Greek Peak: Super Bowl of Skiing 02.02.2020

Yesterday I made somewhat ambitious plans for my own little “Super Bowl of Skiing” at Greek Peak. The plan was to try out my new skins on the tele setup, hit Kennedy SF for a little bcXcd, then pop over to the annual A18 Super Bowl party in the chair #5 lot.
 
I set out a O’dark thirty through intermittent snow showers to get started  before the lifts started running at 8:30 as required by Greek’s uphill policy. I booted up just after 7:30. The root up Alpha/Castor was smooth cord with a dusting of fresh snow with gentle flurries coming down for stoke. About a third of the way up a patroller on a sled came by and asked how far I was going, “Sounds like a loaded question” I laughed and he said I need to be down before the lifts started and agreed I had about 15 -20 minutes to go.  About 2/3 of the way up I heard his sled approaching again and gave a wristwatch/thumbs up signal, he stopped and said not to about it that #2 doesn’t run until 11 and not to go past #2.



At the top I chatted with a hiker who had come in from the Finger Lakes Trail, he said he hadn’t been to Greek in 50 years and that it looked the same except for a little more rust, lol. My original plan was to ski Ronnie’s but it looked a little bony and being alone decided to take my same root down the fresh chord. Since the second quarter of my game was contingent on #2 running I did 5-6 tele runs. Nice snow, both groomed and ungroomed on Iliad, Elysian and Trojan. Rode up #4 with Pro but is was close to 11:00 by that point and needed to hit the tailgate locker room for an equipment change.

A quick coffee stout and soft pretzel break at the Trunk and Tire and I was off to #2 with the XCD setup for a ski in Kennedy SF. Valentines Rd (?) runs parallel to Pollux so I ducked in and bushwacked the 20 or so yards and was on my way.  I ski’d the multi use trail to the Cook Rd XC ski trailhead for about a 6.9 mile loop including the harrowing ski back down Castor to the base. Even with cable bindings I can’t drive those skis, especially on warm days, those boot soles are just way to floppy.







It was about 2:30 when I got back to the truck. I was pretty beat but the snow was really coming down so I threw on a dry shirt, grabbed a couple of  pocket beers, locked down my heals and headed over to #5 to see if Camp & crew were still around. Saw Big D and I think Cornhead on the way out, didn’t stop to chat as I was on a mission to start the 3rd quarter. Had a fun cruise over laying down some big arcs after the morning’s work. Camp was out on the sled so I shot the shit with Pro and a few other A18’ers until the sleds rolled in. Camp wasn’t  one of them, something about re-grouping? lol! I finished my beer just in time to catch #5 back to base.



I guess I missed all the spedies so I had a burger at Trax before heading out for the snowy ride home. A great day a Greek with good snow, all the lifts running (smoothly) and a lot of nice folks. Reminded me how much I miss the place. Hopefully this is the art of winter there and I get back up soon.



Oh, and I’m more of a hockey guy than football so my Super Bowl of skiing only has 3 quarters!!

Great report. I'm certain we went past you in KF, I should've stopped be we were on the move. Could've taken you to the cabin.

HA!!! That last regroup did me in!! I headed up over the hill back home.

Hey Mike, yes that was me and Cornhead you saw in the main parking lot at about 2:45. Was talking to a guy at Greek whose main hill is Blue Mountain PA. He said Vail was trying to buy Blue but that the owner Barb wanted 47 million. That price seems ridicuously high.

Big D wrote

Hey Mike, yes that was me and Cornhead you saw in the main parking lot at about 2:45. Was talking to a guy at Greek whose main hill is Blue Mountain PA. He said Vail was trying to buy Blue but that the owner Barb wanted 47 million. That price seems ridicuously high.

 
yea a vail deal deal was on the table over the summer but fell through. Lot's of rumors and numbers flying around, the most credible being that she wouldn't give up major interest which doesn't fit the vail model. Not sure what a hill with great access to major phila/ny/nj markets, has one of the biggest snowmaking systems in the east and can do 10K skier visits a day goes for these days...