Blue Mt. 2/18/2010

[RootDKJ]

Date(s) Skied: 2/18/2010

Resort or Ski Area: Blue Mountain

Conditions: Very hard surface. It got very crowded as the night went on.

Trip Report: I got to Blue around 4pm to bright blue sunny skies and no crowds. Conditions were less then stellar however. The snow was very packed down and in some cases glossy. I wouldn't call it ice (or boilerplate) though, because I could easily stick my pole in the snow. If you kept your speed up, you could dig your edges in to it. In fact, it was extremely fast, to such a point that the wind was pulling my helmet's earpads away from my face.

The top of the Quad was porcelain-like all the way down to the 6-pack on Tut's and to the Slow Skiing sign on Paradise. The wind was not friendly either. Tut's, and the last straightaway on Paradise were pure wind tunnels. Razor's was solid and rutted up. Dreamweaver and Lazy skied ok later in the night as the crowds scraped off a nice layer or sugar. Paradise was pretty good, but there were 2-3 speed traps set up on there. I got the "slow down" arm wave once. Oh yeah, there's now two kickers on Challenge. They both appear open to the public.

Kicker #2

Razor's

Nightmare (the bumps are way larger then they appear in this pic)

That's it for pics today. I forgot to charge my camera's battery.

 

[tarponhead]

That last picture is frame worthy, nice.

 

[gladerider]

root, have you been to the snowtubing area there? i'm planning to take the kids there sat. was wondering how crowded it is or any other info.

 

[4aprice]

That last picture is great. A little surprised to hear about the conditions. We haven't had any thaw/freeze cycles yet. I was at Camelback Weds and the condtions were great, no ice or hard pack.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[RootDKJ]

root, have you been to the snowtubing area there? i'm planning to take the kids there sat. was wondering how crowded it is or any other info.

No, I have not. Snow tubing has their own lodge this year though.

I'd suggest getting there at opening to avoid the crowds. I've wanted to give it a try but never gotten around to it.

 

[oakapple]

I was there about a month ago. Unfortunately it rained most of the day, and I finally gave up after I was soaked.

I'm a lower-intermediate skier. I liked the long runs Paradise and Burma Road, as well as the easier intermediates Lazy Mile and Switchback. Tut's Lane, a long blue that is really just a traverse, between two halves of the mountain, is more like the Long Island Expressway.

Conditions did ice up a bit later in the day, but that's normal at this type of place.