Scariest ski trails in the northeast

[Edd]

On White Cap, I'd say Shockwave is harder.

I took someone down that last year, telling him beforehand it was going to be a bit hairy. Turns out they had GROOMED it that day. I thought that trail was NEVER groomed.

 

[WJenness]

I took someone down that last year, telling him beforehand it was going to be a bit hairy. Turns out they had GROOMED it that day. I thought that trail was NEVER groomed.

Yeah, during that uber long dry spell towards the end of last winter they groomed shockwave and agony at one point (and made a habit out of grooming top gun as well)...

I think it was just due to the extended dry spell with no hope for refresher snow...

Hopefully we don't get into a pattern like that again this year.

-w

 

[PomfretPlunge]

The Knob at Sonnenberg <oops, closed 20 years ago>

 

[Highway Star]

Caution: Epic thread.........

http://www.killingtonzone.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=22014

Sunday 3/23/08 - Death slides on Lower Ovation!!!

Anybody enjoy the grooming on lower-O this weekend?

They groomed HALF the trail!!!!

This would be fine except that the ungroomed half was super slick shiny glaze ice. Deadly.

We took one run down it. The groomed half was fine, with a couple spots of real bad ice. No big deal. Real nice on the far left from what I hear.

I was scoping out the ungroomed side, hoping for some spots with blown in pow.....no dice...80%+ blown off to glaze ice. I spotted a woman about 1/3rd down the pitch, out on the ungroomed ice....she had taken her skis off and was perched on a tiny spot of soft snow. I stopped and asked if I could help - she said she had been standing there for 15 minutes....had accidently skied over there when she missed her turn.

I was trying to help figure out how to get her off of there, when a guy about 100 feet above us veered into the ungroomed at about 30-35 mph.....he promply fell and lost his skis, and slid all the way to the bottom bouncing off ice bumps, head first. Probably a good 500+ ft, at least 30-40 mph. One of the scariest crashes/slides I've ever seen. The guy looked banged up, but he got up by himself after a minute. Standard advanced level skier.

At some point the woman dropped one of her skis. She then started working her way over very carefully. After about 5 minutes, death slider #2 shows up, and we get a repeat. His slide looked even more brutal, but he got right up and seemed to be fine. Again, 500+ ft at 30+ mph. He managed to shower us with spray and made the women drop the rest of her gear.

Two near misses....

Finally, after a few more minutes, she managed to work her way over.....and then what? I told her her best bet was to just slide down on the groomed, and try to stay in control. She went down facing the snow (not what I was thinking...duh) and was generally ok but got pulled over to the ungroomed at the end. Seemed to be alright. Not much else I could have done....?

Man, I wish I had video.....

Anyway, we get down to the bottom, and finally a ski patroller shows up on a snowmobile. We told him what just happened, and he said he had witnessed it from the base and came up. We suggested they close the trail until they can get it groomed. He said he would go talk to his boss.....trail stayed open the rest of the day, from what I could tell.

Seriously.....what the HECK are they thinking????

We have dual failures here - mountain ops for not grooming that half of the trail, and ski patrol not using proper judgement in opening the trail.

They are extremely lucky someone didn't get badly hurt or die.....

if the snow holds on and eventually turns to moguls...good job groomers!

the snow this weekend was so dry, it wasn't holding on to the base

send 30 people down lower O and whatever corderoy that was there is gone...voila!...ice.

You're missing the point kid. The groomed part was just fine. Edgeable hardpack. Sure, you could fall and slide on it, but it wouldn't be like sliding on a skating rink.

The ungroomed side was like a bumpy skating rink.

I've never seen someone accellerate like that down the hill after they fell. Never. One second they're more or less traversing, the next second they're zooming down the hill on their backs. Each of those guys easily picked up 20+ mph of downhill speed after they fell.

 

[jaja111]

Great Northern, early season.

Exactly what I thought when I read the title in the new posts. Just all year round from my experience though.

 

[Highway Star]

Great Northern, early season.

That's lower bunny buster you're thinking of, but thanks for playing.

 

[riverc0il]

I was wandering what people think the scariest ski trails in the Northeast are. I haven't skied many double blacks, but I heard White Heat is pretty scary. Anyway, what are YOUR scariest trails in the Northeast?

You would have to define what you consider scary. As some people have alluded to, sometimes that scariest trail is actually a green circle early season with wall to wall people. Which is definitely scary to me, way more scary than a black or double black at any other mountain in normal conditions.

And again conditions, as mentioned, also has a lot to do with how scary a trail is as any trail can ski radically (heh) different depending if it is powder, packed power, dust on crust, crust, hard pack, frozen granular, or ice.

Trails don't scare me but conditions do. But I don't think I have ever been on an open on map trail at a ski area and been scared. I have been off map on nearly glare ice and having a very health dose of "respect the terrain" type fear. But that was entirely conditions dependent as that same area was epic two weeks prior.

 

[billski]

Trails don't scare me but conditions do.

Agree++ with Steve. There is a time and place for every trail. The "good" trails will vary day to day. Knowing what the right trails are for the conditions at hand is an important skill to have. It makes all the difference between a day from hell or a day in paradise.

A double black may be wicked bad the day after a thaw cycle, but the same trail might be heaven after a dump.

 

[automagp68]

That's lower bunny buster you're thinking of, but thanks for playing.

What was up wtih Fis this weekend? Thats an odd little bumpy piece hu?"

its like 50 feet long with some oddly large bumps def not scary though.

 

[redalienx11]

scaring myself on hard east coast terrain when i got myself in over my head as a kid got me to where i am today.

 

[RootDKJ]

Lazy Mile, Blue Mountain 1:47 PM, any Saturday.

 

[Terry]

Lower Sunday Punch this past sunday. I have never seen so many people on 1 trail in my life. It was survival skiing at its best.

 

[Rambo]

Ovation at Killington can be deadly if it is extremly ICY!! I saw 2 guys fall and it was so steep and icy that there was no way for them to stop and they slid on their rears 60mph all the way to the bottom. I proceeded to carefully ski over to the left side, take my skis off and walk up on the edge in the woods to get back to the top and find a safer way down.

 

[tarponhead]

Caution: Epic thread.........

"I spotted a woman about 1/3rd down the pitch, out on the ungroomed ice....she had taken her skis off and was perched on a tiny spot of soft snow. I stopped and asked if I could help - she said she had been standing there for 15 minutes....had accidently skied over there when she missed her turn."

That's pretty stand-up of you HS, nice.

 

[octopus]

shockwave icy is a bitch, at least on a snowboard. i spent a week last feb at sunday river,white heat was steep and had some icy patches, but not that bad(i found it interesting that the steepest part was in the shade and a ice sheet). i was actually surprised how easy it was.
from the lift, shockwave looks ok, less steep, and longer than white heat. wrong, complete struggle to get back to white heat, 1 skier below struggling also. i fell a bunch of times, it just seemed like rocks,moguls, ice and light snow over ice. i think i was more annoyed than scared.

 

[Newpylong]

Illustration here: http://www.snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=galimg26240 I mean really sheer, in fact closed. but somebody made tracks down that little strip of snow on the right. :-o

That trail is straight down... can't imagine someone hitting that up under those conditions...

 

[Newpylong]

shockwave icy is a bitch, at least on a snowboard. i spent a week last feb at sunday river,white heat was steep and had some icy patches, but not that bad(i found it interesting that the steepest part was in the shade and a ice sheet). i was actually surprised how easy it was.
from the lift, shockwave looks ok, less steep, and longer than white heat. wrong, complete struggle to get back to white heat, 1 skier below struggling also. i fell a bunch of times, it just seemed like rocks,moguls, ice and light snow over ice. i think i was more annoyed than scared.

Shockwave is deceptively steeper than it looks, and when conditions are less than ideal it's a long ride down...

 

[millerm277]

Lower Ovation is plausible, for the typical conditions on it, when the snow's nice, it's just wide and very steep (and quite enjoyable), but that's about 5% of the time it's open. It tends to be a vertical moonscape....a barren bumpy sheet of ice from the windscouring it gets.

 

[maineskier69]

On map...
Paradise MRG
Rumble Sugarbush

 

[tjf67]

Face chutes Jay
Slides whiteface