The Go/No Go Decision

[RootDKJ]

I tried something last year... I went every weekend to whiteface (season pass) rain or shine. I found a way to enjoy every condition (having an alpine, freestyle and rock board helped), even the 1 top to bottom groomer they had from the top on opening weekend . I enjoyed riding the weekend after the jan thaw broke when it was a handful of thinly covered boilerplate trails and I enjoyed riding the early march weekend when it was sleet at the bottom and rain at the top. Without the off days you don't appreciate the good ones, plus you'll miss some if you hesitate.

If you work during the week then weekends are for skiing. Just do it, don't look back and have fun. That's what separates 'us' from 'them'.

My plan for this season is to do the very same thing at Blue with some night skiing thrown in there as well.

 

[riverc0il]

I know your question lilts toward the theoretical here but, knowing you, you may want to stay put. We've got two groomers and while we did get snow last week, I believe the central-sorta-north section netted out better than we did, ie, the only ones in the woods should be nervous squirrels..

Thanks for the heads up! Jay definitely didn't get it too bad... with what, 9" or so and little to no mixing? But it looked like it warmed up and then froze up making today a groomer day only from my arm chair. Seems like I made the right call.

Couple of the Bush faithful mentioning Bush having lots of trails open and good conditions. Any non-groomed natural snow trails online today? With the temperature swing, it seemed for sure that the new snow would not be of the powder variety but this morning. But back towards the theoretical....

It's always worth it to go skiing...if you stay home what are you gonna do????

I'll relax, eat, read, and recover from the cold I am currently experiencing. There are things better than a sub-par day of skiing... especially when you sacrifice four hours of your day on the road, put the wear on your car, and tank up on gas.

When I lived 20 minutes from Burke and 60 minutes from Jay... I always went regardless. I am a little more conservative now that my drive is two hours each way. I get 50 days a year and at least one third of those days are powder days so I have plenty of reason to be picky. Having gotten into the habit of having an overwhelming majority of my ski days during a season be on good snow conditions, I pass up a lot of days I could be on the hill. I could easily increase my day count by 50% if I went every day I possibly could. Call me snobby about my snow, but I make a lot of No-Go decisions every year. The tough part is determining if I should go or not following a storm that might or might not have blessed an area with great conditions. Don't go and its good or go and its not good.... those both mean I could have spent my day better.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Couple of the Bush faithful mentioning Bush having lots of trails open and good conditions. Any non-groomed natural snow trails online today?

Lots. Stein's, Mall, Moonshine, Twist, Spillsville, Domino, and a few more all open on natural and ungroomed.

Ripcord just opened up with fresh manmade. 23 trails now.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

It's always good!!!!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Lots. Stein's, Mall, Moonshine, Twist, Spillsville, Domino, and a few more all open on natural and ungroomed.

Ripcord just opened up with fresh manmade. 23 trails now.

Wow I might have to hit up Sugarbush on Monday..since I'm staying in Stowe..any snow shower activity up there???

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Wow I might have to hit up Sugarbush on Monday..since I'm staying in Stowe..any snow shower activity up there???

It was flurrying at the house a little while ago. I can't see the mountain, not sure whether it's precip or cloud cover.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

The funny thing is that all of us saying you should really go aren't skiing today...lol..I'm wondering if the 17 mile drive up to Blue mountain is worth it tomorrow morning...I'd much rather stand in line at Wal-Mart..

 

[mattchuck2]

Well, I go regardless of trail conditions and weather reports . . . But that's because I'm required to be at the mountain 25 days a year. Still, that doesn't prevent me from poring over reports and conditions days in advance.

On the days where I don't HAVE to be there, I do the same thing, and usually end up deciding to go. That's mostly because it's just an hour drive . . . If it was 3 hours, it'd be a different story . . .

Although, I'm starting to think that all of this internetting is totally worthless (well, besides the stoke it creates). Sometimes, there'll be a great report from the mountain, but I'll have a crappy day of skiing the following day. Some days I expect it to be horrible, and it's great. Plus the internet can never factor in all the intangibles. Maybe you see some people you haven't seen in a long time. Maybe there's a freak snowstorm that nobody's expecting. Maybe the snow sucks everywhere else, so you learn some new tricks in the park.

I usually find that the experience of being at a ski area is better than the experience of sitting at home by myself on my couch.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I usually find that the experience of being at a ski area is better than the experience of sitting at home by myself on my couch.

times 2

 

[drjeff]

Pretty much for me + the family, if no-one is REALLY sick it's a go. But then again, nowadays 99% of the time days when I ski I'm staying at/very near the mountain so it's just a couple of minute ride to the hill

Last time I said "no go" was a couple of years ago when I was on vacation in Utah. The whole family came down with the stomach flu I was the last to get hit and got hit the worst. Skied the day it hit me (couple of pull off to the side of the trail to uke: epidoses Ended up after almost of day of not being able to keep anything down going to a walk in clinic in Park City where I took 2 liters of IV fluid and the doc told me no skiing the next day. I was feeling like such cr@p that I didn't put up an arguement with him, even though I was scheduled to go cat skiing the next day.

 

[bobbutts]

I'll pull back and go to some place closer. The places closer to me do very well with bad weather seeing as they're used to it, so that makes it easier. I am resigned to a low powder % these days anyway.

 

[Starter Jackets Rule!]

Who knows what I am talking about? Frantically digging through pages upon pages of online content and weather looking for that one report that validates your decision to drive 4+ round trip hours to go ski.

Don't get me wrong, not that I don't want to ski today. But if the natural setup poorly from the mix and the warmer weather at Jay, I ain't driving two hours each way to ski two trails worth of groomers. Conditions have been too good for frozen groomer track skiing... call me greedy.

I start reading into the weather report. When they say "it is finally cold enough to turn the snowmaking back on".... I suddenly pause and reconsider my plans. Then I read about suspect skiing at MRG and Wildcat yesterday on SkiVT-l along with powfreak staying on the groomers because the natural snow trails had frozen up day old tracks. Uh oh....

JD might say you don't know until you go. But I hate going four hours out of my way to ski two trails worth of groomers. I can be disappointed in the conditions and still have a good time but after two powder days and a ton of snow falling earlier this week, a groomer isn't going to cut it any more for four hours worth of driving. I might just as well sit tight today and head up to Cannon tomorrow which will probably offer better cruising than Jay despite getting less than half as much natural snow.

Any ways... do you get bogged down in the Go/No Go Decisions? Or do you make plans and go no matter what, frozen groomers and rain be damned? Does distance factor into the equation as it does in my example above? This question would apply to decisions not involving pre-booked lodging for which there is no option.

Stay local... And besides Who the Heck goes to jay to ski the groomers any way? I hope not you, cuz that would be plain silly.And you don't want to go through life being known as "That Guy"!

 

[JerseyJoey]

Thanks JerseyJoey for the off topic response! I ain't paying full price at Killington, nuff said about that. Loaf got two feet but I ain't driving 9 hours round trip when I told the Misses I'd be home for TDay Dinner. Feel free to reply to the original subject of the thread if you actually want to contribute....

Wow. OK, sorry for trying to help. Won't happen again. Sorry man.

 

[riverc0il]

Rivercoil is asking specifically what plays into your decision of to go or not to go. And there have been a good many people bragging up the conditions at various resorts. Not exactly answering his question.

Thanks for assisting with the clarification. I probably should not have confused the topic by including the situation that lead me to pose the question on the forum. I was more wondering about the meta aspect rather than specifics of my decision. Though I figured I would try to get things started by highlighting the no go decision that led to the idea for the thread. Ah well....

 

[JerseyJoey]

Thanks for assisting with the clarification. I probably should not have confused the topic by including the situation that lead me to pose the question on the forum. I was more wondering about the meta aspect rather than specifics of my decision. Though I figured I would try to get things started by highlighting the no go decision that led to the idea for the thread. Ah well....

Yeah. Again, sorry man. I completely misunderstood your topic. Didn't mean to upset anyone.

As to my "correct" response to your "on topic" question, I always seem to end up going as opposed to not going, regardless of conditions and other factors. I just love skiing and being at ski areas even of the conditions aren't great. I guess it's the overall vibe of a ski area that ends up getting me to go as opposed to staying home.

I hope that's a better answer and more on topic. Great thread and a lot of great responses as well. Sorry again if I misunderstood your topic at first.

 

[campgottagopee]

If I pre-book a trip w/ my wife and friends we go, we go no matter what. BUT, if the skiing really blows I wont force the issue w/ my wife, meaning if she wants to take one and done then that's what we do. Then it's quality time together doing what have you.....

If I'm skiing at home and the weather/conditons stink then I stay home......

When my bud and I hit WF it's during optimal conditions----we're both fortunate that we have jobs where we can scoot out if need be.....

Guess for me it really depends on what the situation is if I go or not.

 

[kingslug]

It's pretty simple for me. if it rains the night before and freezes then I'll probably skip it...unless it's spring and the temp will warm up enough later in the day. In the Catskills it can get tricky though. Hunter, Belleayre, and Platt all get different weather. I've left Hunter in the rain and driven over to Bell for a suprise powder day. Nothing worse than going home and reading about something like this. Helps to have a place to stay nearby...as in right next door to Bell.

 

[Mildcat]

The only real factor for me is sleep. I've worked strange hours most of my adult life so sometimes I can't fall asleep in time to get up early to make the drive. If I have even a little trouble falling asleep I start to get frustrated and it makes it impossible to sleep.

Luckily last year I discovered Tylenol Simply Sleep was my best friend. I only bailed out a couple of times. Other than lack of sleep, i don't usually bail once I've decided to go.

 

[billski]

Any ways... do you get bogged down in the Go/No Go Decisions? Or do you make plans and go no matter what, frozen groomers and rain be damned?

Steve,

The "meta factor" is what I call the "FUN FACTOR". I ask myself, "If I go am I gonna have fun? Will I come home with a smile on my face?"

The success of the "fun factor" largely depends on me being infinitely flexible in my resort selection and skiing strategy. This is largely driven by the variations in eastern weather.

I'm a mountain-kind-of-person, (it's in my bones) so simply being outside in the mountains, any time of the year is very enjoyable. Skiing is the icing on the cake. I apply the same methodology to day hiking.

 

[JerseyJoey]

Don't be a hater.

I think he just misunderstood my post for no other reason than I misunderstood his post first. It was 100% my fault for taking his thread off topic. I apologized for it and hopefully I won't do something so stupid again.

Thanks for the post MadPadraic. I agree. There's enough bad in this world right now so we don't need anymore of it on this board. I made a mistake and said I was sorry for it.

Thanks again MP. "Ain't no time to hate....."