Conditions: Packed Powder and Windholds
Trip Report:
A big gripe of mine is honesty and accuracy in conditions reporting. I was pretty annoyed today that Gunstock failed miserably at this simple detail; both with their written report on their website and the phone recording. If I weren't a pass holder and paid for a full holiday rate day ticket, I wouldn't be annoyed, I'd be angry.
I knew going into today that wind holds might be an issue. On their conditions report they listed the Tiger on wind hold, but the Panorama being open with 21 trails open for skiing. This was both this morning and when I got home. I actually called when I got home to see if the Panorama was open and was told it was not.
This is what was written on their website: Powdah alert! We have gotten 4" so far and the forecasts I am looking at are calling for 10" - 18" of freshies. The biggest challenge with this storm is the wind associated with it, which could gust to 25 mph, but as long as it blows on usable terrain it is all good.
That doesn't sound to me like a mountain that only had the three lower mountain lifts spinning and half the advertised trails / acreage open. The only inkling of information regarding wind holds was the Tiger Lift. Panorama and all summit trails were listed as open. Compounding my annoyance was how poorly the lifts that were open were being managed. No singles line Qeues set up and the lifties were doing nothing to make sure the chairs had butts in every seat by pairing people up. The liftlines weren't bad, but when you're only offering 500 vertical feet of skiing, you should be making every effort to make sure people wait as minimal amount of time as possible to access that limited terrain.
Now, the terrain that was open skied very well. They had gotten a good 6-7 inches by the time I got there and it was snowing heavily. That said, if the snow report online and by phone was honest, I wouldn't have bothered going today. Unless you're a park skier, an advanced skier or rider is going to spend 90% of their time skiing off the Panorama or Tiger because the terrain is so limited off of the Pistol and Ramrod chairs.
I'm sure tomorrow will be fantastic IF there is no wind AND the mountain is honest and accurate in their reporting of what is open.
To end on a positive note, it was good to see that they were still blowing snow despite the heavy natural coming down. I'd imagine there will be a fair amount of terrain expansion in the coming days.
Trip Report:
A big gripe of mine is honesty and accuracy in conditions reporting. I was pretty annoyed today that Gunstock failed miserably at this simple detail; both with their written report on their website and the phone recording. If I weren't a pass holder and paid for a full holiday rate day ticket, I wouldn't be annoyed, I'd be angry.
I knew going into today that wind holds might be an issue. On their conditions report they listed the Tiger on wind hold, but the Panorama being open with 21 trails open for skiing. This was both this morning and when I got home. I actually called when I got home to see if the Panorama was open and was told it was not.
This is what was written on their website: Powdah alert! We have gotten 4" so far and the forecasts I am looking at are calling for 10" - 18" of freshies. The biggest challenge with this storm is the wind associated with it, which could gust to 25 mph, but as long as it blows on usable terrain it is all good.
That doesn't sound to me like a mountain that only had the three lower mountain lifts spinning and half the advertised trails / acreage open. The only inkling of information regarding wind holds was the Tiger Lift. Panorama and all summit trails were listed as open. Compounding my annoyance was how poorly the lifts that were open were being managed. No singles line Qeues set up and the lifties were doing nothing to make sure the chairs had butts in every seat by pairing people up. The liftlines weren't bad, but when you're only offering 500 vertical feet of skiing, you should be making every effort to make sure people wait as minimal amount of time as possible to access that limited terrain.
Now, the terrain that was open skied very well. They had gotten a good 6-7 inches by the time I got there and it was snowing heavily. That said, if the snow report online and by phone was honest, I wouldn't have bothered going today. Unless you're a park skier, an advanced skier or rider is going to spend 90% of their time skiing off the Panorama or Tiger because the terrain is so limited off of the Pistol and Ramrod chairs.
I'm sure tomorrow will be fantastic IF there is no wind AND the mountain is honest and accurate in their reporting of what is open.
To end on a positive note, it was good to see that they were still blowing snow despite the heavy natural coming down. I'd imagine there will be a fair amount of terrain expansion in the coming days.
