Mt Snow Thread

[drjeff]

No dr Jeff on the first chair?

Unfortunately I was up at the Okemo Mountain School today taking my US ski and snowboard association Alpine Officials certification exam...

My wife was kind enough to get one of the magnets for our refrigerator, and both she and my son were impressed with the new lift!

I'll get my 1st ride on it next weekend

 

[jaytrem]

I was right behind you on chair 6!!! Nice chair will be interesting to see how it flows on a Saturday.

I was a few chairs behind you. Cookies were quite good! We're already making good use of the chair. They shut off the guns on Hop around 2, so we lapped that for 5 or 6 straight. Lots of fun on the whales! The bubble line was super short all day, so there was almost nobody riding Sundance. Most of the time when we were at the base there wasn't anybody else headed for it. Will be interesting to see how crowded it gets on busy days. I suspect it won't cut down the bubble line much at all, but might make the quad line a bit shorter.

 

[skimagic]

I checked out the new Sundance chair yesterday. It was having some issues with a delayed start, then loading every other chair, and sometimes, every third chair. It also ran slow at times. The offload is small but not much could be done there.
During busy times there will be an issue with collision avoidance where long john cuta across the end of canyon on its way to the main base, which Sundance lift users will have to ford to get the lift. A light crowd was there yesterday but a cutover swarm of high speed boarders almost hit me there.

other lifts with issues were challenger, it would not start for a bit- someone mentioned that happened Monday also. And the summit quad, that kept stopping, and if you were lucky, you were in a snowgun blast . Tons of guns were firing all over the main mountain. things are looking up!

 

[drjeff]

Snowdance opened today. Should be getting Nitro (and the Nitro quad) and Mineshaft and possibly Inferno in the next day or 2, Lodge should be opening soon (which means they'll spin the Bluebird again once they're done making snow on the upper section of Lodge) and a whaled up Plummet should be seeing a rope drop as well very soon.

If the 10 day forecast holds remotely true, should be heading into the busy Christmas Week with the vast majority of snowmaking terrain open and most, if not all lifts spinning. This basic goal of the West Lake snowmaking upgrade a few years ago, which was to have all of the snowmaking terrain open for Christmas Week seems like is working as planned

 

[GregoryIsaacs]

Maybe we'll get some natural terrain open too! What a turnaround for the valley. They will need every lift spinning to keep up with the hordes that are likely to come. Guess we'll find out about the new lifts on peak days sooner rather than later!

 

[ThatGuy]

Long John is going to be a shooting gallery.

 

[drjeff]

Long John is going to be a shooting gallery.

Been that way for the 40 years or so I have been skiing Mount Snow.

Not sure how the topography (and the US Forest Service) could ever allow that to change, even though it now is a little better on the mid section from basically the top of Ridge down to Carinthia corner after they widened it 5ish years ago now

 

[Newpylong]

Long John is going to be a shooting gallery.

My first "big" mountain was Mount Snow in 1988 or so. After a quick trip up the Yankee Clipper, Long John still resembled Storrow Drive back then. Nothings changed.

 

[SLyardsale]

My first "big" mountain was Mount Snow in 1988 or so. After a quick trip up the Yankee Clipper, Long John still resembled Storrow Drive back then. Nothings changed.

when they do early access on saturdays at 7:30am, a strategy is to ski long john first - it's about the only time you can navigate it non stop from top to bottom on a weekend

 

[connersw]

Never skied Mount Snow before. Will be skiing Hunter Fri and debating heading up for Sat.

What are the chances more terrain opens on the North Face considering what it looked like pre-storm and historical precedent? How crowded is that area typically on weekends?

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Never skied Mount Snow before. Will be skiing Hunter Fri and debating heading up for Sat.

What are the chances more terrain opens on the North Face considering what it looked like pre-storm and historical precedent? How crowded is that area typically on weekends?

North face will be least crowded area but I have seen weekends with 15 min lines over there and this could well be one of those weekends with people itching to get out and a well publicized storm.

 

[drjeff]

Never skied Mount Snow before. Will be skiing Hunter Fri and debating heading up for Sat.

What are the chances more terrain opens on the North Face considering what it looked like pre-storm and historical precedent? How crowded is that area typically on weekends?

Plummet is almost certain to open (they've been making snow on it the last few days. I believe that Fallen Timbers is in the same scenario). Whether or not they drop the rope on some of the natural snow terrain on the Northface will depend on just how much snow falls and what the wind does with it.

Winds on Saturday as the storm pulls away will likley be an issue with some lifts (not an uncommon thing at Mount Snow as a Nor'easter pulls away) if they gust as are predicted by some meterologists

 

[ThatGuy]

I’ll pop over there Monday once the riff-raff is gone, hoping for a greatly expanded trail count.

 

[drjeff]

I’ll pop over there Monday once the riff-raff is gone, hoping for a greatly expanded trail count.

Guessing by Monday if this storm delivers as they're expecting, with the exception of the Sunbrook area (apparently that won't be opening for another week if the new lift construction and testing goes as they hope due to the presence of the constrcution crew and some equipment in the base terminal area in particluar) most of the rest of the mountain, short of maybe Ripcord and a few select snwmaking trails where they may have active equipment deployed across the trail, could very well be in play.

Heck, a few of my friends who live full time in the Mount Snow area and are on the hill most days, have mentioned in a group text we have that even if this storm ends up a total dud (not looking that way) that with all the trails they've been making snow on this week, that this weekend would have probably double the acreage open compared to last weekend

 

[GregoryIsaacs]

Any word on the Sunbrook Quad? Were now a week away from go-time and I haven't heard anything about a potential opening date yet. Anyone see movement over the weekend? Hope the storm didn't delay things.

Fingers crossed so we can see if these new improvements will help solve the crowding issues.

 

[drjeff]

Any word on the Sunbrook Quad? Were now a week away from go-time and I haven't heard anything about a potential opening date yet. Anyone see movement over the weekend? Hope the storm didn't delay things.

Fingers crossed so we can see if these new improvements will help solve the crowding issues.

I 100% saw it moving yesterday. Heard numerous people, who are in the loop, say that load testing and final inspection will be happening early this week, and it should be good to carry people late week. Now if only mother nature would cooperate late week so the mtn ops folks can get the snazzy, big cow bell that Doppylmayr gives to the resort when they finish installing a new lift, and not need rain gear at that ceremony!

 

[Smellytele]

Can the title change to just Mt Snow removing "21-22 season"

 

[skimagic]

Sundance lift kept shutting down first hour or so after opening. i any insight as to what the issue is ?

 

[urungus]

Nice conditions today. Started off with my favorite route down the main face, linking up all 3 black trails
Lodge / Ledge / Somerset Rd / Pat’s Pitch / Sap Bucket / Yard Sale



Entrance to Ledge:


Looking back up at the biggest Ledge, getting scraped off, I often struggle with this part, too old to send it…


Looking down Ledge:

 

[urungus]

A few shots from the Northface:

Olympic:


Olympic:


Challenger:


Challenger:


Plummet:


Jaws: