Schif

So I've been up to Montage a few times in the past few days, and in 3 days things changed so drastically I couldn't believe it. Thursday night I went up for a few runs after work. I rolled in around 6pm and parked right next to the Phoebe lift and went right to it on Cannonball. Conditions were very unlike Montage that night, squeaky snow, and lots of cookies. Grooming was inconsistent and it looked like it had been rushed in some places, and neglected for a day or two in others. The weather was brutal as well. 7 degrees when I got out of the car and 5 when I got back into it. I had every inch of skin covered up, but it was still biting out there. Top of the mountain was totally off limits, i tried one run top to bottom and was thrilled when I finally got back down to the valley. All in all I got in 6 runs and got the hell out of there in a little less than an hour. I guess a lot of people felt the way I did because all night there might have been a few dozen people out there total. This morning, the heavens were shining down. I had to go into work, so I had written today off as a total loss, but I ended up getting to go home around 9. So after doing the recycling, and taking care of some other household stuff, I grabbed my gear, put on one light layer and headed out the door. I got on the snow just before 11, and was really surprised with the conditions. Well groomed snow everywhere, with fresh dustings of man made stuff on all the bumps. Snow was not tracked out anywhere when I got there and the crowds, while pretty heavy for Montage, were very manageable. Long haul was running, and while it seemed like 5/6ths of the chairs were filled, there was no wait to get on, so I lapped that a few times. The woods, thanks to a lot of dense man made blowover, are actually pretty skiable, though not very deep. I cruised around the upper mountain, the lower mountain, and the three double diamonds a hand full of times each under sunny skies and moderate crowds. Fantastic day out there. I left around 3 when lift lines were at their peak, and I was waiting upwards of 3 minutes for a chair. Unacceptable in my book, so I went home and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of tomato soup. On one of my top to bottom runs on the last headwall of lower fast track, there were a few safety team guys ushering everyone over to the far right side of the trail, and about 20 people standing with their skis off below them. I saw a few pairs of skis stuck in the snow crossed, but I didn't see any ski patrol anywhere so I was very confused. It all hit me when I hopped on long haul and got an aerial view though. There were at least 6 ski patrolers huddled around a sled in the middle of the woods between fast track and runaway. From what I heard from someone on the lift later, someone had been flying down the trail and either lost control or was never in control, and went flying into the trees. The scene was pretty deep in there and there are a lot of rocks and a snowmaking pipe right at the edge of the trail, so that must have been a pretty spectacular crash to wind up 100 feet deep in the woods. I guess whoever it is was pretty banged up, but not dead thanks to his helmet. Just more motivation to keep my brain bucket on. Interestingly enough, I've seen ski patrol in that general area a few times already this year, but nothing as severe as this one. I guess people can't handle that pitch and the turn. I'll be back at it tomorrow morning, hopefully a little earlier and I'll add a little more to the Montage report.

Not only that, but typically we don't have a quiver of boards as extensive as skiers. I've got 3 boards and only 2 really see action and I've been at this for well over 10 years. In a 10 year period, how many skis do some of you guys go through?

I totally agree. While there are still a lot of snowboarders like myself out there, it is without a doubt on the decline.

Nice Pics, especially the last one.

Great day with you guys. Conditions were fantastic and crowds were low. Add in Long haul and some of Roots 10:30 brew, and it was a top notch day

Where's everyody at? I've been lapping the north face for a while and I'm the only one here who isn't employed by the mountain.

JohnnyLaw, yep there is a Johnny Rockets right inside the lodge which I'm sure will lend for a quality lunch report from whoever heads in there for a bite. I'll be wearing a two toned brown jacket with an army green helmet.

I'll shoot for getting there around 8 or so for passholder first tracks. Then if I end up sleeping in I'll still be there by 830 or so.

I'll be up there. What time are you guys going up?

If I have to, I guess I could be persuaded to go to Montage on a Saturday morning.

I used to go through Split Rock until I got stuck at the toll booth one night with all my cash in my snowpants in the trunk and an awkward search for coins. Since then I go down 940 to the intersection of 115 and turn there. I think it actually is a bit faster since you don't have to slowly wind through a residential area, and it lets you hit up a Wawa which is nice.

White Lightning is skiing better tonight than yesterday if you guys can believe that. And everything else is insanely fast. Perfect night out here with next to no one on the trails. Edit: just went down boomer and they groomed out the bumps.

What is an average non VIP wait like at blue on the weekend?

The mountain was awesome today. Things started softening up around 10 or so and the north face, especially white lightning were skiing about as well as they ever have. Great snow, steep trails and parking lot beers made for a top notch day.

Oh Bob Costas, he says some interesting things sometimes, but at the end of the day he's still a really smart and genuine guy. I had the pleasure of meeting him and hanging out at the Baseball Hall of Fame a few years ago, really great to talk to. As for Curling? It's pretty much the coolest, and is the last hope a guy like me has of becoming an olympic athlete. I always say I want to sign up for the local league here, but never get around to it.

I guess this was on the Local news today, the place is getting completely lit up with snow guns right now. Impressive.

My office has just now cracked 56 degrees. It was 49 when I walked in this morning. Thankfully I keep my gear in the car and I grabbed my Northface to wear all day.

Today was fantastic. The complete lack of crowds kept the fresh stuff available for hours and hours. The trees on upper fast track were the place to be all day, even though they weren't running long haul. I was hitting fresh fluffy snow in there until I left. I have no idea where everyone was today, but I'm glad they went where they did, and I went to Montage.

Wish I checked this earlier, I was up from 9 to about 3. Fantastic day out there.

Beautiful sunny day here at montage. Everything is open including the elusive long haul lift. The trails serviced by long haul aka upper/Lowe runaway and upper/lower fast track are in perfect shape, it seems that all the tourists are sticking to all of the other lifts (decent sized lift lines) leaving this piece if the mountain for mostly pass holders

Great report, looks awesome out there.

Pretty disappointed I missed out on this.

This clipper storm was a joke, a dusting on the sidewalks up in the Wyoming Valley. Also, did anyone else see the big warm up coming this weekend? 60 and rain is bad news bears. I hope the weatherman is wrong.

It was pretty great out there this morning. The majority of the mountain was pushed out and groomed nonsense, but there were some fantastic pockets of actual snow if you knew where to go. The right hand side of both Smoke and Boomer off of the main part of the trail were probably just under a foot of fresh stuff this morning. As the day went on this area got bumped up with soft fluffy piles of snow, with no crud at all to be found. In some spots, namely on the actual trail, the good stuff was scraped down to ice between the bumps, but to the side next to the trees and where some tall grass was still poking through about an inch, it was all nice floatable stuff. There were a decent amount of people there this morning, about 1/4 full parking lot, and it seemed like everyone knew what they were doing considering the fact that all the good stuff was tracked out by 11. From being up there last night, it seemed that the way the wind was blowing on the Northface, it was pushing all of the falling snow across the trail and piling it up against the woods, that is what led to the good snow. I only ventured up top once today, and it was windy, the snowguns were on all over the place, and thanks to low clouds, very foggy. There wasn't nearly as much natural snow piled up on the sides up there, probably thanks to heavy winds.

The theme of the morning here at Montage is "float, slash, lift, repeat" lots of deep ungroomed natural snow for the taking.