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The 2017-18 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2
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1 minute ago, powderfreak said:

Yup.  One of the classics.  Hard to get the sustained pitch it has for the vertical it covers (it goes from like 875mb to 950mb, lol) anywhere else...it's not overly steep except for the upper turns that can get some people a little nervous.  But the pitch from here down is just a steady, wide open carving and speed heaven.  It also faces northeast (best snow retention angle) in a cold pocket on the mountain and is often the last trail on the mountain to melt out.  That's why you'll still see me hiking and skiing that trail in May, and its a big locals favorite for late season skiing.

It is the original trail down this side of the mountain, cut by the CCC in the 1930s.  Man I wish we could get more stuff like this done today... a government sponsored program aimed at unemployed, unmarried males to create recreational opportunities.

Yeah that was one of my favorite runs to let 'er rip, that and Lift Line. Man, it's been too long. I gotta get back up there.

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I have a nice story about skiing Nosedive back around 1991/92.  Took a nasty fall on one of the downhill turns and ended up skis uphill with my back pinned against one of the fences that was built on the downhill side.  Looking at Google Maps it looks like it's thee turn right above Rimrock.  Sidehill was so so steep that I was folded in 1/2 with skis above my head.  Luckily no injuries.  My only ski injury occurred at Winter Park in CO where I hyperextended an ankle when I took a fall skiing moguls on 

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Killington was pretty fun today. There were 5 lift holds at opening but they all opened by noon. Conditions started with really nice packed powder but got skied off expect the moguls on the ungroomed half of Superstar that stayed beautiful packed powder all day! Outer Limits was great the first time but slick between the bumps for our last run of the day. A few long lift lines but we got a dozen runs in. 38b483dd5cbba27e7cf8bfb199c2b074.jpg


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The crowds descended on ski country today... nice to see for the trickle down through the local economies. It was busy at Stowe.

It was the first Saturday in a month that wasn't either -30F with high winds, or had just featured a 50 degree drop in 8 hours after a rainer.

I get why people complain about crowds but I hate it because I'm thinking, "where where you the past 3 weekends?"

 

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Stratton was an abject disaster yesterday with the wind and so poorly handled by the staff there.  The ticket takers said the lifts are except the gondola would be open and they were not.  They had 1 lift open until 11:30 so we bailed and went to Okemo which was fantastic. Thank god for M.A.X. Pass. 

 

Overall January has been disappointing after such a promising start in December.  Hoping for better in February.  Taking the fam for a trip to Mont Tremblant. 

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Fun weekend...finally a weekend where all lifts ran as scheduled and temperatures were above zero degrees.  The last three Saturday's have featured either icing or brutally cold temperatures with hurricane force winds.  Finally got some good weather and wow it feels nice out there with temps in the 20s and 30s.

26962235_10103302107152660_3129851868593

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We skied Windham (NY) today.

Arrived to overcast, low 30's at 10:00,  by 10:30 the sun was out and we had a day of beautiful spring skiing.

Corn out in the sun, nice soft powder in the shade. Healthy crowd, but never more than 10 minutes to get on a lift.

Man are they in trouble later this week though.  Natural cover is very thin, even the snowmaking trails started getting muddy spots in the sun today, and there's two days of rain incoming.  I feel for them, that's the last thing they need in mid-January.

 

 

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Some areas of the northeast are hurting more than others but when I see friends post recent photos from out west, in mid/late January, that look like November or April, it makes it a bit easier to take for some reason. 

This is from a friend that moved to Telluride this winter.  I mean, at those San Juan elevations you expect this in April or May...even June some years look like this, aside from the lack of low elevation foliage.

IMG_8220.PNG.257749fac92fd5e37166e131ec8e1312.PNG

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7 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Some areas of the northeast are hurting more than others but when I see friends post recent photos from our west, in mid/late January, that look like November or April, it makes it a bit easier to take for some reason. 

This is from a friend that moved to Telluride this winter.  I mean, at those San Juan elevations you expect this in April or May...even June some years aside from the lack of low elevation foliage.

IMG_8220.PNG.257749fac92fd5e37166e131ec8e1312.PNG

I read and article that Sandia Peak NM has had only 7" of snow so far this season. Taos only has 18 trails opened.

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On 1/20/2018 at 8:27 PM, powderfreak said:

The crowds descended on ski country today... nice to see for the trickle down through the local economies. It was busy at Stowe.

It was the first Saturday in a month that wasn't either -30F with high winds, or had just featured a 50 degree drop in 8 hours after a rainer.

I get why people complain about crowds but I hate it because I'm thinking, "where where you the past 3 weekends?"

 

Yeah. Crowds were crazy Friday and Saturday at Wachusett.  Busiest of the season. From now until after Feb school vacation it is pretty bad.

 

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Pico on Saturday and Okemo today.  Pico was great.  Surprisingly, they had noticeably better conditions at Pico on Saturday than at Stratton last Thursday, I suppose because they get less skier traffic.  We were braced for high winds and lift holds, but the summit lift ran all day and it ended up being not remarkably windy.  I hear that the winds were a much bigger deal in southern VT.  Lower mountain was very soft, and even the steeper pitches on the upper mountain were pretty soft for the first part of the day.  Later in the day I had to be more strategic about where to turn on steeper pitches.

Okemo was good today, too.  Very light crowds, presumably thanks to the NFL.  Groomers were in decent shape outside of the heaviest trafficked slopes.  I've been suffering from mogul withdrawal so far this season, so I lapped the bumps on Sel's Choice many times.  They were quite firm, but because they are seeded, the perfect line makes it much easier to stay in the zipper.

The forecast for the next week or so looks bleak.  I've pretty much given up on surface conditions for a bit.  I'm just hoping base destruction is minimal, and maybe we can sneak in a spring-like day next Saturday.

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8 minutes ago, sankaty said:

Anyone know how a negative EPO affects Colorado snow chances?  I'm headed to Copper in mid February.  I know it's way too early to obsess about this, but I'm curious how EPO phases tend to affect CO mountains, if there is a coloration.  

not too early.  I'm headed to BC and am wondering the same thing.

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On 1/21/2018 at 10:31 AM, shawnmov said:

Stratton was an abject disaster yesterday with the wind and so poorly handled by the staff there.  The ticket takers said the lifts are except the gondola would be open and they were not.  They had 1 lift open until 11:30 so we bailed and went to Okemo which was fantastic. Thank god for M.A.X. Pass. 

 

Overall January has been disappointing after such a promising start in December.  Hoping for better in February.  Taking the fam for a trip to Mont Tremblant. 

Oof.

Mount Snow did the best they could with the winds. Only the lower mountain was open through 11:30 but there were a bunch of lifts available to get you half or 2/3 way up (Ego Alley, Sundance, etc.)

The Bubble was open before noon and they kept it spinning until like 4:20. Nice day even with the wind. 

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Killington lost 34 trails and is back in repair mode.  Tough economics when they have to keep trying to cover the reappearing glacier.  I wonder how the ski areas are fairing overall this week.  Places like Magic Mtn. must really be suffering.  Need a good high moisture content 2-3' dump in the hills.  The kind where it rains on the plains while the mountains get buried.

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Looks like the southern greens didn't get too much rain yesterday and with no flash freeze, the timing of it looks like it worked out that they could groom stuff out and not much damage.  Looking at a few wunderground spots around Stratton and Okemo - they only got about 0.10" rain.  Not as bad as the 2-3" deluge a couple of weeks ago.

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1 hour ago, shawnmov said:

Looks like the southern greens didn't get too much rain yesterday and with no flash freeze, the timing of it looks like it worked out that they could groom stuff out and not much damage.  Looking at a few wunderground spots around Stratton and Okemo - they only got about 0.10" rain.  Not as bad as the 2-3" deluge a couple of weeks ago.

Ask backedge in the NNE thread. He’s in Manchester and got almost 2”

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Some details of the new Ikon Pass have been announced:  https://www.ikonpass.com/en/

The FAQ indicates that they are discontinuing the MAX pass.  Unless the Ikon lineup grows to include the Okemo/Sunappee/CB group, that will be a major loss for me as we've been staying between Killington/Pico and Okemo.

There are very few details about pricing and value so far, so I assume this is still a work in progress and thus hard to evaluate.  I suppose the necessity of staying competitive with the Epic Pass will cap the cost somewhat.

 

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Was a nice day in Northern Vermont.

I honestly cannot believe how well we came out of the last "rain" event... with deeper snow depths and a lot more trails open.  Funny, all we needed to reopen all the natural snow trails was a good cold rainstorm and a few inches of dense snow.  The glades this morning were skiing sweet too...with an edgeable flat base under a few inches of dense snow.

27164357_10155081314087382_6543363951382

 

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