Eclipse PSA

[urungus]

Yeah, I would certainly want to see totality again and would travel for it.

Apparently there's going to be another over the Great Pyramids in a few years and that one will have 5+ minutes of totality. That would be something else, but no I am not going to travel to Egypt for any reason the way things are in the world these days.

Agreed … but what if you spend big bucks for an overseas trip with jacked-up hotel costs because of the eclipse, and then it is cloudy and/or rainy at the time of the eclipse ? Similar to planning a ski trip in advance, you can pick the spot along the line of totality that has the best average weather, but you’re still rolling the dice.

 

[snoseek]

Egypt has gotta be about as safe a bet as they come but yeah $$$$ trip.

 

[urungus]

Spain 2026 or Australia 2028 / 2030 could be good, stable counties known for sunny skies

 

[thebigo]

We watched form bullwinkles, unbelievable experience that I hope to enjoy again in life.

Got back to the car at 4:00, pulled into house at midnight, normally 3 1/2 hours. Three hours to get off access road, another hour to kingfield, another hour to farmington before the seas parted. Normally gridlock would have wife and kids loosing their minds but nobody complained.

 

[LoafSkier19]

We watched form bullwinkles, unbelievable experience that I hope to enjoy again in life.

Got back to the car at 4:00, pulled into house at midnight, normally 3 1/2 hours. Three hours to get off access road, another hour to kingfield, another hour to farmington before the seas parted. Normally gridlock would have wife and kids loosing their minds but nobody complained.

Looked like a great time at Bullwinkles each time I stopped by before and after. The beach area party was still going strong at 5:30 when the DJ stopped. Thought the mountain hit it out of the park this weekend with all the events planned. Left the mountain at 8:45 and still didn’t get to Portland till just after midnight. Totally worth it though!

 

[deadheadskier]

One thing that traffic nightmare taught me is that if I'm ever in NYC or Boston and an evacuation order comes in for a Tsunami, I'll just consume a heroic dose of shrooms and try and surf it.

I typically have an extremely low tolerance for traffic. It's why I live in NH and not Mass. Yesterday I wasn't particularly bothered. It was worth it.

 

[teleo]

Kept looking at google maps and 89 was solid red. Around 9:00 said screw it, I'll take my chances in the AM, and watched the basketball game. So glad I did that. Left sugarbush at 7AM, no traffic at all.

 

[cdskier]

Kept looking at google maps and 89 was solid red. Around 9:00 said screw it, I'll take my chances in the AM, and watched the basketball game. So glad I did that. Left sugarbush at 7AM, no traffic at all.

Good call. I really should have just turned around in Granville yesterday and done something similar to that instead...

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

On one hand I feel a bit sorry for people who spent hours in traffic yesterday but weren't able to make it into the totality region. OTOH, anyone who thought they'd just hop in their car at 9am in Boston, NYC, or similar and "take a nice ride" to see the eclipse, was pretty foolish
Sounds like skiers, with our inclination to very long drives with very early starts, fared very well, at least WRT getting there.

 

[parahelia]

Sugarloaf was AMAZING - everything I'd hoped for when I started thinking about it last year. Even without the eclipse, it was an amazing spring day - tons of snow everywhere. We lapped Brackett for hours - haven't hit it at this good a time in years. We used to ski there all the time back when it was off-map, but they've done a nice job expanding the area, and it's still just enough hassle to get to to keep the crowds down, even on an insanely busy day. It reminds me a bit of Casablanca at Saddleback in terms of the scale and style of the lines; has more of a Western feel than most woods lines here. We did not make the trek to Burnt because the closer goods were so good.

At around 2pm, we moved west and I waited in the longest line I've ever seen at Timberline - everyone getting in position for totality. We watched it a bit off of Timberline trail, which gave a great W-E panoramic view. It first just started to get chilly despite the sunshine, then the light started to get greyer. At totality, it looked like sunset in all directions.

One cool thing about that vantage point was watching the eclipse end W to E. First Mt. Washington re-entered the light, then SR and the Mahoosucs, then Sugarloaf. Think you can just make them out to the left of the pic below.

A special mention to the stoked and organized Sugarloaf staff who kept everything working and moving despite the insane crowds. There were thousands of people on the summit and they made sure there was room for everyone.

I'll never forget it.



We kept skiing until last chair, and could see that traffic on the access road was at a standstill. No one moved from Lot D the whole time we were putting away our gear and changing. Decided to get dinner at the Bag before leaving. When we got on the road a little after 7, it was slow down the access road until Kingfield, then opened up. The normally four-hour drive was 6 hours, completely worth it.

 

[Zermatt]

We ended up in Newport, VT for my second total eclipse. This time the whole family got to see it. No need to describe it because IYKYK, otherwise too bad.

Took 9.5 hours to get from Newport to SW CT and it was easily the happiest traffic jam I’ve ever been in. Honestly at times it seemed like it would take a day to get home.

 

[abc]

Wow! All these traffic stories!

I guess I’ve lucked out by coming to Canada. What’s a “zoo” by Canadian standard is just “normal” by this former New Yorker.

And skiing in Mont Sutton was good too. Not only the mountain skis well (last wed/thur storm helped). But it wasn’t super busy either. Getting out wasn’t an issue. Had I chose to stay outside of Montreal, I would have even bypassed much of traffic altogether. (But I wanted to go into town for some “celebration”. Only delayed for about an hour, which is acceptable)

Cool as it is, I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to “chase” it again, especially now that I’ve ticked off that “once in a lifetime” bug. It’s an interesting and amazing experience. But I fear my luck with the weather may not hold the next time.

I would however, well into planning a trip to interesting places in the totality zone in the future. Egypt sounds real exciting! Even if the weather isn’t good and totality can’t be seen, the destination is worth going to and the trip enjoyed. Booking well in advance, it shouldn’t be any more expensive than any other time. So as long as it’s a destination you would have wanted to go in the first place, might as well combine it with a shot at a chance of seeing a (or another) total solar eclipse.

This trip, had the cloud got in the way (was a small risk), I wouldn’t have felt any worse. I’ve gotten 3 days of really good skiing in regardless! (Bagged today’s ski plan. Too tire from the long day of skiing and “celebration” yesterday)

 

[Edd]

Traffic on 93 from Littleton to Concord was fine this morning, although I wished Polly’s Pancakes was open today. Just over 2 hours door to door.

 

[VTKilarney]

I was fortunate enough to see the eclipse from my backyard. It was truly amazing.

The difference between 99% and totality can't be overstated. It felt like being on an alien planet. I will definitely seek out another eclipse before I die.

 

[Smellytele]

Well I had a great time at a friends camp up in Pittsburg, NH. Went up after skiing cannon on sunday. Should have stayed until this morning. The normal 3 hour trip took 8.5. Left at 7pm and got home at 3:30am. I didn't drive back between the camp and Cannon but picked my vehicle there unfortunately should have just driven up and could have went back another way. The eclipse was great and was worth it. Working sucked today.

 

[urungus]

Photo by Jamie Walter @ Sugarloaf

 

[Mum skier]

A few photos from Saddleback. Srry the quality is not good. I have a very basic phone and I was trying to make sure I enjoyed the moment rather than take photos. Last photo is the Everest style conga line to get back to the slopes from the summit. Bonus was unexpectedly awesome 2 days of skiing at a new area for us. Saddleback did well with managing crowds, parking by permit only certainly kept the slopes quiet, and even then a lot of people were just hanging at the base, not skiing. No lines that we encountered on Sunday or Monday. We were able to get food in the lodge during the day and a quick dinner at the pub afterward. Lifts spun til 6.00, so we skied another hour after the main even. Booking the slope side condo was an (unplanned) inspired move as that got us parking. Drive back was 4 hrs 45 mins ( to just west of Boston), not that much worse than the no traffic estimate of 4 hrs. In contrast our neighbor drove to St Johnsbury VT, which took her 5 hours in the morning and 8 hours to get home! Hard to believe we got so lucky in fact…..

 

[RH29]

I wasn't originally planning on seeing it (didn't want to get stranded in VT overnight) but I saw a tip online from someone taking the train to the eclipse. Went online and it's sold out. Set my alarm for 8 AM just in case and logged on to see two seats left. Got them and booked it up to Rensselaer NY, where I got a train up to Port Henry, on Lake Champlain in the path of totality. Arrived around 2 PM.

Port Henry was extremely welcoming to the hundreds of us pouring off the train. The local senior center was set up to help the visitors out at the station, handing out eclipse glasses as people stepped off the train and selling all sorts of homemade foods. I walked up through the town to the beach/pier on Lake Champlain, and though the town was probably past it's prime, it was cool to see everyone just sitting out on their porches front lawns watching the eclipse begin. It was busy but not unmanageable.

The eclipse itself made the travel 100% worth it. The coolest thing I've seen in my life, hands down. Pictures don't even begin to describe it, and I wish I had spent a little more time just enjoying it instead of taking photos. The reaction of the birds was really interesting - they went nuts as it started getting dark about 10 minutes before, then went silent until totality began. I was just grinning like a madman through the whole thing. When the sun started coming back out, they lit off fireworks from above the town.

My train got back to Albany a bit after 7 and even with a stop for dinner and some congestion on 90/91, I was home to watch the second half of UConn's national championship repeat. My friend who drove to VT said he didn't make it home until nearly 2 in the morning. Was definitely the right move.

Pictures show the totality, and what the lighting was like 10 and 3 minutes before totality began.

 

[Cornhead]

Spent a three day weekend at Jay. My buddy has been planning this for a year. I just couldn't commit, too much money, too much uncertainty. On top of that, I knew I'd be flying to Colorado for a week. After returning from Colorado my buddy said his cousin was joining in, giving him $100/night for a couch at the condo. He said I could do the same. He also got me buy one get two free lift tickets through his connections. With Jay in the bullseye for Friday's storm, and clear weather forecast for the eclipse, I told him I was in. The stars and planets were aligning! He even scored a couple tickets for the tram, unfortunately blood trumped friendship, and he and his cousin saw it from the summit. I watched it from the condo sidewalk, but was close enough to hear the band, Pink Talking Phish, playing dark side of the moon as totatality approached. I shook my head at the family in the next condo over. They were relying on the web for exact times and cost their kids 30 seconds of eclipse before they let them look without glasses. It is obvious when the eclipse is full. It was incredible, but too short.

I hung at the condo till seven. Unwisely I followed Google Maps directions home. It took me to Burlington. Would've been better off heading west first. Traffic backed up just south of Burlington. luckily most of it kept heading east and south, made it over the Champlain bridge, and to within 40 miles of Albany, before hitting more traffic. I took the first available exit off 87. I made it to Cobelskill and 88 via 9, and 30. I arrived home at 2:30, about an hour and a half longer than usual.

 

[Abominable]

We made a last minute decision to go to Whiteface, drove halfway and stayed in Saratoga Springs Sunday night, the rest of the way early a.m. The skiing was FANTASTIC. And the eclipse did not disappoint. Really happy the weather and stars aligned and we made the trip. I'm almost bummed the eclipse was happening as I didn't want to quit skiing, and if I had no other responsibilities I'd be somewhere up north right now. The coverage is amazing for almost mid-April.

The eclipse was way cool in all the ways they say. The sunset in the EAST, the totality, the quiet eeriness. I say it's a bit like the Northern Lights. I have seen a fantastic aurora once in my life, many years ago. If you never have, I'd try to organize a trip with that sole purpose. Similar with the eclipse in totality - I'm not going to re-arrange my life around it (there were some serious umbraphiles up on the mountain) but I'm glad to have experienced it. Very cool, lived up to the hype.

We had a nice ski down after (lifts closed) and had to take our time getting out with three little kids. Traffic was crawling out of the park down through Keene, and I hate traffic and wanted nothing to do with the Thruway, so we headed over to Lake Champlain and enjoyed that pretty drive all the way down to 22, the Taconic and home. Still a late night, home around 1 a.m., but never had that hopelessness of being bumper to bumper at a dead stop on the interstate, and had easy places to pull off for a stretch or a bite. That's the key with our little kids in the car, just gotta keep moving.

Glad to hear (read) so many of you got after it and enjoyed the bonus of incredible spring conditions. Probably the cap on a great season for us (with kids sports and mom's a coach the weekends fill up fast), but my three year old (youngest) went from skiing on the leash at the beginning of the year to beautifully turning through mushy spring moguls on black diamond runs off little whiteface at the end of the season and I am a happy dad.