Mount Snow: Inside Track

[bdfreetuna]

They were embarrassingly understaffed/unprepared for today. Lots not plowed, no semblance of lifeline management. EuroFunnel and no singles lines so chairs were going up with twos and threes. Fantastic day, but it was a running joke on every chair what a shitshow today was.

Yeah but TBH if you mostly stuck to North Face it was an epic powder day. Fresh lines on newly opened tree skiing and the softest moguls ever. Winds were pretty bad I didn't expect Bluebird to run at all. I did expect Summit Express to run but after taking a couple runs down Ridge/Lodge(or anything up front) I could see why.

Providing the solution of a lift up to access North Face, and use North Face lifts to the summit was a pretty good backup plan considering how screwed we could have been.

 

[bdfreetuna]

If they get another foot tonight should be a full refresh. Whats the best trail to hit at opening untouched, Jaws?

The woods to the left of Olympic were sick today, should be even better tomorrow. Me + wife were in the first group of people heading down Olympic after that rope dropped.

Some people were saying Plummet was great -- I did it once and thought it was the worst run. Not a fan of whales. Ducked into the woods halfway thru.

A few people also obviously straight-lined Ripcord, which if you stick to the sides tomorrow might be a decent idea. Won't be open though.

Challenger and Uncles were getting bumped up with some quality mogul formation, Uncles was fun if you like mogul-jumps

 

[ss20]

What an amazing day. 19" and crazy winds so Mount Snow gets a pass in my book for lift op difficulties (other than not having the lift corrals set up). The atmosphere today was dripping. Ear-to-ear smiles all day. There was a period for an hour or so when Challenger had a 10-15 minute wait. People passed the time by starting a "Vail sucks" chant and heckling anyone who had a mis-load.

My favorites were Olympic and Jaws (3x laps on both), with honorable ROTD's being Challenger and Uncle's. I dabbled in the trees next to Freefall and Uncles but not Oylimpic woods. Fun, just ski with care. At the end of the day I skied skiers right of Snowdance...very fun with the waterbar kickers. It's just crazy how good the naturals were today. Snow was dense enough that it stayed put and didn't get too scraped off. December 2? You'd never of guessed! There was a legitimate 2ft when I left. No way they report less than that tomorrow.

 

[ss20]

Anyone on mountain today? Wondering what ropes might be dropping.

Everything (save for Ripcord) is skiable regardless of the rope. Interestingly enough even the exposed water streams are well-covered, surprisingly.

Hell I did Ledges and Jaws- the rockiest trails on the hill (save for Ripcord) and didn't hit anything. In fact I went right over the "Ledge" on Ledge, no scrape.

 

[GregoryIsaacs]

These reports are really making me regret not playing workhookey. Sounds like a killer day out there!

 

[Zand]

Pumped as hell for tomorrow. Hope its dumping there right now to refill the trails but even if it doesn't it will still be epic.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Pumped as hell for tomorrow. Hope its dumping there right now to refill the trails but even if it doesn't it will still be epic.

Between the refills all day today + anything falling after close + the wind you're going to be skiing fresh I'm sure.

The trail under Bluebird whatever it's called might be windblown but everything else cream and butter

 

[ss20]

Pumped as hell for tomorrow. Hope its dumping there right now to refill the trails but even if it doesn't it will still be epic.

Bring your patience. Partly cloudy and 30 degrees tomorrow. It's going to be great but I'll bet my left thumb it'll be quite crowded.

I can't ski again til Friday. Thinking Jiminy Peak of Berkshire East if they're open. Looking at the radar they will both probably end up doing as well as or better than Mount Snow.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Thinking Jiminy Peak of Berkshire East if they're open. Looking at the radar they will both probably end up doing as well as or better than Mount Snow.

I'm waiting for B-East to report which trails they opened. I'm not seeing much yet, but they might want to groom thing over and push some snow around, get hoses out of the way, etc. If it looks like PackedPowder with some diamonds I'll be there Friday.

Jiminy looks good too, that's plan B but not as cheap and more people to deal with. I guess Magic will have to wait.

 

[jaywbigred]

Awesome reports folks, much appreciated! I'm interested to hear how it is today and how many additional ropes drop.

They reported 23 inches this morning, has me wondering how much more snow they need to get the bulk of the ropes dropped. Is the issue coverage at this point, or lack of staff to run lifts and patrol all the terrain? I feel like Dr. Jeff would know that answer...

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Ropes don’t matter. Read the terrain. Don’t be a dope. Ski the mountain.

 

[MommaBear]

Providing the solution of a lift up to access North Face, and use North Face lifts to the summit was a pretty good backup plan considering how screwed we could have been.

But damn that last run home to Carinthia, where I was parked, almost killed me...lol! Took a run down Uncles toward end of day after spending most of it on NF and didn't leave quite enough in the tank to go back over. Was grateful to see Season Pass open (so I didn't have to go Canyon, back to NF to get up and over). But had to tuck and go most of it that run out to get back to the base. My legs were not happy.

 

[drjeff]

Awesome reports folks, much appreciated! I'm interested to hear how it is today and how many additional ropes drop.

They reported 23 inches this morning, has me wondering how much more snow they need to get the bulk of the ropes dropped. Is the issue coverage at this point, or lack of staff to run lifts and patrol all the terrain? I feel like Dr. Jeff would know that answer...

Depending on what the wind did/does, I would suspect that short of say Ripcord, they've probably got enough natural to open everything.

I do see from their snow report that they've gone guns on on a few trails today, some of those trails that likely will be needed/requested by the Alpine Comp program which starts this weekend. So there may be a few trails where the ropes are up today not because of lack of snow, but because they've got snowmaking equipment, and in particular non tower mounted equipment, deployed across those trails (Ego Alley, Charlie's Chase, Fallen Timbers)

Ripcord could present an interesting challenge for the snowmakers with all of this natural on it, as typically, when they're making snow on it, they make a really wet base layer to try and essentially "bond" that base layer to the rocks underneath on the pitch, and then back the water content in the guns down during roughly the 2nd half of the run time to get a surface that doesn't ski/ride like 6-12" of glorified elmer's glue when they drop the rope on it before it all dries out.

With all of this natural snow, getting that adhesion between the rocks and the base snow have some different logistical issues to solve compared to past years.

I would say that if Sunbrook isn't open this coming weekend, it's way more likely because of lack of staff than lack of snow. Given that it's now December, the annual arrival of the foreign workers should be starting, and lets hope that their training will go quickly and smoothly and that the ability of spin as many lifts as possible starts very soon!

 

[bdfreetuna]

Ripcord could present an interesting challenge for the snowmakers with all of this natural on it, as typically, when they're making snow on it, they make a really wet base layer to try and essentially "bond" that base layer to the rocks underneath on the pitch, and then back the water content in the guns down during roughly the 2nd half of the run time to get a surface that doesn't ski/ride like 6-12" of glorified elmer's glue when they drop the rope on it before it all dries out.

Looking up Ripcord yesterday it did appear to have a "glue" base already established under the powder. By this, I mean the middle of the trail was a more yellow color (looked almost icy), where the natural snow was only partially bonding to the trail. The sides of the trails were all powder and got poached a bit.

I'm not sure if snowmaking occurred on Ripcord at all but it did appear to have a base layer instead of just rock under snow.

 

[drjeff]

Looking up Ripcord yesterday it did appear to have a "glue" base already established under the powder. By this, I mean the middle of the trail was a more yellow color (looked almost icy), where the natural snow was only partially bonding to the trail. The sides of the trails were all powder and got poached a bit.

I'm not sure if snowmaking occurred on Ripcord at all but it did appear to have a base layer instead of just rock under snow.

That yellow color you saw is more than likely just natural ground water flowing and then freezing on the rock face. If you've ever seen the headwall on Ripcord in the non snow months, it has way more resemblance to a rocky cliff with some random underbrush growing out of some of the cracks in the rock than dirt/stones/grass that we typically associate with the appearance of a ski trail without snow on it.

I do not believe that at any point thus far this season they have turned the HKD towers on Ripcord on and made snow yet. Plus, I can only imagine on a dark, sketchy night what a gun check run on that trail is like for the snowmaking crew when they're making snow on it...

 

[kingslug]

I imagine this weekend will be a bit crowded....

 

[drjeff]

I imagine this weekend will be a bit crowded....

Yup. Add in that some of the seasonal programs start this weekend, as well as that at least for now, lifts won't spin until 9 this weekend (the kick back to 8AM 1st chair on the weekends is scheduled to start the following Saturday, the 14th, and the line for 1st chair, especially in the main base area, is likely going to do a good job at filling up a decent percentage of the queue lanes at the opening bell.

Hopefully if they have the staff to spin say greater than 50% of their lifts, with the added acreage that will be in play, the downhill experience shouldn't be too bad

 

[Zand]

Excellent morning. Most of yesterday's 19" settled in and dried out. Last night's snow was all Utah blower so not the big bottomless powder runs I was hoping for but instead the natural trails are now covered in a perfect base and beautifully soft on top.

There are a few areas of untracked still on South Bowl, Exhibition, and that general area but it's all wind packed. Some sweer lines still available in the woods. Bluebird has a decent line, but North Face is empty.

 

[kingslug]

Weekend decisions...decisions...Hunter Saturday might be a mess..but will it be a bigger mess than Mt Snow..hmmm

 

[tnt1234]

Weekend decisions...decisions...Hunter Saturday might be a mess..but will it be a bigger mess than Mt Snow..hmmm

Mt. Snow is out of range for me. I'm leaning more and more toward Hunter.