Mt. Ellen 2/22

[hiroto]

Date(s) Skied: 2/22

Resort or Ski Area: Mt. Ellen

Conditions:PP, ice

Trip Report:

After spending a couple days at Lincoln, moved over to Mt. Ellen. Lincoln was in brutal condition so my hope was not high but was pleasantly surprised. While most of the groomer at Lincoln were pretty icy, groomers like Elbow and Rum-run was in a really good shape that I could make many turn right at the middle of the course for a pretty long time without feeling any ice at all.

Since bumps at Lincoln was pretty rock solid, I wasn't expecting too much here either. But Exterminator was much more manageable than middle earth was (being wider helps to have more option), although lower crusty surface was as bad as Liftline was.
What surprising was the condition of bumps on hammerhead/the cliffs/tumbler. Yes, cover was thin, but they were more soft than ice and plenty fun to ski. In addition, easy bumps on Looking Good was fair to be called power bumps.

Now, the final surprise. Toward the end of the day, I went to check out semi tough woods. Eden at Lincoln was icy bumps with crusts in between, so I was expecting something similarly uncomfortable. But to my big surprised, it was absolutely in powder condition. Yes cover was thin and tracked out, but I didn't encounter anything I could call ice or crust. Everything was soft in that wood.

In addition to all this, there were absolutely no lift line and on many occasion, I had slope to myself.

So my question. Is this common for Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen to have this vast difference in condition? How did they manage to stay in much better shape after the warm and freeze cycle over the weekend?

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice. Monday was cold, but the skiing was getting better. As to the conditions, this is an illustration of how traffic makes a real difference. Lincoln Peak has much more traffic and the snow quality suffers.

Glad that you found the goods. To answer your question as to if it is always better at Mount Ellen, well, that is where I ski most of my season by choice and I will plead the fifth so as not to tempt too many to come over and see for themselves.

 

[skierbum]

Did you hit FIS or Black Diamond? I might go there on Friday, and those are 2 of my favorite trails.

Also, was Castlerock on Lincoln in bad shape?

 

[WWF-VT]

Last Sunday FIS was icy and polished to a shine by the wind and reports are that it hasn't gotten much better this week. Keep you fingers crossed for snow on Friday.

 

[thetrailboss]

Forecasts indicate wet snow for Friday which will stick to the base. This equals good skiing!

 

[BushMogulMaster]

As to the conditions, this is an illustration of how traffic makes a real difference. Lincoln Peak has much more traffic and the snow quality suffers.

Believe it or not, TB, that's not the reason. If you look at daily visits at each mountain, and then calculate skier density per acre, on average we have the same number of skiers per acre at Mt. Ellen as we have at LP. Mt. Ellen is ~1/3 of the acres, and usually does about 1/3 of the skiers (plus or minus, obviously) each day.

 

[thetrailboss]

Believe it or not, TB, that's not the reason. If you look at daily visits at each mountain, and then calculate skier density per acre, on average we have the same number of skiers per acre at Mt. Ellen as we have at LP. Mt. Ellen is ~1/3 of the acres, and usually does about 1/3 of the skiers (plus or minus, obviously) each day.

What is the reason as you see it on the ground? I just notice that the groomed runs are more compacted and get skied out so fast and the natural runs are tracked out.

 

[hiroto]

Did you hit FIS or Black Diamond? I might go there on Friday, and those are 2 of my favorite trails.

Also, was Castlerock on Lincoln in bad shape?

I didn't hit FIS or Black Diamond. FIS looked really icy, black diamond less so. But while I was riding chairs, I never seen a single person skiing them and I didn't want to be the first one to be stuck there in misery

 

[hiroto]

Mt. Ellen 2/23

2nd day at Mt. Ellen saw more crowed than yesterday. I noticed that one thing about yesterday was that cold weather must have kept many people away from the mountain.
Warmer weather definitely brought out more people.

Groomers got noticeably more icy than yesterday but still much better than what I saw at LP on Monday. I was disappointed that Looking Good got quite a bit more traffic and the bumps got icy. But later, I found Hammerhead still having powdery bumps. It must be hidden away nicely that not many people find their way down there.

And I ended the day with three runs through Semi Tough Woods, which stayed powdery and fun.

I'm heading to LP tomorrow. Hopefully warm weather will loosen up the mountain quite a bit.