enjoralas

Just finishing up lunch at Boulder View Tavern after a nice day on the snow at Boulder. We arrived at about 9:30 for the 10:00 opening and headed into the snow right about ten after buying tickets and booting up in the lodge. We jumped on the Merry Widow lift to head down Mittle-Weg. Snow was nice spring corn with some firmness to it due to the cold temps overnight. Headed right at the bottom of the hill to hit the Big Boulder lift and check out Draufganger. On the way up it looked like Bunny's Elbow/Schuss was open, and it was. Not sure why they didn't have them listed as open on the website, With those two trails they had 50% more trails and 100% more non-freestyle terrain open than advertised. We decided to hit Bunny since it was open and found pretty much the same snow conditions, maybe a bit softer because of the flatter trail getting hit by the sun already. Coverage was nice on all trails, wall to wall with pretty much sufficient depth. All three trails did start showing some dirt by the end of the day in a few spots. Went back up the triple and ran Draufganger, which was for me the run of the day. Same firm corn as Mittle, and it stayed very uncrowded all day so there was little worry about traffic at the bottom where Bunny merges in. We stayed on the Big Boulder lift for all of the rest of our 28 runs for the day. Mostly Draufganger with 8-10 Bunny runs and 3 or 4 Mittle-Weg thrown in. Would have run MW more if it wasn't a pain to get to. Snow got progressively more mashed potato-ey as the morning and early afternoon went on. By the time we called it quits at about 1:30 it was pretty soft all over, and some areas were starting to bump up pretty good with piles of mashed. Skated over and skied down Love Park to finish as close to the lodge as possible. After debooting and dropping gear in the car we popped into the shop to check out the sale. Seemed good with a "Buy one item, get one for $4" deal on soft goods, and same deal but $17 for the second item for glasses, goggles and helmets. Left without buying tho, didn't see anything that jumped at us, and only a few options for my fat ass anyway. They're supposed to be open again tomorrow and I see no reason they wouldn't be able to have the same 6 trails open. They could probably make it to next week with a t least a trail or two, but based on the crowd I would bet tomorrow is it. Either way, today was the last day on the skis for me for this season. Really enjoyed the hell out of it and definitely progressed as a skier. Put in 31 days at 5 different PA hills (2 new to me) for about 209k vertical skied. Now I guess it's roller coaster and theme park time. Disney in 27 days!

Boulder is opening tomorrow and Sunday, 10-6 with 4 trails, Draufganger, Mittleweg, Boulder Park and Love Park, with $30 tickets. Probably gonna head up tomorrow.

That's the gist. Probably too much effort for sure for one card, but last time I got 5 that I still haven't traded in. Hopefully will again. I want to go up this spring or summer and check out disc golf, I'll just convert them all then. I know it helps that I'm close, but for $250 free it'd be worth the trip.

Bump for gift cards on sale tomorrow morning: http://www.sweetdealscumulus.com/deal/allentown/blue-mountain-ski-resort-22 I'll try to post a reminder in the AM but might not get around to it, so here is your reminder, lol. Last round they limited to one per email address, and of course they sell out quick as mentioned every other time. They do not seem to limit by credit card or address (at least yet) but any orders over 1 were adjusted down at checkout. Be ready with multiple emails if you want more than one.

I don't know if they do sometimes or have before, but last spring and the year before I saw them going from the edge of the upper lot, right side as you are driving out on the outermost row. Grassy area behind some big rocks. Didn't really see any of them this year.

Crane was/is right by where the paragliders usually launch from. Someone told Pops and I that they were told by a Blue employee that the were filming a scene for the Kevin Hart/Bryan Cranston/Nicole Kidman movie that has been filming down in Philadelphia. It did look like some sort of lighting rigging or something was hanging from the crane when we left the upper lot around 3:15, we had to stop up so dad could pick up his mug from the Last Run Lounge.

Great ending to a good season at Blue. Til next year!

Ski near me, no one will notice, lol. Of course, I don't try to keep up with these guys anyway. Plan to ski early, fire the grill up around 10 or so in the lot, head up to catch a little skimming, then hit the slopes for a few afternoon runs too.

Veggies and hummus is Win. Should make up some of my homemade guacamole.

By popular demand looks like grilling day too. Gonna look for some sort of steak to make. Maybe sliders. Not gonna overdo it, last day so I'm definitely gonna wanna go back out after tailgate

Nah, course it won't be like Gaper Day. Just thought I'd throw it out there. Meat cooked with fire is always good. I have no intention on doing the skim either, bit might go check it out. Nevwr seen one.

Let's get this back on topic: I intend to be at Blue both days this weekend. Should we grill both days? Anyone doing or going to the pond skim on Sunday?

I buy a triple ticket to Camelback every year, and after skiing Montage for the first time this year will likely buy a couple tickets there next year if they have those $30 weekend tix again. And then of course the pass at Blue. So my consideration goes, "Am I skiing on this day?" If yes, "Is it a day worth burning one of the limited tickets I have for another mountain?" If not, ski at Blue. If so, go there.

Oh, SNAP!

By the time they go on sale I'll probably be old enough to be senile enough to want to buy one.

Saw something (or heard, might have overheard Barb talking at passholder lunch) about an interest meeting in December about the condos. So yeah, I wouldn't expect pricing in the fall. Also, I heard that they are still going for the 40th trail for 40th anniversary slogan, but they are going to announce that they don't count leap years, buying themselves 10 more years to get 'er done.

I wish the condos were built so I could spend an assload of money to stay in one tomorrow night and look out the window at the snow.

Bwahaha, it's almost exactly what I posted, even about Slopeside being open. Too bad they didn't use the forecast pic like I predicted.

I feel like somebody predicted exactly that . . . Lol

If purchased before 4/1 I think it is the CB pass includes outdoor water park pass for this summer and next summer. I almost used that to justify a pass to myself, but it didn't make financial sense.

I seem to be one of the few that really like Camelback, but as I said last year and will say again this year, it's shitty to obfuscate your intended closing day when you have hotel guests that are up against a cancellation deadline. That reply to a random question on facebook is the only mention I have seen of closing April 2.

You could still go to Barley Creek, but looks like Camelback will also be closing this weekend: ‎Jodi Beam‎ to Camelback Mountain Resort March 24 at 4:29pm · When will you be closing for the season? Wanting to plan a trip up next weekend. 2 Comments 11 Chronological LikeShow more reactions CommentShare Comments Camelback Mountain Resort Our last day is April 2nd! Like · Reply · March 25 at 9:14am Jodi Beam Thanks Like · Reply · 1 · March 25 at 9:27am

Lol, you'll never find me seeking out rail and boxes, but it would be nice to be semi confident that I can land if on the course of normal skiing I find myself airborne.

Dad had to work Saturday morning, so we tentatively made plans to hit Bear Creek in the afternoon after Blue announced their 3 pm closing. With the rain in the forecast I decided to hit Blue in the AM anyway, and after Pops got off work I called him to see if he was still up for heading to Bear. He was, so we headed out and got there at about 2 pm. I figured even if the rain started at forecast between 3 and 4, with the small mountain and meh conditions, we wouldn't care if we had to bail after just a couple hours. $25 lift tickets later we hit the slopes. The snow was slow and thick, and the coverage was pretty spotty. Some saturated areas showing up, including a good sized puddle forming leading into F lift. I though the pond skim was the next day. Still, we made the most of the weather holding out and made 22 runs. After an opening run down Kodiak (very spotty and solid amount of traffic) we bailed down to the F lift and made runs down Broadway and then Timberline. Timberline was in pretty decent shape, probably owing to the amount of work it took to negotiate the uphill to get to the trailhead. We ended up running it once and then one more time a few runs later, but decided it wasn't worth the effort. The rest of the runs were all variations of Grizzly and Extreme into the various Blue/Green combination routes that would lead back to the F lift. Most of the runs were down Grizzly because it had much better snow coverage than Extreme. The rollover onto the main headwall on Extreme had pretty significant thin cover the entire width of the trail. Ran it about 5 times or so, but eventually gave up on it as it got worse, save one last run down to end the day and cruise back to the lodge. About 10 runs before we packed it in we found a little rampy jump down by the base of Grizz where one of the blues cuts in from the left. Started hitting that on each run, as the skis leaving the snow is one of the next things I want to work on as I develop my skills. It was a nice little place to work on the feeling of landing the skis, not that we were hitting any big air or anything, just some small jumps to get the feet wet, so to speak. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon, well worth the $25 ticket and definitely glad we made the effort. To think, if Blue hadn't closed at 3 we never would have gone.