Mount Snow 2/1/14

[sf77]

Time Skied: 9:30am to 4pm
Conditions: Packed Powder, ice in spots
Weather: Upper 20's, windy in morning at top of the mountain, warmed up nicely, moderate snow in late afternoon

Had a great day on one of southern Vermont's best mountain! The day started of kind of cold, and very crowded. I was thinking to myself that this was just going to get worse. The first couple of runs were okay, the ice had already started to appear underneath the packed powder (this is never a good sign at 10am). As the day went on though, the snow got moved around which created some challenging areas, but also some really nice powder to turn on. I stayed mostly on the main face the whole day, and my favorite trails were: Lodge, Ridge, and Snowdance. Went over to Sunbrook for one run but that was really crowded and icy. The Grand Summit Express kept stopping very frequently and they were working on the communications line. The Canyon Quad and the Bluebird were the best, especially when the crowds thinned out. At around 12pm, a lot of people left or went in for lunch because until the end of the day there were not nearly as many people as before. The runs off of the Canyon Quad were nice. The sides of the trails was where you had to ski with a lot of powder pushed off to the side. Moguls started to form on trails like Exhibition and Ridge. Overall, a A- day.

Started Snowing!


Cascade:


View from bottom of Ripcord:

 

[jaysunn]

Thanks for the report. Sweet pics.

 

[Nick]

Thanks for the report, welcome to alpinezone!

 

[C-Rex]

It was stupid crowded that day, but the trails held up pretty well. Not nearly as skiied off as I expected. The crowds got annoying though. A girl I was riding with got taken out by some dumbass skier. She was skiing the edge where the good snow was and he came flying up behind her and tried to shoot between her and the edge of the trail instead of just giving her some space and cutting inward. He clipped her and mayhem ensued. Luckily she was fine, although she was nervous the rest of the day from it. He got the worst of it with a good yardsale down a steeper spot. The a-hole never even offered an apology.

 

[ss20]

Agree with it being stupid crowded. Even at 3 the singles line for the Bluebird was past the barn. Decent snow. Seeded moguls on Beartrap were OK. Helped "mature" them by running a few laps through. Ripcord was steep n' slick. Firm, but it looked worse than it actually was. Very loose snow on the left side. Tried the right side, but it was firm. The center is impossible, as usual, however I saw one guy fly down it with ease (and caught it on film).

My decent on the left, soft side:

 

[Newpylong]

Nothing like a run down the Ripper to prove your worth. I always do skier's right.

 

[Glenn]

Nice Ripper run SS!

We were there Saturday too. It was very busy; pre SuperBowl crowd? As mentioned, the Grand Summit Express stopped quite a bit. It seems that it has been stopping a lot this season when running. I don't know if it's a mechanical issue, or people still can't use the loading belt. We had our best runs over on the North Face; it wasn't too crowded there. It did seem scratchy on most of the mountain. It was passholder weekend, so we called it early and did some free tubing.

 

[ss20]

Nice Ripper run SS!

We were there Saturday too. It was very busy; pre SuperBowl crowd? As mentioned, the Grand Summit Express stopped quite a bit. It seems that it has been stopping a lot this season when running. I don't know if it's a mechanical issue, or people still can't use the loading belt. We had our best runs over on the North Face; it wasn't too crowded there. It did seem scratchy on most of the mountain. It was passholder weekend, so we called it early and did some free tubing.

Thanks.

It stopped awhile when I was on line in the morning. Saw a mechanic working on the comm line outside the terminal. Then, on my way up there was a mechanic working on top of the first tower. I've also noticed that's its stopping more ever since L-P covered the bottom terminal and added new chairs.

 

[sf77]

It was very busy; pre SuperBowl crowd?

I think the reason it was so busy was because of the great weather. Surprisingly, many people do not like to ski when it is really cold. Since it was in the upper 30's that brought more people out. Also it was the day before the Superbowl, so people wanted to ski on the other day of the weekend (Saturday). Also, season pass holder weekend which equals even more people on the mountain!
They did a good job controlling people and getting people on the Bluebird Express, plus they gave out free candy in the afternoon!