WOOWOO
9 inches according to snowshoe. Seemed like that might be right, judging from the deep snow right outside our door at whistlepunk.
Skied Silver Creek this morning with my wife (who had our kid 4 months ago and was feeling silver creek speed). I guess they groomed everything last night cuz there was just about 4 inches of fresh fluffy goodness on top of all the trails. It was great... though a bit nippy.
Hit Shay's and Cupp this afternoon. Shay's was like ice skating downhill. I got one of those nifty wipeouts where u end up sliding on back headfirst down mountain with skis up in air wondering if there will be any stopping before getting to the base.
Why did they change the name of Widowmaker?
I am praying the folks upstairs don't play the bongos until 1:30 am again tonight. That was a bummer.

Did it Snow up there all day today?..Looked like a decent plume of moisture from Lake Mich got close to you....If you got some good snow today maybe it was the Bongo for Snow crowd upstairs...let them play!...if not..call Mngmt...kick the bums out...

The runs off of Soaring Eagle were incredible this morning. Shin and occasionally knee deep snow. Got first tracks (non-patrol) down J-hook while I was waiting for them to drop the ropes on the rest of the runs up there. Great run until I turned around to admire my track and busted .

When I was at the Shoe last month, "Widowmaker" was still called "Widowmaker" slope. Now the chair is called Soaring Eagle because the fairly new Soaring Eagle Lodge helped pay for the high speed lift and the new trails.
The Colonel

no bongos yet tonight, so i guess no snow tonight or tomorrow.
It only flurried today really. but it was mighty nice in the morning.
yeh i noticed the lift was faster. i can't really complain about a new fast lift having a different name. and u're absolutely right. trail is still widowmaker.
Anyone know what the story is on the unused lift station about halfway up the western territory? It's below the western express lift.

Actually, Snowshoe put in a new mid-station this year on the Western Express. Plan was to use it when the snow is frequently scarce, say at Thanksgiving and maybe early Christmas vacation. So much snow, so early this year, that SS dismantenled the mid-station. If they eventually use it it will be to allow use of the Western Territory slopes without their having to be open all the way to the bottom of the lift.
The Colonel

Did you ski down skier's right of Widowmaker? When I was there in early Feb during a 12-16" dump (over several days) that was some of the best skiing on the mountain. Loads of fun.

Man... the video from Snowshoe yesterday looks awesome. All day yesterday I was kicking myself for taking Friday off to go to Snowshoe instead of Monday. I guess you never know though!

Not from top to bottom. For some reason they delayed dropping the ropes until 10am and I had told my wife I'd meet her at the Boathouse at 10:30. I had time for 3 runs and I chose to take them all on Camp 99. Prior to dropping the rope at the top of the hill I did get to run the portion of Widowmaker down hill of the J-hook merge. Just enough slope and speed to make a couple of almost knee deep turns before I had to return to the packed out center of the slope for the runout.

From the lift I could see that the center and left side of Widowmaker were tracked out pretty quickly but the right hand side was almost untouched. There was some grass poking through on the right hand side of the face of the second drop that was probably discouraging most people but those who chose to brave it looked like they were being rewarded. It really didn't look that hard to avoid. Maybe people just don't like skiing under the lift.

Well, that section has ditches, waterbars, rocks, etc, not to mention spruce trees poking up through the snow here and there, so I think it does scare off most skiers. It's never covered with snowmaking or groomed. But it's a great run when there is abundant natural snow. A lot of fun.