Ski Sundown - 12/9/2005 (Powder Day!)

An epic powder day?... In December?... In Connecticut?... You betcha!

Date(s) Skied: Friday, 12/9/2005, 9:00 AM - 1:45 PM

Resort or Ski Area: Ski Sundown, New Hartford, Connecticut

Conditions: POWDER! Crud. Snowing HEAVILY, light winds, clearing in the afternoon.

Trip Report: Left the house at 7:30 AM and made it to the mountain at 8:10, only 15 minutes longer than usual. The roads were snow-covered, but passable. I woke up to 2-3" and I would say there was a solid 5" at the mountain when I arrived.

Took my time getting ready and saw bvibert on his way in. We got in line at 8:55 and had the third chair. Not much to say about the conditions but there were simply fabulous. Tons of powder and crud and it snow HARD all morning. Skied with Brian till about 11 AM at which point the heaviest of the snow started. It snowed incredibly hard for the next 90 minutes. It then very quickly cleared and the sun even poked out from time to time during the one o'clock hour. The sides of the trails still had plenty of powder and I continued to take several more runs. By 1:45, my legs had enough and I was getting pretty hungry. Came back to the jeep to find a solid 8"+ on it. I guess it really did snow hard. My guess would be 12-14".

Thanks Brian for a great morning. Glad you made it out. I posted a bunch of pictures HERE. My camera was on a weird setting and the color is a bit funky, but I tried to do some color correction.

Videos:
bvibert on Noreaster
bvibert on Stinger (with wipe-out!) :lol:
Greg on Noreaster
Greg on Canyon Run

An epic day, especially for December and especially for Connecticut!

Nice....I am jealous!!

Wow Greg, You actually got in front of the camera? Maybe you didn't trust me with yours . The pictures and video are great. I'm glad you two had such a good time.

new avatar, nice turns!

ALLSKIING said:

Nice....I am jealous!!

Click to expand...

I wish you could have made it. We really had a blast. The mighty Ski Sundown sure skied a lot bigger today. Great company on the lift capped it off!

BeanoNYC said:

Maybe you didn't trust me with yours

Click to expand...

Ha! Not at all. We just had to document this day. Rare do we see powder days like this in CT. Looked a bit different than last Saturday night, eh, Beano? Gunbarrel was still closed. Tons of snowmaking going on over there. Should open tomorrow.

riverc0il said:

new avatar, nice turns!

Click to expand...

Thanks. I actually handled the powder pretty well today. Most of the action pics/vids were taken mid-morning between 9:30 and 11 AM in 6-9" of snow. That 90 minute burst right before noon probably put down another 3 or 4". It was unreal. By noon - a foot of powder!

What a day, huh guys? Hard to believe it was an epic powder day at Ski Sundown, CT!! You probably read of my non-start today, didn't work out too well, but the snow sure looked beautiful when I was out there around 10:30, and then it just kept coming down Wish it were always like this!

Nice pictures and videos, looks like not many other skiers around!

Catul said:

What a day, huh guys? Hard to believe it was an epic powder day at Ski Sundown, CT!! You probably read of my non-start today, didn't work out too well, but the snow sure looked beautiful when I was out there around 10:30, and then it just kept coming down Wish it were always like this!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I read about your misadventures in the T&E thread. You're a good dad. Must have been tough to not want to head off the the main mountain. I'll be there next year...

Catul said:

Nice pictures and videos, looks like not many other skiers around!

Click to expand...

During the storm it was pretty mellow. Never more than a 2 or 3 chair wait. A few groups of 4 or 5 teens scattered on the hill, but the skier traffic on the trails was pretty light. The liftline started shortly after noon and it got progressively busier as the sky cleared.

One complaint was the scanning. I saw numerous empty chairs go by as the liftie was struggling with the scanner. In his defense, I think he was new and I did hear one of his superiors tell him that if the scanner flakes out too much, to just let a few people just go by.

Greg said:

Catul said:

What a day, huh guys? Hard to believe it was an epic powder day at Ski Sundown, CT!! You probably read of my non-start today, didn't work out too well, but the snow sure looked beautiful when I was out there around 10:30, and then it just kept coming down Wish it were always like this!

Click to expand...

Yeah, I read about your misadventures in the T&E thread. You're a good dad. Must have been tough to not want to head off the the main mountain. I'll be there next year...

Catul said:

Nice pictures and videos, looks like not many other skiers around!

Click to expand...

One complaint was the scanning.

Click to expand...

I had the same complaint last year. We were the only one skiing off that lift that night and they scanned us every time. The virt on that trail was like 400 :blink: .

That was an epic day for sure! I'm glad I was able to meet up with Greg for some turns. I just wish my legs held out a little longer...

There seems to be something about Greg's camera that makes me fall...

Thanks for the pics and vids of me, they look pretty good... except I'm looking at my skis instead of down the hill in all of them... :roll:

About the scanning. Yes its a bummer when there's not enough people to build a queue up, chairs will be missed. The situation is made even worse when there's a new guy operating the scanner, and/or the scanner isn't behaving. It's unfortunate that the ski areas have to resort to the scanning to combat service theft, but it's become a necessity...

Nice avatars and nice vids, guys. A powder day in my old home state, gotta love it.

Greg, good speed on your turns and sweet jump. Always great to see some air during a run as part of a run, and the skier just skis away.

Brian, nice and smooooooth. It was even a smooth fall.

Greg,

Did you use a cam-corder or a digital camera in video mode?

JohnL said:

Greg, good speed on your turns and sweet jump. Always great to see some air during a run as part of a run, and the skier just skis away.

Brian, nice and smooooooth. It was even a smooth fall.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I always thought Brian was a very fluid skier.

JohnL said:

Did you use a cam-corder or a digital camera in video mode?

Click to expand...

Video mode on an older Cyber-shot. No audio, but the video mode is good enough for publishing on the Web.

The Avatar changes are nice. Great you guys got out together. Powder in CT.... Hard for that to set in for me. Good deal.