Bristol Conditions

[Johnny V.]

Comet chair seemed to be glitch free today. Low crowds for a holiday morning-could be due to the cold and poor roads in Rochester. A couple of inches of new snow helped the surface and it kept snowing for much of the time we were there. Sun peeked out for a couple of runs including one down through the old people moguls to skier's right on Galaxy. Polaris was closed for a cross country race in the AM, but opened up in the early afternoon. The run from the Galaxy chair-Polaris-Upper Northstar-Lower Northstar is spectacular for Bristol-by far the longest pitched run there. Rumors are it may be used for a race trail-it's got the pitch, width and length. Hope I get a chance to run on it before I age out of racing!

 

[Andy_ROC]

Comet chair seemed to be glitch free today. Low crowds for a holiday morning-could be due to the cold and poor roads in Rochester. A couple of inches of new snow helped the surface and it kept snowing for much of the time we were there. Sun peeked out for a couple of runs including one down through the old people moguls to skier's right on Galaxy. Polaris was closed for a cross country race in the AM, but opened up in the early afternoon. The run from the Galaxy chair-Polaris-Upper Northstar-Lower Northstar is spectacular for Bristol-by far the longest pitched run there. Rumors are it may be used for a race trail-it's got the pitch, width and length. Hope I get a chance to run on it before I age out of racing!

Thank you for ongoing updates. Sounds like things are in great shape. I might have to go in a couple weeks once I get back from Taos. Hopefully we don't get a thaw and rain anytime soon.

I sure hope the rumor of making Polaris & Northstar the race trail. But it would be just like Bristol mgt to impair their best run from the general public and make it a race trail for the small minority

 

[Johnny V.]

Cold (5 F) but bluebird day for our Tuesday morning race. So nice to be able to see! Skied for a while after the race with great conditions (for the NE) and perfect visibility. Unfortunately, the area above the Galaxy chair is not really filled in, so the usual tactic of flying down Lower Northstar and Lower Universe then tucking to get back to the base really won't work right now. Race skis were the way to go today!

I sure hope the rumor of making Polaris & Northstar the race trail. But it would be just like Bristol mgt to impair their best run from the general public and make it a race trail for the small minority

Bristol gets really small when event happen on weekends, whether races or freestyle events. In some ways moving the race hill to Upper/Lower Northstar (plus the advantage of a better race hill) would get the race out of the public eye,unlike Comet races which are right under the main chair. It would also help isolate the racers from the GP. When and if it will happen, who knows? The new start house and the timing shack are all on Comet/Outer Orbit and it would be a project to move them. One other thing to consider-these events bring in substantial money and are pretty much held regardless of weather, whereas the the GP may chose not to ski if the conditions/weather are not so good. I sympathize, when I worked full time and could only ski on weekends, I didn't like it also.

 

[Johnny V.]

With the forecast sunshine, I couldn't stay away even with the cold temps. I was rewarded with a bluebird day with great visibility, good eastern conditions and almost no people. A little chilly but the sunshine helped-at these temperatures with wind and overcast, I would have stayed home. Guns going on Lower Rocket-soft snow and whales. Galaxy chair was running and I did several runs down the full length of Northstar.Comet Schomet-Northstar from the top is the best trail on the hill.

 

[NYSkiBlog]

 

[Johnny V.]

Good crowd today, but lift lines weren't bad and conditions were good.Very short almost non existent lines on the Galaxy chair, and with Shuttle open, it's easy to ski Upper Meteor and the top part of Upper Rocket then cut back over to that chair. Did a run down Comet at around 11:30 and I was the only person on it! Ran into an old friend and we made a couple of runs on the backside-the Crawler wasn't bad today. Snow was consistently decent with a few slick spots-it's Upstate NY. Whales are gone from Upper Universe-we'll see if they let the moguls redevelop.

 

[Johnny V.]

Depressed Bills fans (including myself) had a bluebird day to help improve their mood. Bright sunshine and groomers made for many fast trips down the slopes. No Galaxy chair today, but the conditions on Lower North Star made the skate back worth it. As expected, crowds were slim, but a few more people as the day went on. Wind wasn't too bad although is predicted to increase as we get closer to night.

 

[Johnny V.]

Surprise, surprise! About 1" of snow in at our place in the SE suburbs of Rochester when I left for our Tuesday morning beer league race. When I got to Bristol there was about 5-6" of medium powder on the slopes! Of course, we all know fresh snow isn't the greatest for racing. Made a couple of runs on the race cheaters then proceeded to slip the course quite a few times to get the fresh snow off. (while the general public was ripping up the mini powder dump). Sun was out for the race and the surface was nice when we got the snow cleared off. Finished the race, changed to my 88 AM skis and cranked through the clumped up snow for the next couple hours. Did Lower Northstar and Lower Universe-worth the skate back to the Comet chair. With the new snow groomed into the existing manmade, we should have hero conditions tomorrow-I've heard we may even get more natural...........and the Galaxy chair will be in operation.Picking up the two older granddaughters at 8:00 (no school).

 

[Andy_ROC]

Cold (5 F) but bluebird day for our Tuesday morning race. So nice to be able to see! Skied for a while after the race with great conditions (for the NE) and perfect visibility. Unfortunately, the area above the Galaxy chair is not really filled in, so the usual tactic of flying down Lower Northstar and Lower Universe then tucking to get back to the base really won't work right now. Race skis were the way to go today!


Bristol gets really small when event happen on weekends, whether races or freestyle events. In some ways moving the race hill to Upper/Lower Northstar (plus the advantage of a better race hill) would get the race out of the public eye,unlike Comet races which are right under the main chair. It would also help isolate the racers from the GP. When and if it will happen, who knows? The new start house and the timing shack are all on Comet/Outer Orbit and it would be a project to move them. One other thing to consider-these events bring in substantial money and are pretty much held regardless of weather, whereas the the GP may chose not to ski if the conditions/weather are not so good. I sympathize, when I worked full time and could only ski on weekends, I didn't like it also.

I hear you but it's just part of a long beef I have w/Bristol management taking things away, which devalued our season passes which in turn made me and friends spend less $$$--- like dropping season passes and lockers around 8 years ago.

Things like shortening operating hours and closing the Galaxy lift on weeknights. It's even worse now as I see they don't even run Galaxy on some weekdays. Without the Galaxy lift in my opinion they impair or make a significant proportion of the best intermediate/advance trails unusable, including Northstar which is the BEST run at the mountain. Added on top of that they often will impair or close runs for race and bumps training weeknights. So without the Galaxy chair running we just decided it wasn't worth it. It's just too small a mountain to not run lifts while they close or partially close other runs, especially for what they're charging for passes.

While I'm not a terrain park user, as you know they once had a heck of a terrain park that included a large half-pipe and large jumps. I always thought it made riding the Siberian Crawler more entertaining as you'd watch park rats do their stunts--- that park was heavily used. But they took that away also and now what they have left is a meager shell of its former.

So if they took Northstar away for racing it's just a continuation of a long pattern of taking things away. Giving the general public Comet if racing is moved to Northstar is like getting a consolation prize---it's just another mostly straight run like Rocket and no comparison to the large sweeping arc turns found on Northstar.

 

[Spencer]

Day 4 yesterday for me with 4” of snow. Arrived early afternoon but plenty of soft snow and “chop” out there left. The entire hill is skiing great and every edge or makeshift glade run is in play

Personally, I enjoy the North end of the mountain more when Galaxy lift is not running. It keeps it quiet over there.

Why do they keep Orion’s Belt closed?

Had to check out the new magic carpet. Pretty cool. And rewarded with some launching pad pow turns.