Mount Snow: Inside Track

sull1102 said:

So I was going to post this over on a trip report from today that talked about how insane crowd levels were and the rumors of a 40-45 minute lift line for the bird today... is there anything Sneaux can do even with make believe money? You've got a 6 pack and a detach quad running full speed to the summit, another detach(Canyon) that serves it's own area and can get you out of the base area and over to North Face. I know the plan is Sunbrook detach quad soon, but the issue starts at the base. One pie in the sky idea, replace Tumbleweed/Sundance with yet another detach that would serve a fair bit of terrain.

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It's because it's only Nitro, Bluebird, Grand Summit, and Challenger lifts. They should have Canyon running but I doubt they have the staff.

I believe that Sundance is slated to become a detachable lift, and the lodge over there will be replaced with a new one substantially further down the hill. But both of those are many many years away as I believe the Main Base is going to be where construction focuses next once Carinthia is wrapped up.

IMO, just having Sunbrook as a detachable will significantly fix traffic flow at the mountain. The lines at the base could be 20+ minutes long on a weekend and Sunbrook will have empty chairs going up. Severe underutilization of that terrain. Sunbrook WILL happen sooner than later...my personal ideas would be to move the current Sunbrook quad to Heavy Metal to replace that and give more capacity to Carinthia. Followed by upgrading a North Face lift to a high-speed quad, then replacing Canyon with a 6pack as that lift will be nearing the end of its life and has many hours on it as being the primary mountain biking lift in the summer.

Back in reality, long-term I believe the plan is to put in a lift from the base area up 1/4 the way of Roller Coaster and make the lower part of that novice terrain. That would help some traffic but not much out of the base area.

I have looked at the mast plan online for the hill many times but take my post with a grain of salt until Dr. Jeff proofreads it :lol:

Canyon and I believe also Heavy Metal open up at about 11am yesterday as the lines for Bluebird and the GSX got crazy. Once the crowd balanced out, lines were manageable for the rest of the day.

Smellytele said:

Mount Snow is like fly paper for NY'ers and those from CT. I am glad it is there to suck up the masses before they get too far North.

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for real. its unbelievable the loyalty some people have for a short drive. its a pancake full of park rats.

KustyTheKlown said:

for real. its unbelievable the loyalty some people have for a short drive. is.

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My 45 year loyalty is being tested, Mt Snow. It's not possible to buy the small denomination gift cards offered on the website, only the links to the larger denominations work.

A mountain that can (and does regularly) have 10000 or so folks on the hill a day, that has all 3 of it's base facilities within less than a mile of each other, and most lifts on the Main Face and Carinthia terminating at a base area and no real, current upper mountain pod on the main face or at Carinthia is going to have crowding issues, especially when you add in what anecdotally to my eyes are more people with passes as well as roughly the same volume of day tickets.

Sunbrook needs the Snowmaking expansion, and upgraded to a high-speed lift, and some type of yurt/mini day lodge back there with restrooms and some food and beverage service to get people to go back there and then stay there lapping it.

Sundance IMHO should be a high priority to upgrade that lift to a high-speed and then truly create a main face pod where people DON'T have to go back to a base area to get on a lift.

Carinthia, I'm going to hold my judgement about lift wise what could/should be done until I see first hand how the new lodge will or possibly won't effect crowd dispersion and use as an access point at the beginning of the day. Some lift capacity upgrading is likely needed. Whether that involves making Nitro a six pack or just the conversion of Heavy Metal to a quad, not sure yet. I think the question of if families with young kids will want to make Carinthia and the park crowd stigma a starting/end point, and if some of the current main base area volume will shift over there remains to be seen

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KustyTheKlown said:

for real. its unbelievable the loyalty some people have for a short drive. its a pancake full of park rats.

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I have never been to Mount Snow. Does it ski as flat as it looks ?

WWF-VT said:

I have never been to Mount Snow. Does it ski as flat as it looks ?

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I don't think so. Main face is flat for sure but its really not as boring as people make it out to be. Uncles is one of my favorite trails anywhere. I wish They could expand on north face, more steep trails are definitely needed, but I think they do a great job with what they got.

WWF-VT said:

I have never been to Mount Snow. Does it ski as flat as it looks ?

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The front is very flat and most of sunbrook exept bear trap is flat. The north side is steeper but not steep but can be fun for a day.

I like Roller Coaster! (seriously, I do)


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Smellytele said:

The front is very flat and most of sunbrook exept bear trap is flat. The north side is steeper but not steep but can be fun for a day.

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Years ago - decades ago - when I was in my 20s, my cousin and I drove up to Vt. No plans, no reservations. Just two days off from work and our skis in the car. According to our paper map, Snow was the first big mountain we could get to, so we went there. Drove right tot he base - ind you this was after working till 5, and leaving from NJ, so I suppose it was about 10-11 PM by the time we got there. Drove to the base hotel and they laughed at us - this was a Saturday night. They said 'you're not gonna find a room tonight for twenty miles around...'

Sure enough, after checking every hotel we saw, at exactly 21 miles from teh base, we woke up the owners of a little motel and found a room....

Anyway, long story to say.....snowed like crazy balls all that night and next day we had 10-12 inches....never having been to Snow, and you know, not have the interwebs, we poked around the main face for a bit and were like 'huh....all that snow, and it's just groomed in....' Then we found the north face, and man, what a day! Two days really. I think it snowed again that night.

Not steep, but those trails, with snow...pretty fun stuff. But that's true for any mountain really.

We changed hotels sunday night - I forget why exactly...I think we met someone on the mountain who said they had a room closer. And there was a bar, and a hot tub, or something....fun times...

Anyway - long story just to say, people complain about Snow being flat, but those two days were really great all those years ago....

Only skied Snow one day since. Total groomer day, but midweek with one of my daughters. Had fun, but conditions were sketch.

If the North Face is full on open then Mt Snow has some fun and interesting expert terrain, and a true challenge in both Jaws and Rip Cord. It's the front side that gives it the flat/boring reputation, but even the front side has some fun trails here and there, like Uncles. It just amazes me the lemmings flocking to the Blue Bird, to wait in line while Grand Summit is ski on, to lap the front side and never go to the North face. But then again if all skiers thought as logically as I do they'd all be at Magic

I don't think you can judge a resort by lift lines this weekend. All are still on limited terrain/lifts, but from what I saw, drew an almost midwinter weekend crowd on Saturday thanks to Snovember. SR was beyond nuts lift lines and that was with 6 lifts and 5 Pods in play. No doubt Snow had the same issues. But in all seriousness, not sure you want a ton more capacity on same terrain acreage. Just makes for more crowded trails vs lines at lifts.

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On closing day this spring, I wandered into the glades off of Olympic for the 1st time. 3rd week in April, full coverage of soft corn, and I never skied the same line run after run, and even though it's wasn't super steep or extremely challenging, I couldn't stop smiling!! Also enjoyed the glades off on Nitro, even though the coverage was not as deep.

Mt Snow is what it is, and can be a lot of fun. And they are not shy about using their new snow making power!

machski said:

I don't think you can judge a resort by lift lines this weekend. All are still on limited terrain/lifts, but from what I saw, drew an almost midwinter weekend crowd on Saturday thanks to Snovember. SR was beyond nuts lift lines and that was with 6 lifts and 5 Pods in play. No doubt Snow had the same issues. But in all seriousness, not sure you want a ton more capacity on same terrain acreage. Just makes for more crowded trails vs lines at lifts.

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With the long lifts the trails already have too many people on them with the lifts they have now. More uphill capacity to ski on the same trails won't make the experience any better.

Smellytele said:

With the long lifts the trails already have too many people on them with the lifts they have now. More uphill capacity to ski on the same trails won't make the experience any better.

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It will just from the point of view of elimination of 25-45 minute lift lines though. This weekend is a true test though because Sunbrook is not open. As DrJeff said, once that pod gets a detach lift and a dining/warm up setup(I've heard yurt tossed around but at this rate of growth I think you really need to start thinking bigger like Schwendi Hutte at WV) it will bring some people off the main face, when that pod is open. The main highways can't take much more, Long/Little John/Deer Run, Ridge, Cascade to Canyon, all are maxed out but the other options in between frequently have fewer skiers on them even on weekends. I really think something that might help would be Tumbleweed/Sundance being replaced with a high speed quad following the exact same line. That would get people out of the main base area and down to Sundance, and I'm talking like this summer do this don't even need to wait for the whole redesign of everything in the area. From the top of Sundance you could get folks going to Carinthia and Ridge off most of Long John, also you get access to most of the Main Face trails that really aren't as heavily used as well.

I also strongly think that someone needs to begin looking into Nitro being swapped out for a six-pack with the long lines that are sure to come. Heavy Metal going to a quad is great and all, but it's just going to feed the bottom of Long John even more as people look to the shorter lift line to get back to the main mtn.

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This is a great conversation as to why I love/hate Mount Snow... it has the best intermediate terrain anywhere, IMO. Tough claim, I know. But it has the best variety of groomers, wide slopes, and narrow natural snow intermediates. The vertical drop of 1,600 feet is not super impressive, but the length of the main face trails is astounding. I love trails like Uncle's, Hop, Shootout, One More Time, Drifter, and many other bumped up trails on the main face. If everything is open they'll groom 60-70% of the mountain (more weekends/holidays), on-par with Killington and Sugarbush. Outside of Ripcord and Jaws there is not much steep stuff, but the variety of the mountain makes up for it. I truly spend more time on blues at Mount Snow than I'll spend on the blues at any other hill, simply because there is so much to offer.

Unfortunately I fear a march to 100% snowmaking at Mount Snow, making all the trails homogenized and turning Mount Snow into Okemo or Stratton South. And of course the crowds have scared me away weekends December-early March.

ss20 said:

If everything is open they'll groom 60-70% of the mountain (more weekends/holidays), on-par with Killington and Sugarbush.

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Sugarbush rarely grooms that high of a % of open terrain. If they're 100% open, SB will typically groom about 35-40% midweek and 45-50% of terrain on weekends.

Just a heads up, before folks probably start in with the complaints about why isn't more open, or why aren't they running more lifts today, etc.


Multiple friends of mine, who live in the same condo complex my wife and I own in across Route 100 from the mountain have been posting pictures of roughly 15" totals on their back decks. They are also making comments about how it's the consistency and weight of elmer's paste, that the power keep flicking on and off, and that it sounds like gun fire outside on a regular basis with all of the tree limbs snapping under the weight of the snow.

This isn't a storm of blower quality snow. It's great base snow for sure, but it's causing a whole host of tree and power problems as well as some road closure issues effecting staff from getting to the mountain due to numerous downed trees and wires across some roads

Thanks for the update Jeff.
Power is back on and lifts should start running shortly. 19" and counting at the summit!

Just a heads up to all the roads are a disaster and RT9 is a Trainwreck be careful out there snow tires and AWD/4WD a must.

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