Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I think the “All Natural Skiing” on Tin Woodsman is a bit misleading – presumably it’s referring to the type of terrain vs. the type of snow, because you can see the fairly dense array of tower guns along the left side of the trail right there in the photo. I guess it depends on what aspects of skiing the “All” encompasses, maybe all aspects of the terrain and surroundings (actually not even the surroundings with all those tower guns dotting the landscape) but the snow really shouldn’t be considered natural if it’s coming from guns.that's the upper quarter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Good they're only down 30 now from a few weeks ago. You really need to actually get up there and see what it's like by 10am. I've got friends there today that are already done for the day. Epic. Iceberg slopes ftw really that's interesting, hard to see how 87 trails of groomed, ice up that quickly, somethings amiss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 PF your place is similar to SR with the attention to detail, you guys groomed today a lot, how icy was the skiing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 really that's interesting, hard to see how 87 trails of groomed ice up that quickly, somethings amiss It really is attitude and expectations right now. I've been annoyed at the lack of powder skiing but all things considered (5 rainfalls in two weeks) the skiing is good right now. Not good if you are looking for perfect powder/packed powder, but good mid-January groomed eastern skiing considering the weather. It does get skied off quicker than if there was 8" of packed powder from dense synoptic snow, but I mean even out west in Colorado it gets skied off if it hasn't snowed recently. That's what skier traffic does. But it's not going to be sheet ice death slides like it was say last Monday...it's actually enjoyable again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 PF your place is similar to SR with the attention to detail, you guys groomed today a lot, how icy was the skiing.100 times better than Monday, that's for sure. I actually think folks will have a good time this weekend, vs where Monday I would be weary about putting crowds on that stuff.I mean people have been pleased the last two days. There isn't anyone in eastern North America who doesn't know it's rained a lot....so expectations have been low and especially yesterday and today, folks have found that yes, you can bring it back to a decent product without large natural snow. Of course there will be icy spots, but I'll post pics later of skiing one of the steepest headwall pitches we have, and in good snow. It isn't slide for life stuff like it was before. It's good ol' business as usual eastern skiing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 It really is attitude and expectations right now. I've been annoyed at the lack of powder skiing but all things considered (5 rainfalls in two weeks) the skiing is good right now. Not good if you are looking for perfect powder/packed powder, but good mid-January groomed eastern skiing considering the weather. It does get skied off quicker than if there was 8" of packed powder from dense synoptic snow, but I mean even out west in Colorado it gets skied off if it hasn't snowed recently. That's what skier traffic does. But it's not going to be sheet ice death slides like it was say last Monday...it's actually enjoyable again.exactly what I was told by a friend who lives in Sumner Maine and is a season holder up there. Said it's fast but not glare ice, there is so much mountain why would you pack it in before 10am, must be fair weather skiers looking for soft snow only. Right now I would give my left nut to be skiing instead of dealing with what I am right now. Nice refreshing coming your and others way. Let the rebuild begin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 100 times better than Monday, that's for sure. I actually think folks will have a good time this weekend, vs where Monday I would be weary about putting crowds on that stuff. I mean people have been pleased the last two days. There isn't anyone in eastern North America who doesn't know it's rained a lot....so expectations have been low and especially yesterday and today, folks have found that yes, you can bring it back to a decent product without large natural snow. Of course there will be icy spots, but I'll post pics later of skiing one of the steepest headwall pitches we have, and in good snow. It isn't slide for life stuff like it was before. It's good ol' business as usual eastern skiing. I did bet Messenger you would have packed powder before the weekend was over, well no bet but a difference in opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 exactly what I was told by a friend who lives in Sumner Maine and is a season holder up there. Said it's fast but not glare ice, there is so much mountain why would you pack it in before 10am, must be fair weather skiers looking for soft snow only. Right now I would give my left nut to be skiing instead of dealing with what I am right now. Nice refreshing coming your and others way. Let the rebuild begin. It was def soft snow (almost corn) last night Possibly the densest fog I have ever skied in near the summit. I hope things are ok... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 exactly what I was told by a friend who lives in Sumner Maine and is a season holder up there. Said it's fast but not glare ice, there is so much mountain why would you pack it in before 10am, must be fair weather skiers looking for soft snow only. Right now I would give my left nut to be skiing instead of dealing with what I am right now. Nice refreshing coming your and others way. Let the rebuild begin. Yeah and you find the trails that are skiing good and lap them. Some trails will be better than others from traffic, recent snowmaking, grooming, even wind direction that scoured some parts of a trail but not the next one over. They won't all be perfect but you can enjoy it. Part of the fun is the search for the best trail...and the gratification once you find the one that's awesome but is being overlooked by the masses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Sounds like skiing is fun @ stowe , nice to hear. I hope Waterville, loon are right there with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Sounds like skiing is fun @ stowe , nice to hear. I hope Waterville, loon are right there with them Skiing is always fun no matter where . I still think my frustration with this season so far is the off-piste skiing. Like I said, we have and have had 100% snowmaking terrain open for sometime but I'm antsy for something more/different. For the average skier who doesn't do the same thing 7 days per week, I think they would find it fun and enjoyable. Ryan's trip last weekend was a great example. He came on probably the worse weekend of the season (sorry about that Ryan) but still had fun. There's plenty of terrain open to explore at most mountains (sorry MRG) and so you'll have fun doing it....because let's be honest, being outside in the mountain environment, wandering around and taking it all in is generally enjoyable. If you are dead set on perfect conditions or tree or powder skiing on natural snow trails, you still have some time to wait. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ono Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 at Smuggs, it doesn't seem like they're resurfacing the trails, and some closed/near bare snowmaking trails are left untouched by snowguns. They're definitely working on some terrain parks, but the Sterling side is definitely in need of some resurface- and have yet to commit resources to that side. I took one run yesterday @ 3:30, and it was pretty rough (didn't have carving skis, which would help a lot). I may be mistaken, but no guns seem to be running today (or yesterday for that matter) on the upper mountain- which is odd with the long weekend crowds incoming. Perhaps management approaches things differently than other mountains as Smuggs has the all-inclusive family resort thing going for them, and they rely on that draw for revenue over the snowmaking/trail count aspect- as they have 38 open- which is pretty low compared to the neighboring resorts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Yeah and you find the trails that are skiing good and lap them. Some trails will be better than others from traffic, recent snowmaking, grooming, even wind direction that scoured some parts of a trail but not the next one over. They won't all be perfect but you can enjoy it. Part of the fun is the search for the best trail...and the gratification once you find the one that's awesome but is being overlooked by the masses.that's my game plan everytime I head out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I think it comes down to what mountains aggressively are resurfacing , stowe is one of best , SR has that rep as well. If they arent good luck. Im not looking for powder or natural snow trails, just no fn ice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subdude Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 It was def soft snow (almost corn) last night Possibly the densest fog I have ever skied in near the summit. I hope things are ok... I was there last night working it was the densest I've ever skied at night. Tough conditions for beginners ski patrol was pretty busy nice for intermediates and above you could really carve out some turns in the soft conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I was there last night working it was the densest I've ever skied at night. Tough conditions for beginners ski patrol was pretty busy nice for intermediates and above you could really carve out some turns in the soft conditions.You work there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clinch Leatherwood Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 really that's interesting, hard to see how 87 trails of groomed, ice up that quickly, somethings amiss They peaked out in the mid 110s.... They lost all the natural trails and glades. Some of the peak connectors like 3 mile trail are back down again too. I mean a ton of terrain is open but what's not is the expert stuff that really helped disperse the crowds. IMO the effect is not only that there are more people on the main trails...it's that you've got people skiing a million miles per hour amongst a lot of average/beginner skiers. To me....avoiding this holiday weekend was a brilliant move. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 They peaked out in the mid 110s.... They lost all the natural trails and glades. Some of the peak connectors like 3 mile trail are back down again too. I mean a ton of terrain is open but what's not is the expert stuff that really helped disperse the crowds. IMO the effect is not only that there are more people on the main trails...it's that you've got people skiing a million miles per hour amongst a lot of average/beginner skiers. To me....avoiding this holiday weekend was a brilliant move. avoiding any weekend is a brilliant move, but 6-8 of freshies might be fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mob1 Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 Going to Gore on either Wednesday or Thursday, I really hope that they get some snow (18Z suite looks pretty good for them) as the glades is what really sets them apart from the southern VT resorts (which are the same driving distance). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skivt2 Posted January 17, 2014 Author Share Posted January 17, 2014 I know powder freek said there is 1-2 feet of snow in VT, I can tell you that there was no more than a dusting in the woods at Pico last Sunday. It's going to take a lot to make things right in the Killington area where we have had two weekends of rain and 50 degrees due to a serious inversion both times. In between we had some snow and thin cover skiing on natural snow trails but the woods were never skiable for sane people. It's been so bad that Pico put a thin cover sign at the bottom of the mountain on the main HSQ last Sunday. There were essentially three trails open with bare patches. Those were snowmaking trails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 I know powder freek said there is 1-2 feet of snow in VT, I can tell you that there was no more than a dusting in the woods at Pico last Sunday. It's going to take a lot to make things right in the Killington area where we have had two weekends of rain and 50 degrees due to a serious inversion both times. In between we had some snow and thin cover skiing on natural snow trails but the woods were never skiable for sane people. It's been so bad that Pico put a thin cover sign at the bottom of the mountain on the main HSQ last Sunday. There were essentially three trails open with bare patches. Those were snowmaking trails. Wow. Rugged. The stake at the summit is at 25" on Mansfield at 3,800ft and my base stake is around 10" at 1,500ft. Its variable though due to all the rain...ie, some areas have much less and some areas more depending on melt patterns, pooling of water, streams, etc. My biggest issue with the rain is that the streams are all blown out from top to bottom. That's a big part of off-piste skiing and even if we get a couple feet of snow, it takes some time to repair and cover those streams up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 The recovery this week has been great...snowmaking and grooming. And even the light natural snow in the past few days has re-opened some of the natural snow terrain. This is Upper National headwall on natural snow. Looks better than it did on Monday, that's for sure, lol. More natural snow terrain. You can tell its natural by how it blends in with the woods... doesn't have that huge bulge right on the trail edge up to the man-made snow level. But with a smooth, firm surface under-foot, the recent dense/wet snow bonded nicely. Liftline. The aesthetics are returning... it looks like winter again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 17, 2014 Share Posted January 17, 2014 It has been the year of snowmaking... like I said earlier the mountain has had 100% of its snowmaking terrain covered for the past couple weeks even through the rain. The system moves a heck of a lot of water onto the slopes in the form of dense snow... I always laugh when people think the snowmaking snow will melt in even the biggest thaws. This stuff has staying power. The Upper Lord valve house is going to disappear soon if it actually starts snowing, because this is all man-made snow for the most part. Since we've been back to most trails about 3 times now with snowmaking (and we'll hit 'em all a 4th time in the upcoming cold snap to assure spring depths), sections of trails are buried a good 5-10 feet deep...and its thick, dense snow. Obviously there are other trail sections that are weaker in the 1-4 foot range depending on wind scouring and general snow distribution, but over-time the trail depths start to even out as the groomers work it in. The snowmakers are now climbing down into a 7-foot hole to open the door and get into the valve house (that's a full-size door into that structure). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Stowe has turned into a snow makin power house w the best of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ono Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Yeah... Smuggs looks nothing like Stowe right now. Not a huge fan of snowmaking in general, but my travels hiking up Stowe in the preseason brought my attention to the many tower guns and advertised pumphouse mid-mountain. Stowe has a considerably more extensive snowmaking system. As a Smuggs passholder, it is obvious that Stowe has invested a fair bit more money in modern snowmaking infrastructure- and this year it makes a difference as PF posts pics of SMR. Not to inflame any rivalry, but the Stowe premium is, IMHO, worth it this year as MN has not provided the snow, and the snowmaking infrastructure/investment gap shows. I'm not using my season pass much at all this year. In years of more plentiful/consistent snowfall, in the season pass market the Stowe premium is harder to justify- but I'm looking into a Stowe pass for next year- given the #1 selling point is the terrain (that we can't ski yet) which accompanies the really nice natural snowfall. Throw in the terrain available without significant natural snow/snowpack like we see this season, and I'm moving away from a 'value' based season pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 18, 2014 Share Posted January 18, 2014 Radar looks like cranmore and wildcat gettin good snow w attitash just to far west lol, good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyewall Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 I went night skiing at Bolton tonight and thankfully it was only $19 as they had some powder remaining on the surface from the other night, but there were some large stretches of pure ice, and pretty frequent patches of it. I made the best of it but they are definitely hurting in terms of conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 The coming arctic chill should further widen the gap between thoose who resurface aggressively or those who just "try and get by" Just bad luck for mtns/ eyes all bolton would have ski'd better this pm (or they have a shot to) w some upslope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N. OF PIKE Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 The coming arctic chill should further widen the gap between thoose who resurface aggressively or those who just "try and get by" Just bad luck for mtns/ eyes all bolton would have ski'd better this pm (or they have a shot to) w some upslope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&P Posted January 19, 2014 Share Posted January 19, 2014 It has been the year of snowmaking... like I said earlier the mountain has had 100% of its snowmaking terrain covered for the past couple weeks even through the rain. The system moves a heck of a lot of water onto the slopes in the form of dense snow... I always laugh when people think the snowmaking snow will melt in even the biggest thaws. This stuff has staying power. The Upper Lord valve house is going to disappear soon if it actually starts snowing, because this is all man-made snow for the most part. Since we've been back to most trails about 3 times now with snowmaking (and we'll hit 'em all a 4th time in the upcoming cold snap to assure spring depths), sections of trails are buried a good 5-10 feet deep...and its thick, dense snow. Obviously there are other trail sections that are weaker in the 1-4 foot range depending on wind scouring and general snow distribution, but over-time the trail depths start to even out as the groomers work it in. The snowmakers are now climbing down into a 7-foot hole to open the door and get into the valve house (that's a full-size door into that structure). looks great up there, going to show these pix to my son, he will be up there next week on a school ski trip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.