PowderBeard

13 hours ago, eduggs said:

Some of the resorts used to have a lot of foreign staff on work visas. I believe those programs have been suspended the past two years.

Stratton relied heavily on these programs. So much so that they bought up hotels in the area, such as the two across from the Upper Pass Lodge on the Magic access road, as employee housing.

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah!  Look at that.  Where else in the East will you find that big, wide open expanse with a wide variety of cliff/rock drops, some technical turns, also easily skirted around... what a fun trail.

I'm guessing you have one of these on your car lol 

1 hour ago, radarman said:

Royal Flush is amazing in the spring too.  A true New England classic for the beach on snow days.  The canyon in general catches the early season pow that is pretty often blowing around.  If you enter Big Dipper and stay in the woods hard skiers left almost coming out onto East Fall that's not only some of the best terrain on the mountain but also the snowiest.  Just piles in through there.  I'm thinking if some of these systems pan out it could be game on sometime next week.

Good to know. Doesn't get as much snow as others but the upper part of The Stairs was some of my favorite stuff tree-skiing. At this point I wouldn't complain about a couple south-west flows putting down 3-6" of slop followed by a hard freeze to make a base. Or just an extended window for Berkie to start making snow so I can stop freezing my ass off fishing. 

25 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

That's good. What trails I wonder?

 Middle/Lower Lynx and Lower Catenary with some upper combination of Upper Polecat/Upper Lynx/Lynx Lair on the upper section has been the more common opening line-up. 

8 minutes ago, tamarack said:

"Slime dart"?  Pickerel?  (My initial thought was snakehead, but they're not that far north - yet - I hope.)

Sorry for my slang but you got it! Oooof, no snakeheads yet. I wouldn't be surprised if they made an appearance in the Hudson or CT River in the next 10 years though. At one point I'm pretty sure Maine was "managing" the pickerel issue. They seem to have completely over taken some lakes in SNE. Some places you catch 4-6 pickerel for every one bass, and 90% of the bass caught in those lakes are 12-14". I'd like to see some research done on how they effect bass fisheries.    

On 11/22/2021 at 6:00 PM, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Do you ice fish in the Oxbow? Driving home from skiing,  I often see people ice fishing that area. 

I don't ice fish, not enough ADHD medication in the world for me to sit around when I could be skiing. I would love to get a big pike through the ice though, on my bucket list.

I hit a popular shallow lake last Monday with a new approach and had a memorable day. Water was 41-42*, could get nothing going on the jig or jerkbait. Starting "yo-yo'ing" a blade bait in 6-8' and ripping it out of old grass beds in the middle of no-where. Something I had seen have a lot of success in southern lakes - specifically Florida lakes and Guntersville - during the winter but never tried. The fish had clearly never seen it, I had times where 3-4 largemouth were following the blade to the boat. Rare to see a largemouth follow a bait in, never mind 3-4 grouped up doing it. Put about 30 keeper largemouth in the boat in about 2 hours, none over 3 lbs though. Also a ton of "slime darts," one was over 4 lbs. with a big sunfish in its gullet. Left early because my fingers were ready to fall off between them getting wet, wind, and 40* air temps.

Definitely need to alter my rod choice, was using a 7'2 medium action rod with 12lbs. flouro but I think a glass/more parabolic rod would have kept them hooked up. It's a balancing act because you need a rod with enough backbone to rip it out of the old grass but soft enough tip so the trebles don't rip out of their mouth. Funny how smallies and largemouths differ. I've found smallies have much tougher mouths so you either need to drill them with a heavier wire hook or "pinch them" with light wire. In the spring I was using the same blade with more of a medium-heavy rod and lost very few smallies despite their acrobatics. 

The Rapala V-Rap has been my "go to" blade this year in a couple different colors. I used to use all the old "Silver Buddies" but the rattle system is a game changer imo. I will be stocking up on more, and probably trying some new hooks on them next year. It's a pretty fun bite. Where the jerkbait you go to snap it and feel weight or a pull, the blade you go to lift it up and get the same experience.

13 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Ridge was in great shape..top of double dipper too.  They probably could have pushed a couple more natural trails if they wanted, but I think the issue is some of the connections.  Overall, it’s in really great shape right now.

All day Saturday all I could think about was skiing Royal Flush. One of my favorite trails at K and over-looked once Skye, Bear, and the Canyon open up. In my few experiences it is like a lot of the snow in the Canyon blows onto Royal Flush and The Throne. Flush probably has the most character of any trail at K since it is still narrow, has all the water bars, grundle floss, etc. Skye Peak Lift Line or the few bands on lower Conclusion are my others. Probably have not done enough exploring though as I know there are some fun times to be had in the woods/area around The Jug. 

Had a great day out last Thursday. Went out of the CT River-Oxbow section around 11am. Fished the main river for smallies until about 2pm. Current was just too strong, not even a follower. Went into the Oxbow flipping the jig around wood for an hour. Nadda. Frustrated after 4 hours without a bite I started throwing a suspending jerkbait in 10-15' of water in front of the wood I was just flipping and that's when it got fun. Boated about 15 largemouth in 90 minutes, only one fish under 2 pounds. Biggest was 4-11 lbs., best 5 went about 17 lbs.  My best bag out of the Oxbow.  Water was 43-44* in the main river, 45-46* in the Oxbow. The week prior I had a 5-11 largie and some other good ones from the wood when the water was 2-3 degrees warmer, I think it just was not warm enough for them to move onto it so they were suspending just off the hard cover. You can notice the bellies on the fish, they had/were seriously feeding up for winter. 

Notice the talon scars on the top of this 4-11 right below the spiny dorsal fin. Some bird almost got her when she was younger.

This jerkbait has been absolute magic this year for fishing more than 10' of water on the Quabbin and CT River. Strike King is making decent baits again. 

6 hours ago, STILL N OF PIKE said:

 

im very interested to see how Gaming (play to earn ) and NFT sectors (Hold up or sell off more ) during the bitcoin fall . It’s sort of a tough call as these sectors have seen biggest gains but are also growing fastest .

This should be a very lucrative opportunity in a few weeks in many coins 

I really need to read up more to fully understand the NFT and gaming area. Seems to be an interesting intersection, the main meme stock has been hiring as many NFT/crypto folks as they can recently. SAND and MANA are green in a sea of red today.

10 minutes ago, SouthCoastMA said:

I had LoopRing at .65 and sold at .96..ugh

Looks to have found some good support, reddit has only jumped on board in the past week. It was my first crypto buy at about .45, I've DCA'd up to about 1.05 and am still holding.  I'm used to stocks so probably should have taken some out but I'll learn. All the Github "leaks" and GME responding on twitter to the rumor make I may take my cost out soon/if an announcement is made and let the rest ride.

50 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

It’s most likely over bought. 

My dyslexia got me in this post. I saw LC in the quote, immediately jumped to LRC, saw your comment, and thought "No!" lol

Grabbed GOEV weeklies at 11, 11.50, and 12.00 yesterday morning were $15-25 a piece lol. Ran to $13 in pre-market twice. First and maybe the last time I ever play weeklies, but I'm watching the meme plays from next week until February, lots of exposure and the stars look to be aligning again. 

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

I'm sure many do get out. Crypto is obviously here to stay, but it's mostly too risky for me still. I also have bad luck timing these things.

Always had this view. Took the plunge a month ago and now instead of doing work I'm learning everything I can about crypto. Never thought I'd say it but there is a lot less BS involved with prices/volatility than dealing with stocks/options imo. The latest BBBY after-hours run due to their buyback followed by all the meme stonks pumping the next 24-hours just confirmed my suspicions about ETFs and I don't see myself playing with stocks much more.  

Winds are cranking. A few gusts around 40, sustained at about 20-25.

Thinking it might be a good idea to throw some grub treatment down. Have a had an opossum in the yard eating the past three nights.  

3 hours ago, ineedsnow said:

Kcef down to 31 we freeze

Got stuck at 33* and fog here. 

1 hour ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

We are fooked if that can spread to humans. Walking dead comes to a town near you.

 I'd take that prion over FFI. 

10 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

We’ve had some good November’s… almost better than December’s have been.  Some real cold shots too.  It’s been a wintry month.  Last year I had 10.5” on like Nov 2-3rd… I think it was the only storm with 10” or more in one single snowfall in my backyard .

November snows are great because they vastly shorten stick season… this gray lifeless time of year that looks like a history movie from Chernobyl.  Snowfall, even 1-3”, really brightens it up.

 

I think November has had better skiing than December a couple times in the past five years. 

38*, crunchy grass tomorrow morning?

12 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Wow, that's pretty quick. 

Crotched in NH probably has the best system around. When I was a Peaks holder in 2011-2014 they would "resurface" the entire mountain (~100 acres) after any liquid event or free/thaw cycle. Basically just blanket the mountain in 4-6", the conditions were always fantastic, rarely heard hard pack noises. They run into issues come February because they have limited water supply. 

Blue Hill has gusted to 45. I'd put the over/under at 64.

1 hour ago, MarkO said:

Campton Mountain is right!

Killington has the capacity to cover a trail in probably 24 hours, although that's really a guess based on what I've seen them do on a trail like Superstar.

 

 

Not sure about Superstar but I know North Ridge (Rime, Reason, Upper EF) area they can get enough base in about 12 hours, then a few hours of pushing/grooming to open. 

On 10/20/2021 at 1:36 PM, MRVexpat said:

Good points, though even when I was more reckless about stuff like this I would want at least 5" over mowed MRG slopes before getting out there. Also icelantics have bulletproof bases so on that front he's probably incurring less risk as well, lol. 

I think I will try Icelantics for my next pair of 110-115 waisted sticks. Any likes or dislikes? I usually prefer a super stiff ski with a little rocker.

23 minutes ago, amarshall said:

Flying in from Ireland tomorrow afternoon. 65 knots on my app. Should be a good landing


.

Wind maps are not "over doing" for this event, calling it now. Why? Five years of grad school all comes down to this week for me, internship apps due and I really need internet. 

3 minutes ago, snowman21 said:

That's not the only tin foil hat excuse. During the game twitter was talking about Valdez touching something above his left eye every time he got a new baseball. As if umps aren't checking for substances. They just got beat plain and simple. The offense had been on a tear the last few weeks and was bound to go cold, and facing a junkballer and their second best pitcher on successive nights is a good catalyst for that.

He was just flat out good last night. I noticed that but umps were routinely checking for substances between innings. Fox would show it just before breaks.

I didn't realize the Yankees complained about the whistling in the 2019 ALCS and MLB agreed but couldn't identify the source.

https://www.yahoo.com/now/report-mlb-confirmed-whistling-after-yankees-complained-in-alcs-unsure-if-astros-were-source-145808180.html#:~:text=According to Martino%2C MLB had,to have identified the whistling.