Ride Delaware ?

I've still gotta write up the report for Monday as well Justo, so I've got one more day...

I had packed away all my gear for the summer after my last day at Sugarbush on May 3rd, so I wasn't expecting anymore days on the snow. However, a week or so later, a friend of mine was hosting a housewarming in north Jersey, so I figured that my three day weekend would be best served by heading up on Saturday after Spending Friday night at the party. Come to find out, he said it was a weekend long party, but nobody else was coming until Saturday. I helped them clean up, drank some brews, and left about 1 PM on Saturday. I stopped by Killington about 6 to see how it looked, and after seeing it was t2b, I decided to head down the next morning. I arrived at the Bush at 7, grabbed a hero from Mutha Stuffers, then relaxed for the night. I woke up a bit late since it dipped down to the upper 30s and I knew it would need some time to soften. The mountain opened at 8, and I used one of my 2 remaining Ski 3 vouchers to get on the hill. Some guy that parked beside me was giving out free vouchers from ones he bought pre season. They were having the Killington stage race, so there were more people than expected, and the umbrella bars were hopping. It was a chilly start to the day, but they were top 2 bottom and they had groomers strategically placed to fill in the thin spots at night. It warmed up to about 80 by noon, and after a sunny morning shredding beautiful corn bumps, I took a Gatorade break after run 10. After a rest, I went back for some more runs. I decided to do 5 more, and it was much busier after lunch. Basically became an anthill. The snow bridge from the top bump section to bottom bump section was getting thin, but overall it was great and no walking was even remotely required. At about 2, after 15 runs, I called it quits and headed back to the condo. The bottom lot was packed with bike crews, but there weren't many detours. Not bad for my latest day ever for lift served riding.

Between Sugarbush and ME, I put in 51 days there. I take full advantage of my free pass. I also have opportunities to earn free lift tix for friends and family. I thoroughly enjoy patrolling. Gives me a great group of people to hang with and ride with.

Volunteer. Paid would be sweet, but the schedule just doesn't allow for it. Lots of random trips.

Nice report Justo. I left 4/11 to come home for 3 weeks. Went back up and hit it up the 2nd and 3rd of May at the Bush. Good Mid-Late season snow and a super cold winter meant top to bottom turns for the final weekend. Excellent corn. If the Valley House lift wasn't being replaced another weekend on Stein's may have been possible.

I've been meaning to type this up for awhile, but haven't had the time until now. Here it is: Goal Days: 70 Actual Days: 75 Goal Patrol Days: 40 Actual Patrol Days: 28 First Day on Snow: 11-17-14 Last Day on Snow: 5-3-15 Total Mountains: 15 New Mountains: 6 Calendar Months: 7 # of Mountains by State: - PA - 4 - NY - 3 - WV - 1 - VT - 6 - CO - 1 Discount Purchases: -Fox 44 Discount Card -Vermont Ski 3 -Beast Express Card Positives: Great mid season snow. Got to try 6 new mountains, all of which had fresh snow the day I rode there. Got out west for the first time in 4 years. Got back to WV for the first time in 11 years. Posted my first ever May Day. Snowboarded in 7 calendar months for the first time. Snowboarded 75 out of 78 possible days. Negatives: Still no day in October. Didn't get back to Snowshoe, WV. Didn't get in my ME road trip. Didn't get in my Quebec road trip. 2015-2016 Expectations: Either the ME or Quebec road trip. 70 Goal Days. 35 Patrol Days. Posting my first October days. Snowboarding in 8 calendar months. Return trip to Snowshoe.

I'm still up in VT but coming home today. It's been a crazy week. We've had spring conditions, 21" of snow, and some rain. Looks like spring finally arrives today. Hit Stowe earlier this week and hit Whiteface/Gore last week. Some of the natural stuff up here is starting to show some bare spots, but they will be skiing it another 2 weeks. The Rock has been operating almost 4 consecutive months which is a record. They will probably lose that this week. Lots of mountains extended their closing dates. Lots of snow and cold weather at the right times.

Congrats? Thanks I guess?

After an excellent day at Timberline the previous day, my buddy and I decided to try out another new mountain. I had heard really good things about Blue Knob, so thats where we decided to go. Since it had snowed 3-4" at my friend's cabin followed by some rain, I decided not to take the Subaru down the driveway the previous night. We woke up at 5:45, shut down the cabin, and headed out to the road in order to dig out the entrance for my friends 2 wheel drive Accord. I had called another friend who lived at State College and told him to meet us at Blue Knob at 9:30, but due to the wet snow, we couldn't get the car out of the driveway for nearly an hour. Around 8:45 we finally freed his car and got on the road. The roads were pretty clear all the way to the Blue Knob access road which is where it got interesting. Blue Knob is an upside down mountain, so you have to go to the top to park. They had received about 8" of heavy wet snow, and the access road, which is on the side of the mountain, is windy and has steep drops on the side. It was reduced to about a lane and a half, so when somebody came the opposite direction, you had to go to the side and wait for them to pass. I thought that section of the road was bad, but once you got to the resort/hotel area, the road was completely snow covered and hadn't been plowed. We arrived in the lot below the lodge around 10:45 and booted up. The mountain is definitely rustic. It hasn't seen large scale capital expenditures in many years. The lodge is a nice size, is fairly well maintained, especially on the inside, and is modeled after the old school Swiss looking chalets. We scored a 5 hour flex ticket for $50 and waited for my friend who had just pulled into the lot. We were surprised at how many people were right outside the lodge, but that didn't translate to much traffic on the slopes. The only major downside at the top is that the terrain park is right in the middle of the mountain and once you pick a side you are pretty much stuck there until you get to the bottom of the lift. Overall, conditions and crowds were really good. The triple at mid mountain had about a 2-3 minute line when we first got there, so we went to the very bottom via the moderately flat runout and there was no line. The lines would flip flop from lift to lift, so we did as well. Although Blue Knob has only seen slightly less annual snowfall than Timberline, the off piste difference was radical. Although coverage was decent, and even very good on the flatter woods, I was hitting lots of obstacles in the steeper stuff and scraping bottom. Also, their "glades" are very open trails without snowmaking and some trees. Unfortunately, when they were cut, they were cut too open and they have experienced a bunch of dead loss which has made them more like trails with a couple trees instead of glades. The ditch glades had few trees, but it was a gully that was basically a fast chute and it was a bunch of fun. The bowl was open and was in pretty good shape. the drop in was scraped off, but the rest of it skied pretty well as did the double lift line, even if it got a little thin in some places. The bump runs were scarce and they weren't shaped well at all, so I stayed out of them most of the day. The groomers were phenomenal and there were definitely some fun cruisers. Blue Knob only has slow lifts, but they do have a very rare lift in that the double has a full service mid station that can load and unload. That also happens to be where the trail leading to the bowl is, so thats very convenient for running laps over there. The lifts are also unique in that they actually go above and below each other and use the same tower for both haul ropes. Overall, it was a fun day. I think Blue Knob was the unfortunate casualty of coming a day after an epic experience at Timberline, but I would definitely go back. It was another mountain that wasn't crowded on the weekend and had a great laid back vibe to it. It's in the middle of nowhere, but its definitely worth a trip every once in awhile. Furthermore, the trails on skiers right off the bowl area are pretty challenging, and when they have good snow, would make any expert skier smile. Pictures below:

Haven't been too active lately. Guess there is just other stuff going on. I always try to post TRs of new places I've been to...

Thats pretty much what the pics are for. This ain't no GSS friendly trip report... I like to give the deets. However, your complaint has been duly noted and logged with my secretary.

After going to Vail, I knew that I wasn't going to be able to make it back to Vermont due to scheduling until the beginning of March. I didn't have anything scheduled before then, but a friend asked if I wanted to go riding in the Poconos this past weekend, so I offered an alternate option. I had been trying to get to Timberline and Blue Knob for several years now, and a friend had a cabin almost directly in-between, so despite the extra drive, we decided this would be the perfect time to try out some new mountains. The drive to my friend's cabin was about 5 hours from home, so I left about 3 PM. I encountered some minor traffic around DC to arrive at my friend's cabin around 8. He had warned me ahead of time that the cabin had been mostly winterized and the driveway hadn't been plowed. It had been a decent snow year, but I still figured I could get the Subaru down the driveway to the house. After I "redneck plowed" the hundred yard driveway, and almost bottomed out, I was able to get to the cabin. It was a toasty 0 degrees, so I turned the heat on and headed out to shovel the driveway entrance for my buddy whose two wheel drive Accord was never going to make it to the cabin. Unfortunately, the pipes had frozen and there would be no running water. However, after hiking the LT, that was the least of my concerns. My buddy arrived around 10 with some firewood, we got a fire started, and the cabin warmed up nicely. After falling asleep around midnight and sleeping restlessly, we awoke around 6 to get an early jump on the hour and forty five minute drive to Timberline. The snow hadn't begun at the cabin, so the drive was pretty uneventful until we hit Deep Creek, where the roads began to really get covered. Despite the snow, our drive was hardly impacted, and we still arrived in the lot at Timberline at 9. Knowing the size and layout of the mountain, I was a little surprised at the amount of development surrounding the mountain, especially since many of the homes were very high end. Despite the amount of development, the lot was only about half full and the snow was really coming down. Coupled with the copious amounts of natural snow the last few weeks, I knew that it was going to be a good day. After booting up in the parking lot beside the very basic 70's style hotel, we headed to the lodge in order to get our lift tickets and get the day started. The lift tickets were a little pricier than I expected at $66, but I knew the overall experience would be worth it. Since there are only two top to bottom lifts at Timberline, both triples, we headed over to the one below the lodge, waited a couple chairs, and then got on. Timberline was super laid back, mostly due to its lack of commercialism and recent bankruptcy, and while it was evident, it was exactly what I loved about the place. The first thing I did was ask about their off trail policy, and I was informed that "We don't really have one. If you can ski it, go for it". In addition to that, there were no ticket checkers and no uniforms on any employees. This place embodied the soul of skiing. We decided to take the "longest trail in the mid-Atlantic," Salamander, and our day at Timberline started. Salamander was wide and relatively flat. I was able to get down without skating, but it was a very slow run. There was plenty of dry fluffy powder starting to accumulate, but as the temperatures rose, the snow got wetter. It never changed to rain, but later in the day I began to think that it was starting to mix. We went past the upper triple which was right above the lodge, noticed it had no line, but we decided to head back down to the one that went to the true peak. It had started to develop a line, and since there was nobody organizing the lift corral, it was a disaster to get through it. After our next run down Silver Streak, which had excellent powder on the sides, we went to the other triple, and there was no line. We continued to lap that lift throughout the morning with hardly a lift line in sight. I followed that up with some runs in the trees, and they were superb. They were spaced a little far apart for my liking, but the coverage was excellent and hardly anyone had been in them. Some of the unmarked tree runs were a little tougher, but didn't have much flow. Unfortunately, very little trimming had been done outside of the marked glades. However, with 150-200" of annual snowfall, there would be a ton of potential if they would just clear out some of the underbrush. Maybe that will come in the future with more financial stability. Around 1 we decided to take a break for lunch. We went down to the old school lodge that while well maintained outside, was vastly undersized for the amount of people that were in it. The bathrooms were inadequate for the amount of seating, the cafeteria was far too small, especially with the group ticket buffet lunch area, and it took awhile to find a seat. However, the food was moderately priced and of decent quality for a ski area. It was very typical fare. Definitely nothing like the more advanced offerings that many of the top tier resorts are offering nowadays. Once we were done with lunch we decided to walk up to the upper triple and continue exploring. We hit "the Drop" which was one of the only areas with bumps. The bumps were terribly shaped and had no flow, but the snow helped to redeem the run. Afterward we decided to hit the skiers left of the mountain, most of which was easily accessible from the bottom triple, but was accessible by the other triple with some skating. We decided to take the skating option and worked our way through them. The last run we needed to cross off the entire mountain was Twister. The bottom of Twister has a weird intersection with a bridge. There were a couple of random sticks of bamboo to mark the trail, but no clearcut direction. I saw an area that looked groomed, dropped off the edge onto it, and worked my way down. Somewhere in-between seeing the man walking his dog and winding through houses, I finally came to the conclusion that I had taken a wrong turn and ended up on a development driveway. I ended up on the access road and decided to hike back to the mountain. It only took me about 20 minutes to cover the half mile and I waited at the base for my friend to arrive. He took the same route and arrived about 15 minutes later. We were nearing the end of our day, so we decided to head up to the upper triple to take one or two more runs. I hit up White Lightning and the woods to skiers left two times in a row, and we decided to end our day. We ended the day about 3:45 and headed back to the car. The storm was starting to taper off and the snow that was still falling was wet and not accumulating. The roads were covered and hardly plowed, so the drive back was a little slower than the drive in. Since we didn't have any running water at the cabin, we decided to stop in Deep Creek for dinner at Brenda's Pizzeria and follow it up with Hot Tub Time Machine 2. We got back to the cabin around 10, started a fire, and crashed. Overall, our first day was well worth the extra drive. The mountain was fun even though it wasn't very steep. It reminded me a bunch of Elk. Even though the mountain was very mellow, the snow was excellent, and the overall experience was as good as it gets in the mid-Atlantic. I may not make a special trip out there to hit it again, but if I'm ever in the area, I wouldn't hesitate to give it another shot. I would suggest trying it out if your in the area. Now, what your all waiting for, the pictures:

That's what I was thinking, unless those will be slope side condos or town homes?

So they are moving the water park from the summit to the valley? Makes sense since there is more and flatter space...

The Hobbit called... It wants its troll back...

I can't even contemplate what Uncle Bill's is... And I had a pass there for 3 years...

Thanks for the pics root. Looking good man.

Too bad I was at Elk today. Most stuff was ungroomed because it was opened on natural and not deep enough. They don't groom much either way. Mechanical issue on Castlerock? They usually leave stuff open once they open it.

They probably could have operated 7 days a week if they wanted...

When will Blue be t2b?

This snow would not be amenable for touring. It's super wet and dense and not floaty. Lots of stickiness. Great base building snow, but not great for much else. It snowed about 11" at my condo at 1,700' with 14" plus for the mid station up. I think the wetness down here really compacted the snowfall totals since the base was reporting only 8". I'll have a quick trip report later, but it basically sleeted/frozen misted while I was at the mountain. I got back and cleaned my car off and it started dumping again. They are expecting 4"-8" more tonight with more tomorrow thru Saturday. A bunch of stuff opened today on natural snow, and with 25" now in the past week, things are really looking up. There were some thin spots, but even the snowmaking trails that opened on natural looked good. I think we are up to 40 some trails now, and with the temps looking to be around freezing for the next week, I think we should be able to build on this. I'll be driving home to pick up a buddy tomorrow (after some quick turns of course), then back to Elk this weekend for a little ski trip with some high school friends. Anybody know what they got up there out of this?

Looks like about 9-10" right now. I'm not patrolling tomorrow. Did a 12 out of 13 stint ending this past Sunday, so I'm doing some free riding days before I leave. This storm is going to be elevation based, so I fully expect it to change to rain at some point tomorrow at the lower elevations while it stays frozen in nature up top. Either way, it's going to be a net gain and very good for the base. Local channel already reporting 14" at K-Mart.

I knew I spelled it wrong... 8 PM ish update... 7" of big wet fluffy flakes and it's still dumping hard...

That thanksgiving storm was pretty dense up here, but not super wet. There was some poaching on the usual suspects, but overall there was less than expected given our current open terrain is minimal. We lost most of that snow the following week. We got about 5" of wintry mix here on Saturday. That was on top of about 6" throughout the week from upslope snow showers. It was mostly rain at Killington, so we dodged a bullet. It never really changed to rain or freezing rain, but the dense snow/sleet/gropple combo really laid down a nice base. There was a bunch of poaching on Murphy's, Birdland, Domino, and Spillsville, all of which opened up on Sunday with Thin Cover signs. They have minimal undergrowth, so while there were some rocks and grass, they were more than skiable and had no icy base. Really nice on rock skis. I went out today from 11:00-1:30 and it was just starting to snow when I arrived. It's definitely a wet snow, which is great for our off piste stuff, but it isn't very floaty. It's the right type of snow for this time of the season. They are calling for 12"+ on the spine of the Greens all the way from Magic Mountain northward. There was about 2" by the time I left, and it's coming down hard. Could top out over 2' at the top through Friday. I'm leaving Thursday. This should refresh the natural stuff we have open and lay a great base for the woods. I heard they will be opening some more terrain tomorrow on natural snow.

Worst website I have seen. They finally added a mobile site and the majority of the pages are empty...