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Kissing Bridge 12/31/17

Cornhead

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Dec 4, 2010
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Date(s) Skied: 12/31/17
Resort or Ski Area: Kissing Bridge
Conditions: Powder, PP, cold air
Trip Report:
My buddy Dick is on a quest for the elusive 100 day season. He has an ISKINY gold card which allows him to ski every ski hill and resort in NY, baring a few private ski hills, and Plattekill. I guess Lazslo got his feathers ruffled when he didn't obeid by his commitment to honor Dick's card after Stella in March last year. He didn't honor his commitment to the Freedom Pass for me either, claiming the ski day was a "special event" despite both of our comps being unrestricted. ISKINY reimbursed Dick for his lift ticket, kudos. I had to swallow hard. This season Plattekill participates in neither program. Anyway, I digress, on to mighty Kissing Bridge.

Dick and I are both powder connoisseurs and will travel to the powder despite how vertically challenged the hills are where it falls. This is what lead us to Kissing Bridge. The 24 hr snow totals were a little disappointing, but the 7 day totals were prodigious, 50+ inches. Kissing Bridge is just South of Buffalo putting it squarely in Erie's LES zone. The recent Arctic blast had the LES machine cranking in Western NY.

When we finally arrived we were happy to see Kissing Bridge's pitch to be similar to Snow Ridge, a frequent haunt of ours off of lake Ontario. Though not exhilarating, enough pitch to enjoy some Erie fairy dust. We made a run on the ungroomed directly under the main chair. Our next run we found the only marked Glade we came across. It was laughably labeled a double black, very short, and flat. We did find a few nice lines in the trees throughout the day.

We followed a Dad and his young son on a rather long trudge along the top to get to the chair far skier's left. There was a chair in between that was not running. The man said a shuttle bus would be available to get back to the lodge, but found there was a cross trail to get back. In that pod we found the TOTD, Blackjack, tracked out, but with the low density of the snow, skied like it wasn't, bottomless to boot. Again, laughably a double black. We spent about an hour lapping that pod, then headed in for lunch and to unfreeze my toes.

While in the lodge I overheard a local saying the conditions were the best there in the past three seasons. We headed out for another hour hitting trails we hadn't in the morning. By 1 o'clock we'd wrung out what was there to be wrung, and headed for home.

Will Dick, or I, ever return to ski Kissing Bridge? Probably not, but it was an enjoyable powder day spent in Western NY. Well worth my $39 Liftopia ticket.
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Bumpsis

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Boston, MA
Thanks for the pictures. I have nice memories of this place. This was the regular destination for night skiing through my school's ski club.
We could go 2 or 3 nights per week to KB and one night to Holiday Valley, further south (or SW). I went a lot.
The snows were epic at times, due to the Lake Effect. Yeah, the pitch is really mild, despite the hopeful black diamond markings on some of the trails. Untracked powder that was, say, half way between you boot top and knee, would bring you to dead stop if you tried to turn :)
 

SkiRay

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I never heard of this place.. Man.. The pics look great.. What's the vertical? like 500? 600?

Ray
 

Cornhead

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I never heard of this place.. Man.. The pics look great.. What's the vertical? like 500? 600?

Ray
Yeah, right around 500ft I think, wouldn't have been worth the trip if not for the fresh snow, even then, got boring pretty quick.

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Dick Gazinya

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Dec 15, 2015
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It was more like a romantic getaway. Skiing was just a side activity there. Flat as a pancake.
 

Bosco DaSkia

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Oct 1, 2016
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I really like the parking situation there. You're never more than a few steps to a lift. I love it when ski areas have parking at the top and having lean-tos with picnic table and fire pits right next to the top of the lift is awesome for for parting in the warm weather.


:cool:
 
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Dick Gazinya

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