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The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2

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13 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

Skied SR again today, soft but excellent. Empty with whole runs being alone.  Upper Mt stuff was silky lower soft. Had a surprise bluebird sky for an hour too. 

When you're up there for 10 days do you take side trips to other mountains or ski exclusively at SR?

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44 minutes ago, radarman said:

Sugarbush is offering a pass for 30-39 year olds for $549.... not a bad deal that I'd consider if I lived about 2.5hrs closer.

Yeah that was mentioned further back in the thread after the Vail buyout of Stowe. That's a pretty sweet deal. If I lived within 90 minutes, that would be almost a lock...I'd prob still consider it even 2-3 hours away if I was single and had plenty of time to ski on my own schedule...but alas, family rules the day.

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2 hours ago, radarman said:

Sugarbush is offering a pass for 30-39 year olds for $549.... not a bad deal that I'd consider if I lived about 2.5hrs closer.

Sugarbush really feeling the heat of the Vail purchase.  Curious how they make up lost revenue but all benefit to the public.

This is where skiers and riders start winning with good competition and a price war going on.  Passes in Vermont just got cheap as Stowe is usually the market-setter.

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Anyway, suffering through another day of powder on Mansfield. 

I can't get to the High Road stake with the Gondola on hold but I'm estimating 7" for upper mountain snowfall.  Many people think its more.

The arctic front came through with some pow.  The upslope has been on point this year...seems like all year long we've maximized every set-up.

First-tracks-today-were-sweet-after-4-7-

Blasting-through-fresh-drifts-down-Mt-Ma

Powder-day.jpg

 

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8 hours ago, Albert A Clipper said:

that's their big conundrum, now that have to make up that revenue on volume without making their product look like they made up that revenue with volume lol. they don't have the infrastructure to handle to much extra capacity without their loyal, longtime fan base putting up a stink about the reduction in quality. 

My understanding is they're selling only limited numbers of the super cheap early season passes.  It's a defensive move so I don't think they'll make up the revenue in volume.  But I guess we will see.  They aren't owned by a big company so perhaps they don't need to maximize the revenue.

i road the lift last week with a couple guys up from killington insisting they had to put snowmaking and a quad on castlerock.  Ain't happening (thankfully imho).  Not because it wouldn't be a big draw, but because it would ruin the experience for the regulars.  

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11 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Yeah that was mentioned further back in the thread after the Vail buyout of Stowe. That's a pretty sweet deal. If I lived within 90 minutes, that would be almost a lock...I'd prob still consider it even 2-3 hours away if I was single and had plenty of time to ski on my own schedule...but alas, family rules the day.

Try it with the family.  Best thing we ever did and our drive is 4.5 hours.  Never thought we would go up regularly but it was easy to fall in love with it.

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20 hours ago, powderfreak said:

The upslope has been on point this year...seems like all year long we've maximized every set-up.

 

Well, in line with that thought, I just checked the resort’s conditions page and saw that you guys are at 343” on the season, so it’s guaranteed to be above average with respect to snowfall at this point.  We’re near 170” of snowfall at the house, and a comparison to Stowe’s seasonal snowfall puts it right in line with the typical ~50% of the resort seasonal snowfall numbers that I get.  At my site this will be the first time hitting above average snowfall in six seasons, so it was definitely due.  When was the last time the resort had an above average snowfall season?

 

The shots from yesterday were great – the one below was my favorite.  It’s got the usual fine grained cloud, but the addition of the larger particles up high on the chest contrasting against the red shell is what makes it pop.  Unfortunately the Exif data are stripped in either your post-production of posting, but whatever parameters you’re using are looking good!

 

The-powder-is-back.jpg&key=cde3747933cb1

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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.


Sunday river offering $149 unlimited until May 1. Pretty decent
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13 hours ago, Hitman said:

Try it with the family.  Best thing we ever did and our drive is 4.5 hours.  Never thought we would go up regularly but it was easy to fall in love with it.

I'd have to wait until my son (or any future kids) are old enough to ski. Little one just turned 1 year a week and a half ago...so gotta wait 2-3 more years before getting him on skis.

 

But yeah, I'll def be doing regular trips once the time comes.

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I am at Smuggs and it is an awesome bluebird day. The groomers are as good as they get and some corduroy remains untracked. It probably will through close in spots. Woods and pow skiers will find plenty of stashes left.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

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On 3/21/2017 at 3:10 PM, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

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

Absolutely they are negotiable. Esp. at the end of the season. From now through late April is the best time to buy ski gear. Stores have to get rid of it to make room for new, and unlike the "pre-season" sales, people aren't focused on it. Good shops would rather move stuff now than hold it all summer and hope to push it out the door later.  

And if you have a good relationship with a shop, and are buying more than one item, and aren't rolling up in brand new everything like a neon sign that says "big spender" you can def. get 10 -20% off marked prices. Just ask

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1 hour ago, eyewall said:

I am at Smuggs and it is an awesome bluebird day. The groomers are as good as they get and some corduroy remains untracked. It probably will through close in spots. Woods and pow skiers will find plenty of stashes left.

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 

If the wind really goes still, this afternoon at Bolton would be awesome. Fresh snow and afternoon late march sun with cold dry temps

 

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When you get first chair after 1 and half days of untouched and then you get first chair again. #winning 37 miles today. Lap after lap from hard pack to silk to new untouched man made. Fantastic midwinter bluebird day. Wow at SR. This is at the old spruce chair bottom. That had a catastrophic failure in the summer and a new high speed quad going in.

Notice anything? Yep nobody over here with us. Untouched lap after lap.

 

20170323_121251.jpg

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8 hours ago, J.Spin said:

 

Well, in line with that thought, I just checked the resort’s conditions page and saw that you guys are at 343” on the season, so it’s guaranteed to be above average with respect to snowfall at this point.  We’re near 170” of snowfall at the house, and a comparison to Stowe’s seasonal snowfall puts it right in line with the typical ~50% of the resort seasonal snowfall numbers that I get.  At my site this will be the first time hitting above average snowfall in six seasons, so it was definitely due.  When was the last time the resort had an above average snowfall season?

 

The shots from yesterday were great – the one below was my favorite.  It’s got the usual fine grained cloud, but the addition of the larger particles up high on the chest contrasting against the red shell is what makes it pop.  Unfortunately the Exif data are stripped in either your post-production of posting, but whatever parameters you’re using are looking good!

 

 

Thanks, J!  I also love the powder shots that have the larger "balls of snow" or whatever exploding along with the fine powder cloud.  That stuff gives it the "explosion" look that shows power and speed through the powder.  I like that you picked up on that because as any skier who obsesses over this stuff, you've probably learned that when the snow does that its usually some Grade-A pow.

Regarding the seasonal snowfall... it is funny how close it tracks with your plot on a 40-50% reduction.  I remember that many times in past years....you get 130" and High Road gets 260" type stuff, ha.  And like your house has seen, our last above normal snowfall season was 2010-2011.

Right now this is the snowiest winter (with a month left of lift service and snowfall counting) since 2008-09 which had 354" and then before that 2007-08 had 374".  Sitting at 343" right now, I think we'll easily beat 2008-09 (only 11" more, which even in the worst 4 weeks will likely nickle and dime to that amount) but we'll need a good week or some synoptic/upslope combo systems to get to the 2007-08 value (31" more than current).

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Skiing through the Vermont hardwoods on a sunny day never gets old.  This is down under 2,000ft on the lower mountain...snowpack is stout and I love this time of year when even the lower elevation pack is set-up firm underneath with fresh powder on top.  Its like a ballroom floor that's very smooth and easy to navigate.  All hazards are pretty much easily visible as you are only sinking in about a half foot (from yesterday's surprise pow) so if you don't see something you generally won't hit anything. 

It just makes for some classic New England hardwood skiing though this is why Vermont is known for tree-skiing...the Adirondacks and the Whites tend to have more dense spruce-fir type forests while Vermont's hardwoods are just more naturally wide open.  Like this photo isn't from a cleared glade or anything...the hardwoods are just spaced well and in the summer the forest floor is covered in ferns.

17504438_10102912575502210_4486195348226

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Thoughts on weather/conditions for this weekend in the Killington/Pico/Okemo area?  Both the GFS and Euro look very dry during both days with less than a hundredth QPF for any 6 hour period.  Saturday looks pretty cloudy, but with overnight temps staying at or above freezing and daytime temps in the upper 30s to low 40s, thinking surfaces may soften up anyway.  Sunday looks colder aloft, but if the sun breaks through in the morning, as shown on the Euro, perhaps south facing slopes will soften up after a cold morning? 

A little puzzled that the NWS forecast seems so wet.  My reading of the models doesn't support that.

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1 hour ago, Ginx snewx said:

When you get first chair after 1 and half days of untouched and then you get first chair again. #winning 37 miles today. Lap after lap from hard pack to silk to new untouched man made. Fantastic midwinter bluebird day. Wow at SR. This is at the old spruce chair bottom. That had a catastrophic failure in the summer and a new high speed quad going in.

Notice anything? Yep nobody over here with us. Untouched lap after lap.

 

20170323_121251.jpg

That's the base of white cap.  

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Nice pic ginxy...even if it was the wrong one, lol. That's an awesome day right there. Reminds me a bit of the last day at SR in my 2014 trip...right after you had left. There was that surprise 16" dump I think on your last night there and then the weekend got cold after a clipper dropped 2-3" on my first day. The last day I was there on that trip I think was 3/24/14 and it was cold but bluebird sky like that after about 10am. Low wind so it actually felt pretty good in the sun even though temps were like low to mid 20s. But it was just perfect chalk packed powder all day. Don't think I could have hit ice if I tried. Sometimes those are the best days of all. The "cold enough for chalky snow but not too cold to freeze" type day in late March. The sun angle this time of year really makes the day stand out. 

Some days it can be the enemy but it's your friend on a day like today. 

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