'Heard that Blue Knob had received 1-3" of snow and saw on the weather reports that they'd had sub- freezing temperatures the past couple of nights, so, with work to do this weekend, I headed up there today.

They did indeed receive that 1-3" and they had indeed been making snow. Guns on Expressway, Upper High Hopes and elsewhere ran all day. Jack Rabbit was closed but I was lucky enough to be on the Route 66 lift when a patroller pulled away the rope on Stembogan about 1:45. The groomers had been working it all morning. The upper portions of Stembo were passable with some thin spots and the usual death cookies ... Just glad to be able to swoosh down it. The lowest portion was sweet, at least through late afternoon when I left.

Mambo and Upper Route 66 skied well all day. I went down Edgeset b/c there was no rope, but I think a rope was warranted. Too many rocky bits for me. Lower High Hopes was scratchy but fun. And, not surprisingly, Extrovert was twiggy, apparently untouched by much snow, machine-made or natural. Snow Drop open for the beginners.

No chili or clam chowder (my usual choices) in the cafeteria.

All in all, a tip of the helmet to mountain ops and others who took advantage of the return of cold weather to cover many of the runs at Blue Knob. Dress warmly everybody; the thermometer read 13 degree F at 10:00 a.m., and the breezes were a-blowin'. As my Dad would've said, there's nothing but air between there and the North Pole.

Have fun this weekend.

Woody

Thanks for the report Woody. You should join us up there Feb 23 or 24.

I bailed on my planned day there today and opted to just use my pass at Whitetail for a couple hours instead of paying holiday to ski what I thought would be the non-powdery version of Blue Knob.[/endlongsentence]. I would've had to leave around 2 when Stembogan was to open. Would've been pissed if I drove out and couldn't ski Stembogan.

Anyway, glad to hear they got the 3". Watching radar, looked like they were getting small bits off the north edge of the storm. I scored a great day there New Years weekend and want another day like that soon.

Whitetail was sadly bad.

Any reports on Blue Knob from Saturday or Sunday? Was thinking of heading there tomorrow, but worried about conditions.

I was there Friday and Saturday, and echo what bousquet said about conditions there on Friday. It was cold, all day, and all day they did their best to blow snow.

Saturday was 30 degrees warmer, it was in the upper 30s to 40s, but conditions held better than I pictured them. All day was skiing sugar-like snow on top of hard pack and some patches of ice. I didn't see a lot of melting, so I would say they fared well, although there was no snowmaking happening on Saturday or I would guess Sunday.


This was my first trip to Blue Knob and we enjoyed it. I took the whole family, we were a motley crew of various degrees of beginners/intermediates. We stuck almost exclusively to Mambo Alley as that could accommodate everyone. I made it down Stembogen once around 1 on Saturday, it was skied over, with much of the snow pushed to the side of the trail and icy patches more exposed. I still enjoyed it, and would have enjoyed hitting it again if our group dynamics had allowed that. Deer Run (I think?) was closed for most of the day for a collegiate race, which was a bummer because that was one intermediate that we would have enjoyed it looked like.

The difference between the two days crowd wise was huge. Lunch Fri we could have picked any table in the lodge except for the two other tables that were taken. Saturday we had to hover over people to finish their meal so we could sit at a table. We were in there at the same time as the racers, though, right at noon.

Blue Knob seems to be a nice non-crowded area that we enjoyed, and will plan to return to on a holiday weekend like the last one where some of the other resorts are over-run. There are a few scary areas on the slopes where trails merge and a little chaos at the top of the mountain where ALL of the lifts unload. Having all of the lifts unload at the top does make it easier to find people, though.