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Mountain Creek - 2/5/2009

St. Bear

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Date Skied: Thursday, Feb 5, 2009

Resort or Ski Area: Mountain Creek

Conditions: Packed Powder/Hardpack. Roughly 50/50 split between the two. There was a lot of loose granular and drifted snow to be found on the edges of the trails. Fairly windy for a small Jersey mountain.

Trip Report: I was pleasantly surprised by the conditions at Mountain Creek. I know they got a few inches earlier in the week, I figured that after a few days and windy conditions it would have gotten blown off and packed down. That was not the case. Heading down the Eagles and Zero G I had no trouble grabbing edges and making big carves. I went over the Granite were I usually spend most of my time, but they were having issues with the lift and had to use the backup diesel motor, which made it exceptionally slow, so I bailed and went back over to Vernon. I had wanted to ski Pipeline for the first time this season, but I just didn't have the patience. Then they shut down Zero G for racing school (or something like that), and I was pretty much stuck on the Eagles. I got bored after 3 or 4 consecutive runs on the same trail so I left after 2.5 hours.

One interesting note was that I saw some kids (probably around 15) poaching directly under the Cab lift. Some of the lines looked like they were a lot of fun, and in better condition than I would have expected. It got me thinking that they should open that up as a double black ungroomed trail. It's pretty much cleared already, they would just have to get rid of the smaller brushes and can keep the larger trees. I wonder if they have a suggestion e-mail box?
 

Dr Skimeister

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Years ago in the incarnation as Vernon Valley, the route that is now under the Cab WAS a trail, Straightaway. It was diamond rated. An extremely narrow trail with lift towers in the middle of it for what used to be the summit double chair.
 

4aprice

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Years ago in the incarnation as Vernon Valley, the route that is now under the Cab WAS a trail, Straightaway. It was diamond rated. An extremely narrow trail with lift towers in the middle of it for what used to be the summit double chair.

You're right that it was a trail, but Straightaway was under the old Yellow chair and went T2B. (now called Eagle Hunt I think) It still exists today under another name. Under the cab (or Blue or Cabin Chair) was a trail but it was rarely open. There is a web site I believe called Skier.net that has a page on the Old Vernon Valley Ski Area. I skied VV when first opened and it was alot of fun. After the merger with Great Gorge things really changed. They became so concerned with trails crossing Turnpike (maybe for good reason) that they rarely opened the top of Straightaway and gave up on the trail under what is now the Cab. Never enjoyed skiing there after the merger, and am not a big fan of the current Mountain Creek.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

The site is skiernet.com
 
Last edited:

MikeD

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Jan 28, 2009
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I am planning to daytrip mtncreek on wed 2/18...any info on how it is skiing after all the warm weather is appreciated...their conditions report is pretty hard to believe after the week we have had
 

hardline

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it got soft today around two. there are some hard spots. not sure what the high is suposed to be wensday but i would suggest being there for opening and getting a good 2 hours of high speed runs in. ill be back again tomorrow for day 50 at the creek.
 
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