That's it, I'm done with MLK wknd in New England

[abc]

thaw/refreeze days and freezing rain.

Except you almost never get those in the Rockies.

You get those a bit more often in Tahoe. But of the 3 years I lived in CA, I've managed not to hit ANY such days in Tahoe.

Rain, yes. But only in edge (early/late) season. Freezing rain, I just don't recall ever getting that. My recollection may have been faulty. But my impression is those are not just less frequent (than the east). Those are relatively rare events. You've got to be rather unlucky to hit one of those in a visit.

 

[Smellytele]

Except you almost never get those in the Rockies.

You get those a bit more often in Tahoe. But of the 3 years I lived in CA, I've managed not to hit ANY such days in Tahoe.

Rain, yes. But only in edge (early/late) season. Freezing rain, I just don't recall ever getting that. My recollection may have been faulty. But my impression is those are not just less frequent (than the east). Those are relatively rare events. You've got to be rather unlucky to hit one of those in a visit.

As I mentioned I have had those in the Rockies.

 

[Domeskier]

As I mentioned I have had those in the Rockies.

But those days were better still than a good day in the east, right?

 

[BenedictGomez]

Planning ski trips more than 2 weeks in advance is a very bad idea. With so many lodging choices these days (hotels, condos, AirBnB, VRBO, etc) you can wait until the forecast comes out before even making a reservation.

I think 2 weeks is a bit much, but I dont book ski trips more than a month in advance. Usually inside a month you have a decent idea who has snow and who doesn't, and you can still get reasonable airfare. If you CAN wait though, then I agree with your sentiment 100%, in fact, I go one better on driving trips and sometimes don't decide where I'm going until 2 to 5 days before. Like a storm system moving up the northeast, I'll wait and decide if I'm going to ski Smuggs, Whiteface, Gore, or Jay Peak a day or two before. If I was skiing the northeast there's no reason to book long out.

 

[fbrissette]

"Terrible days in the west"? Like?

I've done a substantial portion of my days out west. I've had some groomer days, that's about all. I haven't had much in the way of "terrible days". None as described in the initial post of this thread!

Here's a sample of what I have experienced throughout the years.

- heavy wet snow;
- severe white outs;
- freeze refreeze, yes it happens, I was in BC the infamous 2014 winter when it rained at 7000 feet in February and did not snow for 3 weeks after that;
- bad weather - I've had heavy rainfall in Megeve and Chamonix up to 10000' in early March and resort shutdown in Big Sky due to lightning;
- too much snow and extreme avalanche danger in backcountry ski trips. Yep, too much snow can be a problem. To be fair, safe slopes can be fun, but with lots of powder, the big fun is on avalanche slopes (30-45 degrees);

Overall, the proportion of bad days is much much smaller than in the east, but I'll take a good day out east over an average day out west (let alone a bad day).

It all depends that your definitions of bad/good day are. West or east, if I'm limited to groomers only, it is by definition a bad day.

 

[Glenn]

Seems that January has been a mixed bag over the last few years. Or maybe it's just what I can remember as of late.

 

[Whitey]

Watch out, Jerry here is a winter expert at the driving. His bald tire BMW from dirty jerz will out drive all man kind.

Most of the time I find the stupidity of my fellow man to be humorous. Although sometimes it reaches a point where it's no longer funny that someone could be that dumb and it's just depressing and makes me worried for the future of human civilization.

This post makes me worried for the future of human civilization. FBGM, for the sake of mankind, please don't reproduce. Your post is so incredibly stupid that I might even be willing to chip in for part of the cost of a vasectomy. We can start a gofundme page.

 

[kingslug]

No matter where on earth you are..if it gets hot, the snow melts, it gets cold, the snow freezes...it SUX. period. And in the rockies or any big range, they don't make snow above a certain level.

 

[SkiFanE]

Except you almost never get those in the Rockies.

You get those a bit more often in Tahoe. But of the 3 years I lived in CA, I've managed not to hit ANY such days in Tahoe.

Rain, yes. But only in edge (early/late) season. Freezing rain, I just don't recall ever getting that. My recollection may have been faulty. But my impression is those are not just less frequent (than the east). Those are relatively rare events. You've got to be rather unlucky to hit one of those in a visit.

Since every anecdote here must be proven - I have been out west once. To Tahoe. Early Feb. No new snow. Was just like a spring day here in East. Wait until cement warms up. The snow banks and snow were deep but nothing fresh. Heavenly CA side seemed to be the best we found - didn't seem to have been thru freeze/thaw as much as Squaw had.

So I have yet to experience western powder after 45+ years on skis. Given my life and chance of going west any time soon - its best this way

 

[Hawk]

"Terrible days in the west"? Like?

I've done a substantial portion of my days out west. I've had some groomer days, that's about all. I haven't had much in the way of "terrible days". None as described in the initial post of this thread!

I have had some epically bad day's out west with rain and freezing, high winds, fog so you can't see your hand in front of your face. Days that I took a couple of runs and called it. Obviously not the norm for out west. I have also had some really epic good days in the east at Sugarbush, Stowe and in the back country around these areas with untracked pow all day with no one around. So I would say that I can't relate to your statement.

 

[kingslug]

And my favorite is when I give someone..who asked, my opinion about conditions. AND they hold me to it as if I'm god.

 

[deadheadskier]

I have had some epically bad day's out west with rain and freezing, high winds, fog so you can't see your hand in front of your face. Days that I took a couple of runs and called it. Obviously not the norm for out west. I have also had some really epic good days in the east at Sugarbush, Stowe and in the back country around these areas with untracked pow all day with no one around. So I would say that I can't relate to your statement.

Same.

Sent from my XT1565 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[legalskier]

A friend of mine flew into Bozeman on Friday & did a trip to Whitefish and Fernie starting on Saturday. He said both were phenomenal & the trip was cheaper than many other western resorts. Texted me this:

However, another friend works south of there in Breckenridge & said it's been somewhat disappointing so far, which is what I've also heard about SLC areas. So it looks like Whitefish/Fernie had the best snow in North America.
I've always considered January in the NE to be catch-as-catch-can, so flexibility is important. Before last weekend the weather reports were for heavy rain & mild temps on Friday, then flash freezing overnight. The bad conditions were predictable. I appreciate that you don't have much flexibility, but I'm wondering why you just didn't cancel the trip- there was enough lead time. I'm guessing the kids wouldn't have minded not skiing on a tilted hockey rink.
If you have to go on MLK weekend and can't make it to the northern Rockies, you might stick with places that are closer to home that have excellent snow-making/grooming. I never count on many mogel runs, so I ski down the trailside berms- a decent substitute this time of year. And absent a freak major dump, I never do any tree skiing until Presidents Weekend at the earliest- it can look deceptively good in there but I value my bases.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I never do any tree skiing until Presidents Weekend at the earliest- it can look deceptively good in there but I value my bases.

That's excessively conservative.

In a really good year, the woods are in play in December. In an average year, they're safely in play in January. It's a somewhat poor year where the woods are only first safely coming into play in mid-February.

 

[fbrissette]

I never do any tree skiing until Presidents Weekend at the earliest- it can look deceptively good in there but I value my bases.

Can only talk for Jay Peak, but December has been way better than January over the past 5 years. I'll take my chances with a soft variable cover over the typical January ice sheet base.

 

[Dick Gazinya]

What a sissy. Damn, learn to have some fun.

 

[legalskier]

Can only talk for Jay Peak, but December has been way better than January over the past 5 years. I'll take my chances with a soft variable cover over the typical January ice sheet base.

I should have specified that I usually ski the Catskills. If you can get some elsewhere early (like Fernie as I mentioned in my post), more power to you.

 

[Hawk]

This is why I have rock skis. On average I ski really good conditions at some point in December or early January. There's way more untracked skiing because people like legalskier are really conservative.

 

[JimG.]

Can only talk for Jay Peak, but December has been way better than January over the past 5 years. I'll take my chances with a soft variable cover over the typical January ice sheet base.

this.

 

[jimk]

"Terrible days in the west"? Like?

I've done a substantial portion of my days out west. I've had some groomer days, that's about all. I haven't had much in the way of "terrible days". None as described in the initial post of this thread!

I'm probably not fit to reply since most of my skiing has been done in mid-Atlantic, not New England. But my western experiences are more in line with abc on this. I've got about 750 lifetime ski days in the mid-Atlantic, maybe 50 in New England/NY, and maybe 125 in the West. As you can imagine, about 5-10% of my mid-Atlantic days had rain (including yesterday!). Some rain on New England trips, but lower ratio than mid-A. And only one single rain day out west in visits dating back to 1976. On that western rain day, the upper half of the mtn (Snowbasin) was getting wet snow, so there was a decent amount of fun that day (it was around the first of April). Usually my western days were taken in the heart of winter to better ensure good conditions for the trouble I was taking to get there, so I'm sure there's a little positive bias there.