saltyant

Back from another epic day at the camel. This time I strategized my morning routine and was rewarded with FirstTrax promptly at 7:30 am, and subsequently the third civilian chair. Fresh cord was abundant on all six trails, and snow was softer and more enjoyable than yesterday. I spent 3 hours alternating between Marjie’s and Tuts, and only did Honeymoon once because it sucks. Conditions held up nicely throughout the morning, and Marjie's was better, with less hard pack, but instead small piles of powder scattered throughout the piste. Before leaving, I headed over to the Glen, and rode the dinosaur chair to make 9 runs on Rhododendron Glen, which was my favorite run of the day. At 9:08 am, a tragic turn of events had befallen me. While on the Sullivan lift, I was reaching into my pocket to change the song on my phone, and suddenly my $5 gift card from Blue Mountain fell and is now lost forever. I promptly contacted ski patrol and urged them to suspend lift operations for the day and send out a search and rescue party for my beloved gift card, but sadly this did not happen. Other than this devastating loss, today was another good day. JADIP* * JADIP - Copyright © 2017 by GrilledSteezeSandwich. All rights reserved. No part of this acronym may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of GrilledSteezeSandwich, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to GrilledSteezeSandwich, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at some hotel.

A worker told me they are running out of water. No, this is not an exaggeration. They were blowing on Nile Mile and the terrain park, but there were no guns blowing on any Sullivan lift trails that I recall. I make it a point to never exaggerate critical details that may influence people's decisions whether or not to ski at Camelback, and report all facts objectively.

I don't know what you're talking about. Everything in my report is original..

Whatd'ya mean???

Probably Wednesday unless it's going to snow. Then either Tues or Thurs.

I'm pretty stoked to drive 2 hours to Blue again this week and use my $5 gift card.

OKAY.

Glades are so rad. I'll be going to Stowe the first week of February, so your directions will be much appreciated. There are essentially 4 separate top-to-bottom runs... Marc Antony/Honeymoon, Marjie/Sullivan Trail, Tuts/Meadows, and they just opened Rhododendron Glen which is accessible only by the slow lift and is just as bad with the death cookies as Upper Main was last Sunday. Any bottled water PASR can donate will be accepted by Camelback management. Also if you can help them plant some grass because that's another reason for their delayed snowmaking.

Do you know if Blue can pipeline some water to Camelback so we can get another trail open? I can't believe Blue has 22 trails open and CB only has 6 !

Hey All, I'm back from a fun Saturday at Camelback mountain the true mountain. I arrived at the lot around 728AM and also in the house were many others. I woke up around 606AM, and as I made my way eastward on I-80, I experienced a legit defcon level one crisis. I realized I would not make FirstTrax(tm)(c)(r) on time, and would miss out on all that fresh cord. Unfortunately, I had miscalculated my wake-up time and ended up a whopping 8 minutes late for FirstTrax. The saving grace, however, was that fellow elites (Camelback season passholders) were kind enough to save some fresh cord for old saltyant, so I didn't miss out entirely. But it was still a truly devastating blow. The walk from car to lift was also agonizingly long and brutal after being spoiled from Blue's short walking distance. Early morning skiing conditions were top notch. They remembered to groom all 6 trails. The snow wasn't exactly the fluffy powder that I was expecting, but it was nice to finally ski on packed powder. I decided to see how fast I could go after blazing down Blue's trails on Wednesday evening with actual slalom skiers. I broke my personal record on Marjie's and hit 49.9 mph. Wow! I'm not sure I can break the 50 mph barrier, but I came damn close to my lifetime goal with that run. I also tried speeding in the slow zone on Meadows to see if I would get a ticket from the cops, like everyone claimed I would. Despite several lightning fast runs down Tuts and into Meadows, I did not get pulled over even once, therefore concluding that this claim is definitely an old wives tale and urban legend. As the day progressed, the crowd grew but never got overwhelmingly large. The lift line was almost always a short wait, and I figured out how to maximize run efficiency by going in the singles line on the far left of the queue area. However, every single trail turned to a sheet of ice by late afternoon, especially Marjie's. My poor Elon skis just could not get any traction, and I ended up skidding down Marjie's most of the day. I also got to ski some glades (between 2 trees) and literally became an expert skier. I decided to call it a day around 327PM after a prolonged lift stop because the lift got tired and needed to nap for about 15 minutes. I made a total of 47 runs today and 26,687 feet of vertical descent. The weekend ahead looks truly promising. Rumors were circulating all day long that they might get another trail open next week. A worker told me that the water supply for snowmaking is dwindling, so once they find some water they will be able to get another trail open. This wonderful news amplified stoke levels across the mountain by over 9000. I will likely head back to Camelback tomorrow morning to hit some more FirstTrax early on before conditions get slick again.

Im not sure what else you were expecting when you clicked a link to a thread that is literally the "Camelback Super Stoke Thread"...???

#confused

Thanks. I'm cautious and always start with the easy trails at new mountains before progressing. I found most of the blue trails very easy at K-ton.

Exactly. I know that sarcasm (and stupidity per Toast) don't come across on the internet. But I just type whatever's on my mind because I think it's funny and I don't care if anyone else does or doesn't... as long as I'm not spamming threads and annoying everyone.

Lol. I literally can't move on flat terrain when the snow isn't fast. It seems to take way too much effort. Once I get just a little downhill slope, I'm good. My diagnosis is it must be the skis, because I know how to push with my poles and ice skate but it still takes way too much effort.

Skill levels are so arbitrary. I'm obviously a beginner compared to you guys, but I'm an expert compared to a first timer. IDK. Skiing all about having... a good time.

Ok. What do you consider an intermediate intermediate?

I went to Killington last year and it was ok. Just kidding, it was amazing. I only fell once on Great Northern... no idea how it happened. Skiied the majority of blue squares with no problem. This year I'm going to Stowe and will try some diamonds.

Probably overstating it. My yearly trip to Vermont usually exceeds $600 and then I go once a week at night to wherever's closest to where I'm working.

That's what I did at Killington. I ate the free breakfast at the hotel, then ate captains wafers for lunch, and then bought off the dollar menu at McDonalds for dinner. Sometimes I splurged and went to Taco Bell instead.

Nope, I'm stubborn and I take pride in having learned to ski by myself. I pick up some tips along the way from people I share lift rides with. I know I probably have a dozen of bad habits, but as long as I can get down any trail in NEPA I'm happy.

It was mostly having to drive through the snow.

Yep. As much as I joke around on here about money, I don't care about blowing a couple of thousand dollars on skiing per year. I just spent $120 on Smith earpods and bought a bunch of prepaid lift tickets. Winter is too short to not enjoy it.

The roads were snow-covered from the Lehigh Valley exit all the way down to Fort Washington. I get stressed out driving in the snow next to tractor trailers.