Snow Ridge 2/21/13

The lake effect machine was going off. I don't think I would have fared well at work knowing that there was over 20" of fresh fluff just 2 1/2 hours away.

Rochester Mark was home preparing for his trip to Utah, but said if I wanted to go, he would go. It seemed like a good time to call in sick. Luckily, they call it a "personal day" instead of sick leave...so I just let them know I was taking a personal day. So I didn't have to worry about showing up the next day with a little wind burn and a huge grin.

First we sampled the trees and the ravine on the north end and found wonderful untracked snow in bounds.

This was in-bounds around noon


We saw Skimore's tracks heading outta bounds, so we made our way over.

Rochester Mark on a safety check


Our tracks on the steep part, taken from the creek with Shiro photo bomb

We made our way across the creek but had to climb out. Mark told me to click out of my skis and I dropped right through the snow into the water. Luckily, it was only a coupla inches deep.

Mark snapped picture...luckily he doesn't know how to upload it from his phone


We also found some nice lines on the other side of the ravine right off the northernmost lift. It's steep and thick but I found a really nice line.


Snow Pocket didn't open until 1pm. We figured Skimore and his posse would have it tracked out by the time we went over there, but it turned out that no one else had gone out of bounds and we had all that untracked fluff to ourselves with no competition.






Around 2:45 the Snow Pocket Tbar was having problems again. They loaded us but said it was unlikely we'd get to ride it again. The lift stopped as we approached tower 3. Five minutes later the liftie comes up on a snowmobile and tells us we need to abort. I guess this is the T-bar version of a lift evac. The other people skied down, but Mark and I decided to hike up for one more.

We secured our skis on our packs, rolled up our jackets and hoofed our way up the T-bar line. Suddenly the T-bar starts up again. But we are 3/4 the way up, so we decide to just keep going. 2 people are riding up. It's ski patrol going up for sweep. They waited for us at the top. As we cooled down and unpacked our skis Mark said that maybe with the Moe.down music festival they can afford to replace the 60+ year old T-bar. One of the guys chuckled and said "nah, the bands suck them dry" to which I replied "those moe.rons" totally ignorant of the fact that I was talking to Al Schnier of moe.!! He fessed up his identity and we had a good laugh. We told him we were fans and have seen them at Snowdown and at the Crystal Bay in Tahoe last year. Snow Ridge is Al's home ski area. He and the band are from the Utica/Rome/CNY area.

We decided that since we had climbed all that way, we needed one more run outta bounds in the deep and fresh. Patrol didn't mind and we didn't mind the walk back.

Thank you Lake Ontario and the good folks at Snow Ridge!

Woot!

Just checked their website. You might to head back tomorrow: "Friday night, Feb 22 will be another Friday Night Freakout. Only $7 for a night ticket - starts at 3pm. It's going to be a great night for skiing and riding. Plan on being here."

YOWZA! Good one!

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Woot!

Just checked their website. You might to head back tomorrow: "Friday night, Feb 22 will be another Friday Night Freakout. Only $7 for a night ticket - starts at 3pm. It's going to be a great night for skiing and riding. Plan on being here."

Great night for the kids!!

I'll be on my way to Minerva Friday night. Hoping Gore will get something from the storm that's heading this way

nice report. Guys  i got that same LES goodness at another speed bump on the Tug Hill today. DRY Hill up near Waterrown . it roo was deep AND he whole place was left UNGROOMED , saweet !!

Great report PDQ, enjoyed it!

Great day even though I really should have been home getting ready for my trip! But as you all know when it comes to fresh powder there's no time like the present! Slightly bummed the Snow Pocket lift broke down but very happy we got 4 runs before it did. $15 lift tix with my pass, so cheap I almost feel guilty for having that much fun!  

Heading in that direction this weekend.  Plan on skiing there with the girls on Sunday!

love moe. cool he s out there sliding little east coast hills

freeheeln wrote

love moe. cool he s out there sliding little east coast hills

Al is also a free heeler! Snow Ridge is his home ski area, as he is from the Utica/Rome area. Bet he skis at Gore too.