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Terrible snow by JF standards... It started as a thin layer of groomed granules on a rock solid base. By about 11-12 most of the interesting trails turned into icy death exacerbated by high crowds. Challenge was completely taken by racers, and the racers seemed to believe that they were some special breed. Kids cutting lift lines, dads saving 15 seats in the lodge at a time awaiting for champions to come back from the slopes. The lodge actually got crowded right from the start, i.e. 8am, and became a complete chaos later during the day. Nice part was that Challenge taken by racers kinda made it more difficult for people to migrate to the east slopes, so River Shot and GSS's most favorite trail in Poconos were actually quite skiable, but not without icy spots either. The two double lifts also ran with zero lines all day long. Best part of today was hot chocolate and donuts proudly served by Subaru not only to the happy owners of Subaru keyfobs, but to all mere mortals as well. Thanks, Subaru!

How's it the same price? $299 vs $229.

I actually forgot about this value pass feature altogether. Thanks for reminding.

Nahhh, that's just unfair. MC is anything but dull. Yeah, coverage may be lacking sometimes, NYC buses may be coming at night, but it has more trail variety than some nearby PA mountains.

New season pass prices are out. And up. $299 for an adult Value Pass this year. I applaud the authenticity of the picture, but couldn't they have picked a better background? Need to learn from Blue here.

Can you use this gift card toward your next season pass payment? If you can, this has an edge over your 10% discount.

If you think of it, MC's map has quite a variety of trails. Just the fact that there are three peaks makes it interesting to explore. The peaks also have a theme to them, so you'd expect most of the boarders to congregate around South Peak, and all racers and schools will rarely spill beyond Bear Peak. That's actually the first time I hear that MC has a better snowmaking system. I know BM snowmakers like to brag a lot about how they can take advantage of every opportunity to make more snow (and yet CB got ahead this year)... IMHO, with MC it all boils down to warmer temps than across the Delaware river. They can only make snow if it's below freezing, and so if it's not, great snowmaking system or not, it's not gonna matter. Last year they had a total meltdown soon after offering new season passes. But yeah, $229 for an unrestricted pass is hard to beat.

Did you go to a ski school, Doug?

Yeah, I'd buy that in a heartbeat as well. They should look up to CB. $249 for a weekday and weekend night pass would be terrific.

Eh? Why is this season crappy? And why would you go to MC during a crappy season? Should be the opposite.

Oh, now it's getting interesting. How do you usually learn about the availability of the cards? Through a meeting, email, some personal contact? I've got an email on 12/05 like below.

They only had 6 available this year. And by the time you know whether you can get them or not, it's too late to jump on other deals. Too risky, in other words.

Where are you getting these cards? Lately it became a pain with only a few cards available through the ski club, and securing them becomes quite a race.

Yeah, I've also noticed that. No last year's "quantities are limited" kind of stuff.

$429

So it seems that there may be basically four reasons to just lurk: - leech local news and info on e.g. conditions, hours and deals (doesn't apply) - get some coaching on skiing or gear (again a miss) - hang around because you know someone in person - use the site as a reality TV show (you know, what are those psychos up to now?) Is there a fifth?

Yep, gonna be the best weekend ever. President's one. Looking for a rock to go under already.

So, do you know anybody on this site?

So, you're between three jobs, ski once a year and yet spend enough time lurking on this site as the thread clearly shows. Why, if you don't mind me asking?

And in about 3 hours of drive from that snow goodness - Venice.

I finally have a decent WiFi... So a few more pics from the last skiing day. First one is the frozen lake near which the road was closed.

I used it. It lied. What I totally ignored as it turned out was a sign about an hour from this place. The sign was in Italian of course, it mentioned the name of the pass (that I didn't know), and all in all it cost me an hour of driving up a serpentine to this point near a frozen lake, then an hour of driving down, and the cost of detour using a longer road.

Aaaaahh!!!

Wow, today was a racing day! The weather has turned back to sunny, beautiful visibility. I got tired of exploring, and just went straight to Val Gardena, looking for some secluded trails, and found two amazingly good reds. Pristine conditions all day, no people at all (the crowds were meanwhile storming Sellaronda circle not too far away). I was skiing these two looong trails a good half of the day alternating and stopping for coffee or lunch from time to time. Hero snow, ridiculously easy carving, I was flying the reds on edges and couldn't have enough of it, not even for a moment bored. Speed, give me more speed! Love the Lasers, want to buy them so much now. And Mama Mia, what a terrific last day in Dolomites! Off to Venice now for a full day of apres-ski. Important part will be to make it to the airport in Milan after that in one piece.

The weather went downhill today. No more flying down those afternoon Sellaronda moguls, can't see a thing. It's all uniform white until you get within a few meters of it, and that means a really slow return. Still, it was quite nice during the day, partly cloudy, and despite the slow return I still made it. Tomorrow's the last day, and I'll have to be moving out of the area by night. Might be a challenge because the windshield fluid froze, I can't believe somebody poured water there in winter. I think I've finished exploring Alta-Badia today. Parts of it turned out pretty challenging and interesting. All in all I wouldn't hesitate making it a base camp next time. Reasonable connectivity (even has a bus going to another isolated area that I've never seen, Kronplatz), not many people, large and variable terrain. And I didn't like SR88 on piste at all. Had to come back and swap it for Lasers again.