Belleayre Mountain 3/30/15

     Around friday night we decided to head up to Belle for a possible season ending trip. We got really excited after checking the trail report, seeing that most of their expert runs have been opened after weeks of them being closed.
     
     Arrived at Belleayre around 8:45. We were greeted by the usual view of mogul filled headwalls of much loved runs like Yahoo or Winnisook. Got lucky with a bluebird day, not a cloud in the sky. Pleased by the almost empty parking lot, we got on our gear and headed for the Superchief Quad.
 
     We were all aware of the icy conditions (temperatures dropping to 8 degrees overnight didn't help to well), however I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. Made a bad decision to take an opening run on Winnisook. Incredibly icy moguls, and wherever there wasn't ice you would find very hard pack that was impossible to get an edge on.

     We made a decision to head to the West Side via Upper Belleayre run, across Wanatuska and Mohawk, and then to lower Onteora. We were surprised to find moguls in much better shape on Onteora. Rarely any ice patches, but it still had a very hard pack.

     Arrived at the Tomahawk Chair around 9:45. We are all anxious to see how Liftline was doing. It had remained closed for a while, so we thought we might find good snow. We made a plan to take Seneca to Lower Liftline. Bad Choice. Seneca was even worse then Winnisook. About an inch of snow falling earlier in the week did nothing to help with the frozen moguls.

     Losing all hope for a good day, we slid over to lower liftline. At first site, it looked to be in better shape. As I took my first few turns threw through the moguls, I new we found where it was at. the trail was in great shape (at least compared to Seneca) and we new it was on. Hucked the life out of the top cliff, and then found some decent lines towards the end.

     We must have lapped Lower liftline three or four times, stopping at the mid station to avoid the Ice rink that Seneca had become.
       
     We took an early break in the Discovery lodge to let the trails bake in the sun for a little while. We made a plan to poach Utsayantha. Had to back out of that because it was roped of with a pack of Ski Patrol standing near the entrance.
Our only option was to take Upper Yahoo, which we new would be icy, or to ski the ridge trail over to Belle Run. We decide to try Yahoo. This turned out to be a great choice, the moguls weren't to hard. We all ripped down yahoo, really finding some nice lines.

     Nearing the end of the day, we new our next step was to hike to Cathedral Brook. Hiking was tough because of the temperatures nearing 50 degrees. Had to cool off in the Lean-To before making our way down. Thin cover near the end, but except for that it was pretty nice.

     After finishing up at Cathedral we decided to head over to the West Side again and end with laps on Liftline. By then the trail was in prime condition, and we enjoyed some good skiing. Finished up the day with some great cliffs and moguls, even tried Seneca again, which wasn't as bad as before. I'd say it's worth it if your thinking of going another time. No crowds, no liftlines, just watch for the ice.













Videos of Belleayre and More:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwxd3wQeYAiQ5lds--7l9Jg

Belleayre can be fun -- too bad the conditions weren't ideal.  Sounds like you got enough good runs to make it worth it.


Petronio

Yeah, definitely worth it though. I have one problem though, I have a lot more pictures on my computer, but whenever I upload more than like three, they start to just be duplicates of the ones I posted before. Any ideas how to fix?  

jcamotts wrote

Yeah, definitely worth it though. I have one problem though, I have a lot more pictures on my computer, but whenever I upload more than like three, they start to just be duplicates of the ones I posted before. Any ideas how to fix?

It's a limitation of the system. If files are uploaded that have the same file name it uses the last one for all of them.  It looks like you were using screenshots (?) In that case the file names are set by the time they were taken.  They'd have to be captured a minute apart to give them different names. A hassle for sure.

Yeah that's what I was thinking. They are screenshots an have very similar file names. All taking them at different times.