Wachusett 12/15/17

Temps looked like they would be cold up north today, so I decided to stay in the flatlands and hit up the mighty Wa. It was still pretty damn cold in the morning, but got up into the low 20's by midday. They missed out on the last storm, but with the cold weather they're trying hard to catch up by blowing snow 24 hours a day. So lots of skiing under the guns today.

They have maybe 50% of their trails open, with more opening this weekend, but not full width yet, and kind of sloppy grooming. The snow was hardpack, with some loose snow on top where the pitch was low, and ice rink stuff for some stretches. Mostly I wanted to get a good leg workout, but that was tough since the base was so firm the skis did all the work and I was just bombing down the runs like a racetrack trying to carve nice turns. I was wishing I had some narrower skis today for the conditions.

I haven't been to WaWa for a few years and they have an RFID ticket system now that's pretty neat. You don't have to attached a lift ticket to your jacket anymore, but just put a credit card sized RFID thing in your pocket and the gates can read it and open for you. If you go for another visit you can just re-use the same ID card. It's a way more convenient system than the old barcode scanners so I hope more areas will adopt this.

Pretty overcast all day, with flat light in the afternoon. There was a little bit of a crowd in the morning, but it thinned out to almost nothing after lunch. Should be jammed this weekend I imagine. Overall a decent day since I knew the conditions wouldn't be great going in and just made the best of it.

I was there too
Snow report a bit misleading. It claimed all 3 main summit routes were open. Smith was not even close to open (still grooming all morning) and then 10th closed at lunchtime and opened again around 2.

Conifer was no better than it was six days ago despite two snowfalls and how many hours of amazing snowmaking temps?

Can't figure out wtf is going on over there.


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The Sneak said:

I was there too
Snow report a bit misleading. It claimed all 3 main summit routes were open. Smith was not even close to open (still grooming all morning) and then 10th closed at lunchtime and opened again around 2.

Conifer was no better than it was six days ago despite two snowfalls and how many hours of amazing snowmaking temps?

Can't figure out wtf is going on over there.


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Their website has always been a little spotty for information. Never reflects the actual conditions, just what they planned on that day (so wind holds, ice holds, etc) don't show up.

Didn't go this past weekend, but the trails are always pretty beat up whenever I do go. They just get too much traffic to keep the hardpack from becoming more dense than sheet metal. Maybe if they made snow every night haha.

speden said:

I haven't been to WaWa for a few years and they have an RFID ticket system now that's pretty neat. You don't have to attached a lift ticket to your jacket anymore, but just put a credit card sized RFID thing in your pocket and the gates can read it and open for you. If you go for another visit you can just re-use the same ID card. It's a way more convenient system than the old barcode scanners so I hope more areas will adopt this.

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Interesting intel. I also haven't been there for a couple of years but it's on my Max Pass. Does anyone know if Max Pass works with their RFDI system? Max Pass website still shows WaWa as a place where a "resort specific lift ticket" is required.

Whitey said:

Interesting intel. I also haven't been there for a couple of years but it's on my Max Pass. Does anyone know if Max Pass works with their RFDI system? Max Pass website still shows WaWa as a place where a "resort specific lift ticket" is required.

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Probably you would go to the ticket window and show your pass, and they'd give you one of their RFID cards. I would guess their system will only read their cards, but don't know for sure.

Whitey said:

Interesting intel. I also haven't been there for a couple of years but it's on my Max Pass. Does anyone know if Max Pass works with their RFDI system? Max Pass website still shows WaWa as a place where a "resort specific lift ticket" is required.

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I have the max this year and have been to Wachuset twice. You need to get a WaWa specific RFID card that they'll load a day on. They don't charge you for the card too (thank goodness).