Mt. Snow, Tuesday, Dec 17, 2013

[billski]

I must admit that it sure felt like midwinter yesterday minus four degrees F at the base in the AM and snow showers all day. So I recognized that I was being overly critical (in my mind) yesterday as I skied. The mountain clearly got some NCP as the Sunday storm subsided. Either that or it was pounded firm. Whatever the groomers did was not noticeable. Edging was fine. It was nice to have a day with no wind and it felt warmer than it was. I was under-impressed with the snow conditions on the front side, groomers were rather scraped underneath, with about an inch of loose stuff on top. The feeding frenzy on Sun/Monday must have really scraped off the good stuff. One thing that always strikes me about Mt. Snow is how straight the trails are. You often can see really far lines of sight. Everyone else loved the groomers, so I figured I must be jaded and a cranky old man and decided I was the outlier.

The snow was falling about 1/2" per hour all day. It did get pretty heavy around noon - fog lights and strobes were required I'd say there was 5" when they stopped the lifts and it kept snowing until about 7pm.

After about four groomer runs, I made the move for the ungroomed and moguled stuff. So I switched out from 70 under foot to 96 and moved into the white room. There was a lot of sweet powder in there. In one area there was acres, literally acres of untouched, boot deep powder. Float and cruise. I kid you not. Stashes on the front and back, all on sanctioned, opened trails. Almost nobody on them. There was a lot of dissin' of the ungroomed on the lifts by season passholders. Rocks (huh? where?) grass, moguls (moguls were sweet and soft) and slow lifts. Yep, bad scene














I can't wait for January!

 

[spring_mountain_high]

looks nice...good report and pics, mr ski

 

[drjeff]

Nice couple of pics of Olympic in those 1st 2 shots.

And Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone about all the fun, within the boundries, tree terrain at my home mountain ;-)

 

[billski]

Nice couple of pics of Olympic in those 1st 2 shots.

And Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone about all the fun, within the boundries, tree terrain at my home mountain ;-)

I was wondering when you were going to take a break from implant procedures to weigh in on a MS thread

 

[billski]

Nice couple of pics of Olympic in those 1st 2 shots.

I don't think that was Olympic, but don't expect me to tell you where that is

 

[drjeff]

I don't think that was Olympic, but don't expect me to tell you where that is

Pretty sure that is Olympic. The 1st pic taken just below the "men's tee" entrance as we often call it, and the second one looking down from roughly the spot on Olympic where the formal entrance to the tree area formerly known as "The Trials" is. I might have skied that run once or twice over the years

And if you ever want to meet Mount Snow's GM, Kelly Pawlak, her office is literally the couple of windows over the left side of the trail map board you took a picture of! Then again over the course of a "normal" day at Mount Snow, many a guest will unknowingly encounter her either scanning tickets, running a lift line, cleaning off tables in the cafeteria, or doing a whole host of other jobs that need to get done on a daily basis. She is one completely hands on GM. And she manages to get a few runs in every now and then too!

 

[reefer]

Looks nice Bill. I guess Challenger in the pics? Started with groomers? Blasphemy.

 

[Euler]

I was lucky enough to ski this past Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday...what a stunning three days! Sorry to have missed you on Tuesday Billski...it would have been nice to meet you face to face. In addition to the predictable fun on Olympic, Plummet, Ledge, Uncles, and some of my other usual favorites, Shootout, under the Sundance Lift was ungroomed and had lots and lots of fund powder bumps, lips, waterbars etc to jump on, off, and around and provided tons of fun! I was with some friends new to the mountain and it was a great time giving them a whirlwind tour of the best Mount Snow has to offer. Man, when you know where to go Mount Snow really doesn't disappoint. I was really impressed by the resorts trail opening philosophy...they continue to be very liberal about opening trails with marginal conditions and placing "thin cover" signs at the top...We joked that our guiding philosophy yesterday seemed to wind up being to scan for the red thin cover signs and head right for those trail entrances...it worked and we had a blast!! Keeping my fingers crossed that thie coming warm up is short lived and not too disastrous. No matter what, it's been the best December I've had in a dozen years of skiing.

 

[billski]

Looks nice Bill. I guess Challenger in the pics? Started with groomers? Blasphemy.

First runs of the season. I have to remind myself to turn

 

[billski]

I was lucky enough to ski this past Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday...what a stunning three days! Sorry to have missed you on Tuesday Billski...it would have been nice to meet you face to face. In addition to the predictable fun on Olympic, Plummet, Ledge, Uncles, and some of my other usual favorites, Shootout, under the Sundance Lift was ungroomed and had lots and lots of fund powder bumps, lips, waterbars etc to jump on, off, and around and provided tons of fun! I was with some friends new to the mountain and it was a great time giving them a whirlwind tour of the best Mount Snow has to offer. Man, when you know where to go Mount Snow really doesn't disappoint. I was really impressed by the resorts trail opening philosophy...they continue to be very liberal about opening trails with marginal conditions and placing "thin cover" signs at the top...We joked that our guiding philosophy yesterday seemed to wind up being to scan for the red thin cover signs and head right for those trail entrances...it worked and we had a blast!! Keeping my fingers crossed that thie coming warm up is short lived and not too disastrous. No matter what, it's been the best December I've had in a dozen years of skiing.

I didn't decide until Monday afternoon, which is often my modus operandi. I am really bad with trail names and tend to just wander down anything that looks interesting. I found myself at the bottom of some lift and had no idea where I was. Of course, men don't ask for directions. Sunbrook maybe. Some interesting untracked stuff over there but not near as deep as I found in other places. I skied under a lot of places with closed lifts.

"Thin cover" has a different meaning at Mt. Snow than it does at say, Mad River, Magic or Burke. When I think "thin cover" I think dirt and gravel. There were several trails roped off that would have qualified for thin cover and I was really wanting to hit them. I didn't want to get yelled at Cripes, I got yelled at for putting my lift ticket on my goggle strap. Sorry sir! Usually thin cover means, in sections, but the remainder of the slope would be heaven.

I can't remember where, but last year my daughter and I came to a slamming halt when confronted by a washout about 15 feet long, across the whole breadth of the hill to the adjacent steep/cliff. Now THAT was thin cover!

 

[Euler]

I didn't decide until Monday afternoon, which is often my modus operandi. I am really bad with trail names and tend to just wander down anything that looks interesting. I found myself at the bottom of some lift and had no idea where I was. Of course, men don't ask for directions. Sunbrook maybe. Some interesting untracked stuff over there but not near as deep as I found in other places. I skied under a lot of places with closed lifts.

"Thin cover" has a different meaning at Mt. Snow than it does at say, Mad River, Magic or Burke. When I think "thin cover" I think dirt and gravel. There were several trails roped off that would have qualified for thin cover and I was really wanting to hit them. I didn't want to get yelled at Cripes, I got yelled at for putting my lift ticket on my goggle strap. Sorry sir! Usually thin cover means, in sections, but the remainder of the slope would be heaven.

I can't remember where, but last year my daughter and I came to a slamming halt when confronted by a washout about 15 feet long, across the whole breadth of the hill to the adjacent steep/cliff. Now THAT was thin cover!

Sorry the thin cover wasn't thin enough for you. It sounds like you enjoyed your day anyway.

 

[drjeff]

Sorry the thin cover wasn't thin enough for you. It sounds like you enjoyed your day anyway.

I didn't decide until Monday afternoon, which is often my modus operandi. I am really bad with trail names and tend to just wander down anything that looks interesting. I found myself at the bottom of some lift and had no idea where I was. Of course, men don't ask for directions. Sunbrook maybe. Some interesting untracked stuff over there but not near as deep as I found in other places. I skied under a lot of places with closed lifts.

"Thin cover" has a different meaning at Mt. Snow than it does at say, Mad River, Magic or Burke. When I think "thin cover" I think dirt and gravel. There were several trails roped off that would have qualified for thin cover and I was really wanting to hit them. I didn't want to get yelled at Cripes, I got yelled at for putting my lift ticket on my goggle strap. Sorry sir! Usually thin cover means, in sections, but the remainder of the slope would be heaven.

I can't remember where, but last year my daughter and I came to a slamming halt when confronted by a washout about 15 feet long, across the whole breadth of the hill to the adjacent steep/cliff. Now THAT was thin cover!

Well it is called "Mount Snow" and not "Mount Dirt" after all!

(The fact that the property was bought almost 60 yrs ago from a farmer named Rueben Snow I'm sure is just pure coincidence in the big picture name scheme )

Sent from my DROID RAZR using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[ScottySkis]

Maybe I go here this Saturday weather doesn't poor to bad to Sunday.

 

[ctenidae]

Heading up Tuesday for a few days- glad to hear it's doing well. Hopefully not too much NCP this weekend.