Mt Snow 20-21 Intel

[drjeff]

Wow that's bad. Crazy not to be skiing core trails like Ridge or Lodge at close.

Lodge really hasn't been a player in the end of the season game for the last couple of seasons since they stopped taking the bubbles off the haul rope every night. Snowmaking on Lodge from basically where the pitch just above where Link crosses near the top of the Ego lift, on up through the narrow stretch to the junction of Exhibition/Lodge/Ledge near the summit, requires that the bubbles be off the haul rope or else they get pummeled by the snowmaking product and the bubbles and the lift towers need to be cleared. That was a lesson learned the 1st season the bubble operated, and after that when they make snow on that part of Lodge, the bubbles come off the haul rope for the snowmaking run. So even in a "normal" year, let alone this COVID year, Lodge just doesn't get as many snowmaking runs, and base depth builds, as it used to in the past.

As for Ridge, based on what I saw first hand last weekend, it's probably still skiable, however it sounds like, and wouldn't surprise me after seeing the Little John/Long John options from the summit to get to the top of Ridge, that those trails, not Ridge itself, is the major issue. Not saying that Ridge would be full width at all right now, however there was still a good 2 to 3 feet of base along skiers/riders left the majority of the top flat and down through the pitch

 

[spiderpig]

So you have to drive to get between base areas, right?

 

[drjeff]

So you have to drive to get between base areas, right?

Yup, or take the shuttle, which I think is still running

 

[jaytrem]

Snow report says it isn't.

 

[Newpylong]

Isnt this the first year they've contracted just to Carinthia and utilized all that snow that just sits there? I think many folks hae wondered why they haven't done that in the past.

 

[ss20]

Isnt this the first year they've contracted just to Carinthia and utilized all that snow that just sits there? I think many folks hae wondered why they haven't done that in the past.

I would make tons of sense to knock down the park and do a couple bonus weekends over there. They'd have a serious advantage late April/first weekend of may with their proximity to the population centers with everyone else closer closed.

 

[drjeff]

Isnt this the first year they've contracted just to Carinthia and utilized all that snow that just sits there? I think many folks hae wondered why they haven't done that in the past.

They did it once before, probably that awful season about 8 to 10yrs ago when the blow torch showed up in mid March and didn't leave for about 10 days or so.

They were Carinthia only, and even pushed enough snow around on Milky Way to let them spin the Bear Trap chair as well

 

[ctdubl07]

Ran up this weekend to empty fridge and close up. Carinthia could limp along with Nitro and Mineshaft but struggling eslewhere. Fools gold was open but was like hopscotching down. Near zero wait in Nitro line and Sunday the place was empty. I appreciate that their keeping mtn open but I see no reason to with so few visitors and none paying for tickets.
Hit Vail last week for 4 days. Incredible...60's, sunny and entire mtn was open with plenty of snow thanks to that late March storm.
Awesome end to what was a really good season all in all for us.

 

[drjeff]

Ran up this weekend to empty fridge and close up. Carinthia could limp along with Nitro and Mineshaft but struggling eslewhere. Fools gold was open but was like hopscotching down. Near zero wait in Nitro line and Sunday the place was empty. I appreciate that their keeping mtn open but I see no reason to with so few visitors and none paying for tickets.
Hit Vail last week for 4 days. Incredible...60's, sunny and entire mtn was open with plenty of snow thanks to that late March storm.
Awesome end to what was a really good season all in all for us.

I thought Nitro yesterday is going to be a problem to keep open this week as mid trail, maybe 200 yards both uphill and downhill from the 2 remaining decent sized rollers on the trail, it was starting to get fairly thin, and then the last pitch on lower Fool's Gold just above the houses on skiers/riders right was showing more dirt than snow (seemed to be a bit more snow to push around by that one).

I could see next weekend potentially only being Gulch serviced by Heavy Metal, as even the section of Long John from the top of Nitro down to the top of Gulch seems like it may be a challenge to keep going. Fortunately the temps this week should be cooler than last week, so that will help slow the melting. And who knows what the rumored Friday time frame storm may end up bring??

 

[kingslug]

They're predicting over a foot.....figures

 

[dblskifanatic]

They're predicting over a foot.....figures

where are you seeing that?

 

[ThatGuy]

where are you seeing that?

 

[KustyTheKlown]

where are you seeing that?

many places.

here is snow-forecast.com

 

[kingslug]

Hopefully K gets some of this as they have good amount of terrain available...this will go to waste here.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

k should get it, sugarbush should get it, north of 89 looks like a bust. southern vt is bullseye. sucks there is no base and barely any lifts turning. only mount snow i think.

 

[cdskier]

where are you seeing that?

Even NWS is saying "Decent snow at elevation" is possible. Valleys may be all rain, but you'll see snow in the mountains if the storm materializes. Models are definitely showing 12+ possible in some locations in southern VT. (starting to see some agreement between the Euro, GFS, and even Canadian models where all 3 are showing the potential for decent snow in the southern greens.) Although as we've seen this winter, plenty of time for things to change between now and Friday. What the models show today could easily be way off...

Have begun to introduce some low likely PoPs
to central/southern zones where the best chance at precipitation
looks to be at this time from early Thursday through Friday. Ptype
will unfortunately come into play Thursday night into Friday with
soundings supporting snow levels down to around 1500 feet and the
potential for some decent higher elevation snow across the southern
Greens.

 

[kingslug]

We shall see

 

[dblskifanatic]

That will be interesting to see what materializes.

 

[kingslug]

I'm waiting for tomorrow nights report to see if I'm going.

 

[drjeff]

They're going to need a generous effort from Mother Nature with decent totals above 1900 feet (Mount Snow's rough base elevation) to get them to reopen the main face. It was sparse, and rightly so closed, on Sunday, and they had already done some decent amount of farming off of some of the trails on the main face to keep the few they had going on Sunday open. And even then, they may not choose to open the main face.