A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to ski Bristol Mountain in the Finger Lakes region of western New York. I was there in Syracuse on business and brought my skis for this side trip.
It was a little pricey ($50 for a 4 hour lift ticket), but the skiing was definitely worth it. With a vertical of over 1200 feet, it easily beats anything in Michigan, even in the UP.
It was a great experience, and a great way to further hone my skiing skills on some challenging runs. Even though it is a beginner run, their longest run "Milky Way" is over two miles long and took me over 7 minutes to get to the bottom, or three songs on the Ipod.
"Comet" was a double black diamond run that I enjoyed because it is by far the hardest run I have ever skied. It was extremely steep with large moguls and some sheet ice thrown in for extra terror! My skis were sideways and I was still going 35 mph! (Sorry, too busy not getting killed to take a pic!)
For skiing newbies, the trail color code is:
Green-beginner
Green-beginner
Blue- more difficult
Black (1 diamond)-most difficult
Black (2 diamonds)-extremely difficult
Black (three diamonds)-experts only
These are two snowscupltures made by the lift operators. The shark had a really cartoony face but since I was loading on the lift I really couldn't get a detailed pic.
Bristol Mountain trail map.
