C1erArt

30 degrees just a little wind and bluebird sky. Conditions smooth and carveable. Big improvement from yesterday. Blew snow on Challenge and left it fluffy. Glade is in great shape if you don't go too far in. First tracks, fan gun snow on the trees.

Blew snow the whole length of the glade. First tracks this morning. Great! Will have to touch up my edges tonight but it is worth it Blew snow the whole length of the glade. First tracks this morning. Great! Will have to touch up my edges tonight but it is worth it

Hit the slopes about 1 PM and skied for a couple of hours. 32 degrees and very cloudy to start, but the sun came out for the last couple of hours. The slopes got an inch of snow from flurries, but underneath was northeastern hardpack. Fortunately I touched up my edges before leaving home. Slopes were in good condition, but just the trailside edge of challenge glade was skiable. Floyds and River Shot were in good shape too, but a little bouncy on the knees if I got going too fast. Elevator glade looked skiable, but the fresh snow on top might have been deceiving. Exhibition was probably in the best shape of the trails. Even got over to Lehigh for a quick run. A quick shot of Lightning on east mountain just as the sun was starting to show through the clouds.

Wasn't horrible. A little icy and crunchy. Worst thing was the heavy overcast and flat light. Floyd's was ok, but right side still a little rough. Nothing slushy. Elevator looks rough and the far right of Challenge glade pretty bare. Top speed a little slow at 43 using Skitracks. Race on Challenge, and a lot of race program kids around on the other slopes, but otherwise pretty quiet. Lodge pretty quiet too. Some divots cut in the slopes by the groomers, but overall they did a great job. Tons of blue coats around. Shot of the top of Rivershot.

While we are sitting out the rain, thought I would weigh in on how great it was yesterday. Got there at opening with a light snow, a couple of inches of powder on the trails. They freshly groomed half of T-bolt and Challenge and left the rest puffy. Lapped those two pretty much all day - went over to e-mtn for a run down Rivershot, and did Exhibition a couple of times. Pretty quiet, although there was a line at the ticket booth when I left at noon. E-glade looked pretty nice from the chair lift, and Challenge glade was in very good shape. Firm 'blown' snow made carving between the trees a joy, and the bumps were just starting to develop. Still a couple inches of fresh snow on top, and the granite crocuses were few and avoidable. Hope the rain and warm temps don't mess up Floyds, but don't have much hope for the glades. A shot of lower Challenge glade - the far side beyond the tracks was great:

Nice day at JF - weird temperatures. About 8 degrees at home (near that other ski mountain I won't name), half hour north at JF it was 15 in the parking lot at top. It warmed up to 35 when I left at 10:30, but was a lot colder at the bottom of the slope near the creek. Skied Challenge while the race team was setting up the practice course, then over to east mountain for a run down Rivershot and Floyds, nothing too exciting. Trails are still pretty narrow with snow missing on Rivershot left and Floyds right. Would also be nice to fill out the right side of T-Bolt a little. A photo of the sun coming thru the trees on east mountain (some nice ice rime on the trees, but the photo didn't pick it up): Then over to T-Bolt and Exhibition for a bunch of fast runs. Glades too scratchy to try. Some bumps on upper Rivershot right and Challenge right, otherwise everything groomed with cord in the early morning. Bluebird sunny on the mountain, but clouded up on the ride home. Looks like the ice storm in Philadelphia kept a lot of people home - the lodge was very quiet just before lunch - most people were out on the slopes.

Moved picture of Tbolt from above.

Great day, each slope was more fun than the last: fast and well groomed Exhibition, Tbolt and Floyds, softer Challenge and fluffy Rivershot. A rare moment of sunshine at the top of Challenge before the snow closed in: Middle headwall of Rivershot: Hope they get the right side of Floyds in shape soon, and widen the lower part of T-Bolt.

Floyd's pretty nice. Below is Tbolt

Very quiet. Hard base with a couple inches untracked powder on top. Heading over to Floyds in a few minutes. Snowing and 22.

I email the photos on my iPhone to my Photobucket account. That way I can select a smaller picture size. I go to my Photobucket account, open the picture. click the info icon and copy the IMG tag into the buffer. I then paste that right into the text of the message. All done from the iPhone on the chairlift.

Great conditions. Sunny and about 40. Slopes are firm and very fast. Glades are pretty well filled in, even the lower section of t-bolt glade. A few rocks to avoid. A shot of the top of elevator glade with Floyd's in the distance. Plenty of snow in ungroomed whales up top but a little sparse lower down. Might be enough to open this weekend.

Out for a couple of hours this afternoon. In the mid 20s and mostly sunny. Blowing snow on Thunderbolt (had a groomer on it - looks almost ready to go) and on Exhibition (half the slope is pretty well covered). and blowing snow on Exhibition (half the slope is pretty well covered). Challenge was in great shape - nice and fast and smoother than Saturday. Happyland is almost top to bottom (at least on the side closest to the slope). Should be in great shape this weekend.

Nice early start to the season. Around 30 and cloudy, a few snow flakes around. Some ice in the trees, but the roads were OK. Challenge, Demattes and One Park open on the eastern half. Snow is packed powder in good shape. Pretty quiet on the slopes and the lodge, mostly red coats and blue coats. Race kids haven't started up yet. Some action on Challenge:

Going to give it a shot Saturday morning.

Also looks like the proposed private Alpine motor raceway located a couple miles east of Blue Mountain Ski area will be bought out and added to the PA state game lands in that area with the help of the Nature Conservancy. http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130418/NEWS/304180323&cid=sitesearch

Under East Mtn lift yesterday. Should be part of everyone's ski lessons - white is good, brown is bad. Hope they were rental skis.

Last day of the season unless they stay open for next weekend. Mid 40s, mostly cloudy, not much wind. A good number of people out, but no lift lines. Never made it over to East Mtn, but said goodby to Challenge glade and spent most of my time on Exhibition bumps. Broke out my old PEs last night, put a structure on the bases with a Ski Vision base flattener tool, and used some new Swix yellow wax (35-50 deg). Worked pretty well - only the slightest bit of grabbyness when going over some gray slushy spots. A lot better than yesterday when I had Dominator Graphite on. No brown spots on any if the trails yet. Sun came out just as they closed the trails.

Was out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. High 30s and mostly overcast. Still a lot of coverage on the slopes, although pretty soft and a little slow. Tbolt lift was not running so had to skate from the top of east mountain to the Exhibition lift. A fair number of people out. Run of the day were the bumps on Exhibition - nice and soft. Still some snow in the Challenge glade too. At least 3 more days left to the season.

Ride Delaware ?, on 18 Mar 2013 - 18:39, said: Occasionally we have to leave our little mountain and see what the the real world is like before scurrying back with our tails tucked between our legs. Saddleback had 4 foot of snow in the past several weeks - everything was open with a nice layer of the white stuff. Took several hard looks at Dark Wizard glade, but chickened out and kept going past to Tight Line - only because we are skiing with our 9 year old downeaster niece (thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it).

Back from Saddleback ME, and out for a few hours in the afternoon - great conditions before the snow/sleet comes in. The few inches we had Sat helped a lot with the slope. Friday was very firm and fast with icy bumps on Exhibition, Sunday afternoon the place was almost empty, and was perfect except for a little wind blowing up the hill slowing things down. Today it was deserted and the wind was blowing down the hill. Skied Floyds looking for GSS and just broke 50 (according to Alpine Replay - my fastest run at Frost all season). Challenge was great, but only the edge of the glades were ski-able (got a nice gouge down the center of my ski - guess it wasn't all ice underneath the soft stuff). TBolt was also fast, but kept getting launched at the last headwall - like to keep my skis on the snow, but my knees don't bend far enough to pre-jump it completely. Bumps on Exhibition had a lot more soft stuff on them than on Friday, and were a good workout. Still skiing cord on the trail edges when I left at 3. Unknown skier on Floyds - wonder who it could be?

Having raised 2 kids, I'm used to dealing with children, and have probably been on the internet before most of you were born (specifically Telnet and the Usenet through computer club bulletin boards), so I am pretty used to it. If you don't feed the trolls every once in a while, they either wither away or become nasty (neither of which is much fun). Just back from Saddleback in Maine, they have had 4 feet of snow in the past few weeks, pretty good conditions all around everywhere on the mountain.

Vader is a short term for Elevator. Floyds was nice, but a little icy - too short though, rather ski Challenge and TBolt. Off to Saddleback Maine for a family ski get together, so with the warm weather next week, might be the end of the Jack Frost season for me.

Was out for a few hours Monday and Tuesday. Still great conditions on the slopes. Def spring skiing Tuesday, hopefully get some snow today. Did a poor man's base grind (6 grades of sandpaper, fibertex and Skiman base flattener tool) and reset the edges of my old Elan Apex skis, and with some Dominator Zoom Graphite wax they did great in the soft stuff. Also tried Alpine Replay on my iPhone. Like the max speed and the separate sustained speed readings. Seems pretty accurate based on what I think my speeds are. Doesn't have named runs at Frost though. Exhibition bumps were pretty icy still, but were smaller so pretty manageable. A last look at Vader:

Got out for a few hours. Pretty quiet before the big WNNR day. Slopes in surprisingly good shape after the bad weather - looks like they got snow instead of rain and have been blowing a little. Everything nicely groomed (unlike Monday). C glade still skiable if you pick your route and pop out to the trail a couple of times. Exhibition bumps are good, if shrinking a little. Vader looks to be in good shape, some blue coats going down it. One Park still has some huge jumps. Left about 3, the top was getting pretty mushy, the slopes were soft but still pretty fast. Should be a good weekend. Even made it over to the west side greens.