 Poster: A snowHead
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We've just moved to Pittsburgh from Washington State, so thought I'd start a thread detailing our explorations around the US East Coast ski areas. They'll be places you've never heard of. Me too  Other snowheads out there, please contribute.
Our first trip was a day at Seven Springs, PA, a mere 70 minutes from our house, with 30-ish runs and 750 vertical feet of terror. We actually had a pretty fun day, Beats watching TV. Pics/quick report at:
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/a-little-easterly-move-skiing-at-seven-springs-pa/
(and if someone can fix the typo in the thread title, that's be great!!)
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Spent Presidents weekend at Holiday Valley in New York state. Busy Saturday, and a powder day Sunday with much more bearable crowds. It was a pretty good ski day and overall a fun weekend, as the coverage is good. It's not the west coast, but with good conditions like these, there was lots of turns to be had.
Pics/report at
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/02/20/presidents-weekend-at-holiday-valley-ny/
It might be Blue Knob. PA if work and weather permit this weekend. I don't feel like I've lived until I've ridden the Knob
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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On Saturday we spent a very pleasant ski day at the hilariously named Blue Knob. For this part of the world, it was pretty decent skiing. Pics/report at:
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/riding-the-knob-the-blue-one/
We're booked into Snowshoe, WV next weekend. It's cold here in Pittsburgh and forecast in WV is pretty good right now. They may even have some fast lifts and vertical there. Fingers crossed.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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My daughter is heading off to Sunday River in Maine in a couple of weeks on a school trip (bonkers I know). Anybody been there before or can comment on current conditions?
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Winter is dragging on nicely here so hopefully she had good conditions at Sunday River. Its meant to be a fun place - we'll try to get there at some stage next year. The conditions around here are still excellent with lots of recent snow and cold weather. Not sure how long it's going to last, but we'll keep skiing while it does. Pics and brief blog report from last two weekends at Snowshoe, WV are at:
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/04/02/spring-skiing-at-snowshoe/
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I'm currently skiing in Colorado, Beaver Creek. This is our second one trip to the US and we love it. I'll be keeping an eye on this thread for next trip ideas. Thanks for all the info so far
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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The 2013-14 season is off with gun pow blazing in the East. We hit Okemo and Killington for some season opening fun. Pics, videos at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/ski-season-2013-14-is-rolling/
Been some decent snowfalls and severe cold in last couple of days, so looking decent for Thxgiving. We're heading up there Wednesday - destination still TDB, but there's plenty of choice. Even our local ski hill, Seven Springs, is opening Friday. That's an almost unprecedented November opening. Fingers crossed it stays cold and snowy all winter long.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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The cold continued for Thxgiving, so up to Vermont we headed again. Mount Snow was limited in terrain but deserted and fun for a day on Thursday. Friday and Saturday we spent at Stratton. The compact village there is very pleasant, and the gun pow crew were opening more runs everyday, which made for some fine groomer skiing in super sunny, cold weather.
Report and video at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/12/01/gunpowmageddon-at-mount-snow-and-stratton/
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We've not been able to escape west this Xmas, so have been checking out the local skiing. Turns out our 2nd closest ski hill, Wisp, is in Maryland. I never knew that.
The weather yo-yo's like crazy around here. The Sunday we skied Wisp it was 22C in Pittsburgh. Two days later it was -7C.
Report and comedy video at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2013/12/30/xmas-skiing-in-er-maryland/
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| gortonator wrote: |
| We've not been able to escape west this Xmas, so have been checking out the local skiing. |
Probably a good thing - think we're having a karma rebalancing year to make up for the great start to the last few seasons - I'm still yet to bother hitting the slopes this season! 
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You know it makes sense.
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I had a quick jaunt to Schweitzer in Idaho mid December and it was decent for that time of year. Heading to Red Mountain in 3 weeks, so hopefully it'll all be rosy by then
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Poster: A snowHead
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gortonator, I always enjoy dipping into your posts here - our son lives in CT so they have weekends out at some of the east coast places - they visited Stratton and Bromley at NY staying with friends - very very cold apparently but kids making good progress.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Pamski wrote: |
| gortonator, I always enjoy dipping into your posts here - our son lives in CT so they have weekends out at some of the east coast places - they visited Stratton and Bromley at NY staying with friends - very very cold apparently but kids making good progress. |
Thx Pam - wish I could get up to Stratton right now, as the conditions sound great and I really like the skiing there. We were at Bristol in NY on weekend, and conditions were excellent there, and not too cold. That might change today though!!!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Last weekend the snow was looking good up in NY state, so we decided to explore Bristol, in the Finger lakes near Rochester. A cruisy but fun hill, and we timed it well for snow conditions, which were generally soft and fun. Report and pics at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/a-weekend-at-bristol-mountain/.
We stayed in a place called Canandagua, right on one of the lakes. It was a very beautiful, if frozen, place with a pleasant little downtown where we found a wine bar with good Italian food. Some of the local white wines are pretty worthy in the Finger lakes. Recommended.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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the conditions on the US East coast right now are absolutely atrocious. I have been skiing for 42 years and these may be the worst I have ever seen. Best is advice is simply don't ski. It is going to be a long time before conditions are worthwhile as rain is expected Tuesday followed by Artic cold yet again.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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skiberg, why is it so bad? No snow?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Rain on Saturday messed thing sup, but forecast for (eg) Killington is some snow and perfect snow making weather for rest of week. I skied Snowshoe in WV on weekend, and after the rain stopped, it was perfectly skiable. Firm, but skiable, on trail anyway. Off may be a different story .Where were you skiing, skiberg?
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Cannon Mt., NH. Inversion so warmer up high. No natural snow on the ground in Mid January. Its quite remarkable. We keep getting blasted by "inland cutters". These storms move West of New England and flood NE with warm subtropical air and moisture. Its was 50f at my house in northern NH for quit a while on Sat and Sunday! Then cold air came in and set everything up into an ice block. Weather has been yo-yoing up and down all year. -18f last Friday then warm and rainy. Its been doing this all season. However, I am leaving for AT on Wed., its better there for sure.
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| skiberg wrote: |
| Cannon Mt., NH. Inversion so warmer up high. No natural snow on the ground in Mid January. Its quite remarkable. We keep getting blasted by "inland cutters". These storms move West of New England and flood NE with warm subtropical air and moisture. Its was 50f at my house in northern NH for quit a while on Sat and Sunday! Then cold air came in and set everything up into an ice block. Weather has been yo-yoing up and down all year. -18f last Friday then warm and rainy. Its been doing this all season. However, I am leaving for AT on Wed., its better there for sure. |
Yep - no doubt the yo-yo-ing is pretty amazing, and no natural snow on ground at Snowshoe either. The gun pow makes sliding possible though, and with all this cold, there's plenty of that everywhere. I'll post pics from Snowshoe this weekend tonight.
Fingers crossed it turns and stays cold. We're off to Red Mountain for next weekend - there's def natural snow there, although I suspect a little more would be nice (none in forecast)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Have fun, good friend of mine heading there this week as well. I lived out there for a bit. Definitely try and ski Whitewater, very close to Red and a Powder hound's dream. Incredible tree skiing. Red is loaded and I mean loaded with terrain. Snow is usually a bit better at Whitewater. One of my favorite ski hills on the planet.
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| skiberg wrote: |
| Have fun, good friend of mine heading there this week as well. I lived out there for a bit. Definitely try and ski Whitewater, very close to Red and a Powder hound's dream. Incredible tree skiing. Red is loaded and I mean loaded with terrain. Snow is usually a bit better at Whitewater. One of my favorite ski hills on the planet. |
Yep - love 'em both. really looking forward to exploring the new terrain on Grey, as well as indulging in the usual Granite madness where conditions permit.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Have you gone up to try the Hot Springs north of Nelson.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| skiberg wrote: |
| Have you gone up to try the Hot Springs north of Nelson. |
Nope - always wanted to but never managed to crawl off the ski hills early enough and with enough energy to drive there. Bar always seems to win out
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Gotcha. Ainsworth Hot Springs is fantastic if you get a shot. I hope it dumps while you are there. BTW where are you at, says "dry side". Do you mean Spokane?
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You know it makes sense.
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Used to live in Tri-cites until this time last year - in Pittsburgh now. Must update tag line ....
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I lived in Spokane back in mid 90's. That's how I skied BC so much. From Pitt you may want to try Elk, Mt. in PA. Try Timberline in WV. I think these are the best in the midatlantic region. Don't bother with Southern VT at all unless its Magic. Almost all of northern VT is good and gets good snow. Jay Peak, Mad River, Sugarbush and snow can be down right amazing. Jay gets a lot of snow, no bs more than Silver or Schwietzer. Sugarloaf, Saddleback and Sunday River in ME are all very good. Sugarloaf is huge. Gets lots of late season snow. Great place from Mid March on. If you get a shot get up to Quebec. I cant stress how much fun it is. The winter culture is awesome. Most ski hills are smallish, like Wisp etc, but Tremblant, Mont St Anne and Le Massif are big-very Big. Le Massif is 3k of vertical, where you literally ski right down to the ocean. You can actually smell the salt in the air. they average 300 inches as well. Have fun exploring the east.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Spent this last weekend st Snowshoe in West Virginia, where we have season passes. It was a very last minute decision as the weather has been insanely variable around here in the last week. It turned in to a decent weekend - thanks to the prodigious snowmaking capacity in this part of the world. The runs pretty much survived a serious downpour, and came up decent enough Sunday for some fun cruising around the trails. Off trail looks like June ;(
Report/pics at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/back-to-snowshoe-for-the-weekend/
Forecast for this week looks pretty good at Snowshoe, with old school snow and cold temps for the new school gun pow. Hopefully winter might arrive and hang out for a while.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| skiberg wrote: |
| I lived in Spokane back in mid 90's. That's how I skied BC so much. From Pitt you may want to try Elk, Mt. in PA. Try Timberline in WV. I think these are the best in the midatlantic region. Don't bother with Southern VT at all unless its Magic. Almost all of northern VT is good and gets good snow. Jay Peak, Mad River, Sugarbush and snow can be down right amazing. Jay gets a lot of snow, no bs more than Silver or Schwietzer. Sugarloaf, Saddleback and Sunday River in ME are all very good. Sugarloaf is huge. Gets lots of late season snow. Great place from Mid March on. If you get a shot get up to Quebec. I cant stress how much fun it is. The winter culture is awesome. Most ski hills are smallish, like Wisp etc, but Tremblant, Mont St Anne and Le Massif are big-very Big. Le Massif is 3k of vertical, where you literally ski right down to the ocean. You can actually smell the salt in the air. they average 300 inches as well. Have fun exploring the east. |
thx - Sugarloaf in early April would work perfectly I've always wanted to go there. May even make Jay Peak in early Feb if all goes to plan. Another hill I've always wanted to ride.
I'd never heard of Elk Mt - does look worth a visit, thx for tip. Timberline is on our radar but they've not had much snow this winter. Hopefully that'll change soon as it's not a bad drive from here.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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The weather has been kind to 7 Springs (near Pittsburgh) recently - cold and snowy -so we took Friday off and headed up, with 3 inches new reported on the web site. The conditions were really quite fine, with pockets of pow lurking all day. There were no crowds or lift lines, and we chalked up 30+ laps of the Gunnar chair before calling it a day at 3pm.
I went back Sunday, with a similar amount of snow reported overnight. A sunny cold morning quickly turned to a blizzardy warmer one, with the fresh snow topping up the conditions every run. The skiing got better and better as the day went on. It was a lot of fun.
The base is pretty decent everywhere on the mountain, so if it stays cold, the rest of the season should be pretty excellent.
Usual blog report and pics/video at http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/pa-pow-mining-at-seven-springs/
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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We went up to Blue Knob in PA for a day, and the skiing was pretty good for this part of the world. Groomers were soft and well covered, and although none of the glades were open, we had a fine time. Extrovert, a steep bumpy run of genuine challenge was a lot of fun - good edge control practice as it wasn't soft. Short report and comedy video of the ski hill at
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2014/02/05/a-day-trip-to-the-knob/
Hopefully there will be more snow soon and those glades will open. I've still never skied them and some nice tree skiing would be a luxury.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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I cruised through Holiday Valley, Gore and Whiteface in early February. Ironically, Holiday Valley, the smallest of them seemed to have the most snow of the 3, but this particular day wasn't the best, with rain, freeze and snow creating some 'solid' conditions.
I'd never been to Gore or Whiteface, and the skiing at both was excellent. Both were a good storm away from having a lot of the expert and glade runs open, but there was still some fun bumsp and steeps open, especially at Gore, and soft carvable high speed groomers at both. With impressive vertical, it's easy to get a lot of runs in.
I'd love to head back up there now after the storms of last few days, I bet it's fun up there.
Pics and brief report at:
http://gortonator.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/a-new-york-state-road-trip/
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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skiberg, just read 3k vertical and went wow; but then realised that you must mean feet rather than metres. Is that correct?
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yep - no 3000m vert ski mountains on this continent. Whiteface in NY is 3400 feet, which is biggest in East, I believe.
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Revelstoke has most lift served vertical in NA, 1712m
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| hobbiteater wrote: |
| Revelstoke has most lift served vertical in NA, 1712m |
yep - and as I read this, I got a '50cm in 24 hours' powder alert from Revie. One of my very favorite places.
Worth pointing out that the bottom 200-ish of this vertical is often not open/thin and is pretty much a ski out. The real fun is above the main gondola base.
Last edited by You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net. on Fri 14-02-14 14:57; edited 1 time in total
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FAQ
