Snowjournal day @ CROTCHED 1/6/19

ciscokid

First of all wanted to say that it was a great day meeting all of you folks that I have never met in person and really enjoyed the tour of crotchet Mountain led by Joshua. We had I believe 12 snow journal members there which was a great turn out. A special thank you also to Mr. and Mrs. ski it who showed us around besides the detailed tour led by Joshua.

It was a great time to meet some famous snow journalists of yesteryear namely rocket who I spent several minutes with discussing the past and reliving the good old days of snow journal one.

An unexpected superstar showed up to my surprise the famous and illustrious Rick Bolger which also added to the great gathering. It was good to meet his wife and daughters and their husbands and of course he bought us a beer
We all took up the rocket chairlift to the summit and a few of us went off both directions and it was a great few hours at crotchet and then Joshua showed us remnants of the T-bar and we gathered for lunch at 1 o'clock to discuss many different topics.

Once again it must be stated that Mr. Joshua loves his home ill and was disappointed that the glades were not in the play. But it was most enjoyable to hear many different facets of the history of this hill and the good things that are going on and witnessing a great turn out

I want to personally thank each and everyone of you who came and Hope to meet up with you again someday thanks again. I will post pictures shortly

ciscokid

From left, Quietman, Conrad Ward, Joshua Segal, Rocket’s girl friend( forgive me Rocket can’t remember her name) Rocket, Sam newenglandskier, ski_it, ciscokid

ciscokid

Mrs ski_it second from left

ciscokid

Above ski_it, Samnewenglandskier, Joshua Segal, Ibrake4tbars and son Michael, Conrad, quietman, Mrs ski_it

joshua_segal

My attendance sheet for the day: rickbolger joshua_segal ciscokid ski_it rocket21 IbrakeForTBars TedEde Conrad NewEnglandSkier13 QuietMan Add family, friends and significant others, we were probably 15+ people. (Did I miss anyone?)

It was a pleasure meeting so many people with whom I’ve been talking for over a decade on Snow Journal.

My friends at the mountain were amused at the interest shown to old lift tower bases, the T-Bar line and the 1968 Hall Double. I got a kick out of how many people knew that both Riblets came from the lost Cherokee Ski Area in NC.

I hope everyone had a good time - and from ciscokid’s posting, I guess it shows how much I like my mountain.

Treilly

Bob your ski boot buckle is undone. Makes you look like a rookie on rentals.

NewEnglandSkier13

It was a great day, and it was goos to meet everyone! I'll post it summary and photos shortly.

conrad

Had a great day. Nice meeting everyone and getting the insider tour of the mountain. Definitely a fun mountain. I was able to sneak away from the group a few times to take some lift photos and will be publishing 5 Remontees-Mecaniques reports in the coming months.

NewEnglandSkier13

I’m glad that I finally got to meet everyone! We couldn’t have asked for better weather for our meet-up day. Many of us were there, so I don’t think a written report is very necessary, but as promised, here are my usual pictures:

The RocketRiding the RocketMoon WalkThe Snow Journal Gang Skiing Super NovaWest DoubleWest DoubleMrs. Ski-It Skiing Pluto’s PlungeValley QuadThe RocketValley QuadBase AreaWest DoubleConrad taking PicturesBlast OffThe Rocket at NightNight SkiingMoon Walk at Night

JimK

well done! great to see everyone getting some turns. we are having a milquetoast winter down here and i have yet to ski :s

rickbolger

Unbelievable what a fabulous group of people! Just got back to New Jersey and have to admit the drive was rather tiring. But 100% worth it and just wonderful feelings after meeting so many great people. And I have to say Joshua Segal set the tone for the day with his friendliness, his generous spirit, and his attentiveness to make sure that everyone felt welcome and was having a good time, and could find what they needed. I left with a handful of ski it's Snow journal stickers, which I plan to distribute to the great unwashed here in the south, so that they in some small way can share in this experience.

ski_it

It was so nice to meet everyone today. My hats off to you Ciscokid for scheduling this meetup. Wow and even surprise guests like Rocket21, Brianna, Rick Bolger and family too. It was quite a gathering. The skiing was 24 of 25 trails 3 lifts machined groom over frozen granular. Visibility was good even with a short flurry. Temps around 30. For this early in the season & with the lack of natural snow I found the coverage pretty descent. With a $17 youth ticket the lodge was a little busy at first but I didn’t think the trails or lifts crowded for a weekend. The staff was friendly and helpful from the parking lot to the lifts and pub! We took several breaks to discuss Crotched past & present, a long lunch to chat and we still got in 26 runs and 21k without even trying. Took some pleasant afternoon runs with NES13 & Conrad and then just NES13. We left NES13 still skiing as we finished the day at 4pm. And Crotched was open another hour still!

IBRAKEFORTBARS

It was great meeting you all yesterday! I suspected there was an unused Hall t-bar still hiding up there at Crotched and, sure enough, Conrad found it.

Any way the Crotched team can find a way to magically resurrect that lift and restore it to service? 😂

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“IBRAKEFORTBARS”>It was great meeting you all yesterday! I suspected there was an unused Hall t-bar still hiding up there at Crotched and, sure enough, Conrad found it. Any way the Crotched team can find a way to magically resurrect that lift and restore it to service? 😂</blockquote>

What’s interesting: That lift rarely ran and it was already mothballed when I started at CM in 2007-8 season. I was told that it had an alignment problem that resulted in frequent derailments.

ski_it

Small point, Rocket21 tells me Ski Cherokee was in VA not NC as I had previously thought too for some reason. This site confirms it…sorta… It only mentions one chair while NESH says two… R dcski.com/lostareas/viewlostprofile.php?id=3

NewEnglandSkier13

That website also had a trail map which shows multiple chairlifts. Crotched supposedly obtained two quads and a triple from that area.

JimK

Hey cool. Although I’ve never been to CM, I’ve ridden one of their chairlifts in it’s prior life at Ski Cherokee, Linden, VA :-)

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“NewEnglandSkier13”>That website also had a trail map which shows multiple chairlifts. Crotched supposedly obtained two quads and a triple from that area.</blockquote>

Correct - and the quad that was replaced by “The Rocket” is now at Hidden Valley, MO.

montebedi

Nice pics looks like a great group. Finally just a face to many of the names I have seen for years.