180
Well-known member
Some good powder on the closed trails I bet.
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Belleayre 11/28
- Thread starter Rob A
- Start date
thinnmann
New member
Are these skinny? OK, nothing that starts with a 1-2-x....
The Atomic mEX is 114/84/107
The Rossi VS Oversize is 118/67/104
Don't have to get much wider than that in the East. The mEX gives decent float in western powder. If it gets crazy out there, just rent some really fat skis.
The soft Atomic BetaRide and expecially that Volkl are the skinniest, at 102 tips. But the titanium and the awesome binding/riser combo on those old race-stock P40's make it an awesome ski.
My wife and kids' skis are in the mix.
Atomic Race 8's were my 11 year old daughter's race skis last season.
15 year old son skied the Blizzard Sigma SL's and the Volant Zip Carv's last season.
Volant Vertex are my wife's, who is strictly on-piste.
I am a big older Volant fan. I service these myself, and buy from swaps and eBay. All those skis with bindings ranged from $6.25 - $179. Don't need new stuff to ski well. Much more important to spend time on the skis than money.
Decided on the Rossi's for tomorrow (well for later today... i gotta get some sleep!)
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jamesdeluxe
New member
A friend just got back from skiing the closed trails at Belleayre. He said there was a foot or more of bone-dry powder to the looker's right of Lift 7 and no bottoming out.
Anyone else get up there today?
Anyone else get up there today?
GrilledSteezeSandwich
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Bone dry powder...lol..he needs to work in ski resort marketing,,
evantrentful
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I got up there today also. Ill vouch for the great closed trail conditions but thats about the only thing that was good.
Ive got a midweek season pass there but man they messed up today. Around 11 it got to the point were it was dangerous. Way to many people on to little trails. It made presidents day weekend look like a typical tuesday.
On my last run just after 11 I was coming down Wanatuska and there were two sets of accidents, I felt bad for the patrollers having to manage this crazziness. I ended up leaving with my younger cousin and heading to Hunter for the rest of the day. Things were easily half as dense there.
Ive got a midweek season pass there but man they messed up today. Around 11 it got to the point were it was dangerous. Way to many people on to little trails. It made presidents day weekend look like a typical tuesday.
On my last run just after 11 I was coming down Wanatuska and there were two sets of accidents, I felt bad for the patrollers having to manage this crazziness. I ended up leaving with my younger cousin and heading to Hunter for the rest of the day. Things were easily half as dense there.
thinnmann
New member
is this a trip report?....
I was there, and I have to give a different view than evantrentful just did. I had a great day! The snow was super if you stayed off Wanatuska. Did 20 runs in 4 1/2 hours. All but about two of them were practically ski-onto-the-lift. I only did 4 of those 20 runs on Wanatuska, and I can confirm that it was like the Garden State Parkway during rush hour with lots of fender benders. The problem was that Roaring Brook was closed. There were no blue square rated trails from the top. Lots of people that loaded Superchief seemed to not know that. Many "beginner-level" skiers had no choice but to try to navigate Wanatuska, which was icy by 10:30 AM. It looked like ski patrol downloaded many people that wanted to play it safe on lift 7.
I skied lift 7 all day. Onteora was deep with soft blown snow on top, and had great soft snow from the middle on down. The top half had irregular moguls on a big whaled up center, which yielded about three different fall lines. You could start down the middle and take it, or hang diagonally left. At one point I could swear i was skiing turned more than 90 degrees from "straight down" the slope.
The closed trails - Yahoo, Utsayantha, Algonquin - were practically open by about 1 PM. There were a few earlier poachers, but when people realized there were no ski patrol people in the lift 7 vicinity - probably because they were hung up dealing with injuries and crazyness on Wanatuska - so many people skied them that they were virtually open. Dry powder indeed, but bottoming out did happen, especially on the runs above lift 7's midstation. I like my bottoms, so I avoided them and concentrated on burning the bumps on Onteora. Super workout today!
What I noticed that was different perhaps due to the budget constraints - and maybe this was just because it is the day after Thanksgiving, opening day, and they couldn't get enough people to work - but not enough people were at work at the mountain. To save money? In the morning, there was only one lift ticket window open outside at Overlook Lodge. The line snaked around all the way back to the flagpole. Inside, the guest services line snaked around and back to the first aid area doorway. It took 25 minutes of line waiting for me to get my season tix there this morning before skiing. At the end of the day, it took 15 minutes of line waiting to buy one of those limited 4-packs they were selling today. I didn't even eat lunch because when I went in at 12:30 the lunch line was backed up into the table area and there was only one person ringing register. Trash cans were overflowing. So I bagged it and ate on the lift - I had a couple of Cliff bars and my Camelbak. A ski patrol woman told me there wasn't many of them on duty today. Definitely short staffed today.
Finally, this was interesting: On the Belleayre access road there was a straight ahead arrow kind of sign that said "Highmount Ski Center", with a picture of people riding a lift. I somebody resurrecting Highmount for operations this winter?
I was there, and I have to give a different view than evantrentful just did. I had a great day! The snow was super if you stayed off Wanatuska. Did 20 runs in 4 1/2 hours. All but about two of them were practically ski-onto-the-lift. I only did 4 of those 20 runs on Wanatuska, and I can confirm that it was like the Garden State Parkway during rush hour with lots of fender benders. The problem was that Roaring Brook was closed. There were no blue square rated trails from the top. Lots of people that loaded Superchief seemed to not know that. Many "beginner-level" skiers had no choice but to try to navigate Wanatuska, which was icy by 10:30 AM. It looked like ski patrol downloaded many people that wanted to play it safe on lift 7.
I skied lift 7 all day. Onteora was deep with soft blown snow on top, and had great soft snow from the middle on down. The top half had irregular moguls on a big whaled up center, which yielded about three different fall lines. You could start down the middle and take it, or hang diagonally left. At one point I could swear i was skiing turned more than 90 degrees from "straight down" the slope.
The closed trails - Yahoo, Utsayantha, Algonquin - were practically open by about 1 PM. There were a few earlier poachers, but when people realized there were no ski patrol people in the lift 7 vicinity - probably because they were hung up dealing with injuries and crazyness on Wanatuska - so many people skied them that they were virtually open. Dry powder indeed, but bottoming out did happen, especially on the runs above lift 7's midstation. I like my bottoms, so I avoided them and concentrated on burning the bumps on Onteora. Super workout today!
What I noticed that was different perhaps due to the budget constraints - and maybe this was just because it is the day after Thanksgiving, opening day, and they couldn't get enough people to work - but not enough people were at work at the mountain. To save money? In the morning, there was only one lift ticket window open outside at Overlook Lodge. The line snaked around all the way back to the flagpole. Inside, the guest services line snaked around and back to the first aid area doorway. It took 25 minutes of line waiting for me to get my season tix there this morning before skiing. At the end of the day, it took 15 minutes of line waiting to buy one of those limited 4-packs they were selling today. I didn't even eat lunch because when I went in at 12:30 the lunch line was backed up into the table area and there was only one person ringing register. Trash cans were overflowing. So I bagged it and ate on the lift - I had a couple of Cliff bars and my Camelbak. A ski patrol woman told me there wasn't many of them on duty today. Definitely short staffed today.
Finally, this was interesting: On the Belleayre access road there was a straight ahead arrow kind of sign that said "Highmount Ski Center", with a picture of people riding a lift. I somebody resurrecting Highmount for operations this winter?
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evantrentful
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Maybe I was a bit harsh. Im a big Belleayre fan, its basically my home mountain (if you can call a mountain 90min away home). I guess it was just not an a-typical belleayre day for me, Im glad they got the business they did, hopefully they can get more guns online and the groomers out..... I CANT WAIT TO PLAY ON DEER RUN.
Interesting mention about Highmount. Back in October I went up to Belleayre for a few runs during the blizzard they had. Going up the access road I also noticed that sign, but dont ever remembering seeing it before. I just kind of forgot about it, but its odd you noticed that too.
Interesting mention about Highmount. Back in October I went up to Belleayre for a few runs during the blizzard they had. Going up the access road I also noticed that sign, but dont ever remembering seeing it before. I just kind of forgot about it, but its odd you noticed that too.
skidbump
Member
Not harsh count was 2000+ with really only 2 trails off top.By 11am it was just plain scarry,dont care where you skied all meet at mids.
GrilledSteezeSandwich
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Things at Blue mountain were shortstaffed as well..Ski areas are cutting their staffs to save money..it's incredibly obvious..it's like that in every industry right now..
millerm277
Active member
Wow. Sounds like an insane day....glad I was at Hunter. Nice snow though.
PA Ridge Racer
New member
One of the funnest skis I've owned / skied were my 182cm Atomic Beta Carvs I think they were the 98-99 or 99-00 model. So much fun to carve around on those things.
thinnmann
New member
It was insane in both bad and good ways, though.......
thinnmann
New member
At the risk of getting this thread punted into the gear forum.... If anyone wants to lay down carves, Atomic's beta technology really really holds those edges on the groomed like it was pre-grooved personally for you. I never rode the Beta Carvs, but I had a pair of Beta Ride 9.22, the orange ones, about the same year you are quoting. It took me a season to realize they were too stiff for my 140 or so pounds. I picked up a used pair of Beta Ride 9.22s ( yea, that includes the letter "S" in the model name there ). They are "S"ofter and they are more fun and super light. They are not exactly grin inspiring slalom carvers with a 21.9 radius, but they are great over a couple of fresh inches on the third day in a row of skiing, and in bumps.
But those Rossi Vs skis are built for showing people your bases while making your turns.
let's go make some!
Rob A
New member
I can definitely say things were a lot different than I'm used too at Belleayre, but then again I've never been there in November before.
I was surprised to see only one window open at the ticket window. I arrived before 8:40 in hope to be skiing by 9, which didn't happen due to the line. Also, the superchief didn't begin running until around 10AM, which caused some lines at Lift 7. But once it did open there were no lines for the remainder of the day.
The first 2 runs of the day down Wanatuska were fabulous. After that point it began to really crowd up. There were only 2 open runs from the summit (Mohawk was not open for some reason). But as stated earlier after mid day everyone was going down any trail they wanted. I'm not a big fan of off-piste skiing (I just love to carve), so it didn't do me much good. It was obvious they could've had a lot more terrain open for yesterday.
My biggest thrill of the day was hiking out to Cathedral Brook at 10:30am with my ski buddies. It took us a little while to get all the way out there, but once we got there it was great experience skiing the all natural trail with no one on it. By that time Wanatuska was becoming dangerous, so we decided to do some hiking to make the day interesting.
From then on we mostly stayed on Wanatuska, occasionally venturing off to other natural closed trails. By about 2pm Wanatuska became much more bearable, although it was very rutted up at that point, making carving difficult.
Hopefully Belleayre gets some more terrain going. I never had a significant lift line, but the lack of open terrain cause a lot of crowding on the trails. Once tomahawk opens everything should be fine.
I was surprised to see only one window open at the ticket window. I arrived before 8:40 in hope to be skiing by 9, which didn't happen due to the line. Also, the superchief didn't begin running until around 10AM, which caused some lines at Lift 7. But once it did open there were no lines for the remainder of the day.
The first 2 runs of the day down Wanatuska were fabulous. After that point it began to really crowd up. There were only 2 open runs from the summit (Mohawk was not open for some reason). But as stated earlier after mid day everyone was going down any trail they wanted. I'm not a big fan of off-piste skiing (I just love to carve), so it didn't do me much good. It was obvious they could've had a lot more terrain open for yesterday.
My biggest thrill of the day was hiking out to Cathedral Brook at 10:30am with my ski buddies. It took us a little while to get all the way out there, but once we got there it was great experience skiing the all natural trail with no one on it. By that time Wanatuska was becoming dangerous, so we decided to do some hiking to make the day interesting.
From then on we mostly stayed on Wanatuska, occasionally venturing off to other natural closed trails. By about 2pm Wanatuska became much more bearable, although it was very rutted up at that point, making carving difficult.
Hopefully Belleayre gets some more terrain going. I never had a significant lift line, but the lack of open terrain cause a lot of crowding on the trails. Once tomahawk opens everything should be fine.
braciole
Member
"Finally, this was interesting: On the Belleayre access road there was a straight ahead arrow kind of sign that said "Highmount Ski Center", with a picture of people riding a lift. I somebody resurrecting Highmount for operations this winter?"
Wasn't highmount sold to the developer who's intent it is to make a multi season mega ski golf resort, same guys who own Emerson Resort and spa down the road ?
Wasn't highmount sold to the developer who's intent it is to make a multi season mega ski golf resort, same guys who own Emerson Resort and spa down the road ?
thinnmann
New member
O no, this thread is going in yet another direction....
I think the plan is for Highmount trails to be hooked up to Belleayre to complete the connection of the ski center to the proposed resort. But I was just wondering if by some quirk, they were attempting to make that old lift start sometime this season.
Search the forums here for lots of posts on this topic... and...
http://savethemountain.net/
( my prediction is a DMC post will soon show up here.... ) :lol:
thinnmann
New member
We were really LUCKY to have that much snow on the mountain so early in the season. Let's not forget that fact. Last year at this time all we had was one trail from mid-station.
Really jealous about that hike out to CatBrook! That was a great idea. I am kinda wishing I brought some rock skis yesterday, because I would have gotten onto that baseless cover more.
YardSaleDad
Member
I was there yesterday and the zoo was because of the $25 lift tickets. Today was empty in comparison. The lift for the lower mountain broke down for about an hour yesterday, and they provided rainchecks for those that asked for them in the Discovery lodge. The snow on the lower mountain was great both days. The upper mountain held up far better today. If mother nature stays cooperative, I think the whole mountain may be open by Christmas Eve.
millerm277
Active member
I can say that I think that'd be extremely unlikely....that lift's going to need a LOT of work to be in running order, much less to meet safety standards/pass inspection, based on how long it's been closed and the pictures I've seen of it....
jamesdeluxe
New member
That chair is only good for scrap metal.
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