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Bretton Woods 11/27/2016

Jully

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Joined
Dec 13, 2014
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2,487
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Location
Boston, MA
Time Skied: 8:45 - 2:45
Conditions: firm man made
Weather: Cloudy, low 30s, sporadic snow flurries

Rolled into Bretton Woods around 8:35. Using a prepaid ticket bought at the ski show I was able to boot up immediately and get onto the snow by 8:45. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is usually pretty slow compared to the mayhem that occurs that Saturday and today was no different. The lodge was full of kids when I got there, but there was never more than a 4 chair wait at the worst and I went up solo most of the time and the trails were empty enough in the morning and pretty open by the afternoon. The BW race team was definitely out in full force, but besides making a big crowd on the edge of the trail, they never got in my way.

There were 3 trails open, Ben, Crawford's Blaze, and Range View. Off the Zephyr there was Range View with solid coverage all the way down, though the final pitch was a tad scratchy and always had some poor sap struggling to get down it. Additionally there was about 3 inches of ungroomed snow right under the lift to start the day. That disappeared by about 9:30, but it made the first few runs the most fun. Range View was also the most crowded trail by a long shot and did get annoying at times, but Crawford's provided an almost crowd free alternative. Even at the end of the day though, the conditions held up nicely on Range View. The trail wasn't skied off or scratchy for most of the trail.

Crawford's was more interesting and substantially less crowded than Range View, but also in slightly worse shape. Over a few of the knoll-ish things in the trail there was dirt and grass showing through (still in fine shape other than that). However, if they don't get to resurface before the next warm up (not sure if they're supposed to get rain or snow this week), the trail will be in pretty tough shape.

Finally there was Ben (and technically Bigger Ben too I think) off the B Double. That single trail off the double was in pretty good shape, grip-able snow that didn't really get skied off and had some fun ungroomed stuff on the skiers right of the trail. I only skied it twice though as the lift was a painfully slow way to get 650ft of vert or so. BW ran the Bethlehem Express Quad Saturday I think, but today they were only running the shorter double next to it and blasting snow all day above the lift.

All in all a great second day out for the season. Got about 25 runs in and a lot more vert here on account of the HSQ which was a great feeling.

Pics aren't super useful as they're just of Range View. Kept forgetting to stop on the other trails.

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Last edited:

bdfreetuna

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Jan 12, 2012
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keep the faith
Looks like good coverage and consistent surfaces. About all you can ask for in November. I'd like to get back up to BW some day. Haven't been since they added the additional mountain and all the woods. Looks possibly a lot more interesting now, if not still a mellow place to ski.
 

Edd

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Nov 8, 2006
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Newmarket, NH
I was there yesterday also. A good first day for me. We didn't think to take the double.

Edit: oops, I was there on the 28th. My bad.
 

Jully

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Location
Boston, MA
Looks like good coverage and consistent surfaces. About all you can ask for in November. I'd like to get back up to BW some day. Haven't been since they added the additional mountain and all the woods. Looks possibly a lot more interesting now, if not still a mellow place to ski.

I haven't been in the new woods either sadly. I only go to BW early season as they usually have consistent coverage and their $20 tickets are great. I've heard good things though, not the most challenging you'll ski, but they look to have a lot of space over there and it isn't like the rest of the mountain!

I was there yesterday also. A good first day for me. We didn't think to take the double.

Edit: oops, I was there on the 28th. My bad.

The racers were on the double for a good chunk of the day, which I appreciated, but it also made me less likely to go over there.
 
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