Sugarbush, Friday Jan 9th 2015

Resigned myself to be skiing on corduroy all day and I was happily surprised that it was the snowmakers who did the yeoman's job last week. We skied Lincoln peak most of the day. The chairs to the top, including Castlerock were closed due to winds. Lower Organgrinder was in great shape. To be clear, there was no "ice" anywhere. Ice is that shiny stuff that takes a lot of work to edge. Instead we saw a lot of "scratch", which is like packed granular. Thee was a lot of loose stuff. It began to snow by lunchtime and every hour of natural made a difference. All I can say is that they worked really hard to produce a good product and they did it. Every blue and black trail on Lincoln was enjoyable. There was more snow to turn on than to slip on. Ripcord was is good shape - I still don't understand why they call it a double black. The stuff under Gatehouse Express quad skied well. There was one trail with snowmaking on it (I don't recall its name) that was skiing particularly. I'm not big on manmade, but given the crap we've been through, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Skied first half of day on 68's, second half on 98's. The frontside groomer skis worked best.

I had been here just after the December rains, and this was 1000% better. If you're on the fence, go, it's worth it. They are seeing a couple of inches every night and it's making a difference.