bobble Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 11/26/21 first day of season. arrived around 9:30AM in parking lot to see a long line that was spilling onto parking lot. i went directly to ski school and got my ticket. i ended up being on third chair when it opened. teachers pet chair was running. snow was okay. it was slow but good to get out. most of the teens went over to the terrain park so lift line went quick. i was there for an hour and left. the lift line was getting longer. when i left, the line to the ticket office had extended out past the chalet where you can walk down the stairs to main chairlift. it was a tad bit long. you'd think it was the line for the beer tent for Buck's Concert series. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted November 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2021 11/27/21 welp, got first chair on day 2. surely that means something? i overheard the lifty say that buck tripled their snowmaking capacity. another regular told me that between wednesday and thursday last week that buck pumped 8 million gallons of water to blow snow. that's 12 olympic swimming pools. all the runs are covered in snow. not sure when they'll open. un·for·tu·nate·ly, it is supposed to warm up again. snow was good but i left after 45 minutes. lift lines were too long. it was getting warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted November 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2021 11/28/21, DAY 3 arrived early. snow was firm. relatively fast for teacher's pet. good riding. unusually busy for sunday morning. very long lift line formed before the lift started taking people. there were kids taking the rope tow to middle of the run and dropping into milkrun. the run looked rough. it had tire tracks all over. might've been fun on softies. left after 40 minutes. the lift line was extending out to the middle of the run and i have no patience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPablo Posted November 30, 2021 Report Share Posted November 30, 2021 I went out for an hour at 2 when they opened. They had the main chair going, most of milk run was groomed, and half of crossroads. Groom was a bit lumpy, the snow was soft, almost mash potato'y, but icy is some spots. And some dirt still showing in some spots on crossroads and milk. Chairs were covered in something that looked like salt, must be something they added to the snow when blowing, its all over my snowpants and jacked now. Saw a guy shreddin on a Donek (I think) Also my fan club was there, lol. You know who I'm talking about bob... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPablo Posted November 30, 2021 Report Share Posted November 30, 2021 you ever check out the live chat on the Buck Hill milk run web cam on YouTube? its just a bunch of bots talking to each other... this is our future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted November 30, 2021 Author Report Share Posted November 30, 2021 9 hours ago, DonPablo said: Also my fan club was there, lol. You know who I'm talking about bob... lol! that guy was stalking racers on first day. he would start off doing drills, stop midway to side of the run, and stand there watching skiers. after spotting his prey he would ski down to the lift line and start the conversation with "what team are you on?" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 5, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2021 12/4/22, DAY 4 got to buck around 9:30 AM-ish. parkling lot was full from d-teams practicing on teachers pet. main chair started running around 9:45AM. in order to get to the snow you have to walk across the beach through about 50 ft of grass/dirt. milkrun and 1/2 of crossroads were open. very thin coverage. dirt patches everywhere. icy groom. it was cloudy. i was skidding. couldn't see. most humbling. a couple snowboarders said that they were struggling to hold an edge and fearful of falling down. occasionally had to wait for groups of ski teams to clear the run. around 10:30 AM the sun pierced the clouds. i was able to carve some turns. at 11:00 AM, clouds returned. left 11:15 AM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted December 11, 2021 Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 As I am getting ready to go up to Spirit this morning, I'm watching the Buck webcam waiting for @bobble to make those first tracks. I'm seeing reports of 17" from the storm! We didn't get any snow from this storm, but I was up at the hill yesterday and the groomers were working the slopes for today and the surface felt plush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 11, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 (edited) 12/11/21, DAY 5 burnsville got 14-16" of snow. i shoveled twice, one last night and this morning. the snow was powder but i was exhausted from shoveling the end of the driveway after the plow came through. got to buck early at 8:25AM. ski patrollers had already tracked out crossroads and milkrun. NOOOOOOO!!!! the ticket office told everyone that the lift was officially opening at 9:00AM. i went down to the lift line at 8:30AM hoping i could sneak on. the lifty was new and let me and another skier take two trips up the chair. i took redtail down both times. fresh tracks! good god! the snow was DEEP. good times! on third attempt up the chair the lifty got a call to stop letting the public onto the run. it was about 8:40AM. the ski patrollers started lecturing everyone that the run was closed until 9AM. i said "since you're doing drills on crossroads and milkrun could we ride down red tail or olympic?". seemed like a good compromise. the buck hill civil chairlift marshal came up from behind me and said, "thank you for your cooperation, Bob!". i turned around and this guy had skied up from behind real close to read my name off of the lift ticket attached to my helmet. so, am i on a no-fly list because i snuck onto the runs? the lift line was getting longer as the ski patrollers were doing their drills. some of them were free skiing and not performing drills. meanwhile ski teams were setting up poles on crossroads to divide the run. after 10 minutes they relented and opened early at 8:50AM. i did a couple more runs on redtail. the south chair opened and i went over there. lots of powder. it was all fun. wish i had a powder board. the lines got too long. it was a good time to leave so i left at about 10:20AM. 3 hours ago, bigwavedave said: As I am getting ready to go up to Spirit this morning, I'm watching the Buck webcam waiting for @bobble to make those first tracks. I'm seeing reports of 17" from the storm! i tried. Edited December 11, 2021 by bobble 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigwavedave Posted December 11, 2021 Report Share Posted December 11, 2021 Sounds like fun! Thanks for the report. I have an old Burton Fish for sale. I bought it NOS a few years ago and rode it a few times. It's great in deep powder, not great if you have to ride on groomers to get to the powder. Has a big setback and taper. For that once every year or two Buck pow day I have other powder carver boards, so not likely to use this again. For you, we make special deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 12, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2021 12/12/21, DAY 6 rode from 9am until 12:00pm. conditions were decent but a little soft. under the lift tower the board left deep ruts. crossroad, milkrun, redtail were good. olympic had areas where it was stiff groom. on skiers right there were some rollers that were hard to see from the lift. intimidating on approach. the south chair opened late. warners (warren?) wasn't properly groomed on skiers right. crowds weren't bad otherwise i would've left sooner. as i left there was a long line of people getting lift tickets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 13, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2021 12/13/21, DAY 7 went riding at lunch. rode crossroads, milkrun. snow was great. the chairlift was watching... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2021 12/17/21, DAY 8 rode at lunch. buck is recovering from wednesday's freaky thunderstorm. we had high winds that blew down our neighbor's pine tree. thin cord on crossroads, icy underneath. very fast. same with milkrun. the south runs were closed due to snow making. i hope they blow snow on crossroads/milkrun again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 18, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2021 12/18/21, DAY 9 saturday morning. about two inches of fresh powder on top of cord. underneath was icy. ski teams took over half of crossroads. i managed to get two runs where they set up gates. the d-team kids were bombing the runs. at bottom of milkrun they had set up for a race. took a couple runs on it. difficult to maintain an edge because i was bouncing. warners had snowguns blowing. took only one run. it was bad enough with snowgun blowing on my face. the cord was tough to ride. i didn't bother with railyard. redtail was closed for some reason. left early because it was too crowded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 19, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2021 12/19/21, DAY 10 sunday morning. flat light. buck is still blowing snow. my goggles were getting iced over from the snow guns. it was annoying. i had to clear my lenses about every three runs. at times i couldn't see shit but i was able to carve down the run. the cord was actually good compared to previous days. edges held great near center and near lift tower. on skiers right of crossroads it was hard from the snow guns. there was some ski masters race setup on milkrun so i didn't bother riding. ----- there were two new lifties who didn't get proper training. both of them were at the bottom of main chair. the one guy who bumped chairs let us on at 9AM. the other guy just stood there doing absolutely nothing. when i reached the top i noticed there wasn't anyone inside the shack! this went on for more than an hour. no one was manning the shack. at around 10:15AM i saw the woman in charge of ski patrol standing inside the shack on her radio. i just knew she was giving someone an earful. on next trip up i loaded right behind the lifty that was bumping chairs. when i unloaded, i saw the owner of BH sitting in the shack with the lift operations supervisor. the lifty was outside the door. the supervisor gave the lifty a hard time and that he should've communicated with the top. apparently the lifty thought someone was already up on top but he didn't use the phone to confirm. later i heard the supervisor say something about difficult getting people to show up to work. i think it's the supervisor's is partially at fault. how could these people not know their assignments? regardless, i don't think these people are getting any safety training. there used to be daily meetings before the lifts were open. i have yet to see one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPablo Posted December 20, 2021 Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 Gates! Gates! Gates, everybody Gates! Lots of Gates on Thursday 12/16 when I got there. Pretty rough conditions after the rain, hard snow and small ice chunks. Snow was good last night, 12/19, parking lot was pretty full but the hill didn't seem busy. Thinking about going out Christmas Eve. Online you can buy a evening ticket for 7-9 on Christmas eve... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 20, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 20, 2021 12/20/21, DAY 11 rode at lunch. sunny skies. temps was in 23F but the windchill was 12F. crossroads was good. on milkrun i couldn't maintain an edge without washing out. on my first turn i fell down on heelside because the snow was like small marbles. i didn't bother with olympic. it has two large mounds. it didn't look like anyone skied down it. 2 hours ago, DonPablo said: Thinking about going out Christmas Eve. Online you can buy a evening ticket for 7-9 on Christmas eve... what? their hours are 9AM until 2PM on christmas eve. copy/pasted from their website. Quote Christmas Eve | 12/24/2021 | 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM did they change their hours and not update the webpage? i plan on being there christmas eve. i think last year trent and i were the last ones down the hill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPablo Posted December 21, 2021 Report Share Posted December 21, 2021 I think like the lifties being overwhelmed so is the ticket office and it's just an oversight. I'm sure The hours are still 9-2. The first time I got a ticket at Buck this year, the poor guy at the ticket office was trying to trouble shoot over the phone for a guy who couldn't buy tickets online. The industry pass is on Blackout for 2 weeks during the holidays but I'm thinking the ticket office at Buck might not know that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 22, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2021 12/22/21, DAY 12 rode at lunch. conditions were subpar. buck must have ran snow guns on all runs. under the main chair there were tire ruts from the snowguns up and down the run. at the top of crossroads there was a large frosty mound of ice. there's a ramp for ski teams. milkrun was meh. near the lift tower it looked like rough snow. it wasn't groomed very well. tried olympic. meh. railyard. there were a large mound midway down. sketchy going to lift line with tired tracks. redtail was bad. some ice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott.Creer Posted December 23, 2021 Report Share Posted December 23, 2021 Based on your "meh" report, we might skip out on Xmas Eve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonPablo Posted December 23, 2021 Report Share Posted December 23, 2021 Looks like its going to be 38 degrees at open Friday Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 24, 2021 12/24/21, DAY 13 flat light. light drizzle early but stopped. visibility slightly improved. rode from 9AM until 2PM. snow was grippy but the trick was being able to see it. trent was there with his daughters. they were all greeted by coach tom ... the guy that stalks skiers like randy. trent had a nice conversation with him. he learned that in addition to being deaf, he's blind. he can't see snowboarders, he only sees skiers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 26, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 26, 2021 12/26/21, DAY 14 early sunday morning. ski teams already carved up milkrun and set courses on crossroads, olympic, and warners. on crossroads, the cord broke up into marbles. couldn't hold a solid edge. went over to railyard and it was fast. i could at least maintain an edge... most of the time. i left after half hour thinking i'd come back when it was warmer. that didn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 27, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 27, 2021 12/27/21, DAY 15 snowed last night and then rained. while shoveling the driveway, the snow was glazed over with ice. my expectations were very low. ski teams already carved up milkrun and set courses on crossroads, olympic, warners. the cord was glazed. sunlight reflected off of it. first tried crossroads. i was taking up the width of the run and having problems keeping speed in check. went over to railyard and it was fast. i could hold an edge. i was standing upright and taking narrow turns. not much fun. went back to crossroads. after a half-hour conditions improved. i was still taking big turns but holding an edge. better than skidding. caught glimpses of people watching me from the chair. helped my motivation. left around 11AM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobble Posted December 28, 2021 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2021 12/28/21, DAY 16 got out around 11AM. it was snowing with large flakes. by the time i arrived there was about an inch or more of snow. on crossroads there was ice underneath the new snow that broke up into small chunks. fell a few times trying to hold an edge. milkrun and warners had courses taken down but were rutted. went over to railyard. it was too crowded. bottom was messed up from gates on warners. on way out i took redtail. there are rollers on right side of run. it was icy near the rope tow shack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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