Mt Snow Thread

[Newpylong]

Are they not doing Ripcord this year?

 

[drjeff]

Are they not doing Ripcord this year?

All I know is they haven't made snow on it yet, and they have made snow on Committed, and Committed is open. I was kind of hoping that when they made snow the past few days that it would be on the list of trails under the guns, but I didn't read that it was, and none of my full time friends up there mentioned anything about seeing it under the guns in the various text threads I am a part of.

 

[skiur]

When you hear the chatter from patrol on our race radios we have, where the plan at the start of the day may be to open such and such a trail, and then AFTER patrol goes down that trail and radios in that the rope should be kept up because of very specific things they encountered on that trail, it is quite clear that the final call is from patrol and their assesment of the safety of the snow conditions on the trail and their ability to "reasonably" get a toboggan down that trail should they need to.

I hate to break it to the conspiracy theorists here, but it really is that simple.

And also for perspective, at my condo across 100 from the mountain, even in the flat areas that are relatively wind protected (I'd also add limited to sun exposure too, but that bright thing up in the sky has seemingly been absent the majority of the last almost 2 weeks!! ), the settled snowpack isn't even a foot deep. The snow/rain cycles haven't been too kind to the mountain, even if it appears from afar that thenatural snowpack, especially down low, is substantial. Just some objective observation

If the GM wanted them to have a more liberal approach to opening trails, they would.

 

[jaytrem]

I don't care where the decisions are coming from, I just think it sucks. It doesn't really matter if patrol has gone soft or if the GM wants a more Okemo approach.

 

[icecoast1]

All I know is they haven't made snow on it yet, and they have made snow on Committed, and Committed is open. I was kind of hoping that when they made snow the past few days that it would be on the list of trails under the guns, but I didn't read that it was, and none of my full time friends up there mentioned anything about seeing it under the guns in the various text threads I am a part of.

From whats going on with the unwillingness to open trails, Ripcord would probably be a waste as it would never open. Which is too bad, that's a fun trail

 

[GregoryIsaacs]

From whats going on with the unwillingness to open trails, Ripcord would probably be a waste as it would never open. Which is too bad, that's a fun trail

Along with ego alley, we have also seen the last of ripcord being open. Vail is sweet!

 

[drjeff]

Along with ego alley, we have also seen the last of ripcord being open. Vail is sweet!

Ego Alley (The trail) has been open for almost 2 weeks now, and skiing quite well I will say

 

[jaytrem]

Along with ego alley, we have also seen the last of ripcord being open. Vail is sweet!

Yeah, if they're concerned about getting a sled down One More Time in any conditions, I don't think they should ever open Ripcord.

 

[slatham]

Yes based on what I’ve heard at bromley and Magic patrol has the ultimate say on opening/closing a trail. That’s not to say the GM can’t push patrol, but if they stand firm I believe it’s a done deal.

 

[icecoast1]

Yes based on what I’ve heard at bromley and Magic patrol has the ultimate say on opening/closing a trail. That’s not to say the GM can’t push patrol, but if they stand firm I believe it’s a done deal.

The GM can find a new Patrol director that shares similar philosophies...

 

[Newpylong]

That is being petty and not something that would be done in reality. There are other qualities that are more valuable than whether the Director is liberal or conservative dropping roles.

There really are no guidelines as far as who has final say on opening terrain. Yes Patrol makes the call but if they are being obscenely unreasonable the GM (or more likely Operations Director) has every right to lean on them. It is a fine line though because good patrollers are hard to come by and if they all stand behind and trust their director you can only push them so far.

 

[Keelhauled]

A foot of solid snow is enough, barring ridiculous amounts of ledge or particularly steep faces (and this is Mount Snow we're talking about, haha, got'em), for a good cat operator to put a single pass down a trail and bridge water bars. It probably won't look perfect, but it would be safely skiable and give you your sled access. If the mountain's philosophy is that everything has to look perfect if the public is going to go on it then that's not going to work, but if you can accept a bit of dirt mixed in and some track marks left over, there's no reason you can't get it open even if 100% patrol access is required. So that's where your operations department has their say. Patrol works with the rest of the mountain, they're not the end all be all.

 

[cdskier]

A foot of solid snow is enough, barring ridiculous amounts of ledge or particularly steep faces (and this is Mount Snow we're talking about, haha, got'em), for a good cat operator to put a single pass down a trail and bridge water bars. It probably won't look perfect, but it would be safely skiable and give you your sled access. If the mountain's philosophy is that everything has to look perfect if the public is going to go on it then that's not going to work, but if you can accept a bit of dirt mixed in and some track marks left over, there's no reason you can't get it open even if 100% patrol access is required. So that's where your operations department has their say. Patrol works with the rest of the mountain, they're not the end all be all.

Patrol could also get out some shovels and fill in the water bars a bit as well by hand. I've seen patrol at Sugarbush do this on multiple occasions over the years on some of the natural terrain to help get it open. Threads like this make me continually glad I ski at a mountain where patrol is very aggressive in opening terrain.

 

[Smellytele]

Patrol could also get out some shovels and fill in the water bars a bit as well by hand. I've seen patrol at Sugarbush do this on multiple occasions over the years on some of the natural terrain to help get it open. Threads like this make me continually glad I ski at a mountain where patrol is very aggressive in opening terrain.

Sugarbush always has been I assume over multiple lead patrollers. So it is either culture or or an overall philosophy that gets passed on.
It seems some culture/ philosophy changed at snow. Who changed it?

 

[NYDB]

Sugarbush always has been I assume over multiple lead patrollers. So it is either culture or or an overall philosophy that gets passed on.
It seems some culture/ philosophy changed at snow. Who changed it?

I gave you your new lifts and paid parking. What else do you want? F'in ungrateful punters really.

 

[njdiver85]

Mount Snow ski patrol opened additional trails this afternoon. U would only know via word of mouth as the app listed them as closed. This highlights two issues .. 1. lack of staffing to open up trails and 2. Piss poor communication. But I guess they have our money so why would they care.

 

[SLyardsale]

today 2/2

Uncles, still good
Olympic - mostly still good
Moon Beam - excellent

at 12:30 when I went past OMT, you could see it had been groomed but was still roped off
also - Grand Summit has not been de-iced yet - maybe they thought is would get warm enough today - but they still have work to do above tower 14 just above Somerset Rd xcut up to the summit, it's gonna be a busy pre superbowl weekend so surprised they didn't want that ready for first chair sat.

Timbers


Olympic



Moon Beam

 

[SLyardsale]

weekend update

omt never opened - a lot of other stuff did with plenty of cover - fun to ski some new stuff
grand summit broke - official announcement sat 8:16am sat 2/3 - 16 mins after lifts opened. unofficial announcement evening fri 2/2 from former employee
crowded lift lines w/o GSE on pre superbowl weekend
wonder if they broke GSE drive when they started it frozen solid on Fri 2/2 - 1 week after ice storm ended ??? don't know
navigating vail corrals with good intelligence helps (watch out for how many alternating merges per lane - idiotic corals at all lifts - shhhhhh)
pretty bluebird day on Sunday

 

[Newpylong]

Still no Ripcord...

 

[drjeff]

My "office" view today for the U14 race on Southbowl didn't suck!

truthfully one of the most spectacular scenery and Bluebird weekend's I have had! Sure a few lifts are broken, and some ropes were up (although PATROL dropped a bunch after using their chainsaws and hand saws to ckear numerous downed trees and branches, but wow was it awesome to be outside, on snow, sliding down a hill this past weekend!