Trip Report from 2/23/08

[Helmet959]

Hey guys,

 

I got back from BK on Sunday but with work and everything... you know how it is, I'm finally getting around to writing up a trip report.

 

First off, Blue Knob really came through for us. The conditions were great on most of the runs. The powder in the morning felt great under my skies. But scraping caused spots of glacier ice to appear later in the day on several trails. I was disappointed that on their website it showed Edgeset and all of the blue/black glades as open but of course they were roped off all day.

 

We started the day on Mambo Alley which had great powder snow all day and night. After we that we moved up to Expressway, Stemboggan, Deer Run, Jack Rabbit and High Hopes. Out of those, Expressway was held up the best through the night session. The bowl had great snow all day but the straight sections after both of the first two turns on Stemboggan got scraped down to sheer ice by about 6. It seemed like every spot that you'd really want to slow your speed down had no powder so youd enter the turns with too much momentum. I took a nice spill on turn 2 of Stemboggan early in the day which thankfully didn't hurt my confidence.

 

High Hopes, which gave me fits last year, seemed much more manageable, even with some ice surfacing before sundown. I got the last run of the day because a cute snowpatrol snowboarder was trailing me to close it after I was through. I'm still wishing for lights on that run....would have loved to get more unstressful practice in because the Blue Knob crowd really disperses after 6 p.m. Around 5, I jumped the closed rope for Lower High Hopes to get a nice challenging start to Deer Run on Burma Road. I have a thing for narrow trails. Even if they're short.

 

Speaking of narrow trails, earlier in the day I convinced my friends to follow me on Edgeset, despite the fact it was roped off. The website proclaimed it was open, so I figured and could somewhat see from the East Wall Traverse that it had good enough cover. I'm not sure why it was closed. Staff too lazy to take the rope off? Over on DCski, the new Blue Knob photo link shows Edgeset being open the very next day and I know they didn't get any natural snow after 10 on Saturday night. I really don't feel bad about jumping the rope. It should have been open. The natural crusty ungroomed powder had more than a few tracks already made, which made it lumpy. I took my second fall here, head first without losing my skis. The snow caught me nicely! I've never face plowed and had it hurt less. Natural snow, even when crusty makes for a great landing. I believe that was the first natural snow trail I've ever skied, cept minus a few connector trails at different mountains. The headwall of Edgeset has good sustained steepness so I don't consider it a "connector trail". I just had to do it again with better success before the sun went down. Did I mention I love narrow trails?

 

After dinner beers we tried Stemboggan again but it was too icy leading into the turns to get comfortable. Sticking to Mambo Alley, Deer Run, and Expressway was challenging enough with BK's lights. Upper Rt 66 was fun to try and follow the slalom course at night when it was abandoned by the racers. I was very happy with Expressway in the dark because the ice was few and far between. At night they removed the slow down barrier from Lower Expressway as it crosses Mambo Alley. Doing a run on Expressway top to bottom without stopping made me gain a new respect for that trail as its steeper than Jack Rabbit and taller combined than Deer Run. The 2nd most challenging blue I've ever done has to be Deer Run. The first being Forty-Niner off the top of Pico Mountain in Vermont. That has a similar grade, is more narrow at the top, and has twice the vertical drop. They need to invent a new blue with black diamond inside it just for these kinds of runs. The skiers right half of Deer Run was groomed moguls, or at least they appeared to be machine made and very consistent in size. I spent my last two runs of the night around 8:30 p.m. on Deer Run practicing my moguls. I hopped out of the moguls a little down the second steeper headwall on my last go to get a blast of speed before calling it a night.

 

Overall we were on the slopes from 11 until 9, with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner beers. My friends and I had a great time. My wishes are still that all the trails be lit for night skiing and the warming hut at the double chairs confluence reopen. How great would a beer be at the bottom of a tough go on Stemboggan. Snowmaking on Edgeset and Lower Shortway would also be nice touches. Just my two cents! Even without snowmaking on those trails and Lower Rt 66, Blue Knobs varying types of difficult terrain was still the best part about the whole trip. One day I'll get the cajones to try Extrovert. But tackling High Hopes and Edgeset with better form were the highlights for me. Which makes me think I'm still capable of becoming a better skier.

[moe ghoul]

Hey guys,

 

I got back from BK on Sunday but with work and everything... you know how it is, I'm finally getting around to writing up a trip report.

 

First off, Blue Knob really came through for us. The conditions were great on most of the runs. The powder in the morning felt great under my skies. But scraping caused spots of glacier ice to appear later in the day on several trails. I was disappointed that on their website it showed Edgeset and all of the blue/black glades as open but of course they were roped off all day.

 

We started the day on Mambo Alley which had great powder snow all day and night. After we that we moved up to Expressway, Stemboggan, Deer Run, Jack Rabbit and High Hopes. Out of those, Expressway was held up the best through the night session. The bowl had great snow all day but the straight sections after both of the first two turns on Stemboggan got scraped down to sheer ice by about 6. It seemed like every spot that you'd really want to slow your speed down had no powder so youd enter the turns with too much momentum. I took a nice spill on turn 2 of Stemboggan early in the day which thankfully didn't hurt my confidence.

 

High Hopes, which gave me fits last year, seemed much more manageable, even with some ice surfacing before sundown. I got the last run of the day because a cute snowpatrol snowboarder was trailing me to close it after I was through. I'm still wishing for lights on that run....would have loved to get more unstressful practice in because the Blue Knob crowd really disperses after 6 p.m. Around 5, I jumped the closed rope for Lower High Hopes to get a nice challenging start to Deer Run on Burma Road. I have a thing for narrow trails. Even if they're short.

 

Speaking of narrow trails, earlier in the day I convinced my friends to follow me on Edgeset, despite the fact it was roped off. The website proclaimed it was open, so I figured and could somewhat see from the East Wall Traverse that it had good enough cover. I'm not sure why it was closed. Staff too lazy to take the rope off? Over on DCski, the new Blue Knob photo link shows Edgeset being open the very next day and I know they didn't get any natural snow after 10 on Saturday night. I really don't feel bad about jumping the rope. It should have been open. The natural crusty ungroomed powder had more than a few tracks already made, which made it lumpy. I took my second fall here, head first without losing my skis. The snow caught me nicely! I've never face plowed and had it hurt less. Natural snow, even when crusty makes for a great landing. I believe that was the first natural snow trail I've ever skied, cept minus a few connector trails at different mountains. The headwall of Edgeset has good sustained steepness so I don't consider it a "connector trail". I just had to do it again with better success before the sun went down. Did I mention I love narrow trails?

 

After dinner beers we tried Stemboggan again but it was too icy leading into the turns to get comfortable. Sticking to Mambo Alley, Deer Run, and Expressway was challenging enough with BK's lights. Upper Rt 66 was fun to try and follow the slalom course at night when it was abandoned by the racers. I was very happy with Expressway in the dark because the ice was few and far between. At night they removed the slow down barrier from Lower Expressway as it crosses Mambo Alley. Doing a run on Expressway top to bottom without stopping made me gain a new respect for that trail as its steeper than Jack Rabbit and taller combined than Deer Run. The 2nd most challenging blue I've ever done has to be Deer Run. The first being Forty-Niner off the top of Pico Mountain in Vermont. That has a similar grade, is more narrow at the top, and has twice the vertical drop. They need to invent a new blue with black diamond inside it just for these kinds of runs. The skiers right half of Deer Run was groomed moguls, or at least they appeared to be machine made and very consistent in size. I spent my last two runs of the night around 8:30 p.m. on Deer Run practicing my moguls. I hopped out of the moguls a little down the second steeper headwall on my last go to get a blast of speed before calling it a night.

 

Overall we were on the slopes from 11 until 9, with an hour for lunch and an hour for dinner beers. My friends and I had a great time. My wishes are still that all the trails be lit for night skiing and the warming hut at the double chairs confluence reopen. How great would a beer be at the bottom of a tough go on Stemboggan. Snowmaking on Edgeset and Lower Shortway would also be nice touches. Just my two cents! Even without snowmaking on those trails and Lower Rt 66, Blue Knobs varying types of difficult terrain was still the best part about the whole trip. One day I'll get the cajones to try Extrovert. But tackling High Hopes and Edgeset with better form were the highlights for me. Which makes me think I'm still capable of becoming a better skier.

 

Nice TR, sounds like a blast. Glacier ice? What's Blue Knob? Sounds like an STD

[moe ghoul]

Just looked at their website, what's the vertical there? Looks like a nice hill, but there's no legend on the trailmap to gauge elevation or vert. Must be bigger than Mt. Assboyle!

[Helmet959]

By glacier ice I mean true, hard packed, smooth ice with zero turning ability. Usually shiny! Like whatever point in your turn you hit it, you'll still be at that angle when you come out of it, just farther down the run a few feet :-) Blue Knob might have gotten hit with some rain before the snow came a few days before I got there.

 

Lower Rt 66, Lower Shortway, Edgeset, and all the glades were roped off all day. Forgot to mention that.

[moe ghoul]

By glacier ice I mean true, hard packed, smooth ice with zero turning ability. Usually shiny! Like whatever point in your turn you hit it, you'll still be at that angle when you come out of it, just farther down the run a few feet :-) Blue Knob might have gotten hit with some rain before the snow came a few days before I got there.

 

Lower Rt 66, Lower Shortway, Edgeset, and all the glades were roped off all day. Forgot to mention that.

 

OK. I thought I missed an Ice age in the Pittsburgh area

[Helmet959]

The triple chair servicing Expressway, Jack Rabbit and Mambo Alley on the skiers left covers about 750 feet vertical by my estimation. And the Lower Mountain headwall of Stemboggan, Lower Rt 66, Lower High Hopes Extrovert is probably about 750 feet as well. So the drop on Upper Rt. 66 to Lower Mountain is around 250.T he drop on Run Out from the triple chair to the bottom of Lower Mountain is about 250. From lower mountain if you cut across on Deer Run to the triple chair, you're looking at about 500 feet elevation drop.

 

All in all, you get about 1072 elevation according to the website. A handy feature is the Mid Station unloading deck off the Rt 66 double chair at the top of Lower Mountain, so you can stick with all blacks as long as you want. Great for repeated runs on Stemboggan. Blue Knob really ski's like a much bigger mountain.