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Stratton 2/23

sf77

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Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
87
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Location
Western CT
Time Skied: 9:30 am to 4 pm
Weather: Sunny and very clear, snow showers in early morning, warm - mid to upper 30's, somewhat windy
Conditions: Packed powder, ice pellets, machine groomed

Traveled up to Stratton this past Sunday and unfortunately they got some rain last Friday, which froze and added some ice throughout the mountain. The main trails had many ice ball/pellets on them which made it kind of tricky to turn on, but at least it wasn't a sheet of ice. When the sun came out in the late morning, it softened up the snow very nicely on the trails making it easier to turn and more enjoyable to ski on. The trees, on the other hand, were sheets of ice :thumbdown:. The glades that I did had ice throughout the whole glade, making it much more challenging and hard to turn on. The rain that fell and turned into ice on the trails was groomed out by the groomers and moved around by other people. However, the rain that froze in the trees stayed on the snow since it obviously was not groomed. The crowds were much less than I thought they would be. The lines for all the lifts were sort of long from 9:30 am to 12 pm - 10 minutes for the six packs, 20 minutes for the gondola. However, after 12 pm it seemed as if everyone left :grin:! Most of the lifts were ski on (especially Sun Bowl Express) and if you did have to wait it was only for a couple of minutes. I started off my day in the Sun Bowl by doing a few runs there and a couple in the shooting star lift area (Upper Kidderbrook, etc.). Then I went to the Snow Bowl (Upper/Lower Drifter, etc.), but the snow bowl lift was closed so I had to take the gondola to access these trails (only took the gondola twice). Then I went to the base area trails off American Express and then back to the Sun Bowl to finish off the day on some awesome intermediate trials. Moonbeam glades were softened up by the sun so they were good, but Eclipse glades were very icy. The best trails of the day were: Upper Kidderbrook, Upper/Lower Drifter, Black Bear, and Sunriser Supertrail. A day that could have used a little bit more soft snow and less ice gets a B+.
I will add some videos to this thread in the next couple of days!
 

Glenn

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Oct 1, 2008
Messages
7,691
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CT & VT
Sounds similar to what we experienced. We saw some kids jump into,the small section of woods off near the top of Amex. Really scratchy. But the other trails skied well despite the rain/freezing rain Friday


Sent from my iPad using AlpineZone mobile app.
 

Glenn

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Oct 1, 2008
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7,691
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CT & VT
Nice! There were some semi decent soft bumps that formed in the center of the last pitch later in the day when things warmed up.
 

sf77

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Jan 22, 2014
Messages
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Location
Western CT
Here's one of my runs through the trees that I did on Sunday. It is of the Eclipse glades in Sun Bowl, which unfortunately were very icy:
 

sf77

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Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Messages
87
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Location
Western CT
My second (and much better of the 2 glade runs) from Sunday. This one is of the intermediate Moonbeam glades in the Snow Bowl area. They were fortunately not very icy :cool:
 

GolfingOwl

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Joined
Dec 14, 2005
Messages
104
Points
16
Location
Jenkintown, PA
Thanks for the vids. Moonbeam is one of my son's favorites. Wonder if nearby Cabin Feaver is skiable. Assume things won't be worse this weekend (hopefully better).
 

bigbog

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Joined
Feb 17, 2004
Messages
4,882
Points
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Location
Bangor and the state's woodlands
Nice stuff...
I don't mind the natural sounds of some scraping..etc, it's NewEngland!
What the video editors need is a RT audio profiler...for audio options.. 8)
 
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