Belleayre: 1/21/2007 [Pictures]

[adamti91]

Belleayre Mountain, January 21, 2007:

Introduction: After yesterday's pretty good conditions at Belleayre, I headed up today expecting more of the same. I left my house, 30 minutes away, to blue skies, cold temps, and no wind.

Weapon of Choice: Option Supercap 149

Conditions: As soon as I got up to Bell at 10, I got on Superchief and took a run down Wannatuska. The top area of the trail was icey and thin [see picture], but the actual trail itself stayed in good condition until around 2 or 3. One thing you need to know about Belleayre is that almost all the runs from the summit are the exactley the same, so the conditions on one trail are usually the same for the rest of the trails, and the only real difference is how many people are on the trail. Winnisook, which was amazing yesterday with tons of powder and moguls, was icey from the start today. Off to the side of Winnisook, however, was a bunch of powder and some smaller moguls that seemed to be an afterthought to the rest of the trail. The powder was there until the last run I took on it. Onteora was a hard pack and since it didn't get as much traffic, it didn't get as icey as Wannatuska. See the pictures for some visuals.

Weather: It was a clear, crisp, bluebird day when I first got up. By 2 in the afternoon, it was overcast and clouds had completely moved in. No snow showers though. As I pulled out at around 4:30, there were the most amazing clouds I had ever seen, interspersed with blue sky. We pulled over about one minute after leaving Belleayre so I could get a picture (check it out in the picture below- you can see Bell's trails through the trees if you look hard enough)

Lifts: No lift lines really all day, or nothing to complain about anyway. Superchief closed for 45 minutes at around one, stranding people both on the lift and at the loading area. Freinds of mine were on the lift when it stopped, and some at the loading area had to hike up, and others at the loading area had to take rides on snowmobiles to the lower lodge, then shuttles up to the top. It re-opened at around 2, I took it to the top once, and by the time I got one run in, it was closed again, and remained this way until I left.

Notes: Superchief was still closed when I left, hopefully it will be back up tomorrow. Belleayre is blowing on Dot Nebel still, and upper Yahoo looks about ready to go ().

Rating: 6/10

Conclusion: Conditions weren't that great all day, and Superchief closing just added to the mess.

Pictures:

^Wannatuska^

^Ice on Top of Wannatuska^

^Wannatuska^

^Superchief Access Trail^

^Clouds Over Belleayre^

[Warp Daddy]

Nice report

[adamti91]

Thanks, I'll try to get a trip report done for Plattekill when I go up on Saturday.