jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
I drove up to the Catskills in heinous driving conditions. Six inches of really slippery pixie dust that the NYDOT decided wasn’t worth plowing. By the time I got off the Thruway, I must have seen 20 cars in the ditch (not a common occurrence in the NE, and reminded me more of the dopes I used to see in Colorado). My hands were cramped from a keeping a death grip on the steering wheel.
Belleayre got the same six inches, but it wasn’t nearly as dry. Regardless, very fun to ski, and after they groom it out, the heavier snow will cover the icy crust that accumulated over the past couple NCP events. My SOP was very similar to when I was at Whiteface a while back — stay clear of the groomers and track out the powder on a few inexplicably closed trails for the first two hours, and then spend the rest of the day in the trees. The woods could use another 6-8 inches before everything is properly covered, but hitting bottom on one out of every ten turns was worth it when the other nine were that soft. I was alone, so no in-action pix.
Pepacton Woods
Dot Nebel Trees
The lift guy in the Tomahawk mid-station was in rare (and eclectic) form. I recognized a few of his choices: Bach and my favorite jazz pianist, Bud Powell:
One of the closed trails I lapped all morning was Pepacton, which had huge snowmaking whales on the lower half that the grooming crew hadn’t gotten around to. Worked for me; it was fun launching off them into knee-deep powder.
Belleayre got the same six inches, but it wasn’t nearly as dry. Regardless, very fun to ski, and after they groom it out, the heavier snow will cover the icy crust that accumulated over the past couple NCP events. My SOP was very similar to when I was at Whiteface a while back — stay clear of the groomers and track out the powder on a few inexplicably closed trails for the first two hours, and then spend the rest of the day in the trees. The woods could use another 6-8 inches before everything is properly covered, but hitting bottom on one out of every ten turns was worth it when the other nine were that soft. I was alone, so no in-action pix.
Pepacton Woods
Dot Nebel Trees
The lift guy in the Tomahawk mid-station was in rare (and eclectic) form. I recognized a few of his choices: Bach and my favorite jazz pianist, Bud Powell:
One of the closed trails I lapped all morning was Pepacton, which had huge snowmaking whales on the lower half that the grooming crew hadn’t gotten around to. Worked for me; it was fun launching off them into knee-deep powder.
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