Mount Snow Trail Descriptions

[Greg]

Just saw these on their snow report:

P= PREMIUM: wide, long trails completely covered by
fan gun snowmaking technology, typically groomed daily.
C= CLASSIC: medium-sized trails, covered by air/water
snowmaking, groomed 1 to 3 times per week.
N= NATURAL: narrow, more difficult trails, no
snowmaking, groomed only after weather events.

The whole North Face and Sunbrook are marked as "N". It's a little confusing since we all know they have snowmaking there. However, I could totally get behind the "N" rating in terms of grooming on TNF if that's the way they want to go most of the season. I suspect these designations are fluid and will change and are not definitions of the particular trails themselves, and they are only marked that way right now since they're closed.

 

[Highway Star]

Welcome to at least 2 years ago...

 

[Glenn]

I hear you on TNF. While they do make snow there, it's probably not as much as the other trails. It's certainly spot on with grooming only after weather events. I'm guessing they list it as natural so people don't think they'll go over there and find steeper groomers.

 

[reefer]

Look again. Trails are grouped according to catagory. Chute, Plummet, Free Fall, Ripcord, etc.... all rated Classic. Same for Sunbrook. New ownership did start this when they took over at least last year if not the year before.

 

[Newpylong]

Yes, snowmaking trails on the North Face and Sunbrook marked as Classic, at least they were last year.

 

[drjeff]

I love the final paragraph about snowreporting/trail count changes/tree areas that Mount Snow had on the bottom of the table cards they have in the base loadge this past weekend. It was so straight forward that I took a pic of it

"In short, you come to Mount Snow for a getaway, not a hassle. Enjoy 588 acres of the best quality snow on the east coastand know when we say 2 feet of powder is on the ground we mean it. On the flipside when we say it's raining out we'll catch you at Cuzzin's for a drink and some wings!"

 

[drjeff]

I love the final paragraph about snowreporting/trail count changes/tree areas that Mount Snow had on the bottom of the table cards they have in the base loadge this past weekend. It was so straight forward that I took a pic of it

"In short, you come to Mount Snow for a getaway, not a hassle. Enjoy 588 acres of the best quality snow on the east coastand know when we say 2 feet of powder is on the ground we mean it. On the flipside when we say it's raining out we'll catch you at Cuzzin's for a drink and some wings!"

BTW, the entire blurb about Mount Snow's snow reporting is now (atleast today it was) included on their website's detail snowreport, down below the daily comments section

 

[jaywbigred]

Anyone understand why they would open Grommet and put features on same, but not run the lift? Make the kiddies hike to burn off all those calories from summer ice cream and halloween candy?

As of today's snow report...

http://www.mountsnow.com/trail_lift.php

 

[jaywbigred]

Also, they currently have open 190 acres of skiing, and that is the same amount they "plan to have open" for the weekend. But its only Tuesday, and the forecast is for some natural snow + much colder temps later in the week...

So are they just playing it safe and underestimating?

 

[drjeff]

Anyone understand why they would open Grommet and put features on same, but not run the lift? Make the kiddies hike to burn off all those calories from summer ice cream and halloween candy?

As of today's snow report...

http://www.mountsnow.com/trail_lift.php

Grommet was a non-holiday mid-week hike to park all last year. And from hiking it with my kids a few times, not a big deal to do.

You could hike it mid afternoon last year when the chair was spinning and still see LOTS of fresh cord on/around the features. Just not too many folks using it midweek

 

[drjeff]

Also, they currently have open 190 acres of skiing, and that is the same amount they "plan to have open" for the weekend. But its only Tuesday, and the forecast is for some natural snow + much colder temps later in the week...

So are they just playing it safe and underestimating?

My guess would be a quick 24-36 hours of resurfacing (maybe more for base building purposes on some trails) and then back into expansion mode. Based on that, resurfacing should hopefully be done by Friday before they start looking to new stuff. Wouldn't suprise me to see Sunbrook getting some gun time at some point this weekend in an effort to get another part of the mountain open ahead of X-mas week. I'd bet that Freefall will have guns running this weekend

 

[Newpylong]

I wouldnt pay attention to the estimate at this point - they are making snow already one more terrain.

 

[jaywbigred]

And I gather from my gf, who was up last weekend, but didn't ski (gasp!), that they were running the Grommet list. I should have made that clear in my post that I was mostly concerned about it running on the weekend.