Mad River Glen "Last Waltz" 4/5/09

[polski]

Surprise reopening today, announced yesterday evening after upslope snow. I'd say a few inches at the base, plenty enough for skiable routes to the single. The 6-8" reported is honest for upper parts of the mountain and some drifts are thigh deep.

Dense pow but Cat Bowl has been eminently lappable (is that a word?) and crowds are light enough that loading at midstation is feasible Below midstation any ungroomed is pretty cementlike. My last run before lunch was Lynx and with my skis (NOT pow/spring boards) it was pretty tough.

They did the shareholders-ski-free deal today since yesterday wound up being a wipeout. As of noon I was told there were a grand total of two paying customers ... but the Gen. Stark Pub is reasonably busy now and between here and buying an MRG history book in the shop I've already spent more than I would have for a full-day weekend pass ... doing my part. A tip of the polski chapeau to MRG for reopening for the day and as a shareholder I hope it proves to have been a good business decision too.

 

[ozzy]

I agree. Best skiing today was on Catamount Bowl. The top had some good lines of 20 or so bumps then a few big turns through some dense sonw then the botton was nice any moguly again. We ended up doing about six or eight laps from the mid station off catamount, two midstation laps off Chute and two down to the botton. Lower bunny was pretty thin after 2:00 and Rockefeller was very boney as well. Funny though as Rockefeller did have some good soft snow lines in it. Snowed off and on above the midstation all day too.
Deninitely worth the hour fifteen drive. A good time had by all for sure and i'm glad i got to use the vouchers i had rather than lose them


Lower Liftline cliff

Lower liftline

Chute

 

[polski]

Did two more top-to-bottom runs after lunch. First was Cat Bowl again and it was starting to get some scraped off spots but still a lot of fun. I was going to load at the midstation but there was a line of maybe 10 people and I saw Upper Glades was open so, despite my trouble on Lynx, I gave that a go. Glades had been skied a bit more which made it more manageable.

Then for the grand finale I decided to Fall Line. Snow was deep up there but plenty tracked out, which was a good thing in this situation -- also wasn't quite as dense as lower down (even starting with Creamery). ROTD would be a toss-up betweeen Fall Line and one of the first two runs down Catamount. Did Beaver and Rockefellers to wrap it up.

Real good day all in all.

 

[polski]

Only shot video today and no time to go through it all but here's one frame -- loading the last chair of the season:

 

[severine]

Soooo glad there's a TR for MRG's last day! Wish we could have gotten up there but it wasn't in the cards this year. Next season for sure!

 

[polski]

short and a bit shaky at times but you get the idea. These were the first skiers down Chute this a.m.

 

[polski]

p.s. fresh tracks were to be had to the bottom of the last run of the last day of the season. OK, so it was kinda like skiing through wet cement at the very bottom, but still.

If that Fall Line run winds up being my finale for the season, it'll be a fine memory to carry me through to next year. Not springlike at all up there. Here was the entrance:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

nice pictures..serious stoke!!!!

 

[wa-loaf]

I was having some crazy ski dreams last night about MRG and I haven't been there in years. I think it needs to go to the top of the list for next year.

 

[MommaBear]

Thought I read somewhere that MRG allowed snowboarders once per year. Any truth to that? We'd love to check the place out but have 1 boarder amoung us...and he's too young to leave home (and has no desire to go back to skiing).

 

[polski]

Thought I read somewhere that MRG allowed snowboarders once per year. Any truth to that? We'd love to check the place out but have 1 boarder amoung us...and he's too young to leave home (and has no desire to go back to skiing).

Nope, sorry ... actually, boarders are welcome, they just can't ride the lifts ... I did see a couple boarders nearing the summit on one of my trips this year and congratulated them on earning their turns.

more info

If you have enough people in your group maybe someone could take the young boarder down the road to Sugarbush (minutes away, open to all) while the rest of you check out MRG?