Mt Ellen farewell April 6, 2014

Date(s) Skied: April 6, 2014

Resort or Ski Area: Mt Ellen at Sugarbush

Conditions: Sunny, 32 degrees at the summit, mid 40’s base. Spring skiing !
Sunday was the season finale at Mt Ellen which had a planned close for 3/30 but reopened for a Passholder Appreciation Weekend. Once again the mountain will close with 100% of the terrain open. I did not get out on Saturday but didn’t miss anything because the mountain was iced up from the weather on Friday. I woke up Sunday to cloudy skies and flurries and was prepared for the worst. Fortunately the sun came out around 10 AM and the temperatures warmed up for an almost perfect day of spring skiing. I did the 11 to 4 shift and had a great day.

First run hero snow on Inverness:



Cliffs:



Elbow:


Brambles:



Semi Tough:

Up top there is still a LOT of snow but was no one skiied Black Diamond or FIS as they were firmy glazed over with a thick layer of ice.

Black Diamond:



FIS:



Looking up FIS:



Obligatory pic of the view of Camels Hump and Mt Mansfield to the north:

Lower FIS had a very easily broken crust for the first 100 yards but after that it skied great.



Lower FIS:




Overall it was a wonderful day and season finale at Mt Ellen. Sunshine and soft moguls on a lot of my favorite trails and a good crowd enjoyed the day. My guess is that the locals will be hiking for turns through May with the snow cover up high on the mountain.

Yea that's pretty much how it looked at MRG on Sunday off the single. The double was amazing though.

Looks good. Was there a big crowd?

thetrailboss said:

Looks good. Was there a big crowd?

Click to expand...

It was a late start for a lot of people and there were short lines at the GMX and Northridge chairs for most of the day. The Sunny D lift and Inverness lifts did not run. Lots of people were lapping Northridge and Cliffs and Elbow had a lot of traffic. I took Northway several times to ski Inverness, Brambles and Semi Tough which had some of the best skiing on the mountain with very few people venturing over to ski that trail pod.

Was at lp- Sunday was all about exposure and to some degree elevation- castlerock was off the hook- spillsville a disaster- paradise ok but dicey in spots - moonshine and twist were great- and birdland was pretty good too- avoided mall due to shadows good part of day- and heard steins was slick in the troughs... No need to be there with castlerock so good.