Posted: Mon Dec 28, 2009 8:32 pm
So the pagamony family drove to Snowshoe on Sunday after the storm and stayed until Christmas eve. The story in brief:
Travel: To avoid the I81 mess, we went I77 to I64 to 219 and found no problems at all. In Princeton we found lines of cars waiting for gas at sold out stations, but it did not take much intelligence to drive into town and find open stations. I64 was one lane plowed around abandoned cars with their signal antennas poking through the snow. US219 was clear until Elk Mountain and afterwards snow covered but easily drivable in a plain old minivan.
Ski: That was the best Snowshoe I have seen: good snow and sunshine at the same time. Not quite as much open as last year, but natural snow really does ski better than man made and it's nice to have 2.5 feet of fresh just outside the door. In fact, we would click-in on our Whistlepunk deck and then ski downhill to the path to the slopes, reverse on the way back. The best features of the week were the moguls underneath the Widowmaker lift line, followed by the random powder hunts in the trees near the slopes. Strangely, the Sawmill glades were lousy due to the heavy snowmaking cover that made the surface very slow and nearly un-turnable. That's a terrible way to ruin a nice area, but perhaps necessary to build some base on that side of the mountain. Crowds diminished during the week until there were no lines at all on Wednesday and Thursday. That's the yin.
The yang is that they are still closing slopes that should be open. Jhook was the last natural snow trail open and it was lovely until we found it roped off to our great disappointment. Choker, Moonshine, Knotbumper, and Balhooter being closed were really hard to explain, especially to the ski patroller that caught me on Balhooter. :p
Gear: Punishers were perfect for these conditions. I have moved from total to moderately suck on moguls. Both older kids are better at bumps and the 8 year old is not far behind. It is extremely satisfying to see the whole gang hunting for powder and bumps and kickers.
The road:
the girls:
the view:
someone got the goods on this liftline:
all too typical sign:
that's all. goto the photobucket album for more pics.
ps. a bonus video for the family guy.
Travel: To avoid the I81 mess, we went I77 to I64 to 219 and found no problems at all. In Princeton we found lines of cars waiting for gas at sold out stations, but it did not take much intelligence to drive into town and find open stations. I64 was one lane plowed around abandoned cars with their signal antennas poking through the snow. US219 was clear until Elk Mountain and afterwards snow covered but easily drivable in a plain old minivan.
Ski: That was the best Snowshoe I have seen: good snow and sunshine at the same time. Not quite as much open as last year, but natural snow really does ski better than man made and it's nice to have 2.5 feet of fresh just outside the door. In fact, we would click-in on our Whistlepunk deck and then ski downhill to the path to the slopes, reverse on the way back. The best features of the week were the moguls underneath the Widowmaker lift line, followed by the random powder hunts in the trees near the slopes. Strangely, the Sawmill glades were lousy due to the heavy snowmaking cover that made the surface very slow and nearly un-turnable. That's a terrible way to ruin a nice area, but perhaps necessary to build some base on that side of the mountain. Crowds diminished during the week until there were no lines at all on Wednesday and Thursday. That's the yin.
The yang is that they are still closing slopes that should be open. Jhook was the last natural snow trail open and it was lovely until we found it roped off to our great disappointment. Choker, Moonshine, Knotbumper, and Balhooter being closed were really hard to explain, especially to the ski patroller that caught me on Balhooter. :p
Gear: Punishers were perfect for these conditions. I have moved from total to moderately suck on moguls. Both older kids are better at bumps and the 8 year old is not far behind. It is extremely satisfying to see the whole gang hunting for powder and bumps and kickers.
The road:
the girls:
the view:
someone got the goods on this liftline:
all too typical sign:
that's all. goto the photobucket album for more pics.
ps. a bonus video for the family guy.
