Pat's Peak - 12/20/09

[speden]

Date skied: Sunday 12/20
Conditions: Somewhat variable, loose granular/powder, packed powder, ungroomed manmade, about 20 degrees all day, variable winds

Had a long drive up this morning with the storm making the trip through Boston and heading north a slow drive averaging about 40mph. About 20 minutes away from Pat's, the storm edge suddenly stopped and the roads were dry. Crowd's were light with enough to fill the lodge at lunchtime, but they only needed to spin about half the lifts.

Lot's of snowmaking going on a Pat's today. On arrival it said they were 100% open, but that was a slight exaggeration I'd say. At one point my wife was trying to take squall line down and found it roped off. It was her first day out this season and she was only up for easy green's today, so she was stuck there with only blue trails to get down. Kind of traumatized her and she called it a day early. Hurricane didn't look open either, with no bumps yet and not a track on it.

The turbulence park is open, but seemed to be pretty basic, and there was no sign of the new F5 terrain park yet. There were considerably more trails open than a week ago, so I got to hit some of those this time with one of my sons. There was some strong wind on the runouts on the skier's right side of the mountain, almost bringing us to a standstill at points.

Quite a wide variation in snow surfaces on different trails. Some were skiing very slow with lots of loose grabby snow, while other areas were more hard packed and rutted. They must have had some high winds out there because there were a fair number of twigs and pinecones blown on to the trails.

It was a good first day out for the family overall, but I forgot how much extra work it is to get the whole family organized for a day of skiing. Coming home and having to shovel what seemed like a foot of snow off the driveway was a nice workout too!

From the base lodge

Riding the double

Part of Turbulence Park

Quite a few fanguns cranking out snow

Lots of snowmaking on Hurricane

 

[RootDKJ]

Cool. Looks like a nice place.

 

[Johnskiismore]

Nice pictures! Haven't skied there a llllooonngggg time, would love to get back sometime

 

[billski]

Thanks for the report. My youngest is campaigning to get me to Crotched this week. I totally forgot about Pats after staring at 9" in my yard. The madness starts Dec 26th, so I'm itching to get some board time in before then.

 

[speden]

Cool. Looks like a nice place.

Yeah, Pat's is a small hill, but it's very well run and they make the most of what they've got to work with.

 

[RootDKJ]

Yeah, Pat's is a small hill, but it's very well run and they make the most of what they've got to work with.

It looks like the place has a great vibe to it as well.

 

[speden]

Thanks for the report. My youngest is campaigning to get me to Crotched this week. I totally forgot about Pats after staring at 9" in my yard. The madness starts Dec 26th, so I'm itching to get some board time in before then.

One of my boys is asking for a trip to Crotched as well. We got there once last year very early season when most of the trails were closed. Looks like they are a little behind Pat's on getting fully open. I plan to get over there once they've got all the trails online.

 

[roark]

Cool. Looks like a nice place.

Yeah, Pat's is a small hill, but it's very well run and they make the most of what they've got to work with.

It looks like the place has a great vibe to it as well.

Absolutely. Very well run, family owned. Caters mostly to the after school crowd and local race teams, but still very enjoyable for erveryone. Older, slow chairs, but we're not talking 2k vert here anyway! The AZ race team participated in their beer league the last 3 years. For those in the Boston metro area it's totally worth a visit. Good pub upstairs too

 

[hammer]

The AZ race team participated in their beer league the last 3 years.

Whatever happened to this year?

 

[St. Bear]

Absolutely. Very well run, family owned. Caters mostly to the after school crowd and local race teams, but still very enjoyable for erveryone. Older, slow chairs, but we're not talking 2k vert here anyway! The AZ race team participated in their beer league the last 3 years. For those in the Boston metro area it's totally worth a visit. Good pub upstairs too

All this is true. I skied there throughout grade school on Wed nights. Last year was my first trip back in 14 years, and though a lot had changed (a few new trails, and a terrain park), the vibe was just as relaxed and friendly. Plus I got to check out the pub, and it's pretty nice for such a small hill.

 

[hammer]

Lots of snowmaking on Hurricane

Nice...would like to hit that before the bumps get to VW size...

 

[roark]

Whatever happened to this year?

I don't think it's happening, we all lost steam without BobR and tree_skier to bust stones.

djspookman and I will be at Crotched on Thursdays

 

[billski]

Absolutely. Very well run, family owned. Caters mostly to the after school crowd and local race teams, but still very enjoyable for erveryone. Older, slow chairs, but we're not talking 2k vert here anyway! The AZ race team participated in their beer league the last 3 years. For those in the Boston metro area it's totally worth a visit. Good pub upstairs too

After Xmas break, the school lesson program starts and God help you if you are there mid afternoon during the ticket change time (. The line to the rental shop sometimes stretches halfway down the parking lot (I'm NOT joking) as the munchins descend. By the time the Beer leagues arrive, the munchkins are mostly gone. It caters primarily to families, it's a much larger feeder hill than most, but it's a veritable money machine.