otisshirley
New member
Date(s) Skied: Feb. 26, 2014
Resort or Ski Area: Mount Snow
Conditions: Mainly packed powder with a dusting of powder; some powder over crud
Trip Report: I didn't get to the mountain until around 11, at which point it was snowing moderately—lots of small flakes blowing around in the wind. They claim they got 2 inches, but it seemed more like 1 inch to me. In any case, by the afternoon most of it had been blown off the trails, even the ones where it hadn't been skied off. The sun started coming out around noon, and it was sunny for much of the afternoon.
The mountain was pretty close to empty. It seemed light to me even for a weekday. The Bluebird had basically no lines (each time I pulled up I wouldn't have to wait more than 3 or 4 chairs), and everyplace else had literally no lines, including Nitro and Canyon.
I didn't spend that much time on the popular Main Face trails. For the most part they seemed decent. The 5 inches on Monday meant that the surface was more like packed powder than like hard pack. There were a handful of patches of real ice (the translucent stuff), but they were few and far between enough that they weren't an issue.
Many of the less traveled trails had 4–5 inches of powder from Monday that had never been groomed. For a couple of the much less traveled trails it was basically untracked. For example, this is Tunnel Vision, looking uphill.
Sure, it's a relatively uninteresting traverse, but you get the idea.
A bunch of other trails looked like this (Moon Walk, looking uphill).
The center of the trail was flattened; what you see on top is just the 1 inch from this morning, and under that it's quite hard. But on skier's right there is powder several yards wide that has only been partially tracked out. Whenever I say "powder," it's only about 4 inches deep. So sometimes I would float along in silence, but sometimes I would feel the chopped-up-and-hardened snow underneath. Trails with significant amounts of this powder on at least one side included Narrow Gauge, Fools Gold, and most of Sunbrook that was accessible.
The trees were eminently skiable. I think this photo is from the trees to the side of Iron Run.
The snow left over from the weekend thaw is hard, but there is enough powder from Monday on top of it to make it manageable, since there hasn't been a lot of traffic through the trees this week.
Sunbrook was deserted.
That's because the Sunbrook chair wasn't running (presumably so people wouldn't freeze to death on it), just Beartrap. The snow on some of the side trails that don't get (much?) snowmaking, like Little Dipper, is getting thin—you can see brown spots through it. It's still very manageable, but I don't know how much is left there.
There were very few bump runs anywhere. Beartrap was groomed flat (and was a combination of glistening hardpack and 1–2 inches of powder). Pat's Pitch had moguls, as did a section of Exhibition near the top. Hop claims to, but they're only on the steep pitch and they're not that defined. That pitch was the one place where I saw a fair amount of ice; the "bumps" themselves were fine, but there was ice on the bottom slopes of the bumps.
Resort or Ski Area: Mount Snow
Conditions: Mainly packed powder with a dusting of powder; some powder over crud
Trip Report: I didn't get to the mountain until around 11, at which point it was snowing moderately—lots of small flakes blowing around in the wind. They claim they got 2 inches, but it seemed more like 1 inch to me. In any case, by the afternoon most of it had been blown off the trails, even the ones where it hadn't been skied off. The sun started coming out around noon, and it was sunny for much of the afternoon.
The mountain was pretty close to empty. It seemed light to me even for a weekday. The Bluebird had basically no lines (each time I pulled up I wouldn't have to wait more than 3 or 4 chairs), and everyplace else had literally no lines, including Nitro and Canyon.
I didn't spend that much time on the popular Main Face trails. For the most part they seemed decent. The 5 inches on Monday meant that the surface was more like packed powder than like hard pack. There were a handful of patches of real ice (the translucent stuff), but they were few and far between enough that they weren't an issue.
Many of the less traveled trails had 4–5 inches of powder from Monday that had never been groomed. For a couple of the much less traveled trails it was basically untracked. For example, this is Tunnel Vision, looking uphill.
Sure, it's a relatively uninteresting traverse, but you get the idea.
A bunch of other trails looked like this (Moon Walk, looking uphill).
The center of the trail was flattened; what you see on top is just the 1 inch from this morning, and under that it's quite hard. But on skier's right there is powder several yards wide that has only been partially tracked out. Whenever I say "powder," it's only about 4 inches deep. So sometimes I would float along in silence, but sometimes I would feel the chopped-up-and-hardened snow underneath. Trails with significant amounts of this powder on at least one side included Narrow Gauge, Fools Gold, and most of Sunbrook that was accessible.
The trees were eminently skiable. I think this photo is from the trees to the side of Iron Run.
The snow left over from the weekend thaw is hard, but there is enough powder from Monday on top of it to make it manageable, since there hasn't been a lot of traffic through the trees this week.
Sunbrook was deserted.
That's because the Sunbrook chair wasn't running (presumably so people wouldn't freeze to death on it), just Beartrap. The snow on some of the side trails that don't get (much?) snowmaking, like Little Dipper, is getting thin—you can see brown spots through it. It's still very manageable, but I don't know how much is left there.
There were very few bump runs anywhere. Beartrap was groomed flat (and was a combination of glistening hardpack and 1–2 inches of powder). Pat's Pitch had moguls, as did a section of Exhibition near the top. Hop claims to, but they're only on the steep pitch and they're not that defined. That pitch was the one place where I saw a fair amount of ice; the "bumps" themselves were fine, but there was ice on the bottom slopes of the bumps.
