skiNEwhere
Active member
So this is the first time I've skied in October, or even before December for that matter. I knew that only High Noon was open, so I broke out my Tele ski's since I'm at best an "Advanced" Intermediate(ok, maybe an "intermediate" intermediate, but the former sounds better and makes some sense), and I wanted to build up my legs for when more difficult terrain was open later in the season. Plus, I would have probably got bored on High Noon if I used my alpine ski's.
I woke up at 7, left the house just before 8, and was in line at the Black Mountain Quad by 8:50 (Lift opened at 9). I wasn't sure if there would be a lot of people there, since it was a weekday, but on the other hand it's only one of two ski area's open in the US. There were maybe 40-50 people in line by the time the chair opened, no more than a 1-2 minute wait.
So first run, my legs are burning already. I've been running in the offseason, and hiked a couple of times, but I didn't really do too many lunges, which is why my legs were on fire. I'd say the snow was PP, it was groomed the night before, but 3-4 inches of snow had fallen the night before as well, and it was still snowing by the time I hit my first run.
Everytime I got down to the black mountain express, the line was a couple of minutes longer. After waiting in the single's line 20 minutes on my 5th run,I figured out it would be faster to join up with a group in the main line (it was faster btw)
Snow was being blown on Ramrod (parallel to High Noon) as well, it appears like that will open up soon (Just read that it's opening tomorrow, 10/17). I heard that after Ramrod is opened up, they'll try to open up Sundance (a green) and then focus snowmaking operations on the upper mountain so that the Lenawee lift can open.
The snow was fine, but the liftline and the trail started filling up significantly after 9:30. I kept looking uphill whenever I vacated my little 6 foot wide turning lane near the edge of the trail so that I'd ensure I wouldn't get ran over. Glad I did too because there usually was someone who was going to my left or right since I was going slower, trying to focus on making solid tele-turns.
By the time I left after my 9th or so run, (around 11AM) so that I could go to work (I work in the afternoon), the crowds had totally overgrown the maze. I bet it was close to a 30 minute wait.
All in all, the trip accomplished it's intended purpose, which was a temporary cure to severe jonesing
Note: In the video below, i decided to alpine ski instead of tele since I figured I would get a more stable video. Also, this was taken around 9:10AM, before it started getting crowded
Here are my alpinereplay stats as well
I woke up at 7, left the house just before 8, and was in line at the Black Mountain Quad by 8:50 (Lift opened at 9). I wasn't sure if there would be a lot of people there, since it was a weekday, but on the other hand it's only one of two ski area's open in the US. There were maybe 40-50 people in line by the time the chair opened, no more than a 1-2 minute wait.
So first run, my legs are burning already. I've been running in the offseason, and hiked a couple of times, but I didn't really do too many lunges, which is why my legs were on fire. I'd say the snow was PP, it was groomed the night before, but 3-4 inches of snow had fallen the night before as well, and it was still snowing by the time I hit my first run.
Everytime I got down to the black mountain express, the line was a couple of minutes longer. After waiting in the single's line 20 minutes on my 5th run,I figured out it would be faster to join up with a group in the main line (it was faster btw)
Snow was being blown on Ramrod (parallel to High Noon) as well, it appears like that will open up soon (Just read that it's opening tomorrow, 10/17). I heard that after Ramrod is opened up, they'll try to open up Sundance (a green) and then focus snowmaking operations on the upper mountain so that the Lenawee lift can open.
The snow was fine, but the liftline and the trail started filling up significantly after 9:30. I kept looking uphill whenever I vacated my little 6 foot wide turning lane near the edge of the trail so that I'd ensure I wouldn't get ran over. Glad I did too because there usually was someone who was going to my left or right since I was going slower, trying to focus on making solid tele-turns.
By the time I left after my 9th or so run, (around 11AM) so that I could go to work (I work in the afternoon), the crowds had totally overgrown the maze. I bet it was close to a 30 minute wait.
All in all, the trip accomplished it's intended purpose, which was a temporary cure to severe jonesing
Note: In the video below, i decided to alpine ski instead of tele since I figured I would get a more stable video. Also, this was taken around 9:10AM, before it started getting crowded
Here are my alpinereplay stats as well
