Angus

hiked middle and north sugarloaf off of zealand road yesterday. lots of snowmaking at both BW and Cannon. Looks like Gary's and zoomer will be open soon with caveat re: upcoming weather. We stopped to take picture at BW and someone in parking lot said skiing was very good. The cars parked along 302 in crawford notch was silly - weekend summer like. Only saw 2 couples on our hike.

I don't know SR but that route isn't great 'vertical' at Wildcat - I would normally skate and pole from the offload area to middle wildcat. I noticed that Wildcat's twitter is advertising a hiring event this Friday. What's strange about the current state of snowmaking is Peaks was using the mountain as a testing center for the HDK guns a few years prior to Vail acquisition. That TomCat lift is slow...

LOL - wildcat will open with Tomcat lift only - so nothing from top. route down will be cat tracks to middle wildcat to bobcat. This is NOT their normal opening which is essentially Lynx with some polecat at the top - although in 2006, I do remember skiing december 30 in this configuration but can't remember the circumstances - weather (it was snowing), mechanical problems, et cetera. Bobcat is wide.

Wildcat will open Friday they just announced on Twitter.

I've been checking the killington webcams periodically and they are still at it. they will have to turn off the guns most likely this morning at some point with warming temps but it will be interesting to see the size of the piles. Pretty awesome effort.

hiked north twin yesterday which had snow on the last couple hundred vertical feet. Cannon Mountain has made snow on upper ravine, upper cannon and bypass. the profile (cannonball) lift is another good candidate for early/late season skiing, getting uploaded/downloaded by the peabody lift. the profile lift base is above 3,000'

This is the prelude to the King of Spring debate! I have always thought the skyline lift at Sugarloaf that runs from 2,400-3,800' which can be accessed by a couple of different base area lifts would be the ultimate early/late season pod - western maine, great snow retention and terrain in that area of the mountain is outstanding. Just too far though. Killington is perfectly situated in terms of distance. I always enjoy my early May visit there to ski bumps on a warm sunny day.

I was Epic last year and this year with the Indy pass, I suspect my per day expense by season end will likely go up with lodging to ski Jay and Saddleback

Correct. I liked Butch as a kid. Had that football mentality - played backup QB at 'Bama for the Bear. I was looking for something about Rick Burleson's shoulder but couldn't find anything definitive about his rotator until the '82 season with the Angels. He was very durable but I remember him getting hurt - checked https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/hittinglogs.php?p=burleri01&y=1978 he was out from July 10 thru July 27.

you are correct about The Rooster's torn rotator. I will be always scarred by that collapse - I think it is unexplainable given the level of hatred between the Sox and the yankees. My memory of Butch Hobson a few years later is his errant throws to first base from third. Just looked this up, maybe it wasn't a few years later!! His elbow was junk. In 1978, Hobson hit 17 home runs with 80 RBIs. However, he posted 43 errors, the most for any American League fielder in that season, and his .899 fielding average also was the first below .900 by a regular player in 60 years.

LOL. Who?? Making me feel old. For the younger folks, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Burleson The infield during his time was George Scott, Remy, Burleson and Hobson. All in one way or another larger than life in the Boston sports conscience with exception of The Rooster.

Power came on late this afternoon - multiple national grid trucks descended on the neighborhood. Call me impressed.

hiked across franconia ridge yesterday. spectacular day with good hiker traffic. was chuckling at myself, just below the ridge on falling waters, running water had turned to ice and I didn't recognize the change and slipped. there was a fairly good frost in the ground at higher elevations too.

just back from my parents house in Norwell. They live in the neighborhood that I grew up in so have memories dating back to early 1970's. Unbelievable - if they have power by next Tuesday I would be surprised. Power lines down the entire length of the street. According to neighbors, the entire town is like this. Parents are stuck in their house because of a tree falling from across the street into their driveway and power lines down running the the length of their yard along the street. I was there in the dark but it's impressive tree and grid damage.

They do that - I think - exclusively with pole mounted fan guns (I guess a few on wheels too). It is one of the reasons why I always recommend Crotched for young families. The snow conditions are always excellent after washout/freeze up, et cetera. The trails have about zero character but I like it and it is a great resource for the community. Took the kids there all the time when they were young. When mid-night madness went until 2am, I was skiing after midnight once in a whiteout of 'Utah" powder for 1 or 2 runs as a cold front pushed through, then the sky cleared completely and the cold, moonless sky was spectacular - very memorable. At that point, I think I was the only sober person on the hill - was all kids from local colleges I think.

My uncle was skiing there in the 50's. I took my first chairlift ride there in the early 70's in the summer. IMO, good addition for Boyne for the Portland market - betting weekday nights will get significantly more busy as the weekend skiers at SR and SLoaf have a convenient night skiing option. Looks like they are not integrating with the Boyne pass this season -

@powderfreakThat's a good deal and I didn't see that this morning when your response got me to go on the stowe website. last year I skied Sunapee/Crotched/Okemo/Wildcat on my NE pass but as I documented throughout last season, my 'go-to' mountain, Wildcat, was disappointing. My 3 days at Stowe were the best skiing of the season.

my 5 day pack at Boyne are any day of my choosing. I'm assuming I need to specify a day to purchase a $69 ticket in advance right now? I use to buy the SBush 4 pack but seemed to never use all 4 tickets. East coast conditions are too variable.

$69 advance purchase out west where the snow conditions are much less variable is probably a chance I would take. I'm hard pressed to purchase a ticket now for mid-march in NE and I will ski in just about anything! as I stated, I moved from the epic pass to the indy pass this year. I already have a six days of skiing planned out west at indy areas. given some of the distances from metrowest boston, I am interested to see the # of days I get in - BEast, Magic, WV, Pat's Peak (night?), Cannon, Black are all day trips. Bolton (day trip viable!) and Jay will probably paired up as back-to-back days. Saddleback, I will combine with SLoaf 5 pack I purchased for something like $60/day. Taking my skis to get tuned tomorrow!

This is no slight on either Killington or Sugarbush - I like each area - but $170-169 is simply unimaginable. This IMO is just another way of saying 'we only want season passholders skiing here.' Or maybe they have deeply discounted advanced ticket pricing.

I was hiking up wachusett and heard it. Didn't feel any shake if ground. It was very audible, made me pause...didn't think of it again until my bro in law mentioned it a few hours later.

I hate leaf blowers. I have a relatively small yard and use rake and blue tarp and drag into the woods behind house, I hate that too. but leaf blower hate > raking hate. I also shovel my snow versus using a snow blower but my feelings about that are much more muted.

swam in winnisquam today for about 10 minutes - water and air temperature were perfection. Water is now turned off.

Attitash was the first big mountain ski area I ever went too - middle school ski trips - 40+ years ago. Never been back since HS. The complaints and perpetual frustration about the lifts at Attitash are real from regulars. I also remember talking to an older ski patroller who worked I believe at BW, Attitash and Wildcat and he was telling me about the standing joke about the 'snow hole' that was Attitash. Flip side is everyone loves the terrain when accessible and open. I have always thought the combo or Attitash and Wildcat worked well. Wildcat as a standalone operation is problematic unless the owner got it for a nickel.

was camping at about 2,600' in the Dry River Wilderness area Saturday nite (spectacular, rugged area) and it was cool Sunday morning. No sign of frost but definitely first hints of Fall - those who had brought their light winter jackets were wearing them! Summited Mt. Isolation Sunday AM - within a few days of when I did it 2 years ago - and the foliage is definitely behind this year. Yesterday was the perfect early Fall day in the high peaks - amazing.