C1erArt

Fortunately it only comes once a year. Got there a little early at 8:30 and already there was a 10 minute line getting to the parking area. Since I had a 4wd, they parked me in the dirt lot right behind the top of east mountain lift. Booted up in the car and skated across to get my ticket. At the end of the day it was an easy ski thru the woods back to the car. On the way out there were cars parked along the road up to Clubhouse drive, but unlike last year they were only on one side, so oncoming traffic could pass, and it wasn't any problem getting out around 11:30. They had a compactor garbage truck right there, so we won't have to look at the cardboard carcasses for the next couple of weeks. Around 30 last night, up to 40 today, clouds cleared up and it was very sunny. A noticeable wind blowing up the hill. The groomed slopes were fairly soft, but held up well by the time I left. The bumps were hard and icy in the morning, and the glades were also very firm. Did e mtn to start, they groomed Rivershot, but Floyds is still bumped up. Some regular bumps on top, but they become disorganized half way down. The right side of Floyds and Robert's Run were ungroomed and bumpless, but were frozen crud - easier to stay in the bumps. With Floyds out of action for most people, River Shot became pretty much a zoo. For some reason, everyone came over to e mtn early, and the Challenge and Exhibition lifts were empty. Didn't run Elevator, looked icy and bumped all over except the very top. People halfway down saying it was pretty icy made me think better of it. The right side of Lightning where you can cut over to Floyds under the lift was ungroomed, but not bumped, needed to soften up a little. The right side of lower lightning to the right of the tower above Elevator was bumped and were nicely spaced. Challenge glade bounced me around a little, should be nice later in the day and this weekend when it warms up. Some rock flowers are starting to peek out of the snow though. They left bumps on the right side of the first Challenge head wall which were pretty nice, and also on Tbolt on the first and last headwall with grooming in between. Fortunately I didn't blast over the last headwall (a ungroomed sign there would have been nice) and was able to navigate the bumps, although they were pretty scattered. The first headwall bumps were very far apart and most people skied between them. Exhibition bumps were more my speed though. The bump field takes up the whole left side up to the tower, and the bumps are chopped down to manageable (for me at least) size. They kind of peter out at the end of the headwall, and then pick up again before the last tower. Skied them around 10:30, so they were getting less icy. Not sure why they are so much smaller after all the snow - might be the flying bodies wiping down the tops. All in all, a nice morning. The slopes were getting crowded, but the lifts lines were empty. A lot of people hanging out on top of the slopes enjoying brewskis.

Thule ski/board rack that fits over a hitch mount bike carrier. Decided to stay with rocket boxes. If your skis have plates, you can't mount them base to base in it, but have to be side by side. $100 OBO. Pick up only, can meet you at Blue or JF on weekends or Fridays. Similar to My link, not sure about the exact model. 2 years old but only used 2 or 3 times.

Was out for a couple of hours this afternoon the the DW, son and his fiance. What a difference a day makes. Was around 40 this afternoon, and everything was like soft Sierra cement. Some nice wide spaced bumps on the headwalls, especially right side of tbolt and challenge. Was a little worried about how skiable things would be that late on the weekend, but all the slopes were in great shape, not torn up at all (didn't make it over to e mtn). Lifts were full right up to closing at 4pm. People having a good time trying to get down the slopes. Challenge glades were packed down solid, but not icy. I found them a lot easier to ski than yesterday morning. Would be nice if JF extended their hours until 4:30 or 5 in March. By my handy dandy Epic Ski iPhone Theodolite app, the sun was almost 20 degrees above the horizon when the red coats put up the orange ropes.

In the 80s only the cool skiers had Descente stretch pants with padded knees - I had Obermeyers. No way I could fit in them any more. Sigh, oh for the days of women in stretch pants on the slopes, even if it meant we had to wear them too.

There is a difference between the west side green blue lifts and the east side black lifts. I skied the west side a couple of months ago with my niece, and the lines were pretty long. What's nice about jf is that the skiers are separated so if you ski e mtn or the challenge lift you don't get absolute newbys in the lines or on the slopes. What gets me about a lot of ski areas (even Whiteface) is that you come ripping off a black and it merges with a green. Until they put the bumps on Exhibition, I would only ski it as the last run of the day to avoid skating up to the lodge from Challenge. We didn't show you the seamy underside ghetto parts of our fair city.

If you download Magellan's free Mapsend Lite, you can import the gfx file from the Everytrip site, and examine the data in more detail. I think it does a better job calculating the speed too.

Aside from a couple solo runs at the beginning and a couple at the end, the PASR runs were tracked on my iPhone GPS at PASR day Speed is a little iffy, but most of the tracks are on target.

Had a great time, except for some mechanical problems on east mountain lift. Good to see all you guys. Took some photos - find them at Flickr PASR day

Got to JF about 1pm (conference call in the morning, work can be such a pain). The roads were pretty good until Rt 80, then they were a little snow covered. All clear coming back home except for the access road. Could be icy tomorrow morning. High 20s, snowing all day, sun tried to peek out a couple of times. No wind. Skied Tbolt, C Glade, then over to E Mt, saw JFSkiDan (but I was right in the middle of his cycle, and no friends on powder days). He was hitting Elevator and Eglade. Hit the left and right sides of elevator - the middle was still a little icy. Deeeep powder. Spent more time on my butt today than in the past 5 years. Sliders were coming down Lightning and launching air off of the top of Elevator. Mixed Floyds (some people hitting Risk It) with Elevator, then a run down Cglade at closing (missed the run down Exhibition and had to skate back to the lodge). But enough of the verbage: Looking out the lodge window: Tbolt Glade Top of C Glade Middle of C Glade My ski pole in C Glade Bottom of C Glade JFSkiDan in Elevator Glade Floyds - all fluff Risk It (which I didn't run, just so's theres no mistake, or eglade) Elevator My pole in Elevator, right side. See you all tomorrow.

Ditto (except for the new set on Exhibition). They usually turn out to be icy patch, snow pile - repeat to the bottom. Personally, I like to ski smooth turns rather than torture myself on bumps. One nice set of moguls is better than occasional spots of bumps to break your rhythm going down a slope.

Just got out for a couple hours late afternoon. Mid 40s, sunny, little wind. Pretty crowded, apparently a couple large groups that couldn't make it during the snowstorm rescheduled for today. First time all season there were consistent lift lines, but they had a liftey grouping people so it went pretty smoothly. The slopes had icy spots when I got there at 2, and had a lot of beginners, so I punished my knees in the moguls (although I did treat myself to a couple of Challenge glade runs). Putting GSS's stickers to good use:

I should be there, but (hate to say it) I usually like to ski by myself unless the DW is with me. Its easier to pick a quiet slope, and I don't need peer pressure to do things I probably shouldn't. I try to be careful skiing with my wife, since she has had to drive me to the hospital more than once. It got cloudy as soon as I got on top of the plateau, the sun started coming out around 10:30. Did some speed runs down Floyds ( I find coming down Lightning lets you hit the top of Floyds faster) before it got too crowded, then switched to elevator - the top left is getting pretty icy (wasn't that pretty at all - a Warren Zevon morning), even with the edges I sharpened last night - then I decided to humiliate myself for the rest of the morning on the bump run under the chair lift. 18 runs in just under 3 hours, pretty much ski onto the chair (except for Exhibition lift, and I would shoot over to Challenge lift to avoid it).

First run trip report. 28f, a little windy, cloudy. J4 5 race on Challenge today, soo glades are closed. Did a bunch of runs in them yesterday afternoon, and it was bumpy but soft in the trees. Anyway, the top parking lot and lodge were pretty crowded with racers, but the slopes should stay quiet for a while. Slopes are a soft cord, with a little wind coming up the hill.

I was there Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The lines on the east side got bad when they had to keep stopping the lifts for the inexperienced, or when large groups of skiers (Some groups of 15-20 liked to keep together) hit the lift. A bunch of times coming down Challenge or T-Bolt I switched to or from the E-Mtn chair depending on the lines. Had to run up to Lock Haven to replace the fan in my daughter's laptop Sat afternoon - Lenovo support doesn't want anything to do with you once your computer is outside the 4 year extended warranty.

I guess the new stronger reading glasses didn't help too much with the iPhone.

Butt sliders on rivershot, time to hit the glades. C glade is sweet, didn't freeze up last night. Seems drier and fluffier than yesterday afternoon. Crowded some runs though.

Well, it was a nice quiet half hoer from 8 to 8:30.

19 f at 7:30, no wind. Soft cord, nice and smooth after yesterday, get your high speed runs in early, it's going to get crowded.

Was out this afternoon. Plenty to keep you amused while on the east mountain lift. Conditions were nice, but frankly I'm a frozen cord type of guy (need to get fatty skis some day). Some new terrain opened up with the snow, but a lot of rocks hiding under the fluff. Challenge glade was a workout, but a lot of people in there without helmets.

It did drift quite a bit. The lawn at the entrance to the lodge only had about an inch showing, which was why my first report stated that - there seemed more on the more protected areas of the slopes lower down (Frosts lodge is at the top of the mountain which is great for getting that first quick run in). The top of elevator and Floyds was swept pretty clean. The glades had a lot more - several inches. Which is why I spent all morning in the trees after a couple runs down Elevator and Floyds. I imagine with all of Boulders pine trees (even though I don't ski there much - my knees won't take the park jumps -it has to be the prettiest area I've been to) they trapped the snow pretty well. And Frost does have a micro climate. It can be bluebird sunny where I live next to Blue, and completely cloudy and flurrying at Frost. Which is why my wife and I won't move up to the White Haven area to be closer to Frost and whitewater sections of the Lehigh and fly fishing streams. The Pocono Record's naturalist John Serrao always has articles about plants and animals on the plateau (it's not the Pocono mountains, it's the Pocono plateau) that are only found there or in Canada. Watching the local weather, they often get lake effect snow bands from Lake Erie. We just didn't get the moisture yesterday. Having a lazy morning, will hit Frost this afternoon, so leave some snow for us. I'm sure all pasarers know it, but in case a newby is reading this, you absolutely 100% need a helmet to ski the glades, especially at Frost where there are a lot of easy tree runs even on the green slopes.

Some trails were groomed, I think tbolt and solitude were, but there was a lot of fluff left on east mountain.

Today, it was pretty crowded, but I never had to wait in a lift line - left about noon. They had both east mtn chairs going, and were never more than 2/3 full. mostly less than 1/2. Challenge lift was ski-up-able, and Exhibition lift had 2 chairs worth in front of me on the way out. Crowded conditions at JF have a different meaning than Blue, Camelback or even Elk.

Well, maybe 2 or 3 inches. Challenge glade was soft and controllable, pretty busy too - most runs I had to share it with other skiers/riders. A couple of micro-tots pizza wedging their way down. I don't care, I still find it pushing my limit. Crash on elevator glade, birch 1, skier 0. Sledded out, but didn't see helicopter so hopefully it wasn't too bad. Anyone know if he was OK? JF's finest (as I know from experience), putting all their practice to work. If the pictures are tacky, I'll take them down, (but I would have liked pictures when I crashed).

About 20 f a little windy. C glade is real nice. Elevator is wind blown at top, and fluffy at the bottom. As is floyds, got going a little too fast on floyds and my ski popped of when I hit the soft stuff. The other slopes are real nice and soft.

After slogging thru 4" at home (near blue mtn) there is only about 1" at Frost. Roads are in good shape though.