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Crotched Wed 12/27 - ???

Whitey

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Dec 10, 2008
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Went to Crotched on Wednesday for their 3-9PM ticket. A couple of hours of daylight skiing followed by a couple of hours of night skiing. Neither me nor my boys had been out yet and we needed to get out and get on our gear to be sure everything was working OK.

I don't have any pics (too cold and not anything that interesting to take pic of). It was about as expected. Some OK conditions, some scraped off and icy.

I am mostly posting this to say to Crotched: "WTF???". I was shocked that neither Pluto's Plunge (the main trail under the quad) nor UFO/Equinox were open. There was a lot of the mtn that still wasn't open. I get that it's still early but I don't think I've ever seen them not push to get Pluto's open. It had enough wales on it to be groomed and open. In addition to that it was very cold (obviously) but there wasn't a single snow gun running. Why wouldn't there be at least some guns going on the closed trails to get them ready? To make matters worse I had a couple of teens with me and all of them were a bit disappointed in what they had going for terrain park features.

Maybe there is something I am missing (lack of skiers, not enough water, etc) but it really seemed "off" to me that a small mountain like Crotched wasn't trying harder to get more open. It's not like they need billions of gallons of water to coat that mountain with snow. Plus, they have to know their clientele - many kids/teens go there for the terrain parks. To have a disappointing set up like they had is an operating mistake in my opinion.

I love Crotched and have been taking my boys there for years. I just have to register my feeling that either they screwed up their opening/early plan this year or that something has "changed" and Peaks isn't letting them spend $ on snow making and grooming.
 
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Quietman

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Jan 7, 2013
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Pluto's opened Friday and they blew lots of snow on UFO and Zero G yesterday and today. Both should open soon.
 

Smellytele

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Jan 30, 2006
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Right where I want to be
I love Crotched and have been taking my boys there for years. I just have to registered my feeling that either they screwed up their opening/early plan this year or that something has "changed" and Peaks isn't letting them spend $ on snow making and grooming.

Option 2 I am thinking. Peaks seems to have concentrated on Mt Snow and only Mt Snow this year (not sure about Huntah). They got Wildcat up and going but that was about it. Not sure how they are doing financially but it seems they made a concerted effort this year to not put much money into the NH resorts. I understand that Snow gets more skier visits then probably all their NH Mnts combined but still. They may lose my business next year.
 

CrotchedMountain

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Jan 1, 2018
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615 Francestown Rd Bennington, NH 03442
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www.crotchedmtn.com
Yeah, we did have trouble for a coupe of days due to the extreme cold and some mechanical issues with snowmaking. All issues have been rectified and since Wed we've opened 6 new trails, including steeps like UFO, Equinox and Pluto's plunge. We're at 23/25 trails and just need to get Jupiter's Storm and Comet Drop, which we'll have by end of week, latest.

Just a few issues we had to work through. Equipment doesn't like to work in sub zero temps sometimes.
 

jack97

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Mar 4, 2006
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the trail under the fix grip quad got seeded, 15 to 16 turns, single lane and a jump at the midpoint . They have formed a freestyle team that will travel and compete at the local events. I talked with the coaches, very cool guys and will let other skiers on the course but no jump at the kicker due to liability issues. They want to extend a seeded course down pluto plunge right under the lift. If you want this as well, I would encourage you to email or talk to the gm of the place or the ski school director of this program.

btw, they left the mid and bottom section on skiers right ungroom (same side as the seeded bumps). Mini bumps were formed but I could never see a distinct line.
 
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