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Your 2011 / 2012 Ski Season Recap

deadheadskier

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I typically write up a lengthy post in these threads about where I skied and several notably great days. This year was so blah that I'll keep it short.

Didn't ski enough and the skiing I did do wasn't very good.

Had some good days, but they were few and far between. Lots of time spent cruising groomers. Glad I bought skis last summer specifically designed for those conditions. Only major positive I can take away from the season is I was in the best shape I've been in for skiing in over ten years.
 
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2knees

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took so long to get into it that it seemed even shorter then it actually was, if that is possible. Got a bunch of days in NH with my kids which was great. Both my 6 and 8 yo skied off the top of loon. that was pretty cool. they even made me take them down blues as the family run from the top bored them. Other then that a decent day at magic, a great spring day at killington which ended up being my last and a few great days on gunny were about it.

too many groomers not enough bumps and trees.

next year!
 

Rambo

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Got in 28 days (most ever was 29 days).
I thought the skiing was quite good for one of the warmest, snowless - non-winters in history.
Areas did really good job at snowmaking.
Only downside was - no skiing in April at all this year. Hunter Mtn. did not go into April for like the first time ever. (would have hit Killington once in April, but didn't want to spend that much on gas... plus quite a haul for a day trip - 4.5 hours one way).

23 = Greek Peak (seasons pass)
3 = Elk Mountain (PA)
1 = Plattekill
1 = Camelback (PA)

Dec. = 2 days
Jan. = 5 days
Feb. = 8 days
March = 13 days (last day - March 22 @ Elk Mtn)
 

speden

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I had some good days, but the season felt really short.

I usually don't buy a season's pass, but this year I did, for both Wachusett and Boyne. The Wachusett pass was well worth it, and I got in a lot of night skiing. The Boyne pass was a loss, and it would have been cheaper to pay for the few days I got up there. With conditions so bad, the stoke meter didn't get high enough to drive long distances.

Best day: A surprise powder day (6" or so) at Sunday River. The River is a lot more fun than I expected, so I hope to get up there more often.

Worst day: Sitting at the base of Sugarloaf for half a day while everything was on wind hold.

No trips out west this year for me. The rest of the family isn't that into it anymore, and conditions seemed sub par.

My goal this year was to get better at skiing bumps. I did get a lot better at making shorter turns, but only made a little progress on the bumps. Unfortunately there were only a couple days where I found bumps soft enough for me to practice on.

My skis took quite a beating this season. Lots of rocks mixed in the thin cover left some deep scratches and dinged edges. I'll need a major tune up for next season.
 

Warp Daddy

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Certainly not up to expectations, BUT that said the 15 days i got out were all decent Conditions thanx to having retirement flexibility to go anytime .So THIS season was more about opting for Quality rather than Quantity .

We took our trips to Tremblant but bagged a few other extended excursions due to weather or should i say lack of it .

All in all it was OK but certainly the most bizzarre weather season in the almost 40 yrs i've been skiing -----Next yr will be better
 

steamboat1

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Not a bad year. Only skied 28 days which is below my average but had some quality skiing. Lot's of groomers for sure with limited natural terrain early on but a good amount of bumps this spring. I seemed to be lucky with my timing catching quite a few days where they picked up a couple of few inches overnight. Seemed to be able to avoid the warm rainy days I didn't really get hit with the warm weather till March. I really enjoyed the spring skiing this year catching quite a few days where I was able to ski with just a fleece & about 4-5 days skiing in just a shirt. It's been a few years since I was able to ski in such great weather. I only had one serious powder day. I think it was Feb 29 where K picked up about a foot & a half of quality powder snow. It was a Thurs & the place wasn't crowded allowing me to break fresh tracks for several runs on wide open terrain. Everyone seemed to be heading for the trees leaving the open slopes for me, I thank them for that. Everyone showed up on Fri but they were a day late & a dollar short. Skied Sugarbush & Stowe quite a few days this year & a couple days at other VT. areas. Didn't get to NH, ME or Quebec this year but that was probably because of the lack of natural snow. Didn't go out west this year either for the same reason. Last day for me was Sat. April 21. It wasn't the best season but for me it wasn't bad either. I'll take it but always hope for better.
 
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snowmonster

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Lift-served may be over but the hiking for turns season is in full swing. I'll reserve my final recap after I say it's over (hopefully, in Tux in June). However, I'm at 31 days so far and, because of spectacular timing and luck, this will probably go down as one of my most powder-filled seasons ever (both east and west). Effin' amazin' so far!
 

abc

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Not a long season but actually a rather good one! :D

Less than 20 days (too lazy to count exactly), which is a bit on the low side. But that's partly had to do with my being rather choosy, only going when condition were semi-decent. So, despite the low number of days, many of them were pretty good ones.

The best part is getting quite a few powder days on my trips out west: 2 days at Utah and 3/4 at Tahoe! Finding an untouched powder stash at Bretton Wood when most people were staying home thinking there's no enough snow doesn't hurt either.

The only real downer of the season is I didn't get ANY x-c skiing in near home. I joined Mohonk Preserve midway through the previous season. I thought I'd get some days in this season since the membership were good till Feb. Nope, not even 1 day they had decent snow. Good thing I got to ski my legs out the previous one.
 

Mpdsnowman

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Generally I average about 40 times a season. Last year I had 52 days, this year I had 34. It makes sense because I lost two weeks for our mountains didn't really open until the third week of December(which would have been another 12 days or so I missed.

What I thought was really interesting was the temps seemed to help with the man made snow being primary for most of the season. It wasnt freezing all the time so it did make that man made snow very rideable. The words pleasantly suprised is what I would use to describe the conditions if asked.

Also it seemed the working class (9-5, m-f) got screwed because it seemed we got our snow dumps on Sunday nights leaving Monday full of powder and that seemed to be the pattern...


But hey you take what you can get right??? I fully enjoyed it as I always do....

Overall season rating .....6
 

ScottySkis

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I waited for snow to fall this year, so I only had 6 days, but they were great days, no trip to north Vermont which i usually go up their in early March. Plattekill wad great the 3 days i had their and Mount Snow was great 2 day midweek powder day, and one nice day of skiing their on uncrowed superbowl sunday. Next year i will ski more for sure.
 

buellski

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28 days of mostly frozen groomers at Sunapee.

Best day was a surprise powder day at Bretton Woods in early March. It was a great day of skiing in the trees, but it was the only tree skiing I got in this year :(
 

Zand

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Month-by-month:

October: 2
November: 0
December: 6
January: 5
February: 7
March: 9
April: 4

Total: 33

So hard to get motivated at all during the winter this year. A couple of those March days I didn't even really want to go... it was more out of boredom than anything. Honestly, other than the first couple weeks of March, October and April were by far the 2 best months of skiing.

Top 5 days:

1. Jay 4/10 - Thigh deep cement, very hard to ski in but fun if the pitch was right enough to float down the trail. Also extended the season by at least a week.

2. Killington 10/31 - Knee deep powder on trails like Ovation, Superstar, Downdraft, etc that early was awesome. Too bad it would be my last powder day till March.

3. Burke 3/2 - Only day close to a powder day that I got at Burke this year, and one of 2 times when it was 100% open. Woods and nats were awesome for about 10 days.

4. Jay 3/11 - Only time I got to ski Jay while the coverage was real deep... that 60" late Feb storm held over nicely for a couple weeks till the 70s hit.

5. Jay 4/13 - UN alone made this day a top 5... wall to wall bumps on a sunny 55 degree day after the 18" cement storm. Very tough to ski most of the natural trails because the snow was so dense, but tough to complain about considering the winter we had.

Managed to keep my ski season at 6+ months long for a 4th year in a row. Been a while since I've skied so few days (at least 1/3 of what I did ski were 3 hours or less). Hope we never get a winter that sucks this bad ever again. Glad summers here, but already looking forward to packing the car and heading over to Bethel in October.
 

Smellytele

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29 days in and had 4 powder days, 1 rainy but very fun day, 2 +70 degree days, 1 icy day, 15 man made groomer days and 6 man made snow bump run days. I usually get in around 35-40 days but I was lucky to ski on some pretty good days this year.
 

Puck it

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Not great but not terrilbe either. Couple of smallish powder days at Cannon. Skied every weekend from November to end of March with a couple double dipping weekends. CO was mediocre though. It was better then not skiing though.
 

Vortex

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#7 out of 10. Started in Oct. Finished Mid April. I could not have skied any longer due to family stuff. It would have been nice for more powder and and Natural snow, but there were less people on the hill. Sr made a ton of snow, Right up to the end of March. Made the best of a tough year. I feel better about the year than most.
 

skiadikt

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this season was one of those years where timing was everything and due to family illnesses my timing sucked. 27 days and 0 for april. couple decent tree days and 4 great bump days around st patty's. my flat & fast skiing definitely improved. next season can't come soon enough.
 

BMac

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I think i got around 25 days this but managed to make the most out of it. October pow at Killington, a couple super deep days at Jay, 18 incher at Magic, and the final snowstorm at Killington. I guess my season was bookended by unreal days at KMart. Some good groomer days at the Bush and Magic, along with a good New Years week at Big Sky, and I think I can say I had a kick ass year despite Ullr's neglect. Hopefully Tux is holding some late season goods.
 
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