RootDKJ

+420

Sounds like fun

TRAFFIC WARNING: If you are going to Blue from NJ via I-78, they have 3 lanes closed down at the Delaware River toll-booth. Take Exit 3 on I-78 to Rt. 22 into PA. Date(s) Skied: 1/14/10 Resort or Ski Area: Blue Mountain Conditions: Typical Trip Report: Crazy night at Blue on several levels. So I pull in to the lower lot, and there must be at least 20 buses there. Crap. Oh well. I quickly boot up and make my way over to the 6 pack. Love that VIP line. Challenge was pretty bumped up and Razors was closed, so I started off down Lazy Mile. Snow surface was typical blue. Some death cookies, some sketchy parts, some really nice parts. Right after the last right turn on lazy, some kid comes barreling past me and then yard sales right in front of me. I knew my right ski was clear, but I have no clue how my left ski missed him. Whew! Nightmare/Dreamweaver was mostly good...and less crowded then Lazy. Main Street was surprisingly nice, including Lower Main Street. On my next lift ride up, I team up with two other season pass holders in the line and they ask me what's good tonight so I give them the trail-by-trail rundown. Paradise - Didn't ski because I heard a lot of whistles coming from over there while on the Quad Nightmare/Dreamweaver - pretty good Razors/Challenge - didn't hit Lazy - typical late day conditions Switchback - pretty good, couple of scratchy spots Main St - surprisingly nice, even on the lower part. So anyway, the one guy starts telling the story how his son got at ticket for skiing too fast on Paradise over the weekend when the other guy tells me he's on Blue's patrol, but off-duty tonight. Then he proceeds to tell the story how on Saturday, he was off-duty and he got pulled over for skiing too fast down Paradise. He also told a story about getting stopped on Main Street. Funny stuff. They decided they were going to run the Tour de Blue. Ok, I'm game. The first stretch of Paradise has these nice little rollers on them that really make the trail a bit more fun. But wait...I think I see a redcoad ahead, so I slow to a stop after the 1st turn. The two dudes pass me, moving at a good clip. I follow. Paradise by far has the nicest snow on the mountain. So soft and smooth...ahhh. Anyway, there's a possible redcoat sighting ahead, so the dudes come to a stop right before the last left turn. False alarm, and we joke about it. So the last section, I let the two dudes lead, but I let it all out and quickly smoke past them. I wait for them at the Quad and ride up with them again. Next run, Nightmare/Dreamweaver I ski with them again. On the last section of Dreamweaver, the off-duty ski patrol guy is hauling ass and I'm keeping up with him. I had to get a little low to pass him in Lower Paradise. Good thing I was a little small already...that always helps. It was kinda crowded and I was a little closer then I'm comfortable with passing him, but I squeeze by. Zero commentary out of Mr. Off-duty. Nice. Later in the night, I share a ride with an on-duty ski patrol guy. He's asking me if I think the snow is better this year. He tells me that they (not sure who exactly "they" are) are under new management this year and management wants them to get the opinions of people on how Blue is doing. I give him the same play-by-play I gave the other dudes, only I add in that Paradise has the best snow on the mountain. He then tells me that he's off to do some speed patrol over there. I tell him that I feel sorry for him. Two runs later, I took a responsible run down Paradise to find him standing about half-way down on the last section. Overall, it was a pretty interesting night at Blue. Lift line Nightmare Dreamweaver Main Street Lazy? Switchback One for the bump lovers As I'm de-booting, a death cookie falls out of the cuff of my ski pants. I thought I'd share it with you.

I'll be up Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll run into you two.

That's pretty funny.

Anyone else going to be around tonight? I'm heading up Right After Work!

Glad you guys are having fun out there.

Yeah, I F'd up and didn't wake up until around 8am.

No clue.

I was going to head up today, but I overslept by about two hours. I was pretty pissed at myself, but I guess I really needed the rest. I'll be up one night this week. Maybe Wednesday.

Thanks John. It was a great trip, but I would have liked to get a bit more of a dump while I was there. A few inches of fresh every day kept the snow nice, dry and powdery though.

Great TR. I hardly remember what a blue sky looks like anymore.

Date(s) Skied: Jan 7 2010 Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley Conditions: 2"-3" fresh. Groomed & cold. Trip Report: My first time at Bolton Valley, scored a $22 ticket off Liftopia. I can see why people love this place. No-frills lodge and a great mountain. The main quad needs to be upgraded to a high-speed lift though. Great views all over BV and I love how you can see the lake from some trails. It was pretty cold (I even used hand warmers) so I just took my time and took a few pit stops in the lodge. It seemed like the whole place is above the frost line, very cool. Oh yeah...off loading at the mid-station = way cool. I stuck around to try some VT night skiing. I think this is more fun (or less cold) in PA, maybe because all the mountain is available (variety). I had a blast however. Some of the local jibhonks clued me into the mid-day grooming on Shermans, so we got some 3pm 1st tracks. Snow was so buttery soft and I just let them rip with out fear of any red-coats. On my next trip to Northern VT, I'll be sure to pick a day and get back here. Anyway, enjoy the pics. The lodge 1st ride up 1st run down Snowmaking It looks like a groomer made some unanticipated contact with some electrical lines, so the top part of Sherman's was closed all day. Here you can see the lake Mid-day groomer Local jibhonks

QFT

Date(s) Skied: Jan 5, 2010 Resort or Ski Area: Stowe Conditions: Cold, powdery, mostly groomed, glazed doughnut Trip Report: Ok, so I'm a few days late with the TR. I was having such a good time in Stowe, sitting in front of the laptop posting TR's was not high on my priority list. Good skiing today. Mostly a nice packed powder with some scratchyness in spots. Started the day off at the Forerunner Quad a little late and the Gondola wasn't running yet. They were making snow overnight on Liftline, and had 3-4 guns pointed directly at the chairlift. So by the time you got to the top, you looked like a glazed doughnut and your bases got a nice blasting with ice. Lifties were handing out scrapers at the top to clean your bases off. I just used by Blue season pass and that worked pretty good. After 3 trips up the Quad, I had enough of this and decided I was going to go over to the Midway lodge until the gondi started spinning. Well, just as I got there, they started letting people up. So I skied off the Gondola until around noon. I then went over to explore the Spruce area a bit. Took the Sunny Quad up 3 times and enjoyed the trails over there a lot. I made my way over to the Sensation Quad, but there was a huge headwind that blasted you the whole ride up, do I only did one run off that lift. Lunch in The Great Room was fun. Using real silverware and plates in the lodge is a novel concept. After lunch, I did a few more runs off the Sunny Quad, then went back over to the Gondola to get out of the wind. I like the area over at Spruce and will go back there later in my trip. Snowmaking on Liftline Here's where I go get glazed Me on my solo gondola ride Mansfield Gonda Area Lunch (Chili, Onion Rings & Coffee) Spruce Area

We (PASR) should enter this : http://www.skibluemt.com/SkiBlue/calendar.aspx?mode=vs.detail&eventId=cardboard&selmonth=2010-03-01&location=&location2=&type=&eventDate=20100314 Could go a long way to getting us a mountain rep on here. Pics from last years.

Why can't non-members view the stats?

Conditions were nice today. A consistent dry chalky powder almost every where. A few trials were completely wind blown glaciers through (Nose Dive). Started the day off the Forerunner Quad then made my way over to the Gondi until around 1, then back over to the Quad. I guess Stowe isn't happy with what they got from the storm, and they were setting up a lot of snowmaking. I skied +25K vertical today. I'm happy with that.

Very witty!

Thanks GSS. I've been using - http://www.snowforecast.com/StoweMountainResort and http://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Stowe/6day/top

Winds are looking pretty brutal for Monday. What's the best approach to avoid lifts that often get wind holds?

Date(s) Skied: Dec 30, 2009 Resort or Ski Area: Blue Mountain Conditions: Brutal. Dust on crust and sugar in some parts of the trails. Wind blown boilerplate every where else. Insanely crowded. Trip Report: What a wild night a Blue. As turn off 946 on to Blue Mountain Drive, I can see the line of cars waiting at the light goes well past the Blue Mountain Drive In. In fact, it goes almost to the driveway entrance of the upper lot (2+ miles). Wow! I continue down to the valley lodge, and as I come over the top of the hill, I can see the lower lot is packed! It's 5:30PM. Wow! So I happen to just get lucky and get a good spot anyway. Line at the 6-pack is full, but the VIP line is empty. I'll have to admit that Blue was going a very good job trying to send up full chairs. They even had lifties by the lift yelling "Two per lane!" over and over again, and the lift guys were telling everyone when to go. Overall, I though Blue did a pretty good job with keeping the line going. Lazy Mile was mostly boilerplate and in full blown Crazy mode. Main Street was a little better, but there were some huge moguls right where the dark spot is on the lower half of the trail and people were wrecking themselves pretty good since they couldn't see them coming. Gaper central. Nightmare was pretty good, and some parts of Dreamweaver were just ok. Paradise was pretty good. The Blue Mountain Race team was doing their high speed practicing down Paradise (a drill where you ski while holding your poles over your head???). So I did the same thing and the Speed Patrol left me alone. Rode the Quad most of the night, but then around 7 they shut the Quad down. Line over at the 6-pack was now brutal, but great for the VIP line. Easily ticked holders out numbered pass holders 200 to 1. At 7:30, they re-opened the Quad and I rode that for the rest of the night. Serious snowmaking going on in Sidewinder Park, and Razors. I felt pretty good out there despite the conditions. Not ideal conditions for the Jet Fuels, my Crossfires would have been a better choice, but I wanted to ski them anyway. Nonetheless, they were still very stable. Even on boilerplate, if you stay in a good form, they (kinda) will hold edge. Again, I pushed myself into speeds that I'm not normally comfortable with and railed it. I'm pretty happy about that. Had a few safety meetings while riding the Quad, but it was way to cold out for that, so I gave up. On one ride on the 6 pack, a guy I met last season night skiing gave me a can of Bud and a swig of jungle juice. Nice. I stayed until a little after 8pm and decided to call it a night. I had a total blast night skiing, something I need to do more often. Lazy Mile (from the lift) Snowmaking in Sidewinder Park Main Street Snowmaking on Razor's Edge Dreamweaver Nightmare Lift line at 7pm Lift line at 8pm

Blue was crazy tonight. Got there a little before 6 and left a little after 8. VIP line at both lifts was 98% empty. Had a great time. TR tomorrow.

Those tents are such a joke and smell worse then my high school gym locker room.

Looks like New England is gonna be getting nailed this weekend. 1-3" for the Pocono's will be nice as well. Looks like I picked a good week to hit Stowe!