Opening day at Jack Frost

[C1erArt]

Rivershots been open for a couple weeks now.

I love Rivershot. One of my favorite trails in PA.

 

The last drop is pretty narrow though, I try to hit it right at opening and ski it until it starts to crowd up.

 

Going over the lip of the last drop is blind, and if you have to stop and check for fallen or traversing skiers – what’s the point? I’m starting to prefer Challenge, it’s wider and easier to get a good rhythm in your turns. Plus, the East mountain lift is 90 seconds longer than the challenge lift, and you have all that flat runout at the bottom of East mountain.

[JFskiDan]

The best thing they ever did with Floyds was let it bump up.  And that was 10 years ago for like a week.  

@C1erArt, whats the off trail stuff like these days?  I went back to JF once about 3 years ago, not much going on off trail, and i got bored pretty quick.  It was great about 7-8 years ago, but i saw a decline in that stuff to where i was cleaning out the E-glade to make it skiable.  

[antman12]

2 hours ago, C1erArt said:

 

The last drop is pretty narrow though, I try to hit it right at opening and ski it until it starts to crowd up.

 

Going over the lip of the last drop is blind, and if you have to stop and check for fallen or traversing skiers – what’s the point? I’m starting to prefer Challenge, it’s wider and easier to get a good rhythm in your turns. Plus, the East mountain lift is 90 seconds longer than the challenge lift, and you have all that flat runout at the bottom of East mountain.

Your spot on about the last drop on river shot, although I do like dorkin around on the flat run out with all of that speed. And like you said, get it early. 
 

I just learned you can go off trail top to bottom on challenge couple weeks back. Will continue exploring as we hopefully get more snow. 

[C1erArt]

The best thing they ever did with Floyds was let it bump up.  And that was 10 years ago for like a week.  
[mention=1059]C1erArt[/mention], whats the off trail stuff like these days?  I went back to JF once about 3 years ago, not much going on off trail, and i got bored pretty quick.  It was great about 7-8 years ago, but i saw a decline in that stuff to where i was cleaning out the E-glade to make it skiable.  

Really no off trail stuff now. There used to be a lot of blow over from the challenge guns onto challenge glade, but the past couple years that hasn’t happened (there is almost no base on the trails now and they are not wasting the snow guns). I did see a blue coat run elevator glade last week, he sideslipped down the front lip next to the tower (where all the rocks are under the snow) did two huge jump turns and skied out among the trees. Looked pretty good doing it.

Mad tree glade and risk it were non starters all year. And little cliff huck was bulldozed out.

I did see a few people run elevator last year but it was just off the lip, down and parallel to the trail and then out on the trail lower down, not skiing straight down to the bottom and out the runout to Floyd’s.

Last year was the first year since the good old days that I didn’t ski the complete length of challenge glade. Just wasn’t enough coverage all the way down. A few sections you could go in, ski a little bit and then out. But I didn’t ski a whole lot because I was working out west during the week. And if the race team was on challenge, then challenge glade it was closed also. And this year there are some trees down due to the ice storm we had a couple of weeks ago. But the old pipeline path deeper in the glade might be a possibility if we get more snow. I’m pretty careful about not messing up my bases and edges.

[C1erArt]

Your spot on about the last drop on river shot, although I do like dorkin around on the flat run out with all of that speed. And like you said, get it early.   

I just learned you can go off trail top to bottom on challenge couple weeks back. Will continue exploring as we hopefully get more snow. 

 

 

I like to do nice GS carved turns on the flats using the speed built up off the head walls also.

 

At its best, challenge glade is by far the best section of Jack Frost IMHO. You can ski among the trees from the edge of the trail pretty far back to the right, all the way down to the right of the race shack and out just before the east mountain lift. And about halfway down, there is a crossover going under the east mountain chair and out onto the run out from Rivershot, but that needs a couple of feet of snow.

 

There is an old pipeline cleared path a ways in to the right that doesn’t need as much cover to make it runnable, but it is kind of narrow. Some people were on it last week, but I suspect the few inches of snow we had just hid the rocks. But if there is enough snow, the whole area from the trail edge to that path and beyond is skiable. Between the bumps on the head walls and weaving in and out of the trees on the flats you can get the adrenaline going pretty good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

Skied nearly TTB in Challenge glade several times on Jan 4

[RidgeRacer]

Challenge Glade top to bottom (aka Happyland) is a pretty great trail for PA. Will give frost that for sure.

[C1erArt]

Skied nearly TTB in Challenge glade several times on Jan 4

Tried hitting it a couple of times last week but chickened out, hope the coverage increases soon.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

14 hours ago, Ski2Live Live2Ski said:

Skied nearly TTB in Challenge glade several times on Jan 4

That’s badass!!

[C1erArt]

Out for a couple of hours before the rain. Actually had some sun first thing, then the clouds rolled in and it got foggy around 1130.

 

They have the connector from East Mountain to challenge open, and without a headwind it was a lot easier skiing over today.

 

All the slopes were in OK sugar snow shape, but there are some brown spots starting to show. The top started getting a little soft mid morning. Very quiet today, the biggest group was the Tuesday ladies class.

 

Stopped on the way back and got my fresh roasted coffee beans and some supermarket sushi.

 

[poconoceancity]

I’m surprised they were open, Sunday was really bad. They also didn’t groom before opening either day on the weekend. Quad is done for the season too.

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

Was quad ever open this season? What happened to it?

[poconoceancity]

7 hours ago, Ski2Live Live2Ski said:

Was quad ever open this season? What happened to it?

Nope, it was down for maintenance, then waiting on parts, now just done...

[RidgeRacer]

Nope, it was down for maintenance, then waiting on parts, now just done...

Ouch. Come on Vail...time to pony up.

[Ski2Live Live2Ski]

Bummer. Bet it will keep the snow fresher on Thunderbolt though. No way to lap it without a traverse on either the top or bottom. While not a huge traverse, not really worth doing for such a short run. Basically only ski that run on my way over to the East lift now.

[toast21602]

1 hour ago, RidgeRacer said:

Ouch. Come on Vail...time to pony up.

Yeah right. 

[indiggio]

1 hour ago, RidgeRacer said:

Ouch. Come on Vail...time to pony up.

As bad as Barb is out laying out $, I fear that if a biggie would purchase Blue the same shit would happen.

[Schif]

It's hard for me to believe that a resort would just completely give up on a lift during the season like that. 

[theprogram4]

21 minutes ago, Schif said:

It's hard for me to believe that a resort would just completely give up on a lift during the season like that. 

doesnt montage do that almost every year with long haul?

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Blue needs to figure out a way to get JF/BB peeps to see the light you know like a blue light special..10% off everything, buddy pass, free tubing...unlimited high fives.  

[Schif]

2 minutes ago, theprogram4 said:

doesnt montage do that almost every year with long haul?

Long Haul is always ready to go, they just don't run it unless its a weekend or a high volume day. 

[theprogram4]

4 minutes ago, Schif said:

Long Haul is always ready to go, they just don't run it unless its a weekend or a high volume day. 

gotcha. of the 7 times ive been to montage, long haul was running for 5 of them which is apparently pretty rare

[PSUFrankenstein]

Yeah Long Haul was running like 75% of the time when I was at Montage last year.  

[C1erArt]

Nope, it was down for maintenance, then waiting on parts, now just done...

It was open for a couple of weeks in December, before the east mountain lift and river shot was open.

[C1erArt]

Blue needs to figure out a way to get JF/BB peeps to see the light you know like a blue light special..10% off everything, buddy pass, free tubing...unlimited high fives.  

I think teaching the groomer crew how to groom snow would do it. Although, it’s probably they just don’t spend enough time grooming the larger mountain.