TR: 11/18/17 Rainy pre-Thanksgiving laps

[enjoralas]

Hit up Boulder this morning for their second weekend of operations, and it ended up being pretty a valuable trip in the end even if only Tannenbaum and Freedom were open, and I ended up doing nothing but lapping Tannenbaum for 2 hours and bailing.

 

I had been planning all week on hitting Boulder assuming they were able to preserve enough snow to open, but then the forecasted rain and their announcement that they had put features on Tannenbaum had me second guessing that on Friday night. I woke up at about 8 am and there was no rain so I decided to head up. Left the house about 9 and got there right about 10, stopping at the BK at the rest area right by the exit off the Extension for a breakfast. Got a $25 ticket and was on the lift about 10:15 or so. 

 I picked up some Apex boots secondhand over the summer on eBay, the two-part system really intrigues me. I actually bought two different models and after trying them on at home brought the one I felt fit better with me to try out. They didn't work out too well at all. Major foot pain from the moment I strapped the walking boot into the chassis. The pain was actually not that bad when actually skiing, but on the lift it was completely unbearable. After two runs I went back to the car and changed into my old boots for the rest of the session. That's why it ended up being a valuable trip, I learned that I'm going to need to get these things adjusted and heat-molded if they're going to work out for me, so I'd like to get that done sooner than later.

The rest of the morning ended up being 18 more laps down Tannenbaum. The four features they added were pretty much 4 small ride on boxes set in a line  on the slope, right at the bottom. Maybe the last one was a low rail or something, I didn't really take much notice but to be glad that it wouldn't be hard to avoid them or stay out of the way of those planning to use them. 

There's not too much that can be written about 20 laps on a 160 foot vertical run, but I had a good time, learned about my equipment, and got out of there just before the rain picked up a bit so definitely a successful trip. Was good to be back on the snow again, and it's tough to complain about any turns made in the Poconos before Thanksgiving.

On the way out a cop car passed me hauling ass on Big Boulder drive right before getting to the turn onto Lake Harmony Rd, and about 5 minutes later an ambulance blew by with lights on about 1/2 mile before the turnpike entrance. Hope no one was seriously injured on the slopes.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice report. What was the stiffness of your old boots and what's the stiffness of new boots?  I'll google apex boots im unsure about the two part system. 

[enjoralas]

45 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Nice report. What was the stiffness of your old boots and what's the stiffness of new boots?  I'll google apex boots im unsure about the two part system. 

The old ones are real soft, like a 65. The Apex have a changeable damper on the back that lets you change them from 95-105-115. I had them set up today at 95. The two part system is that they are basically a snowboard boot that fits into an exoskeleton chassis to snap into ski bindings. 

They're supposed to be designed for comfort but they were killing me. The pain was pretty much across my forefoot for the most part. I'm hoping having the inner liners heat molded will alleviate that. 

[eaf]

Disastrous today... Snow is thin, lines are long as they've lost one lift. Veeerry sorry that I came here.

[eaf]

[enjoralas]

Wow, I guess Freedom was closed? There were zero lines between 10-1230 yesterday. I skied on to the next chair most laps. Never had more than one chair wait.

I wouldn't be able to make myself wait in that line for that run.

[toast21602]

Disastrous today... Snow is thin, lines are long as they've lost one lift. Veeerry sorry that I came here.

What time were you there? Seems way too crowded for first thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[saltyant]

Thanks for the heads up. Maybe I'll wait for Blue to open and skip out on BB. Waiting 10-15 minutes per 30 second run is no fun. Weather is looking good starting tonight for all mountains to begin/restart snowmaking operations. The lows for 11/26-11/28 are looking quite gnarly - upper teens/low 20's!

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Not many reports from BB and JF..Is BB almost 100% open..is JF open.  I haven't seen any reports from PoconoOceanCity

[JFskiDan]

When i looked yesterday out of shear curiosity, BB had 3 slopes open.  Little Boulder, Tannenbaum, and Love.  i would have thought they would have had more than that.  JF is supposed to open Friday with 6-8 trails.  

[poconoceancity]

3 trails yesterday. JF opening Saturday with 10 trails.