indiggio

Blowing the parking lot and it's still pumping snow, gonna be deep but nowhere near Widowmaker-deep. Second espresso kicking in...

On the drive up the canyon... Passing Snowbird... Out the bedroom window... High-Rustler...

3/22/16 Couldn't sleep much because I didn't want to pull a GSS and miss our flight, so multiple alarms were set to make sure that didn't happen. Leapt out of bed at 4:30am, showered and made a quick ride over to Lehigh Valley airport. No problems checking in skis and proceeded down to security to see a line a mile long. Haven't flew out of ABE in a while and see they've now installed one of those full-body scanners which had the line backed up outside the cattle chutes. Reminded me of old days at Blue before the VIP lines! Got to our 6:20am flight over to Chicago without trouble and proceeded to grab some breakfast bagels at the Berghoff Cafe, which were pretty good and fairly reasonable! It was fun watching the line cooks shuffle the pans of eggs down the line of cookers. As we sat in the terminal for ou flight to Salt Lake, we noticed the monitors show in rain/snow over the entire area. Flights were on-time, but UtahDOT was claiming 4x4/chains up the canyon. Hopefully we would be able to make it up to the Peruvian where we're staying! Flight out was without trouble, but landing was a bit interesting as it was snowing and there was a pretty good cross-wind which had the plane crabbing the entire approach. I flipped on the phone and received a text that the skis were already here, as they came in on an earlier flight. Now we just had to wait on boot bags that we gate-checked in Chicago. Bags arrived and we headed to the Canyons Transportation desk who informed me that the canyon road was open and that the van has 4WD, so we're good to go! Our driver regaled us with some stories on the way up about some driving in snow experiences he's had and pointed out some things like "Stick Rock", this massive boulder by the side of the road that people prop up with sticks to prevent it from rolling onto the road. As we climbed the canyon, it's pumping snow and eventually it covered the road so the driver engaged 4WD. Numerous cars littered the ditch on the downhill side. We saw a Blazer going down the road sideways! Luckily we're headed uphill and managed to avoid him. Got to the Peruvian, unpacked and made ready for tomorrow. The board said that they got 11" yesterday, which is probably the most I've ever seen on any ski trip before. That should prove interesting as we're so used to skiing titty-deep powder at Blue!! Dinner was excellent as usual, with bean soup which made me quite farty, a house salad, honey glazed salmon over rice with broccoli rhab and a white chocolate brownie with ice cream for dessert. Needless to say, I can't sleep and am sitting here in the lobby at 3am with a coffee and espresso shot by the fireplace typing this recap. The night guy said they're reporting another 4", but from the way it was snowing last night, he thinks it's way under reported. Gonna try to take more pictures than usual, but we all know how hard that is when there's skiing to be done. Also I've not got the insane memory of GSS, so runs will definitely be forgotten!

Nope, they were blowing closing day morning when we pulled into lot.

Right, once the kid is gone, it's downsizeville as well. Can't stand the upkeep on the current house so as it is.

Y'All bugged out waay too early. Mother nature wasn't done with Blue yet, as she opened up the skies and dropped a ton of blower flurries on the mountain. Damn, if it wasn't titty-deep on Nightweaver by like 11:30. Shortly after the BBQ fired up at lunch, the sun started blazing and the bumps came out to play. The slightest bit of warmth was all they needed and it was spring bumps all over again! Skied the bumps till our legs fell off around 2:30-3:00pm, when beer was calling our names. Tarpon stayed out, but my legs were shot after the early tour-de-mountain with the PASRs. Afternoon parking lot party continued with many hugs and see-ya's until security started making the rounds about 6:30pm. All in all, even with the crappy weather we had, Blue really came through this year and made a crappy season worthwhile.

If MBike Mike doesn't know any, nobody does!

Top of that was seeing JLaw *almost* bite it. A most excellent recovery! Tarpon and I only made the Main Street run.

Likes to rest his legs, I hear he's a bump-head.

Cool!

No faith in east coast weather...

The shot over the R/C helicopter cracked me up.

1,068,154 just at Blue. I didn't keep track on Vermont or Alta trips.

Crappy year this, I'm only at 641,205 all at Blue.

Glass totally empty!

I don't think they're calling for a lot of rain, the fog on the other hand... Fingers & toes crossed! First!

I went up for a few hours this morning, as family matters cut my day very short. Snow was still springtime sweet, with a slight bit of set up overnight. Bumps were nowhere near as good as yesterday, but obviously weren't going to be either. Made a bunch of runs down them anyway, as there were still quite a few people skiing them, so the roughness was breaking free a bit. ON3P was there to demo skis, so took some Filthy Rich's for a ride. These are a park ski, but were the thinnest underfoot they had, so gave them a whirl in the bumps. The rocker made quite a bit of difference as they wanted to toss me in the air over the saddle. Also the center binding mount didn't help much either as the tails tended to catch one another. Even though they're not a bump ski, they were a lot of fun in the bumps though. Took a few more runs after and then had to bolt. I can't believe I'm sitting here at 3:15 on the computer and not out on the hill... So depressing.

Runs of the day were definitely the wonderful Razor bumps! Blue really came through by seeding them, would have been a pretty boring day without them. Hit up the season pass luncheon, which wasn't too bad. Biggest turnout ever they said. Of course, I won a big fat nothing in the door-prize giveaways. Barb was mingling and asking how we thought Blue did this season.

To take the thread to another topic... I'm surprised a JLaw log logging thread doesn't already exist...

I didn't have trouble remembering to breathe, but when I came to a stop, breathing combined with the warm weather made for quite the cotton-mouth.

Yeah hard base and very deep, lots of bouncing going on. Good workout. There was some guy there lapping Challenge bumps all night long, top to bottom. Bottom of Challenge were the best, could get into a good rhythm. Snow overall was very fast instead of the usual suction slowing you down. Maybe JLaw can explain it???

No, but she won't have to pay all the people to work there tonight either.

It was VERY strange skiing in that warm of weather. The pockets of different air temps reminded me of riding the motorcycle on summer nights.

Per FB

They're closing at 4pm today.