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The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2

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11 minutes ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

Doing Magic Mountian in southern Vermont Saturday. It's close to my Stratton house home base. I have heard great things and if there were ever a time to hit a mountian that needs good natural snow it's this weekend. Anyone have any magic experience? 

Yes, Magic is fantastic with good snow and offers terrain that is otherwise hard to find in S VT.  Goniff Glade is where you want to be for steep trees and rocks.  The two lift lines are also excellent runs.

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At Magic, If you like steeps, check out the top of green line.  Green line was a chair lift that was planned but not installed.  It can be tricky to find the entrance if you are not looking.

If moderate woods are your bag, check out the hallows.  My favorite run at Magic is Upper Wizard --> Broomstick --> Heart of Magician --> The Hallows and back to the lift

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tomorrow may be setting up as a special day on the hill... of course judging by the pics, every day lately has been special lol.  But with orographic snows continuing overnight and winding down by morning tomorrow could be a particular crescendo before the warmer wx changes the nature of the snowpack somewhat.  

Which reminds me, I'm downright giddy thinking of the spring conditions that await us in a month... but for tomorrow it is full blown winter.  Headed up early.

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Wish I could've gotten up to northern VT this week to do some riding--you'll be hard pressed to find better conditions for what could be  years to come. March can be a good month too, but idk...that March sun takes a big chunk out of the wintry appeal for me--no matter how snowy it might be. It doesn't get any better than this in the northeast.

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3 hours ago, radarman said:

tomorrow may be setting up as a special day on the hill... of course judging by the pics, every day lately has been special lol.  But with orographic snows continuing overnight and winding down by morning tomorrow could be a particular crescendo before the warmer wx changes the nature of the snowpack somewhat.  

Which reminds me, I'm downright giddy thinking of the spring conditions that await us in a month... but for tomorrow it is full blown winter.  Headed up early.

Yup leaving for Wildcat early AM. As far as spring conditions, we corn we sun bathe we party and the skiing is off the hook when deep. 

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26 minutes ago, snowgeek said:

I haven't skied President's Week in many years.  Are the crowds crazy all week long, or mostly Sat, Sun, Mon.?  Will areas like Magic Mountain have crazy lines this weekend or not so bad?  I imagine the big resorts are a madhouse this weekend?

I skied Killington during the vacation week in 2015...skied Wed-Fri and didn't encounter bad lines at all...in fact, many lifts were basically ski-on. The K-1 gondola had maybe a 10-15 min wait at the worst points and Rams Head got similar lines too...but Rams Head has had bad lines ever since it was neutered by ASC in the late 1990s to be more of a family peak. If I want to notch it down a bit, I typically will ski Snowdon these days next to Rams Head since the lines there are far less and the terrain is more varied.

On the contrary, I skied on actual Presidents day in 2014 and the lines were brutal. So I'd expect nasty lines on the weekend, but the weekdays might be ok. But who knows, I'm just giving one account from two years ago. All the snow in the news and the warmer weather may create monster crowds all week.

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41 minutes ago, snowgeek said:

I haven't skied President's Week in many years.  Are the crowds crazy all week long, or mostly Sat, Sun, Mon.?  Will areas like Magic Mountain have crazy lines this weekend or not so bad?  I imagine the big resorts are a madhouse this weekend?

Sat/Sun/Mon are the biggies for skier visits.  We will likely run out of parking up here.  We are expecting it to look like Normandy. 

There's a lot of pent up demand from people looking at photos of the 86" of snow that's fallen in February so far.  Its going to be crazy.

Tues-Fri are busier than normal midweek days, but still sort of ski like midweek days...if you have flexibility that's the best time to ski this week.  Then the following Saturday will be a normal busy Saturday and then the place will be empty on Sunday as everyone travels home.

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20 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

On the contrary, I skied on actual Presidents day in 2014 and the lines were brutal. So I'd expect nasty lines on the weekend, but the weekdays might be ok. But who knows, I'm just giving one account from two years ago. All the snow in the news and the warmer weather may create monster crowds all week.

That's historically how it goes.  However your caveat is right about snow in the news, snow on the mountains, snow in people's yards, etc...normally it finds a way to pour rain for a day during the holiday week and then be -10F the next day.  If that doesn't occur, it might just be busy straight through.  Even still you'll see a few thousand skiers less Tuesday through Friday, however its usually like a 50% reduction for Tue-Fri vs Sat/Sun/Mon.

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1 hour ago, eyewall said:

I skied Stowe today and it was amazing to see how deep the snow was up top. The winds were troublesome but none the less it was fun! Awesome views for sure. Speaking of which, i love that wildcat shot.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 

That wind came out of nowhere... forecast was like 35kts at the summits but it was more like 50kts at the top of the Quad and Gondola.  Trails got sand-blasted by wind and it all ended up in drifts or in the woods.  The FourRunner Quad didn't go on wind hold for like two seasons and has now had 2 wind holds (a couple hours each time) within a week.  Odd stuff.  Gondola is always susceptible being a big red box hanging on a cable, easy to blow that around once its in the 50-60mph gust range.  The FourRunner though is a horse, very rare to see that go down. 

Bluebird-powder-day..jpg

Surfing-the-pow..jpg

I honestly have never seen drifts like that here before.  Just these massive drifts of snow protruding into some trails from the northwest.  How it just comes out of the woods in these streaks of massive depths.  These wood-line drifts are where I'll find patchy snow in like June, lol.

Massive-drifts-out-there-today..jpg

 

However, the woods were non-wind affected and just buried.

16797999_10102869366792810_4075508853047

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9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That's historically how it goes.  However your caveat is right about snow in the news, snow on the mountains, snow in people's yards, etc...normally it finds a way to pour rain for a day during the holiday week and then be -10F the next day.  If that doesn't occur, it might just be busy straight through.  Even still you'll see a few thousand skiers less Tuesday through Friday, however its usually like a 50% reduction for Tue-Fri vs Sat/Sun/Mon.

In that Killington trip, the most crowded day by far was the first day I was there (it was still far less crowded though than a typical weekend). It was mostly sunny with high temps at the base in the upper 20s and low wind. No surprise the crowds were more than the next two days...the first of which featured blizzard conditions in an upslope snow event and then followed by sub-zero temps that Friday with nasty winds.

 

Looks like Monday will be seasonable (looks like a little upslope too) and then you might get spectacular spring style on Tues. You'll be like some of those west coast resorts in April...temps in the 40s with sick amounts of snow on the mountain. Hopefully there's no ugly rain showers on Wed/Thu.

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40 minutes ago, snowgeek said:

I haven't skied President's Week in many years.  Are the crowds crazy all week long, or mostly Sat, Sun, Mon.?  Will areas like Magic Mountain have crazy lines this weekend or not so bad?  I imagine the big resorts are a madhouse this weekend?

I've skied presidents week at sugarbush for last 15 years, albeit never in conditions quiet as good as these.  Saturday and Sunday are the worst, Monday is considerably better and the remainder of the week, even better.  My wife and daughter skied today and while the lodge and parking lots were full, there were no lift lines.  We've discussed this previously, but if all the lift are running and the woods open for business as they are, lift lines shouldn't be much of an issue.

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Just now, CoastalWx said:

What a week to go skiing. Ugh. Dam kids. I gotta get back into it.

It'll prob be like my late March 1999 trip to Tahoe...there was a snowstorm my first day there, but then afterward, it was 4 straight days of bluebird skies and temps in the 40s and the mountain was just absolutely buried in snow. (that '98-'99 winter was epic out there)

Beers and burgers on the deck (if they can clear it off, lol) and hero snow for a few days next week.

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3 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

It'll prob be like my late March 1999 trip to Tahoe...there was a snowstorm my first day there, but then afterward, it was 4 straight days of bluebird skies and temps in the 40s and the mountain was just absolutely buried in snow. (that '98-'99 winter was epic out there)

Beers and burgers on the deck (if they can clear it off, lol) and hero snow for a few days next week.

That sounds ideal. Talk about man stuff. I hope to try and get out skiing next year. 

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