Wachusett - 1/16/13

[makimono]

Date(s) Skied: Wednesday 1/16/2013
Resort or Ski Area: Wa Wa Wachusett
Conditions: Wet Cement
Trip Report:

WaWa picked up 5" new snow (reported) overnight and had "Powder" conditions reported this morning. :lol:
They took a beating over the weekend so this little snow storm was huge for them going into the holiday weekend. With colder temps the second half of the week they should be able to get back to 90%.

Today they only had 10th Mountain open from the top. Conifer was technically closed but it wasn't roped at mid mountain so I hopped on over there a bunch and it was in fine shape, I'm thinking they're just saving it for the weekend. Same with Smith.

The Polar Quad was ski on all day and I thought the snow on 10th was great but it took a lot of work to ski and a lot of people were having trouble with the heavy mounds that formed...especially coupled with the zero-visibility.
There was a fine sleet-mist all day long which would rime up your goggles within 3 turns and sting your eyes if you went without.

I stayed away from the Minuteman Quad except for the first run because school was cancelled and the terrain park was in. The corrals on both sides were full all day, maybe 10 minute lines, not really sure because I just lapped 10th for the most part.
The park looked really good though, lots of cool features, not just the standard 2 launch ramps and a rail. And the kids were ripping it up, I saw a 540 and two backflips in my one trip up that lift.

 

[wa-loaf]

The bumps still up on 10th?

 

[makimono]

No they must have been groomed out.

 

[Nick]

I haven't skied a bump this year

 

[dmw]

Was there today too, bumps on 10th and Hitchcock were groomed out too. I was there Monday as well, was afraid of what the place would look like by this time - agreed, this storm was key for them.

 

[jrmagic]

I haven't skied a bump this year

There were bumps when you were at Magic... oh yeah... you decided to hit a tree instead of the bumps

 

[HD333]

I hit up Wa Wa last night and was pleasantly surprised. 10th was the only trail from the summit, it was pretty good on the edges. Where the moguls usually are was scrapped off. It was funny watching beginners in over their head attempting to navigate 10th. Not to crowded but lines formed because they were loading every other chair for the summit to reduce trail congestion.

 

[Drusive]

new to the board, first post been lurking and reading for a couple weeks. I have seen several posts with discontent towards wawa. I have tried to remain positive over the years, due to its close proximity but last night set me over the edge.
Arrived at 3pm booted up went in to purchase my ticket at 3:15. I was told they weren't allowed to sell me a ticket to the early evening session until 3:30 or I could pay another 10 dollars and get on the hill now. I went to the bar to have a beer cool my jets and wait the 15 minutes, not a big deal but kind of annoying.
Went up polar once and came down only to find they shut down the lift for grooming. I know they run the groomers for the evening session but have never seen shut down the entire polar side. So the entire crowd shifts to the minuteman, got in 3 runs in an hour. Polar reopened after they groomed for that hour, so the whole crowd shifts to the other side. I figure great they pushed some snow around at least we have the mountain open now. Wrong, only tenth was open and they were running ever other chair to keep the traffic down, which just caused more problems because the lifties couldn't seem to control the crowd and make the every other loading go smoothly so the lift was stopping every 5 minutes.
I know how bad wawa can get during these nights and of course dodging the young ones and beginners is half the challenge, but this time I was really disappointed by the operations side, it wasn't far from total chaos

 

[makimono]

The night session starts at 4pm I think so if they sold you a ticket at 3:30 then that was pretty generous and more than reasonable.

It was tough that they only had 10th open from the Polar Quad...I thought the bottom of Conifer skied fine, better than 10th even, so I assume there must have been some kind of issue up top for them to keep it closed but it did make for a crowded 10th Mountain even though there was no line at all for the quad. I noticed that there was a "bulge" of skiers and I had to pace myself either faster or slower so as not to get stuck in the middle of it.

In hindsight I wonder about their decision to do the night groom at all...typically they close one trail at a time for the evening groom and it goes on without issue but with only one trail open from the top that obviously meant closing the whole lift down. The trail was skiing fine at 3:45pm. A little clumpy but it is supposed to be an expert trail after all and they did have a sign stating that it was expert only for that lift. Couldn't they have just skipped the night groom for one day on 10th? I mean my other home mountain goes the whole season without ever grooming a few of it's expert trails...the world isn't going to end over a few bumps on an expert trail...although maybe there'd be even more people bitching about that?

 

[xlr8r]

I was there as well for a quick night session 6:30 to 9:00 for 15 runs. I ran into Cheese on Minuteman because I noticed his AZ sticker on his helmet. Hope you did well racing Cheese.

Once again I feel the need to complain about Wawa's operations this year. Nobody really could figure out why Conifer or Smith were closed. I did cut over to the bottom third of upper Smith by taking the auto road, and coverage was fine. It seems as though plenty of people must have poached smith and conifer earlier in the day. Having just 10th open create a dangerous situation on the headwall with the amount of people that were struggling to get down. Imo the grooming was necessarily because the snow really became a hard cement that was no fun to be on anywhere that didn't get regroomed like lower smith.

The best run was Frannie's as it was the least crowded, and you cold still ski some untouched corduroy when I left at 9:00 on it. I'm planning on hitting Crotched on Sunday before the game. It will probably be a couple weeks before I come back to Wawa. They really need to get their act together in the meantime.

 

[wa-loaf]

Sounds like Wednesday nights are rough. I don't run into any of these issues on Thursday. I was surprised last night with temps in the 20's that they weren't making snow. Smith was still closed at the top.

 

[Cheese]

I ran into Cheese on Minuteman because I noticed his AZ sticker on his helmet. Hope you did well racing Cheese.

4th fastest time of the night so no complaints. Thanks for asking and great to meet a fellow AZer!

There were bumps when you were at Magic... oh yeah... you decided to hit a tree instead of the bumps
:razz:

Bumps were just to the left or right of that tree Nick!

 

[ScottySkis]

Sent from my ADR6410LVW using Tapatalk 2

Wachusett like Mountain Creek in NJ vertical and lay out wise I'm just curious?

 

[dmw]

Here today - they made a lot of snow earlier on 10th, I think they're blowing Smith now. It's a bit crowded, but conditions are surprisingly good.

 

[chevling]

Nobody really could figure out why Conifer or Smith were closed.

I was there on the 13th just before they closed it for the week. Upper conifer was a disaster, there was nothing left around the first turn. Only way down was via rock or mud. Never went down smith, so I can't comment. Did notice the recovery was fast, they got it back open as soon as the temps dipped.