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The 2012/13 Ski Season Thread


ski MRG

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Gotta take the days when you can get 'em this season.

 

Tim Kelley sent me a text on Saturday saying Tuesday morning would be awesome and he was coming up for it.  His NECN on-air forecast map had us with 5" or a little more by Tuesday morning... a spot on call from 72 hours out.  Here he is enjoying a good forecast...

 

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not to be a downer (at all) but just wanna look at open trail totals around new england today then take a peek on thur/fri the damage done. MRG is gonna be closed probably after this storm. Mansfield stake has 41" this am. Below ave for sure for date, i wonder how much qpf is in that pile , i would expect to see it cut to around 30" of glacier like granite by thurs.

 

SR has 106 trails today (tues)

Killington 108 (they may take bad beating if BTV WRF is accurate)

Attitash 61

Wildcat 38

Jay Peak 64

Stowe 96

Berkshire East 28

Wa Wa 20

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I've seen ski areas bounce back from a lot worse last several years. This 36-48 hour stretch will be a distant memory in my opinion by Saturday...

 

I've skied on 5 mountains since 1/1, and have been around a few more.  They have very thin natural cover.  This torch is going to put a hurting on a lot of them and limit open terrain if the rains do come as advertised.

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I've seen ski areas bounce back from a lot worse last several years. This 36-48 hour stretch will be a distant memory in my opinion by Saturday...

ehhh i'm skeptical of that statement.

 

judging by NNE's current snowcover, trails that the mtn's don't hammer with snowguns will take a beating. 

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not to be a downer (at all) but just wanna look at open trail totals around new england today then take a peek on thur/fri the damage done. MRG is gonna be closed probably after this storm. Mansfield stake has 41" this am. Below ave for sure for date, i wonder how much qpf is in that pile , i would expect to see it cut to around 30" of glacier like granite by thurs.

 

SR has 106 trails today (tues)

Killington 108 (they may take bad beating if BTV WRF is accurate)

Attitash 61

Wildcat 38

Jay Peak 64

Stowe 96

Berkshire East 28

Wa Wa 20

 

My guess is 75 trails at Stowe for after this.... a slew of trails opened today just for one day so we'll be back for 85-90 tomorrow.

 

But 70-75 trails should be about where our snowmaking only terrain leaves us.  I'd use Saturday as the day to compare with... Thursday/Friday may see some decreased trail counts just due to the rapid switch in temperature (surface conditions) not necessarily snow loss, that will take a night or two of grooming to sort out.

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WaWa will probably go from 20 trails to 10 by Thursday night, then to 14/15 by Sunday. Very deep man-made bases.

 

Yeah that's how thaws go... there'll be a sharp decrease immediately following the thaw as that wet snow locks up into pond ice (and anything not groomed probably won't be open), but after two nights or so the trail counts will rebound a bit. 

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I've skied on 5 mountains since 1/1, and have been around a few more. They have very thin natural cover. This torch is going to put a hurting on a lot of them and limit open terrain if the rains do come as advertised.

I would guess we don't ski the same mountains. Been to sugarbush, jay, Burke and Stowe recently and all will make out fine. Maybe reduced trails Thursday and Friday but by weekend there will be bounce back especially if there is some naturally snow.

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I would guess we don't ski the same mountains. Been to sugarbush, jay, Burke and Stowe recently and all will make out fine. Maybe reduced trails Thursday and Friday but by weekend there will be bounce back especially if there is some naturally snow.

 

Nope, you're skiing mainly VT it would appear.  NH and ME have not faired as well.  SR is okay, Sunapee/Bretton/Loon/Shawnee all have little natural cover or will have little natural cover after this.  Just looked at Burke quickly, 29 of 55 trails and that's pre-storm.  One of my favorite mountains.

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New England resorts prep for this kind of thing by investing heavily in snowmaking. The bases that have been built up the past week are amazing

Groomers are able to stockpile mounds of snow

A dent surely, but what can you do?

 

Nothing, all they can do is make more snow to cover the ice that's surely going to form on some trails.  Won't stop me from skiing aside of this weekend, by next week things should be as good as they were/better without the mind numbing cold.

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Seems like it's been a pretty solid ski season business wise - I went up around New Years and there were record sales every single day I was up at Sugarbush. I think they'll manage this brief thaw and get back to business with a handful of nickle/dime storms with the clippers lining up.

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Nope, you're skiing mainly VT it would appear. NH and ME have not faired as well. SR is okay, Sunapee/Bretton/Loon/Shawnee all have little natural cover or will have little natural cover after this. Just looked at Burke quickly, 29 of 55 trails and that's pre-storm. One of my favorite mountains.

I actually believe a lot at Burke has been closed because, believe it or not, it has been too hard or wind blown off. I think some softening will be good, assuming we don't majorly torch it may actually reopen some of the glades. Not likely , but some softening will definitely be good.

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I actually believe a lot at Burke has been closed because, believe it or not, it has been too hard or wind blown off. I think some softening will be good, assuming we don't majorly torch it may actually reopen some of the glades. Not likely , but some softening will definitely be good.

Interesting because I have felt the conditions at SR were incredibly fast and hard. Lots if hard packed ice on some of the trails. Sunapee had none of that.

I know that despite more snow last weekend they closed some trails while we were there. They must have buried them in snow and I noticed they're reopened now.

Sunapee had deep manmade snow. Some scratch off at the end of the day but not bad. Soft snow.

One really good 1-2' dump and all of these places are fine.

Matt they're all having a good year. SR was way up for mlk weekend.

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Interesting because I have felt the conditions at SR were incredibly fast and hard. Lots if hard packed ice on some of the trails. Sunapee had none of that.

I know that despite more snow last weekend they closed some trails while we were there. They must have buried them in snow and I noticed they're reopened now.

Sunapee had deep manmade snow. Some scratch off at the end of the day but not bad. Soft snow.

One really good 1-2' dump and all of these places are fine.

Matt they're all having a good year. SR was way up for mlk weekend.

Yes, these mountains are resilient. The fact that we both skied in April LAST YEAR speaks volumes to how resilient they really are....

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Snowmaking trails will be fine. Natural snow trails were already thin. For folks who enjoy natural snow trails and bump runs this is a disaster. Ski areas that thrive on the wild side are not going to fair well. The result will be more people on the icy snowmaking trails. Not a good weekend coming up. We will go through the motions and make some turns but it's a good weekend to get out early then quit early.

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