Pats Peak - Vortex

[urungus]

Went to Pats Peak for the first time ever this afternoon and thought it was a great place. They sold out of day tickets but had 3 lifts going to the top, Hurricane Triple and Vortex Double were pretty much ski on and the Summit Triple had maybe a 5 minute wait. Groomers were in excellent shape but ungroomed Hurricane / Vortex were treacherous scraped off icy bumps, but seem like they would be a lot of fun when snow is softer.

Q about the Vortex trail, it was roped off maybe a quarter or third of the way down the steep part, and I got shunted over to Hurricane. They are advertising themselves as 100% open. Do they ever allow skiing under the entire length of the Vortex chair ? Looking at the 2001 trail map (current one is ambiguous), it seems like I should have been able to follow the Vortex chairlift a little further to where it ends by merging onto FIS Race Trail on skiers left, not Hurricane on skiers right. Didn’t see much evidence of poaching under the Vortex chair, are they strict about that ?

 

[Smellytele]

I have skied it but it is not a trail. Both under vortex lift or under the summit triple

 

[thetrailboss]

Went to Pats Peak for the first time ever this afternoon and thought it was a great place. They sold out of day tickets but had 3 lifts going to the top, Hurricane Triple and Vortex Double were pretty much ski on and the Summit Triple had maybe a 5 minute wait. Groomers were in excellent shape but ungroomed Hurricane / Vortex were treacherous scraped off icy bumps, but seem like they would be a lot of fun when snow is softer.

Q about the Vortex trail, it was roped off maybe a quarter or third of the way down the steep part, and I got shunted over to Hurricane. They are advertising themselves as 100% open. Do they ever allow skiing under the entire length of the Vortex chair ? Looking at the 2001 trail map (current one is ambiguous), it seems like I should have been able to follow the Vortex chairlift a little further to where it ends by merging onto FIS Race Trail on skiers left, not Hurricane on skiers right. Didn’t see much evidence of poaching under the Vortex chair, are they strict about that ?

View attachment 52819

So my input is now quite dated.....2005 dated. In 2004 I asked Pats Peak on the AlpineZone Challenge if they would ever consider opening Vortex Liftline as a trail for skiing and riding on its full length and do some snowmaking to open it. As you said, then it was mostly roped off but I did see it once or twice open for the first third. Kris Blomback could have said "hell no" but he actually replied that they would consider it. Well, in 2004-2005 they not only opened it but made snow so folks could ski it. Looks like the trailmap you attach reflects that change. So they did open it full length and I've skied it. It is fun. Hopefully they will get it open again.

And it memory serves me right, after a big snowstorm they opened both liftlines for skiing and a lot of folks enjoyed them. They add some nice expert options to an otherwise groomer mountain.

The first time I skied there in early 2004 I had low expectations but decided to give it a try. That first visit I remember riding up the Hurricane Triple and looking down thinking, "holy shit, that is legit steep!" Relatively short vertical but they pack in a lot of terrain on that peak. It punches above its weight.

 

[urungus]

Thanks for the replies. To be clear, the current setup represents the entire length of the “Vortex” trail ? Can I honestly say I have skiied the entire length of the “Vortex” trail ? (One of my bucket list items is to ski every double black in New England.) I drew a red arrow on the current trail map below showing what I experienced. Trail map is misleading as it implies the Vortex trail continues straight down the lift line …

 

[thetrailboss]

Thanks for the replies. To be clear, the current setup represents the entire length of the “Vortex” trail ? Can I honestly say I have skiied the entire length of the “Vortex” trail ? (One of my bucket list items is to ski every double black in New England.) I drew a red arrow on the current trail map below showing what I experienced. Trail map is misleading as it implies the Vortex trail continues straight down the lift line …

View attachment 52828



View attachment 52829

Ah, I see why you are interested. The red arrow represents the "cut-off" route, as a I recall, that they used in 2004-2005 when snow was lower and they had not opened the lower part. I've skied the entire lift line after a big dump--it goes straight down to the Knight Slope. There was old lift structure blocking some of the route but one could ski around it. And damn James Niehues paints accurate maps!

 

[thebigo]

(One of my bucket list items is to ski every double black in New England.)

Do you have a list? How far along are you?

 

[Smellytele]

Ah, I see why you are interested. The red arrow represents the "cut-off" route, as a I recall, that they used in 2004-2005 when snow was lower and they had not opened the lower part. I've skied the entire lift line after a big dump--it goes straight down to the Knight Slope. There was old lift structure blocking some of the route but one could ski around it. And damn James Niehues paints accurate maps!

There are old lift structures are under the peak triple as well. The top part under the peak triple is also part of vortex. Are sure you skied understand the vortex or under the peak triple after the cutoff?

 

[thetrailboss]

There are old lift structures are under the peak triple as well. The top part under the peak triple is also part of vortex. Are sure you skied understand the vortex or under the peak triple after the cutoff?

I've skied under both.

 

[nh2maboarder]

They got pretty good snow on Saturday and I went on Sunday, and it wasn't open the whole way down. But, it looked like there was a legal cut across from Hurricane and you could get onto the bottom third where there was some fresh snow.

 

[thebigo]

Heading to pats tomorrow for the first time in a while. What is their lodge policy. Do they hassle you for booting up indoors? How about storing boot bag in lodge?

 

[xlr8r]

You can boot up inside the lodge. They have racks outside on the deck to store your bags.

 

[Smellytele]

You can boot up inside the lodge. They have racks outside on the deck to store your bags.

I believe on the top level there are some inside racks