C1erArt

My wife was out Monday and conditions were a lot better. She even did runs of Rivershot and Floyd's getting ready for our Whiteface trip coming up.

Hope the groomers have enough snow left do their magic, the slopes were as bad as I've ever seen them, even on closing days. Tbolt and Challenge were solid ice. They ran groomer down East Mountain last night, otherwise it would have been a mess. Packed it in after a few runs.

Slopes in surprisingly good shape for 55 degrees at 9 AM. Warmish wind blowing down the hill, mostly sunny. T shirt and sunglasses, working on the tan kind of day. Skied mostly Rivershot for an hour until the flats started getting gray looking. A shot after my first run: Then did Challenge and T bolt for another couple of hours. Never got real slushy or draggy (I still need to put a spring skiing structure on my bases). 68 on the way home (thanks Exxon/Mobil). Ski for the Cure tomorrow. Probably wait until after the freeze Saturday night to go out again.

Was out for a couple of hours Friday, got there at noon, parking lots full, but slopes aren't too bad at first. East Mountain was in great shape with one chair running. Lapped Floyd's and Rivershot until the lift line got pretty bad after the lunch crowd got back on the slopes. No staff at the corrals this year make them a mess when the lines build up. Snow was softer today, didn't seem to freeze last night, got on the slope right at 8. Treated myself to slopeside parking right at the Challenge chairlift Floyd's was already blocked off for the race team when I got there, ran Rivershot until they started the second chair at 9, between the skiers, race team waiting for their shot at Floyd's, and red sled practice, the last drop of Rivershot got pretty crazy. Challenge and Tbolt were soft and crowded with lift lines building up quickly, so back home to watch the Saint Moritz worlds.

Don't do no steeking levels. Seriously though, I picked up a lot of tips when my son was on the race team that helped my straight ski bad habits. One of which was going into the back seat on scary steeps.

Quad burn - skiing in the back seat? Are you sitting back when you ski? At the end of the day you shins should feel it from forward pressuring your boots, not your thighs. Keep your hands in front and squish the bug under your toe.

Nice day on the mountain, got there about noon, 17 degrees, no wind, overcast but the sun trying to poke thru. Packed powder, with a couple inches of new snow on the ground, but the slopes were groomed out. Not crowded, and spent my time on East Mountain and Challenge/Thunderbolt. Conditions excellent, right side of tower 6 above elevator glade a lot of fun. Bumps on Exhibition were nice and soft too:

Icy slope and well waxed skis. I can see you picking up some speed on that last drop of Razor's Edge.

70 is pretty damn fast, not going to get there at Frost (unless you skate the flats and tuck headwalls and I'm not sure about making that turn at the bottom of Floyds), and I'm not getting there period. My son did the mid 70s at Whistler last year on his Fischer World Cups. 80s is Lindsey Vonn downhill speed on a very good day (her record is 83). There is a big difference in ski apps - if the app loses your position it can give a false very high reading when it re-obtains it. The algorithm Navionics uses tends not to do that - you can look at the graph on either side of the high reading and see if the high reading was an artificial artifact (although I think artificial artifact is redundant).

Exactly, you can show a line chart of your speed and altitude, and 'play' through your day. It is Navionics ski. They are a GPS company, and although other ski apps may have more features, after trying 3 or 4 other apps, I find Navionics to have the most consistent and what I think is the most accurate speed. If you click on a run on the left side, it highlights it on the right side map. You will notice at the bottom of Floyds, the track goes off the trail - I think thats because I tend to go into a half tuck and lose the view to the south where the satellites tend to be and the phone loses the satellites. But other apps are worse about going off track. The battery usage is pretty good, but if the battery dies, you lose the day. Also, if you leave it on for the drive home, there is no way to delete that part of the track.

Another good day, race on Challenge, practice on Telstar. High 20s, partly sunny, no wind. Nicely groomed again, with an inch of powder on top from overnight flurries. Got there early and skied for 90 minutes until the race teams started skiing in groups. Lapped Rivershot and Floyd's - something about hitting the top of Floyd's full speed and seeing the slope just drop away from you. Although Rivershot was faster today, but crowded up sooner. With all my bitching and moaning, I guess there is a reason why I'm still at JF:

Still interested, just trying to find the time when the weather is good.

Better day today. 27 degrees and the ice nicely ground up and formed into flat cord. Got in and on the slopes at 8 and only had to share the mountain with the red coats and one or two others until 9. Lapped Rivershot and Floyd's until 10 and called it a day. The cord was turning into sugar snow and people started traversing the slopes. Hopefully some snow blowing will happen this week. Lots of cars coming in as I was going out. Music at the lodge tonight.

Thinking about it for next year. Getting lonely here. Raised my season pass by $200 and then flood the slopes with $9 discount tickets. My wife has decided to skip her season pass next year. Lost track of R2.

Got out for a couple hours this afternoon, should have stayed home. Ice, sugar piles and out of control skiers. The place desperately needs to blow some snow. I'll see how things are first thing tomorrow morning. Best run of the day was down the center right of Exhibition - all the snow was scraped off and the ice was nice and smooth. Time to sharpen my edges again.

Back on the slopes at two when my wife came up. T bolt lift was packed and apparently they weren't staffed to have a corral guy, so it got to be pretty annoying. Switched to East Mountain lift that had no lines and lapped Challenge for the rest of the afternoon. Plus it had a much more amusing show going on. Red Coats were kept busy today.

Low 20s, breeze blowing up the hill, hit the slopes just after 8 and headed right over to east mtn. Conditions very good, but no sign of snow blowing on the blacks overnight except maybe the bottom of river shot. The couple inches of snow yesterday helped and the grooming was excellent. Skied the golden two hours until 10 and taking a break after the rentals started drifting over. Used some black Friday discount tickets to cover my blackout pass. Floyd's is excellent, race team on Telstar, so was able to carry some speed crossing over from the River shot side. Some early morning pics of Rivershot:

Apart from a serious infestation of ball bearings conditions were surprisingly good. Solid ice where it wasn't groomed, but the groomed areas were flat and fast. For once I was glad of a brisk wind blowing up the hill. Low 30s and sunny when I started around noon, 15 runs on Tbolt, Challenge and East Mountain. Top of Floyd's

Was out with my daughter and her beau (a first timer). Was a little surprised at the poor conditions of Tbolt and Challenge. The greens on the west side were in a lot better shape. I'm thinking they blew and groomed over there after WMMR day yesterday and didn't do much last night on the east end. Nice sharp skis made an icy and scraped off Floyd's a lot of fun though, right side is fenced off and ungroomed - just snow boulders at the bottom. Does seem like they are trying to groom it steeper. Odd seeing another PAS&Rer, been lonely over at JF.

Nice day, got to the mountain about 11:30, skied to 3. About 35 degrees, no wind. Conditions very good and light crowds, skied onto the lift pretty much all day, 25 runs. River shot was open, Elevator appeared to be a bunch of snow boulders. Floyd's was about half covered and another cold snap should get it open. Right side of Exhibition was open, and Challenge and Thunderbolt in great shape. Challenge glade in good enough condition to take my new skis down to the race shack. All in all, a good start to the season.

First day out. Picked up my pass, the one with blackout dates since they don't offer a senior or family pass anymore. Their new set of season passes is a good deal for twenty somethings though. About 15 degrees and a very light wind. Got there about noon, and skied Demattes, Challenge and a run down One Park. Conditions were great, firm, flat and fast. A few people were in parts of Challenge glade, but I was on my new Rossi Experience 88s, too soon to get them scratched up. A lot quicker turning and just as fast as my old Elan Apexes. They were blowing snow on Thunderbolt and it looked almost ready to flatten out. Nothing on Exhibition, and I didn't get a look at east mountain. Had the slope all to myself the last half hour before closing.

Its also on the snowmobile route from Errol to Canada, so there are a lot of traffic from that at the café on the site.

My wife and I would go up to the Balsalms once every couple of years with the kids for the past 25 years. We liked its 'old timey' slightly shabby elegance, 5 star formal dining (they had a chef training program), extensive cross-country trails, snow shoeing, ice skating, friendly local staffing, and all in one package pricing so we didn't have to ski every day to feel we got our money's worth (too high end though to go more often). The ski area had slow lifts but because the only customers were the resort crowd, the slopes were pristine and no lift lines. It also had a LL Bean and ADK outdoor center at various times over the years. Also had a golf course and resort activities in the summer, but we were never there in the summer. It was built in the late 1800s, and expanded in the early 1900s, and is one of the few New England resorts that had not burned down over the years. It was owned by a latex millionaire that owned latex plantations in South America and manufactured balloons on site as well as other rubber products elsewhere. He didn't run the resort for a profit, and probably took losses over the years. When he died, it struggled for a few years before closing down 5 or 6 years ago. Local business owners bought it, and are working with Otten on plans to make it the largest ski area in the east, put in condos, a conference center, and basically ruin what we liked it for. It looks like it is going ahead, because the local government (as well as state government) is desperate for any types of jobs in that area - when the Balsams was in operation it pulled in local people from Colebrook to staff it. One of the minor disasters during its struggling period was to bring in H1B workers from South America to staff it. I do hope they get it running again, even if we don't plan to go back to a Otten resort. They tried to get foreign investors involved, but after the Jay Peak scam that fell through.

The Balsalms in northern NH. Late 19 century resort with 1000' vertical drop ski area. Currently shut down for renovations and expansion, may or may not reopen.

Looks like it is going right through the upper Blue Mountain parking lot. http://penneastpipeline.com/proposed-route/