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This morning's conditions were by far the best of the season at the mountain with the most skiable acres in the Poconos. I passed the toast sign on my way to Camelback which reminded me of toast. Then I parked in Lot 3 to get First Trax on the Sullivan Lift side, booted up in my car, and carried my new RTMs and poles up the hill towards the lift. The order of my first runs was Big Pocono, Asp, Rocket, Marjie’s, Upper and Lower Cleopatra, and then down the n00b hill to the Stevenson lift to hit up Nile Mile and then also Cliffhanger for the first time this season, which I did 7 times in a row. Conditions were top notch on most trails, except Cliffhanger which had some moderate death cookies in a few spots near the top due to its recent debut, but was still very rad. I found that carving on RTMs is lots of fun compared to on Elons, and found myself bored with all of the blue runs (except Big Pocono), so I stuck to mostly blacks throughout the day. It was by far the funnest skiing ever. Later on in the day, to change things up a bit and to search for some fresh powder, I made a run on Birches, which I consider the Juggernaut of CB because the beginning is very flat. Here I found some untracked pow on the far right side, and was able to found out exactly what it’s like to ski powder in Jackson Hole. But then I made the biggest mistake of the day. I found a huge powder stash on Laurel Glade – a massive hill of manmade snow under a snowmaking machine. Upon reaching the peak of this hill, I fell under all the powder and practically became buried. The light snow on the hill could not hold the weight of myself and my short RTM skis. I eventually climbed out of that predicament, and spent the next hour deicing my goggles and bindings and drying off my gloves and facemask in the lodge. The demo center helped to chip some ice off my bindings and didn’t even charge me anything. Around 1:30 I was hungry and getting a little tired, so I went to East Gourmet Buffet. There I had shrimp, mushrooms, white rice, hot and sour soup, and a Pepsi, which I considered a treat for myself due to the epic pow day, as I normally just get tap water. Afterwards I drove back to CB, but there were no parking spots anywhere except for at the snowtubing lot, which requires a long walk and wait for the shuttle. So at this point I decided to drive home, but first stopped at the outlets and bought some new shades. The first pair looked too much like Steeze’s shades, so I decided against them as not to emulate Steeze. Tomorrow I plan to return to CB for 7:30 am sharp and get all the fresh cord again, since I've become spoiled from this morning's conditions. Then on Monday I will buy a pass for Jack Frost and go there for the first time with a friend from college.

Back from a very fun session at Camelback Mountain. Since my $8.00 Wal-Mart sunglasses broke yesterday, I had to contend with the sun in my eyes on both legs of the drive across I-80. However, it was insanely rad to wear my fighter pilot style Smith goggles all day long, and I looked like a true expert skier on my new but short 170cm RTMs. I arrived at my favorite parking spot near the Stevenson Lift around 9:30 am. The inaugural run on my RTMs was tragic. Not more than 10 seconds after snapping my boots into the bindings, I skied over some thin cover on my way to Stevenson Lift, thereby scratching the perfectly manicured base on my brand new skis before even getting to the lift. My first trail of the day was Nile Mile. The cord was sadly gone for the day, but the packed powder conditions were amazing, and I made awesome turns on my RTMs. The RTMs felt identical to the ones I demoed last week, except I knew in my mind that the 3D glass feature of the 2018 model was absent, and that would likely ruin my skiing experience for the next several years until I could afford the extra $300 for 3D glass. All of the runs were open except for Cliffhanger, Pharaoh, Bactrian, Lower Marc Antony, Pocono Raceway, Uncle Bill’s Way, and The Hump. My favorite run of the day was Big Pocono, which is the steepest intermediate run at CB. Because it was mostly all boilerplate, the gapers stayed away from it, allowing me to make wide turns. After a few runs I think I started carving correctly, and I found the RTMs much easier to move around than the Elons. Overall, an insanely fun and rad day. It was a little busier than I thought it would be, but the lift lines flowed smoothly, and I high-fived Kyle, my favorite lift attendant, for doing a great job pairing me with other rides all day long. The lodge was a mad house at noon, and I could not even find a single chair to sit in, so I had to sit in a hallway near an employee door. Thankfully the hotel is open now, so I can take my breaks there instead going forward. I plan to make another trip tomorrow, and am bracing for the largest crowds of the year. But I’m trying very hard to build a tolerance for large crowds, since I am throwing around the idea of taking a 2 day trip to a New York resort over MLK day weekend. I don’t know yet for sure – I’m thinking Hunter, Windham, or something no more than 3-4 hours.