Friday 1/7: Woke up to about 3" on my deck, on the ride up the amount decreased to just a dusting but then increased again once I hit the access road, there was about 3" at the top of the mountain. Got there for life 6 opening, the first runs were really nice. Took a few runs there, headed down to the gondola. The snow they had made on Seneca & Dot earlier in the week was a little wet so I didn't think those runs were as good as the east side. Went back to the east side and skied till 12:30 then called it a day. It was pretty decent, the first runs were great!
Saturday 1/8: Rolled in the overlook parking lot about 8:10, first thing I noticed was lift 6 not spinning. Texted my lift operator friend and asked it if had problems and he just said Yep. So down to the gondola we went, got one of the first cabins and the line was fairly long behind us. The second tier Tomahawk parking was already full and working on the third on our first ride up and cars kept streaming up the access road. Took Seneca which was pretty nice back down to the gondola which had eaten the line up. Did another run and the line had filled the corral when we got back down, so we headed east and took Onteora to lift 7. On the ride up patrol was dropping the ropes on the park with whales and active snowmaking. So we did Onteora and cut across to the park, it was awesome. And it took you to the skiers left side of lift 7 where there was no line. The line on the other, lodge side of the lift stretched across the trail. Lapped Onteora to the park probably 8 times and by then it was 11:30 and called it a day.
We had a really fun day but I suspect the average skier that arrived late had a bad experience. With lift 6 down the line at the gondola had to be long. The line at 7 was long if you walked up from the lodge. Never rode 8, but with Dot closed for racing the only (open) options were Seneca or Deer Run. Algonquin and Peekamoose should open soon. I heard the problem with 6 was mouse damage on a fiberoptic line. If 6 was running I don't think there would have been issues with crowds. Unfortunate timing on what was surely the busiest day of the season so far.
