C1erArt

The tripod sno guns they use to get a trail open lays done a fine powder that packs nicely - they are aiming the guns high and it's covering in the trees real nice.

Top of Challenge

Great conditions. Challenge glade is great.

Again, thanks to the groomers, lifties and everyone else at JF for making it a great place to ski. The great condition of the snow (and the lack of intersecting trails in the slope design) is why I ski JF.

Was out Friday, and it was a little depressing with the cloudy skies and deserted slopes, but decided to go Saturday and it was a great end to the season. Sunny skies, slopes nice and fast. Time to wax the skis and put them away and get the kayaks out. Unfortunately the Tohickon release was also this weekend.

Was out this morning and conditions were great. Exhibition was a little uneven, but Floyds was smooth with a nice soft layer on top. Weren't running the Challenge lift so it was hard to lap Challenge and Thunderbolt as I usually like to do.

I was keeping an eye out for you, and even skied Lehigh once midweek looking for you. I usually stay over on the east side and ride the Exhibition lift only to get back to the lodge to quit for the day. I like to quit when it starts getting crowded, but like you said, the reason is safety. I like to ski fast and would rather quit for the day than slow down, and once the rentals start hitting east mountain you don't know what they are going to do next on the slope. Ever run the section of the Lehigh from Thorpe down to Weissport or Bowmanstown? If you are up for it we can take you down in our raft some non-release weekend.

Great conditions today, perfectly groomed at the start of the morning, nice and firm, no ice or brown spots. The snow started getting pretty soft around 11, but it was very quiet, and didn't develop the ice/soft piles that more traffic would have brought out. Some slushy stuff down near the Exhibition lift when I left at 1pm. Crowds are vanishing before the snow does again.

Some ice behind the headwalls on Thunderbolt, and frozen slush on the entrance to Demattes/Exhibition, but otherwise the snow was pretty nice today. The far right side of Floyds at top was solid ungroomed ice, but otherwise East Mountain was nice. Could use some touch-up snow blowing.

Took my helmet cam out Friday, 3/6 (day of the WNMR cardboard sled race). Still working on helmet position (got up and down fairly close, but its tilted a little). Some static in the sound, but the sound is pretty useless anyway with wind noise. Runs of Challenge, Floyds and back to Challenge. Last couple of runs got crowded around 11:30, so I packed it in. Used the Oregon Sci cam, which is a little low end, but easy to use. Actually its a nice way to work on your ski technique in keeping your upper body still and pointed down the fall line. I was carving each run, and there is some side to side movement I need to work on eliminating. The best part is my wife purchased it for me, so she can't complain when I use it to film her skiing.

Spent most of Saturday lapping runs for Ski for the Cure with my son, but happened to meet up with the PASR crew for one run down Rivershot. Finally tried out my helmet cam (the omega one). Had it pointed a little too far down, and the lens wasn't as wide angle as I thought it would be, but this one of the back end of the PASR guys didn't turn out too badly -

Be there Sat morning, with the family though. It was nice today until about 11:30 when it finally started raining. Sun was out for a while. Forgot about the bumps starting building up on the right side of the first headwall on Challenge. Bounce, bounce, bounce.

Saturday is 'Ski for the Cure' breast cancer day. A portion of all lift tickets are donated to charity.

Pretty sure it's skier's left of Floyds- its off the right side of the last Rivershot headwall. If you stop at the bottom of Floyds, just past the turn on to the run-out, its to your left. Of course if you stop there you will have to skate back to the lift. Its great with fresh snow on it, suicide (for me at least) with it iced over. I've seen a couple people go down the trees right of Floyds with a lot of snow, but you have to fight the rhododendrons.

They were pretty much straight lining it. But it was their early morning warm up and the trail was completely empty when they came down. Only at JF have I skied a completely empty trail on a Saturday (of course by 9:00 it starts to crowd up a little, but if you get staggered between the groups it you can have the headwall to yourself until about 10:30 when the rentals start hitting east mountain and the pincushions start straight lining Rivershot).

And if it is raspberry bushes like it seems to be, you would need to cut it every couple of weeks unless you use a herbicide.

a Could be, if so it was iced in pretty well, I saw it on the trip back up, it was only about the size of a quarter. Just spent the past half hour diamond stoning my edges, they were pretty torn up, but no ptex damage. , hit it right at my boot on my uphill edge of my uphill ski in a carving turn and it nearly kicked the skis out from under me. Missed the snow pile at east mountain. I might have the first two weeks in March off between projects, so I hope they keep the slopes covered. Also, I'm the gaper practicing switch skiing at the top of tbolt and challenge - its nice getting old, you don't care what people think any more. Made my wife laugh when I ran into a tree backwards on Friday.

Light snow all day, a couple of inches made things nice and soft. Hit East Mountain for a couple of runs and then had to head back and switch to a wider ski. Lots of patrollers practicing on east mountain in the morning, but all the slopes were great. Challenge glade was nice and soft. Did Challenge and Tbolt, and went back to East after lunch, but the top of Floyds was getting skied off, so I called it a day. Enjoy the slopes now, cause it looks like things are getting a little thin - brown spots coming off the lifts, tower bases showing, and a rock was showing in the trail just before the runout turns into the East Mountain lift. Also a small rock in the middle of the trail to the downhill left of the towers 2/3s the way down Exhibition. Just a knuckles worth, but my skis found it. Usually they stockpile some snow at the east mountain lift, but apparently not this year. Might have to switch over to Boulder in March, or get the kayaks out.

Missed the radar trap on pre-PASR day, so I decided to benchmark myself with my GPS Sportrak. Friday the conditions were very cold, but the slopes were not frozen. Everything was groomed cord, a little soft. It was windy over on Challenge and Tbolt with a crosswind, but Floyds was pretty protected. Put the GPS on my back to get better reception (11 satellites with a WEP satellite), max sampling (10 points on the Floyds headwall), GS11 171 freshly waxed skis, race boots, normal coat and helmet. Downloaded the tracks and all the points looked valid (except for where I dropped it off the lift above Rivershot). I ran 35 to 40 on Challenge and Tbolt (standing up, carving long turns, no skidding), about 45 on Floyds and the lower headwall of Rivershot Tucking the Solitude headwall and Floyds on the right side I hit 54. The Solitude head wall seemed a little slow. Tucking the right side of the Rivershot headwall (not the last one, but the first one above the Floyds intersection) and then staying in a tuck down Floyds (just a little pre-jump at the lip of Floyds) I hit 58. At the bottom I don't which was going faster, my skis or my heart rate. That's about as fast as I want to go on those skis. Don't think longer skis would have give me much more speed just a little more stability. Didn't have my skis completely flat, had just a little pressure on the inside edges. Had to really crank the edges to make the turn onto the runout at the bottom. Slopes were completely empty when I was tucking, and the race kids were tucking Floyds today in the morning.

Nice meeting philly core and ridge racer. Great conditions, but they had a hard time keeping the east mountain lift running. Got two running later which helped.

Should be on east mountain around 8. Was in great shape today. Wearing blue/purple coat, yellow and black poles. Stop and say hi if you see me.

Got on the slopes today at JF at 8, parked first row, did Thunderbolt and had to wait at the bottom until they started loading the lift. Fresh snow on all the trails. Skied Thunderbolt once, fresh snow blown down and groomed nicely. Challenge (once also) was weird, they had new snow also, but groomed the top quarter, then left the second quarter ungroomed, groomed the third quarter and left the bottom headwall ungroomed. Nice skiing all the way down but hard to get a rhythm. And they set up gates for the racekids in the morning. They groomed the first headwall of river shot (one run down), and left the lower two headwalls with ungroomed blown snow. It saw a lot of traffic - a lot of people on it seemed to like it, but not my cup of tea. Floyds (and the headwall just above it) was in unbelievable shape - flat, groomed side to side, new snow. Lapped it until after 11, about 20 runs worth, when it started to get crowded and piles of sugar snow started building up. Up til then I skied onto the chair just about every time. On the way back to the lodge the quad and triple chairs had lines, but only 4 or 5 chairs worth. Was flagged down for skiing too fast on Exhibition - first time that happened at JF, but the slope was pretty crowded. Headed for home and picked up some flowers for the DW. It was a Boston and Richie Blackmore day.

Floyds was 'ungroomed' on Friday - It had bumps, but one major shortcoming of JF is they don't seed the bumps. They let them develop 'naturally' and with snowboarders and different length skis, snow plow skiers and boarders, they never have any rhythm to them. The bumps on the downhill left of Exhibition (if you happened to see them) are usually what happens at JF

Some pics from today from the East Mountain chair, pretty quiet first thing in the morning - surprised my phone camera batteries still worked.

Oops, missed you guys, thought it was at 9. Probably passed you though - lapped Floyds and Rivershot all morning - purplish blue coat. yellow poles with new silver helmet with tune-ups. Richie Blackmore day. Did think to myself a couple of times on the lift that there were a lot of hot skiers bombing down the runs until about 11:30 when the rental skiers started showing up. Be there next Saturday though.