Wachusett 12/19/05

[Zand]

Date(s) Skied: 12/19/05 (Night)

Resort or Ski Area: Wachusett Mountain, MA

Conditions: Packed Powder, Loose Granular, Temps around 10

Trip Report:

Yet another great, but chilly chapter into this awesome early season. My 7th trip to Wachusett was great and I added 3 more trails to this year's count.

Conifer: Took 3 runs right after grooming and all three were in EXCELLENT packed powder. Not one patch of ice to be found on the entire trail during those runs.

10th: Took many runs, both before grooming and after grooming. Before grooming, it was good with some small bumps forming. After grooming it was sweet packed powder the entire way and fast. The snow loosened on the headwall, but it was still great.

Smith: Before grooming, the top was scraped up quite a bit, but the bottom was good. After grooming, I got very first tracks and it was awesome for quite a bit. The usual corn started to appear at the bottom of the headwall later on, but it didn't affect much. Polar Express was running at about 90% of full speed with no line all night except for a very short line from 7 to 8:30.

Piece: No one was over there, so there were basically fresh tracks the entire afternoon. I took the time to work on my short turns.

Frannie's: Conditions weren't as good as Piece as it had more traffic, but it was okay. Still the usual 30 second long Frannie's. Triple was running slow like usual and no line (maybe 5 people in the whole "bowl").

Hitchcock: Bad frankensnow the whole way, but the snowguns were roaring the entire night so it should be good in a day or two. The end by the Rail Jam is still shut off, so you have to cut back to Smith at the bottom.

Look Mom/Challenger: There was a box at the intersection of the two which I hit a few times. No landing so it kind og hurt if you didn't land good. Like Friday, Look Mom merged back into Challenger halfway down near the race start booth. Challenger was excellent for speed for the evening, but the snowguns came on around 7.

Ralph's: Took one run right after grooming. Fun and pretty fast for ol' Ralph's. Minuteman was running FASTER than normal and was keeping up with Polar.

Monadnock: Didn't ski there, but guns are going on both Indian Summer and Sundowner. I guess they're preparing for the usual mass of beginners ready to come in over Christmas vacation.

All in all, a good night. I got over 5 hours in tonight which was good. Next week, I plan on getting up to Mount Snow around Tuesday and maybe Wachusett for a night or two.

[thetrailboss]

Awesome to have the Wachusett Connection I MAY be there next week for a day...stay tuned.

[Marc]

Cool, glad to hear Wachusett has good snow after the rain on Friday.


I'll probably head up this afternoon/evening. After working on the moguls this weekend, it's time to rip up the runs up there on the Volkls.

[Zand]

Trailboss, let me know. I should be able to get up there any night next week except for Tuesday (the day I'm headed to Mount Snow). I can't go during the days though as my pass is blacked out during the days. I hope the forecasted rain Sunday and Monday doesn't kill them.