Ski Gear Lust: Winter 09-10

Thus it begins again. A very wise man once said that the best money you'll ever spend on new gear, will be for your girl. This is going to be girl gear year.

On the recommendation of one knowledgeable HighPeaksDrifter we visited Steiner's Sports in Glenmont NY. These guys are known for their boot fitting, and in my mind that's where it all starts when it comes to ski gear. Boots above are Tecnica Dragon 100 UFs. Ski's below are K2 True Luvs. I haven't a clue about alpine gear, and would love to hear opinions...is this the gear that will get my girl from brave, motivated beginner to intermediate?

Marketing or STOKE?

Or both. GOTTA give Sunday River credit for having marketing stones!

End of a Nice, Long Week.

(via mobile)

Another Beautiful Day in North River

Longest Glade in the East?

I'm finding this hard to believe. The BRQs vertical is listed as 1432 feet and Cirque now covers most of that vertical. So it's no slacker. But longest in the East? There is nothing longer at Mad River? Jay Peak? Anybody know?

Adirondack Museum at Blue Mountain Lake

I've been threatening to return to the Adirondack Museum for years. I haven't been there since I did a cycling tour of the Adirondacks after graduation in 1981. It's a great rainy day activity and I was pleasantly surprised that our 3 year old had a great time. It doesn't hurt that they let little kids feed a pool of hungry rainbows and brookies.

For me the highlight was finally seeing the Sairy Gamp — the 12 lb (!) wooden boat built by the legendary Adirondack boat builder Rushton. The Sairy and the boat in front of it — the Nessmuk — are the basic designs that Peter Hornbeck has used as his inspiration, becoming one of the Adirondacks premier boat builders:

It's fitting that Peter's most basic ten footer is also on display in the museum. See Peter's innovative designs at www.hornbeckboats.com.

Progress at the North Creek Ski Bowl

I took time today to check out progress at the Ski Bowl. After buying some hearty roast beef sandwiches at Sarah's in town, we went over to Ski Bowl Park to eat. I gobbled mine down and left the womenfolk to relax, and use the playground. I took an hour to go explore. Not much progress on the Lodge. There were some guys working, but I would have thought they'd have gotten farther by now:

I tried to take a picture that put the location of the new liftline in context. With the marginal wide angle on my point and shoot...the best I could do was include the existing lift that serves the half-pipe:

I started heading up. There are a few massive piles of sharp boulders that must be the remains of work with high explosives. If the work doesn't progress past this point this year, I'd recommend carefully reconsidering poaching over there on a powder day. The boulders are big and sharp, with huge gaps in between them:

Farther up, it's dirt, brush and trees that have been dropped in place:

Skier's left is loaded with sweet, widely space hardwoods:

Near the top...the remains of the old liftie shack:

The new lift ends a few vertical feet higher than the old T-bar:

At the top off to skier's right, work is very far along on trails that take a more gradual route down back to the Bowl and I assume over to BRQ. I headed off down and came to an intersection. The trail that continued on the traverse was graded and seeded and looked to be complete:

The trail that branched off to follow the fall line was similar to the liftline without the boulders...lots of brush:

At this point it was clear that I was getting close to active construction and also the family would be expecting me back. I cut into the woods and traversed back towards the liftline. More awesome widely spaced hardwoods that wouldn't require much clearing to be skiable with good cover. (I do realize at this elevation that cover will be an issue.) If anyone has a map to share of the original trails...I'd trade a cookie for it. One final comment. The exposed bedrock at the top of the liftline pitch...let's call it the headwall...I'm not sure I'd have the stones to ride a Tbar up that slope. I was blown away by the terrain covered by the original lift. Would LOVE to hear from anyone who rode it.

Beautiful Day in the Mountains

NWS Albany Snowfall Map

National Weather Service Albany County Warning Area
Average Annual Snowfall in Inches
1971-2000
(Click map to enlarge.)

New York State Snowfall Map

I'm looking for a snow fall map for New York State. This is the only one I can find....and it's just not clear or what I want. I'm looking for a map that shows a longterm average with county lines, not much other detail. Anyone know where I can get one?

(click on map to enlarge.)

Drive Times to Ski Country

Saw a TV commercial for a furniture company that seemed really cool. The whole commercial was about how they built their own recycling plant and they take back ALL the packaging for your furniture and promise it will be recycled. (That's one part of new stuff I always hated...all those boxes and stryo peanuts by the curb.) Anyway....went on the web to look them up and send them a note. Couldn't find the feedback thingie, so I did a chat with a customer service rep, and put in my 2 cents ($10). She said the company was extremely together and she had been "chasing a job with them for 2 years." They are in Syracuse.

Got me thinking about moving yet again. I did some mapquest...3 hours from Syracuse to our place near Gore vs 4 hours 50 minutes from here in downtown NJ. Pretty good, much easier drive with way less traffic.

But then I'm thinking....pretty good for Gore...but really not that much better for all the VT resorts ...Killington, Sugarbush, Stowe or Jay. So maybe Albany - better for Gore and almost everything else. Basically 3.5 hours off my drive to anywhere...or even more if you go up along the Northway. Then I just start mapquesting everything.

I'm not believing what i found...all these times are from Princeton:

Gore: 4 hours 30 minutes
Killington: 4 hours 52 minutes
Sugarbush: 6 hours 31 minutes
Stowe: 6 hours 43 minutes
Jay: 7 hours 30 minutes

It usually takes us 5 hours to Gore with maybe one stop, going mostly close to the speed limit and with whatever traffic we hit. So if you add 1/2 hour to all the times...I just seems impossible to get to Killington in an extra 22 mins or Stowe in an extra 2 hours and 10 min. For figuring...use times from Albany by subtracting 3.5 hours and adding in your time to Albany... are those times realistic?

Fall Foliage from Outer Space

Photo taken by NASA at the peak of color in early October 2007:

(Click on photo to get a closer view.)

Sugar Valley Glades at Whiteface (Update)

Sweet photo of new glades submitted by Highpeaksdrifter:

Current Whiteface Trail Map