Zand
Well-known member
Date(s) Skied: 3:30 PM Friday 2/29/08 - 6:15 AM Saturday 3/1/08
Resort or Ski Area: Wachusett Mountain, MA
Conditions: Variable
Trip Report:
Well, about 125+ days at Wachusett in my lifetime and last night was probably the most memorable. The two biggest stories were the electricity and the crowds. The electricity I'll talk about below, but the crowds were insane last night. Lines at both lifts were 25-30 minutes through 3 AM, down to about 5 at 5 AM and after Polar went down, Minuteman had a 5-10 minute wait through 6 AM. The line for tickets was all the way back to the ski shop at 1 AM. They shut the parking lots at 11:30 PM. Not to mention it was nearly impossible to move through the lodge. I've never seen Wachusett so crowded.
The 2nd story of the night was electricity. The first issue was a light-timer issue. Around 10:45, I was standing at the bottom of Conifer when its lights went out. Right around 11:15, the entire mountain lost its lights except for Look Ma, but the lifts continued to run (albeit with no loading for a few minutes). Most of the lights came back on, but the unload area at Minuteman and Challenger were dark until 2 and lower Conifer never got lights back. Now fast forward to 5:15. Riding Polar when it stops for 5-10 minutes. Finally, it starts moving, but then stops after 2 seconds. After another 2 minutes, it finally starts moving, but slowly and that's when I knew that was probably going to be last run on the summit for the night. When I got to the bottom, I proved to be correct as the lift was running on the auxiliary diesel engine and the line was clearing. After a few runs on Minuteman, I was sneaking down a closed Look Mom with about 40 other people when I realized its chairs were coming up empty. I skied to the bottom to find an entire line chanting "7 AM!" Slowly, everyone started clearing although it wasn't without a few people in the front of the line snowballing the lift shack. Just about everyone started yelling "HIKE! HIKE!" and most people did, though it was against the wishes of 2 ski patrollers trying to stop us. After skiing for 15 hours, I only had the energy to hike to the top of the halfpipe for one last run. Then, at 7 AM, they decide to kick everyone out of the lodge yet a lot of people are there waiting for rides that were coming around 7:30. Not a great way for them to end a 24 hour event. At 8:15, Mass Electric showed up, turned all the power off and fixed the problem, and as far as I know the lifts were back open at 8:30 or 8:45.
Well, there's the 2 biggest stories. As for the snowfall, the forecasted 8-12" turned out to be 4" which wasn't enough to keep up with the crowds. Some trails were nicer later on, but not too much of a difference. Here's the trail-by-trail:
Ropers/Balance Rock/Conifer: Skied Upper Balance rock before sunset which was its typical scraped middle. Ropers was a sneak run at 4:20 AM because I wanted to see how many people went down to the lookout to celebrate 4:20 (and it was quite crowded...). Conifer was the nicest summit trail after the snow started with minimal scratchy areas besides right before the 2nd road. As I said before, Lower Conifer had no lights after 11. It was barely bright enough to see the outlines of people, but not light enough to see the snow conditions. Lower Balance Rock had no rope after 11 PM, so I skied that a lot to avoid a crowded and dark Lower Conifer. Of course, Lower Balance Rock also has no lights, but less people made it more fun.
10th: The bumps were frozen solid and all the snow did was barely cover up the glare ice patches so you'd slip unexpectedly. Some parts of the trail were really scraped although the right side was nice like usual. The rock at the top has nice coverage to take some 3 foot drops now. Lower had nice air like usual although the lights were out on the very last part.
Smith: Upper sucked all night, scraped beyond belief for the top half of the headwall. Lower was a lot better. Took a few runs down the "secret Hole in the Wall" which is some 300 foot long run off the mountain road. Its name is literal as you ski through a hole in the wall to get back to Smith. Polar's lines were documented above and was hauling ass all night, which is different than past years when they slowed it down after 10.
Hitchcock: Pretty nice at 5:30 AM with little traffic. Hit Vickery liftline once which was already totally tracked out, but fun anyway. Kinda funny seeing all the side-step imprints up the top of Frannies to get to it.
Look Mom: Same as it's been the last few weeks. Totally crowded with people all night, but still manageable besides when idiots would periodically stand on landings, etc. Pipe was better than Wednesday.
Challenger: Took a run in the dark around 2 and it was nice with the lack of traffic. Lights came back on soon after my run.
Ralph's: Hit it around 7 PM and it had nice packed powder the whole way. Not too much to say. Minuteman's lines were also documented above.
Indian Summer: Good packed powder the whole way with fresh corduroy under the lifts even at 6 PM. Monadnock had a decent line right up until it closed at midnight.
Well, that's about it. Plenty of events in the evening with the Cash Drop (my name got called but I missed it), Throwdown tent, fire, Guitar Hero competition, and music from WXLO. Channel 4 was also there live at 11 PM and that video is currently on their front page at wbztv.com. I'll be at Okemo Friday.
Resort or Ski Area: Wachusett Mountain, MA
Conditions: Variable
Trip Report:
Well, about 125+ days at Wachusett in my lifetime and last night was probably the most memorable. The two biggest stories were the electricity and the crowds. The electricity I'll talk about below, but the crowds were insane last night. Lines at both lifts were 25-30 minutes through 3 AM, down to about 5 at 5 AM and after Polar went down, Minuteman had a 5-10 minute wait through 6 AM. The line for tickets was all the way back to the ski shop at 1 AM. They shut the parking lots at 11:30 PM. Not to mention it was nearly impossible to move through the lodge. I've never seen Wachusett so crowded.
The 2nd story of the night was electricity. The first issue was a light-timer issue. Around 10:45, I was standing at the bottom of Conifer when its lights went out. Right around 11:15, the entire mountain lost its lights except for Look Ma, but the lifts continued to run (albeit with no loading for a few minutes). Most of the lights came back on, but the unload area at Minuteman and Challenger were dark until 2 and lower Conifer never got lights back. Now fast forward to 5:15. Riding Polar when it stops for 5-10 minutes. Finally, it starts moving, but then stops after 2 seconds. After another 2 minutes, it finally starts moving, but slowly and that's when I knew that was probably going to be last run on the summit for the night. When I got to the bottom, I proved to be correct as the lift was running on the auxiliary diesel engine and the line was clearing. After a few runs on Minuteman, I was sneaking down a closed Look Mom with about 40 other people when I realized its chairs were coming up empty. I skied to the bottom to find an entire line chanting "7 AM!" Slowly, everyone started clearing although it wasn't without a few people in the front of the line snowballing the lift shack. Just about everyone started yelling "HIKE! HIKE!" and most people did, though it was against the wishes of 2 ski patrollers trying to stop us. After skiing for 15 hours, I only had the energy to hike to the top of the halfpipe for one last run. Then, at 7 AM, they decide to kick everyone out of the lodge yet a lot of people are there waiting for rides that were coming around 7:30. Not a great way for them to end a 24 hour event. At 8:15, Mass Electric showed up, turned all the power off and fixed the problem, and as far as I know the lifts were back open at 8:30 or 8:45.
Well, there's the 2 biggest stories. As for the snowfall, the forecasted 8-12" turned out to be 4" which wasn't enough to keep up with the crowds. Some trails were nicer later on, but not too much of a difference. Here's the trail-by-trail:
Ropers/Balance Rock/Conifer: Skied Upper Balance rock before sunset which was its typical scraped middle. Ropers was a sneak run at 4:20 AM because I wanted to see how many people went down to the lookout to celebrate 4:20 (and it was quite crowded...). Conifer was the nicest summit trail after the snow started with minimal scratchy areas besides right before the 2nd road. As I said before, Lower Conifer had no lights after 11. It was barely bright enough to see the outlines of people, but not light enough to see the snow conditions. Lower Balance Rock had no rope after 11 PM, so I skied that a lot to avoid a crowded and dark Lower Conifer. Of course, Lower Balance Rock also has no lights, but less people made it more fun.
10th: The bumps were frozen solid and all the snow did was barely cover up the glare ice patches so you'd slip unexpectedly. Some parts of the trail were really scraped although the right side was nice like usual. The rock at the top has nice coverage to take some 3 foot drops now. Lower had nice air like usual although the lights were out on the very last part.
Smith: Upper sucked all night, scraped beyond belief for the top half of the headwall. Lower was a lot better. Took a few runs down the "secret Hole in the Wall" which is some 300 foot long run off the mountain road. Its name is literal as you ski through a hole in the wall to get back to Smith. Polar's lines were documented above and was hauling ass all night, which is different than past years when they slowed it down after 10.
Hitchcock: Pretty nice at 5:30 AM with little traffic. Hit Vickery liftline once which was already totally tracked out, but fun anyway. Kinda funny seeing all the side-step imprints up the top of Frannies to get to it.
Look Mom: Same as it's been the last few weeks. Totally crowded with people all night, but still manageable besides when idiots would periodically stand on landings, etc. Pipe was better than Wednesday.
Challenger: Took a run in the dark around 2 and it was nice with the lack of traffic. Lights came back on soon after my run.
Ralph's: Hit it around 7 PM and it had nice packed powder the whole way. Not too much to say. Minuteman's lines were also documented above.
Indian Summer: Good packed powder the whole way with fresh corduroy under the lifts even at 6 PM. Monadnock had a decent line right up until it closed at midnight.
Well, that's about it. Plenty of events in the evening with the Cash Drop (my name got called but I missed it), Throwdown tent, fire, Guitar Hero competition, and music from WXLO. Channel 4 was also there live at 11 PM and that video is currently on their front page at wbztv.com. I'll be at Okemo Friday.
