Schif

Kind of upset I won't be around tomorrow, would have loved to take some runs with PASRs

You guys are going to have a great time tomorrow. I'm on the mountain now and they are blowing snow on every trail and the base area like crazy. The place is in great shape and it even looks like they are trying to open up the few trails that are still closed.

So I had nothing better to do tonight, and the weather was perfect so I hopped in the car and headed up to Sno Mountain at Montage, or whatever they happen to be calling it today. The weather was in the very high 50s around 4:30 when I pulled into the lot which was about halfway full. I put on a fleece over a t-shirt and then zipped on my shell and headed down to the window to pick up my ticket. Since I hadn't been up the Shuttle lift at all this year I decided to ride it up since I was right there and I went over to the terrain park from there. Park Crew was out doing their thing, raking and fixing lips, and they were doing a nice job on what they had closed, but it was obvious they were fighting an uphill battle. Soft Slushy snow and a ton of weekend warriors were doing a number on the park. I actually saw a girl pole her way up the ramp of one of the jumps, and then stop right on the lip and balance there for almost 30 seconds while she was waiting for someone behind her. Worst bit of smart style I have ever seen. There were some decent sized brown patches in the park and between the weather and the weekend traffic, it could use a rebuild. I was pretty much over the park after I took a spill on one of the boxes at the end and I finished the trail and made the right hand turn onto Lower Runaway, which was the most recent opening on the lower half of the mountain. The intersection of the trail was terrible, huge brown spots and very thin base, most of the rest of the trail was alright, but there were some small patches of dirt poking through every now and then. The little cutover to get back to Phoebe Snow lift was very bad, and I had to be very careful and ride on the very edge of the path to stay in the snow. I was downright hot when I got to the top of the lift, so I ran over to my car (about 20 yards away) and dropped the fleece and shell for a lightweight zip up hoodie. Definitely a good choice, I was very comfortable after that. The rest of the northface where I stayed after that was actually still really good. When you get on Phoebe Snow and you go over the creek it was roaring! The sound of the rushing water was actually louder than the music in my headphones. Usually it's a trickle this time of year I then cruised over to the top of Boomer which was really great hero snow. Half of it was fantastic bumps and the other half was smooth and super fast. I went through all the trails on the NorthFace one by one and none of them showed any major signs other than the soft snow or a major melt. No thin spots or rocks anywhere. The spillway before cannonball coming off of Phoebe Snow lift was a little brown, but nothing too terrible. The worst areas of melting I saw was a spot in the base area where the pavers were fully exposed, and the big gaping spots on the Park and lower runaway. Everything else seemed to be pretty well covered, at least I didn't notice any major damage to my board at the end of the night. As the night went on the crowd thinned out a lot, by 530 I didn't have to wait more than one or two chairs. Run of the Night was probably Boomer again because it was just super smooth and awesomely fast, Cannonball was seeing a lot of traffic and even though the snow was great, it was a little rutted up from people pushing it all around on the headwalls and you had to be really on your toes to stay upright and not catch any unintended air when you bombed the headwalls. White Lightning had a few spots on it that were much firmer than I expected them to be, and I slid a little on these spots but it wasn't too bad, that's the only reason it wasn't run of the night, but a very close second. All in all I cruised around for about 2 hours and headed home a little after 7. A fun session at the best mountain overlooking a Longhorn Steakhouse in the world. I've got some pics from friday, but I still never uploaded them so maybe I'll do that tomorrow. Hope whoever read this enjoyed it because it doesn't seem like we have very many Sno folks here anymore.

Any of those is good for me! Can't wait until some PASR's get up to Sno. In the past 9 years I can't remember hitting the slopes at Montage with anyone other than Ski999 a time or two.

It has been too calm. There aren't even a lot of trip reports coming up. Lets get this whole thing stepped up!

I don't go inside much, but Sno charges $14 for a pitcher of domestic

Great news that PASR is Giving Snö some love. Can't wait to hear about a PASR day. In the meantime, if anyone wants to pop up to Scranton and get some runs in let me know, I go up a few times a week and love to show people around the mountain.

Sounds kind of high. A PASR 10th anniversary bash sounds pretty awesome wherever it's held.

Nice Report. I was up there yesterday and the report about the Northface being epic right now is spot on. Perfect manmade conditions on White Lightning with no bumps yet is really just too epic to describe. We should set up a PASR day at Sno this year, I'm sure KC would be able to hook us up.

When I was pulling out my gear at the beginning of the season I came across my old helmet with the PASR sticker on the back.

My first memory of going up to the mountain when I was a kid was when my uncle took me to ride the alpine slide at Montage. That thing was the best! And I definitely jumped out of the track a few times and wound up with some nasty scrapes on the one at camelback. I can't stand the weak attitude of people anymore. As soon as you get a little bump or a black and blue mark you call the lawyer.

So it's an alpine slide on rails.

Decent amount of people, probably less than 1/4 of the lot was filled, but they were parking cars a lot closer together than they ever did in the past. No real lift lines, but 90 percent of chairs went up filled.

I didn't have to go into work today so I moseyed up to the Mountain and arrived at 9:55am. I booted up for the second time of the year and went down to the lodge to pick up my pass because the server was down two days ago and they couldn't print out the card with the magnetic strip. Same issue today, so they just gave me a paper ticket and I was on the snow by 10:10. First run was a top to bottom. Since they for whatever reason never filled in the lazy river (It's still a blue snaking hole in the middle of the base area) The shuttle lift aka the one right in front of the lodge is closed. As a result you have to ride up the Iron Horse, then go down the first headwall of Spike, use the first cutover because the rest of spike is closed, this puts you 1/3 of the way down onto Mainline which was nicely groomed and was a nice cruiser, just before the bottom of mainline the runout portion of the trail was obviously closed lest you fall into a pool, so you are funneled to skiers right to the top of the bunny slope, which you can then ski down and either go back down Connection to the Iron Horse lift, or as I did, continue down to Cannonball on the Northface. Cannonball was in pretty great shape today, smooth snow, as opposed to almost 100% bumps that were there two days ago. The snow was nice groomed packed powder, a few spots where you heard yourself scrape, but nothing icy. After Cannonball I went up the Phoebe Snow (Northface Lift) and hit Boomer which was groomed except for a narrow area of bumps on the skiers right. This was the trail of the day for me. Little traffic and very smooth with the occasional bump from someone who made a big turn, you could really grab some speed on this one today, which I did. I then cruised back and forth between Cannonball and Boomer for a while, mostly cruising runs because I had Jack Johnson in my headphones, but when "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins came on shuffle, it was an all out furious rush to the bottom. I went up and checked out the park a few times too, but since it's only day 2 I only hit a few boxes and called it a day for that. The set up was as follows: 1: Wide box or wide rainbow box, 2: flat down rail or down rail 3: table top 4: table top 5: wide flat box or barrel bonk 5: box set on an up angle that launched you over a gap into a landing area. I didn't see anyone from park crew out and about, but there wasn't a terrible amount of traffic in the park and things were in nice shape. As far as making snow, there were 8 fan guns going on Switch (the race course) 2 fan guns going on the base area, at least 6 if not more going on mainline, and it looked like they made a lot of snow on Smoke last night, as they were grooming it this morning.

No rain in the Wyoming Valley that I could see. All snow and sleet

Even if you bump the opening again, I'll be there tomorrow morning with a cooler and a no holds barred attitude. Give me some damn snow and some sudafed. It's going to be an adventure in the next 24 hours

Some great news. I can't wait until Thursday

Storm or not, Sno Mountain looks rough right now. I was just up there Christmas Shopping and the whales are pretty small and the mountain was pretty socked in with fog. I'm not very optimistic for this weekend opening with the current forecast. On the upside, they did seem to put a decent bit of effort into Cannonball, Smoke and White Lightning

I just unistalled Phresheez. As much as I loved it, it would open itself up and constantly want to check its location with the gps, that was absoloutely killing my battery.

Sno Mountain, and if they're not open, i'll be siting in the parking lot of the Shoppes at Montage wearing all my gear drinking a few beers.

Guns are on on the Northface according to their facebook.

Now that I look at my reciept, I think that number is just for the Sno Saver pass, which is what I got and is only available for a few more days.

I was pass number 400 something like that. How many is typical at the other mountains?

I ran up after work today and bought my season pass for this year. Even though I got it after some other mountains opened, it was still at a discounted price. I got the Sno Saver pass for 200 bucks even (no tax?). You really can't beat a deal like that. It will pay for itself in about 5 after work sessions. Anyone else get a pass for the best little mountain within walking distance of a minor league ballpark? I can't wait for the snow to start flying and I hope to see some PASRs up there over the course of the year.

Poconoceancity, you're right, there isn't much in the way of ski house rentals in the area. That is one of the things that Sno is lacking, the skiing vacation vibe. When you're up there, you can really enjoy the mountain, but it doesn't feel like an escape the way that Jackfrost or Big Boulder do, or even Camelback for that matter. The people that you want to show up and drop tons of money are looking for a "vacation". A vibe that you get from a little condo, or a chalet or something. That doesn't really exist at Sno. Realistically it's awesome. If you wanted a fun filled weekend and you were from out of town it would be great. Hotels right at the bottom of the mountain, tons of restaurants and nightlife right there, and an awesome mountain to top it all off. However, the people looking for a weekend getaway are more inclined to enjoy the setting of pines and wooden A-frame houses or even the design of that hotel right next to CB over a modern style hotel on Montage Mountain.