indiggio

Hit some moguls, you'll warm up quick!

My thought process was that I planned on poking around locally. I wasn't going anywhere extreme, so I didn't need the top of the line, lightest possible setup money could buy. I was in need of new boots and early last Spring, rumors were that Full Tilt was going out of business (now it's known that the line is being absorbed by K2), so, knowing I wanted a touring setup, began looking for the FT Ascendants and found them cheap over the summer. Full Tilt's always have worked for my feet, so it wasn't a big gamble. Then I was searching for a ski that I could use at Blue and since it's typically ice/hard pack, I wanted something stiffer than my favorite Sick Days that are just too soft when it's brutal cold. I wanted something that I could also ski the bumps on transition days, so something wider than my bump skis, but not crazy wide, hence the Black Crows Orbs. The Marker bindings had become available, so I went looking for a package deal online and when I found a shop that had both, made an offer, they countered, I countered, eventually settling on $950 for both. Searched around for skins and again didn't want to spend a shit-ton for how often I was going to use the setup, so went with the G3s. Still need to get around to cutting them. I also ran across a pair of Black Crow Duo poles on sale over the summer, so I picked them up as well. So far, so good with the Markers, at least in bounds at Blue and Whiteface. I made sure I can get into the tech binding and poked around the yard. I definitely need practice!

Is Rain Man's memory faltering?

You know there are plenty of trees across the top of Coming Soon, the majority of which have yellow snow surrounding them?

Oh yeah, it didn't take much searching for some good quality snow today, however they need to knock down Barney's and reset them to get rid of the ice floe that's in the troughs. As always, @enjoralas samplings where on point. Very much appreciated!

You just have to hang out long enough and you'll eventually not need a translator.

I’ll have to ask!

Yeah, that was just the first. There’s a small deli a few blocks away, so she takes her morning constitutional there to pick up some beers for the day. What a grate wife!

Harold is going for the Full Monty this year.

I couldn’t sit on mine yesterday because I was wearing my Fanny Flap.

Ski day 3 Another day of realizing why they call it “Ice Face”. Started the car with a temp of 10’ which again was the high temp abs tonight dropping into the double-digit NEGATIVE degrees! Hoping the car starts tomorrow morning! At the mountain it was 8’ with howling winds with bluebird skies, save the peak that just had a small cloud engulfing it. Rode the gondi first few runs to try to stay somewhat warm and out of the wind. Snow was mostly groomed chalky goodness with a few patches of ice here and there. Guns were blowing cold smoke except for one fan gun blowing BM Bob snow which was amazing with the temps. One trip through and I was a glazed. Soon the peak cleared and had to make the ride up, knowing full well it was gonna be frigid. At the peak took the phone out for a pic and the hand immediately hurt from the cold. Snow was windlblown and firm with some soft spots around, but no real reason to come back up as there was nothing else open. Peaces out at lunch to do some other stuff around Lake Placid. Took a ride down to the ski jumps and took the tour which was really cool. From there we went down to Mount Van Hoevenberg to see the Olympic bobsled run and cross-country facility. From there we went downtown to see the Winter Olympic exhibit which is small but they’re building a real museum. Guess another visit may be in my future. At the ski jumps they said some students would be training later so we went back to see if anything was happening. Sure enough there were a few making jumps on some of the training jumps. From there we ordered food from Lake Placid Pub & brewery which was ready by the time we got back in town. Went past the toboggan slide which would be cool to try; maybe next time. Lake Placid and Whiteface are a really cool place to visit. The mountain is a lot of fun. I think it would have been even a lot more fun with some more terrain open. They too had some bad luck with temps early this season and were behind on snowmaking and natural snow. No doubt a repeat visit would be happening! Gonna be bluebird… Ski jumps facility… Today’s beer… Miracle on ice goal… Ubu chili, Ring of Fire burger, The Colorado chicken sangwich…

Ski day 2 @tarponhead in Da Haus! Departed the hacienda around 7:00am in 12’ temps, which would be about the low for the day, thank goodness and flurries falling. Heard the plow go past a couple of times overnight which for these parts is almost as good as hearing avy bombs going off! Uneventful drive up to the mountain and we had prime parking spots due to the lack of parking attendant. Booted and lined up with the WF retirees who were first in line for the gondy. Hmm, who do they remind us of?? We did far too many runs today to list separately, but for the most part, snow fell for the majority of the day, but unfortunately the wind was howling ip top too. Each run was a search on one side or the other for the stash of wind-blown powder. Most of the time we were lucky to find it and made for a fun-filled day! We made a few trips up to the summit to find much the same powder hunt. The last of which wasn’t much fun as the summit was in the clouds and freezing fog glazed the goggles. Unfortunately most of the runs were groomed to the hilt, so only some powder bumps were found. Towards the end of the day as the legs have out, we did manage to score some glades down near the bottom and retired to the bar for a couple of well deserved beers. At that point we parted ways as @tarponhead made his way over to VT. Back at the casa we decided on Wyatt’s Tex-Mex in the mall. They allow you to select from a menu of stuff to shove into your burrito; I pretty much chose everything I could! Delicious and highly recommended! Grate cap to a grate day! @tarponheadand son waiting for gondi to open… Some pics when the flurries let up… Obligatory Olympic scoreboard pic and timing shack… While we were having fun on the mountain the wife was galavanting around town and walking on the lake… Head to town to pick up food… Burrito grande, tacos and of course, beer!

It was so cold today, it took all the will I could muster to pull the phone out to take a few pics!

Eh, got caught up eating and some other crap. See above…

Ski day 1 Loaded up the car about 7:00am into 12’ and flurries which would be the high temp for the day!! The son had put the directions into his phone and Away we went. Driving out of Lake Placid and up towards the mountain, passing the golf course and Cobble Mountain Lodge, I thought of @RidgeRacer and @saltyant . We continued to drive a bit longer than I expected from looking at the map, but the son assured me we were going the correct way. We came to a T and he instructed me to turn left, Ok. As we climbed an ever steepening road, we came to Santa’s Workshop in North Pole, NY. Next I see a sign for Toll Ahead. Tolls on a ski road? WTF? About this time I was pretty sure something was amiss, as the son was tapping something into his phone. “Uh oh”, he uttered. “Uh oh, what?”, I responded. “Uh, looks like there’s a Whiteface Mountain and Whiteface Mountain Resort and I think I chose the wrong one”. Bah! We had just taken a 15 minute excursion, but got to see where Santa builds his toys! When we finally managed to get to the mountain, parked and actually booted up in the lodge which I never do, but the frigid temps and length of hike proved it worthwhile. Unfortunately with the flurries falling, views of the summits were obscured. Started out on the gondola and down Excelsior just to see how the conditions are. The report said the mountain got 9” from yesterday’s storm, but you wouldn’t know it as the wind had blown most of it away. Rode Little Whiteface and lapped the runs in that area for a while. Took a run all the way down and rode the quad back up. By then the brutal cold had pushed us into the lodge to warm up. After warming up, we took the summit quad up to the peak. Lots of the upper runs have not had much blown on them and the wind was howling, so we headed back down to lap the lower runs. They’re calling for snow tomorrow, so we quit kinda early and headed back with visions of BBQ in our heads. Placed an order for brisket and brisket sandwich from Smoke Signals, both of which were delicious. Not a good photo day… Today’s beer… Brisket and chopped brisket sandwich with Habanero BBQ sauce and the wife’s salad…

Keeping a watchful eye on the storm rolling up the coast early in the week had me hoping we could be in front of it before it hit, but that proved to be out of the question as it decided to move faster than initially forecast. As the snow began to fall Sunday night, I was hoping for the worst, a quick changeover to rain so it wouldn’t take an eternity to drive from Hellertown to Lake Placid. We needed to stop in Wilkes-Barre to pick up the son and then head on to upstate NY. Awake all night, I could hear the pitter-patter on the skylight. Since I could hear it, it had to have switched to sleet or rain, but couldn’t tell which. Finally got fed up and looked to see the road out front just wet. At least part of the ride would be easy. Checking the radar showed a mixed bag of precipitation all the way to Lake Placid. Rain in the Lehigh Valley, freezing rain around Hazelton, sleet and then snow up in Scranton-WB all the way up. Wonderful! Left around 5:45am to get to WB after the kid’s shift. Usual 90 minute drive took 2 hours. Wet snow started just above the Blue Ridge and continued into WB. After packing the car, I could see some blue skies breaking through, but radar up North showed different. The entire ride on 84 across to the NY thruway was white knuckle, snow-covered. Most if the thruway to Albany was clear sailing until Lake Gorge when the snow began to fall again, but good. More gestures to slow down followed from the wife, which just made me drive even faster! The drive on 9 & 73 was Interesting and fun, over hill and Dale, back into the wilderness. Who found this place for Olympics is beyond me! Just then the ski jumps come into view, cool! Checked into out cozy tiny home & then went out in search of beer and food. Just down the road is Big Slide brewery, so we picked up a crawler of their Giant Double IPA which was quite good. Also picked up some Lake Placid brewery’s Shredder IPA. First choice for food was Smoke Signals BBQ based upon numerous recommendations including @RidgeRacer, but passing by it didn’t look like it was open, maybe the holiday? Dunno. Son made executive decision for pizza, so it was a Supreme and garlic cheese bread from Bazzi’s pizza, both of which hit the spot. Gonna be another chilly one at Whiteface tomorrow with a high of 7! Time to suck it up! Ski The East! Spicy roads… Ski jumps… Around town… Supreme pizza & beer…

First run down Razor's was #1 Grade A Prime snow, super fast and very edgy. Cut over to Razorback and it was just as good. Next run down NM/DW and the snow on it was almost as good as Razor's! Third run down was Challenge, well, so much for the perfect conditions! We saw the gouge marks on it while riding up the 6, so it was no wonder nobody was on it. Skier's right appeared to be the best choice on the top headwall, especially to avoid a catastrophe from the gouges in the middle. Turned out it wasn't too bad, but that goodness was VERY short lived. After the flat you were deposited into a minefield of various frozen chicken parts strewn across the entire slope! This continued on pretty much down to where the crossing comes in prior to Falls. WJW! Needless to say, that was the one and only run down Challenge today. Nightmare/Dreamweaver also had some fantastic snow as well. Next up was Switchback which was wicked fast and with the brutal cold, the "dust" from sliders in front seemed to just hang in the air and it had excellent snow as well. The blew a skiff of snow in Barney's, just to tempt people in to their demise, as the glaze ice in the troughs from the broken pipe lurked below for the unsuspecting wanderer. I know for a fact it did claim one victim. The rest of the day was spent lapping Coming Soon, but each run down the quad line got longer and longer. Neither the 6 or the quad had anyone gating, so it was a mad free-for-all to the gate. Peaced out around noon for parking lot beers and chatting with @enjoralas, @PSUFly, @saltyant, @Dirtwolf , @tarponhead, with a brief visit by @MattEDGE

Actually it was the mirror ice in Barney's from the broken pipe! They really need to rope them off and reset them as they're really dangerous if someone doesn't know about the ice in the troughs and tries to ski them w/out checking them out first.

Fastest skier on the mountain! 🤣

Grate conditions all over the mountain, save the mirror ice between bumps on Barneys'. They were downright dangerous!f Coming Soon had glorious chalky goodness no matter where you skied. Loving the bump field to keep everyone from balling into Paradise at mach silly. It was hard to stop lapping it until the quad came to a screeching halt around 2pm, so we bailed to the lot. Looked like they eventually got it back running some 20 or so minutes later.

Sounds like the ingredients for a spectacular hangover!

@saltyant titties talk. I trust you'll be wearing flip-flops.

Guess y'all missed this one...

Coming Soon headwall would be grate if they left it go natural to keep people from screaming into Paradise.