Opening Day - Snovember 16th, 2018

[Ride Delaware ?]

Glad to hear you guys had a baller opening day. Sounds like it was way better than being behind a desk dealing with large chunks of stone...

[antman12]

At Boulder right now from 10-12. Say what up. 

[antman12]

Already on the road home (1150). 12 runs down freedom park and I got my fix in. Learned a couple new things. Lift lines weren’t bad for the first hour then became pretty bad after that, idk about the other lift haha. Not much else to report TBH. Good snow and rail setups as expected. 

Shout out to Boulder for continually opening first and giving us somewhere to ride in November. 

[theprogram4]

Ride from 240-510 for a total of 12 runs.  Liftlines were awful on tannembaum the first hour and only got in 3 runs.  Next hour and a half got 9 runs in.  Did my final 5 runs on freedom cause liftlune was a lot shorter.  Chilled with POC in the liftlune and lift ride who was there with his daughters.  Nice snow and they prob could have had more open.  Parking lot was like 85% full when I got there.  Had a nice time and glad I went 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

1 hour ago, theprogram4 said:

Ride from 240-510 for a total of 12 runs.  Liftlines were awful on tannembaum the first hour and only got in 3 runs.  Next hour and a half got 9 runs in.  Did my final 5 runs on freedom cause liftlune was a lot shorter.  Chilled with POC in the liftlune and lift ride who was there with his daughters.  Nice snow and they prob could have had more open.  Parking lot was like 85% full when I got there.  Had a nice time and glad I went 

Where did you watch Eagles game?  That’s unlike you not to get to the mountain at opening. 

[antman12]

I wonder in Boulder will open up Wed night. Id love to get up there assuming they open.

[JFskiDan]

1 hour ago, antman12 said:

I wonder in Boulder will open up Wed night. Id love to get up there assuming they open.

Website says no skiing for antman until Friday.  I think if they were going to open for Wednesday they would be putting that out on social media as much as possible at this point.  

[RidgeRacer]

At least I know that I'm skiing somewhere on Fri. Would rather it be blue but such is life.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

9 minutes ago, RidgeRacer said:

At least I know that I'm skiing somewhere on Fri. Would rather it be blue but such is life.

I’m surprised you didn’t go to BB this last weekend. 

[antman12]

50 minutes ago, JFskiDan said:

Website says no skiing for antman until Friday.  I think if they were going to open for Wednesday they would be putting that out on social media as much as possible at this point.  

Boooo. Thanks for the info though. I checked Boulders Instagram before posting after seeing nothing, but theres a post now saying they wont open back up till Friday.

[Ride Delaware ?]

Boooo. Thanks for the info though. I checked Boulders Instagram before posting after seeing nothing, but theres a post now saying they wont open back up till Friday.

They could have a much larger chunk of the mountain open by then. I would be surprised if Blue didn’t open for the weekend. At the very least, Saturday, even with the crappier weather.

Camelback is always a tossup. Montage will probably be open... At least the top half.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

7 minutes ago, Ride Delaware ? said:

They could have a much larger chunk of the mountain open by then. I would be surprised if Blue didn’t open for the weekend. At the very least, Saturday, even with the crappier weather.

Camelback is always a tossup. Montage will probably be open... At least the top half.

I like your optimism RideDE. How was sugarbush today???  I saw Stowe opened with like 24 runs.  Probably just 4-5 Roots

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

If Boulder has TTB I would take it over Montage top half, given it would save me about 70-80 minutes RT drive. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

2 minutes ago, Ski2Live Live2Ski said:

If Boulder has TTB I would take it over Montage top half, given it would save me about 70-80 minutes RT drive. 

Even if the price goes up to like $40?  I would do camelback over BB and Montage even though tailgating is not allowed.  

[JFskiDan]

Just now, Ski2Live Live2Ski said:

If Boulder has TTB I would take it over Montage top half, given it would save me about 70-80 minutes RT drive. 

What do you consider TTB at Boulder?  I think Love is a good bet for this coming weekend.  I think anything else might be a stretch.  

[JFskiDan]

19 minutes ago, Ride Delaware ? said:

 I would be surprised if Blue didn’t open for the weekend. At the very least, Saturday, even with the crappier weather.

Camelback is always a tossup. Montage will probably be open... At least the top half.

I think what Blue does boils down to this.  Do they do what makes passholders happy, gives them the least grief on Facespace, and open up whatever they can manage to get enough snow on and groomed out just in time for this weekends shit house weather, or do they just blow what ever they can and leave it in piles?  Lets face it.  The forecast looks great for making snow on Thursday, and goes in the toilet after that.  I hope it changes, but after friday sometime, it just looks dismal for Blue making snow for a few days.  This sucks, but at least there is skiing elsewhere.  

Camelback can pretty much suck balls.  Drinking at the bar at Montage would be more enjoyable than skiing at Camelback.  

[Schif]

If it really does come down to blowing whales and sitting on them vs opening a trail or two, I would almost hope they wait to open. would prefer decent conditions and opening and staying open. 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

25 minutes ago, Schif said:

If it really does come down to blowing whales and sitting on them vs opening a trail or two, I would almost hope they wait to open. would prefer decent conditions and opening and staying open. 

They never open with decent conditions. We just want them to open. 

[toast21602]

57 minutes ago, JFskiDan said:

I think what Blue does boils down to this.  Do they do what makes passholders happy, gives them the least grief on Facespace, and open up whatever they can manage to get enough snow on and groomed out just in time for this weekends shit house weather, or do they just blow what ever they can and leave it in piles?  Lets face it.  The forecast looks great for making snow on Thursday, and goes in the toilet after that.  I hope it changes, but after friday sometime, it just looks dismal for Blue making snow for a few days.  This sucks, but at least there is skiing elsewhere.  

Camelback can pretty much suck balls.  Drinking at the bar at Montage would be more enjoyable than skiing at Camelback.  

I love the bar at Montage. 

[toast21602]

1 hour ago, JFskiDan said:

What do you consider TTB at Boulder?  I think Love is a good bet for this coming weekend.  I think anything else might be a stretch.  

I believe last week they said alive would be open this upcoming weekend. 

[enjoralas]

1 hour ago, JFskiDan said:

What do you consider TTB at Boulder?  I think Love is a good bet for this coming weekend.  I think anything else might be a stretch.  

Even just adding that would be clutch if it’s to the top, because it would open a third lift. 

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

Yeah, Love would be TTB and would likely take that over upper Montage. Shawnee is saying they will be TTB Friday, might take that over either. Also waiting to see what CB offers and would not rule out Belleayre or Hunter. 

 

Of course if Blue opens this weekend we will be there.

Edited November 19, 2018 by Ski2Live Live2Ski

[Ride Delaware ?]

I like your optimism RideDE. How was sugarbush today???  I saw Stowe opened with like 24 runs.  Probably just 4-5 Roots

Sugarbush is ok. They have gone with a different opening strategy the past two seasons and it has really turned thing upside down in terms of expansion.

It used to be that early season snowmaking was concentrated on Jester and Downspout, which would allow for uploading and downloading on Bravo if necessary. They would then add Organgrinder and Ripcord if temps only allowed for snowmaking up top, then they would make the t2b route lower Downspout, Lower Jester, Coffee Run. The problem with that, was that then traffic had to go over Downspout twice as much (from Bravo to HG, then from the top back to HG, or past it down to the base), so the relative steepness and traffic would create an icy chute early in the day.

Now they have decided to blow on Jester/Downspout only if temperatures allow snowmaking at only elevation. So, when they have temperatures down low, they concentrate on Snowball/Spring Fling. It’s wider and you only have traffic going down it once, so it degrades slower. Unfortunately, they got base temps the same time as elevation temps this year, so Jester and Downspout weren’t ready. They had Jester and Valley House Traverse (connector for t2b from HG terrain) ready, but not Downspout because we just don’t have enough capacity.

Since we only have the Valley House available, we had Snowball/Spring Fling ready, and with our aggressive opening strategy, they opened all natural terrain off that lift as well. Unfortunately, they had the busiest opening day ever, and that stuff is all really beat up. So, Snowball/Spring Fling is good with low traffic, but the natural stuff is pretty snirty.

On the flip side, the Swiss women’s national team is coming tomorrow to train, so we will get to watch some cool runs!

[RidgeRacer]

I’m surprised you didn’t go to BB this last weekend. 

Thought about it but family came to visit on Saturday. Sunday was my b day and spending it with my wife and kids by far trumps a WROD on Freedom. That said 10 to 6 didn't work either day.

[RidgeRacer]

On the flip side, the Swiss women’s national team is coming tomorrow to train, so we will get to watch some cool runs!