Mad River Glen 1-23-16

[bdfreetuna]

MRG rocked today. Been a while since I've been there and got there early and hit up all the good stuff. Fall-dice, Lynx, Ferret, Rat.. heck I don't know the names of all the trails here yet but we slayed just about the whole mountain.

Packed powder mostly, some hard pack, some powder stashes. Woods were great. Lower Antelope was a blast. Discovered a lot of new terrain, woods and narrow crazy trails. The steeps were fantastic as long as you didn't bring a brand new pair of skis (I never do).

Epic day. Stowe tomorrow. Can't believe how well my wife skied -- in the morning I was chasing her through the woods. In the end I won the endurance challenge. Skied till last chair.

No crowds, I practically had VIP parking.

Pics:::

 

[bdfreetuna]

 

[rocks860]

Nice! I'll be there on Tuesday I think. Can't go wrong with $3.50 lift tickets

 

[Scruffy]

Nice! Thanks for the report.

 

[neon]

And I thought I had it good on Sat at Jay, that looks tasty
Dana

 

[MadMadWorld]

Did you poach Paradise or just cut over from Fall Line?

 

[bdfreetuna]

Did you poach Paradise or just cut over from Fall Line?

Cut over from fall line as far as we could get. My wife's not exactly up for a 20 foot ice waterfall; neither am I if possible.

On a real powder day, sure.

 

[dlague]

Does look pretty nice! Never been there but hoping to get there soon. We had a couple of chances but did not pull the trigger.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[steamboat1]

Cut over from fall line as far as we could get. My wife's not exactly up for a 20 foot ice waterfall; neither am I if possible.

On a real powder day, sure.

That's a myth. It's 3-4 ft at best. Not even I think.

 

[bdfreetuna]

That's a myth. It's 3-4 ft at best. Not even I think.

If you hike over from the long trail there's a few options. One of them is definitely a big huck, and then if you go some other ways you'll still find an ice waterfall or two but the average ambitious skier could probably huck or hop-turn 'em.

The big one (I'm saying 20 feet because maybe the waterfall is like 10 feet but if you're hucking it you're getting 20 feet of air due to the steep landing. My normal limit is 10-15 feet of air on a powder day, but I'll get around to it someday.

And then there's some other giant hucks here and there around the mountain.

Anyway the uppermost section of Paradise was closed due to having way more ice than snow, and MRG is one of the few places if they actually have something closed, I figure they have a good reason.

 

[MadMadWorld]

If you hike over from the long trail there's a few options. One of them is definitely a big huck, and then if you go some other ways you'll still find an ice waterfall or two but the average ambitious skier could probably huck or hop-turn 'em.

The big one (I'm saying 20 feet because maybe the waterfall is like 10 feet but if you're hucking it you're getting 20 feet of air due to the steep landing. My normal limit is 10-15 feet of air on a powder day, but I'll get around to it someday.

And then there's some other giant hucks here and there around the mountain.

Anyway the uppermost section of Paradise was closed due to having way more ice than snow, and MRG is one of the few places if they actually have something closed, I figure they have a good reason.

There are 20 and 30 feet cliffs out there. Saw Ryan Hawks throw a back flip off one of them and ski out like it was nothing. Guy was ridiculous. Some of the ice falls you are talking about are way too tight for hop turns. Some require point and shoot. Skiing below the Long Trail is a dangerous thing to do if you don't know your way. It's easy to get cliffed out in an area that requires you to send it or climb back up.

 

[Tin]

That's a myth. It's 3-4 ft at best. Not even I think.

On Paradise proper yes, a short ways out and you're into big ones. The signs are there for a reason.

 

[Abubob]

My wife (... ?)

Question mark - mine

When did that happen? Did I miss something? Well, are belated congratulations are in order?

She does know how fast you ski, right?

 

[steamboat1]

On Paradise proper yes, a short ways out and you're into big ones. The signs are there for a reason.

Further out I found narrow steep chutes. Did that once, never again.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Yeah MadMadWorld knows what's up, some of you others do too. The further you go the bigger the cliffs.

Kind of like you gotta go out a little while past Paradise @ Sugarbush to get to Church. Similar stuff available at MRG.

But not enough snow yet to kill myself on that.

Abubob:: October 25th 2015 was the day! And yes she knows how fast I ski. I've slowed down the last couple years to teach her. But she loves woods, double diamond bumps, even sidecountry hairy stuff. I lead the way and call out if there's any severe hazards.

She prefers that stuff to blue square groomers. What a girl

I did get my fast skiing in @ Spruce Mountain off whatever the highest chairlift is called, after Patricia called it a day and hung out in the lodge / village area. 4 runs top to bottom in like 1:15 until last chair. The lifties seemed pretty surprised

BTW we got engaged on a beautiful day up at the top of Brackett Basin @ Sugarloaf, April 3rd I think. Bluebird spring day. I bust out the ring and two doves fly over right next to us. Amazing. Then I took her to Saddleback for 2 more days of skiing and we got like 2 feet of snow dumped on us. Epic.

 

[Abubob]

Abubob:: October 25th 2015 was the day! And yes she knows how fast I ski. I've slowed down the last couple years to teach her. But she loves woods, double diamond bumps, even sidecountry hairy stuff. I lead the way and call out if there's any severe hazards.

She prefers that stuff to blue square groomers. What a girl

I did get my fast skiing in @ Spruce Mountain off whatever the highest chairlift is called, after Patricia called it a day and hung out in the lodge / village area. 4 runs top to bottom in like 1:15 until last chair. The lifties seemed pretty surprised

BTW we got engaged on a beautiful day up at the top of Brackett Basin @ Sugarloaf, April 3rd I think. Bluebird spring day. I bust out the ring and two doves fly over right next to us. Amazing. Then I took her to Saddleback for 2 more days of skiing and we got like 2 feet of snow dumped on us. Epic.

Well, okay then! Congratulations.

 

[Tin]

Congrats Tuna. The big question is, what is her view on contrails? :grin:

 

[bdfreetuna]

Congrats Tuna. The big question is, what is her view on contrails? :grin:

She (being the head of a Psychology Department, Psy Doctorate) agrees with my stance.

1. Weather modification experiments do take place http://www.weathermodification.com/ look at their list of clients and projects and that includes NOAA

2. Normal aircraft leaving contrails is normal.

3. The occasional jet with no callsign flying at 8,000ft in the summer with a large plume is suspect, the jury is still out.

4. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections weaken our magnetosphere. When an X-class flare is headed our way the military will spray the skies to prevent something like the Carrington Event in the 1800's. We have a lot of sensitive electronics, not to mention our power grid. Space radiation is pretty dangerous so once in a while the military will spray reflective / conductive stuff up in the troposphere to basically act as an extra shield to back up the Van Allen Belts. Faraday shield. Think about it.

Also both Russia and USA experimented nuclear bombs at about Van Allen Belt Altitude. I think this was done like 3 or 4 times total. 10 - 15 years later and all of a sudden everybody needs sunblock because skin cancer warnings.

We're both pretty smart folk

 

[Tin]

Nice! Match made in heaven! Can the weather around Berkshire East be altered? I'm sick of the lack of snow there and could be moving that way.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Nice! Match made in heaven! Can the weather around Berkshire East be altered? I'm sick of the lack of snow there and could be moving that way.

They ain't got the money for cloud seeding ops. More snow guns and a bigger lake is their solution.

If you move out that way you got easy access to Vermont though. Not a bad call.