GCWarrior

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.

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.

Winds look like they howl at elevation through Friday. Others may have better local insight but I’ve found that the four runner quad runs a lot of the time when other mountains have wind holds.

Berkshire East was pretty great today! Manmade skied ok but the real prize was the natural. Layer of ice underneath covered the rocks pretty well with perfect corn on top. We skied east glades, liftline, jug, and many off map stashes. I hit a few rocks but for the most part the coverage was fine. Probably all she wrote with rain incoming Wednesday but damn it was fun to get one day last day in the woods in Southern New England!

Magician, Green line, tress were well covered, red looked pretty thin from the lift. I’m not sure how it will hold up after today and tomorrow.

Devils Fiddle? Looks great! I haven’t skied that trail in many years.

Had a really fun day at Magic today. Judged the IFSA(formally ski the East) comp. I wish I could have skied more than a couple inspection runs. 100 competitors and reviewing scores took the entire day. Skiing was outstanding. My son skied pretty much everything and said it was great. Lines were pretty long and the BLT was hopping when we left. Hopefully the mountain made some money today.

We’re they running the summit double? I love that little mountain. Had a pretty epic powder day their MLK day 2009. Boot to knee deep on top of no base. Summit is surprisingly steep.

Not sure why pics are sideways. I’ll fix later.

Judged the IFSA comp at mighty Whaleback today. Kids slayed it on Blowhole. I managed a few runs at the end of the day. Coverage was a little scary but there were some fun turns to be had. Sip of Sunshine on tap too!

Looks great! I need to go north and ski.

I think when they mean they will open for 2020 is they will get the lower learning lift open for people to just cruise around. Not sure they will get much more up and running this year. Having skied every medium to large ski resort in New England and many out west I can say Saddleback is the closest to western skiing I’ve experienced in the east. Incredible snow park retention, makes it seem like they get a lot more snow than many New England mountains. They get around 220” of snow a year compared to Sugarloafs 200”. Couple this with less skier traffic and a high base elevation you have natural snow well into may pretty much every season up there.

Nice Super Bowl tailgate at Berkshire East yesterday. Skiing was pretty awesome for manmade. I definitely like that they leave some features in the groomed surface.

I love Saddleback! Hit it the day after the Snowicane late February 2010. Pretty epic knee deep turns!

As is often the case the BLT was busier than the ski area. Magic is the only bar I know with a ski area! This guy enjoyed the BLT a little too much!

Skied Magic on Friday. Place was dead And they had pretty limited terrain. Groomers were in very nice shape though. Had a great BLT at the Black Line Tavern. We drove to Pico only to find crazy lift lines and windholds. They mentioned if they were still on hold by 11 we could ski Killington but judging by the crowds we decided to not bother skiing at all. Pretty disappointed but the hot tub felt pretty good regardless. Ski resorts badly need some snow!

Great night at Berkshire East last night. Ripping snow the whole time. Every run down we got fresh tracks!

Agreed! I have lived and skied all over the country and my home hill still makes me smile. The Beast has done a splendid job snowmaking this season and offers enough terrain to keep me busy for a couple hours despite no natural snow right now. Living 15 mins away helps me like it a lot too. I just hope we can get some natural snow this winter. Place has some killer woods skiing if you know where to look.

Finally making the trek out of southern New England next weekend. Magic and Pico on tap. Hoping the 25th ish timeframe brings me some good luck!