Mt. Snow TR Twofer: 11/28 and 11/30/2008

[Glenn]

Awesome two days! And a bunch of pics too boot.

Date(s) Skied: 11/28/2008: Black Friday

Resort or Ski Area: Mt. Snow

Conditions: Man made with a bit of natural mixed in. Nice packed powder. Cold temps with a bit of wind: 13F AM arrival, 20F PM Departure

Trip Report:

Melissa and I were on the mountain by about 9:15-9:30. The run of the morning was Snowdance. The Mt. Snow crew had blown a ton of snow and the run was just awesome. The morning started off a little cloudy, then the sun came out. We skied Snowdance for a bunch of runs before heading over to the North Face. We took a run on Chute which was pretty nice; fast hard pack, but not to scratchy. I was skiing my new twins, so we went over the Carinthia for a run. The terrain park on Nitro was busy, but the features were awesome. After that, we went back to the main mountain. We skied Standard a few times but spent a good deal of time on Snowdance. It was skied off a bit after lunch, but the edges still had plenty of soft snow.

Pics from 11/28:
At the top of Snowdance:

Melissa heading down to me (after I took the above pic)

Melissa posing as the sun is coming out:

Melissa had to adjust her boot before we headed out after lunch. Here's how things looked from the adirondacks outside the main lodge:

Date(s) Skied: 11/30/2008

Resort or Ski Area: Mt. Snow

Conditions: Cloudy, with afternoon snow! Temps in the 20's? I forgot to check.

Trip Report:

Wait a second. Who the hell goes skiing on day, skips a day and drives up a day later? Melissa had to work for a few hours on Saturday, plus we had plenty to do around the house. I also managed to squeak in an hour at the ski shop BSing with the guys there Saturday. Anyways....

We were in the slopes by 8:30 Sunday morning. Crowds were light today. Snowdance was pretty scratchy today. We tried Chute...same thing. The find of the AM was Mineshaft and Inferno over on Carinthia. Inferno didn't have any real features, just piles of snow. So it was pretty empty and unskied. Mineshaft is such a fun trail to bomb down at the end; so you can carry your speed at the flatter section near the snowmaking pond. Standard was pretty good today as well. Post lunch, Long John and Deer Run were actually good trails. They weren't that skied off and traffic wasn't bad at all. The snow rolled in around 1:30 and came down at a pretty good clip. Another solid day at Mt. Snow.

Summit, looking towards the Nothface:

A pic from Chute:

Melissa on Chute:

 

[Glenn]

Long John near Carinthia:

Shot from the base lodge...It's snowing!

Getting ready to roll after loading up and cleaning off the Jeep:

Heading South on Rt. 100:

All smiles after a good day of skiing. Plus, it's snowing out and we're burlying back to CT in a 4WD Jeep.

 

[reefer]

Nice report, better pics, and even better dedication........ two day trips! Very impressive.

 

[Glenn]

Thanks! We can blast up to Mt. Snow in about 2 hours and 15 minutes from our house in CT. My inlaws live in Western Mass; and we stayed there Thanksgiving night and again Sat night. That shaves an hour or so off the drive. Helps with getting up there early in the AM.

 

[RootDKJ]

Wow, looks like some awesome skiing going on up there

 

[marcski]

How were the crowds on Friday? looked pretty crowded from those pics...The snow and conditions did look impressive.

 

[MommaBear]

Snowdance was our trail of choice as well this weekend. Skier's left had great swells giving the kids and hubby lots of air and laughs. And the edge had lots of snow to practice my tight turns in. Bumps on Chute were "ok" on Saturday (better last weekend), gone on Sunday. Ride back to CT took just under 3 hours vs the usual 2 (door to door) due to the mixed precip right on down thru Mass.

 

[Glenn]

How were the crowds on Friday? looked pretty crowded from those pics...The snow and conditions did look impressive.

It does look crowded now that I look at that pic. But a lot of people were just standing outside of the ropes at the lift line. So there really wan't a lift line at all. Longest we waited on Friday was maybe a minute or two.

MommaBear,
How do you get back to CT? We take 100 to 112 and jump on 91 on Greenfield. 100/112 actually wasn't that bad. Although, that hill (I think it's in Colrain MA?) was brutal. I saw a few vehicles make it part of the way up and have to turn around. Luckily, we have 4wd and scooted right up.

 

[MommaBear]

How do you get back to CT? We take 100 to 112 and jump on 91 on Greenfield. 100/112 actually wasn't that bad. Although, that hill (I think it's in Colrain MA?) was brutal. I saw a few vehicles make it part of the way up and have to turn around. Luckily, we have 4wd and scooted right up.

We go the same route. We were on the road about 2pm, just as the road was getting coated. I know the hill you are talking about. Thankfully, it wasn't too slick yet when we went thru. It just took a while to get there due to the slow moving vehicle in front of me - that I refused to pass due to the assumed slick condition (to my husband's dismay). But it was funny, just after crossing the one lane bridge a gold Suburban came from 2 cars behind me, passing 4 of us total, and took off into the horizon. We get to the Exxon in Greenfield and guess who is sitting there? We gased up and were back on the road before them. Why risk it when it doesn't get you there any faster? 91 right on down thru Springfield was just really slow moving traffic. Which we expected on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

 

[Glenn]

What a difference an hour or so makes! That hill was pretty coated by the time we got there. 91 wasn't too bad at all though. Once we got a little south of Greenfield, it opened right up. We sailed through Hartford too; never went under 60mph which was really amazing considering it was Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[RISkier]

We did a last minute trip to Mt. Snow and skied Saturday and Sunday. Really impressive conditions given the early season and relatively little help from mother nature. Not only are they making lots of snow, they are making really good snow. I don't recall anything I'd call real ice and not a lot of Eastern boiler plate, especially given the amount of skier traffic. Lift lines got pretty long Saturday and not surprisingly given the limited terrain, the slopes got pretty crowded as well. We did several laps on Chute on Sunday morning and thought it was skiing great. Fireworks display Saturday night was a welcome plus. I think the new ownership is making a huge effort to get it right. All-in-all a very good first and second day to start the season.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Not only are they making lots of snow, they are making really good snow. I don't recall anything I'd call real ice and not a lot of Eastern boiler plate, especially given the amount of skier traffic. .

The modern tower mounted polecats are great..Jack Frost/Big Boulder who are run by Peaks has significantly better manmade snow than Blue and Camelback..

 

[Glenn]

I certainly don't know enough about the Polecats to say anything with 100% certainty...however...they seem to put out a really good "man made" snow. It has a different feel to it IMHO.