Date(s) Skied: Saturday, March 7th
Resort or Ski Area: Smuggler's Notch
Conditions: Hardpack up top, corn below, manky cement in the woods
Trip Report:
What a difference a day and two miles can make. The firm base under the corn that was so great yesterday completely softened and was a manky mess today in the woods. Each turn found you sinking 6 inches or more into this thick mess making it near impossible to do anything but laboring jump turns. All of the premier expert runs were closed, not due to being frozen, but due to lack of snow. It's amazing how much less snow Smuggs has than Stowe, yet it's maybe two miles away.
The start of the day only had chilcoot open, which was frozen solid for at least 600 vert down the mountain. Because of this, the line at the Sterling lift were the snow was nice was a solid 20 minutes to a half hour. I only tolerated two runs off waiting in that zoo. Madonna lift was only a little better with about a 15 minute wait. The Madonna II lift had no wait, but it services is fairly boring terrain. Finally at 1:00 they opened Drifter after it had softened. It skied great, but I made the decision to check out some slack country I know of in between the Madonna and Sterling lifts. I thought just maybe the snow had compressed enough to be skiable in there. Nope, you just sunk 8 inches in with every turn and could only jump turn, but it was near impossible to link together a few. Oh well, nice to get out there as the views towards Mansfield are killer in there.
Smuggs has got killer terrain, but man is it amazing how much less snow it gets than Stowe despite being so close. I believe Stowe averages 333 inches, where as Smuggs claims 265. I would guess the difference to be even greater than that. The lifts, I have a hard time dealing with. I just don't have the patience for waiting a half an hour in a lift line at pretty much anywhere, but Mad River Glenn. I have another voucher to burn this season at Smuggs, but with how quick the snow is going, I'm not sure I'll bother driving all the way back up there unless some decent storms roll through. I honestly couldn't believe the coverage. Stowe had zero bare spots anywhere, except for a few on the real steep parts of Goat and Starr. Smuggs had them all over the place and the natural snow runs were almost completely bare except for ice flows.
Great place, but I think I'm putting it on the back burner in terms of places to ski until they get at the very least a HSQ on Sterling. I think that would be enough to draw down the lines on Madonna. Madonna I would hate to see go HSQ as the increase in skiers would completely overwhelm that terrain.
Crossing fingers that we dodge the nair bullet tonight, so that I can have a great day skiing bumps at MRG tomorrow. There was only about 50 vert of bumps on Snake Bite, which I only skied once because of the half hour liftline. Everything else was flat as a pancake. Pretty dissappointing after the great bumps and trees I skied yesterday.
Resort or Ski Area: Smuggler's Notch
Conditions: Hardpack up top, corn below, manky cement in the woods
Trip Report:
What a difference a day and two miles can make. The firm base under the corn that was so great yesterday completely softened and was a manky mess today in the woods. Each turn found you sinking 6 inches or more into this thick mess making it near impossible to do anything but laboring jump turns. All of the premier expert runs were closed, not due to being frozen, but due to lack of snow. It's amazing how much less snow Smuggs has than Stowe, yet it's maybe two miles away.
The start of the day only had chilcoot open, which was frozen solid for at least 600 vert down the mountain. Because of this, the line at the Sterling lift were the snow was nice was a solid 20 minutes to a half hour. I only tolerated two runs off waiting in that zoo. Madonna lift was only a little better with about a 15 minute wait. The Madonna II lift had no wait, but it services is fairly boring terrain. Finally at 1:00 they opened Drifter after it had softened. It skied great, but I made the decision to check out some slack country I know of in between the Madonna and Sterling lifts. I thought just maybe the snow had compressed enough to be skiable in there. Nope, you just sunk 8 inches in with every turn and could only jump turn, but it was near impossible to link together a few. Oh well, nice to get out there as the views towards Mansfield are killer in there.
Smuggs has got killer terrain, but man is it amazing how much less snow it gets than Stowe despite being so close. I believe Stowe averages 333 inches, where as Smuggs claims 265. I would guess the difference to be even greater than that. The lifts, I have a hard time dealing with. I just don't have the patience for waiting a half an hour in a lift line at pretty much anywhere, but Mad River Glenn. I have another voucher to burn this season at Smuggs, but with how quick the snow is going, I'm not sure I'll bother driving all the way back up there unless some decent storms roll through. I honestly couldn't believe the coverage. Stowe had zero bare spots anywhere, except for a few on the real steep parts of Goat and Starr. Smuggs had them all over the place and the natural snow runs were almost completely bare except for ice flows.
Great place, but I think I'm putting it on the back burner in terms of places to ski until they get at the very least a HSQ on Sterling. I think that would be enough to draw down the lines on Madonna. Madonna I would hate to see go HSQ as the increase in skiers would completely overwhelm that terrain.
Crossing fingers that we dodge the nair bullet tonight, so that I can have a great day skiing bumps at MRG tomorrow. There was only about 50 vert of bumps on Snake Bite, which I only skied once because of the half hour liftline. Everything else was flat as a pancake. Pretty dissappointing after the great bumps and trees I skied yesterday.
