Date(s) Skied: Saturday 2/23/08
Resort or Ski Area: Black Mountain
Conditions: Packed Powder, 4" fluff on crust
Trip Report:
Well, despite getting home at 1 AM last night after giving my liver a hefty work out seeing Ryan Montbleau Band with friends and having to work tonight, I dragged myself at of bed at 5:30 this morning to go skiing at Black Mountain, NH. It was Ski and Ride New England appreciation day with two for one tickets and considering I wasn't able to use the midweek freebie there, I wanted to check out Black for the first time. I offered the other ticket to a family heading to the ticket window for $20, first time ever doing this and they were quite happy to pay that instead of $39 for one of their tickets. I was hoping to maybe hook up with Paul whom I had read was going there today, but my 6am private message probably wasn't read. Oh well, haven't skied with an Azer yet, but at least wanted to reach out.
For the first time in forever, I got first chair. In fact, I probably got the third or fourth chair too as the place was completely empty for the opening bell. At the bottom I looked up at some beautiful cord and about 4" of powder where they had not groomed. First run was Maple Slalom to Carter Notch Glade. As soon as I got off the cord and onto Maple, the tell tale scrape/crunch came from my skis. DAMN! It was a bit upsetting as I was pumped to rip down their natural snow trails. The mountain would've been better off had the snow been wet to really cover up the crust from last weeks rian, but I was not going to be deterred. Despite the sketch factor, I checked out most all of their expert terrain in my eleven runs.
Once I got into Carter Notch, I new this place was legit. In succession there are two six foot drops followed by what could be a fifteen footer if you really hucked yourself down hill. This place would be SWEET on a powder day I thought. Without getting into too much detail I scraped my way down all of the other expert terrain they had except for Lostbo glades, which was closed. The steep sections at Black are short followed by long flat runouts, somewhat typical of a mountain of it's stature. I particular enjoyed Carter, T2 Glade and the run right under the lift at the very top, though that trail would be aided by some bushwacking as you pretty much had to follow an 8 foot wide tobagon run around the rock out croppings where they also let the weeds grow. White Knuckle seemed strange to be rated double diamond, but this happens everywhere.
As the natural trails were so crusty, today would have been best spent on the groomers, which were in good shape and offered some very interesting classic New England twists through the woods and then a couple of the more wide open meadow variaty. My only complaint would be that the mountain lacks sustained pitch over its verticle. You get going fast enough to lay down a couple of good carves and then flat. The only trail that looked to be a good carving run was closed for a race, which was somewhat annoying.
So, I would rate my first experience as 'fair' due to the crusty conditions on the expert trails. Perhaps now they may softened up or are in a bit better shape from skier traffic, but I had to ditch at 11:00 to get back in time for work. One thing is for certain. Black, though in limited quantity and short length, has the GOODS. It has vaulted way up my list as a must hit on a deep powder day.
Resort or Ski Area: Black Mountain
Conditions: Packed Powder, 4" fluff on crust
Trip Report:
Well, despite getting home at 1 AM last night after giving my liver a hefty work out seeing Ryan Montbleau Band with friends and having to work tonight, I dragged myself at of bed at 5:30 this morning to go skiing at Black Mountain, NH. It was Ski and Ride New England appreciation day with two for one tickets and considering I wasn't able to use the midweek freebie there, I wanted to check out Black for the first time. I offered the other ticket to a family heading to the ticket window for $20, first time ever doing this and they were quite happy to pay that instead of $39 for one of their tickets. I was hoping to maybe hook up with Paul whom I had read was going there today, but my 6am private message probably wasn't read. Oh well, haven't skied with an Azer yet, but at least wanted to reach out.
For the first time in forever, I got first chair. In fact, I probably got the third or fourth chair too as the place was completely empty for the opening bell. At the bottom I looked up at some beautiful cord and about 4" of powder where they had not groomed. First run was Maple Slalom to Carter Notch Glade. As soon as I got off the cord and onto Maple, the tell tale scrape/crunch came from my skis. DAMN! It was a bit upsetting as I was pumped to rip down their natural snow trails. The mountain would've been better off had the snow been wet to really cover up the crust from last weeks rian, but I was not going to be deterred. Despite the sketch factor, I checked out most all of their expert terrain in my eleven runs.
Once I got into Carter Notch, I new this place was legit. In succession there are two six foot drops followed by what could be a fifteen footer if you really hucked yourself down hill. This place would be SWEET on a powder day I thought. Without getting into too much detail I scraped my way down all of the other expert terrain they had except for Lostbo glades, which was closed. The steep sections at Black are short followed by long flat runouts, somewhat typical of a mountain of it's stature. I particular enjoyed Carter, T2 Glade and the run right under the lift at the very top, though that trail would be aided by some bushwacking as you pretty much had to follow an 8 foot wide tobagon run around the rock out croppings where they also let the weeds grow. White Knuckle seemed strange to be rated double diamond, but this happens everywhere.
As the natural trails were so crusty, today would have been best spent on the groomers, which were in good shape and offered some very interesting classic New England twists through the woods and then a couple of the more wide open meadow variaty. My only complaint would be that the mountain lacks sustained pitch over its verticle. You get going fast enough to lay down a couple of good carves and then flat. The only trail that looked to be a good carving run was closed for a race, which was somewhat annoying.
So, I would rate my first experience as 'fair' due to the crusty conditions on the expert trails. Perhaps now they may softened up or are in a bit better shape from skier traffic, but I had to ditch at 11:00 to get back in time for work. One thing is for certain. Black, though in limited quantity and short length, has the GOODS. It has vaulted way up my list as a must hit on a deep powder day.
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