Closing Dates

[gmcunni]

You'll probably need to go West.

i wish.....

 

[Geoff]

exactly

pretty much my inspiration for this thread

http://forums.alpinezone.com/showthread.php?t=75068

Wasn't Sunday River and Killington the only places open Thanksgiving weekend?

Nope. I drove over hill & dale from Kmart on that Wednesday to ski Sunday River on Thanksgiving day. With no download capability, Killington couldn't stay open. Lower Bunny Buster faces east and melts. I had perfect attendance at Killington in November. I think they were open 9 or 10 days.

 

[RichT]

Hunter just announced that they are closed for the season!

 

[drjeff]

Mount Snow said this AM, that the Carinthia and North Face parts of the mountain are fine through the end of their season, this Sunday. They've been/are working with the cats to patch together complete runs on Long John, Cascade to Canyon and Snowdance. They also said that other main face runs will be open and available to ski, but that walking/dirt skiing will be required (kind of ski at your own risk, and I think that's a pretty cool thing ) I'm guessing that this weekend will be the perfect time to introduce my kids to skiing patches and ribbons!

 

[Angus]

Mount Snow said this AM, that the Carinthia and North Face parts of the mountain are fine through the end of their season, this Sunday. They've been/are working with the cats to patch together complete runs on Long John, Cascade to Canyon and Snowdance. They also said that other main face runs will be open and available to ski, but that walking/dirt skiing will be required)

Had been planning on Wildcat this tomorrow but my son is suggesting Mt. Snow - seems to make sense - warmer, clearing earlier, coverage and distance. Drjeff - is coverage adequate on the north face which is where we'll spend the majority of time skiing? Until last year, we had a 3-4 year tradition of ending the lift-served ski season at Wildcat over Patriot Day weekend. Last year was Killington and tomorrow, it looks like winter will be returning to Pinkham Notch and I've got real doubts about Wildcat getting to next week

 

[riverc0il]

I think Loon's decision to close is based almost as much on lack of skiers as lack of snow. I think the decision to close after Saturday was because the snow in some critical areas just can't be spread any thinner. The demand for skiing this past week was mostly from large (200+) British school groups who booked their ski trips well in advance. The non-group skiers had fewer than half those numbers and were equal parts pass holders and day ticket holders. I'd put the demand this year at or below previous year's early-mid Aprils.

A bit of chicken and egg here. But I agree that less snow has definitely had an effect on demand. At work, I have received the "you are still skiing? Is there still any snow left?" questions weeks sooner than usual. Even I was surprised that non-skiers thought ski areas were closed by the last week of March. But when it is 80* in the metro areas for a week straight without any new snow in a month and a half, I guess it is easy to come to that conclusion.

Heck, even myself as a bit of a "die hard" have not been hitting ski areas very hard lately due to wacked conditions that are very abnormal for March.

All that said, I think that if it was lack of demand instead of lack of snow, wouldn't Loon have chosen to close last weekend instead of running mid-week for an extra week and then not even going through the following weekend? I think the extent of snow melt off caught a lot of areas by surprise and combined with low demand, it seems like a no brainer.

 

[drjeff]

Had been planning on Wildcat this tomorrow but my son is suggesting Mt. Snow - seems to make sense - warmer, clearing earlier, coverage and distance. Drjeff - is coverage adequate on the north face which is where we'll spend the majority of time skiing? Until last year, we had a 3-4 year tradition of ending the lift-served ski season at Wildcat over Patriot Day weekend. Last year was Killington and tomorrow, it looks like winter will be returning to Pinkham Notch and I've got real doubts about Wildcat getting to next week

Based on their snowreport (and from what I saw last weekend), I'd bet that the snowmaking trails atleast will still be in good shape on the Northface. Natural snow trails, questionable (although some of the tree areas might still be in play since there was still evidence of 2+ foot deep tree wells in there last weekend).

No need to rush out though in the AM, with a likely hard freeze coming tonight and with how much water is in the snowpack currently, I probably won't even think of venturing over the the Northface until noon or so tommorrow, but spend the mid/late morning likely harvesting corn on the Main Face and Carinthia

 

[gmcunni]

somebody had posted a link that showed all open areas in NE.. thought it was in this thread but i don't see it... anybody know the link or recall what thread it was in?

 

[speden]

somebody had posted a link that showed all open areas in NE.. thought it was in this thread but i don't see it... anybody know the link or recall what thread it was in?

http://www.snocountry.com/index.php/ski-reports-by-region/northeast-snow-conditions

 

[gmcunni]

http://www.snocountry.com/index.php/ski-reports-by-region/northeast-snow-conditions

thanks.. such a short list :-(