sankaty
Member
Area skied: Stratton
Date skied: March 24, 2006 from 10:30am - 4:00pm
Weather: Sun through thin overcast in the morning/midday, thickening clouds with snow showers in the afternoon. Temps (approx) in the Mid 40s base and mid/upper 30s summit.
Surface conditions: Mostly spring corn/wet snow; a little PP/FG near the summit
Hi all. I decided to take advantage of the free skiing for CT residents at Stratton yesterday, and I'm very glad I did. I was concerned that the lack of sun would prevent the snow from softening up, but all but the very top of the mountain softened up nicely by about 11AM. At about 2:30, the snow showers started in earnest and the upper mountain started to refreeze, but the mid/lower mountain stayed soft all day.
Almost all my runs were on Bear Down, which was bumped up nicely. Really fantastic lines for a non seeded trail. I highly recommend the trail for anyone looking for nice spring bumps. It starts out with gently rolling bumps, and then gets steeper and gnarlier through the mid section. The lower part of the trail flattens out a bit, but the bumps are still sizable, so it's a great hero section. There is an outlet trail on the left about 3/4 of the way down the slop that takes you back to the Shooting Star lift. I kept lapping the run with this route. I'm guessing I skiied it 12-15 times before breaking for lunch at 2:30. If you don't take the outlet to the Shooting Star lift, you have to take a very long run out all the way down to the Sun Bowl base. I understand that some midweek days they don't run the Shooting Star lift, which would make it more complicated to lap Bear Down.
After lunch. at about 3:00, most of the upper moutain was starting to refreeze. Bear Down became a bit crunchy, but still fun. The groomed trails on the upper mountain were scratchy by this point, but based on the conditions on Bear Down midday, I'm guessing that they were also soft earlier. The lower moutain, especially the Sun Bowl trails, remained corn/mashed throughout the afternoon.
The mountain was slightly crowded for a Friday, but still no lift lines really. All told, an amazing spring mogul day. I'm thinking of trying out Okemo next week.
Best,
James
Date skied: March 24, 2006 from 10:30am - 4:00pm
Weather: Sun through thin overcast in the morning/midday, thickening clouds with snow showers in the afternoon. Temps (approx) in the Mid 40s base and mid/upper 30s summit.
Surface conditions: Mostly spring corn/wet snow; a little PP/FG near the summit
Hi all. I decided to take advantage of the free skiing for CT residents at Stratton yesterday, and I'm very glad I did. I was concerned that the lack of sun would prevent the snow from softening up, but all but the very top of the mountain softened up nicely by about 11AM. At about 2:30, the snow showers started in earnest and the upper mountain started to refreeze, but the mid/lower mountain stayed soft all day.
Almost all my runs were on Bear Down, which was bumped up nicely. Really fantastic lines for a non seeded trail. I highly recommend the trail for anyone looking for nice spring bumps. It starts out with gently rolling bumps, and then gets steeper and gnarlier through the mid section. The lower part of the trail flattens out a bit, but the bumps are still sizable, so it's a great hero section. There is an outlet trail on the left about 3/4 of the way down the slop that takes you back to the Shooting Star lift. I kept lapping the run with this route. I'm guessing I skiied it 12-15 times before breaking for lunch at 2:30. If you don't take the outlet to the Shooting Star lift, you have to take a very long run out all the way down to the Sun Bowl base. I understand that some midweek days they don't run the Shooting Star lift, which would make it more complicated to lap Bear Down.
After lunch. at about 3:00, most of the upper moutain was starting to refreeze. Bear Down became a bit crunchy, but still fun. The groomed trails on the upper mountain were scratchy by this point, but based on the conditions on Bear Down midday, I'm guessing that they were also soft earlier. The lower moutain, especially the Sun Bowl trails, remained corn/mashed throughout the afternoon.
The mountain was slightly crowded for a Friday, but still no lift lines really. All told, an amazing spring mogul day. I'm thinking of trying out Okemo next week.
Best,
James
Wow. You must have skied a different place. We had a blast. No crowds, good snow, and I thought for a "Mega Resort" there was plenty of character on the runs. Spruce was narrow and reminiscent of the stuff at Burke. Some of the runs off of Ursa were nice as well. 
