Mount Snow 1/12/14

[Euler]

NOAA said highs in the upper 30s with partly sunny skies for Sunday afternoon so I went to mount Snow to gamble $29 on the Sunday Afternoon Ticket Deal. Turned out it didn't get above freezing....Ops was making snow from mid-mountain up. Sun didn't show up. Snow didn't soften.

I had fun at Grommet with my son watching him work on some features and he enjoyed a waffle. As for the rest of the mountain...I guess ops has done the best they can, but there's some pretty bad snow/ice carnage out there. Base depths are too shallow to groom well. When the surface gets scraped off, it's not scraped off to grass or hardpack, but to legit ice. There is a lot of work to do.

It was better than watching TV.

 

[Judder]

Thanks for posting. Was up at Stratton yesterday - same scene as well. We got so much rain on sat, then the temps dropped below freezing before all that water could drain out of the snow pack. It was killer conditions just one week ago with over 2 ft of natural base…

 

[bdfreetuna]

thanks for the update.

 

[Newpylong]

Ouch. ugh

 

[MadMadWorld]

Well at least they were making snow.

 

[Glenn]

Thanks for the update! We skipped yesterday (Saturday as well for the friggin rain) and looks like it was a wise move. Hopefully, they can get things resurfaced and have good holiday weekend.

It's been tough winter the last few weeks. No snow is one thing, mild temps and rain are another.

 

[Euler]

...

It's been tough winter the last few weeks. No snow is one thing, mild temps and rain are another.

mild temps and rain followed immediately by a sub zero freeze up followed immediately by ANOTHER thaw and torrential downpour followed immediately by ANOTHER freeze up is yet another. This is seriously challenging weather for Mountain Ops.

 

[drjeff]

mild temps and rain followed immediately by a sub zero freeze up followed immediately by ANOTHER thaw and torrential downpour followed immediately by ANOTHER freeze up is yet another. This is seriously challenging weather for Mountain Ops.

All that and with the exception of committed, ripcord, plummet and little steep(trails they have yet to make snow on this season due to all the resurfacing they've had to do the last few weeks) they should have all their snowmaking terrain open this coming weekend, as they were starting to plow out the snow for the North wall of the 1/2 pipe this AM and should have it all built and cut by the weekend.

The only previously open snowmaking trail that had snow made on it that might not be open this weekend is fallen timbers - it was looking a bit worse for the wear this AM - looks like Mount Snow also had a snowmaking pipe issue down by the valve house behind the base of the Outpost Triple as their excavator was there and some freshly replaced dirt was evident, as were a couple of the new HKD Impluse tower guns they bought a few weeks ago for use on some of Mount Snow's non fan gun terrain.

Mountain Ops is a challenging job at times to say the least! But, as I heard someone on the Bluebird with me say yesterday, "in many seasons if you have basically all the snowmaking terrain open by MLK Day Weekend, that's a GOOD start to the season!"

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[lerops]

Thank you for the update. Do you think it will be crowded this coming long weekend?

 

[drjeff]

Usually is pretty crowded - NOT x-mas week crowded most years, but usually more than an "average" winter weekend

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[Euler]

Thank you for the update. Do you think it will be crowded this coming long weekend?

Yes, MLK weekend will be CRAZY crowded. The number of people combined with the limited number of trails open could make for a frustrating time. You'll have to work hard on patience with crowded trails.