EdBacon

Great conditions for their last weekend. Probably better now at closing than what it was mid February.

Yup I've got a Peak Pass. Will probably get another for next year since there's a chance I'll be moving to Albany next year for work. Would be easy to switch my home mountain to Hunter and Mt Snow then. Dare I choose Blue this weekend?

I see freezing rain on the NWS for Blakeslee. Changing over to rain tomorrow morning but should be done by noon. If you don't mind a wet day, have at it but the woods and ungroomed stuff will probably be beat by then. I'm staying away until the weekend. I'll probably break out the Sims Blade for their last day.

It's been an incredible month up there. Made up for a lackluster February.

People must have been going crazy last week and after that last storm. I saw tracks all over the place.

It was ok. Got scraped off pretty quick but its not icy, still edgeable and there's lots of soft stuff on the sides.

Just got back from a great late March day at Jackson Frost. Surprised to arrive to a couple fresh inches of snow this morning. The woods are still in play although by noon it was obvious that its thinning out in places. Conditions were straight up dust on crust off the trails. Pretty hard where its been ridden and crusty otherwise. Conditions on the trails were great packed powder although started getting slow as the sun came out. The upper sections of T-bolt glade and Happyland were great. Also checked out Mad Tree to the right of Telstar. Those were fun, tighter than Solstice. Saw somebody drop over the edge of River Shot and decided to give Elevator a look. It's very much skiable and probably has been all week. The top was seriously bumped up. I took one run down Elevator and the combination of really steep pitch and massive bumps was hard to deal with. Something I'd like to work on. If you can ski that confidently then you are a good skier. Saw a guy send Risk It and stomp the landing. Made it look easy so I tried it. Conditions are not... great for dropping that. I sent the left cliff section and couldn't hold the landing together on the short jib board I brought up this time. For whatever reason I thought there wouldn't be anything else to do so I'd try the park out. I guess it was that terrain park conversation we had the other week. Anyway, the landing zone is pretty hard. My knee is still complaining about it and I blame PASR for making me do it. All in all a pretty darn good day for late March in PA. Will be back after the rain to wrap up the season next weekend and probably one more time in mid April when its nice an warm for BB's last day.

Towards Newtown. Yeah, if this dumps mostly in the PM I'll head up tomorrow. Not worried about it getting tracked out.

Not digging the roads tomorrow coming out of Bucks Co. Might just wait for Thursday morning.

How many park rats are there, really? Last time I was at BC there was hardly anyone there, including in the park, compared to what I remember ten years ago. If you're still a park rat you're probably at Big Boulder. Only place I can think of with a packed park scene anymore. Plus BB brings in a bunch of events and competitions now.

BC doesn't care anymore. Don't know why you'd bother with a season pass there these days. They're barely ever open.

You just can't stop. You need to know where you're going or they need to be open enough that it doesn't matter. When I do glades I pick one or two each day and get to know them so I can ride them confidently. At Platty I now have three or four glades I'm familiar with that I can take good, non stop runs through. I try and add another each time I'm there.

Just got back from St Platty's. This place is absolutely ridiculous right now. The pow is thigh deep in some places. After two massive storms Plattekill has been getting 6-12 inch "refreshers" every day since last weekend. The result is a damn near pristine mountain and woods filled in about as much as you'll ever see them. Everything was in play and I mean everything. People were dropping into the woods everywhere. Everyone was getting at it. The stoke level was high and I had a lot of nice conversations with folks on the lifts. Arrived at 8:40 and caught the fourth or fifth chair up. I stuck to the double and mainly the woods accessible from there. Plunge and Freefall were left go and had basically a foot and a half pow on top of bumps leftover from Wednesday's Powderdaze. I didn't even feel the bumps, they were so filled in although as the day progressed they re-bumped up. Didn't matter. There is powder everywhere. The groomers were actually not so great. They were getting wind scoured and a little icy. No matter, the woods were where it was at. Next time I go I need to find somebody who knows the mountain, or explore after the woods are tracked out and its easier to navigate. It's difficult enough for me to ride two feet of pow but when you don't know where to point it to find the ways through the woods you find yourself stopping and getting stuck a lot in tight spots. For a skier this might not be as big a problem but on a board you absolutely need to keep your momentum going, so line pause is a no-no. Anyway, I found a bunch of fun stuff out there. Put together another little edit in lieu of pictures. Actually I can take some screenies. Enjoy

I used to be Rowsdower here but I couldn't remember my password.

Crashing at somebody's lakehouse I found on Airbnb. $40/night and I get my own bathroom. If I knew anyone in the area I'd be on their couch. Actually my aunt lived down the road but then she moved to Mexico. No nightlife. I'm getting up around 5:30 to drive up to Platty tomorrow morning. It's not far as the crow flies but its all local roads and it'll take at least 2 hours driving.

This was around noon.

No footy. Last time I was at Elk I was 14, and the place was only half open at the time (it was December), so I spent the time finding my way around a bit and looking where the fun stuff was. A bunch of places nearby have open mountain policies. Off the top of my head Jack Frost and Plattekill which are both fairly close by. Frost get significantly less snowfall too. I know Platty and Magic Mtn in VT organize volunteer glade clearing crews every off season. It's worth it, in my opinion. It would make the mountain stand out a lot more. To me it feels like a mellower version of Blue, with better snow. But if you could rock it off piste it'd be the nastiest place in PA. For sure its got the best snow in the Poconos. Not that its saying much but I'd make the drive when the conditions came together if they did. Otherwise I have to drive to the Catskills. I can do Elk in a day. Oh, run of the day was Lehigh. That green cruiser way off on the east side of the mountain. Only natural snow, narrow little trail through the woods. It's like meditation down there, man. Good stuff. I recommend it.

Just got in from riding Elk Mountain, PA all day. They must have received some more snowfall overnight. Looked to be 4-6 inches around the mountain when I pulled up this morning. Probably 6 or more up top. This is on top of what has been accumulating over the last 10 days. Unfortunately all but the two bump runs were groomed out. Conditions were still excellent: real packed powder and cord all day. There was hardly anyone there. Never had to wait for a chair. Bummed on Elk's no open mountain policy. There are some fun possibilities up there to bag turns through the trees. They certainly have the snow for it. Also love those rocks off the runout to Mohawk. Lots of fun just wish the landing wasn't so flat. Staying over locally and then driving up to Plattekill tomorrow morning.

They groomed everything out last night. It was still great. No crowds, fresh cord, but they have signs up everywhere telling you not to go into the woods or you'll get your pass pulled. I did find some little stashes though. Between Kickapoo and Wissahickon and off Mohawk. Actually there's a gnarly set of rock drops there between the runout of Mohawk and whatever the intermediate trail is next to it. The snow in there was great, light and fluffy. The landing was a little flat so I had to angle myself off the second time. I feel like if Elk adopted an open mountain policy like Plattekill I'd be there a lot more often. Also I love that beginner cruiser that is natural snow only that winds way out the east side of the mountain. Put some relaxing music on and just get into a kind of zen state out there. Fun day.

Or... maybe snowboarding just isn't cool anymore? Things do go through phases after all. And to be fair, the X-Games circus that surrounded everything does burn itself out after a while. Anyway, I had a great day at Frost yesterday. No park laps, no problem. It's gonna be great there all week its looking like. Get it before it Mother Nature changes her mind.

I'm going up there tomorrow. I can ask for you.

I teach biology so its mainly pre-med and pre-pharm students. Hyper career oriented in a lot of cases. These kids are under a lot of pressure to perform. I feel bad for them. Life has a way of working itself out and a lot of what you stress over in college you realize didn't matter in the long run.

I dunno. For one thing I grew up in a rural area, so playing outside was basically the only thing to do. I teach college kids. I would say priorities are different now. People feel they have to be more career oriented earlier on in life. There's a sense that if you don't have things planned out going into college, then you're something of a loser. I think younger kids now have less time to devote towards hobbies if they're told those hobbies won't help them towards a career.

I think this hits it perfectly. It was thing to do after school with your friends, but a handful of us really caught the bug and kept going.

Seconded. Magic is where you want to be with all this snow.