Ascutney - 2/21

[SteveInCT]

Date(s) Skied: 2/21

Resort or Ski Area: Ascutney

Conditions: PP over hardpack. Spotty boilerplate

Trip Report: Headed up to Ascutney for the day on Sunday. I got there around 11am (cut me some slack, I went night skiing at Catamount on Saturday night) and skied till the lifts closed at 4pm. This was also a first time out on a new mountain. My impression? Awesome trail system! Now for the nitty gritty:

It seems like this mountain REQUIRES a lot of natural snow. I also think they wanted to have more trails open for the holiday week so they opened quite a few with thin coverage. Most of the blacks and all of the double blacks were closed and there was some exposed ground on some of the trails I went on. The trails that had snow had a very hard base which got fairly scratchy by the end of the day but it was consistent so it wasn't too hard to ski. There were NO crowds AT ALL! It was ski on all day and that really surprised me since it was still (technically) part of a holiday week.

If this mountain gets some snow, it might be my favorite mountain due to a combination of the trail system, the pitch, and the lack of crowds. On the other hand, maybe it would get more crowded if there was snow. Who knows.. I guess I will someday, because I am definitely going back!

 

[TheBEast]

That's my observation of Ascutney as well....really needs natural to open things up and isn't all that great without natural cover.

 

[playoutside]

I was there in January just before that rotten rain storm. It was a beautiful cold winter day with clear skies. Snow should have been great, but it was really firm and inconsistent...some spots of boilerplate which was a real surprise considering how great conditions were at Pico the day before.

I hadn't been there in years and was reminded of how interesting the terrain is at Ascutney and thought how great an area it could be. It seems like its in some sort of crap weather vortex unfortunately.

 

[rocojerry]

go back, now.

 

[SteveInCT]

go back, now.

No doubt! Yesterday would have been a great day to play hooky. Unfortunately I had to work. Hopefully the snow is not over for the year. I still have another pass to go there, two for Ragged Mnt, and three others that can be used at a few VT & NY mountains. I have to get my butt skiing to use them up!