C1erArt

Another great day, 20 degrees at 12 noon on my way out. A little windy with flurries at the lodge, but not noticeable on the black runs. Slopes in pristine condition, soft cord with a little powder on top. Floyds was very smooth and carveable. Elevator windblown and hard, but not glare ice or bumped up. Challenge glade head walls had some pretty big bumps between the trees, but skiing out to the Challenge slope around them and then back into the glade made the flatter sections between the head walls and the bottom third enjoyable. Friday is WMMR day, so yet your skiing in before then.

14 degrees at 8 am. Blowing from the west. Snow flurries. Good day to test your warmest gear. Run of the day is Floyds - more protected from the wind. Some intrepid people running skiers right down Elevator, Challenge glade headwalls pretty bumped up and rutted. Kind of a hard core day. Slopes pretty quiet except for the red (ski patrol) brown (instructors) and green (race team) coats.

Hucking it is absolutely the way you should run it, but the landing looked icy, the light was flat, I didn't have anyone spotting the landing, I didn't want to damage the bark on the trees, 3 crows flew overhead (a bad omen), and the last time I was sledded off Floyds, I said some things when I was under for the operation my wife is still laughing about.

Calling it a day. Still not too crowded. A lot of people on elevator. First drop of Challenge glade getting some monster haystacks. Risk it was doable today. Two must make jump turns.

Challenge glade soft and deep. A lot of work with my 66 waist skis. Be great with Head Monsters.

Warm, no wind, 4" of freshies. Sun starting to peek out. Slopes as smooth as a babies bum. Run of the morning is elevator. Can it get any bettw than this? Only the ski patrol out on the east mountain. A nice feeling of security. Roads to jf are all clear

I find the fiberlene extremely useful for the harder waxes, such as swix blue, green or white for very cold temperatures. If you drip it on, iron it in, let it cool then scrape it (which is what I do for red and purple wax), I find the colder waxes tend to chip when scraping. After I drip the wax on and iron it in, I pull off about a 3 foot length of fiberlene (I usually cut the roll in half so the strip is only 4" wide). This is a little hard to describe, and takes a little practice, but it works great. I start at the tip of the ski (the tip is on my right). I hold the end of the fiberlene in my left hand and the iron in my right. I have the fiberlene covering the first 6" of the tip of the ski and the rest is draped over the tip, down to the floor. I place the iron on the fiberlene which is sandwiched between the iron and the ski. the iron melts the excess wax, and the fiberlene absorbs it. I slowly move down the ski pulling the fiberlene out from under the iron exposing 'fresh' fiberlene to absorb the was as I travel down the ski. So by the time I reach the tail of the ski my left had is stretched out away from the iron, and all the fiberlene has been pulled under the iron and has wax absorbed on it. As you pull the fiberlene out from the left side of the iron, you can see how much wax it is absorbing, and speed up or slow down your pulling the paper from under the wax to suit. For uncoordinated people like myself, doing independent motions with my left and right hand took some practice. The trick is not to use too much excess wax. Also a lot less messy than scraping. You could also do it on warmer waxes, but if you have flat skis, and don't use too much excess wax scraping is a lot quicker. Use the cutout on the scraper to get the wax off the edges, a quick brush with a brass or horsehair brush and you are all set. No scraping needed. I usually wax every second day - I find fileing and diamond stoning the edges to be more valuable than waxing when skiing the northeast.

Sunny and competitively warm. Like Smartass yesterday, we had guests (my sister and 8 year old niece), got there a little late and spent the day on the west side on the greens and blues. Slopes were nice and fluffy, not too crowded, but the lift lines were a lot longer than you will see on the east side. Big crowds getting tickets and in the lodge. JF admin was handling things pretty well and kept things moving. When the niece took a break, we headed over to Challenge. You know its going to be a good day when the trees in the glade are white. Bunch of people running it - a little crusty on the flats, but nice and soft on the headwalls. Didn't make it over to east mountain. Photo is from the chairlift over t-bolt looking across challenge into the glade.

Sunny 14 f, strong west wind. Frozen cord with some blown powder. Run of the day is challenge glade. Wind blew loose snow into it from the slope and it is sweet. No ruts at all

Fooling around with the iPhone AutoStitch app. Elevator panorama. The River Shot trail is at the top of the picture running left to right. Elevator glade on left.

Lodge was crowded but not packed at lunchtime (I usually look for tables with backpacks on them but no coats) - deserted at 8 am. The blues were a little crowded, t-bolt and challenge were not at all crowded, challenge glade was empty but skiable. East mountain had some good skiers on it (saw a couple people try elevator glade), the rentals would take one run and head back to the west side - although I left at 11, and the rentals tend to come over in the afternoon. Floyds was getting a little scraped off in the center, but the sides were nice (right side especially), as was right side of river shot. The runout of the chicken route (my route on the left) of elevator was a little cruddy if you built up too much speed - I found that swinging to the right at the bottom (uphill) was nicer to be able to stop, then head out of the little dell over the bumps and ruts. Nice day all around. Did my edges last night until they passed the fingernail test. Demo day tomorrow I think.

Elevator crusty but not glare ice. Picture of hero route from top I took the easier route about a third way down the rivershot head wall. Sorry bout the typos in the first post, didn't have my reading glasses on on the chairlift.

Top of mtn.

Floyds is the slope of the morning. Firm and fast but with some powder on top for control

Frozen cord glades ivey. Blew some snow last night tbolt nice and fast. Other slopes need to warm ip. A little. Sunny and puffy clouds.

I should be there first thing - Challenge lift or east Mtn. Purpleish coat, yellow/black poles.

And I have a plate and 4 screws in my knee from a bumped up Floyds, so I've found my limits too.

We have a star among us - great job!

Another great day, quiet, but a lot of good skiers and sliders out. Started cloudy, but turned bluebird around 11. Floyds was open, soft on top, a little more firm on the botton (could push a ski pole all the way down at top). Challenge, T-Bolt, and Exhibition were beautiful. Challenge glade is a little rutted and - not icy, but thinking about getting that way. Got the iTrails app working on my iPhone (found out you can't put it in sleep mode), uploaded my tracks here - 12/24/09 Tracks Photo of the runout of Challenge glade to the east mountain lift (under the lift was a little thin but runnable). Photo of the bottom of Elevator from Floyds Photo of the bottom of Elevator Glade from Floyds (I'll still skip that run). The tracks lead off to the right of the photo (you don't want to ski over the hoses). Hopefully the forecasted rain won't be too bad, and happy holidays to everyone.

A little more crowded today, holiday crowds starting to arrive - nice bluebird sky and great snow. They blew on Challenge into the glade until about noon, nice and powdery in there. The slope itself got a little ice when the powder was swept off. T-Bolt was great all day, the first headwall glade was nice, but a little scratchy at the bottom. Picked up a little uphill wind later in the day, but in the morning you could just fly down. Is there any other place in PA with a top to bottom glade? Challenge glade is worth the price of a lift ticket alone. The path on the right of the glade is fairly open if you need a break from the wood. Bring your helmet.

Nice day. Blowing sno on Challenge, River Shot and Floyds. Floyds not open yet. Challenge glade had a lot of snow (snow guns were hitting it), and the first headwall of tbolt glade was nice with a couple of stones showing. Tree run between Rivershot and Floyds above elevator looked nice but I passed on it.

Another nice day, right side of exhibition open, east mountain not yet. Challenge glade sweet top to bottom. Quiet today, no snow yet.

Firday was a mis-spelling, it didn't mean I ran into a tree

Another day of great conditions. Moving snow on Exhibition, so it might be open tomorrow. On a downer note, it looks like Jack Frost isn't doing the Monroe County Recreation discounted tickets this year. Challenge glade was in great shape - nice from top to bottom Looking downhill at the glade on the second headwall.

Hit the slopes about 9:30 and was the only one out there for about an hour or so - nice having a private resort. Thunderbolt was open, but was a little bumpy - hard on the knees if I went too fast. Challenge was real smooth, a little soft but not too bad. The glade was a little soft and starting to lose some cover (temp in the mid 40s). A little foggy, but visibility was OK, no rain or mist. Top of Thunderbolt