Greek Peak under the lights 12/28/09

[Powderqueen]

At 4am one of the dogs wanted to go out. I opened the door and flakes billowed in. The ground was lightly sprinkled with flakes. Too early. Back to bed for a few more hours. When the clock buzzed at 7am the bright white of the snow shined through the window. Only 2", but it was still snowing and was forecast to snow most of the day east of the Finger Lakes.

Greek Peak is just east of the Finger Lakes and southeast of Lake Ontario. The wind was out of the northwest.

Just another 4 days of work left in the year, and today was my performance review with my supervisor. Got to work early and kept myself busy until my 2pm meeting with the boss. An hour and thirty minutes later, with a glowing performance review on file, I'm in my car heading to Virgil, NY to meet Pam for an evening of outdoor exercise and celebration.

Acid Christ said 4-5" of snow had fallen by 9am. That may have been a little exaggerated, he is, after all, a guy...and we know how guys can be about their measurements:lol: . Maybe his 4" would be 5" with a little viagra :lol: There was about 4 fluffy inches on the ground when I arrived and another inch fell while we skied.

Got to Greek Peak at 4pm

Iliad had soft tracked powder on the left and under the lift.

Some of the base melted out on Saturday and Sunday so there were lots of orange lollipops in the shadows to keep you from skiing the thin and wet drainage areas which were filling in with snow (there's a lollipop in that photo...can you see it? I didn't see it until I was 3 feet away from it going pretty fast). Visibility in the falling snow at night with mediocre lighting (many of the bulbs were out leaving some pretty dark places, where the snow snakes live). Eleysian Fields boasted fresh natural snow on the right side. Some tall weeds still poking through in places and down to the dirt on the steepest pitch had to be skied gently.

We cruised over to chair 4 and did a few laps on Trojan. I scored some fresh powder on scratchy crust on the half-pipe.
I had my new Volkls but I kept it light and sustained no damage.

Went back to chair 1 and checked out Wendy's Way and Christy's Run after enjoyed the powder on the right of Fields. Both were short and sweet with plenty of tracked soft snow.

After a dozen lift rides, in 3 hours, I was ready for dinner and called it an evening.

On my way out, I chatted with an employee I know and got some interesting information on Hope Lake Lodge. They have 68% of the units sold and the whole place is booked for the holiday week. Over 500 people there right now. The waterpark was packed over the weekend (while it was raining). So maybe this place will do well. I sure hope so. I hope the Krygers make some money and put some back into the ski area. It sure can use a face lift. The base lodge floor was flooded...soaked carpet. not sure if it was from the rain or just a lot of skiers coming in with snow on the boots. The water was puddling on top of the carpet. The lifts are as slow as ever. They are the original chair lifts and have never been improved, other than a little cushion strapped on. One of those lifts is an old Sugarbush lift.

Word is that they probably won't do anything to the ski area until AFTER they put in a golf course. :-(

 

[jamesdeluxe]

On our way home tonight, we "drove past" GP (on 81) at 5:30 and it was snowing steadily. Wish I could've swung by, but was with the wife and kid.

 

[cornhead]

I've skied Greek the past two days and tonight. Saturday the weather was terrible, rain all morning with high wind. The afternoon, not much rain,but the wind persisted. I skied with a liftie who was supposed to work chair 1, there was no need to open it. We rode separate chairs so we could sit sideways with our backs to the wind. There was no line behind us. The snow was great, soft, and very carveable. Sunday morning the sun was shining on top of the hill, fog filled the valley. It looked pretty cool from the top. The snow was not so great. They had groomed a swath on the skier's left on Fields. Alcamene was also groomed, Iliad was left untouched. Everything was quite firm. I left around noon, things were softening up by then. It was probably better later in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous day. I had to go watch the NY Jets receive their Christmas present from the Indianapolis Colts.

I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions tonight. I was expecting a light dusting on top of similar conditions to Sunday. I arrived at 5:30, looked like about 3",maybe 4", of new snow. It snowed off and on, heavy at times, till close. I cleaned about 2" off my car when I left. I spent most of the night lapping skier's right on Fields, followed by skier's right on Stoic. It skied quite nicely, a few bare spots, but not bad. Much more fun for me than the filling loosening conditions of Sunday morning.

 

[Powderqueen]

I skipped skiing Sat and Sun because of the rain. Friday was good and going back for less than that was not in the plan. Glad I waited because last night was excellent. We also lapped right side of Fields and tracked up what was left of the untracked. I'm surprised we did not see you. It didn't seem as though anyone else was skiing that far to the right on Fields. Did you see us? We were a threesome...red(helmet/jacket), green(jacket)pink(helmet) and black/black respectively. It was not busy last evening.

Morning snow report today said 5" of new snow (accounts for all of yesterday's snowfall). It's quite blustery out there today. I think I'll give it a rest until more falls at the end of the week.

 

[cornhead]

I think I did see you. I remember seeing a group of three skiers heading down the hill ahead of me on one run. I didn't really see anyone else over there either. I didn't want to ruffle any feathers, so at first I stayed to the left of the closed signs. They were plastered with snow and illegible, so that was my defense if anyone gave me grief for being over there. I noticed the signs were gone towards the end of the night. Did you notice a snowman with skis on? I need new ski wear. The exterior waterproofing of my jacket and bibs is pretty well shot, hence I become a snow magnet. I've used Nikwax wash in restorer. I does work, but doesn't last too long.

I will be heading up Wednesday night. I see they are claiming 6" of new snow as of 2:45PM. Is this on top of the 5" last night? There was a lake effect snow advisory for the Cortland area today. Tonight may have been good, except for the brutal temps. I'm sure the turnout was low.

 

[Powderqueen]

those were not closed signs...they said "Caution, Thin Cover"...I think that's what they said on Friday...I don't ever stop to read them. In fact, when I start my run, I can't even see them, because I'm hugging the trees on the right, and they are mid-way across the slope. There is a lot of stuff in the middle of the slopes there that must be avoided. If that side was actually closed, I would think they would need to put signs at the top of the slope.

there weren't too many people there that night, and I think I can say that the 3 of us were probably the most capable threesome on the mountain that night. I saw a few very good "lone" skiers, but as a group (2 women and 1 tall guy in red), we totally ripped. I didn't even see any ski instructors or ski patrollers that night. I don't know why though...the conditions were superb.

I would say that 6" was the 24 hour total...which would be 5" yesterday and another inch overnight. Yesterday's morning report was zero inches.

 

[EMSC]

They have 68% of the units sold and the whole place is booked for the holiday week. Over 500 people there right now. The waterpark was packed over the weekend (while it was raining). So maybe this place will do well. I sure hope so. I hope the Krygers make some money and put some back into the ski area. It sure can use a face lift. The base lodge floor was flooded...soaked carpet. not sure if it was from the rain or just a lot of skiers coming in with snow on the boots. The water was puddling on top of the carpet. The lifts are as slow as ever. They are the original chair lifts and have never been improved, other than a little cushion strapped on. One of those lifts is an old Sugarbush lift.

Word is that they probably won't do anything to the ski area until AFTER they put in a golf course.

I'd seriously question the 68% sold status. I've heard through my grape vine that a lot of the early-to-sign-on 'sales' that they did have have not yet closed even though the place has been open for several weeks now. Though my grape vine also indicated that they are full for the 2 week holiday period. Even so, and that is good for the place, I still want to see who's going to pay that kind of $ for the Apr-Nov period each year. Tough to make a go of it if he can only get people for 3 months a year.

The one thing that makes the 68% number sound familiar, is that via bank covenants on his loans, Big Al is not allowed to spend a dime on the ski hill until 60 something % of units are sold (I forget the exact %, maybe 2/3rds?). I wonder if 'sold' means actually closed sales or simply 'lined up' to sell. No idea on the golf course thing, haven't heard a word of it through my 2,000 mile long gossip vine about GP :lol: .

 

[Powderqueen]

I heard it was actually 40%, so the 68% was a bit of a surprise. Maybe it is really 40%. Who knows. I just hope they make money at this point.

I think they will put in a golf course to get more business from April to November.

My source says that it is more likely money will be spent on a golf course before they put anything into the ski area.