Skiing at Snowshoe was a blast today. I am not much of a writer, but here is a little bit about my day.

After forking over 50 of my hard earned dollars (poor college student rant) at Top of the World, I cut down the left of the new lift and headed down to the Ballhooter lift. Right from the beginning I enjoyed some nice packed powder, and the slopes weren't too crowded. After getting back up to the top I decided to ski down to the Soaring Eagle Lift so I could go up and make a few runs on the new trail. Sawmill was interesting to say the least. First of all it wasn't groomed, which is good right?? 10 inches of chopped powder right? Wrong! There were actually some really nice soft moguls, which skied pretty good. Now to the interesting part.....Snowshoe did NOT do a good job marking this trail as expert AND ungroomed for today. There were people on the trail that shouldn't even be on blues, let alone a black with moguls. It was a mess, because each gaper that came over brought about 3 of his gaper buddies too. Needless to say I feared for my life because of out of control skiers flying every which way, bouncing off moguls and running into people. But did I mention that other than the 4,000 people I really enjoyed skiing that trail (other than the Salamanderish run out at the bottom). I also should mention that the gladed run the right on Sawmill looks awesome too. I was very impressed!!

The rest of the day I spent making laps down Skipjack and the terrain park, as the snow on them was WONDERFUL (and the crowds were minimal). Overall I would say that today's skiing was very good. The conditions couldn't have been better and lift lines weren't too bad either. I guess the hard earned 50 dollars of mine was well spent!!



Sawmill Glades



Sawmill



Sawmill (Gaperville)



In the trees



Looking back up at Sawmill



Yes, the Western Territory is still CLOSED



Lots of snowmaking EVERYWHERE



More snowmaking



Crunchy or Andy..Anyone bring the ice pole??



I LOVE the view from Top of the World!

Wow great shots! looks like a great day!!!
Thanks for the report. It does look a bit crowded for the Shoe I would say.

looks like a picture perfect day! Great shots, thanks.

Lets see...you froze your Bijimmis off at wisp & now you froze your G-Nads off at SS...Man you are a glutton for fun..ain't ya?!!!

Great shots of new trail and glades. Thanks for posting. Cold and clear. What was the day time high temp?

Sure am. I found my G-Nads though before I left. Still haven't found my Bejimmis....




I am not sure what it got up to. I know that when I drove by the bank at the base of the mtn at about 3 it was 22. I would venture to say that it didn't leave the teens. From the time we started (10am) till the time we left (2:30pm) it didn't really seem to get much warmer. It stayed nippy most of the day.


BTW, I forgot to mention that some guys and I are going to be up at Wisp for the day tomorrow. So if anyone wants to meet up get at me. I'll be wearing a red Spyder jacket with a silver helmet.

About 35 to 40 miles as a crow flies north of you at pointy Knob(3750') at 10am it was 5.2 degrees & at 230 pm it got to 10.4 which was the high for the day..you do the math for SS's elevation...you must be getting used to the Arctic Blasts..thinking it was in the teens!

Excellent pictures! What resolution camera?

Tons of skiers with their upper body pointed across the hill. At least they weren't moving fast (at all) enough to hurt themselves.

How steep would you say Sawmill (the moguled section) is compared to Widowmaker?

re: comparision with widowmaker.

We skied sawmill about the day opened - Friday before Christmas. Unlike widow which is pretty consistent to the merge, sawmill is 200 yards of good intermediate pitch with short top and long bottom flats. The gladed part is beside those 200 yards, not very wide but nicely cleared. We also found the slope to be ridiculously crowded on a day when everything else was empty. It's a good addition and will be more fun when the novelty wears off.

Awesome pictures -- thanks man! I am looking forward to trying out Sawmill on Saturday. They are opening Camp 99 as well.

Anytime! Hope you have an awesome time this weekend! Make some turns for me....

good stuff man! looks like a trainwreck in that one pic with all the people on the slope the snow sure was sweet today tho wasn't it? even with tline only really having one decent slope open it actually didnt get boring because of the sweet snow. one side with small whales and with nice fluffy bumps sprouting up in the middle... super fun!

Wonderful pictures, thanks. I am going to SS on the 12/13th and will try those glades.

Conditions look nice. I'm heading up Saturday evening so hopefully the crowds have left. The only problem I see is the big warm up :(. I guess I will be able to ski in my sweatshirt...


-Paul