Belleayre: 1/28/2007

[adamti91]

Belleayre Mountain, January 28, 2007:

Introduction: I couldn't get a ride up to Plattekill this morning, so as dissapointed as I was, I couldn't let a perfectly good day go to waste. Got in the car at 9, got some breakfast, and drove up to Belleayre.

Weapon of Choice: Option Supercap 149

Conditions: I got up there and Belleayre was already packed. I met up with a friend for a few runs as soon as I got up there. Winnisook was getting pretty scraped by around 11, so we slowly made our way over to Tomahawk (the crossover trails aren't open yet, so there is a bit of hiking along the summit ridge involved). Took some runs off of Lift 7 before finally biting the bullet and walking from the top of Lift 7 over to Tomahawk. We didn't feel like hiking all the way over to Dot Nebel, so we strapped in at the top of (I believe) Pepacton, which we found out was closed. Some weeds were popping through, and besides a few other tracks, it was untouched powder. We cut over a herd path to see that Seneca looked about ready to open (blowing TONS of snow), and continued on until we reached Dot Nebel. Spent a few hours hitting Dot exclusively, it was packed powder and pretty smooth (got a bit scraped around lunchtime, but still the best trail on the mountain). My friend and I headed in for lunch at around 1. I met up with some other friends, took some runs on the now icy Wannatuska, messed around on Roaring Brook and Onondaga (which both held up surprisingly well). We made our way back over to Dot Nebel in just two runs. After awhile we went back over to Lift 7 and took some runs on Onteora which by then was icy and slick. On one of the last runs (from Superchief, the waits had died down by now), I caught an edge or something on Winnisook and messed up my hip pretty bad, as I fell on ice. Took the Chief again and relaxed in the summit lodge with my freinds for awhile, letting my hip get a little rest (the cashier gave me free hot chocolate since I had made it after they had closed- that made my day... Shook the pain off for a few final runs but now as I'm writing this it's hurts quite a bit, hopefully I'll be alright for friday (half day of school= me not going and heading up to Plattekill). Only fell once though... All in all the top portion (double diamond) section of Dot Nebel was AMAZING all day long (of course a little scraped towards the end), but by far the most fun trail on the mountain- it's REALLY wide, steep on top, and towards the bottom turns into an awesome cruiser.

Weather: I got up there at around 10, and it was already up to about 30. Add a hot sun, and by midday it FELT like around 35 (however, they were still blowing on a bunch of trails near Tomahawk, so it couldn't have been that warm). It was nice to actually be TOO hot for once this year. It clouded up by around 3.

Lifts: Eccchhhhh... Lift lines for Superchief were around 20 minutes all day except last run, Lift 7 was around 5 minutes, and Tomahawk had no wait, as usual.

Notes: My hip still hurts... .

Rating: 8/10

Conclusion: Amazing conditions early on, and throughout the day on Dot Nebel. Unfortunatly it was the most crowded I've seen it all year, so Superchief had some HUGE waits.

[Bandit2941]

Originally Posted by adamti91

It was nice to actually be TOO hot for once this year.

HUH!?!?!?!?!?!??!

Do you not remember that just 3 weeks ago it was 65 degrees on the mountain??

Otherwise, nice TR. There was good snow on every trail I skiied today right up till 4 (as long as you stayed at the sides on the tops).

[adamti91]

SHOULD have written.. "It was nice to be TOO hot recently"... haha I don't know... I wasn't going up much in the beginning of the season I guess.. maybe I'm just an idiot? Could be... Just a question... did you bother taking any more runs on Superchief after your first wait there? Jeez, it made me thankful that Bell isn't as popular as Hunter.

[wintersyndrome]

Nice TR was there on Saturday myself...poached some runs over from the top of Tomahawk lift so those may have been my tracks you had seen...Dot Nebel was closed for racing, but we made the best of it on the eastern half of the ridge.

This was my first time there, I like how it spreads out would be real nice when open 100%

other than that pretty much the same when we were there, good early on but skied off later in the day. Gotta hand it to the snowmaking team . The staff has put alot of effort into making snow there putting down enough surface to at least try to get everyone spread out and having fun...

Super chief and chair 7 had less of a wait on the skier left side of the loading station, though all in all I would go again...ws

[adamti91]

Originally Posted by wintersyndrome

Dot Nebel was closed for racing, but we made the best of it on the eastern half of the ridge.

It must have opened up later on, probably right before we hit it since it seemed pretty fresh.

[YardSaleDad]

Originally Posted by adamti91

It must have opened up later on, probably right before we hit it since it seemed pretty fresh.

The race was Saturday. We got on Dot Nebel at 3 PM. Before that we had Seneca from mid-station down to ourselves on every run the whole afternoon. Pure joy after the morning crowds over on the other side, even if the trails were nice. It pays to know a mountain well.

[adamti91]

Yeah, I must've read windtersyndrome's post wrong... The top of Seneca looked just about ready to open from when we cut across the closed ATV path or whatever.

[thinnmann]

My trip report for this past weekend at Belleayre is here.

Here are a couple of west-side pics -

[adamti91]

Nice pics, and nice blog too.