Wachusett 1-14-08 - powder day

Area Skied: Wachusett Mountain, M.A

Date skied: January 14th from 12:30pm - 4:00pm

Surface conditions: Loose powder, packed powder, powder with 8" new snow.

Weather: Light snow and flurries all day, 26F at 12:30pm and 28F at 4:00pm

Warren and I both had a snow day today so we headed up to Wachusett because I had heard reports of lighter, fluffy snow to the north of Worcester, which turned out to be the case. We noticed a sharp drop in temperature once north of the city from 30F to 26F at the base of the ski area.

Our first run was down a powdery Ropers Road which was kind of flat but had some nice powder stashes, we continued on to Lower Conifer and boarded a fairly empty Polar Express. Next up was 10th Mountain Trail which had lots of cut up powder and some mini moguls starting to form.

Roper's Road:




We skied down and rode the HSQ alone back up for a run down a suprisingly nice Smith Walton which was mainly free of it's normal ice. The lower part of the trail was pure packed powder.

We moved on to the Minuteman Express and skied the Hitchcock Trail and we dipped into Vickery Bowl for the first time ever and skied Frannie's Folly which had some fun hits. Ralph's Run was great and as close to pure packed powder as one could possibly get with an ungroomed trail after a snowstorm.

We both skied Look Mom and Warren had a blast in the halfpipe getting fairly high up on the sides on the way down. Challenger was also in great shape with packed power snow.

Warren and I went back to the summit again and took two runs down 10th Mountain which by now had really nice nini moguls in alot of places. Smith Walton was not so hot and was fairly scraped off. Connifer Connection had been closed for grooming so we waited at the patrol rope near the summit for the trail to be opened.

10th Mountain:



Warren's picture of me on Smith Walton:





This was our last run and it was pure groomed snow bliss with Warren skiing down skiers left and me hugging the tree's on skier's right. What an utterly fantastic last run.

Good stuff. We were there from 5-10. It got extremely busy. We had to park in the lowest lot and take the shuttle. Skied only conifer/10th/smith all night and stuff was getting scraped off in a few parts (typical Wa middle-of-the-trail scraped off on any sections of pitch)

I mostly stuck to 10th, which was rockin' along the skiers right side. Smith sucked, backside of every mogul was pretty icey.

Conifer was unpredictable. Even the edges - normally great and reliable pp/lsgr - were scraped by the gaper snowboarders crowding around.

Long lift lines til 8, then it emptied out. Looks like the terrain off minuteman was freshly groomed, but I never bothered to check it out.

I bet the whole mtn is pretty solid today, given that the guns came online at a bit before 9 and they were blowing snow all night.

Nice pics... I wanted to get up there yesterday during the snow day but didn't end up going. Hopefully they get snow from Friday's storm so I can get some powder then.

I was there about 10-11:30 then I had to go home and clear snow before work. I didn't even notice Ropers was open. I guess I have to pay more attention. :dunce:
Glad you had a good time, thanks for the report.

Mildcat said:

I was there about 10-11:30 then I had to go home and clear snow before work. I didn't even notice Ropers was open. I guess I have to pay more attention. :dunce:
Glad you had a good time, thanks for the report.

Click to expand...

Ski Patrol was in the process of getting ready to close Ropers Road and Balance Rock just as we took our first run from the summit. Ski patrol is much to cautious IMO as cover was more than adequate to keep both trails opened.

Not the wawa I remembered.....

The first time I ever snowboarded was at Wachusett('98?), I remember that green lift/run(Sundowner/IndianSummer) on the left well as I spent most of my time on my back or on my face...

100+ ski trips later....

I went back on Monday afternoon/evening (1-8pm)... Spent most of my time on the diamonds, and the surrounding blues... Looking at the untouched cordorouy made us drool and happy we paid the extra 10$ for some night skiing.... We tried to follow the groomers as they moved from trail to trail, getting in some nice cruisers after the early afternoon playing around in the soft bumps/jumps. Snow conditions were pretty much top-notch for MA, and its rare to be able to get on freshly groomed trails in the middle of your day -- My younger brother was out for the third time ever, and really did well in the conditions.... even with the crowds...

my full trip report

It did seem to get crowded later on, just as I was heading in for the :beer: