Crotched Mountain 1/11/07 night

[mckay]

Date(s) Skied: 1/11/07

Resort or Ski Area: Crotched Mountain, Bennington, NH

Conditions: Fresh man made snow, groomed

Trip Report:

Best skiing of the season for me by far. Just about the entire place is covered with man made packed powder and they were blowing snow all over the mountain while I was there tonight from 5:00 to 8:30. I took a private lesson that was very helpful. I really felt like skiing after that.

Tons of kids there for racing and school programs, but I can't really say it seemed too crowded. Never had to wait more than a minute in any line. Just a tiny bit scraped up in a couple of spots, but generally really nice packed powder with some areas (like velocity) just a little choppy with powder that hadn't yet been packed down.

I always seem to see something interesting at Crotched. Tonight it was some guy carving up a storm on a monoski. They also got a big bonfire going towards the end of the night. Too bad it looks like it's going to rain this weekend.

 

[billski]

open?

on a per-acre basis, Crotched has an incredible amount of snowmaking power. The claim is that they can cover the place to a skiable level in 48 hours. I almost think I believe it. How much of the place was open for skiing (as opposed to covered?)

 

[tcharron]

Awesome you went. I'd wanted to go and be able to fill out a trip report, but my gf had a DirecTV bo fall on her head from 6 feet above her. Hard core concussion. :-(

But yea, sounds like on the mountain looks like it does from the road.

on a per-acre basis, Crotched has an incredible amount of snowmaking power. The claim is that they can cover the place to a skiable level in 48 hours. I almost think I believe it. How much of the place was open for skiing (as opposed to covered?)

They can get it skiable in 24 hours. 48 it's decent skiable. :-D The pictures from this week show it, I'll dig them up later with a before and after, they have some someplace on the site.

From past trips, pretty much everything covered gets opened. The only trail I've seen not opened with partial coverage is Milky Way, the connecting run between the top and the right hand lift. Suspect that's becouse of the volume of rocks under the snow on that particular trail.

 

[mckay]

on a per-acre basis, Crotched has an incredible amount of snowmaking power. The claim is that they can cover the place to a skiable level in 48 hours. I almost think I believe it. How much of the place was open for skiing (as opposed to covered?)

They have a few trails that are still closed. The top of the terrain park should have been open. I saw a couple of boarders poaching it. There are little connectors here and there that are closed too. They claim 90% open and I'd say that's about right.

 

[tcharron]

They have a few trails that are still closed. The top of the terrain park should have been open. I saw a couple of boarders poaching it. There are little connectors here and there that are closed too. They claim 90% open and I'd say that's about right.

I'm wondering if their going to move some of the portable snowguns out to the new trail they cut above galaxy. last time I noticed they'd started putting the light poles up, just ot sure if they intend of opening it up this year or not.

 

[mckay]

I'm wondering if their going to move some of the portable snowguns out to the new trail they cut above galaxy. last time I noticed they'd started putting the light poles up, just ot sure if they intend of opening it up this year or not.

Well, I asked my instructor that very question and she said they still were not sure if they are going to be able to open that up this year. They did not install any tower guns over there, but they could move guns over. They will need quite a dump of natural to get it open, but maybe that will happen in the next couple of weeks.

I think cutting a trail right there was a good move. Galaxy gets a ton of traffic. My instuctor was saying that it's almost too bad they put the Love terrain park where they did because the first year they were open that trail was just a nice blue cruiser. I wonder when they'll get the summit trails open.

 

[tcharron]

Well, I asked my instructor that very question and she said they still were not sure if they are going to be able to open that up this year. They did not install any tower guns over there, but they could move guns over. They will need quite a dump of natural to get it open, but maybe that will happen in the next couple of weeks.

I think cutting a trail right there was a good move. Galaxy gets a ton of traffic. My instuctor was saying that it's almost too bad they put the Love terrain park where they did because the first year they were open that trail was just a nice blue cruiser. I wonder when they'll get the summit trails open.

Just noticed they had lights run up on the summit trail. Not sure how they intend to get people up there without extending the lift. Maybe a T-Bar in the short term I guess. Is it actually cut all the way up?

I suspect the trail past galaxy will be open when natural snow falls, not sure if they could run pipes even using the portable guns over there.

I did notice that they did have a pole or two, at least one twards the bottom of the new area, and one at the top.