Belleayre 12/29/08

[thinnmann]

If Your Edges Were Sharp, It Rocked​

I may be guilty of being a person who is ridiculously optimistic. But here goes:

In the morning, the skiing surface sometimes called "snow" was hard with a sugary granular coat on top. There was a bit of hockey rink quality ice on connecting trails. It was only about 20 degrees for most of the day. But the snow was fast and the runs were fun, and they runs were plentiful too, since there was never anyone clogging up a lift line. One run on upper Yahoo was so frozen and rough it vibrated my legs enough to give them a massage. One run on upper Belleayre Run was like skiing over bumps of steel. All the other runs above Overlook Lodge were mostly just on the save side of being out of control as long as your edges were sharp and you were rocking a carve.

In the afternoon it warmed up a little. Upper Yahoo and upper Belleayre Run were shaved off and a bit less vibrational. It wasn't appreciably more icy anywhere, however. They hadn't blown snow all morning, but they started blowing after lunch to cover toe top of the mountain where some of the melting did its worst yesterday. There seems to be a lot of stockpiled snow on lower Utsayntha, and they were building the terrain park there all day. It isn't open yet, but a couple of people poached some rides there.

I think I don't mind relatively crappy conditions when there are no lift lines, I am with a bunch of friends and family, and my edge tuner is in my pocket.

Photos are here......​

​

 

[evantrentful]

Is the west side open?

The website for the last few days has said yes, but an email tonight from belleayre said way on the bottom "NOTE ~ Rentals are available this season at Discovery Lodge only! Tomahawk lift and west side trails are closed until further notice."

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

No crowds during a holiday period???? Is Belleayre shooting themselves in the foot or shooting themselves in the foot?

 

[thinnmann]

Is the west side open?

The website for the last few days has said yes, but an email tonight from belleayre said way on the bottom "NOTE ~ Rentals are available this season at Discovery Lodge only! Tomahawk lift and west side trails are closed until further notice."

I usually get those emails from Belleayre, and I am not seeing one in my inbox. Are you maybe looking at an old one? Also, I have noticed that sometimes those emails are a bad example of copy/paste editing, and they miss updating some stuff....

Don't forget the semi-reliable info on the Belleayre web site conditions page.

Anyway, Tomahawk has been open for the past three days for Dot Nebel and Deer Run, top to bottom. Plenty of snow there for those trails. With holiday race camp running gates on Dot, no reason to close that lift.

 

[evantrentful]

Nono, new from tonight. I trust the snow report page but I was concerned that it was a warning for tommorow. Im going to head up there and Ive been eyeing DeerRun all year.

 

[thinnmann]

No crowds during a holiday period???? Is Belleayre shooting themselves in the foot or shooting themselves in the foot?

Belleayre did not shoot themselves in the foot. They received two shotgun shells before the season started. First shot was the efforts put out by their closed-book competitors, via lobbyists sent to Albany, claiming unfair competition. Second shot was the log jam that Albany and the state DEC put into their ability to plan a working budget. That made a lot of potential skiers and employees go elsewhere because everything was so up-in-the-air until mid-November. The mountain is still playing catch-up on the late start in sales, advertising, employees and services.

But it isn't all bad there. The employees are dedicated, Boss Man Tony is out and around and more hands on than I have ever seen him, and the skiing has been fun. Now just give us some freaking WINTER WEATHER!

 

[thinnmann]

Nono, new from tonight. I trust the snow report page but I was concerned that it was a warning for tommorow. Im going to head up there and Ive been eyeing DeerRun all year.

Great - my last run was on Deer Run with some friends new to Bell, and they were blowing snow on its first few hundred yards.

 

[evantrentful]

Belleayre did not shoot themselves in the foot. They received two shotgun shells before the season started. First shot was the efforts put out by their closed-book competitors, via lobbyists sent to Albany, claiming unfair competition. Second shot was the log jam that Albany and the state DEC put into their ability to plan a working budget. That made a lot of potential skiers and employees go elsewhere because everything was so up-in-the-air until mid-November. The mountain is still playing catch-up on the late start in sales, advertising, employees and services.

But it isn't all bad there. The employees are dedicated, Boss Man Tony is out and around and more hands on than I have ever seen him, and the skiing has been fun. Now just give us some freaking WINTER WEATHER!

Yeah I agree, Ive seen tony roaming around quite a bit. They are doing what they can, its amazing what they have considering theyve been barely gunning no more than 1 or 2 trails at a time. december 19th-23rd was awesome. hopping off rocks and hitting everything around was great. Its the main reason I love Belleayre so much, the sides of the traisl are so much fun to play on, a great natural terrain park

 

[dmc]

Belleayre did not shoot themselves in the foot. They received two shotgun shells before the season started. First shot was the efforts put out by their closed-book competitors, via lobbyists sent to Albany, claiming unfair competition. Second shot was the log jam that Albany and the state DEC put into their ability to plan a working budget. That made a lot of potential skiers and employees go elsewhere because everything was so up-in-the-air until mid-November. The mountain is still playing catch-up on the late start in sales, advertising, employees and services.

But it isn't all bad there. The employees are dedicated, Boss Man Tony is out and around and more hands on than I have ever seen him, and the skiing has been fun. Now just give us some freaking WINTER WEATHER!

:lol::lol::lol::lol:

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!! Like this is a skiing "Mecca"... Please... The playing field has leveled because of the economy... Plain and simple..

It's not so bad.... I was at Gore yesterday and it wasn't crowded and had sketchy conditions so climb down of the cross... It's not the world picking on poor/poor Bellayre..

Bell will have to struggle through these economic times like every other person and area but without the tax $ we do not have to spend anyways...

 

[ts01]

Thanks for the report, Thinman. Appreciate the ongoing Belleayre conditions and trip report updates.

Not much new being said on the politics and certainly no minds being changed but it seems inevitable.