Send Lawyers, Guns and Money,,,,,

The proposed Belleayre Resort final scoping document is out. It is 157 pages long. Part of this process is to make things so long and detailed and boring, that people opposed will not have the endurance to sift through all the details!

Zevon: "...I'm a desperate man. Send lawyers, guns and money. The $h1+ has hit the fan."

But I guess this is good, because it makes the Glitter crew have to justify and minutely explain everything in the entire process. That can lead to many missteps and more control by stakeholders.

Belleayre Needs to Get Their Lift Act Together (Caution ~ Rant)

The snow today was great. The groomers took the new stuff that fell Friday night, that got crudded up on Saturday, and made nice. They left the bumps on Yahoo, Onteora, Seneca, Tongora as usual. It warmed up after 11 AM and skied sooooo nicely.

But the lift situation is horrible. It started first thing, with signs at the lift ticket booths about Superchief being closed today. Broken again. Unbelievable. The Mini-World-Cup race for the kids was canceled. Canceled because they knew that a lot of Superchief beginners would be needing to use lower Yahoo. The knew the lines would be crazy, especially this being a Potter Brothers "flex-day", and the end of a holiday period. All the factors came together to make 15-minute lift lines at lift 7 and Tomahawk.

While waiting in one of those lift lines at Tomahawk, one of the lifties got on top of the lift base engine contraption thingie and yelled to everyone, "Lift 6 is open! Superchief is open!" Great. But we still have this line to wait in. But at least they got it running again. I think that was about 11:30 AM.

Lines after lunch were a little better. 5-10 minutes at lift 7 and Tomahawak. No doubt this was Belleayre's biggest day of this winter so far.

It still baffles me how the Tomahawk lifties can continue to do such a bad job at loading the lift. Here is how it goes. There are two sides to approach Tomahawk quad. On each side there is a singles line, doubles, triples, quad, and lessons/patrol line. It should go like this: two doubles (one set from each side), then a triple + single from side A, triple + single side B, quad side A, quad side B, then start the cycle over again. What they do is totally random. No joke, totally random. doubles, triples, doubles, doubles, triples X3, quad, 4 singles, doubles triples X 3, quad.... You could enter the shortest line and wait the longest. You could enter the longest line and they might have a mind to just let it roll. O, here is the best part - if a liftie has to rotate to a new position to swing chairs or whatever, maybe a chair of two will go up empty. This is because NOBODY KNOWS WHAT TO EXPECT. This creates even more errors on loading. If the people at the head of the queue knew the cycle, there wouldn't be errors and constant loading screw-ups. And one more detail, if you always take the shortest line, no matter how many people you have, you might get a couple words about being in the wrong line, but you never get sent back! So always take the shortest line no matter how many you have because there are no real consequences! (Unless you get ignored by the totally random line selection, of course, which tends to happen most in the quad line simply because it it behind the liftie's back...)

Hey, I know it isn't an easy job, especially on a busy day, but it sure as hell isn't a hard one either.... Count to 4, and load each line fairly.... my 10 year old can do that for the rides at camp carnival in the summer! It seems like they have no level of training or performance criteria, nor do they have any kind of management in charge there.

PS: Two concrete suggestions: 1) Eliminate the doubles line on busy days. Instead make two quad lines and have doubles quad themselves up. Duh. Do that all the time, as a matter of fact. 2) Hire people who actually ski to be lift attendants.

I started this as a Trip Report thread at Alpinezone.com, and there were a bunch of responses. Go read them.

Finally - A Snow Day!

School was canceled all around for the first time this season. The plan had been to go to the Belleayre on Saturday morning, arriving about noon, for a half day of skiing. But since everyone was home and there was new snow on the ground, it didn't take long to realize we had to leave tonight for some real powder in the morning.

A post at Alpinezone.com by "catskills" got me excited:

I just went out to shovel some of this stuff. Not sure I mentioned it but this white stuff is about as dry as it gets. This should be one of the best ski weekends of the year in the Catskills. Did I mention how dry this powder is. Yes its still coming down with no end in sight.

We are here now. The drive up to the Catskills from central NJ (287 & Thruway) was surprisingly easy. We left at 6 PM, and with one stop on the Thruway, arrived at 9 PM. Drove through rain until about Bear Mt, then ice, then snow. Not many people on the road, thankfully, and passed some slowpokes on 28. The snow stopped about 8:50 PM here.

The driveway was not plowed, but the snow is really light!!!! I quickly cleared some. There is 8-10" of light feathery powder outside! 12" at Belleayre, I hope - alarm is set 30 minutes earlier (6:30) for the possibility of rare first tracks. If I can get my family out... my daughter has a cold so it might be slow going BUT - Tomorrow has the potential to be one of the top 10 ski days at Belleayre EvEr!

They Need to Get Their Lifts Act Together

Since it rained all night, almost all the natural snow melted outside the rental house in Halcott, and was hovering about 50 degrees, we took our time getting to Belleayre today. It was a muddy time packing the car up.

Arrived at 10 AM or so, a good 1.5 hours later than my family's usual arrival time. The upper lot was only about 1/3 full at that time. Yesterday it was full before 9 AM. The lodge was relatively empty, like an early November or April day there. It was actually not that bad a change from the crowded indoor conditions of yesterday.

It was about 48 degrees, and we dressed light. The snow outside Overlook lodge was like snowcone filler. Took a Wanatuska run off Superchief. It was crunchy but skiable. Not quite corn snow, and not exactly ice. The snow skied quite fast. Those little round ice crystals make for some ball-bearinglike nano-surfaces.

There were no lift lines, so clicked off some runs off lift 7. The WC bump set-up on Belleayre Run was better today. Everything was open, surprisingly. There were some ice skating spots on connector trails, from all the rain, no doubt.

We decided to hit Superchief again at about 11:15. So we head down there and it broke again. Third day in a row. How annoying to have to hike uphill to get out of that hole. Then to take lift 1&2 to another uphill walk. Note to self - always avoid Superchief. Yesterday a friend of mine christened the lead-in trail to Superchief, "Chaos". Forced to take lift 1&2, we noted the pond at its entrance. The lift line had to skirt the pond.

By the time we got up to Overlook lodge we were hungry enough for lunch. Ate. Lodge felt even emptier than at 10 AM. Went out to a very slight drizzle. Did one run off lift 7. Second ride for the afternoon, we are on lift 7 and it breaks down. Unreal. Two lifts in one day. Luckily, by then Superchief was carrying passengers again. After that 15 minute ride to be forced off at mid-station, my wife and kids were understandably done. I wasn't. Headed to Tomahawk for a couple. Great fast runs on Seneca and Dot. Then we headed out. If this was a dry, cold, sunny day after a dry night, Belleayre would have been hurting to get people up the mountain. I hope they get those lifts repaired properly. You would think at least Superchief is still under warranty.

O, and PS: The conditions message this morning on the phone deserves an award for "most creative positive spins" and a special mention for "leaving out truth that should be reported".

All the pics here.



New ice skating rink at the top of Yahoo

View of some green trail from forced ride on lift 1&2

All the pics here.

Holiday Crowds Arrived

The holiday weekend crowds hit today. The lodge was more crowded than usual in the morning before skiing, and at lunch. The parking lot was packed earlier than usual. The lift lines were not that bad at lift 7 and Tomahawk, until Superchief broke down again, second day in a row. That happened after lunch today. After that it was singles line city for us. And some of the the lifties at Tomahawk lift continue to be clueless about how to move the lift lines.

The conditions were very good again. A little warmer than yesterday, but no sun, and light freezing rain / "wintery-mix" starting about 1 PM.

None of the runs were especially soft, but there wasn't a lot of ice either, until after 2 PM or so. Pepacton was closed for racing, but Dot was open. Not realizing they were there, I was screaming down Peekamoose and almost ran into them, but cut a hard right in time.....

They built a WC style bump run about half way down Belleayre run, and they scammed a bunch of Alpine Development kids into packing it down. The problem with the run was the slope wasn't steep enough to warrant the size of the bumps. I couldn't really get enough momentum to ski them right as a result. Maybe it is just me, maybe not - anybody else ski them? My 14 year old son is a good bump skier (yea, he has crossed over into the better-than-me category) and he said it stunk. Yahoo and Onteora were better bump runs today. The natural snow on Utsayantha is almost a pleasure, if you can stay off the dirt and rocks - I got a big scratch on the bottom of my Atomic m:EX's today there.

All the pics are here.

Stamping the bump run

Threatening skies in the morning

Classics never die....?

All the pics are here.

Nice Belleayre Day

Weather: Clear, mostly sunny, 17-25 degrees or so.

Conditions: Very good. Upper expert trails were all open, even Utsayantha. Nice soft bumps on Tongora (where they were blowing snow all day) and Winnisook. Great snow and soft bumps on upper Onteora - must have been blowing that all night. Yahoo was fine, though harder under a dusting of real snow from last night, and Seneca was similar. Coverage is good: Saw a kid poach the Tomahawk liftline above midstation, with his friend filming it. Utsayantha had thin cover, but the natural snow was nice. Lots of racing today. Lower Yahoo was closed for racing, as usual; Dot Nebel was closed for a big GS.

Lifts: Not much of a line at 7 or Tomahawk, considering that it is a holiday weekend. Superchief broke for an hour or so, and that caused things to bunch up late morning at 7 - but it was up again by lunchtime. There were a bunch of liftie dweebs on duty at Tomahawk today. Bad job loading and running the lines there. What's up with that?

Thoughts: Early in the week I was worried about the conditions, after the storm overnight into last Wednesday. But the place was really fine today. Much better than expected for a holiday weekend Saturday. Belleayre continues to deliver a great experience weekend after weekend. Certainly getting our money's worth again this year.

Hammered?

Doesn't look good - conditions report today at Belleayre.com (screen cap above) is showing all the upper double diamonds closed! Everything else looks groomed to death. I am not happy about that. Site also says that they are blowing snow and the groomers are working 24/7. Big weekend for the business and I personally wanted a great three days. I hope the conditions come around.

Silly Me: I Want to Call This a Powder Day

The Review: The snow from yesterday plus the snow from this morning made the skiing today excellent. Really. I am not kidding. It was great at Belleayre today. One of the top 5 ski days of 15 I have skied there this season. The new snow was not heavy. It was deep and fluffy almost everywhere. It covered the ice well for most of the day. It stayed good on the sides of the trails, and stayed light when crudded up. I couldn't believe it. Couple that with barely any lines at any time on lift 7 and Tomahawk, periods of sunshine, good friends and family - can't beat that.

The Weather: Temps in the mid 20's. The day opened with really heavy snow. The middle of the day got some sun and some clouds. The day closed with a blizzard-like blast of more snow as we left.

The Bumps: The bumps on Winnisook were big. The bumps on Onteora were irregularly spaced. The bumps on Yahoo were mostly hard but skiable and evenly distributed.

Mud Slide Slim

It wasn't bad and it wasn't great today. There was enough snow on almost every trail. The upper bumps were soft, and so was the lower run-out from Onteora. Yahoo looked icy but skied well. Dot Nebel, Seneca, Peekamoose were all sweet. Wanatuska, Mohawk, Belleayre run were their usual groomed selves. Some connector trails and late-day lower Onteora had some real boilerplate gray frozen-pond ice.

Lower Yahoo closed almost all day for racing. Snow from about 11-4 added about 4 inches. When Yahoo opened, there was some great powder freshies (yeah, 4 whole inches) that felt great in contrast from the rest of day on the hard stuff.

Weather service canceled the snow advisory. Here in Halcott near Belleayre It isn't snowing outside anymore, and at 34 degrees it is warmer than it was at 5 PM.


I slid on my chest through some mud when I didn't see a bare spot on Belleayre Run (photo above)! My son loved that - yea, it was marked uphill from where I approached it - I was coming across the fall line pretty fast, focused on taking a crossover to Wanatuska and it jumped outa nowhere!