- Resort or Ski Area
- Attitash
- Date
- Dec 16, 2020
- Snow Conditions
-
- Powder
- Packed Powder
- Chopped or Crud
I went up to North Conway midweek-- I had vacation to burn, new Rossi XJ+ boots to pick up and get adjusted, and no desire to be near a ski area on the weekend.
I got out really late each day, not before 12:30p, so keep that in mind.
12/16: Illusion was the only thing open at Attitash, over at Bear Peak. Classic WROD conditions. It was really good! The white ribbon was decently wide all the way down, pretty near full width for the bottom half. It was good hard packed powder, except for the steep bits at the top, which still were decently grippable ice. It was dead quiet there. There were maybe 25-30 cars in the lot when I got in, I doubt there were more than 50 people on the mountain at any time, and more like 25 most of the time. This is the best WROD skiing I've ever had.
12/17: The storm dropped 6" of snow at Wildcat, but actually getting up there and onto the snow turned into a bit of a clusterfuck, because the rear winter tires on my RWD car were mounted wrong (couldn't make it up to lot C) and the binding mount on my Enforcers was too long for the new boots. So I finally got out on my itty bitty 162cm slalom skis and surfed around on top of the choppy crud on Lynx. Which actually wasn't bad, but lots of people had skied it up in the morning and I had the leftovers. When I got there there were maybe 75 cars in the lot. I kept going till 3:30, people kept leaving, it kept snowing, and I was totally unsurprised that it got better. People were investigating ungroomed stuff a bit but I wasn't going to do that on 67mm skis with a racing tune.
12/18: Attitash had the summit triple going with a couple trails under it, but between that lift's reputation, potential crowds, and the hike across the road, I ignored it and went back to Bear. Illusion was again good, though choppier of course. It was again pretty quiet; the skiers were mostly a mix of intermediates pushing snow everywhere and 3 race teams making railroad tracks (I was doing some of the latter too). I didn't stay long, I just wanted to get a 3rd day on the new boots to form some more impressions before going into the shop for boot fitting.
Going midweek worked out very well, not only was it quiet enough that social distancing worked well, it was also quiet enough that the snow was good. I'm planning to repeat next week. Reading the Crotched report for today, I'm glad I didn't go there on the way home.
I got out really late each day, not before 12:30p, so keep that in mind.
12/16: Illusion was the only thing open at Attitash, over at Bear Peak. Classic WROD conditions. It was really good! The white ribbon was decently wide all the way down, pretty near full width for the bottom half. It was good hard packed powder, except for the steep bits at the top, which still were decently grippable ice. It was dead quiet there. There were maybe 25-30 cars in the lot when I got in, I doubt there were more than 50 people on the mountain at any time, and more like 25 most of the time. This is the best WROD skiing I've ever had.
12/17: The storm dropped 6" of snow at Wildcat, but actually getting up there and onto the snow turned into a bit of a clusterfuck, because the rear winter tires on my RWD car were mounted wrong (couldn't make it up to lot C) and the binding mount on my Enforcers was too long for the new boots. So I finally got out on my itty bitty 162cm slalom skis and surfed around on top of the choppy crud on Lynx. Which actually wasn't bad, but lots of people had skied it up in the morning and I had the leftovers. When I got there there were maybe 75 cars in the lot. I kept going till 3:30, people kept leaving, it kept snowing, and I was totally unsurprised that it got better. People were investigating ungroomed stuff a bit but I wasn't going to do that on 67mm skis with a racing tune.
12/18: Attitash had the summit triple going with a couple trails under it, but between that lift's reputation, potential crowds, and the hike across the road, I ignored it and went back to Bear. Illusion was again good, though choppier of course. It was again pretty quiet; the skiers were mostly a mix of intermediates pushing snow everywhere and 3 race teams making railroad tracks (I was doing some of the latter too). I didn't stay long, I just wanted to get a 3rd day on the new boots to form some more impressions before going into the shop for boot fitting.
Going midweek worked out very well, not only was it quiet enough that social distancing worked well, it was also quiet enough that the snow was good. I'm planning to repeat next week. Reading the Crotched report for today, I'm glad I didn't go there on the way home.
