OK, I imagine you have allready read the home page so it should come as no surprise that we will not be opening Saturday, or likely this weekend. We did get roughly 18 inches of snow during the lake effect event and continue to blow snow on Holly and other areas. Early this morrning management actually seemed fairly optimistic that we may be able to turn the lift. So, while I was calling home to tell my wife I would be grabbing the kids tomorrow and heading to work looking forward to skiing with my daughter, son and the KB Jr. Team the Ops crew was hard at work hiking the slopes and putting a cat on the hill for a test at finish grooming. Tillers are still sucking up mud and the tracks are sinking through the moisture laden snow where the warm ground is melting it from the bottom up, the results are not pretty and we are in a holding pattern for the time being. I certainly expect that by next weekend

 I’ve been around the track a few times and remember the days at Red Jacket, a long gone private hill with one t-bar in Eden, NY(Google NELSAP , a great site of lost New England ski areas to see a piece on Red Jacket)where I learned to ski. We flipped the switch and skied on anything that was slippery. The groomer was an old Tucker with a powder wheel and it rarely ran so most times we just broke trail on the t-bar ride and pushed and poled our way through the snow until we had a enough momentum to go through the ungroomed drifts to the bottom. At times we all got together and ski packed the main slope.  Sure, we may burn down grass and mud for a turn or two, that just taught us to be light on our feet! The excellent grooming and snowmaking here at KB are a result of some talented folks with many years of experience operating millions of dollars of machinery and thier efforts are appreciated to be sure, but from time to time I miss the “natural snow and terain conditions” that I learned upon. We spent a lot more time buring the p-tex and re setting edges but we also learned to take advantage of whatever Old Man Winter delivered and thier is value in that I think. Anyway, I still have some Asolo lace up leather tele boots and skiiny tele boards sporting  3 pin bindings and think I may hike the road this weekend and drop into Red Jacket, reliving  the old days for a run or two ( I would be trespassing so of course I am just kidding, or not)!

Trust that I will report any news on opening day just as soon as I get.

May your days be merry and bright…

-acm