December 30, 2008 - Improved Conditions & SNOW On The way!

The groomers today were better than yesterday. The bumped trails were either closed or brutally hard ice. That would be a closed upper Yahoo, and a brutal upper Belleayre Run.

It was cold today, and windy in the morning, but the sun was out & in & out. You can see the pics for that.

Lots of snow blowing on the mountain. Looks like they are trying to open more green terrain below Overlook Lodge, and Seneca on the West side.

"Area 57" terrain park opened this afternoon. Somebody was removed from there for a trip to the hospital within an hour.

No lift lines again, except between 2:15 and 3:30 at lift 7, during Superchief's weekly breakdown.

Another great day with lots of runs. Good for the socializing, running some of the stubby slalom courses set up on Yahoo, fast skiing on groomed trails. But I am missing bumps and some natural terrain. That can change tonight because there is a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY! 4-8 inches starting at about 1 AM overnight and continuing through the day tomorrow!

If Your Edges Were Sharp, It Rocked

I may be guilty of being a person who is ridiculously optimistic.  But here goes:

In the morning, the skiing surface sometimes called "snow" was hard with a sugary granular coat on top.  There was a bit of hockey rink quality ice on connecting trails.  It was only about 20 degrees for most of the day.  But the snow was fast and the runs were fun, and they runs were plentiful too, since there was never anyone clogging up a lift line.  One run on upper Yahoo was so frozen and rough it vibrated my legs enough to give them a massage.  One run on upper Belleayre Run was like skiing over bumps of steel.  All the other runs above Overlook Lodge were mostly just on the save side of being out of control as long as your edges were sharp and you were rocking a carve.

In the afternoon it warmed up a little.  Upper Yahoo and upper Belleayre Run were shaved off and a bit less vibrational.  It wasn't appreciably more icy anywhere, however.  They hadn't blown snow all morning, but they started blowing after lunch to cover toe top of the mountain where some of the melting did its worst yesterday.  There seems to be a lot of stockpiled snow on lower Utsayntha, and they were building the terrain park there all day.  It isn't open yet, but a couple of people poached some rides there.

I think I don't mind relatively crappy conditions when there are no lift lines, I am with a bunch of friends and family, and my edge tuner is in my pocket.

Warm Day, Hero Snow, Meltage :(

Temperatures averaged mid forties today.  The snow was spring conditions, the kind that makes everyone ski the soft bumps as if they are heroes.  There wasn't a line for a lift to be found, except maybe a short wait for anyone skiing Superchief mid-day through early afternoon.

Lots of really fun fast skiing on the ball-bearings this kind of defrosting produces.  I certainly hope the groomers and snowmakers can patch the holes that developed.  There was visibly less snow at the end of the day than at the beginning, as the pictures show - especially at the top of Yahoo.  Below are early-day and late-day pics of the developing holes, and the rest of the photos in the photo stack widget on top of the post.

Rain and Fog at The Mountain Today

You could come down really negative on a day like today.  It is the Holiday Season for the mountain, and here it is hit with a shot of warm weather and rain.  But it is hard for me to be negative right now.  We had a great time on the mountain today.  

The mountain was fairly empty.  Skied down and right onto the lift every run.  The rain was happening early, then went away after lunch.   But I can't even complain about the morning rain.  It was a misty drizzle, and didn't soak through.  The result was spring conditions on the snow and most of the runs that had been open remained open today.  I can't even complain too much about the fog.  Lucily there were not too many bodies on the snow to avoid, and it forced me to have more of an inner focus to my runs.  What I mean is, I paid more attention to what my body was doing because there wasn't anything to look at except the fog.

Missed IT! Can't WAIT!

Belleayre got lots of snow!  Must have been a great weekend.  We hit the vacation ski week starting on Friday afternoon after Christmas.  A whole week of turns!

All we got here was a couple inches, then rain.  Now it is white ice.  Could have set up a bobsled run at school today.  The creative kids were sliding it in their sneakers.  The administrators were stopping them.  Such is life when liability worries take over the fun....

Self-Swipeable Season Ticket Cards - Why Not?

I read online today, that at Belleayre, Shandaken residents will be able to get swipeable lift ticket cards, loaded with 13 Sunday tix at $20 each, and they do not have to wait on line for lift tickets, and they could buy additional tickets for friends at $25 each. So I reasoned, season tickets have mag strips and are swipeable too. Why not let season ticket holders swipe their cards? After spending a lot more $ than Shandaken residents, we wouldn't have to wait in line either. That would be cool. It would shorten lines for people waiting to pay also.

So I called the Belleayre admin office and asked if season ticket holders would be able to swipe too. Nooooo... Why not? I asked. Answer: "I'm not in charge of that." Me: OK, well put it on the suggestion list, then.

Is it because they don't want us to sell them to others in the parking lot? Well print our name on them, then, like they did in '05-'06.... or somethin'. And, come to think of it, those Shandaken residents will be able to scalp them to their "friends", right?