MRVexpat

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

The skiing is just best in LCC.  BCC was ok but I go out west I want that big vertical, dramatic mountain experience that LCC has.

Yup

1 hour ago, snowgeek said:

It’s time to start trying to answer the question “Is Killington gonna be ready for the FIS on 11/26?” 23 days and counting. I think they will pull it off, but current temps are definitely disconcerting. Hopefully pattern flip isn’t delayed and they can start cranking out the snow soon enough. Darn ground is gonna be so warm after this weekend. Get that PNA flipped asap!


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Their snowmaking capacity is absolutely insane as most on here know however, the FIS does have very specific depth regulations. I wonder with multiple rounds in Europe already being canceled if they make an exception. Either way looks like they will have the ability to start to blow overnight starting next weekend. Should be enough time to get er done but who knows. 

4 hours ago, J.Spin said:

I do recall a recent season where it seemed like valleys around here did better with respect to their average snowfall than the mountains did.  It would be good to hear from PF about the mountain perspective from the past few seasons – I know we had that recent season where the mountain snowpack was running along at pretty low levels for a while, but I’m not sure if the season as a whole stayed down in the pathetic zone.  Snowpack and snow depth days can certainly play a part in the overall winter feel, if retention is especially poor for some reason, but as a single metric for a winter, I think snowfall trumps everything else.  You can’t melt snow that you never receive, and snowfall is what equates to the highest quality ski days for most of the season, whether through contribution to powder days, or just the routine refreshers to keep surface quality up.

I do agree about that early snow in recent years though – as Tamarack said, we’ve sort of been spoiled in that regard.  In the past four seasons we’ve had some absolutely outrageously early (as in early November in a couple cases) starts to the winter snowpack in the valleys, and we’ve also had snow on the ground at our house for the past six Thanksgivings.  We’ve obviously got a good shot of having white Thanksgivings around here, but Novembers can’t maintain an early starting pace like that every season.

I seem to remember that being last year. After a promising late November (seems like that's been the case ever since Killington agreed to host the WC) things really slowed down until late Feb at which point C/NVT received decent snowfall but also endured some large warm ups. I think the Mansfield stake didn't break average until like mid/late April last year haha. I believe it lagged pretty far behind for most of the year. 

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

AirBnB and VRBO have definitely changed this area.  The hotels used to be great capacity limiters... once the hotels were sold out, you couldn't stay here.  That capped the town's available beds for visitors at a very set number.  The hotels like Topnotch, Stoweflake, Trapps, etc sell out and you are out of luck.  Now there's over 1,000 private residences for rental on AirBnB and VRBO, most of them designed to pack people in too.  You could realistically add another 5,000 people to town on a weekend just in the short term rental market.

If you double the amount of beds in a town that visitors can sleep in (without building a single hotel), this is what happens.  The single family home behind me rents out to 3 families at a time.  Bunkbeds, pull out couches, etc.  It's designed to cram people in.  The guy charges $900 a night for it.  If he rents that 100 days out of 365 in a year, that's $90,000 in revenue he now makes off his second home and he visits the same amount of time as he used to before renting it. But he also doesn't understand why there's so many people around town all the time. The irony.

Ski towns used to complain about all the second homes sitting empty most of the year... well, they found a way to fill them with as many humans as possible all year round.  I'm not one to tell someone what they can and can't do with their property, but it's an interesting dilemma in town right now.  You can see why some places restrict short term rentals.

Totally get that and its an interesting dilemma with no 100% correct answer as to how to remedy the situation without massive capital investments between the mountain/town. Can't make everyone happy and as it stands, this is just one more thing that front line employees will have to deal with. Face the wrath of the paying customer for a year or so until this is accepted as standard practice and then everyone moves on.

Quelling demand with high season pass prices was definitely an easier sell, given it directly relates to the premium product that consumers are wanting to access. Obviously that isn't an option any longer and Vail/Stowe were forced to get creative. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. 

On 10/3/2022 at 10:19 PM, mreaves said:

There needs to be a aerial tram from the village to the mountain with a couple of stops along the bike path to access businesses and lodging. Cheaper and more environmentally friendly than road expansion and better than shuttle busses. 
 

Edit: Lol. I do this all the time, respond before I finish reading the entire post. I just got excited by my brilliant idea. 

Perhaps a few seasons of parking pass revenue can fund this  I just feel bad for the parking attendant who has to explain to the stressed out parents of a family of 4 who sat on a conga line of cars on mountain road for two hours, only to be turned away at 11AM on a busy Saturday that their $450 pass doesn't get them a spot in the lot. The @stoweparkinglot instagram account is sure to be hilarious this winter. 

Stowe announced a $450 parking season pass which doesn't even guarantee a spot in the lot given it will still be first come first served.... Seems like there are definitely some infrastructure related constraints which makes the situation difficult, but I'm not sure this will be a popular solution. 

Got into the ravine last weekend and did Killington this past weekend. Weather definitely cooperated! Excellent corn snow for both outings. 

51 minutes ago, klw said:

I still have the studded Hakkas on the Subaru so I felt fine but couldn't pass much due to the conditions in the passing lane being too bad.

Truly the best out there. 

3 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Interesting…GFS/GGEM/EURO.

 

Signing for GFS right now...that could put the Sherb back in play! Gotta keep an eye on next weekend for some alpine fun. 

2 hours ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Upslope machine turned on around 6 am today and snowed all day at Jay. Maybe 5-6” above 2500’. Made for some great late season powder turns in the woods. Off to Salt Lake on Wednesday, hoping to keep the good times rolling with the central wasatch now under a WSW for 1-2’ through Wednesday morning.




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Dude enjoy! Nothing like Utah pow

You have to be really lucky or just take enough ski trips to experience 40"+ in a week out west (50" on the nose at Alta). Safe to say Utah delivered. Two days at Solitude, Snowbird and Alta each with one at Deer Valley (meh, but fun to check out)

First two days at Solitude provided 12-14" of blower over a light crust, not quite enough to cover it up but 114mm underfoot and 188cm did enough to keep my 5'10 frame mostly floating above it. 3rd Day at Snowbird it began snowing again and didn't stop for the next 36 hours. The following day at Alta was the deepest of my life, the kind where you can't feel the bottom and have trouble seeing and breathing through all of the powder. Just absolute euphoria and couldn't get myself to stop for pictures while skiing haha. Next two days were bluebird and plenty of leftover powder. Our final day we spent checking out Deer Valley. Definitely a let down from a skiing perspective after the week we had, but still some fun terrain and it was funny seeing all of the little things that make it "the #1 ski resort in North America" . 

Gonna be tough to top this one. 

4 hours ago, snowgeek said:

Just snagged a pair of Liberty Origin 96’s on clearance. Been looking at those for a while. Woot!!


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I have the 2021s! Such a fun ski

1 minute ago, dryslot said:

Are you a subscriber? They had issues yesterday.

Nope. And I saw the banner message but still getting 404 and 502 errors. Suppose I'll just focus on work instead...

Anyone else having issues with Pivotal this morning? Getting a bunch of 404 errors. 

55 minutes ago, jculligan said:

Skied the steep trees in the east basin of Big Jay yesterday. Wow. Even in a lean year like this, that zone still delivered! Absolutely the best powder I have skied all winter. I skinned up from 242 rather than approaching from the Jay Peak tram. If you're looking for a real "adventure" involving steep trail-breaking through thick vegetation, I would suggest repeating my route...but it was truly a battle to the summit lol. Next time I think I'll take the more traditional approach by traversing over from the tram. But hey, a little adventure ski feeds the soul every now and then!!

Looking forward to see what today's system can dish out. I'm feeling good for at least a couple inches in my location.

Holy shit! That's such a committing skin/boot-pack. Much kudos. Attempted that last year the day after going over from the ridge. At 2800 feet the skins came off and we started booting. 30 minutes and 200-300 vert later of pushing thru waist deep snow we gave up haha. Such a good zone but I don't think I'll ever again attempt to summit if coming from 242, unless the pack is very consolidated. I've found Little Jay to be a better bang for your buck if coming from the road. Lots of cool lines and aspects off of that peak. 

1 minute ago, Hitman said:

It is the staffing issue why they arent running the slidebrook lift.  They are down lift mechanics and that lift has 40 towers that have to be inspected daily whenever its running.  That being said, even if they had the staff, the limited snowpack would have impacted when it could be run.

Specifically they were short on staff this summer so the yearly inspection/maintenance couldn't take place. Don't know much about the details but apparently you need a certain level of certification to perform this level of yearly maintenance and of course other lifts took priority. Based on what I've heard, the decision was made to not run it long before any sort of an official announcement. 

Anyways, looks like its really coming down out there. 5-6" up high in the MRV as per about an hour ago. 

4 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Sugarbush didn’t run slidebrook this year due to staffing issues, but I wonder if they would have had enough snow to run it for more than a week or so even if they had the staff with those totals so far?  

Mtn ops typically likes a foot of packed down snow on all of the work roads in the Slide Brook basin for snowmobile/snowcat access prior to running that lift. But like you said, I don't think more than a couple of weeks would have been feasible this year. Hopefully inspection can get squared away in the summer and we have even an avg winter next year!

27 minutes ago, jculligan said:

Drove up from Boston early this morning. It rained all the way to Ossipee, briefly flipped to snow in Tamworth then changed back to rain from Chocorua Lake all the way to Center Conway. Changed back over to snow in North Conway where I stopped for a brief ski tour on Peaked Mountain, but even North Conway flipped to rain prior to my departure around 10am.

Here in Jackson...no rain to speak of. There was 5.3" of new snow on my driveway when I arrived home, and it continues to snow big fat flakes at 34F. Our settled snow depth is up to 33" which is 10" deeper than at any point last year. The pack has a LOT of water content in it. I know this area is particularly known for snowpack retention, but I feel I didn't get to test that last season. Hopefully we don't HAVE to test that for a while yet...

I know you've mentioned this before but are you at the base of the black mountain ski trail or doublehead? I hiked black in early January last season and was shocked at how little snow was needed for it to be skiable. I'm sure conditions up there are great right now. 

Was in PFs hood (briefly) on Sat as we got up to the nose via the Teardrop trail on the west side of Mansfield. 0 degree temps and 50+ mph gusts made our stay on the summit a brief one but I managed to break out the phone for a quick picture.

The tree skiing on the way down was dreamy! Still some schwack here and there but the vast majority of woods skiing in the Central and Northern Greens is "in" right now. 

The next day at Sugarbush brought more powder skiing and slightly warmer temps. Had to dig a bit deeper at my old haunts to find freshies after the Sat assault but the old stashes delivered!

9 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

If Mansfield is 111 on the season, then 141 is not ridiculous.  I skied both mountains the same day and there is a difference in coverage.  They pulled 5 out of their ass last Friday and it was deep in the woods.  Skied off after the weekend, but even I was surprised.  I really can’t wait to get a full season up there to get some accurate numbers, but you can’t compare it to your spot.  

That's the thing. Jay does pull snow out their ass at times which is where some of that confusion comes from those who haven't experienced it. Like I've witnessed on more than one occasion skiing there or the immediate BC where point forecasts show 20-30% pop and "less than an inch" per BTV and then bam 4-6" comes flying thru with nothing appreciable on radar. No doubt the Jay cloud is real. It's when these kinds of differences are reported during a synoptic storm that make me think a bit haha. Place is so rad though. Love skiing there. 

21 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Just a bunch of fake posters about fake snow.

Jay reporting 8" up top as of EOD. You get out today? I don't scrutinize their totals as much as some but that one does seem a bit suspect to me. Hopefully its legit! I'm up the following weekend.  

6 minutes ago, mreaves said:

Latest from BTV.  Bumped up a little more

 

LOL @ the tiny red dot over Mt Ellen

2 minutes ago, mreaves said:

You're a soccer guy.  Give this a listen

 

YNWA

12 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Yea true. it was all part of the Floyd rotation though and after a few turns and an eighth later, it all blended in lol. The wall, wish you were here…I forgot the others. 

Animals, Obscured by Clouds and especially Meddle are favorites. The latter might be #1 overall for me....hard to beat Dark Side tho

Looks like a hair over 3" so far mid mountain at Sugarbush (they cleared the boards this morning). Coming down decently with mod snow down to the base @ 33 degrees.