Bristol Conditions

[Johnny V.]

Snow coming down, but hard underneath due to last nights rain. We had gate training, but my wife skied the whole mountain and it was pretty much the same all over. See how much snow comes from the storm.

 

[Johnny V.]

Yup, passed on the "powder" day yesterday-my body (and bad knee) needed a rest. Wanted to ski today to see my granddaughters in their classes. Got down early, made a run on the loop then moved over to Galaxy. Started up the chair, got about 1/3 way up and it stopped. Mechanical issues-we were stuck for about 20 minutes then they used the auxiliary to get us to the top and closed the lift. Wasn't bad-it was sunny with no wind and the three women I got on with had us covered-doctor, lawyer and nurse!

Conditions were nice, although eventually some icy spots showed up, but plenty of snow to turn on. Bluebird skies with cold temps. The singles line moved well on the Comet chair, especially considering the crowds. Comet was closed for a college race, but some of the slopes were pretty quiet later in the day-I made runs down Rocket and Meteor with only 4-5 others on them. I assume the green slopes were pretty crazy. When I left around 2:00, both outer parking lots were full. As I can ski during the week, I'm glad to see them get the business on the weekends-more revenue means more improvements.

Saw the 11 year old doing moguls on Upper Universe, and saw the 7 year old charge fearlessly down Sunset. Still haven't seen the 9 year old since she started her lesson group-I'll try to catch her next week.

 

[Andy_ROC]

Hey Johnny we were stuck also! Second chair from the top.
It was windy up there and we got cold!

Yes it started out awesome. Galaxy, Northstar, Meteor, Rocket were like talcum powder. Simply the best conditions I've seen yet. I'm bummed because it was so nice for a while before it got busy.

Unfortunately with the galaxy lift being down it got quite busy at the Comet Express.

Anyway based on my weekend experiences at Bristol I would never recommend that anyone from out of town bother traveling to ski Bristol Mountain. There's simply too many people for the limited terrain. Also too many reckless wahoos. I almost got taken out on lower Meteor so I was done by 11.

 

[Johnny V.]

Yep, it was busy, but probably no worse than any Northeast ski area on a Saturday when there is fresh snow in the backyards and blue skies. I guess I lower my expectations when I ski during on a weekend, and yesterday was pretty good. Yahoos............I saw some snowboarder jamoke (and not trying to stereotype snowboarders) with a Labatts at the top of the Morningstar chair at about 10:30 in the AM-if I was patrol I would have pulled his pass and told him to get off the mountain.

 

[Andy_ROC]

Yep, it was busy, but probably no worse than any Northeast ski area on a Saturday when there is fresh snow in the backyards and blue skies. I guess I lower my expectations when I ski during on a weekend, and yesterday was pretty good. Yahoos............I saw some snowboarder jamoke (and not trying to stereotype snowboarders) with a Labatts at the top of the Morningstar chair at about 10:30 in the AM-if I was patrol I would have pulled his pass and told him to get off the mountain.

True the Backyard snow on top of pandemic skiers has definitely made skiing more busy everywhere. Bristol just always seems way more crowded than say Holiday Valley (which I'm guessing has far more skiers on a weekend). It probably has a lot to do with the number of trails, trail width, overall acreage, the number of lifts at HV, more tree skiing and fewer bottlenecks as compared to Bristol.

Yesterday crossing over from Meteor and Rocket to the comet singles line was dicey. Between the race audience standing there crimping the trail and random two way traffic through that very tight area was perilous at times.

As for ski patrol, at least at Bristol, they seem to more focused on accident cleanup than prevention. It just gets scary there. When I used to go on ski club nights the behavior was bad and there was always someone getting carted down the mountain in the dead sled.

A few things they could do; pull tickets for reckless behavior. Also if they opened up some treed areas by thinning some trees it would make for better tree skiing and provide more skiable area thus reducing skier density on groomers. Also would like to see them put the terrain park back on Morningstar. This would keep more high risk behavior concentrated in one area.

Anyway if anyone is thinking about traveling some distance to Bristol, make the trip on a weekday if at all possible.

 

[Johnny V.]

Nice day today! Blue skies, grippy snow, my wife and friends to ski with. Great coverage in most areas, a little bit of ice, but in almost all cases you could trust your edges. They blew snow on Rocket and left it ungroomed-whales and moderate moguls with a soft surface made for an ego building bump run. Lower Northstar was worth the slight poling back to the Comet lift-probably about 10 tracks on it when I went down the first time. Crowded (for a weekday) at first, but things thinned right out after about 10:15 or so. Skied until about 2:00 when the light began to get poorer.

 

[Johnny V.]

A couple inches of fluffy fresh in the morning and it snowed on and off with a mostly grey sky with a couple of shots of sun. Gate training for an hour or so, then free skiing. Rocket was still nice with widely spaced bumps, whales and grippy snow. Snow was too slow to try and make it over from Lower Northstar without a lot of hiking.

 

[Johnny V.]

Another nice night for a ski race. A couple of sprinkles, but the rain held off. No need for extra coats for the ride back up and the course held up fine for both runs. Fun and fast set by the race crew and (a little bragging here) I continue to be the fastest in the 65-dead age group.

One criticism-Bristol needs to replace a bunch of lights. There are several out especially on Galaxy and Northstar which seem even worse as the new trail Polaris is lit very brightly with LED fixtures. I'm hoping they work on this over the summer, although unless I race next year, I don't see myself skiing at night anymore.

 

[Andy_ROC]

Another nice night for a ski race. A couple of sprinkles, but the rain held off. No need for extra coats for the ride back up and the course held up fine for both runs. Fun and fast set by the race crew and (a little bragging here) I continue to be the fastest in the 65-dead age group.

One criticism-Bristol needs to replace a bunch of lights. There are several out especially on Galaxy and Northstar which seem even worse as the new trail Polaris is lit very brightly with LED fixtures. I'm hoping they work on this over the summer, although unless I race next year, I don't see myself skiing at night anymore.

Yes Johnny, the lighting has definitely degraded over the years in many areas. I skied a few weeks ago on a Friday evening with my son, and even with his young eyes he commented on how many lights were out and how dark it was in some areas. Galaxy, Northstar and Southern Cross and probably more. This was a problem when I stopped night skiing 5 years ago and has only gotten worse. The good news is that the lighting on Polaris is a good example of what we'll eventual get. I suspect when they widen upper NS that it will get new LED lights as well. But they really need to step it up and make some lighting improvements on existing runs. I'm surprised (maybe they are) that Ski Patrol isn't complaining a lot about this.

 

[tirolski]

One criticism-Bristol needs to replace a bunch of lights. There are several out especially on Galaxy and Northstar which seem even worse as the new trail Polaris is lit very brightly with LED fixtures. I'm hoping they work on this over the summer, although unless I race next year, I don't see myself skiing at night anymore.

Watched the Song cam and a skier coming down Otto’s had a headlamp on.
I thought it was a snowmobile coming down at first. YMMV.