Stratton / Mt. Snow 3/16 & 3/17

Quick update, got a lot of work to catch up on before the weekend...........
Daughter was up from Texas and unfortunately Dad had to take a couple days off to ski. Spring skiing doesn't get much better!
Hit Stratton Tuesday to ski with Sheila's friend Nate, a liftie at Stratton. Set us up for the day! Thanks Nate! Deep base, no crowds, and just fun on every run!
Wednesday Nate brought a couple friends with him down to Mt. Snow for the St. Paddy’s bash and $17.00 lift tickets. It was more like a Saturday than Wednesday crowd wise. Great Party! Lift lines were only a couple minutes if that, especially in the afternoon when everyone was rocking to Joshua Tree.
Snow is even deeper at Mt. Snow! Great event put on by Mt. Snow. Very festive day! Met Kelly P. and Mt. Snow Fish tending the lift lines! They were loving it!
So.....if you are wondering where to head this weekend, go to Southern VT and save the gas. I'll be at Mt. Snow this weekend. The bumps on Bear Trap and North Face will be epic! The woods are insanely deep and beautiful right now!
Stratton will be the same but be aware of the US Open going on up there. Don't know how it will affect the hill as a whole but heading toward Sun Bowl would appear disastrous. The pictures are all of Stratton on Tuesday. I'll try to add some Mt. Snow pics later.
Nate and Sheila, Dad and Sheila, Gondi, Bear Down, World Cup.

Conditions were indeed fantastic at Mt Snow on Wednesday. After a couple seasons of skiing primarily Magic I guess I have a low tolerance for crowds and it was busy! Altough everyone seemed to quit at 1130, which was nice...

I must say however, I was disappointed by the ops - they seemed understaffed and overwhelmed. From parking on in, the staff couldn't keep up with demand - secondary chairs slow to come online, corrals being lengthened to meet the demand (or simply not present like @ the outpost chair), singles line becoming the express (to keep it from blocking all traffic-Carinithia), lifties tolerating use of the service entrance to cut the line (also Carinthia). Nothing totally egregious, but not impressive. As a former passholder undecided on next year's pass I was reminded more of the faults of the hill than the strengths and why I prefer to ski elsewhere...

roark said:

Conditions were indeed fantastic at Mt Snow on Wednesday. After a couple seasons of skiing primarily Magic I guess I have a low tolerance for crowds and it was busy! Altough everyone seemed to quit at 1130, which was nice...

I must say however, I was disappointed by the ops - they seemed understaffed and overwhelmed. From parking on in, the staff couldn't keep up with demand - secondary chairs slow to come online, corrals being lengthened to meet the demand (or simply not present like @ the outpost chair), singles line becoming the express (to keep it from blocking all traffic-Carinithia), lifties tolerating use of the service entrance to cut the line (also Carinthia). Nothing totally egregious, but not impressive. As a former passholder undecided on next year's pass I was reminded more of the faults of the hill than the strengths and why I prefer to ski elsewhere...

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I'm sure that Mount Snow yesterday had 3 large variables that effected lifts/lift lines

1) It's the 1st time they really tried to put on a St. Paddy's day bash of this magnitude($17 tixs/the band on Cuzzin's deck, etc), and being such a weather dependent event, staffing, lift planning was a bit of a guess I'm sure

2) It's the time of year when the foriegn seasonal workers start heading back South of the Equator in droves, so their workforce isn't what it was (nor will it be for the rest of the season) a few weeks ago

3) It was about as perfect a weather day for spring skiing as possible, so I'm sure that many people made the descision Tuesday night to go skiing and drinking rather than just goto their local St. Paddy's day parade and go drinking. Had it been cold(ish) or wet, I'd bet that $17 lift tickets wouldn't have gotten nearly as many to the hill as there were yesterday.

Agreed an all 3 points.

roark said:

Conditions were indeed fantastic at Mt Snow on Wednesday. After a couple seasons of skiing primarily Magic I guess I have a low tolerance for crowds and it was busy! Altough everyone seemed to quit at 1130, which was nice...

I must say however, I was disappointed by the ops - they seemed understaffed and overwhelmed. From parking on in, the staff couldn't keep up with demand - secondary chairs slow to come online, corrals being lengthened to meet the demand (or simply not present like @ the outpost chair), singles line becoming the express (to keep it from blocking all traffic-Carinithia), lifties tolerating use of the service entrance to cut the line (also Carinthia). Nothing totally egregious, but not impressive. As a former passholder undecided on next year's pass I was reminded more of the faults of the hill than the strengths and why I prefer to ski elsewhere...

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Hmmmmmm, you are a spoiled brat.....................(you know I'm kidding), well maybe not the spoiled part skiing Magic all the time, what else can compare?
Anyway. Dr. Jeff hit the nail on the head. I didn't expect to see that amount of people there. If it was raining it would have been 1/10 as busy. I think everyone came from everywhere for the great deal and party. As I stated, the execs even helped out on the lifts! I never had an issue. Why you were even at Carinthia is the first problem. Never go there if I don't have to. We skied Sunbrook (Bear Trap) most of the morning til' TNF softened up. No line issues there. and I really didn't have a problem with the single line on the North Face lift you speak of. As a matter of fact that reminded me of how Magic works on a busy Saturday...........they ain't got no damn corral!
Anyway, are you skiing Magic Saturday? I'm having second thoughts after reading Neils "where to ski" thread. I've got to meet that Magic crew, and what better day! May just shoot up there Saturday!

Nice report Reefer! I can't wait to head up this weekend. It's gonna be sweet!

Thought Snow on 3/17 was indeed great. Skied from 10-4- great snow and great weather. Lines were long early, and than dissipated as everyone hit the bar. We were practically skiing on to canyon quad by afternoon, and the NF had both chairs going so was 5 minutes at worst there. They could have gotten the summit triple going earlier, but it ended up not being a huge deal. I think they were overwhelmed. Guy I was with overheard they were expecting 3000 and got 6000 by really early, and who knows what the total was. Perfect storm of price, weather and snow.

NF was the place to be, too bad I had the kids and had to stay on Olympic and the groomed trails.

Kudos to Snow for letting smaller bumps build on a lot of low angle stuff-- kids loved em.

Madroch said:

Kudos to Snow for letting smaller bumps build on a lot of low angle stuff-- kids loved em.

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Thinking about going there this w/e with family, whats the best way to handle that place. Is it best go in early and hang out for a while until the snow softens up. Or is there plenty of parking if we get in late? Which trail will soften first.

Was rollercoaster still bumps?

SkiMangoJazz said:

Was rollercoaster still bumps?

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One of the guys that was bumpin at sundown yesterday said that exhibition had a long run. It was pretty sweet about 1.5 to 2 weeks ago.

jack97 said:

Thinking about going there this w/e with family, whats the best way to handle that place. Is it best go in early and hang out for a while until the snow softens up. Or is there plenty of parking if we get in late? Which trail will soften first.

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Likely going to be crowded both days this weekend - Saturday just looks like its going to be another awesome weather day and Sunday is the final "youth pay their age day" So get there earlier than later to get a better parking spot - also consider parking at Carinthia which tends to have less cars at it than the main base area - not sure if the Sundance lodge will be open with ticket services this weekend or not - if its open that another usually less crowded place to park.

As for plan of attack for softening snow - it usually goes as following the mid mountain of the main face (canyon quad and down) as well as Carinthia usually soften 1st (often by 9/9:30 in a warm day) then the top of the main face/sunbrook usually by late morning and often a good deal of the North Face doesn't soften until after lunchtime - Pretty much as long as you avoid the base area high speed quads between about 10 and 1:30ish lines tend to be a few minutes tops in the rest of the lifts

jack97 said:

One of the guys that was bumpin at sundown yesterday said that exhibition had a long run. It was pretty sweet about 1.5 to 2 weeks ago.

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Parts of upper and middle exhibition had bumps, upper overbrook, parts of rollercoaster, the last drop on Hop, and a few others. All were fairly small, but fun and manageable for kids. Yardsale had nice bumps- but it is short and steep. My son loved it though...yardsale was his favorite.

reefer said:

Hmmmmmm, you are a spoiled brat.....................

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indeed.

SkiMangoJazz said:

Was rollercoaster still bumps?

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small, must've gotten knocked down after the weekend?

The best bumps I found were on upper Challenger.

reefer said:

Anyway, are you skiing Magic Saturday? I'm having second thoughts after reading Neils "where to ski" thread. I've got to meet that Magic crew, and what better day! May just shoot up there Saturday!

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Saturday should be quite the Magic experience, you won't want to miss it. The whole crew sits by the Bar upstairs under the Freedogger Training Center board. Just introduce yourself and look for the shirts.

Although I definitely observe similar items as you mention, that is a lot of nitpicking if you ask me. I am sure the crowds were much larger than they expected (from what I hear) - and let's be honest, it's late march, every mountain has cut their staff.

Look luck finding somewhere else without these issues. Every place has terrible lift ops now and then!

roark said:

Conditions were indeed fantastic at Mt Snow on Wednesday. After a couple seasons of skiing primarily Magic I guess I have a low tolerance for crowds and it was busy! Altough everyone seemed to quit at 1130, which was nice...

I must say however, I was disappointed by the ops - they seemed understaffed and overwhelmed. From parking on in, the staff couldn't keep up with demand - secondary chairs slow to come online, corrals being lengthened to meet the demand (or simply not present like @ the outpost chair), singles line becoming the express (to keep it from blocking all traffic-Carinithia), lifties tolerating use of the service entrance to cut the line (also Carinthia). Nothing totally egregious, but not impressive. As a former passholder undecided on next year's pass I was reminded more of the faults of the hill than the strengths and why I prefer to ski elsewhere...

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roark said:

small, must've gotten knocked down after the weekend?

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The snow they got filled them in. I skied them on Sunday....there really wans't much to them; all the troughs had snow; I could have straightlined a few sections.

I'm sure after a few days of sun and people hitting them they're form up again. When that run is bumped up and you ski it top to bottom.....I'm out of breath.