Suicide Six Pilgrimage

The second coolest thing about Suicide Six is it’s name. Suicide Six. It sounds gnarly and dangerous. According to legend, it got its name when the original owner was contemplating moving his rope tow from a smaller, low pitch parcel across the road. Somebody looked at the steep face of hill number six and declared that trying to ski it would be suicide. That’s a great story.

Suicide Six

The coolest thing about Suicide Six is that it’s where lift served skiing began in the United States, all the way back in the nineteen thirties. It’s the site where the engine from a Model T Ford was re-engineered into a rope tow for the first time – in the United States at least.

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Snow Ridge: Afternoon Deep

While visiting my parents in the Finger Lakes over the weekend I watched the weather reports. I was surprised to see a late season surge, a large amount of snow headed towards Tug Hill. Farah and I headed to Snow Ridge Sunday afternoon.

Snow Pocket

It was one of my deepest days, and possibly the best three hours of skiing I’ve ever had. I’m sure the following words or pictures won’t really do it justice.

Driving the Thruway it was clear skies and dry roads, but after getting off the interstate and driving north of Rome, conditions changed drastically. Deteriorated or improved, depending on your point of view.

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Jay Peak: Playing the Long Game

Three weeks ago Doug Fish of Indy Pass sent me an email. “I’m coming East, here’s my schedule. When are we skiing together?” I looked at his itinerary and started to weigh my options. I needed some time.

Jay Peak

When it comes to weather, the farthest out I look is 240 hours. Each day, I do one simple thing; I check the GFS 240 hour snowfall map for the CONUS (aka Continental US). By noting the difference in the map vs the previous day, I can see if the GFS is seeing snow on that 10th day. Sometimes I leave a browser tab open and refresh it each morning, to more easily see the change in the modeled storm overnight. It’s a bit of a game as storm tracks flip back and forth each day.

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