Most icy resort in Vermont (or northeast)

[dmc]

That is so funny. Thanks I had a good laugh. I am going use your line sometime.

Stole it from a friend from the NE Kingdom..
I'm just surprised nobodies called out Hunter Mountain...

 

[TylerDurden]

Well, it's the northeast, which I've skied all my life, hardpack and ice is a way of life here.

 

[vertmont]

Gee

Sorry I have to call Bull $hit. Based on your inaccurate response, there is no way you have been a groomer for 25 years. If you have, then you work the night shift and have never tried to ski or ride after 3pm on the trails you have groomed. BTW making snow on mogul trails (the ones not groomed) after a thaw/rain freeze cycle is your best chance of getting back a quality experience for the skier/rider who enjoy the bumps. Happy Holidays to you to.

Don't want to get in to a contest here. I know what you say is just common knowledge. Mine is first hand experience. Believe what you want. I have skied at every time of the day and groomed on both shifts. This industry was created and made better, because employees and operators of resort had to be to compete. Owner and operators were willing to try new ideas in creating a better product and services. (Thinking out of the box) If you skied 40 years ago you would now what I mean. It was pretty primitive. Very little grooming, which I don’t not mind at all, skiing was an adventure then not a race. I remember when snowmaking was laughed at. Make snow in the 60's or 70’s? You were probably said to be crazy. Why would you want to make snow for? Many creative people spent lots of time making snowmaking what it is today. Why can't grooming be better? You as a skier or rider have accepted this type of skiing or riding. I do not, when it can be better.
Also have a Happy Holiday.

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

i dont think any one place can be pegged as "the worst" this is the East, this is what we deal with, all areas are subject to freeze/thaws/wind equally....one of the worst days we had skiing last year was Sugarbush...am i ready to say that SB has the worst ice b'c of that day...no, it was just the weather.....SKI THE EAST...

 

[abc]

On average, Whiteface gets icy more often than most other northern resorts I've been to.

Of the small hills close to population centers, I found Mountain Creek the worst. On the other hand, I'm not one who ski small hills often so not a lot to compare with.

 

[deadheadskier]

As much as I love Wildcat, I'd give it the nod as iciest area in New England I've skied at. When Wildcat is good, it's really good; when it's bad it's really bad.

 

[atkinson]

Ice? What is this word? Isn't that something you climb?

There was no ice today either. I just wore mtb hip pads to stay warm. That said, the natural was really good. Stein's, Twist, Moonshine, Paradise and Spillsville were sweet.

The iciest place is the one with the most warm/cold cycles and the most traffic. Grooming and snowmaking can play both positive and negative roles in the process, depending on the situation. MRG is sometimes the softest and sometimes the hardest.

One answer ... chase the good snow. Expanding your definition of good snow also helps tremendously.

John

 

[mister moose]

If there aint fish under it... It aint ice...

I say if you can't get a ski pole in it at all, even 1/4", it is ice.

My nominee for the iciest area in Vermont: Jay. They have many trails at the peak, under the Green Mtn Flyer, and several others that get very windblown and icy. They either can't afford to resurface these arreas, or the amount of wind scouring makes it unproductive. Not that I'm saying Jay isn't a fun mountain, or that I don't like it. Of course the lower trees are out of the wind. I love going to Jay with snow or sunshine in the forecast. But when the wind blows over 20 and the temps go below single digits, Jay has its own special brand of skiing.

 

[Smellytele]

Probably just about anywhere after today then the cold that is behind it.

 

[polski]

Probably just about anywhere after today then the cold that is behind it.

I was just coming here to say the same thing. Though I'd hope that by Tuesday morning the answer will be a lot closer to "nowhere," if the timing of this clipper works out. I don't think anyone's looking at a real big dump from this one but maybe enough to cover most of the damage from today.

 

[Smellytele]

I was just coming here to say the same thing. Though I'd hope that by Tuesday morning the answer will be a lot closer to "nowhere," if the timing of this clipper works out. I don't think anyone's looking at a real big dump from this one but maybe enough to cover most of the damage from today.

The cold coming on Tuesday and Wednesday will set this stuff up like steel

 

[polski]

The cold coming on Tuesday and Wednesday will set this stuff up like steel

BUT if it has 6" or so of pow on top of it, maybe OK. (NWS saying 3-6" for VT tomorrow; Josh Fox and Scott Braaten both think it could be more than that on N Green spine)

Wind may be a problem though, could scour spots down to that bulletproof surface. Might actually not be a bad setup for the woods in places that didn't lose too much snowpack today.

 

[GolfingOwl]

Somewhat related to this topic is why trails (typically blacks or double blacks) are even open when they are just a wall of ice. Does anyone really enjoy skiing these conditions? Does it matter that much for trail counts? I honestly don't see why patrolers allow the ropes to be dropped on some of these runs. Sometimes these are the trails that end up being the steep bump runs in good conditions but why not just close them until there is sufficient snow (man made or natural) or they are re-groomed?

 

[KevinF]

I say if you can't get a ski pole in it at all, even 1/4", it is ice.

That's the most liberal definition of east-coast ice I've ever come across. I've been stymied many times at trying to stick a pole into the "snow", and I don't consider that stuff ice. Ice is either clear or blue.

As for the iciest area in New England... I have the most god-awful luck imaginable at Sunday River. My going to that place is a jinx on their snow conditions; they should pay me to stay away. I haven't gone in years as every time I've been, it's been treacherously icy.

But that said, I've seen virtually un-skiiable icy-ness at Mt. Snow and Bretton Woods (admittedly after thaw-rain-refreeze cycles), two areas known for usually having pretty good conditions.

I used to ski Cannon pretty much exclusively for a couple seasons, and I found that conditions there were usually either "unbelievably good" or "unbelievably bad".

 

[mister moose]

That's the most liberal definition of east-coast ice I've ever come across. I've been stymied many times at trying to stick a pole into the "snow", and I don't consider that stuff ice. Ice is either clear or blue.

I've seen an awful lot of white icebergs.

The usual definition of ice is frozen water that is solid in form. If the crystaline structure is so interlocked as to provide a hard, firm, brittle mass that is unyielding to a pointed object I'm pretty sure what you have is ice. Ski areas cobbling together a holiday week snow report aside, it is ice.

I came up with the ski pole comment as a way to begin to differentiate what is the very imprecise line between hardpack and ice. Hardpack, if you go out and play with it, is more yielding to a ski pole. You can poke out craters, you can make a hole a 1/2" or more deep. The point at which you can no longer do this I think is the time to throw in the towel and call it ice.

Yes, I know there are sharp and tortionally stiff enough skis out there to ski on ice, even clear ice. That doesn't make it snow. Not calling it ice when it really is is one of the big lies in the ski industry.

We probably need to add more terms for types of ice, as we already have for the may types of snow. We have fresh, packed powder, cream cheese, blower, wind slab, corn, sugar, etc. I think we should add in a few terms for ice. In addition to clear ice and aerated (white) ice, we can have smooth ice, nubby ice, cat track ice, thin ice, dusted ice, ice crust, frozuroy,

 

[St. Bear]

As a seasons passholder for 3 years, I think I can confidently say that Mountain Creek is near the top of the list.

Looking at the factors that people have said causes "icy" conditions:

Thaw/Freeze: NJ obviously doesn't get the consistent cold that New England does. The average daytime/nightime high/low in Vernon, NJ for Jan and Feb are 34/14 and 38/16, respectively. So on the average day during the winter, snow will melt, and then refreeze at night.

Skier Traffic: I don't think this one needs to be explained any further.

Wind: Admittedly, this factor isn't as big as the others, but relatively speaking, MC does get a fair amount of wind. It's not sheltered by other nearby mountains, and speaking from personal experience, I've seen a lot of freshly fallen snow (man made and natural) get blown off the trails, especially on Granite Peak.

These conditions can create some messed up skiers (ie, myself). I can honestly say that I am a more confident skier on glare ice with random patches of snow than on untracked powder. It's something I'm trying to fix, but it's hard to improve when you rarely have the opportunity to practice.

 

[vladimir]

If there aint fish under it... It aint ice...

I am going to use this line next time my ski buddies complain of ice