Sharon
New member
Ski conditions were not too bad on friday, though the weather suctass.
It was rainy. It poured the whole way up. When we got there at 1:30, we
figured we wouldn't ski, but we went to see our friends who were
waiting for us. They said conditions were springlike. So we booted up and
loaded the gondola. It was cloudy, windy and rainy, but the snow was soft.
We avoided riding outdoor lifts for the first hour or so. We were pretty
soaked and needed the respite of the gondola between runs. The rain
subsided, but it was still windy. At 3ish I took a run on Topridge. Bubba
was done for the day, but I took a few more. The lift ride wasn't bad, and
the Topridge trail was smooth and soft as butter. It was quite enjoyable.
At that point I was ready to go up to the Summit, but it was near 3:30 and
the lift was closing. I wouldn't make it. So I took 2 more on the lower
mountain, which was quite nice.
Saturday, was another story. Our friend who drives a groomer left our New Years celebration early to groom the mountain. They ended up sitting for 5 hours while it rained. They didn't get to grooming until 5am, barely even letting it drain. They didn't get the mountain going until after 9am due to the rain and ice. The trails that were not groomed (Lies, Open Pit, Hulabaloo) were frozen solid. Bumps were like porcelein and unskiable. The only thing skiable were the groomed trails. There was about half the terrain from the previous day. When we arrived, there were 2 ambulances pulling out. Not a good sign. We took our first run on Topridge around noon. Death cookies interspersed with glare ice. We skittered and chattered down. We would stop at various spots and burst out laughing
because it was soooooooo bad and we were skiing on the verge of control at very high speeds, as there wasn't much to control speed with. There were very few places where you could get an edge in. This is the stuff that
makes eastern skiers great skiers.
The next run was down Pine Knot, which actually had a swath of decent
skiable snow on the right side. There was hope. We rode up to the Summit. Hawkeye was not lookin so great, but I thought I had spotted some snow on the left side that looked skiable. The top part was mostly death cookies and ice. At least you could get an edge into the piles of death cookies. The steep pitch before the left turn was downright scarey. It was pretty much a freefall. Not much friction happening under the skis there. We skittered down that praying that there would be something at the bottom to stop us. Luckily there was. Again we stopped and laughed at the obsene conditions we were skiing. There was indeed a little snowy stuff on the left side as the trail crosses under the lift. There were a few people nervously trying to get down through this bottle neck in the Z turn. We snaked our way through the side-slippers and decided to ride up to the Summit again to see how things were on the other side.
We stopped at the top of Lies and Open Pit. Eeewww. Solid, bulletproof
bumps, not a fleck of snow in sight. Ropes were up for sure and it wasn't
anything we wanted to try out.
We skied Cloud down to the Saddle. This is where we ran into some friends of ours. Now we were a foursome, ready to rip up the lower mountain, because that was our only hope. First thing we did was skitter sideways across an ice rink on the flat part of the saddle. It was very large and very firm. It was silly.
Showcase and Sunway were it. They were actually soft and had some shape to them, which made it much more fun. There were also a lot of people on these trails as this was only good skiing on the mtn. We rode up the gondola only to find that Fair View was closed. We learned later from the ski patrollers that there was no edging possible on that trail. So we ended up riding the triple to access Showcase and Sunway from the Saddle.
The weather was cool. In the 20s. Mostly cloudy, but some sun shined through at times. What I was wondering was, why weren't they making snow? They had the temps. I know they turned on the guns later, as we had dinner with one of our ski patrol buddies that night. The ski patrol was quite busy that day, with many accidents and injuries, mostly occuring on the lower slopes. The upper mtn was pretty quiet, and only those with the skills were attempting those trails anyway. And anyone with any sense, didn't take more than one run on either of the black diamond trails that were open. Ski patrol had a very busy day. When I saw them at 3:30 before our last runs, they all were glazed over and hoping the end of the day would come soon.
We opted not to ski today. We had enough marginal skiing for the weekend. So, we headed home. In Rome the roads became glare ice. I think we had enough experience on the glare ice, but it was so bad that cars were sliding all over the place. There were accidents everywhere. The thought of going on the ramp to the highway to get to the thruway terrified us, so we slowly made our way through the city of Rome and found a Denny's to kill an hour while they salted the roads. Cars were covered with ice, as were the roads. By the time we finished our coffee and french fries, the roads were better and we managed the rest of the drive without any trouble, except for a little wind which blew Pam's little car around a bit as we rode down 81.
This must be the January thaw. At least we are getting it over early. OK, that's it. Now bring on the snow....quick!!
It was rainy. It poured the whole way up. When we got there at 1:30, we
figured we wouldn't ski, but we went to see our friends who were
waiting for us. They said conditions were springlike. So we booted up and
loaded the gondola. It was cloudy, windy and rainy, but the snow was soft.
We avoided riding outdoor lifts for the first hour or so. We were pretty
soaked and needed the respite of the gondola between runs. The rain
subsided, but it was still windy. At 3ish I took a run on Topridge. Bubba
was done for the day, but I took a few more. The lift ride wasn't bad, and
the Topridge trail was smooth and soft as butter. It was quite enjoyable.
At that point I was ready to go up to the Summit, but it was near 3:30 and
the lift was closing. I wouldn't make it. So I took 2 more on the lower
mountain, which was quite nice.
Saturday, was another story. Our friend who drives a groomer left our New Years celebration early to groom the mountain. They ended up sitting for 5 hours while it rained. They didn't get to grooming until 5am, barely even letting it drain. They didn't get the mountain going until after 9am due to the rain and ice. The trails that were not groomed (Lies, Open Pit, Hulabaloo) were frozen solid. Bumps were like porcelein and unskiable. The only thing skiable were the groomed trails. There was about half the terrain from the previous day. When we arrived, there were 2 ambulances pulling out. Not a good sign. We took our first run on Topridge around noon. Death cookies interspersed with glare ice. We skittered and chattered down. We would stop at various spots and burst out laughing
because it was soooooooo bad and we were skiing on the verge of control at very high speeds, as there wasn't much to control speed with. There were very few places where you could get an edge in. This is the stuff that
makes eastern skiers great skiers.
The next run was down Pine Knot, which actually had a swath of decent
skiable snow on the right side. There was hope. We rode up to the Summit. Hawkeye was not lookin so great, but I thought I had spotted some snow on the left side that looked skiable. The top part was mostly death cookies and ice. At least you could get an edge into the piles of death cookies. The steep pitch before the left turn was downright scarey. It was pretty much a freefall. Not much friction happening under the skis there. We skittered down that praying that there would be something at the bottom to stop us. Luckily there was. Again we stopped and laughed at the obsene conditions we were skiing. There was indeed a little snowy stuff on the left side as the trail crosses under the lift. There were a few people nervously trying to get down through this bottle neck in the Z turn. We snaked our way through the side-slippers and decided to ride up to the Summit again to see how things were on the other side.
We stopped at the top of Lies and Open Pit. Eeewww. Solid, bulletproof
bumps, not a fleck of snow in sight. Ropes were up for sure and it wasn't
anything we wanted to try out.
We skied Cloud down to the Saddle. This is where we ran into some friends of ours. Now we were a foursome, ready to rip up the lower mountain, because that was our only hope. First thing we did was skitter sideways across an ice rink on the flat part of the saddle. It was very large and very firm. It was silly.
Showcase and Sunway were it. They were actually soft and had some shape to them, which made it much more fun. There were also a lot of people on these trails as this was only good skiing on the mtn. We rode up the gondola only to find that Fair View was closed. We learned later from the ski patrollers that there was no edging possible on that trail. So we ended up riding the triple to access Showcase and Sunway from the Saddle.
The weather was cool. In the 20s. Mostly cloudy, but some sun shined through at times. What I was wondering was, why weren't they making snow? They had the temps. I know they turned on the guns later, as we had dinner with one of our ski patrol buddies that night. The ski patrol was quite busy that day, with many accidents and injuries, mostly occuring on the lower slopes. The upper mtn was pretty quiet, and only those with the skills were attempting those trails anyway. And anyone with any sense, didn't take more than one run on either of the black diamond trails that were open. Ski patrol had a very busy day. When I saw them at 3:30 before our last runs, they all were glazed over and hoping the end of the day would come soon.
We opted not to ski today. We had enough marginal skiing for the weekend. So, we headed home. In Rome the roads became glare ice. I think we had enough experience on the glare ice, but it was so bad that cars were sliding all over the place. There were accidents everywhere. The thought of going on the ramp to the highway to get to the thruway terrified us, so we slowly made our way through the city of Rome and found a Denny's to kill an hour while they salted the roads. Cars were covered with ice, as were the roads. By the time we finished our coffee and french fries, the roads were better and we managed the rest of the drive without any trouble, except for a little wind which blew Pam's little car around a bit as we rode down 81.
This must be the January thaw. At least we are getting it over early. OK, that's it. Now bring on the snow....quick!!