polski
New member
What's pouring from the sky right now is bumming me out so I'll dwell on far happier thoughts - how I spent the three previous days.
Logistics can be tough for a powderhound when living three hours from the best mountains but everything came together this time and with my sons I was pre-positioned Thursday night in Warren VT ahead of the snowstorm that was expected to start around dawn. Depending on the forecast/model there was some risk of mixed precip but I rolled the dice. Flakes didn't start flying until around 7:30 a.m. Friday but by the time we started our first run shortly before 9 a.m. there already was an inch or so to soften the very firm older surface, and it kept snowing at a moderate to heavy clip all day. Some sort of noisy precip (very fine sleet?) mixed in at times, more so in the morning, but it didn't spoil the new snow, which was just the right consistency - not wet but not pure blower either - considering what lay underneath. By day's end around 8" had fallen and we'd had numerous great runs, including a couple outstanding late-afternoon laps through Gazelle Glades. It was gratifying to watch the boys rip on Lower Antelope, Lynx, Upper and Lower Glades and more of some of the best MRG has to offer. Fall Line/Creamery humbled them a bit though - I know that feeling ... Wind wasn't much of an issue except Cat Bowl got absolutely blasted all day and winds generally picked up a bit the last hour or so. Oh and it wasn't overly crowded - longest wait on the single was maybe 7-8 min, less on the Double.
Spent Friday night in Warren, then took off at 6 a.m. down Route 100 to Magic, where we'd be meeting a couple of my old college buddies and their kids/families. Magic was more in the storm's sweet spot and reported 10-14". This too didn't seem wet but while wind overnight had diminished to pretty much negligible by morning, it left the mostly chopped deep pow on some of the westside trails pretty stiffly buffed. So for instance on our first run, Talisman, I quickly found GS turning the way to go - not a big problem, just took getting used to. Black Line skied similarly. Hooked up with friends after that and for a while we stuck to the east side, where wind buff was not an issue - Trick and Vertigo were particularly sweet, the latter being surprisingly lightly tracked, and lower Red Line was a blast too. We spent much of the afternoon in various woods, with lots of shin-deep freshies. And for the last run of the day we took Broomstick to Heart of Magician (NOT wind-buffed - this was great) to the Hallows - a fine way to close the day.
Magic was hopping Saturday - lines peaked at a little more than 10 min I'd say - with the Black Magic comp during the day and torchlight parade in the evening. We didn't stick around for the latter but sure got the good vibe as the line for torches stretched from the ticket window to the cafeteria. Happy to see Magic doing great business!
So after two days skiing my two favorite New England mountains, we made our way home Saturday night. As they settled into the car my boys eventually realized how tired they were and gave up on their wish - expressed often during the day - to hit Midnight Madness at Crotched on the way back ... When we got home I was surprised/pleased to see not only that we still had more than a foot of snowpack despite what apparently was heavy rain Friday but there was a thin fresh coating of new snow on top of it. It was a crunchy surface to walk on but it looked nice, anyway. And we were supposed to get a little more snow yesterday morning - National Weather Service was saying 2-4", not really enough to ski but it's all good.
When I woke up yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see we'd already had at least 4" and it was snowing at 1"/hr or more. I checked radar and was psyched to find we were smack in the middle of a big band of heavier snow stretching up to Concord/Manchester NH. By the time it tailed off we had 7-8" ... and I was off to my favorite local hill to earn some turns. Did three laps in great light pow. Sharper/deeper turns did bottom out on the crunchy day-old layer but that didn't impede turning.
Nothing like a surprise local powder day to cap off a world-class stretch of skiing.
No photos/videos from MRG or Magic - too busy skiing - but here's one short clip to give a sense of yesterday:
Logistics can be tough for a powderhound when living three hours from the best mountains but everything came together this time and with my sons I was pre-positioned Thursday night in Warren VT ahead of the snowstorm that was expected to start around dawn. Depending on the forecast/model there was some risk of mixed precip but I rolled the dice. Flakes didn't start flying until around 7:30 a.m. Friday but by the time we started our first run shortly before 9 a.m. there already was an inch or so to soften the very firm older surface, and it kept snowing at a moderate to heavy clip all day. Some sort of noisy precip (very fine sleet?) mixed in at times, more so in the morning, but it didn't spoil the new snow, which was just the right consistency - not wet but not pure blower either - considering what lay underneath. By day's end around 8" had fallen and we'd had numerous great runs, including a couple outstanding late-afternoon laps through Gazelle Glades. It was gratifying to watch the boys rip on Lower Antelope, Lynx, Upper and Lower Glades and more of some of the best MRG has to offer. Fall Line/Creamery humbled them a bit though - I know that feeling ... Wind wasn't much of an issue except Cat Bowl got absolutely blasted all day and winds generally picked up a bit the last hour or so. Oh and it wasn't overly crowded - longest wait on the single was maybe 7-8 min, less on the Double.
Spent Friday night in Warren, then took off at 6 a.m. down Route 100 to Magic, where we'd be meeting a couple of my old college buddies and their kids/families. Magic was more in the storm's sweet spot and reported 10-14". This too didn't seem wet but while wind overnight had diminished to pretty much negligible by morning, it left the mostly chopped deep pow on some of the westside trails pretty stiffly buffed. So for instance on our first run, Talisman, I quickly found GS turning the way to go - not a big problem, just took getting used to. Black Line skied similarly. Hooked up with friends after that and for a while we stuck to the east side, where wind buff was not an issue - Trick and Vertigo were particularly sweet, the latter being surprisingly lightly tracked, and lower Red Line was a blast too. We spent much of the afternoon in various woods, with lots of shin-deep freshies. And for the last run of the day we took Broomstick to Heart of Magician (NOT wind-buffed - this was great) to the Hallows - a fine way to close the day.
Magic was hopping Saturday - lines peaked at a little more than 10 min I'd say - with the Black Magic comp during the day and torchlight parade in the evening. We didn't stick around for the latter but sure got the good vibe as the line for torches stretched from the ticket window to the cafeteria. Happy to see Magic doing great business!
So after two days skiing my two favorite New England mountains, we made our way home Saturday night. As they settled into the car my boys eventually realized how tired they were and gave up on their wish - expressed often during the day - to hit Midnight Madness at Crotched on the way back ... When we got home I was surprised/pleased to see not only that we still had more than a foot of snowpack despite what apparently was heavy rain Friday but there was a thin fresh coating of new snow on top of it. It was a crunchy surface to walk on but it looked nice, anyway. And we were supposed to get a little more snow yesterday morning - National Weather Service was saying 2-4", not really enough to ski but it's all good.
When I woke up yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to see we'd already had at least 4" and it was snowing at 1"/hr or more. I checked radar and was psyched to find we were smack in the middle of a big band of heavier snow stretching up to Concord/Manchester NH. By the time it tailed off we had 7-8" ... and I was off to my favorite local hill to earn some turns. Did three laps in great light pow. Sharper/deeper turns did bottom out on the crunchy day-old layer but that didn't impede turning.
Nothing like a surprise local powder day to cap off a world-class stretch of skiing.
No photos/videos from MRG or Magic - too busy skiing - but here's one short clip to give a sense of yesterday:
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