I skied West tonight.

It was a lot better than I expected it to be. I think Gore will be just fine this weekend.

Good to hear that West survived in good shape and I certainly hope you're right about conditions this weekend. In the past 2-3 years I do think Gore has managed to recover from this type of event pretty well. My concern this time is the thin base and whether there is enough to groom it out.

tom

Ok... Wednesday 1/27...

Dropped the little one off at the mom-in-laws in the a.m. and was in the gondola (ride to myself) at 11:30.

Wild Air had guns galore on it, a good thing too it has some seriously scary wash/ice areas. Closed.

So off the gondola, around Ruby Run to Twister. Both Ruby & the top of Cloud were well covered with that tower gun and another blasting the snot out of it. Any slick areas that I saw were easily skied around on good man-made/tilled stuff. Twister was GOOD!!! I was so happy skiing down. This isn't to say that there aren't a few scratchy areas, but the snow was nice and easily carved. I ran that twice off the gondola.

Showcase was crap. 'nough said.

Back to the gondola... (I ended up riding with one other guy only once, the rest of the day was all by myself on all chairs too!) Down Pine Knot... again same issue, what was skieable was very good and edgy and what was nasty ice was easy to see and go around.

Cloud up top has some ice chunks and rocks to get around, but I headed down to Open Pit and that was wicked edgy and good as well. Headwaters had a big, nasty ice/wash spot just before Lies, but otherwise was good.

I eyed Hawkeye from the lift and it looked ok... and it ended up being really, really ok... I looped it four times before trying Chateimac which was much more scruffy with icy patches. Once more down Hawkeye and I was done. Didn't try Lies as I was by myself and not feeling brave. But two tele guys with a reg. skier was looping it like I looped Hawkeye. Ask them

Oh and by the way... the trees up top... they're green... I don't like that... they should be white. But it was snowing and by the time I left the summit the trees were a slightly dusted green.

Down Tannery, which was wierd, my skies felt like they stuttered, slow and sticky then quick with a really nasty chunk right before you drop down to the triple. Topridge was closed with major tilling and cat tracks going up and down it.

Out and around Ruby, to Sunway and out... Sunway was well covered with guns going on a few spots. Quicksilver also had the tower guns blowing.

All in all, after that nasty weather that went through, each and every one person who is working those cats and guns deserves a wicked round of applause. It's holding.

See you Saturday!

adksara wrote:

Ok... Wednesday 1/27... Dropped the little one off at the mom-in-laws in the a.m. and was in the gondola (ride to myself) at 11:30. Wild Air had guns galore on it, a good thing too it has some seriously scary wash/ice areas. Closed. So off the gondola, around Ruby Run to Twister. Both Ruby & the top of Cloud were well covered with that tower gun and another blasting the snot out of it. Any slick areas that I saw were easily skied around on good man-made/tilled stuff. Twister was GOOD!!! I was so happy skiing down. This isn't to say that there aren't a few scratchy areas, but the snow was nice and easily carved. I ran that twice off the gondola. Showcase was crap. 'nough said. Back to the gondola... (I ended up riding with one other guy only once, the rest of the day was all by myself on all chairs too!) Down Pine Knot... again same issue, what was skieable was very good and edgy and what was crappy ice was easy to see and go around. Cloud up top has some ice chunks and rocks to get around, but I headed down to Open Pit and that was wicked edgy and good as well. Headwaters had a big, nasty ice/crap spot just before Lies, but otherwise was good. I eyed Hawkeye from the lift and it looked ok... and was really, really ok... I looped it four times before trying Chateimac which was much more scruffy, icy patches and cat crap. Once more down Hawkeye and I was done. Didn't try Lies as I was by myself and not feeling brave. But two tele guys with a reg. skier was looping it like I looped Hawkeye. Ask them Down Tannery, which was wierd, my skies felt like they stuttered, slow and sticky then quick with a really nasty chunk right before you drop down to the triple. Topridge was closed with major tilling and cat tracks going up and down it. Out and around Ruby, to Sunway and out... Sunway was well covered with guns going on a few spots. Quicksilver also had the tower guns blowing. All in all, after that nasty weather that went through. Each and every one person who is working those cats and guns deserves a wicked round of applause. It's holding. See you Saturday!

NOW THAT is a conditions report.

When you get down to it, that's why ski forums were created.

Cheeseburger, and I think a beer, for AdkSara!

Harvey44 wrote:

Cheeseburger, and I think a beer, for AdkSara!

... with pickles?

... meaning the cheeseburger, not the beer

Yes of course pickles!

Anybody ski in the miniblizzard today?

Looked very cool on the radar.

Was up to the mountin today, Got there at 11:30 and it was snowing, not hard but snow none the less. Booted up got on the gondi alone ,no lines. There blowing the hell out of wild air guns from top to bottom. First run down foxlair good snow maybe an inch of fresh on top of the hardpack. Took sunway down to warm up very nice. Quicksilver was closed cuz they were blowing snow as far down as I could see. Next up was ruby run to showcase . By the time I hit the saddle the wind and snow really picked up. You could not see 10 feet in front of you. Headed down twards showcace but to be honest I stayed by the tree line so i could tell were the hell I was going and I think I went down slighride,witch was good lots of fresh snow. You had to ski with your feet cuz you could not see were you were going. Kinda scarry. Out to showcase witch was the slickest trail of the day. Taht mini blizzard lasted maybe a half hour but it dropped maybe 2 inches. Pine knot was next. Blowing snow all the way down Sweet. Next up Hawkeye good carvable snow on the sides a little scrapped off down the middle. Hiked over to cloud next. Was the only one over there just me and the mountin took cloud to Open pit. Best run of the day, after the bizzard 3 to 4 inchs of fresh and almost untracked. Tannery was next as I want to try out the north side. So it was ruby run over to Sleeping bear. I wanted to take tahaus but it was closed. Sleeping Bear was also sweet good coverage. Man that north quad is slow, maybe it just felt that way cuz the wind was picking up and it was comming from the north.
You could see a stream going across the bottom of tahawus glade so that did not look to promising. I wanted to see how the trees might have held up after the rain but all the glades were closed. Because I was alone I did not go in to check them out. I did however go down the work road to the right of Sunway and found maybe 3 inchs of the fresh snow on top of the sheet of ice that was under it, and it was rockhard could not even dent it with my ski pole. All in all I had a great day. The fact that it was snowing helped the mountin out a lot. By the time I left a 4 the sky was blue but the wind was howling. dress warm if you going up tomorrow.

Great report Ray.

This is my favorite part:

Raymo40 wrote:

... I think I went down slighride ...

and also this:

Raymo40 wrote:

You had to ski with your feet ...

Makes it sound like it might be worth the drive this weekend.

I actually like skiing in intense snow. Not sure why. I guess I just like snow.

The pic of the day on the website showed the dumpage pretty nicely.

Hope someone who is at the mountain tomorrow (Fri) can get a conditions report posted in the evening so we can find out what happened to the snow: did yesterday's snow (and the week's worth of snowmaking) all end up in Baker's Mills after tonight's wind?

Hoping to get a few hours in tomorrow afternoon - depending on what time the DSL installer arrives. Assuming I get broadband AND make it to the mountain I will try to post something.

Looks like it is going to be COLD.

Danzilla wrote:

Hoping to get a few hours in tomorrow afternoon - depending on what time the DSL installer arrives. Assuming I get broadband AND make it to the mountain I will try to post something.

Not to drift this thread Danno ... but it's a legitimate concern. When I had DSL put in at HRHQ the guy COMPLETELY blew off the proverbial "4 hour window." I drove from NJ to make that appointment and the guy never showed at all. I did ski so it wasn't exactly a total waste. I scheduled my window AFTER skiing just to make sure I got some turns in.

If they do hose you ... I got Frontier to give me a month of phone and internet for free (88 bucks) as compensation. Just sayin.

FYI Love having internet up at the cabin... come back from skiin... stoke the fire ... crack a Heineken... and post some pics.

Congrats on the upgrade.

Frontier was offering DSL for $20.00/month for the first year. Got a call from them about 2 weeks ago.

tom

Thanks Harv and Tom. The DSL guys actually came earlier than expected. They were running a 20.10 in 2010 special. We also got hooked up with Dish Network for around $25 a month. We were paying $48 for digital cable alone so it was almost a no brainer. Hoping to be able to "work from home" every once and a while:)

Didn't make it to the mountain today - satellite guy was here until almost 3 hooking it up. Heard it was cold, hard and windy. No details on trails other than pine knot was icy. I suspect the source is a bit of a softie.

One way or the other we'll be out there. Hopefully it is decent. Is this 3 years in a row with a mid January warm up / r**n? I seem to remember it was a week earlier last year followed by super cold / hard conditions. Same the year before.

The only (second hand) report I got from today was that Mr Steilhang (Lower) was sweet in the morning, but blown off and tough sledding in the afternoon. Will be open with a "gate" tomorrow. Enter with caution.

* * *

One of the Mods on FTO (First Tracks Online) is a nutcase named Tony Crocker. I say that with affection - one nutcase to another. He is a fanatical skier and a statistician by trade. He has a visually boring, but very accurate and detailed website called bestsnow.net. For some reason the URL is:

http://webpages.charter.net/tcrocker818/

It's got detailed records of snowfall at most areas of the country for at least 10 years, and snow quality ratings for all the weekends going back quite a while. I told you he was a nut.

In any case he recently told me that SEVEN of the last EIGHT years had a significant r**n event in the east over Christmas week in the Northeast. I couldn't believe it was true. But he had the numbers to back it up.

I do remember the year it didn't .... I skied nine days in a row and it dumped on New Years Day, and was killer. It was 07/08.