GCWarrior

Played Maplegate(Bellingham) and Poquay Brook(Lakeville) the last couple weekends. Both were pretty good, Maplegate greens were lightning fast. Anyone here played Heritage country club in Carlton, MA? I've been doing some big drives to play with college friends it's a bit closer than the other two we played.

Overall the winter was a big fat F for me. I feel like 2015-16 was a lot worse. I look at all winters from a skiers perspective. I really don't care for snow if I can't ski. We were actually around average for snowfall here, I'm not sure the exact numbers as I generally don't keep track. Aided by a huge dump in early December the winter was off to a hot start but just like the previous winter it really never took off here. March was not what it was the winter before and then Covid happened. I did get a few nice powder days but my last ski day was in late March. Lets see what happens with the minimal sun spot activity and reduction of pollution due to Covid this upcoming winter. Repeat 2018-19 I go north, repeat 2010-2011 I stay here, anything in between I embrace and roll.

Not my picture but Berkshire East had this picture posted in their lodge for a long time. Powder magazine came out and spent half the day trying to get this one shot. Skiing was almost impossible that day, mountain was not steep enough.

Spent some time today flexing all my skis and wishing I could use them. Mount Washington buried in late season snow and no one can ski it! Open the autoroad June 1 and make my day!

Mother’s Day 2017. East of Keene, Nelson, NH got 9”. 4” in Hawley which is about 8 miles from here. 18” on top of Mount Washington.

I know it’s not SNE but wasn’t it mid may 2017 when SW NH got a foot?

I thought about this as well. The auto road usually opens in early to mid may. I’m highly doubting things are in a better place by then.

Did a quick trip up Mount Snow yesterday. Limited on time so I went up under the canyon quad and up onto ripcord. Then all the way down back to the lot. Nice little trip. It wasn’t too busy up there. Local people taking their kids sledding on the bunny hill. A few people hiking on different routes. Being alone I found it very easy to stay away from other people. I’d bet today is going to put some pressure to close uphill traffic as it’s supposed to be really nice. i hope people can stay away and keep things open for a while long. There is a ton of snow up there.

Berkshire East done! No trespassing signs and caution tape up. I may journey up to mount Snow but crossing state lines seems iffy right now.

Berkshire East was very good first thing. My 9 year old was a bit of an anchor so I only was able to ski the lower half of the mountain twice. Skiing was very good first thing. Second run was much more sticky.

Maybe the last day of hiking and skiing today. Semi shut down of the state isn’t something I’m messing with. Maybe backroads get me there but we will see.

Berkshire East today was nice. I felt it was a little bit busy but people never interacted outside their small groups. It was pretty cold and their was a decent breeze at the top. Snow never really warmed up until 3pm but it was a lot of fun.

Berkshire East was pretty awesome today! A couple small gatherings there. Nothing crazy though. Hopefully we can continue to skin and ski for while.

Jay Peak postponed the IFSA comp because of weather. Moved it to next weekend. 2 hours later IFSA shut down all comps for the rest of the season due to Covid-19.

Mount Snow was pretty decent today. Then actually had a lot more coverage in the woods/natural snow trails than I was expecting. There were a lot of rocks and stumps sticking out. Morning was really tough but after lunch was pretty awesome, soft spring corn.

Yup. I wouldn’t be surprised if other resorts closed after the weekend.

Heading to mount snow tomorrow. Seems like the best option with temps climbing into the 40s by afternoon. Original plan was Sugarbush but I’m skeptical if they get above freezing up during the day.

Sort of hoping the ski comp is postponed at Jay this weekend. Purely for the spectator side of things. No one skis hard or gets creative when it’s coral reef. It is just survival skiing.

Further south the better this weekend. Not looking like any snow in the northern greens friday. Berkshire East, Catamount, Bromley with it's south facing slopes.

GFS trying hard to make the IFSA east finals at Jay Peak somewhat snowy. Euro seems to moving more in that direction as well for Friday. If it doesn’t snow....yikes! Cold Saturday after rain and warmth. Never a recipe for good skiing.

They want to make it to April. Looking like they may fire up the guns again this upcoming weekend.

Well yes. April can also get blocky, rain in sne and dumping snow in the mountains.

This upcoming stretch doesn’t look to add any snow to the pack. Not an all out torch like mid March 2012 but a slow melt at least over the next week.

This winter reminds me of a slightly better version of 2012. The overall setup is a lot different but the results may end up being the same. Even up in NNE outside of northern Maine the comparisons are there. I think the Mansfield snow stake comparison is pretty spot on. Similar spike from several big events in February. I don’t hold out much hope for down here but I’d like to see the mountains avoid a steep decline.

Skied Snow Ridge Saturday. Could have gone anywhere really but I was looking for a different sort of adventure. Trip was well worth theI’m extra driving despite lack of vertical. 29” of glorious LES skis like an absolute dream. I skied probably close to 40 runs. I lost count after a while. Main lift services a lot of the hill and there is a lot of traversing at the bottom. Place skis much bigger than it’s stats. You can journey out far to skiers left into a big ravine. Sorta a mini mini version of the octopus garden at MRG. Cliffs and steep gullies. Snow pocket T bar is awesome. Lift only runs occasionally but offers some deep turns in untouched powder. There are a some fun trees with several mandatory airs off to far skiers right. As with anything at Snow Ridge you can just keep trAverse along the ridge and ski back to a lift at the bottom. Overall the place was really cool. The lifts are very dated and seem to be held together by duct tape. Place has a great vibe and is worth a trip if you get the chance.