Once in a Lifetime

[Johnny Law]

It all started years ago while having one of those skiing days dreams in the car, it was gnar gnar steep and large 50 ft rocks faces littered the exits of the dream gully's. It quickly earned the title of century line as we couldn't believe it would ever see enough snow to be ski-able more than once every hundred years. As we all know the stars aligned and mother nature blessed us with 24" of thick creamy pow on top of 8" of cement. Calls were made, other more reasonable options were discussed but with a once in a lifetime snow event we knew we would end up on century.

 

Piss poor local plowing efforts forced us to far less desirable route that would quickly end up being what seemed like a never ending slog uphill. I've BC toured from Alta to the Adirondacks and with one exception I have never been more physically drained then at the end of this tour. Four miles and 6 hours of energy zapping skinning and we had finally made it. The skiing was fantastic, heavy but I'm not sure you could ski it any other way. It almost saddens me to think I may never get another chance at this line........though if it snows Monday......

 

I have to apologize for the lack of pics and clandestine nature of this report. One we were straight up beat and two the gentlemen who own the land on the approach were pretty apprehensive about having people on their land so we promised to keep it secret. I like to share stashes as much as I can, I mean if riders from PA don't look out for each other who the hell will but them the breaks sometimes.

 

A pretty nice place to rest our weary bones.

 

That line is giving me a boner

 

If I woke up at the top of this line I would definitely think I'm in Smuggler's Notch (the actual Notch not the resort) before PA.

 

Waist deep in PA, previous to this trip that was only possible in my dreams

 

A pretty damn good route out though I wonder how often the trains run

 

Pretty often

 

Thanks for looking hope you had a great couple of days too.

 

I believe we just saw a train get face shots

[toast21602]

thats awesome man. not just for skiing, but trains just intrigue me. they're fucking huge. sick shots. i'm into that.

[Johnny Law]

thats awesome man. not just for skiing, but trains just intrigue me. they're fucking huge. sick shots. i'm into that.

 

It was incredible and surprisingly quiet, real icing on the cake type moment.

Edited February 12, 2010 by Johnny Law

[Sno Mountain Skier]

lucky you didnt get shot by the conductor. Fuck trains and the people who work for the railroads.

[phillycore]

sick shots man

[RootDKJ]

Nice TR!

[Johnny Law]

lucky you didnt get shot by the conductor. Fuck trains and the people who work for the railroads.

 

I imagine there is a story behind the above but this conductor waived and smiled.

[Margaritaville Skier]

Looks great but I have to agree with GSS. I'd died trying and since it was that great, nobody would have stopped to do CPR.

PAX

 

BTW Sleet in Margaritaville last nite.

[Johnny Law]

How much vert did you guys ski in 6 hours and was the pitch steep enough for the amount of snow..tough to tell by the pictures..I like lifts!!!

 

We gained about 2000 vert over 4 or 5 miles as the path we took was quite meandering, the total vert drop was 900/1000 feet maybe 50ft less as we didn't actually ski all the way to the river.

 

I have an inclinometer for avy work and it read 43 degrees about mid way down, with that steepness the skiing was fast and we had plenty of speed. Anything under say 35 degrees I would think wouldn't be ski-able as you'd never pick up any real speed.

 

I like lifts too but sometimes you have to leave the friendly confines and have some adventure.

[Justo8484]

We gained about 2000 vert over 4 or 5 miles as the path we took was quite meandering, the total vert drop was 900/1000 feet maybe 50ft less as we didn't actually ski all the way to the river.

 

I have an inclinometer for avy work and it read 43 degrees about mid way down, with that steepness the skiing was fast and we had plenty of speed. Anything under say 35 degrees I would think wouldn't be ski-able as you'd never pick up any real speed.

 

I like lifts too but sometimes you have to leave the friendly confines and have some adventure.

nowhere near as ambitious, but i did some skiing within philly city limits last night. first stop was to try and ski near daisy bowl in the wiss, but we couldn't find anywhere safe (from oncoming traffic and snowplows) to park, so we drove down town and parked at boathouse row and hit the cliffs across the street from the boathouses on kelly drive. found a little double stager that i hit a few times and was pretty fun, but the snow was super sticky. we then drove back towards the apartment and parked in the development above the monster (bike trail in wiss) and skied from the development towards bells mill rd. it was nowhere near 1000 vert, probably closer to 200 or so, but you could make 5 or 6 turns, and it was about knee deep, and nice and soft and dry, but no bottoming out. all in all, pretty fun, and i might do it again after work tonight.

 

also, tuesday night dan and i hit up the art museum. i took a little bit of video, so i will have to post that up. lots of fun jibby stuff there.

[Johnny Law]

nowhere near as ambitious, but i did some skiing within philly city limits last night. first stop was to try and ski near daisy bowl in the wiss, but we couldn't find anywhere safe (from oncoming traffic and snowplows) to park, so we drove down town and parked at boathouse row and hit the cliffs across the street from the boathouses on kelly drive. found a little double stager that i hit a few times and was pretty fun, but the snow was super sticky. we then drove back towards the apartment and parked in the development above the monster (bike trail in wiss) and skied from the development towards bells mill rd. it was nowhere near 1000 vert, probably closer to 200 or so, but you could make 5 or 6 turns, and it was about knee deep, and nice and soft and dry, but no bottoming out. all in all, pretty fun, and i might do it again after work tonight.

 

also, tuesday night dan and i hit up the art museum. i took a little bit of video, so i will have to post that up. lots of fun jibby stuff there.

 

I'd love to spend some time at the art museum, jibby night stuff would be awesome.

 

There are a few spots near the Appalachian trail that would be cool to hit...I've never used skins and I know they are a huge help..when I earned turns in Vermont and Montana...I always hiked in ski boots or hiking boots with skis and sometimes ski boots on my back...must be nice without all the weight on your back but still a ton of work...How long did the runs last? I always figured every 15 minutes of hiking equals 15 seconds of skiing..

 

I'm trying to figure out where this is..I know you live in Reading...so maybe somewhere in Central PA..hmmm

 

That ratio is about right, you don't realize how efficient skis are downhill until you do the work to get uphill.

 

That line is less than 10mins from my house in Exeter, at certain points you can see the Pagoda.

[Sno Mountain Skier]

I imagine there is a story behind the above but this conductor waived and smiled.

When i was younger we used to ride atvs around an old silt mine that was 250ft from a railroad track. I guess it was railroad property, but instead of asking us to leave or something a little less violent, they would shoot at us with bean bag guns. Im not sure if anyone has ever been hit by one, but they are pretty painful.

[Justo8484]

I'd love to spend some time at the art museum, jibby night stuff would be awesome.

 

if whatever moving in sunday night/monday amounts to anything, we'll probably hit up the art museum again; either that or the boathouse row cliffs. snow on those was kinda manky so i'd love to hit them again with some snow that you can actually turn in and not get stuck.

[DiMe]

Awesome TR!! Great shots, PA at its finest for sure.

 

When i was younger we used to ride atvs around an old silt mine that was 250ft from a railroad track. I guess it was railroad property, but instead of asking us to leave or something a little less violent, they would shoot at us with bean bag guns. Im not sure if anyone has ever been hit by one, but they are pretty painful.

 

I was almost about to reply saying "I bet you were riding quads or dirt bikes along the tracks" until I read your reply haha. Ya they don't take kindly to us dirt fiends.

Edited February 13, 2010 by DiMeThIcOnE

[Schif]

Phenomenal TR, sounds and looks like you had one of the best days imaginable.

[Justo8484]

http://www.vimeo.com/9422672

 

there's some video from the art museum excursion. i didnt take any in wiss the other night cause it was just too dark, we were skiing by bike headlight.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Bump for stoke!!!

[toast21602]

12 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Bump for stoke!!!

Thank you!

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]