MRVexpat

That's great. I've always enjoyed foliage most on overcast/grey days. To me, that helps it pop that much more.

Totally. When skied aggressively on hard pack they're like a pair of GS skis that are actually safe to take out in public, lol.

Demo'd the 10s in big sky in a foot of fresh this past March. Super fun and poppy ski yet still damp enough for straight lining chopped pow Hoping the 11s are similar, just fatter! My current quiver needs something to handle true pow as my Armada JJs were on their 5th mount and have now been retired . Running the following: Fischer RC World Cup SL 68 under foot, 165 cm Line Supernatural. 86 underfoot, 179 cm Liberty Origin. 96 underfoot, 176 cm mounted w/marker dukes as touring setup

Dennis Pines?

Too many times to count! This will hopefully help them make it to May 1st weekend.

Had no idea their family golfed lol. Denny built some of the bike trails in the valley too so definitely a pretty legendary guy locally.

Rode bikes with Brooks on occasion in the MRV. Cool that they did a profile on him! Blowing up on instagram with his ski media. Kid is a real solid skier but an even better biker I think.

Looks like Big Moose Mountain/Moosehead Lake Ski resort is what Big Squaw is currently known as. As far as the Balsams, is Les Otten still involved with that? Dude did so much to push big time East Coast ski resort development, but did so pretty unsustainably and he's a bit of a kook from what I gather haha. If you want to read more about him and resort development in general, Ski Inc. is a super interesting book. Written by the former GM of Steamboat and Killington before that who rose up through the ranks in the New England scene.

https://bangordailynews.com/2021/02/16/news/piscataquis/developer-will-seek-up-to-135m-to-finance-moosehead-lake-ski-resort/ Would be cool, just unsure of demand that far north. At this point just hoping that Saddleback can stick around beyond the next 5 years.

While we're doing the BW/Cannon/Wildcat comparisons, I'd actually posit that BW has the least inspiring views of the 3. Franconia Ridge from up close and the east side of Mt. Washington are more dramatic IMO. Never spent extensive time skiing any of the three though

S++ on the bush cams at the moment. Good to see!

Would love to get #s on the Chic Chocs. They're basically the same height as the Greens and rise up just to the east and south of the widest part of the St. Lawrence. Latitude helps too I bet. All of those ski edits can't be wrong!

3k NAM holding steady with a general 3-6" in C/NNH and NW ME. Skiing South Baldface Saturday and curious when the precip sets in? GYX seems to think mid morning while the models are showing an afternoon affair. Timing will likely determine whether I head up into the alpine or ski the glades.

March is #1 for skiing in my book. You've got a deep pack and then it either dumps or is sunny and warm. Can't beat it. Edit: obviously there are exceptions, its New England after all. But your odds are as good as they're gonna get!

Thanks for the detailed description! Yeah I think we've had similar experiences. If your objective is to ski as much powder as possible, the effort to vertical ratio just isn't there above 3k if you're going straight up the face of Big Jay. The trees are plenty steep in that 2400-3000' range anyways to make a lap or two super rewarding. A friend of mine actually booted up the last 700' or so just a few days before you did and said it was really slow going, for the reasons you described. That top part is sweet on alpine gear, but probably not worth it unless you're coming from the ski area. The bolded part is what I'm really interested in. I wonder how much progress could be made by zigging and zagging up the south facing ridgeline that separates the Big and Little Jay basins. Will have to find out someday...

How high up on Big Jay were you able to get? In my experience the going gets really tough up above about 2800-3000 feet and to summit I'd guess you'd have to boot pack? I've also never skinned the ridge between Big and Little Jay basins so that may be the way to go. Its why I almost prefer Little Jay if coming from 242. You get nearly to the summit without much hassle and its a shorter approach as well.

S+ on the Stratton cams. Radar returns are "only" 20-25 dbz.

Ain't that the truth! 14-15 was my first winter at the Bush and I was like oh, 250" a year is average, this is how it always is. Great! So yeah the following year did some bad things to my psyche haha.

dang! that is cool to see

Coming down nicely here in Cambridgeport. Decent growth. Eyeballing 1.5" or so.

We went off of northway. It was pretty damn obvious where to go but the key is definitely to keep heading skiers right where possible once you drop in because it can be a long slog out of the bottom drainage to the road if you go too far; the boarder in our group definitely struggled and we were still conscious of this. Little Jay is a more accessible and fun skin from 242, some awesome lines in there.

Spent 4 days skiing Jay and touring the surrounding area last week. Pretty incredible snow given the complete lack of thaws the past month or so. Definitely had that bottomless feel that you crave. First time skiing Big Jay from the top as well. That and the Mansfield chin are truly the definition of "steep and deep" in the region.

Sweet! Seems as if the mesos bump QPF up even more along the spine...as expected. It seems they do this no matter if orographic enhancement is in play or not (I realize it often is)

Sweet! Yeah I'm really looking forward to it. Have skied Jay about 10 times over the years so I'm somewhat familiar with the terrain. My deepest east coast day to date was/is still my sophomore year of high school (March 06 I think?) where I learned in Beaver Pond that the "need a snorkel" joke wasn't a joke after all haha.

Got a place just south of Jay Pass for the week, right where Big/Little Jay dump out. Looking forward to touring in the backyard and getting some midweek days in at the resort! Looks like tomorrow will bring yet another refresh to the area, otherwise what are thoughts on bread and butter related chances throughout the week?