Mt Snow Thread

[drjeff]

Cats were out a good chunk of the afternoon pushing out the whales on Lower Ex. Looks like they'll be good to go with 2 separate routes off the summit on Saturday

 

[drjeff]

Just as an FYI to anyone who may be heading up to Mount Snow in the next few weeks, as is mentioned at the bototm of the ski report, the State of VT is currently doing construction work on the bridge on route 9 right next to the traffic light in Wilmington, where yout turn onto 100 North. It has been creating some traffic delays in the area, even when the mountain hasn't been open the last few weeks since construction began. So if your GPR takes you in a different way in that area, some of which may involve some dirt roads depending on which way you're coming from. That is likely why. If I remember correctly, the State hopes to have the construction work finished and cleared in the next few weeks

 

[urungus]

Wenesday, December 3, 6:00 a.m. update:
Good morning skiers and riders, we got 7" of snow yesterday and we plan to make turns on 7 trails, all of which were groomed overnight: Cascade, Canyon, High Traverse, Launch Pad, Lodge, Lower Exhibition, and a hike park on Grommet, which has 5 features.

Disappointing that Mt Snow is still stuck on 7 open trails despite yesterdays snow … @drjeff are you hearing anything about terrain expansion ?

 

[drjeff]

Wenesday, December 3, 6:00 a.m. update:
Good morning skiers and riders, we got 7" of snow yesterday and we plan to make turns on 7 trails, all of which were groomed overnight: Cascade, Canyon, High Traverse, Launch Pad, Lodge, Lower Exhibition, and a hike park on Grommet, which has 5 features.

Disappointing that Mt Snow is still stuck on 7 open trails despite yesterdays snow … @drjeff are you hearing anything about terrain expansion ?

Apparently from my friends up there, rope drops and new lift additions for the season should be happening by the weekend. They seem to be taking the snowmaking approach right now of lay it on thick before opening things up, which should the weather pattern shift ugly before the important Holiday week later this month, should have their open terrain needing minimal refresh work.

Just snow report alone, likely will have Freefall, River Run, Snowdance/N.E. Time, Ridge/Coopers Junction, Long John/Deer Run and a full build on Gulch opening up in the next few days...

And as one of my condo neighbors posted up this morning in our association FB page, while there's 8-10" of snow on the ground, and esthetically it looks great, its not base snow and either a bit of a thaw/set up to get a solid base over the ground or another foot or so of snow is needed to really open things up

 

[urungus]

Apparently from my friends up there, rope drops and new lift additions for the season should be happening by the weekend. They seem to be taking the snowmaking approach right now of lay it on thick before opening things up, which should the weather pattern shift ugly before the important Holiday week later this month, should have their open terrain needing minimal refresh work.

Just snow report alone, likely will have Freefall, River Run, Snowdance/N.E. Time, Ridge/Coopers Junction, Long John/Deer Run and a full build on Gulch opening up in the next few days...

And as one of my condo neighbors posted up this morning in our association FB page, while there's 8-10" of snow on the ground, and esthetically it looks great, its not base snow and either a bit of a thaw/set up to get a solid base over the ground or another foot or so of snow is needed to really open things up

Thanks Dr J

 

[Smellytele]

Wenesday, December 3, 6:00 a.m. update:
Good morning skiers and riders, we got 7" of snow yesterday and we plan to make turns on 7 trails, all of which were groomed overnight: Cascade, Canyon, High Traverse, Launch Pad, Lodge, Lower Exhibition, and a hike park on Grommet, which has 5 features.

Disappointing that Mt Snow is still stuck on 7 open trails despite yesterday’s snow … @drjeff are you hearing anything about terrain expansion ?

All 7 trails groomed would be my trigger

 

[Zand]

I

All 7 trails groomed would be my trigger

It's really only 2 trails top to bottom and they've been stuck on the same 2 trails since opening day. The report always mentions a ton of trails with snowmaking and they never seem to open...Freefall was on the report about a week ago.

 

[slatham]

Seems like little interest in getting things open for the mid week crew. Slow play until weekend. I imagine tomorrow there will be lots of news about new terrain to capture as large a weekend crowd as possible.

 

[drjeff]

Seems like little interest in getting things open for the mid week crew. Slow play until weekend. I imagine tomorrow there will be lots of news about new terrain to capture as large a weekend crowd as possible.

The Carinthia Parks social page mentioned that Gulch opens (and you could see the last jump in the background that was rough shaped to probably a solid 20ft or more high already) on Saturday. Guessing Freefall opens soon as its had the guns on since Sunday, same as Snowdance and Ridge, and some connect the dots with Long John/Deer Run and River Run. Given the temps the last few days and the likely production its enabled them to have, guessing the next series of trails to go under the guns starts soon (thinking Nitro may be part of that as they've been making snow apparently on Lower Fools Gold already) and since Alpine Comp programs start this weekend, wouldn't surprise me if Inferno or Charlie's Chase, Ego Alley or maybe even Southbowl are soon in the snowmaking line up as those are common training trails. Also put trails like Hop, Chute or Plummet on the likeky soon list as long as the water is still actively flowing to keep refreshing West Lake

The trails they've been working on so far are generally large acreage trails and they're apparently putting down a thick base in this initial snowmaking run

 

[chuckstah]

I skied a few hours this morning. They dropped a grand total of one rope. The trail between the two open groomers. I don't know trail names at Snow. Skiing was good as long as you avoided the two open groomers. They were boilerplate by 10. The edges were good all around, but reserved trails were better. The base is low tide and you needed rock skis to have any fun. It's rather mind boggling how they haven't opened anything. Lots is ready.

 

[drjeff]

I skied a few hours this morning. They dropped a grand total of one rope. The trail between the two open groomers. I don't know trail names at Snow. Skiing was good as long as you avoided the two open groomers. They were boilerplate by 10. The edges were good all around, but reserved trails were better. The base is low tide and you needed rock skis to have any fun. It's rather mind boggling how they haven't opened anything. Lots is ready.

Make a bunch of snow... let it drain for a few days... push it out and open the trail... been their M.O. for a few years now...

And yup, while they got 8-10" or so yesterday, its apparently fairly dry snow and on top of basically bare ground. Definitely low tide stuff... Either need a thaw/freeze cycle to set a base and them another 6-12" of snow on top of that or another 12-18" of natural ontop of what's on the ground now to get the natural stuff into reasonable play... not exactly rocket science, just reality

 

[chuckstah]

Make a bunch of snow... let it drain for a few days... push it out and open the trail... been their M.O. for a few years now...

And yup, while they got 8-10" or so yesterday, its apparently fairly dry snow and on top of basically bare ground. Definitely low tide stuff... Either need a thaw/freeze cycle to set a base and them another 6-12" of snow on top of that or another 12-18" of natural ontop of what's on the ground now to get the natural stuff into reasonable play... not exactly rocket science, just reality

I don't like their MO now then. I don't ski Mt Snow much, but it's almost always early season. North face used to always be open with whales/guns on. No draining. Let people ski while it's draining. Two trails on the front side from opening day until now is the worst start with good temps I can ever remember.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Vail is very anti skiing under the guns.

Its taken some "adjustments" to let them realize that these places in PA need to make snow whenever they can and that might be while open on a Saturday. The still often shut them down on the blue cruisers because od the jerry factor

 

[drjeff]

Vail is very anti skiing under the guns.

Its taken some "adjustments" to let them realize that these places in PA need to make snow whenever they can and that might be while open on a Saturday. The still often shut them down on the blue cruisers because od the jerry factor

What I have noticed at Mount Snow atleast, is they're more likely to have a trail open with active snowmaking on it if that trails has fan guns on it. They are less likely to have a trail open with snowmaking on it if they have either the HKD's or Snow Logic air/water guns on it.

IMHO, there definitely is a difference, under most circumstances, of the wetness and stickiness of the product of snow that comes out of the fanguns vs the air/water guns, with the fanguns under most circumstances being a much drier, more immediately ski/rideable product that the air/water guns. Just my 2 cents

 

[Newpylong]

It's largely the extra hang time, but they also could dry all of the air/water stuff back to 1 while open if they wanted as well. Depending on wet bulb this is usually acceptable to keep people skiing under.

 

[doublediamond]

Don't be quick to make too many generalizations. I've been at several ski areas where the opposite is true: that the fan guns we're making the wettest slop imaginable.

It's just up to the crew on the gun runs and how they adjusted them.