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The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2

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Booked Lift tickets for Mt Cranmore this upcoming Sunday, the 26th. Some risk, but I feel confident they'll get nice pack-refreshing snow Friday/Saturday and temps should be around the mid 30's at the base. The risk also helps with ticket savings--$50/pc for cranmore in late March. Sold! 

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On 3/16/2017 at 10:00 PM, sankaty said:

Pico was incredible.  Three feet of Utah quality snow.  I was very surprised how much less dense the snow was compared to Magic yesterday. Wind exposure?

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LOL. My skis are actually the fatties with white Marker's next to the green Scott poles. We heard someone whisper on Thursday that the Summit Express was on hold so we got some great Outpost runs in first then got one of the first down Giant Killer, Poma Woods, and a few other woods areas. It was just face shot after face shot and waist deep at times. Skinning Magic in the blizzard and skiing down Black Line was one of the runs of the year though, better than early December when Bush opened Castlerock Liftline with 28" of fresh on it.  

 

The snow on Wednesday at Magic was straight blower, I think you are correct about the wind as it was much denser when they opened. 

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14 hours ago, PowderBeard said:

LOL. My skis are actually the fatties with white Marker's next to the green Scott poles. We heard someone whisper on Thursday that the Summit Express was on hold so we got some great Outpost runs in first then got one of the first down Giant Killer, Poma Woods, and a few other woods areas. It was just face shot after face shot and waist deep at times. Skinning Magic in the blizzard and skiing down Black Line was one of the runs of the year though, better than early December when Bush opened Castlerock Liftline with 28" of fresh on it.  

 

The snow on Wednesday at Magic was straight blower, I think you are correct about the wind as it was much denser when they opened. 

Ha!  Mine are the Blizzard Ones in the foreground.  They seemed kind of wide at 98mm when I bought them four years ago, but now they seem pretty tame as everything has gotten wider.  I still love them.  Very versatile soft snow skis.

I also started on Outpost and then migrated to the summit lift right as it was opening.  I got fresh tracks (along side several other maniacs) on KA.  It reminded me of the feeding frenzies you see out west when they drop the ropes on new aspects after avalanche control has finished.

I was up at Pico on Saturday and Okemo on Sunday.  Pico was great.  I was pleased that Okemo had a few trails in the Jackson Gore area that were bumped up almost top to bottom.  Obviously Okemo doesn't have any heart-stopping terrain, but I've always wished they had longer bump options to keep folks like me entertained when skiing with friends and family.  The Jackson Gore runs filled that role nicely.  The kids loved them, too.

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I had a great time at Sugarbush with my wife this weekend!  Stayed at a friend's ski rental property near the access road.  Got to the hill right at 8am to see some long lines but it was worth the wait.  Most trails were in great shape.  There were soft bumps on Castlerock and even Lower OG.  Hit some woods off of North Lynx as well.  My wife had a great day as well (she's took a year off to gestate our child so she's just getting bitten by the bug again).

Some of the old classics were in great shape too, Spring Fling, Jester, Sleeper, and Snowball were all fun rides with well groomed packed powder and soft edges.  The crowd died down around 2:30pm and we managed to get 14-15 runs in even with the Heaven's Gate shutdown slowing us down around mid-morning.  Stayed at LP the whole time.  Fun day!  Sorry: no pics.  Snow was in good shape more or less everywhere - except a few rocky spots on the liftline at Castlerock.

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16 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Anyone have any good places/sites to buy used skis? I want to get my GF a pair of her own skis in hopes that she'll be more into it. Renting skis would be one less hurdle to go through.

Anyway... just looking for some really basic... cheap skis 

I would recommend going to a local ski swap next fall.  In addition to getting stuff very cheap, at places like Wachusett they will usually have last seasons rentals for sale for low prices

Another idea is to lease the equipment. We did this for our daughter this season. 

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1 hour ago, ORH_wxman said:

Don't ski white heat tomorrow or Thursday....lol. Prob an icy death trap after this cold shot coming.

 

Although SR does a great job grooming, so maybe by Thursday it's good.

I doubt it really warmed up over there enough?  It's still winter on most of Mansfield though a few south facing trails on Spruce did start the cycle of corn/thaw.

But White Heat would be still dry chalky packed powder I would bet, though don't know what it faces. 

Snowing pretty good up here, thinking we'll get 1-3" or so of a refresh as this CAA kicks in.

 

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18 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I doubt it really warmed up over there enough?  It's still winter on most of Mansfield though a few south facing trails on Spruce did start the cycle of corn/thaw.

But White Heat would be still dry chalky packed powder I would bet, though don't know what it faces. 

Snowing pretty good up here, thinking we'll get 1-3" or so of a refresh as this CAA kicks in.

 

You're probably right...White Heat faces northeast so it only gets sun in the morning and it's on the upper half of White Cap, and even the warmer days that got into the 30s were really dry, so probably not a whole lot of corn except on the lower mountain.

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On ‎3‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 9:59 AM, radarman said:

Couple pics from Mt Ellen... No doubt one of the best summits on the EC with stunning views in all direction, and wide open steep pitches.  Gorgeous yesterday.

ellen1.thumb.jpg.e9f2a1e6e07fec240d8a8e8d294ccf49.jpgellen3.thumb.jpg.ca5398849de790462cdc965ea10674f5.jpgellen6.thumb.jpg.53df0c3876007b08acb24bf60d08ac42.jpgellen5.thumb.jpg.271ada674a8a4e181eef129f09662144.jpg

Only big mountain I ever skied, way back in the Glen Ellen days, and your pics brought back the memories.  Have since regretted not trying Upper FIS (probably renamed now) on my 2nd trip there, as conditions were good and I was handling the single diamond trails lower down.  It's a steep pitch but hugely wide so lots of room to stay out of trouble.  (OTOH, Scotch Mist, the trail under the summit lift, gave me the willies just looking at it from the chair - steep, narrow, and iron poles in the center.)

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19 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

I would recommend going to a local ski swap next fall.  In addition to getting stuff very cheap, at places like Wachusett they will usually have last seasons rentals for sale for low prices

Another idea is to lease the equipment. We did this for our daughter this season. 

Thanks.... I feel like possibly buying in the offseason would lead to lower prices as well.

Buying now kind of seems pointless given the season is basically over 

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22 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Thanks.... I feel like possibly buying in the offseason would lead to lower prices as well.

Buying now kind of seems pointless given the season is basically over 

But it's also very cheap to buy this time of year.  Unless you are growing it won't matter now or later.  End of the season sales are usually very good...places don't want to store their goods over the summer or ship out the inventory so they'll just unload them.  Usually you can haggle pretty good too.

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53 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

You're probably right...White Heat faces northeast so it only gets sun in the morning and it's on the upper half of White Cap, and even the warmer days that got into the 30s were really dry, so probably not a whole lot of corn except on the lower mountain.

Yeah it was the dry air I think.  I was watching our snowmaking system out of curiosity and even when temps hit lower 40s in the base area yesterday the wet bulbs were down safely in the 20s.  Snow never got sticky, which is always a concern when you have recent powder and then it warms up.  Those crystals haven't had time to change so you have these beautiful powder crystals (dendrites) that warm up and then the arms of the crystal acts like glue on ski bases.  

That's the most frustrating conditions to me haha.  Luckily the dry air kept it like a Colorado chalky packed powder even with temps in the 30s to low 40s.

 

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41 minutes ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

Thanks.... I feel like possibly buying in the offseason would lead to lower prices as well.

Buying now kind of seems pointless given the season is basically over 

Does she have good boots?  IMO, the boots are more important than the skis. 

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1 hour ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Definitely               This is one negative to ski swaps.  The boots aren't properly fitted, etc. 

My next big ski purchase will be for some better quality boots

its more than the quality of the boots themselves.  They need to be fitted by someone who knows what they are doing, preferably a master boot fitter.  That's the only way to get the right boots for your feet and get them to fit right.

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2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

But it's also very cheap to buy this time of year.  Unless you are growing it won't matter now or later.  End of the season sales are usually very good...places don't want to store their goods over the summer or ship out the inventory so they'll just unload them.  Usually you can haggle pretty good too.

Hmmmm... I didn't know prices were really negotiable to be honest lol... what is a realistic price range for decent used equipment, in your expert opinion lol

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1 hour ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Definitely               This is one negative to ski swaps.  The boots aren't properly fitted, etc. 

My next big ski purchase will be for some better quality boots

Yeah.., she has ankle problems and is flat footed... so the Boots will be a big component.

I also could probably use new boots... had the same boots for like 6 years and I've grown a bit so I basically just stuff my feet inside the boots when I go because I don't really go often enough to justify getting new ones

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1 hour ago, Hitman said:

its more than the quality of the boots themselves.  They need to be fitted by someone who knows what they are doing, preferably a master boot fitter.  That's the only way to get the right boots for your feet and get them to fit right.

Yeah.  Getting fitted is key.   I typically use used boots so when I meant quality I meant go for a proper fitting etc

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