over to Blue. Conditions were good, but there was a race on Challenge, so it and the glade was closed. Got to east mountain right at eight and found Already closed for the race team practice. Skied River Shot until they started the second lift about 9:30, then with both lifts feeding one slope it became downright dangerous. The only other black slope, t-bolt, was packed too. Decided to call it a day. On a brighter note, my new Bluetooth tunes controller seems to work better than my old Square Jellyfish. Had to put some gel epoxy on the buttons so it would work with my gloves.

No coats or gloves, the table is open for use. JF did remove one bin near the cafe for gear, but they do have a free bag check in area.

When you hit 65, it takes a little longer. Plus I had some surgery in November to fix a legacy of the old raft guiding days. Feels good to get out.

Floyd's was the 52 mph. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Second day on the slopes due to the flu around Christmas. Got there today at 8 and left about noon. Blowing snow on River Shot and Challenge when I got there. Great conditions, Floyd's was well groomed, with no sign of the race team. The bottom of River Shot was ungroomed and had some firm rollers. T bolt was groomed and very fast, Challenge had a few inches of soft stuff over a nice hard pack, didn't see any ice anywhere either. A couple of people being sledded off late morning. The highlight was Challenge glade, buttery soft, flat among the trees, pretty well filled in down to the race shack. No lift lines anywhere, but T Bolt slopes started getting crowded with classes and toddlers when I decided it was time to leave. 17 runs, top speed 52. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

Fracking central for PA now.

If you have a moderately high clearance vehicle there are some nice gravel roads on the west side of Pine Creek (grand canyon of PA). Fishing, camping, biking, float canoeing - nice area.