Mount Snow - 1/7/06

[skijay]

Resort: Mount Snow

Date Skied: 1/7/06, 8am to 12:45pm

Conditions:hard pack, fresh snow, loose snow, cold and deep blue sky!

Trip Report:
I decided to go skiing early today as I had to be back by 5pm tonight. On the way up on Rt. 9 it was snowing. Once at the Carinthia parking lot & geared up, the wind blew the clouds away and the sun came out. What a deep blue sky it was. The temperature was 15 at the base. I was one of the first on the Nitro Express Quad.

The first runs down were on groomed stuff with some wind blown pockets of fresh snow in the grooves. It was cold at the summit and I forgot my face mask. Down to the Mt Snow base lodge ski shop to buy a new one to add to my collection. This one is the best, the moisture does not freeze up to ice crystals and get stuck to your skin.

Back to the slopes. I did notice some lift problems on the Summit Local, the Outpost (North Face) and the Sunbrook Quad. I actually got stuck on the last two for about 5 minutes each time which seemed like an hour! Fortunately I did not get stuck on the Summit local. Some people were saying they were stuck for 25 minutes.

I did the Beartrap trail once. It was pretty slick in the mogul valleys. Not to many were skiing it when I was there. On all of the trails as the day progressed the soft snow got skied of to the hard pack below. I love Mount Snow. I like the fact that there is plenty of diverse terrain. The lift lines for the Canyon / Summit Express Quad looked bad, but moved quick. Maybe less than 5 minutes. I think the scanning of the pass / tickets holds up the lines. Someone should come up with a "Fast Lane / EZ Pass" type scanning system.

Overall and awesome day. Am I glad I bought an ASC pass? You bet I am! I took a few pictures:




Riding the Nitro Express (Carinthia):

Ripcord. It looks dark, because the sun did not rise yet over at the North Face. I think this is about 8:30am. A guy on the lift was saying yesterday there was a "freezing" fog. That would explain the trees.

Beartrap trail.

A picture of the ice covered trees on a trail from the summit on my way to Carintha.

 

[roark]

Heard the same comment about EZ Pass in the Canyon line. It was really nice there today (but of course kind of crowded - though not as bad as sat.)

 

[BeanoNYC]

Nice report. Pictures are great too. It's funny, I've taken a lot of pictures of Ripcord and still can't get real steepness of the slope. Looks like you had the same problem. I think I'll bring the camera real low, down by my boots, the next time around. Thanks for the report.

 

[RossiSkier]

Was up there on Sunday. I park at the Carinthia as well. What a gorgeous weekend. There was some hard pack but all and all it there was great conditions. Somewhat crowded but the lines moved quickly.

 

[Greg]

Nice report. Pictures are great too. It's funny, I've taken a lot of pictures of Ripcord and still can't get real steepness of the slope. Looks like you had the same problem. I think I'll bring the camera real low, down by my boots, the next time around. Thanks for the report.

To capture the real pitch of a steep run, I've found you need to have the camera facing it dead on versus a low angle by your boots. It's tough to get an angle high enough when standing at the bottom of a run. Try a distance shot, and zoom in on it from an elevated facing slope or area if possible.