I made my first ever Trip to Thunder Ridge in NY today after work. I wasn't sure what to expect after seeing that there were only 5 trails open, but they said they had bumps and seeing that Sundown was closed (meaning that I didn't have to work tonight) I figured I'd give it a chance.
The ride from work took just under an hour, as Google Maps said it would be. Traffic was a non-issue and it was fairly easy to find. I got there to a almost empty lot and very few people on the hill. I bought my ticket and booted up in the nice weather on the deck, then realized that I was going to be way too hot in my jacket, so I ended up hoofing all my stuff back to my car to change to a t-shirt.
It was probably close to 6 by the time I finally got on the lift, with the limited terrain I figured 3 hours would be plenty, so I wasn't in too much of a rush. I met up with Sotto and some of his crew on the first run and skied with them for the remainder of the night.
The bumps were clearly visible from the lift.
From the top:
At the bottom just as the sun was going down:
From the lot while adding a layer:
The Face is the trail that had the bumps, it's not particularly long, but it got the legs moving and was lots of fun. After racing ended they left the trail alone and let it bump up naturally. I must say that I'm impressed by the end result, not much in the way of zipper lines, but some pretty big deep bumps formed. There's a lot of snow on the trail were the bumps are, I didn't see anything resembling burnt out spots in troughs, though there was some mud hopping needed to get to the trail from the lift, that just added to the fun for me though.
The company was good too, we could have probably got in several more runs, if not for all the chatting I was doing. It was a nice mellow pace, and I learned a lot about Thunder Ridge and the passion that Greg (Sotto) has for the place.
Thanks for the Hospitality, you guys have a good thing going there. I'll be happy to come back at some point, hopefully when there's bumps.
The ride from work took just under an hour, as Google Maps said it would be. Traffic was a non-issue and it was fairly easy to find. I got there to a almost empty lot and very few people on the hill. I bought my ticket and booted up in the nice weather on the deck, then realized that I was going to be way too hot in my jacket, so I ended up hoofing all my stuff back to my car to change to a t-shirt.
It was probably close to 6 by the time I finally got on the lift, with the limited terrain I figured 3 hours would be plenty, so I wasn't in too much of a rush. I met up with Sotto and some of his crew on the first run and skied with them for the remainder of the night.
The bumps were clearly visible from the lift.
From the top:
At the bottom just as the sun was going down:
From the lot while adding a layer:
The Face is the trail that had the bumps, it's not particularly long, but it got the legs moving and was lots of fun. After racing ended they left the trail alone and let it bump up naturally. I must say that I'm impressed by the end result, not much in the way of zipper lines, but some pretty big deep bumps formed. There's a lot of snow on the trail were the bumps are, I didn't see anything resembling burnt out spots in troughs, though there was some mud hopping needed to get to the trail from the lift, that just added to the fun for me though.
The company was good too, we could have probably got in several more runs, if not for all the chatting I was doing. It was a nice mellow pace, and I learned a lot about Thunder Ridge and the passion that Greg (Sotto) has for the place.
Thanks for the Hospitality, you guys have a good thing going there. I'll be happy to come back at some point, hopefully when there's bumps.
).
