Mount Snow 12/31 + 1/1

[drjeff]

Dates: 12/31 + 1/1

Resort: Mount Snow

Conditions: Mainly Powder and lots of it with natural refreshing!

Trip report:[/b}

Well as has already been stated, Monday 12/31 was a great Powder day, 8 to 10" down early, flurries throughout the day to bring the storm total to around a foot! Enough said!

Tuesday 1/1: About 1/10 the crowd of Monday!!! Lots of soft packed powder/powder first thing, then about 10AM the snow started rolling in, and it came in quick! By the time I left around 12:30 another 3 to 4" of fluff had come down and it was still snowing hard! Just great stuff everywhere. The trees were deep (really loved Sap Tapper) and the trails that they groomed Monday night had a couple of inches of fluff ontop of soft machine groomed Great bumps down Jaws too!!

Can't wait to get back up this weekend!

The only negative was the ride home today! Short version, normally door to door for me is 2:40 minutes. Today I hadn't even made it to I-91 in 2:40! Finally took me a little over 5 hours to get home. My wife and I judged wrong with our kid pick-up + leave Mount Snow times. In hind site with what we later saw of the weather radar loops, we should have skied until about 3, picked the kids up late from their programs and then left. That likely would have had me at a just over 3 hour ride home.

 

[Method9455]

You are lucky, two good days in a row in vermont. You are in brooklyn CT and it takes 2:40? How far are you from the sound? I live in NJ now and its 4 hours to Mount Snow for me, and I sail around Rye, Ct which is about an hour away, and work in the city. I was thinking of moving up to CT after college it would shorten the drive/train to all three. I am just trying to figure out which part to go to. Well, that or out west.

 

[polski]

In hind site with what we later saw of the weather radar loops, we should have skied until about 3, picked the kids up late from their programs and then left. That likely would have had me at a just over 3 hour ride home.

I faced this sort of dilemma in skiing yesterday at Crotched. I really "had to" leave by around 3 p.m. but knew that this was going to be a fast-moving shot of snow so if we waited long enough maybe we would drive home after it had passed. (Pretty good rationalization to keep skiing boot- to knee-deep pow, huh?) Indeed from 4-5 p.m. at the mountain it went from moderate snow to barely flurries. Some of the local roads near Crotched needed more plowing -- and it's a long stretch of local roads out there -- but with 4WD and almost no traffic it was fine. The conditions probably added no more than 20 minutes to our drive home.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

You are lucky, two good days in a row in vermont. You are in brooklyn CT and it takes 2:40? How far are you from the sound? I live in NJ now and its 4 hours to Mount Snow for me, and I sail around Rye, Ct which is about an hour away, and work in the city. I was thinking of moving up to CT after college it would shorten the drive/train to all three. I am just trying to figure out which part to go to. Well, that or out west.

Go west young grasshopper..nobody wants to move to Connecticut after college..lol..I wish I still lived in Montana

 

[drjeff]

You are lucky, two good days in a row in vermont. You are in brooklyn CT and it takes 2:40? How far are you from the sound? I live in NJ now and its 4 hours to Mount Snow for me, and I sail around Rye, Ct which is about an hour away, and work in the city. I was thinking of moving up to CT after college it would shorten the drive/train to all three. I am just trying to figure out which part to go to. Well, that or out west.

Yup, 2:40 under normal conditions for my 138 odd miles door to door. Basically 45 minutes from my house to the Mass Pike at Exit 9(I-84 interchange) via mainly back roads), then just over an hour upto I-91 exit 26 (Route 2 West), then just under an hour from Exit 26 to my place at Mt Snow. Very easy ride *Most* days. If my wife goes directly from her office in Norwich, CT upto our place(right across Route 100 from Mt Snow) it takes her just over 3 hours under normal conditions.

 

[Geoff]

The only negative was the ride home today! Short version, normally door to door for me is 2:40 minutes. Today I hadn't even made it to I-91 in 2:40! Finally took me a little over 5 hours to get home. My wife and I judged wrong with our kid pick-up + leave Mount Snow times. In hind site with what we later saw of the weather radar loops, we should have skied until about 3, picked the kids up late from their programs and then left. That likely would have had me at a just over 3 hour ride home.

Yep. You should have skied until 4:00. I left Killington at 4:50 and it took me an extra 45 minutes to get from Killington to White River Junction on Route 4. Tourons with summer tires insisted on driving 25 MPH and there are few places to pass. The secondary roads were snow-covered but not icy so 35-40 was a safe speed with snow tires or 4WD.

Once I got to I-89, I was mostly at the speed limit the rest of the way. In New Hampshire, both lanes were plowed and salted down to black pavement with slush between them. By the time I got to Concord, NH, it was just wet roads.

 

[Method9455]

Go west young grasshopper..nobody wants to move to Connecticut after college..lol..I wish I still lived in Montana

#1 is Boulder, CO good for jobs & decent for skiing. #2 is Utah, better for skiing but not as many jobs as far as I can tell. Failing those two for some reason, it will be north of PA/NJ so I can hit Vermont reliably, but I don't think I will have a problem with Boulder at least.

 

[mlctvt]

You are lucky, two good days in a row in vermont. You are in brooklyn CT and it takes 2:40? How far are you from the sound? I live in NJ now and its 4 hours to Mount Snow for me, and I sail around Rye, Ct which is about an hour away, and work in the city. I was thinking of moving up to CT after college it would shorten the drive/train to all three. I am just trying to figure out which part to go to. Well, that or out west.

For another time estimate- I live in Essex CT (on the CT river close to the sound) and it takes us anywhere from 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes to get to Mount Snow. In good weather anyway. Our longest drive this year was 2 hour 45 minutes when we left early on a friday and got stuck in Hartford rush hour traffic about 5:00pm. 144 miles for me but it's all highway up to I-91 exit 26 (Greenfield).

 

[drjeff]

Yep. You should have skied until 4:00. I left Killington at 4:50 and it took me an extra 45 minutes to get from Killington to White River Junction on Route 4. Tourons with summer tires insisted on driving 25 MPH and there are few places to pass. The secondary roads were snow-covered but not icy so 35-40 was a safe speed with snow tires or 4WD.

Once I got to I-89, I was mostly at the speed limit the rest of the way. In New Hampshire, both lanes were plowed and salted down to black pavement with slush between them. By the time I got to Concord, NH, it was just wet roads.

If it wasn't for the kids, who after 4 days of mountain programs were EXHAUSTED and needed a full nights uninterrrupted sleep at home, I wouldn't have even of thought about bugging out early. The worst part is inaddition to my wife and kids, having 2 semi-damp dogs in the back of my car for 5+ hours had my car smelling rather "fresh" when I got into it this AM!

The really frustrating part was once I finally got to I-91, which was freshly scraped clean down to just wet pavement it still took about 20 miles to get everyone upto speed. The best part was when I finally got off I-91 and onto the Mass Pike eastbound. That was wide open and I just set the cruise at 74 and didn't come off cruise until I got to my the I-84 interchange where I get off the Pike. It felt like I was going about 100mph after the previous 3.5ish hour crawl that I endured!

 

[drjeff]

For another time estimate- I live in Essex CT (on the CT river close to the sound) and it takes us anywhere from 2 hours 15 minutes to 2 hours 30 minutes to get to Mount Snow. In good weather anyway. Our longest drive this year was 2 hour 45 minutes when we left early on a friday and got stuck in Hartford rush hour traffic about 5:00pm. 144 miles for me but it's all highway up to I-91 exit 26 (Greenfield).

What's it for you, about 30 min from Essex to hartford, an hour then the Greenfield and 45 odd minutes to MS?? During the storm yesterday, heading across the fields on Route 112 just before Colrain was a blast, I had a couple of questions for a minute about where the road stopped and the pastures began

 

[mlctvt]

What's it for you, about 30 min from Essex to hartford, an hour then the Greenfield and 45 odd minutes to MS?? During the storm yesterday, heading across the fields on Route 112 just before Colrain was a blast, I had a couple of questions for a minute about where the road stopped and the pastures began

Yes that's about right. Maybe 35 minutes to Hartford, Mass State line in 50-55 minutes, Greenfield in 1:30 then 45 more to my place on Handle road. Of course the worst part is getting behind someone driving 35-40MPH all the way up RT 112! That can add another 15minutes if I can't get around them in the few passing zones. I know what you mean about those fields, I've blasted throught some sizable drifts there during storms and it was hard to see where the road was.

 

[drjeff]

Yes that's about right. Maybe 35 minutes to Hartford, Mass State line in 50-55 minutes, Greenfield in 1:30 then 45 more to my place on Handle road. Of course the worst part is getting behind someone driving 35-40MPH all the way up RT 112! That can add another 15minutes if I can't get around them in the few passing zones. I know what you mean about those fields, I've blasted throught some sizable drifts there during storms and it was hard to see where the road was.

My 4 year old started for a minute going "look at the cows Daddy" yesterday and I waasn't quite sure how far away they were going to be when I got around looking Fortunately a plow truck had hit the hill climbing out of Colrain within maybe 5 minutes of when I got to it, so it wasn't a problem!

I did that descent last year in the Valentines Day storm drive up on the Friday night of that weekend, that was a few white knuckle moments heading down that hill in a few inches of snow (I need to remember to take Route 2 over to 112 and avoid Colrain Road on days like that!)

 

[tirolerpeter]

Go West?

#1 is Boulder, CO good for jobs & decent for skiing. #2 is Utah, better for skiing but not as many jobs as far as I can tell. Failing those two for some reason, it will be north of PA/NJ so I can hit Vermont reliably, but I don't think I will have a problem with Boulder at least.

I don't know what type of employment you are looking for, but the economy and job prospects in UT are currently very good. I don't need to work, but I see that many companies are seeking workers and the unemployment rate is very low. I don't think I need to tell you about the skiing

 

[Method9455]

A guy and girl from work (ski shop) who used to be ski bums together in Bozemon for Big Sky just moved to Utah this year. They went to school in Denver and I notice they never consider going back to ski bum there. I'm a sophomore now so next year would be the year to decide. I think we're taking a trip to Utah to ski for a few days and look around SLC a bit, have the ski bums show us the place. Then senior year go look for jobs and do interviews around skiing on winter break. I'm doing mechanical engineering & computer science double major, she is doing communications & marketing, so its pretty general for both of us. I just can't even imagine being 30 minutes from Snowbird all the time, I'm not even 30 minutes from the closest mountain to me now and its Mountain Creek for god sake.