Weekend Speculation Thread - The Presidential Edition! 2/16-17

[Smellytele]

Cannon skied well today. Snow showers all day. Upper glades were great in the morning. Vista Way was the best upper mountain run. Front 5 weren't bad, Mittersil skied great as well. Biggest surprise of the day no crowds except in the lodge and just outside the lodge.

 

[tnt1234]

Had a great day at Magic. Started out kinda f worried - the west side was really frozen, and not fun. Skied some groomers and were kind of down on the day...then we saw someone boarding red kine under us, Sounded great. Skied that, Gonnif and,,,,I don't know, something left and right of that....and they were crazy good.

Don't really understand it - one trail in either direction and things were frozen solid. But these trails were great. Red line in particular was an absolute blast.

So our first day at magic, we probably skied about 25% of the goods and we were totally stoked.

Was going to ski Okemo on my Epic pass tomorrow, but gonna o bromley instead. Only skiing a half day and this will save some drive time. Plus, same elevation, so might not be frozen.

 

[kingslug]

They didnt close the glades..but put signs saying there is a lot of ice under everything and skiing the woods is not recommended...pretty much lawyer speak..
I dont go in their alone so i cant say how it is in there..but the wind blew the snow somewhere...

 

[tnt1234]

They didnt close the glades..but put signs saying there is a lot of ice under everything and skiing the woods is not recommended...pretty much lawyer speak..
I dont go in their alone so i cant say how it is in there..but the wind blew the snow somewhere...

Looks like most everything is open - how were the trails?

 

[mulva]

Killington 100% open. Skied laps on North Ridge, many on South Ridge, Fiddle and Thimble > Chunnel and Needles under the power lines. Some Bear mtn woods also. Everything skied well (South Ridge, Bear and Needles area especially) except an early morning run down Northstar which was okay/passable. Lift lines not bad until South Ridge Quad broke which caused huge lines at Bear/Skye Peak Express. Whatever, went over to Needles area which skied awesome and had no lines at all. Gorgeous day after 11 AM. Conditions and weather were fantastic. It should hold for the next 2 days while I'm here. Snow storms Thursday and Sunday??? Let's hope so......

 

[kingslug]

Trails were as expected with a foot of snow over an ice base..the tops of the steeps were boiler plate but ok once past that. Theres a lot of snow up here and im pretty sure a lot of it went into the trees. The moguls were solid though..on the steeps but the low angle ones were ok. The middle of national was the deepest witj about a foot sitting in there. By 2 it was all getting skied off so i called it.
Get there by 7 for 730 chair and you have the place mostly to yourself..then the hordes arrive.

 

[kingslug]

At the Bush..fast and firm bluebird day

 

[Glenn]

Headed back to the flatlands today. Saw a good number of people still heading north for a late long weekend.

 

[gregnye]

Wildcat was wonderful yesterday! Soft bumps due to high elevation. Although it was the most crowded I have ever seen it (parking lots were at capacity), the crowd only was there from 9:45--Noon. And even at that they had the quad lift going really fast so the line was only around 6 minutes at it's max, which was back to "normal wildcat crowds" around noon.

Yesterday proved to me that a high-speed quad running at full speed (so greater than 1,000 ft/min) is more efficient than any 6-person/bubble lift. Even with the really high operating/loading speed and the 90 degree load, very few lift stoppages/mis-loads. Killington could learn a lot from this.

 

[deadheadskier]

A lot of the reason why Wildcat doesn't suffer lift stopages like the major resorts is it tends to draw more experienced skiers.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[Smellytele]

A lot of the reason why Wildcat doesn't suffer lift stopages like the major resorts is it tends to draw more experienced skiers.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app

Agreed

 

[Kleetus]

Whiteface was great today. No woods in play really, but all the steeps were. Did get skied off by mid-day in the center of most trails, but sides were loaded with all that skied off snow. Nothing like skiing Skyward top to bottom (first 100ft of headwall excluded...always boilerplate) and not hitting anything but hard pack or loose snow. Also, crowds were very minimal mid-mountain up.

Conditions aside, spectacular views and weather today. No wind. Few high clouds. Comfortable temps. Killer views.

Sent from my SM-G892A using AlpineZone mobile app

 

[Jully]

Wildcat was wonderful yesterday! Soft bumps due to high elevation. Although it was the most crowded I have ever seen it (parking lots were at capacity), the crowd only was there from 9:45--Noon. And even at that they had the quad lift going really fast so the line was only around 6 minutes at it's max, which was back to "normal wildcat crowds" around noon.

Yesterday proved to me that a high-speed quad running at full speed (so greater than 1,000 ft/min) is more efficient than any 6-person/bubble lift. Even with the really high operating/loading speed and the 90 degree load, very few lift stoppages/mis-loads. Killington could learn a lot from this.

It was slammed again today. They did not seem to have the quad running at full speed today too for some reason. People were going in and out of it all day. They also had ~20 carriers sitting on the rails not on the line. Not sure if that's always been there, I spent more time waiting in line today than I probably have in the past 3 years combined so I easily may have missed it.

The line ran maybe 12 minutes at it's peak today, but not super sure as when it extended beyond the queues I rode Tomcat for ~3 hours.

Conditions on the upper mountain, especially in the trees, were great. Little bit like frozen toothpaste on the lower mountain, but still great.

 

[tnt1234]

Had a great day at Bromley. Soft bumps and a few glades....crowded, but whatever...

Also had my worst fall in a long time - ran the tip of my right ski into the edge of a rock in Avalance Glade and single effected, head of heels - just missed landing on a stump and smashing a tree. Very lucky, but my shoulder still hurts.

And also, I broke my ski - same ski, but the edge blew out, so not sure if that was the cause. I suspect skiing red line the day before loosed the edge up and it blew maybe from the force of the hit or from pounding bumps. There was nothing wrong with the ski immediately after my fall. Didn't notice it until the last round of the day....

Great weekend for us, but now I'm searching for new skis....

 

[gregnye]

They did not seem to have the quad running at full speed today too for some reason. People were going in and out of it all day. They also had ~20 carriers sitting on the rails not on the line. Not sure if that's always been there, I spent more time waiting in line today than I probably have in the past 3 years combined so I easily may have missed it.

Very weird. Yesterday it was running full speed and there was only one carrier not in operation. I wonder what happened.

 

[kingslug]

7am and snowing at Stowe..and i got the mayors spot

 

[56fish]

nice :beer: 3" quick, still snowing at shop ... JP be nice right now

 

[tnt1234]

7am and snowing at Stowe..and i got the mayors spot
View attachment 24612

how was it???

 

[shwilly]

SR was fantastic this long weekend. I'd have to call it the best weekend of the season so far. Friday night's precip didn't mess up the snow pack much at all. There were heavy powder leftovers all weekend, then another inch or...3? of fresh by midday today. I did several new-to-me lines and spotted a couple more. I barely had a non-tree run all long weekend except for traverses and going down to the lodge to pick up the kids.

The parking lots and stores were crowded, but not the slopes or lift lines. It was a weird combination.

I feel bad for my friends who visited last weekend for concrete and howling wind. The contrast between this weekend and last was extreme. I wanted to play hooky tomorrow, but my better half didn't feel she could blow off work.

 

[kingslug]

Stowe was good until it got skied off. The snow didn't bond very well as it was super light but made a difference for sure. As long as you stayed on the low angle moguls it was OK. And start early. The tops of the front 4 were closed and early on the easiest glades in the place was closed??
So no Goat and Chinclip for me but middle and lower National where fun. The top of Liftline became ..sporty.
A nice deathslide developed over at Spruce..poor kids were sliding to the bottom. OY. With more snow on the way things should shape up.
The trick is starting at 7:30.