Trail Conditions up and down the GM spine

[oakapple]

Analysis Paralysis. Roll the dice, pick an area and ski. :lol:

Skiing costs a lot of money. I think it's worth the time to figure out how to spend it wisely.

 

[oakapple]

I think that it can best be explained in the following way. Since the last rain event about 2 weeks ago, Mount Snow has resurfaced basically every open snowmaking run with on average atleast a 24hr run of fresh snowmaking (and in some cases 48+ hour runs). There's just plain a simple a higher percentage of open terrain that has had a decent run of fresh snowmaking than most areas right now.

It also seems to me that Mount Snow is rather conservative about which trails it will open on marginal conditions. They also have a pretty high percentage of trails with no snowmaking at all, allowing them to concentrate their efforts on a lower number of trails (relative to their size).

 

[Smellytele]

Riding the lift at Okemo Sunday I swapped reports with someone who skied Mt. Snow on Saturday. I felt Okemo had better conditions than Stratton and he shared that Okemo had better conditions than Mt. Snow.

I was at Stowe in late January (before the most recent rain) and the front 4 were a disaster. I can't believe they've improved since then, but others who've visited more recently can chime in.

I haven't been to Maine this year but if I were to rate conditions in VT and NH today, the order would look something like this.

Okemo
Bretton Woods
Stowe
Waterville
Loon
Stratton

Granted, my #1 and #2 are intermediate mountains, but expert terrain is pretty rough right now. I've spent more days this season skiing blues than I ever remember. That said, if I'm going to ski blues, the ratings should reflect where I can ski the most variety of blues.

Glenn and DrJeff have no comparison but Mt Snow day to day.
As others have said just sharpen the edges and get out there

 

[drjeff]

It also seems to me that Mount Snow is rather conservative about which trails it will open on marginal conditions. They also have a pretty high percentage of trails with no snowmaking at all, allowing them to concentrate their efforts on a lower number of trails (relative to their size).

Not so sure about that. The 1st weekend in January when it had actually snowed for once (about 18" in 3 days), they dropped the ropes on every trail except Ripcord that weekend and patrol was putting out "thin cover signs" all over the place (and then 3 days later is was 50 and raining again ) I don't think that their opening a trail criteria is really any different than at most ski areas.

This year, it's the combo of the poor weather and the relatively smaller percentage of trails with snowmaking that has their trail count numbers where they are right now. I can say that from a natural snow perspective, when I left my place there on Monday afternoon, and i'm roughly 500 vertical feet above the base area, on the Eastern/shadier side of my place the snow pack on the ground was roughly 6" of glorified ice, whereas on the Western/sunnier side of my place the snow pack is all of 2-3" of similarly frozen ice. Sure there a few more inches higher up on the mountain, but those elevations also get more wind scour and as such isn't an evenly distributed snowpack. Having snowshoed up and down some of the closed, natural snow trails on Monday too, I can say from first hand viewing that what isn't open is for a GOOD reason, as the inch or so of fresh snow on top of the pack is covering up more brown stuff than white stuff. No sense in risking the health and equipment of customers and then potentially asking patrollers to trash their own gear that they pay for themselves on that terrain now.

If Mount Snow can get 4 -6" of some heavier density snow the next few days, I'm pretty sure that you'll see ropes drop on a good number of currently closed trails

 

[Warp Daddy]

Not a wuss...I call it 'body preservation'. If I want to ski forever, need to opt out of conditions that are no fun and could cause damage...bones, joints and ligaments have to survive for many more years lol.

LMAO at almost 69 and having survived open heart surgery i am already there friend and have a lot of catching up to do !! BTW ur right but i'm always "antsy" just hanging arounf nursing a minor PIA . Fortunately i've got lots of interests but the little boy in me is just Cry-Assin

 

[4aprice]

I'd also like to comment on the Sugarbush 100% open assertion. Quite a few of those open blues and blacks have 'experts only", thin cover, and other signs. They are generally ungroomed and have bullet proof moguls. Indeed they were fun for two hours after 2" fresh. Frankly the blues were skiing like blacks and the black like, uh well, like MRG.

Was at Sugarbush a week ago today. I was sketical about going up Castlerock but pleasantly surprised at how it skied. Sure there was rocks and bare spots but the snow was not too bad. There was definately more natural snow then Killington and further south. Okemo skied pretty well too including a nice set of good bumps on Upper Limelight in the Jackson Gore area but also had its share of hard pack. Bromley skied nicely Friday mostly due to the southern exposure and a bluebird day which gave it a taste of spring. Other then that it was mostly hardpack at Killington and Stratton. Skied the home mountain over the weekend and Saturday was just like most of Vermont then Sunday they opened fire with the snow guns and conditions were great. Heading back to Vermont on Monday and thinking snow.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[MikeW]

Another Mt Snow homer here, and I've only 8 days this year. 3 in Dec, 2 in Jan, and 3 more last weekend. Each time we've found soft snow and have had a bunch of good runs. That is starting 7:30 or 8:00, "10 by 10", and skiing till about 2:00. No natural snow trails. And there is something to be said about having a home mountain, and just showing up and skiing. But so far it's been pretty good.

 

[Glenn]

Let's hear it for the Homers! No matter where you ski, it's an easy decision when you're there every weekend. :lol:

 

[billski]

Perservere!

Holy shit bill. Do you really put that much thought into it?

We'll, there's years worth of lunch history here. :roll: Maybe we should analyze that. We'd probably uncover which disease each of us is likely to contract.

I'm out skiing 2-3 times a week. That means I've go 4-5 days to sit around, ponder my navel and do a little work! Whining, hell, this and snowmobile forums are the only places you can get a sympathetic ear! :evil: My storm tracker weather page is useless this season. :-?

The point of my questioning is more to say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and a somewhat sheltered view of Vermont conditions.

Take all opinions here, mine included, into the soup pot, add your biases and come out with a conclusion that matters to you.

For me, I look for the weather forecast I like the most and go with it. :idea:

 

[drjeff]

We'll, there's years worth of lunch history here. :roll: Maybe we should analyze that. We'd probably uncover which disease each of us is likely to contract.

I'm out skiing 2-3 times a week. That means I've go 4-5 days to sit around, ponder my navel and do a little work! Whining, hell, this and snowmobile forums are the only places you can get a sympathetic ear! :evil: My storm tracker weather page is useless this season. :-?

The point of my questioning is more to say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and a somewhat sheltered view of Vermont conditions.

Take all opinions here, mine included, into the soup pot, add your biases and come out with a conclusion that matters to you.

For me, I look for the weather forecast I like the most and go with it. :idea:

Here's another over analytical way to look at things from the eye's of us "Homer's" (and it really doesn't matter what ski area one is a Homer at vs. the ski/ride all over the place crew when it comes to conditions.

Us Homer's are the constants. We're on the same mountain essentially all the time. We can see, and judge the conditions of the snow on the hill on a day to day/week to week basis, and that does give us the ability to say that "right now, it is/isn't pretty good" and our comparison is based on what it was like the last time we were on the hill. Kind of an apples to apples comparison

Now for someone who area hops, and that's totally cool as I used to do that a great deal, and with my kids very soon entering the competition programs at Mount Snow, I'll once again be hitting up a bunch of areas to watch them compete, you're comparison isn't necessarily based on what that particluar area you're at that day is like compared to that same place. You're most likely making your comparsion based on a different area (that may or may not be in the same geographical area) or a much longer ago past visit to that same area. Often an apples to oranges comparison.

Each has it's place for sure. But as long as we're all out sliding down the hill, it's all good in my book

 

[jrmagic]

Let's hear it for the Homers! No matter where you ski, it's an easy decision when you're there every weekend. :lol:

Yes it is! As a homer myself, I liked Bill's comparison because it let me know that our mountain ops team was doing a pretty good job given the difficult conditions whihc I kind of knew they were but validation is comforting.

 

[Glenn]

We need an "AZ Homer Crew"; all of us who are homers.

 

[BenedictGomez]

Heading back to Vermont on Monday and thinking snow.

If the GFS model does wind up being correct on that storm moving up the coast, you may want to cancel your Vermont trip and stay in the Poconos. Not too many times you'll hear people say that!

 

[goldsbar]

IMHO they all skied quite the same. Hard. Not just hard pack; Boilerplate in many places. The rain hit everyone. The temps up and down hit everyone. The base is now there and the only way to move it is with dynamite. I have a hunch that a shotgun bullet wouldn't make it too far in. It honestly does not matter whether it is 6 inches or three feet of base. It all skis the same.

Thanks for the realistic overview. Many of the conditions reports I see remind me of a friend I once had. Somehow conditions were always great and "epic" the 5% of the time I wasn't around. Must have been me.

 

[darent]

I'm curious to hear more. How have these trails held up over the freeze/thaw cycle? How many trails have a lot of snow on them? What consistency would you rate them at, PP, FGR, VC, etc.? Do the greens, blue and black have equal amounts of coverage? Do the blues get scraped off? By what time? When you get below the loose snow, what is the base like? How does the grooming crew do a better job than others? How many cats do they have out there at night? Do they have a replenishing water reservoir? How does the water supply keep up with it? Do they have natural trails that are open? How are they skiing?

I notice that they report 46 of 80 trails open. That's about 50%, on par with other areas of similar size. I'd also like to comment on the Sugarbush 100% open assertion. Quite a few of those open blues and blacks have 'experts only", thin cover, and other signs. They are generally ungroomed and have bullet proof moguls. Indeed they were fun for two hours after 2" fresh. Frankly the blues were skiing like blacks and the black like, uh well, like MRG.

In the final analysis, if you are going to pick a ski area to go to in VT, other criteria other than quality of trails is the way to go. It is what it is.


Not dissing, just looking for more details on how it's done.

skied sugarbush february 10,not much grooming for a midweek day, what was groomed was very skiable untill after lunch. trails were hard PP. trails that were not groomed were glazed over hard snow. expert trails were closed or had thin cover signs, castle rock lift wasn't running when I went over that way. I only skied the lincoln peak area. best skiing on the midweek tour was smuggs, good snow consistency, probably due to low skier visits.expert trails were closed ,no cover. some of the woods skiing was good

 

[billski]

Each has it's place for sure. But as long as we're all out sliding down the hill, it's all good in my book

Agree big time. As I say time and time again; as long as you get to the bottom and have a smile on your face,that's all that matters. After all, we're all just playing in the snow

 

[4aprice]

If the GFS model does wind up being correct on that storm moving up the coast, you may want to cancel your Vermont trip and stay in the Poconos. Not too many times you'll hear people say that!

LOL. Believe it or not I have had some decent powder days in the Pocono's (not this year but in the past). Still hope this moves north but there are more reasons then skiing that I'm heading to Vermont. Chasing powder on the east coast has never really been a past time of mine. If its there that's great but I never really count on it. Our trips to Utah are the times I look for it and the past few years I've been very lucky with it. (example: 18+ on the last day of my season last year). Here's hoping snow for everyone.

Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[2knees]

We'll, there's years worth of lunch history here. :roll: Maybe we should analyze that. We'd probably uncover which disease each of us is likely to contract.

I'm out skiing 2-3 times a week. That means I've go 4-5 days to sit around, ponder my navel and do a little work! Whining, hell, this and snowmobile forums are the only places you can get a sympathetic ear! :evil: My storm tracker weather page is useless this season. :-?

The point of my questioning is more to say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and a somewhat sheltered view of Vermont conditions.

Take all opinions here, mine included, into the soup pot, add your biases and come out with a conclusion that matters to you.

For me, I look for the weather forecast I like the most and go with it. :idea:

so your answer is yes.

got it.

 

[deadheadskier]

:lol:

 

[MommaBear]

The point of my questioning is more to say "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and a somewhat sheltered view of Vermont conditions.

Take all opinions here, mine included, into the soup pot, add your biases and come out with a conclusion that matters to you.

Exactly. I, too, ski Mount Snow regularly but do not always hold the same fond opinion of others. I can say that the days I skied were good, a couple REALLY good. But that is because I have been choosey about picking the days. Like WarpDaddy, I'm protecting myself this year from injuries. Two bad falls on hardpack last year have left me cautious. As soon as the boiler plate starts coming thru (and there is plenty of it at Mt Snow by lunch time), I'm headed back to the condo. It is just not worth getting hurt again. I will admit the conditions are surprisingly good early in the day, considering the season they have been dealt. But by early afternoon, it just gets ugly.