Saturday February 8- day 1 at Bristol for me this season. We arrived around 815 and knew we had to get on the mountain quickly as 5 school buses and a tour bus were arriving.
Was on the chair shortly after 830am. Headed straight over to Galaxy and Northstar. Polaris-Northstar top to bottom was absolutely spectacular. Galaxy was pretty good but nothing like Northstar. Universe was also quite nice, it was groomed top to bottom. However there was an ugly swale at the bottom of Universe that claimed a couple of victims early on and were carted off by ski patrol.
Galaxy and upper meteor also quite nice. Meteor a bit more marble snow but still decent and ripping fast.
After some hot laps we headed to the Bristol's "premiere run" Rocket. Unfortunately Rocket was an absolute POS trash. Variable all hardpack and ice, absolutely dreadfully bad. They really need to drop the auger and groom aggressively.
After the miserable run on Rocket we headed back to Northstar and just kept lapping.
Finished with a final run on Southern Cross which was also pretty good.
Overall the crowds were decent but nothing crazy and lines were quick. A few of the typical meat missiles but my group was ripping fast so with a little timing we stayed ahead of the fray.
14 runs and almost 15k vert and we called it a day.
Hit the bar for an Apres beer and then headed to Other Half brewery for a flight.
Today felt like a good classic, western NY winter ski day-- something we've missed the last few years.
