Is it just me or does there seem to be more boilerplate this year

[uphillklimber]

x

 

[Charlie Schuessler]

It could be that your thinking too much and possibly not letting go... :wink:

Try something different, like a glade or a bump run along the edges where it is generally smoother with better snow...

 

[riverc0il]

i think it's about the same as usual at the ski areas i ski at. a lot more than usual pre-february, but as an entire ski season it averaged out to normal. then again, i make it a point to ski natural snow so i might not be seeing everything... but that said i have enjoyed some excellect PP groomers this year.

 

[Greg]

Perhaps because it's more like mid-February right now than mid-March. Things will soften up in the next couple of weeks...

 

[Lostone]

I think it has a lot to do with the warm/freeze cycles we've had, this year.

People complain about the bush saying how much snow we've gotten, this year. I tell them that we did get that much snow, but that it has all melted and then frozen.

 

[Ig ODC]

Interesting, I can't say I have noticed more boilerplate because I pretty much only ski areas that rely on natural snow, but I could see where you get your perception from: early in the year there was little natural snow, so areas really had to rely on the man made, which leads to boilerplate. So, yeah, there prob. was more boilerplate this year because ski areas had to rely on the manmade a little more than usual in Dec. and Jan.

 

[riverc0il]

with exception of this past week, there really hasn't been any warm/freeze cycles since the last week in january that i can remember. once february hit, we didn't get any thaws. snow conditions during the second half of the year have been exceptional.

 

[teachski]

uphillklimer,
What is your definition of boiler plate? I have only seen one or two patches this season, and they were in areas of a mountain that are known to have natural run-off springs. Yesterday, I heard a person describing a place that was hardpack as boiler plate, it was about 4'x6' and easily avoidable.

 

[Terry]

boilerplate

Any place I have been this year since early Feb has had very little boilerplate compared to normal. The snow cover has been good, and I have been having a great time all season. This is the best season I have had so far! Today will make number 60 for me, and it looks like 70 is within reach!
:beer:

 

[ALLSKIING]

Snow levels are a little low this year. Early in the season yes it was bad, but now I think it is close to normal.

 

[ski_resort_observer]

I think you answered your own question..intially I was wondering where and when you ski. ASC resorts on weekends are busy, snow gets scaped off/packed down.

I bet if you skied at a..Crotched Mt..for example...you would notice a diference. Crotched probably a bad example tho as they do a first rate job on snowmaking and grooming, as well.

 

[riverc0il]

yes, ski report observer puts the nail on the head. if you want to ski good conditions all day, do not ski at ASC and Booth Creek Resorts (waterville and loon specifically). for solid curdorouy and packed pow conditions all day with never boiler plate and very rarely if ever scraped, give a place like burke a shot. black, ragged, magic, and tenney also come to mind for mid to large sized mountains. i imagine you'd also find perfect conditions at lesser known areas such as the balsams, dartmouth ski way, middlebury college snow bowl, abrahms and saddleback in maine. crotched has fantastic snow conditions as well as SRO mentioned.

people love the cheap pass... but you get what you pay for...

 

[riverc0il]

yup, that's the black mountain i am suggesting. definitely check it out! it's over looked by far too many people that it would be perfect for.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

I don't think there's more this season. Perhaps a lot of it is where I ski, but, other than early season at K-mart, and Someday Bigger, it's been mostly PP/Pow, with occational spring and Loose granular conditions.

Give some of the places off the beaten (read: skied off) path. There's a lot of good stuff going on beyond the mega resorts.

 

[DJAK]

I think before we all poopoo the ASC and Booth Creek passes, we should note that for many people, they like the security of their snowmaking systems in the pass decision.

If you buy a pass elsewhere you may not have reliable conditions in the way you would through Booth and ASC. When the skiing is good in the east. It's good everywhere, but we all know when it's bad or marginal, it's the least bad at these sorts of resorts.

Saturdays may get scraped off on the major routes, but the folks who ski those trails are people who require the services of an ASC or Booth Creek in the first place (Big SUV families). They want lessons, daycare, slopeside, 90% grooming, 90% snowmaking and trail counts and names they can brag about at the office.

That is in response to the no mega resort vibe.

But i agree 100% that when it is really good snowwise, the smaller resorts like Magic and Burke are great, but cherry picking those days mey be the way to go.

In response to the boilerplate comment - The last two months of eastern skiing have been AS GOOD AS IT GETS. Have you ever gone in and complained on a 2 foot powder day about the lack of grooming? Sounds like one of those.

 

[Vortex]

Loon was a bit scarped off at the end of yesterday up top, but he bottom was soft and sweet. The bigger areas always get skiied off earlier. I find this year similar to others. At the beginning with out natural snow it was tough but the cold allowed for extensive snow making... some heavy on the water content to build bases depths therefore causing boilerplace conditions at times. Sunday River seems to me to have the best condtions day in Day out no matter what the weather is IMO. Unreal snowmaking and superb grooming.

 

[bigbog]

...definitely in agreement with most everyone Uphillk...
If you want the fresh snow @ASC_hills on weekends, you have to hit em' early. Agree with Lostone & others about the ground surface temps, as witnessed by the condition of most of NewEngland's roads this winter...

Steve

 

[dmc]

Seems like a normal end of year to me...
Just wait until the warm temps hit... That boilderplate will be sweet, sweet corn...

 

[mergs]

Teachski asks a good question here:

What is your definition of boiler plate?

My definition of boilerplate: Extremely hard pack and ice that shows up about mid day at every place I have skiied this year. Typically, the snow is good in the morning, but gets skiied off or blown off. If you took an ice ax to it, you would get considerable chunks of ice flying at you. I am not talking about hand packed snowball hard, I am talking about hard hard ice, and blue ice.

In all fairness, our ability levels continue to increase. As we ski the tougher trails, we see that they do get skiied harder, and there is a lot of skidding (read that scraping the snow off, particulary by the snowboarders who ride the brakes all the way down the hill) by folks who think they are carving. The steeper trails do not hold the snow as well as the shallower trails. The winds blow the snow off the steeper trails more than the shallower trails and the shallower trails are more sheltered from the wind.

This year, for example, we hardly ever ski a green, unless by accident, or by way of passing. Blues are just our speed, blacks and bumps and shallow glades are fun and challenging. Thus we are more and more skiing the types of trails that do get skiied off more. When going on a green, I marvel at how soft the snow is there. Perhaps it is just that we are skiing different trails than before? And it is something we need to grow more accustomed to????

Don't get me wrong, we ski this stuff anyways and hit the snow piles as we find them and are pretty comfortable skiing across the bolierplate, but we do long for the days when we skiied soft snow all day, but those trails are often too slow for us. We find trails that are lightly used at various areas and enjoy them to no end.

One other thought is that we are typically skiing ASC mountains as we have a bronze pass, but we did Waterville Valley and found little difference (SP) in their conditions than ASC's. I suspect that the hardpack and boilerplate is conditioned from early season when they open the mountains with manmade snow and those warm days it is packed down good and hard, and the late rains help turn it to ice. We notice that the trails that don't get snow (manmade or natural) until late in the season seem to have less boilerplate.

Just more ramblings....

i love it! stop presses: new research has found that snowboarders are the cause of boilerplate. the skiiers in the snowplow, or doing an impression of a windshield wiper, have nothing to do with it. :lol:

 

[mergs]

Am I just too fussy this year? Am I skiing the harder skiied trails? Has anyone else noticed this too? Is it this years weather inconsistencies? Am I nuts?

i think we've had a lot of freeze thaw, with a particulaly bad stretch of rain here at there.

but I'm looking on the bright side: NY/VT/NH resorts are open, and doing pretty darn well over the past few weeks. 8)

on the other hand, WA and BC (Whistler in particular) resorts are focked.