guitar73

for a "crappy" season, i've skiied the most in a single season than i ever have. can't wait til next seaon

looks sweet!

ditto that....it's golf/ summer sports season now for us "southerners"

i'm still jealous...

jealous....

i saw this morning, scary stuff. when they aired this story, ABC didn't mention the resort's name....i suppose the mtn didn't want that bad exposure. anyhow, glad the lady and hubby are safe.

ditto.....it seems like it went from not-winter to summer overnite. quite sucky.

blame europe...they took all our snow

we got one last session in before they closed this weekend. (at least we got our money's worth out of the season pass!) mountain was practically empty. snow was a mix of crusty ice and slush. some of it was fast and edgeable, some of it was slow and sloppy. loads of bare spots. hopefully they can make it to this weekend. we're def glad we got the season pass to bc this year. if it wasn't for the pass, i don't think we would have gotten out nearly as much b/c the winter was so crappy. thank you to everyone who made the PASR discount possible. hopefully it'll be around again next season. here's hoping to a better season next year for bear creek!

we def did at least one t2b run each day; very long..lol. we did get to lookout mtn on day two: only the wilmington trail was open. hoytt's high has barely any snow on it and lookout below was just an unsafe icy mess. we were kinda mad we didn't hit wilmington in the morning b/c other peeps from our group said it skiied awesome then (the bottom windy part was just a sheet of ice by 1PM). i hardly had anytime to take much in the way of pictures b/c the group was skiing pretty quickly. kinda bummed about it. visibility on day 1 was poor b/c it was snowing all day. day 2 was a different story. the views were tremendous: i could even see mt mansfield from the summit. i guess why whiteface feels small to me has more about how the terrain naturally funnels everything down to one spot, the size of the facilities, and the lack of trail options rather than the amount of vertical drop. i realize that whiteface mtn is HUGE mountain. it would have been cool to try the slides, but they were closed and every day that they have been open this season, the resort requires avy gear to ski in them.

we skied two days at whiteface with a group of people from www.theskidiva.com. mrs. guitar posts there regularly. it was their eastern get-together and we were able to get a good discount on the lift tickets. overall we had a great time. here are some of the highlights. day 1 - sunday we had a quick breakfast at the inn b/c we thought we were running late. we got to the lodge and it turned out we were one of the first people there from our group. we ran into a couple of peeps and then headed out around 9:30AM. conditions were 4" fluffy and fast snow on a layer of crunchy ice with poor light. temps were in the 20's. it kept snowing just about all day. did a warmup lap of the facelift lift, and then hit up the gondola and summit areas. it was getting pretty warm, so we dropped a layer before lunch. favorite runs of the day were upper skyward and wilderness. stopped at mid-mountain for beers before we left the slopes for the day. apres back at the inn included a bangin' cheese platter with red wine. after a nice long shower, we met up with peeps at the place called the cottage; a tiny establishment located on mirror lake. good beers and food had by all. day 2 - monday the morning was a little less rushed since we already had our lift tix and meeting points/times established. had a full irish breakfast (eggs w/ bacon, ham, sausage, potatoes, and baked tomato). snow conditions in the morning were pretty good. bluebird day with freshly groomed packed-powder on hard pack. temps started below zero and it got into the low 20's by lunchtime. got to the hill around 8:45ish and met up with peeps around 9:20. we did another warmup on the facelift. we signed up for the 10AM group lessons, so we split off from the group for the morning and met up with them for lunch. best runs of the morning included upper skyward, cloudspin, and upper mackenzie. after lunch, however, the snow got really, really, really hard and icy. iceface decided to rear it's ugly head. best runs of the afternoon were had on the lower portion of the mtn (boreen and silver). lodging we stayed at the stagecoach inn, which is located on the south side of lake placid (near the US Olympic team training facility). the building dates to the 1820's and is set back off the main road. everything at the inn is very charming and the rooms are quite comfortable. food there is top notch. we highly recommend the stagecoach inn. overall we had a great time at whiteface; meeting new people, skiing a new mountain, and chilling out. my take on the mtn is that it is very tall, but i was suprised at how small it skis (wrt trail options); kinda felt like a small local's mountain to me. the base lodge is kind of run-down and dated. best time to ski there seems to be in the morning. if i go back to whiteface again, i think it would be sometime in the late spring so that there's minimal chance of skiing on ice.

OK folks. we're leavin' tomorrow for whiteface. looking forward to slayin' over 3000 vert ft in one shot . TR to follow.

a def upgrade. they've got ton's of snow up there now. if you can, see if you can swing by stowe while you're up there. about a 30-45 min drive south. smuggs and stowe are literally next door neighbors (smugg's sterling peak area is only a mile away from stowe's spruce peak area....they're on the same mtn). def worth the side trip. have fun!

this year i've skiing the most i've ever skiied in a single season...that's not bad considering the piss-poor conditions around here. i think the thing that depresses me the most is the general lack of snow cover; it just didn't feel like winter at all. so even though i have done (and continue to do) a lot of skiing this season, i just feel so blaah about it. here's hoping to a *much* better winter next season!

just ordered the 2012 dynastar lengend 94's (172cm). should be arriving next week...super stoked! i'm thinking about getting the look PX-12 wide bindings for these skis. anyone have other suggestions for bindings?

this makes me mad, lol! def picked the wrong weekend to go up to stowe. oh well....tis the nature of outdoor sports, right?? root, glad you had a good time at stratton and mt snow. stratton's def a lot of fun and their lift system and layout is pretty sweet. i've never been to mt snow.

how 'bout some zipper line shots down al's run??

lol. i'll be on the look-out for that and see what i can do. don't know if i'll be able to top johnnystyle's get-up from last year though.....that was money!

i sure hope so. doesn't look like we'll be able to make it to bc this week. prayin' the stay open till at least next week...need one more day to break even on the season passes.

yikes! i hope not.....looks like i'll be making a trip or two to the catskills in march/april

i demo'ed the 2012 dynstar legend 94. the legend sultan 94's were the 2011 ski. you can check it out on the dynastar website.

if they have them, try the dynstar legends. they come in a few different waists. i demo'd the legend 94's at stowe and i loved them. conditions were 4" of fresh snow on top of hardpack/ ice. i found the legends to power through the crud like a cadillac, but had enough energy to do quick short radius turns. also, their edge grip was acceptable (compared to my atomic nomad blackeyes which have excellent edge grip).

sounds like good times! i've skiied montage (sno) mtn many times over the years and the lower mtn area is by far the best place to ski there. how were the crowds?

doin' my snow dance....

here are some pictures from our trip. i am usually pretty bad about taking pics while skiing. this is my first time posting photos to PASR, so hopefully i got it right view of mt mansfield from spruce peak base of the new frontrunner quad. notice the long lift lines.... mr and mrs guitar73 at the top of the gondola. mrs guitar73 decked out ninja style for the frigid weather. hitting the bumps on lower starr