Ride Delaware ?

What a day!!! We were expected to get 4-6 inches of snow overnight, but when I woke up at 5:15, only an inch or two had fallen at best. I contemplated not going to the mountain early, but with expected daytime snowfall totals of 10-15 inches, I decided to go in, get some freshies, and receive free refills all day. Boy did I make the right call!!! At the base we had received about 3 inches by 7, and maybe 5 at the top. I decided to go out to the Jordan Bowl, but because of wind, the HSQ there didn't run. They decided to open the Oz lift that runs up the peak next to it, and that services many of the same trails, so I decided to stay there. It's fairly wind sheltered except for the top 100 ft, and with it being so far from the main base area, it stayed fairly slow in terms of skiers all day. The snow was coming down at an inch plus an hour. I started my day doing a run in Aurora down Airglow. It had ungroomed snowmaking whales with huge powder stashes. I took 3 runs down the Flying Monkey glades after that. Some small stumps and rocks popped up, but the 18" followed by rain we got last week really set up well for an excellent base. I then proceeded up Oz and proceeded to Lost Princess and Eureka. Both trails are wide open with pockets of trees on the sides. There were some super deep wind loaded pockets in the middle of the trails, with knee deep powder in the trees. Eureka had the better coverage and tree lines, so I lapped that several times. I got first, second, and third tracks in the woods on Eureka before heading over to Ruby Palace which is a lift line. Just like everything else, it was waist deep in places and had some technical drops with pillow landings. I went back to Eureka before deciding to hike up Kansas to the top of Jordan Bowl. I then decided to hit Wizards Gulch which is another glade, and let me tell you, it was worth the hike. There were very few tracks in it, and with it being one of the older glades, there are very few obstacles. I ripped through the top section the fastest I have ever gone in glades. What an adrenaline rush. After hitting up Eureka again, I finally decided to head over to Barker to try out some new terrain. It was about 2 PM. I got to the top just as they dropped the rope on Agony, another lift line, and I was treated to another lift line with some sweet pillow drops and bumps. We then went up and did some off map glades, and at about 3:45, my legs finally gave up on me, and I decided to call it a day. Once I got back to the patrol room and took my board off, I could barely walk. My legs were wobbly and felt like noodles. That was by far the hardest I have ridden for the longest time. 8 hours and forty five minutes without a break of any sort. I was incredibly hungry, so I stopped at Subway and carry out Chinese on the way home. It continued to snow and we picked up about 10" at the base, and 15" at the top. We picked up another two inches last night. All in all, a great storm. I feel like we got more snow these past two weeks than all of last year, and we already have twice the amount of trails open. This is what I came here for!!! It was snowing like crazy, and I racked up 25 runs mostly on slow lifts, so I didn't have much time for pics. I took most of these early in the AM when very few people were around. Pics are below. I'm glad your all getting your own powder tomorrow!!! PS: the Blue Mountain race team was in the hizzy today. They were surprised that shit was finally getting open down there... They don't go back until after the new year.

Yeah, but it was early season a couple years ago... Not the best then, but they usually get a bunch of snow... I'd like to go back sometime this year if I can... Some of the other stuff looked great... More importantly, I haven't ridden at Bretton Woods... All I have there is some third party info...

Loon is fun... Really good intermediate terrain... If you would rather something more advanced, I've heard Bretton Woods is pretty mellow, head to Cannon...

They rent stuff? I thought they were retail?

I may annoy you with the amount of my posts, but I won't bother you with much more than over posting... Don't get scared away by Doug, we are still working on him... Hopefully mod preview will help him come around... He's off it now, but he will be back... Happy Holidays!!!

Is that included in your pass?

Lol, it's a Green... It's basically a condo access trail... Weekends are busy so far, and holiday weeks will be too, but during the week we have so many peaks and lifts, that it's hardly crowded...

And now Shawnee has the HSQ... Not my favorite, but for $285, I'd try it for a season if it was equidistant...

I had off today and decided to go out to enjoy some of last nights freshies before the rain set in. Lifts open at 9 and I made it to the mountain at about 9:05, and got on the Chondola. It had snowed 3-4 inches overnight and was still snowing lightly as I got to mid mountain. It was getting fairly windy. Hit up Dream Maker several times before heading over to Aurora. Some sleet was mixing in and stinging the face. Top of Aurora was still an all out blizzard. Snow was wet. No lower elevation trees were open. Got manky and tracked out quick, but it was fun. Took 11 runs and called it a day at 12:15 when it started straight up raining. Took one pic on Road Runner. Changed from sleet to snow and then to rain. This was during the snow period. It's going to get frigid in the next couple days, and the guns will get fired up. Wasn't busy today, but it should be tomorrow. Busy holiday week is almost upon us...

Hmm... That bridge is seriously becoming a pain in the ass...

They may be more efficient fan guns able to produce at higher temps, but the most useful guns at high temps are the portable tower guns... Very low E also...

That's also what I would have been looking at... Seems like a sweet deal with no "real" blackouts... If I go like 20-25 times it would be well worth it... Jay, Stowe, and Smuggs are the top snow getters year after year it seems...

Must be fan guns... I know SR bought 300 new HKD low e tower guns for $1 million this year, so that's about $3,300 a pop... For roughly $16,750 a pop, I'm thinking a fan gun...

Did you end up with a pass at Smuggs? If I volunteer at SB next year and get a pass, I may get the midweek at Smuggs as a change of pace... Fairly affordable at $500 and it's only about an hour away... Better than an hour south to Killy...

Unfortunately, it looks like everyone is going to get some niar out of this one, even the northern folks...

North country represent!!!

They did last time I checked... Which was this morning... It was working last year and it was a great upgrade from the once a month daily photo... But in typical Elk fashion, no dice...

Their website doesn't have anything on it... I write an email every year complaining about how outdated and user unfriendly it is... I used to get some bullshit PR response, but now they don't even try...

Awesome to hear... Looks like the real Poke Mountains will almost all be open for X-Mas...

Typical opening day setup for them.. Nice to see them opening... Hopefully they can expand it quickly once the temps drop... And for $30 too? Usually it full price right away... At least it has been in the past...

Elk has the best location and snowmaking temps, but many of it's guns are older fan guns that don't produce the best at marginal temps, and many of the trails are wide. It's not temps for them, it's machinery. They make small upgrades every year, but think about their website in context to snowmaking lol. Old outdated user unfriendly website with no social networking, but they got a webcam last year...

What expansion plans? Must have missed that...

But I do believe it is lift served...

Ill take that... We received 3 inches followed by freezing rain out of the last storm, and if we can get some real snow quick, I think that after the next dump packs out, we will be able to get in the woods. Nothing was in play here last year until mid February, so this is promising... As long as he doesn't dump his salt on the mountain, I'm ok with his speculation...

I'll do that again when I think of it... My mind isn't that complex... Obviously... I don't actually recycle those posts, I think of them in separate thoughts... So the next time I think it warrants it, I'm sure I'll repeat the same thing lol... I apologize for the annoyance ahead of time... But I just noticed I never answered the question at hand, which I am sure is the root of the above posts... I will be riding at Sunday River...