Crotched 3/17

[xwhaler]

Date: 3/17 (St Patty's Day)
Crotched Mtn

Quick solo day trip to Crotched today. My 1st time skiing CM...I took advantage of the $17 online tickets they were offering for St Patty's Day.
Had heard lots of good things abt CM so wanted to give it a try....1 hr exactly door to door so not bad for 1k' vert and a nice HSQ. Parking was easy....not right up front but a short walk when I pulled into the lot at 9.
Lodge is very utilitarion..warehouse looking structure from the outside but very functional inside with lots of cubbys for bags on the 1st floor.
Lapped the Rocket for just over 2 hrs....that lift is quick! You load it and all of a sudden your unloading again. You can really get a lot of vert logged in a short amt of time up there.
Sampled basically all trails...CM is 100% open but I did not venture into the glades as they appeared to be frozen solid. Surprisingly good base though all over the hill-----the investment Peaks puts into the snowmaking is quite evident.
Almost ski on with a couple runs having a 30 second wait or so.....they had a singles line going but it almost wasn't needed.
Quite a few ppl on the hill...they had pond skimming today so lots of spectators had grills/tailgating going at the base of the HSQ.
Nothing at CM is all that difficult but I do think their glades could be a lot of fun when the powder falls. CM is sort of a smaller version of Gunstock but I actually think I'd give CM the edge in terms of trail layout....there are lots of trail intersections at CM but not quite as many as G esp off Panorama.
Pats and Whaleback both have more/better steeper offerings for advanced skiers but I can see why CM is getting lots of good publicity.
CM really shines for its blue groomed cruisers...theres good continuous pitch T2B and you can really let the skis run. Took a couple runs down NCC-1701 which is their terrain park---I'm not really into parks but it was well set up, lot of cool features for the jibbers and seemed well maintained.

CM does a good job spreading the crowds out----I ended up taking the Valley quad 1 run since I was unable to get back to the Rocket with the pond being built. Not sure I see the value in that lift but the Double on the west side is a really nice area for ppl to learn the sport on gentle pitched runs away from the masses off the summitt.

Bottom line, I enjoyed it and glad I made the trip over for $17. If I was forced to ever pick a season pass among Pats, CM, Gunstock (all 1 hr from my house) I'd think long and hard abt CM over Gunstock. They seem like they run a good operation over there and it's nice they have the whole mtn lit for night skiing----could see this being a great option for those who live/work in Manchester.

 

[Newpylong]

Great report, I think that about sums it up. Great mountain for what it is.

 

[Abubob]

Seems they handled the St Patty's crowd okay. Crotched will remain on my to do list for another season.

 

[yeggous]

I was there today too. It was my first day on skis since 3/2 when I got hurt by an out of control teenager at Wildcat.

The crowds today were some of the biggest I have seen at Crotched, likely due to both the pond skim and $17 tickets. Even with the big turnout, lines were no more than a few minutes. The lifts actually lack barricades and such to manage lines as they are so rare. I saw a lot of beginner and lower intermediate skiers clogging up the beginner trails and typical choke points. The advanced trails were pretty much empty. I was skiing hurt so I was largely dodging people snow plowing or falling on their asses.

Conditions were loose granular over bullet proof. Choke points were scraped clean with piles. If I was healthy this would have been fine but complicated life with a bad ankle. They still have a LOT of snow (100 % open) including good coverage (but frozen solid) in the glades with more snow and cold temps coming this week. Especially given the forecast, they can easily last well into April if they choose to do so.

 

[xwhaler]

The lifts actually lack barricades and such to manage lines as they are so rare.
Conditions were loose granular over bullet proof. Choke points were scraped clean with piles. If I was healthy this would have been fine but complicated life with a bad ankle. They still have a LOT of snow (100 % open) including good coverage (but frozen solid) in the glades with more snow and cold temps coming this week. Especially given the forecast, they can easily last well into April if they choose to do so.

I agree that if the lines were any longer it would have gotten annoying---they don't do a great job managing the flow---lots of chairs going up with 1-2 ppl aboard while lines built for 3-4 behind them. They need a better corral system but as you said it's usually never an issue.

I do wonder when they will close? They certainly do have the base on the snowmaking trails to compete with WaWa for April turns among smaller hills