Camelback, PA 02/12/08

jamesdeluxe

jamesdeluxe

Administrator
Staff member
So what do you do after getting back from Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee? A POW DAY IN PA. :lol:

I was thinking about heading up to Huntah, but decided against it since the storm was supposed to start around 1 pm. I figured what the hell, I'll do night skiing at the Camel.

The drive west on Route 80, normally an hour, took me 2:15. When I arrived, there were already four or five inches down and it kept nuking for the next four hours. Although I punched through to the ice-rink base a few times on the "steeper" pitches, most of the time, it was boot-top blower with plenty of untracked on the sides of trails.

At 8:30, even though temps were in the low 20s, it changed over to freezing rain, so I bailed. The drive home was beyond awful. On top of all the snow on the highway, it was like getting sprayed by a firehose with water that immediately froze on the windshield. Doh! Regardless, worth the hassle to say that I pulled out the fat skis at a hill in Pennsylvania.
 
James,

I respect your insanity. PA's road care (or utter lack thereof) would keep me from never even thinking about pulling something like that.

I almost killed myself back in December trying to get home from a conference in DC going up Route 15 to I81 in sketchy weather.

Change to rain seems to have slopped everything up around here (plus we only had 3 or 4 inches pre changeover) so I decided not to go out looking for snow today.

Hopefully the forecast storm at the end of the weekend will work out a bit better!

-Craig
 
Wow, interesting weather event. The snow last night was pure cold smoke... dry as a bone. As you blasted through, it billowed up over your head.

At 8:30, as the precip changed to small frozen pellets, the LED board at the base displayed 12F, and I don't think it was a mistake. It was cold. How can precipitation hit the ground as liquid at that temperature? Was the atmosphere that warm?

Oh well, four hours of unexpected pow... I ain't complainin'.

Update: heh, the ski area is "closed due to inclement weather" today. You snooze, you lose.
 
Perspective on snow conditions are funny, especially after you've skied out west. In Utah, we had actualy dry blower/cold smoke snow. Last night, while the new snow was nice, it was more like fine sugar...I would not call it blower or cold smoke. Did not even come close to what we were skiing out west. If it was, it would just blow away as we skied and we'd be feeling more of that icy base under foot.

The new denser snow coated surfaces nicely and will make for an improved base. Beneath that new snow was a horrid, very firm and icy base, but luckily the new snow made for a nice padding and stuck nicely. I hardly hit bottom, except on the steeper pitches.
 
Sharon":1omg2xss said:
Beneath that new snow was a horrid, very firm and icy base.
Click to expand...

Same base at Camel, but it was snowing so hard that by 6 pm, I wasn't bottoming out any more. Wish I had brought my camera as it was pretty cool watching the over-the-head snow effect, backlit by the floodlights.

Strangely enough, before the changeover, this snow was drier than anything I skied in Wyoming 10 days ago. Looks like I was in the storm's sweet spot.

Oh well, it's toast now.
 
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