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Rate your 2010-11 ski season

polski

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Not that the season is necessarily over but on a scale of 0-10, what grade would you give it?

Note I ask you to rate your season - so personal factors enter into it, along with snowfall/conditions/etc wherever you happened to be.

At this point I'd give it an 8+. That may be a tough grade given that I'd also consider it my best season ever, but though I skied lots of fresh powder I never did have a truly epic pow day (i.e. I did not have an opportunity to visit the white room).

Lots of memorable skiing though - total of around 35 days out (by far a personal record) including a dozen skinning on five different local hills (first season I've gotten serious about earned turns) plus about 10 days of free skiing as a chaperone for my kids' school programs at Bradford.

A number of firsts, including my first trek up Mount Washington (no higher than Little Headwall because of avy danger but a great day, skiing from there to the car) and my personal first descent of Paradise at MRG (on April Fool's Day, though best of all I managed not to make a fool of myself on that run). Both cases involved some measure of conquering fear, which is an interesting process.

Several days involved skiing two different places the same day, including Middlebury/Whaleback and Mt Wash/Black. Great deep first tracks on Wilderness Peak at Bolton Valley, again the fruits of skinning. First visits to Middlebury, Black, Mittersill and Sugarbush. Fantastic back-to-back powder days toward the end of Presidents Week with my sons at MRG and Magic, my two favorite mountains, and hooking up with good friends at the latter. Just generally feeling I'm skiing better than ever, including in the trees, and absolutely loving my 09-10 Gotamas in all but the most firm conditions.

As I say, I'm a tough grader - even after all that I was thinking 7+ because I hadn't had a primo spring skiing day. Logistics and weather were conspiring against me on this - until the past Friday at Sugarbush, with corn as good as it gets. So now I'm up to an 8+. Still holding out hope to hit a 9 with at least one return visit to Mt Wash.
 

Cannonball

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9

Points For:
- Second best season total number of days at 78 and counting (93/94 season was best at over 100, but it's been awhile).
- Happened to coincide with stellar conditions start to finish.
- Not over yet as of 4/25

Points against:
- Lack of variety. Only 5 resorts (+BC). Usually get many more, but it was just SO GOOD at the home hill.
- Nothing else...but there's always more to strive for...10s are hard to come by.
 

Eski

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only made it to four mountains this season, 121 outings to date and no injuries makes it a 10 in my book ;-)
 

dmc

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Tough season for me.. Had a personal tragedy during the holidays which set me back.. Managed to make it to CO for a week.. Otherwise stayed home at Hunter.

Still a 10...
 

dmc

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only made it to four mountains this season, 121 outings to date and no injuries makes it a 10 in my book ;-)

You appear to have weathered this season better then last... very cool...
 

campgottagopee

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How could it be anything but a 10. Skiing, pizza, and sex are all similar...when it's good it's great and when it's bad it's still pretty good.:daffy:
 

2sons

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Snow wise I think we all had tremendous seasons. I would've given this season perfect marks, but I'm so utterly disgusted with myself in not getting any late season turns in.
Perhaps in a few months I'll rate it a 10, but as I wallow in denial and disgust- a 6.
 

hammer

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Better than any previous season...got out to bigger ski areas, including a week in UT. Also enjoyed being on the Pats Peak AZ race team.
 

gmcunni

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9 - no doubt my best ski season ever but being in crappy physical condition left me feeling like it could have been even better.
 

Vortex

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They all seem the same to me. As long as I ski in Oct and May, and the months in between its good.

Probably will end up with 63 days out. I made 80 two years ago, Took a much more mellow approach and enjoyed it. I agree the AZ race team nights were great. My trip to Winter Park was the best part of the year for me.

So "8"
 

ERJ-145CA

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I'll give mine a 9. I met most of my goals. I skied in November and April. The only goal I didn't meet was breaking 40 days, I think I would have except that I lost a week to injury and 2 days to illness. Other than that it was a great season with lots of great snow for most of the season. A lot of fun days skiing with my son too.
 

Greg

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I'll give it an 8 overall. Not my busiest season at 38 days, and very little variety (only Killington, Sugarloaf, Hunter, Okemo and Sundown). February was tough for me, only 4 days, but I made up for it in March. Sundown spring season was short-lived on the cool side and more cloudy than not.

On the positive side, some of the best mid-winter skiing at the home hill that I've ever experienced. Lift-serviced tree skiing in CT was fun. Had a lot of fun skiing with my kids a bunch, and the Sugarloaf summit was a blast with some very good conditions. Maybe we'll get legit spring skiing for that next year...

So yeah, good season. But they all usually are one way or another.
 

bvibert

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8

Kinda weak in the number of days and variety (Sundown, Magic, Sugarloaf, Killington, and Hunter). Some spectacular skiing at my home mountain made up for it though. Also had a ton of fun on each of the trips I made elsewhere, including a really good time at the AZ Summit. Also got both my kids solidly skiing this season, which is awesome!
 

2knees

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Strange season for me. Even though there were epic storms down here early, I managed to miss skiing in most of them. for that a big thumbs down. Got the kids out more. otis, campton, cannon, loon, sundown. they loved it, so for that i'm happy. Not that its a big deal, but competitively, in terms of the 3 comps i entered, they were all complete busts. not sure what happened but the spring sundown comp and the bmmc still eat at me. it was like i forgot how to ski. that's gonna bug me all summer, i can already tell.

Most importantly, it looks like my kids are hooked and i'll be spending some more time in NH with them next year. hopefully more cannon then loon as i still cant get over how much they loved the tuckerbrook setup at cannon.

One other thing that sucked was getting skunked by weather on at least two weekend trips. One to magic that looked so promising only 24 hours before but turned into a complete bust with icing and rain. Cut two days off my northern totals.
 

abc

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9!

I'm a hard grader. I don't know what it'll take to give a 10. But this season is very very good, if not perfect.

The one main problem I had was I had a bike accident in October. The recovery period basically erased all my fitness build up through summer. So I enter the season with poor fitness and a lot of trepidation regarding falls that might re-injure parts that are still healing. And a follow up operation in January also cut in my days on snow.

But as the season gets on, I was skiing better and better. And the worry started to recede into the back of my memory. The abundant snow well into late March and April make up for the lost time due to my injury. With the help of Winn in snowforecast.com, I was also able to nail a lot of the borderline days and got a bunch more skiing out than my usual. So it work out to have a slightly above average days on snow.

What makes this a season of 9's is not the number of days but the quality of it!

I had lucked out with quite a number of powder days! Mostly small powders, a couple inches here and half a foot there. Not the mega epic dump but a lot of "hero snow"! :) That, combined with my confidence growing, I ski better in general.

Another big thing this season is my skiing itself. I took a very good clinic 2 years back. And it took this many skiing days to slowing "get" a lot of the thing I learned and for it to become part of my skiing. That increase my ski enjoyment considerably.
 

Cornhead

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I would have to give this year a 10. Especially April. I decided to count days this year, but gave up after 30 something. Maybe next year I'll track them on a calender. Conservative estimate is 80, mostly Greek Peak. $3.60 a pop ain't too shabby, now factor in gas...yikes, I'd rather not think about that.

I've been vacationing / skiing in New Mexico the previous two Winters. I opted not to this year, even though I would have had free lodging and transportation once there. I think they had a sub par snow year. I decided instead to get to some places closer to home I haven't been to before.

Plattekil
What a gem, my kind of place. l will definitely keep my eye out for "Powder Daize" next year. Easy day trip, hundred miles from home.

Burke
Apr. 2, day after 16" dump, fantastic. Two years since I've skied Vermont, great to be back.

Wildcat
Sunny skies, warm temps, copious amounts of corn, and what a view across the road! First time skiing in New Hampshire.

Sunday River
Two days of skiing for $20, even skied in a snow storm Apr. 23! I had no intention of skiing there, just happened to be passing right by while following Maquest's directions from Wildcat to Sugarloaf, unexpected fun, saved 80 bucks. Made some turns with a local Sunday, met some of his friends, made the day even better. All part of the experience. Second trip to ski Maine.

My only disappointment this year was being at Whiteface for 26" of powder and one lift spinning, Bear? It would have been insane if the winds had cooperated. So the game goes, the following day was great regardless.

I pretty sure I'm done, entertained thoughts of Killington May 1st, but with the predicted weather this week, I think I'll pass. Better to let the memories of skiing the backside of the Loaf be my last of this year.
 

ta&idaho

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Worst season in seven years. Moved to DC (speaks for itself), started a new job (scarce vacation days), and got a puppy (tough to get out of town). Still made it to double digit days, tried out A/T equipment for the first time, and got a few powder days in Idaho and two amazing spring days in Tahoe. Overall, I'd give it a 6 (barely passing).
 

St. Bear

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Lowest number of ski days since I started skiing again 5 years ago (thank you very much, Son).
No powder days, although I did get some sloppy seconds at Hunter the day after a 12" dump.
Highlights include that day at Hunter, crossing three more mountains off my list (Burke, Attitash, and Sugarloaf), and some really nice spring skiing on Good Friday.

Overall, meh. I'd give it a 6.
 

SkiFanE

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9.5. Started end of October and not done yet. Don't count days, but glancing over the calendar I have mid-60s or so.

Left my home mountain (SR) a few times for VT and Saddleback...first time in many years since we still have lil kiddos. Epic spring day at MRG right before it closed this year, two spring days at Sugarbush and one natural bump day at K are standouts. Also some great snow days at SR and a great glade day at Casablanca - Saddleback.

Also had all 3 kids in ski programs, so hubby and I could finally get back to skiing together solo...some great days together. And with my kids, 2 just love the woods so we spent lots of time exploring.

2-3 weekends left. Maybe by then it'll have snuck up to a 10. Really...has been an amazing year for me.
 
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