legalskier
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- Sep 22, 2008
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Woke up this morning not sure I was going to go today- the weather reports all were predicting intermittent showers. Maybe it was a strong cup of caffeine that pushed me out the door, but as you’ll see below, I’m very glad I went. I arrived around 10:45 to an extremely crowded parking situation at the upper mountain & was lucky to find a space. Turns out, there was a huge racing event that shut down Dot Nebel the entire day. The joint was jumpin’. Realizing that it had snowed earlier in the morning, as well as yesterday, providing several inches of freshies, I decided to focus on the trails that rely on natural snow. Cathedral Brook was in very nice shape, with only a few places you had to be careful. There was still some untracked snow- it was soft but heavy with a creme brulee topping that crunched against the top of my boots:
Winisook Glade still had spots of untracked snow- I was surprised how good it was:
Belleayre Glade, however, was much more trafficked with lots of little surprises here and there- I didn’t like what I encountered and got out. Utsayantha finally opened- this is the upper portion around noon (its steep section later got scraped off):
Esopus was in excellent shape:
Onteora was really bumped up with excellent coverage:
Speaking of bumps, there were plenty in all the usual places, including upper Yahoo, which also appears to be relying more on natural snow. Temps hovered around 40 so the snow was soft enough to set a good edge into. The X-Course on Ashokan just below Roaring Brook is up and running, and Area 15 below the Overlook Lodge is complete- they added a bunch of large, closely spaced rollers. There were minimal to no lift lines at the gondi, Lift 7, and Tomahawk, though the lines at Superchief reached about 5-6 minutes. Superchief broke down just as I was about to get on it for my last run of the day- I hiked out of there and went down to the gondi just in the nick of time. Later, as I gathered my things to leave Overlook Lodge, it still wasn't working, with plenty of unhappy folks captive on it. I hope they got out ok- “there but for the grace of God” almost went me. The rain held off for the entire day but alas is predicted for tonight and tomorrow, which will be a setback for those nice natural snow trails above.
Winisook Glade still had spots of untracked snow- I was surprised how good it was:
Belleayre Glade, however, was much more trafficked with lots of little surprises here and there- I didn’t like what I encountered and got out. Utsayantha finally opened- this is the upper portion around noon (its steep section later got scraped off):
Esopus was in excellent shape:
Onteora was really bumped up with excellent coverage:
Speaking of bumps, there were plenty in all the usual places, including upper Yahoo, which also appears to be relying more on natural snow. Temps hovered around 40 so the snow was soft enough to set a good edge into. The X-Course on Ashokan just below Roaring Brook is up and running, and Area 15 below the Overlook Lodge is complete- they added a bunch of large, closely spaced rollers. There were minimal to no lift lines at the gondi, Lift 7, and Tomahawk, though the lines at Superchief reached about 5-6 minutes. Superchief broke down just as I was about to get on it for my last run of the day- I hiked out of there and went down to the gondi just in the nick of time. Later, as I gathered my things to leave Overlook Lodge, it still wasn't working, with plenty of unhappy folks captive on it. I hope they got out ok- “there but for the grace of God” almost went me. The rain held off for the entire day but alas is predicted for tonight and tomorrow, which will be a setback for those nice natural snow trails above.
