Angus
Member
- Joined
- Feb 18, 2005
- Messages
- 961
- Points
- 16
First time for me in probably 15 years and a first for son-of-Angus. Snow is much closer from metro-west than google maps told us – making it from home to parking lot in 2 hours 3 minutes – out Rt. 2, up 91, 9W to 100N.
On the lift at about 8:35 and we went right over to the North Face. We'd finish right at 4PM. Conditions were hardpacked, packed powder and ice. We skied Fallen Timbers, Olympic to the Trials, and Jaws before moving over to Sunbrook via the worst run of the day – Little Dipper to Big Dipper to Moon Beam – sheet of ice with thin cover. Later in the day, we would ski the Beartrap mogul field six times or so after it softened up in the late morning/early PM sun – this was our co-run of the day. The other run of the day was Sap Tapper glade which we skied early in the afternoon which had good snow – we would ski it on our last run of the day as well and in the flat light it was a problem for me. The glades generally are nice but the ice storm has left a lot of debris and with the recent thaw it was hard to find a good line but overall better than expected.
We ventured over to the Carinthia area and checked out the terrain parks – impressive if that’s your thing.
About 2:30ish we went over and skied Snowdance, Overbrook and One More Time. Snowdance is the widest trail we’d ever skied. Later, we moved back to the North Face and skied the bumps on Chute a couple of times which were really hard and unforgiving and my son bailed about half way down. Again, the glades over on that side aren’t bad currently but could use some more snow. They are a little bit steeper than the main face of the mountain but with limbs down and debris sticking up from the snow, getting any kind of rhythm is difficult.
Immediately after lunch, I skied Ripcord. It appears to be by far the steepest trail at Mount Snow. It was a disaster. Coming down to the steepest part of the trail, I encountered a young teenager paralyzed. The trail is bumped up pretty well and the primary surface is ice. The skier’s right, is washed out. I stopped and talked the kid down but found myself needing some coaching. I needed to execute an immediate turn to avoid dirt, rock, and brush with nothing but ice below me – if I’d fallen I’d have slid a good distance – I was frozen for a bit and finally made some sort of feeble stem-christie turn to get going again but it was definitely no fun.
Overall impression of the mountain – definitely different from our primary NH and Maine mountains – wider and more crowded. Definitely a different crowd, my son was going up a chair with some folks and got into a conversation about NH skiing. One of adults on the lift was surprised to hear there were large mountains in NH. When told they ran 5 and 6 thousand feet, the reply was “can you ski them?” My son replied with “yes, if you hike them.” The reply was “oh, then you can’t ski them.” The conditions were decent given the recent thaw and rain and with natural snowfall and coverage, we can see there’s a lot of fun terrain to enjoy.
Thanks to everyone for their tips. It's so true -ski the fixed grips and you never need to wait - weird!
On the lift at about 8:35 and we went right over to the North Face. We'd finish right at 4PM. Conditions were hardpacked, packed powder and ice. We skied Fallen Timbers, Olympic to the Trials, and Jaws before moving over to Sunbrook via the worst run of the day – Little Dipper to Big Dipper to Moon Beam – sheet of ice with thin cover. Later in the day, we would ski the Beartrap mogul field six times or so after it softened up in the late morning/early PM sun – this was our co-run of the day. The other run of the day was Sap Tapper glade which we skied early in the afternoon which had good snow – we would ski it on our last run of the day as well and in the flat light it was a problem for me. The glades generally are nice but the ice storm has left a lot of debris and with the recent thaw it was hard to find a good line but overall better than expected.
We ventured over to the Carinthia area and checked out the terrain parks – impressive if that’s your thing.
About 2:30ish we went over and skied Snowdance, Overbrook and One More Time. Snowdance is the widest trail we’d ever skied. Later, we moved back to the North Face and skied the bumps on Chute a couple of times which were really hard and unforgiving and my son bailed about half way down. Again, the glades over on that side aren’t bad currently but could use some more snow. They are a little bit steeper than the main face of the mountain but with limbs down and debris sticking up from the snow, getting any kind of rhythm is difficult.
Immediately after lunch, I skied Ripcord. It appears to be by far the steepest trail at Mount Snow. It was a disaster. Coming down to the steepest part of the trail, I encountered a young teenager paralyzed. The trail is bumped up pretty well and the primary surface is ice. The skier’s right, is washed out. I stopped and talked the kid down but found myself needing some coaching. I needed to execute an immediate turn to avoid dirt, rock, and brush with nothing but ice below me – if I’d fallen I’d have slid a good distance – I was frozen for a bit and finally made some sort of feeble stem-christie turn to get going again but it was definitely no fun.
Overall impression of the mountain – definitely different from our primary NH and Maine mountains – wider and more crowded. Definitely a different crowd, my son was going up a chair with some folks and got into a conversation about NH skiing. One of adults on the lift was surprised to hear there were large mountains in NH. When told they ran 5 and 6 thousand feet, the reply was “can you ski them?” My son replied with “yes, if you hike them.” The reply was “oh, then you can’t ski them.” The conditions were decent given the recent thaw and rain and with natural snowfall and coverage, we can see there’s a lot of fun terrain to enjoy.
Thanks to everyone for their tips. It's so true -ski the fixed grips and you never need to wait - weird!
