Bretton Woods 1/14

Condition (in a nutshell): Cold, slick, powder!

Forecast was for in the teens, which wasn't that bad as far as I can tell from past experience. But the 15-20mph wind could change that into something very unpleasant. So I decided to aim for a mountain with relatively little wind.

Bretton Woods put it right up on their website that they're the least affected by wind. And indeed it's true. I showed up relatively late(~10am), to let the temperature rise a bit. The walk from the car to the base lodge felt positively balmy! And the chair ride up wasn't too bad either.

But the slope was quite slick. The black runs were a bit like a tilted skating ring! People were sliding all over the place or stopped, froze in terror. Staying near the edge of the run, I found snow a bit softer. Not exactly enjoyable for me.

And being the first day of the season for me, a lot of things needs adjusting, which I did after a couple runs. After that, I headed over to West mountain, where there're fewer crowds and some glades that are open. Turned out to be a good decision. Wild West was open and for some strange reason, people only skied one side of the woods, leaving the other side quite powdery! So I lapped that many times (lost count)!

Eventually, my legs got tired (always ski right on the lift despite being a holiday Saturday). So some lunch and some more exploring. But nowhere else had better condition (the other glades were not open). So back to the same lapping of that same powder stash till about 3:30. Decided I can call it a day. Skied back towards the base, and saw Mt. Washington bathed in pink!

All in all a lovely day. What cold?

Thanks for the update. I've got 4 tickets to burn and am patiently waiting for a good dumping in the glades to go use them up.

Glad to be of help. I read trip reports for first hand condition report. So I figure I'll contribute my part for others who do the same.

You can see from their detail trail report all the glades are still closed. (easy to see for BW since that's just 90% of the blacks).

I knew that going in. But due to the forecast cold, I really wanted to stay out of the wind. So that's where I went. Also having a free ticket for BW too.

On the lift, I saw a couple of other trails full of snow but for some reason not open. So I'm suspecting there're "almost" enough snow in the woods already. Another storm would get them to open.

Thanks...was looking for an update!

abc said:

On the lift, I saw a couple of other trails full of snow but for some reason not open.

Click to expand...

Last year at BW I made the mistake of stealing fresh tracks on one of these runs. 3/4 of the run was beautiful fresh tracks in boot top pow. The last 1/4 was interrupted by a full flip after slipping my tips under a 3" diameter branch that was buried under the fluffy surface. Sometimes it's better to let the groomers unearth the hazards before proceeding.