Skied at Montage in PA on Saturday and then Belleayre in NY today. But you probably were thinking about VA/WV. ;-)
Montage is a sleeper. The double-blacks on the lower mountain below the lodge deserve the trail rating. I would go back when it's 100% open.
I got 2nd chair at whitetail opening day (Friday). Primary surface was a frozen loose granular, but I suspect the 8 am first chair didn’t help the groomers and it probably was better Saturday/Sunday. I did liberty today (Sunday) and the surface was a much better machine made packed powder.
Seems like both have enough base to make it through to the next cold stretch. I will admit I was spoiled that Snowshoe had some natural snow 2 of the 3 trips I have made this season and the snowtime resorts don’t have the base or natural snow for the fun spines that Snowshoe has...but for an hour drive both liberty and whitetail were completely worth it
Always happy to see reports of people skiing, either close to home or further out. Montage is one of the areas in NE Penn (along with Elk) that I have wanted to check out.
Got out for some early morning XC skiing on the cart path of the Peston County Country Club.
We had a blast at the shoe this weekend.
Looking down ballhooter
Grabhammer
Down towards Spruce
Upper Ballhooter
Top of Choker (not open)
wgo wrote:
Yeah, pretty nice at snowshoe this wknd. And a huge shout out to Michael, the incredible lift attendant at ballhooter.
Always goes smoother when Snoop Dog is barking!
Was at 7 Springs on Saturday. Conditions were great, but I feel like I need to rant a little.
I'm a bit dissapointed in 7 Springs operations, both on the mountain and on the service side. On the mountain Saturday, they only had 4 slopes and 4 trails open, with not all of the terrain on 2 of the slopes being open. I know that they opened part of Avalanche on Sunday, but when compared to the snowmaking output and trail openings of Snowshoe, it's dissapointing given how much they hyped up the snowmaking weather. As for the operations side, they were poorly staffed all day. Not enough servers and cooks at the Foggy Goggle, and short staffed at nearly everywhere else at the resort. They closed the kitchen at the Goggle at 4 pm in order to send the cooks to slopeside to cook dinner up there. I know its still early season, but you have to have the place better staffed than that.
Still better than getting hit with a chair at Tussey though.
Was at Hidden Valley on Saturday. Excellent conditions, machine snow with a natural topping. Nothing icy or scraped off. They had a LOT open, the main area in addition to North Summit.
mspring - I agree with you on Seven Springs. I watch both places but have passes to Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley had both sides of the mountain open and on Sunday opened a number of blacks. For the opening weekend it seemed like everything was firing on all cylinders, the push for additional terrain was awesome.
Seven Springs is a marketing machine, but they have been extremely slow at opening terrain the past two years. Someone mentioned that they blow snow where the webcams are and that is 100% true. If there is no webcam there's no snow. I don't know if they're trying to save money or what, but it seems they're relying on mother nature more than ever to get the mountain open.
Stowe Saturday - Great snow. Snowing for most of the day. Short lines after 11 am. It was cold but no wind so very mangeable. Expect they will be 100% by Xmas.
YTD 65K Vertical in 2 days on snow.
wgo wrote:
Always happy to see reports of people skiing, either close to home or further out. Montage is one of the areas in NE Penn (along with Elk) that I have wanted to check out.
Now that I know the terrain that Montage has to offer on the lower mountain for an advanced skier, I would be more likely to go back there than Elk. The easier access right off the Interstate is a plus.
I was at Wintergreen, Massanutten and CVR over the weekend.
I intended to hit T'line as well but...well whatever
It was awesome, I was especially impressed by what Massunuten had opened, both upper lifts made for seperate advanced route's down the mountain.
Tyro? at WG was full of side shots
And CV deserves their early season bragging about new guns and blah, blah... they had much more open than I expected or have seen in years past
We were at Snowshoe last weekend, and we are still there. They have been getting 1-2 new trails per day open, and the snow has been in pretty good condition. I rode a lift with an employee and she said that the new (trial) snow guns have been doing great, she said that the groomers have had trouble keeping up with the snow being made. The groomers have been out the past couple days during the day to get trails open - first on Knot Bumper Sunday, then on Skipjack yesterday.
My buddy who has a cabin at Hidden Valley is up there now and just texted me this brief report on today's conditions: "1 part ice skating, 1 part water slide, 1 part mud wrestling. Pennsylvania skiing, how I've missed you!"
oddballstocks wrote:
.....Seven Springs is a marketing machine, but they have been extremely slow at opening terrain the past two years. ......
7S is charging holiday rates from December 15 - January 1, 2018. Wonder how many people are willing to pay $89 for a lift ticket when there's ony 12 trails open?
Great opening weekend at CVR. Saturday was amazing with tons of natural snow at higher elevations.
Whitegrass was also in full swing with lots of uphill options :)
Punk Wonk Mike wrote:
My buddy who has a cabin at Hidden Valley is up there now and just texted me this brief report on today's conditions: "1 part ice skating, 1 part water slide, 1 part mud wrestling. Pennsylvania skiing, how I've missed you!"
I went out to Liberty after work today and was pleasantly surprised. It was soft, but not choppy, icy, or muddy. As long as it doesn’t rain much I think they have enough snow down to work with to get until the Christmas cool down.
based on location hidden valley should have been in better shape than Liberty...
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