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Mount Snow 2-23-09

drjeff

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Date: 2-23-09

Resort: Mount Snow

Conditions Tough to tell what the final snowfall total was due to the wind, but I'd estimate at ATLEAST 10" to maybe 14", of fairly light + dry powder :) Winds started around 8PM Sunday night and kept blowing which resulted in some DEEP drifts is places as well as some wind slab and even a few very exposed places where it was blown off to the underlying hardpack. Generally though LOTS of powder, temps in the teens, a mix of sun and clouds and some decent wind.

Report: Woke upto to about a 4 foot deep drift by my front door, now granted my place drifts in pretty good, but there are some SERIOUS snowbanks outside my place right now (for reference sake, my wife is 5'6"

Pres_Week_09_021.jpg


Got on the hill just after 9 and got a few quick runs in off Canyon Quad as my wife was dealing with her uncooperative feet. I went the upper 1/3rd of Snowdance (recent groom/windblown :( ) and then cut over the Lower Canyon to Illusion which had a solid 10" or so of nice fluff! Followed up with a run down Overbrook which was sweet from the powder bumps on the headwall down through the rollers and gully below.

My wife finally had her feet feeling cooperative(read as warm) and we went back up Canyon Quad for a lap through Choke to Lower Exhibition (more sweetness) and then up top. With the wind blowing quite briskly, I wasn't sure how much wind slab I'd find. I went down Hop

Pres_Week_09_012.jpg


which had between maybe 3" to close to 18" of fresh depending on what the wind had done with it and a variable amount of wind slab on top which made scoring untracked lines highly variable. My wife took Ridge which as she put it "wasn't worth a 2nd run" due to wind scour. We then altered our plans and decided to focus on narrow trails and trees for the rest of the time.

Uncles - very sweet :) Cut Off - sweet too. A quick trip back over to Canyon quad to watch the kids for a few minutes lead to a SWEET run down a well drifted skiers left of One More Time and into The Boonies which was deep and sweet!

Then, I hit for me what was paydirt! Back uptop and started lapping Upper Exhibtion (GREAT along the ropeline next to the Summit Local) to Upper ledge (HUGE sweet drifts along skiers left!)

Pres_Week_09_020.jpg


Then I'd cut over to Upper lodge just above the headwall and was getting face shots down skiers left of the headwall run after run. Then I'd take my favorite part of the day, the trail that is a trail but isn't on the trail map, the lift line under the middle portion of The Summit Local. From basically the bottom of the Lodge headwall down to the top of Pat's Pitch, the whole thing was deep and the left side was REALLY deep, and thanks to the wind, refills were prevalent and sweet! This was the ROTD for me!

Pres_Week_09_015.jpg


Then to the base it was sweet pow bumps on Pat's Pitch over to skiers's right of Standard and down through Charlie's Chase to the Grand Summit Express. Then repeat until a serious case of jello legs hit me around 12:30 and it was time to get the kids and head home.

Great, great day! :)
 

vcunning

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Wait a second here . . .

Wait a second here . . . You're in town and you got dumped on with snow? Are you sure you weren't supposed to be at a conference somewhere?

Great trip report DrJeff.
 

drjeff

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Wait a second here . . . You're in town and you got dumped on with snow? Are you sure you weren't supposed to be at a conference somewhere?

Great trip report DrJeff.

Yup, I was perplexed by it too! :lol: Must have been some really funky cosmic alignment thing going on to get me a really good powder day(let alone a few of them) :rolleyes:

Just hope the same funky cosmic alignment thing is going on next week when I'm up for the whole week :)
 

Glenn

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What a friggin day! It was one of those events where the planets must have aligned. My wife and I booked a Sunday night away about a month ago. You just can't plan this stuff.

Sunday skiing was great once the snow picked up and started to accumulate.

Monday was awesome. Since we were intown, we took our time getting the mountain. We hit the slopes around 10ish. Still plenty of fresh snow to be found! And the crowds weren't that bad at all. Plummet had some huge huge drifts on the side of the trail and plenty of untracked on both sides. I took Little Steep which was pretty untracked. I'm not sure if it was as good as Sundown, but it was a sweet little powder bump run.:wink:

Like Jeff mentioned, some of the trails were really windblown by the afternoon. Hop, which was awesome Sunday afternoon was "meh" Monday PM. There was still some powder on the sides of the trails, but the center was pretty scratchy. Some trails were just hit or miss. But I'm not complaining in the least.

Wind was a big factor yesterday! Kudos to Mt. Snow for spinning all the usual lifts, despite the wind. It was so strong, you could hold out your arms and get a little assistance on the traverses and flat sections.

Inferno had some great untracked snow next to the features in the AM. In fact, skiing down the side of some of those massive kickers was pretty cool. It was still good in the afternoon. We helped out a little guy who took a really nasty tumble off the side of one of the booters. The poor guy was in tears and his dad and brothers were no where to be found. We did our best to calm him down until dad came buy. Dad was trooper and carried him down; piggy back while my wife and I took their poles and the son's skis. He was up and walking around at the base. The fall probably just scared the daylights out of him.

I have some pics; which I will post later. Again, just an awesome day to be out. And we were really lucky we had planned this night awhile back.

*Edit:

BIG THANKS to Mt. Snow for only grooming a handful of trails Sunday nigth into Monday. Lots of untracked snow was awesome. It was nice to get an e-mail Sunday night stating: "We're not going to be grooming much tonight..." Friggin' sweet!

Oh, quote of the day yesterday at the ski racks near the base lodge/ski check. Some random dude says to his buddy: "Yeah, I know a few people took a run or two and came back for vouchers. They wanted to come back when it was easier to ski...." LOL! Unreal. Buy more untracked for us.
 

drjeff

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UNREAL !!! Great shots -- man that first pic tells it all-------------Snowbanks like in Dr Zivago :D LMAO glad u guys had fun

I'm putting the odds at 50/50 that when I get back upto my place on Friday night that the wind will have completed joining the snowbank on the left to the drift on the roof! :rolleyes:
 

drjeff

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What a friggin day! It was one of those events where the planets must have aligned. My wife and I booked a Sunday night away about a month ago. You just can't plan this stuff.

Sunday skiing was great once the snow picked up and started to accumulate.

Monday was awesome. Since we were intown, we took our time getting the mountain. We hit the slopes around 10ish. Still plenty of fresh snow to be found! And the crowds weren't that bad at all. Plummet had some huge huge drifts on the side of the trail and plenty of untracked on both sides. I took Little Steep which was pretty untracked. I'm not sure if it was as good as Sundown, but it was a sweet little powder bump run.:wink:

Like Jeff mentioned, some of the trails were really windblown by the afternoon. Hop, which was awesome Sunday afternoon was "meh" Monday PM. There was still some powder on the sides of the trails, but the center was pretty scratchy. Some trails were just hit or miss. But I'm not complaining in the least.

Wind was a big factor yesterday! Kudos to Mt. Snow for spinning all the usual lifts, despite the wind. It was so strong, you could hold out your arms and get a little assistance on the traverses and flat sections.

Inferno had some great untracked snow next to the features in the AM. In fact, skiing down the side of some of those massive kickers was pretty cool. It was still good in the afternoon. We helped out a little guy who took a really nasty tumble off the side of one of the booters. The poor guy was in tears and his dad and brothers were no where to be found. We did our best to calm him down until dad came buy. Dad was trooper and carried him down; piggy back while my wife and I took their poles and the son's skis. He was up and walking around at the base. The fall probably just scared the daylights out of him.

I have some pics; which I will post later. Again, just an awesome day to be out. And we were really lucky we had planned this night awhile back.

*Edit:

BIG THANKS to Mt. Snow for only grooming a handful of trails Sunday nigth into Monday. Lots of untracked snow was awesome. It was nice to get an e-mail Sunday night stating: "We're not going to be grooming much tonight..." Friggin' sweet!

Oh, quote of the day yesterday at the ski racks near the base lodge/ski check. Some random dude says to his buddy: "Yeah, I know a few people took a run or two and came back for vouchers. They wanted to come back when it was easier to ski...." LOL! Unreal. Buy more untracked for us.

Great day indeed! That wind uptop was a bit brisk to say the least ;) It was blowing/gusting about the same on Friday too, except that on Friday they had ambassadors stationed at the top of The Grand Summit to literally help pull smaller people off the lift! :eek:
 

Glenn

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LOL! Seriously? I could beleive it. We had a huge gust at the top yesterday. So big, it felt like the chair stopped. In reality, it was just pushing us and the chair back as we tried to unload. I wish the Grand Summit unloading station was up another 50' or so...that would make life easier on those windy days.
 

skidmarks

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9 months later

What a friggin day! It was one of those events where the planets must have aligned. My wife and I booked a Sunday night away about a month ago. You just can't plan this stuff.

Xactly why I want to be the first to congratulate you guys!! 9 months later.........
 

MikeW

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Wed Feb 25

Jeff-Thanks for the great reports-they are much appreciated. My first run yesterday was that Upper Ex-Ledge-Lodge-Under the triple-Pat's Pitch. Fantastic! I've been skiing Mt Snow a long time and I never noticed that strip under the triple. Very nice day, sunny, warmer, no wind. The groomers were skiing like silk, bumps were soft on the narrower trails, still some powder if you looked for it (Big Dipper). Mine Shaft to Narrow Gauge, Shoot, Hop Uncles Cut-Off, North face trails(Plummet!)-all real nice.Looking forward to a good March!
Mike
 

drjeff

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Jeff-Thanks for the great reports-they are much appreciated. My first run yesterday was that Upper Ex-Ledge-Lodge-Under the triple-Pat's Pitch. Fantastic! I've been skiing Mt Snow a long time and I never noticed that strip under the triple. Very nice day, sunny, warmer, no wind. The groomers were skiing like silk, bumps were soft on the narrower trails, still some powder if you looked for it (Big Dipper). Mine Shaft to Narrow Gauge, Shoot, Hop Uncles Cut-Off, North face trails(Plummet!)-all real nice.Looking forward to a good March!
Mike

Glad to help! That strip under the Summit Triple is one that is normally roped off, but the last couple of years after enough natural has fallen they've been dropping the rope, and since on a powder day, many Mount Snow folk basically avoid the middle Ex/Middle Lodge area it usually pretty good. That route that I was taking on Monday was the first time that I had used those trail combos for a run, but it WON'T be the last time, especially if the usual departing storm Northwest wind is blowing :)

I've now got my fingers crossed for a repeat event this coming Monday :)
 
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