The Fall of Winter begins.....

[yeggous]

Figured I should cross post...

Black Mountain (NH) is closed for the season. Shawnee Peak will have their last night skiing session tomorrow. After this weekend they'll be re-evaluating their plans.

A quick look at the Wachusett web cam looks very ugly. Not sure they'll make it much longer. Ditto on Crotched.

 

[yeggous]

Update:
Crotched is saying they'll open this weekend. Close mid-week, and are non-committal about next weekend. Pond skim has been moved to tomorrow. The fat lady is signing.

 

[bdfreetuna]

Sugarbush still claims they have enough snow on Stein's run to keep at least that trail open late into April...we'll see about that.

I'll probably head up there mid-week. Sugarbush is cool because they'll keep trails open until they are narrow strips of snow snaking their way through dirt.

After that I expect maybe a corn harvest at Jay / Cannon / Wildcat before all is said and done but that's probably it for this year unless I feel like skiing 4 trails at Killington.

 

[yeggous]

I'll probably head up there mid-week. Sugarbush is cool because they'll keep trails open until they are narrow strips of snow snaking their way through dirt.

After that I expect maybe a corn harvest at Jay / Cannon / Wildcat before all is said and done but that's probably it for this year unless I feel like skiing 4 trails at Killington.

This reminds me of 2012. I distinctly remember Killington falling over the course of about 48 hours. Every time you read the snow report another trail pod and lift was closed. You could watch the trail count drop as the day progressed.

 

[cdskier]

This reminds me of 2012. I distinctly remember Killington falling about over the course of about 48 hours. Every time you read the snow report another trail pod and lift was closed. You could watch the trail count drop as the day progressed.

This sure seems like March 2012 all over again...except perhaps even earlier. In March 2012 Sugarbush didn't drop down into the 60s for trail count until 3/19. Within 4 days of that they were down to 10 trails. Today they are already down to 64 and there is no cold air in sight to help preserve snow. One day when I'm bored I'm going to have to do a comparison of trail counts between the 2 years over the course of the season...

 

[medfordmike]

This reminds me of 2012. I distinctly remember Killington falling about over the course of about 48 hours. Every time you read the snow report another trail pod and lift was closed. You could watch the trail count drop as the day progressed.

That season I had a friend who was on ski patrol at Stratton. As bad luck would have it I was burning through two vouchers she gave me for Stratton during the March melt down. It was warm the first morning but by lunch there were streams of snow melt cutting across trails near the base. I had never been on mountain during such a fast warm up. I couldn't believe so much base could disappear so fast. I thought about hitting K the next day and giving the voucher away but the inn keeper told me to not waste my time since they had lost a huge number of trails the day before (he showed me the reports he printed out for guests and the difference was stark between two days). Went back to Stratton who is no slouch in snowmaking and huge chunks of the mountain were just mud and boilerplate. Definitely was hoping to not see that again.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I was at Whiteface Monday and Tuesday this week. Actually had a powder day on Monday. I think April 9th is gonna be a stretch though.

Maybe, but the models are retreating a bit on some of the scorcher days. Still decently above 32 with a few days poking into the 50s, but not looking as draconian (at least not for WF, Stowe/Smuggs, Jay peak) as before. And cold <=32 air looks to return in earnest on the 20th, with at least full week (as far as the model goes) of continuous staying power.

I'll also say that Mont Tremblant should hold out pretty well through this warmup. No idea when they typically close, and I've never been there so I have no idea how their tree skiing is, but if you want to ski woods in April, that's looking like a good choice.

 

[drjeff]

Gunstock sent out an email to all passholders saying the 27th of March will be the last day of the season... if they get that far. I think after this weekend they are toast.

They'll make it through this weekend based on what I skied on this morning, beyond that, especially if we don't get into a cycle where it gets down to the low/mid 20's most nights to REALLY set the base back up, is very much in question!!

They were even starting to "sacrifice" some terrain park features to patch things together this morning over there!

 

[drjeff]

Maybe, but the models are retreating a bit on some of the scorcher days. Still decently above 32 with a few days poking into the 50s, but not looking as draconian (at least not for WF, Stowe/Smuggs, Jay peak) as before. And cold <=32 air looks to return in earnest on the 20th, with at least full week (as far as the model goes) of continuous staying power.

I'll also say that Mont Tremblant should hold out pretty well through this warmup. No idea when they typically close, and I've never been there so I have no idea how their tree skiing is, but if you want to ski woods in April, that's looking like a good choice.

Talked with a few coaches from the NY Ski Education Foundation (NY's ski racing governing body) - they're supposed to have a decent sized racer development camp up at Whiteface April 2/3rd - as the coach put it to me, "unless we get REAL March weather quickly (cold at night and 40's during the day) that stays around for the rest of the month, he doesn't feel their current snowpack at WF will make it to then

 

[Newpylong]

Excluding Canada, my prediction is only Killington will be left on Superstar by 4/1 with perhaps some Northern VT/NH areas and Maine with them.

 

[WWF-VT]

Figured I should cross post...

Black Mountain (NH) is closed for the season. Shawnee Peak will have their last night skiing session tomorrow. After this weekend they'll be re-evaluating their plans.

A quick look at the Wachusett web cam looks very ugly. Not sure they'll make it much longer. Ditto on Crotched.

Wachusett had an advertisement on TV today offering a $159 pass for the rest of the season. The footage in the commercial was definitely shot a while ago.

 

[Pez]

Got an email from Blandford (just on the other side of Westfield MA) is closed for the season. Last day was Sunday.


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

 

[Riverskier]

This is encouraging, as I was told by a reliable source that Sunday River will fire up the guns as soon as they are given the opportunity. I was starting to wonder if that opportunity would exist...

Maybe, but the models are retreating a bit on some of the scorcher days. Still decently above 32 with a few days poking into the 50s, but not looking as draconian (at least not for WF, Stowe/Smuggs, Jay peak) as before. And cold <=32 air looks to return in earnest on the 20th, with at least full week (as far as the model goes) of continuous staying power.

I'll also say that Mont Tremblant should hold out pretty well through this warmup. No idea when they typically close, and I've never been there so I have no idea how their tree skiing is, but if you want to ski woods in April, that's looking like a good choice.

 

[Los]

Normal winter April 10th

Snow, Stratton, Okemo, Killington, Sugarbush, Stowe, Smuggs*, Jay, Sunapee, Ragged*, Waterville*, Loon, Cannon, Bretton Woods, Wildcat, Sunday River, Sugarloaf, Saddleback.

* maybes. More dependent on how much business they did throughout the season and a reasonable amount of people showing up.

Those 18 probably would drop down to a dozen for the theoretical 17th and then by the 24th K, Bush, Jay, BW, WC, SR, SL, SB.

At least that's been my observation in recent years

Got it - thanks DHS

 

[Los]

Excluding Canada, my prediction is only Killington will be left on Superstar by 4/1 with perhaps some Northern VT/NH areas and Maine with them.

I would think that Jay has the best shot this season to make it the longest in NH/VT, right?

 

[ss20]

Next weekend gets COLD again! Well-below average temps. Too early to tell if we get some snow with it!

 

[WWF-VT]

This is encouraging, as I was told by a reliable source that Sunday River will fire up the guns as soon as they are given the opportunity. I was starting to wonder if that opportunity would exist...

Sounds like a good way to waste money at this time of year

 

[nhskier1969]

I would think that Jay has the best shot this season to make it the longest in NH/VT, right?

Skied Sugarbush today, plenty of snow on the made made trails. 7 feet on steins.

 

[sugarbushskier]

Just got an email from Sundown. They're done. So sad, but consistent with the season. Wow!

 

[SkiFanE]

Husband skied Jay today. He drove up in downpour yesterday and was in a funk after passing Cannon and seeing it's condition. But they got a dusting at Jay last night and he says the woods were great. He said it didn't look great from below - but up higher they were nice. Man I miss the woods