Stratton Thread

[drjeff]

Most of the evening about 10 miles South of Stratton as the bird flies with direct exposure to the West on my deck, really minimal to no appreciable winds tonight (gusts topping out at maybe 15mph as I was shoveling my deck and grilling steaks) cleared a fluffy foot or so at about 2200 ft of elevation after having cleared 15" or so after the Thanksgiving storm...

Shaping up to be one of the best early December weekends in So VT that I can remember in my over 20yrs of being a regular...

The unfortunate reality from a snowmaking perspective is that a say 48hr blow torch with 1-2" of liquid from the sky would GREATLY enhance the ability to refill snowmaking ponds at a more typical rate...

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

Most of the evening about 10 miles South of Stratton as the bird flies with direct exposure to the West on my deck, really minimal to no appreciable winds tonight (gusts topping out at maybe 15mph as I was shoveling my deck and grilling steaks) cleared a fluffy foot or so at about 2200 ft of elevation after having cleared 15" or so after the Thanksgiving storm...

Shaping up to be one of the best early December weekends in So VT that I can remember in my over 20yrs of being a regular...

The unfortunate reality from a snowmaking perspective is that a say 48hr blow torch with 1-2" of liquid from the sky would GREATLY enhance the ability to refill snowmaking ponds at a more typical rate...

A few weeks ago I drove the stratton arlington road, rt100, rt30 loop and everything was bone dry. One of the Stratton ski patrol on the gondola today told us they pulled water from the river this year and made it sound like it’s a rare occurrence.

 

[drjeff]

A few weeks ago I drove the stratton arlington road, rt100, rt30 loop and everything was bone dry. One of the Stratton ski patrol on the gondola today told us they pulled water from the river this year and made it sound like it’s a rare occurrence.

I will say that the Deerfield River along route 100 below where the Cold Brook (which Mount Snow draws from for their West Lake Reservoir) North of the route 9/100 light in Wilmington, was about as low as I can recall in the 45 or so years that I have been a Mount Snow skier...

As much as this early season Snow is about as good as it gets in my memory now, unless it keeps snowing a foot or so a week and not getting above freezing for the next 2+ months, unfortunately we really need a (hopefully no more than) 48hr warm, decent amount of liquid, event to get most resorts the chance to both refill and then keep refilling their snowmaking ponds the multiple times per season they need to to build those more durable bases for a good Spring season we all want!

 

[SkiNewEngland.net]

Sun Bowl open!

 

[NYDB]

nice. I'll be at the sunbowl tommorow.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Good snow if you can get to it

 

[Shredmonkey254]

Good snow if you can get to it


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I don’t know where to look - yet. Had such a good time at Stratton on Friday, went back again today. Another good day, despite the two lifts being on windhold all day. Lapped the Sunbowl till noon, don't leave powder to find powder…. Learned that the average Stratton skier does not like to ski on natural, ungroomed trails. The experts only, ungroomed signs must’ve kept most from going over there, which made for a good day today! Nothing overly steep here, but I’m enjoying the terrain and snow a lot! Getting this place dialed in should result in a lot more fun

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Calling the chop on sun bowl “powder” is a very generous definition of the word. No reason to ski that no pitch chop when the upper mountain woods were completely untouched. But yes, 90% of these putzs will never leave a groomer.

 

[The Sneak]

Almost got stuck on Ursa. It had stopped for a good ten minutes while I was in line, so I bailed to go get a coffee at mid mountain. Went to the base, came back up, got in line again, then it went down again and I was 2 chairs from boarding when they shut it down. Did it ever re-open? I took off around 2.

 

[NYDB]

I was about 10 chairs on when It shut down. did not reopen. (Yes it did) Felt that justified a family poach to end the day. It was worth it.

The top half of Stratton has a lot of snow compared to magic. Like way more.

Below: Braving the legendary double black diamond steeps

 

[KustyTheKlown]

yea the ursa close ended my day a bit prematurely, but i cannot really complain. 8:30 - 12:45, 16k vertical, untracked trees almost every run, including a poach into kidderbrook ravine (via beardown) that was insane. all the accumulated snow of the season was just sitting there. the run out with the fresh wet undrained sticky snowmaking whales was not fun at all. but worth it.

 

[NYDB]

Fingers crossed you guys are right, planning on heading up there Sunday

You were right

 

[Shredmonkey254]

Calling the chop on sun bowl “powder” is a very generous definition of the word. No reason to ski that no pitch chop when the upper mountain woods were completely untouched. But yes, 90% of these putzs will never leave a groomer.

My standards are low! Not to mislead by using one of my favorite sayings, but when there is uncut snow to turn on a day and half after the trails have been open and knowing the two main lifts were not running, I was not taking a chance of getting screwed in lift lines. My legs are shot from all that chop, but still fun and I look forward to helping track out those woods once I figure this joint out. Having skied Sugarbush the last 20 years almost exclusively, the Sunbowl trails would have been thrashed to within an inch of their life after just a couple hours. That just did not happen at Stratton! I like that feature, a lot!

 

[NYDB]

My standards are low! Not to mislead by using one of my favorite sayings, but when there is uncut snow to turn on a day and half after the trails have been open and knowing the two main lifts were not running, I was not taking a chance of getting screwed in lift lines. My legs are shot from all that chop, but still fun and I look forward to helping track out those woods once I figure this joint out. Having skied Sugarbush the last 20 years almost exclusively, the Sunbowl trails would have been thrashed to within an inch of their life after just a couple hours. That just did not happen at Stratton! I like that feature, a lot!

I have low standards too. And I was telling the kids that all those natural sunbowl trails might not be 'powder' but ungroomed natural beats the fuck out of the frozen groomer conditions that are more the norm at Stratton and Southern VT in general.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

fortunately, there isnt much to figure out

its a cone. all the lifts go to the top of the cone. almost all tree skiing is marked and on map. the only one that immediately comes to mind as off-map is skier's left of the snowbowl liftline, but even that has an old sign that says 'pickle glade'. its skiable in the woods patches above that sign tho. everything else is pretty much marked.

diamonds, moonbeam, shredwood are the major upper mountain glades.

the kidderbrook glades are all very good but require a long run out back to the bottom.

west pilot is a long low angle glade hugging the west boundary

thats all there is to it

 

[NYDB]

There a few more off map glades there (that I know of, there could be a lot more that I don't). but its not rocket science trying to find them.

 

[RH29]

Almost got stuck on Ursa. It had stopped for a good ten minutes while I was in line, so I bailed to go get a coffee at mid mountain. Went to the base, came back up, got in line again, then it went down again and I was 2 chairs from boarding when they shut it down. Did it ever re-open? I took off around 2.

yea the ursa close ended my day a bit prematurely, but i cannot really complain. 8:30 - 12:45, 16k vertical, untracked trees almost every run, including a poach into kidderbrook ravine (via beardown) that was insane. all the accumulated snow of the season was just sitting there. the run out with the fresh wet undrained sticky snowmaking whales was not fun at all. but worth it.

Ursa did reopen shortly after two. I was on it when it broke down the first time, stopped for about 10-15 minutes before restarting on auxiliary power. The lines disappeared by that point and I got a few more low-visibility laps on it before heading out.

Spent most of my day in the Sun Bowl, conditions were plenty good and I preferred it to the 10-15 minute line for Ursa pre-breakdown.

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

Anyone notice the gondola is getting a bit tired? I rode it a lot last week and there are damaged doors, non functioning doors, shattered plexiglass, missing vent windows. One ride up someone pushed a door open with their boot.

 

[NYDB]

only gapers and tourons ride the gondola.

 

[NYDB]

But seriously, judging by the shape of the old cabins when they were replaced, these new one still have 15 years in them