Greek Peak 2/20/11 - 2/21/11

An unexpected snowstorm from the winds whipping across the Great Lakes dumped 4-6" of fairy dust on Central NY Saturday. Pam and I braved the 40mph winds and went on a nordic tour of the nearby State Forest, Connecticut Hill. By the time we were done skiing in the late afternoon 5" of snow had piled up, reclaiming the ski conditions from the deep freeze after a few 50 degree days. The base was glacial, but the fairy dust on top transformed the crusty trails into something pleasant to ski upon.

Greek Peak reported 4" on Saturday evening and another 2" by Sunday morning. I didn't find 6" of snow anywhere today. More like 2-4" in the woods with a glacial subsurface. Getting out early was key because the holiday crowds were sure to ski the new snow off the slopes.

It was pretty cold this morning, so I only took a few pix.

Arethusa

Mars Hill

Aesop's



no lift lines in the morning. The parking lots were pretty full so everyone must've been inside.

They groomed Zeus while wet, so now it's headwall is bulletproof corduroy. There was a nasty accident on the headwall of Hercules. Someone skied off the trail and into the woods. They closed the trail while ski patrol did their job which seemed to take a while.

Olympian was half-groomed. I have never seen it that way before. It was quite icy.

The other trails were nicely groomed packed powder...at least in the morning.

I left at noon and met some friends for a nordic tour of Hammond HIll State forest. There was far more snow there and the skiing  was excellent.

Made it back to Ithaca for the end of Chilifest where Pam was dispensing chili all day.

Accident on Herc....

They were loading the young man into the ambulance as we were walking back to our trucks,  we asked how he was and we got a thumbs up. Guess the kid hurt both of his legs but will be fine.

We were talking in the bar that Herc should've been closed due to the amount of traffic on the hill. Yes, it was skiable but the majority of peeps on it had no biz being there. I know I only hit it once, the only good thing about that trail yesterday was the POW at the bottom.

P.S. I found at least 6" far skiers right in Ronnies

Was out there this morning in search of fresh powder. They groomed the shiite out of the mountain last night for the "holiday crowds"

Herc was firm corduroy all the way down. Word from ski patrol on the Herc incident Sunday was that it was just bad bruising...no breaks. Kid went off the headwall and crashed into the woods. They double splinted his legs. That's why it took so long. They didn't need to close Herc, but it was probably safer that way.

Zeus was closed because management wanted it groomed before opening. Of course this was ridiculous. It skied as well as anything else.

Glades were all good, with 4" of fresh snow. Took 2 runs on everything that was untracked...which wasn't all that much.

Olympian was decent, but again, hard base was apparent. Couldn't float enough, even on the Gotama's to keep from hitting the hard stuff below. Below headwall was much more enjoyable in the powder.

Gave it up at noon to make some tracks in the forest with my dogs.