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The 2013-2014 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2

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Some pics I took yesterday in the bluebird skies... phenomenal presentation by Mountain Ops yesterday despite the lack of snowfall this season.

 

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It was classic "loose granular" conditions, which under these circumstances was pleasurable to ski.  Its less pleasant right after a thaw when its frozen/loose granular, but after several nights of grooming with the expensive machines, plus some snowmaking, it turns into a pretty good surface.  Its like the consistency of beach sand on top of a carvable base...fun to really go fast and strong.

 

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My buddy was up in Stratton this weekend and said it was pretty nasty. Extremely icy and tons of really thin spots. He's a season pass holder too. 

 

As per holiday weekend SOP, the afternoon is filled with skid and slam push-piles.  It really doesn't seem to matter how good the snow is (though it just lasts longer into the early afternoon and the push-piles get larger) but with thousands and thousands of skiers/riders, you just get skied off areas of ice between the push piles of new snow & sugar/loose granular. 

 

I really think this is where not having the whole mountain and trees skiable stands out the most.  People can't spread out like they usually do most seasons by this time.  Normally, all the locals and experts are in the woods doing their thing, or on the natural snow double diamonds, etc... but I know even those double diamond natural snow headwalls get hosed hard during these weekends even when they are open.  The sheer volume of folks on the hill this weekend up here has been astonishing (and awesome from a business point of view).  Considering it poured all last weekend and on Monday it was looking as bleak as it ever does in January, I was very surprised at the crowd.  This felt like the busiest weekend of the year so far and crowds exceeded anything seen over the Christmas holiday week.

 

I think there is a lot of pent up demand right now... if it really does start snowing or if we get a good 2-3 week run of snowfall and conditions, people will come from all over to get it.

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Next weekend I've got a ski weekend at Sunday River.  What are the odds mother nature bails me out and I get to snowboard on some fresh snow?  

 

It doesn't look good to me right now (cold and dry) but people in the pattern threads seem pretty optimistic.

 

I guess that SR will be refreshing a few trails here and there with the cold temps but I'm thinking that it will be crud on crust all weekend.

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Next weekend I've got a ski weekend at Sunday River. What are the odds mother nature bails me out and I get to snowboard on some fresh snow?

It doesn't look good to me right now (cold and dry) but people in the pattern threads seem pretty optimistic.

I guess that SR will be refreshing a few trails here and there with the cold temps but I'm thinking that it will be crud on crust all weekend.

bring the woolies, GEFS do show a storm next weekend though
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Ouch for Sugarloaf. Looks like the redheaded stepchild suffers again in the hands of a large ski corporation:

 

Just came in after 2 1/2 hours of skiing ice, with a teaspoon of powdah on top.. if I did not live here I would NEVER buy a season pass, not with 3 million in snow guns sittin idle and only 2 blowing at the top of gauge, hayburner by far was the worst, skiing on race skis with razors for edges was the only salvation. snowstorms will help, but trust in the corporation is dismal at best. maybe too many bonuses for our CEO'S and wanna be CEO'S, and saving money to bail out mountains that have not opened yet like CRYSTAL,, maybe its time for a seasons pass to SADDLEBACK,

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Wildcat with 18 trails open and 115 acres, is that good /fair / pathetic for them? Anyone know

There's a thread about this season at Wildcat on Alpinezone

they had additional technical issues with a snowmaking system that already had them built in

basically if I understand it correctly they can only make snow effectively on the lower slopes for the rest of the season

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And we are back in the game.  The snowmaking has been fun, but man did we need this arctic front. 

 

Wow, what a sweet day.  7-10" of new snow, with 15" in the past week at the summit.  Now this is the climo normal for weekly snowfall up here.  The co-op averages 1.7-1.8" per day right now and via snow board we should average around 2.2" per day.  So we finally got to an average week of snowfall and it shows.

 

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We skied Wachusett for a couple if hours this evening (wife, 7 year old daughter and I)

Squalls came through which was quite fun

Some ice but not bad, especially after the groomers went thru.

 

They've done a remarkable job this winter.

 

Skied the fancy, store bought snow at Stowe on Saturday.  Got in 16 fast groomers between 9 and 1.  Our daughter skied today and had a blast in the powder.

 

How were the crowds Saturday?

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There's a thread about this season at Wildcat on Alpinezone

they had additional technical issues with a snowmaking system that already had them built in

basically if I understand it correctly they can only make snow effectively on the lower slopes for the rest of the season

Im not even sure i believe them. Mtns w cheap reputations hopefully see an exodus, they can enjoy putting their families on ice.

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Im not even sure i believe them. Mtns w cheap reputations hopefully see an exodus, they can enjoy putting their families on ice.

I dunno if I agree with that attitude. More choices = good, less choices = bad for just about everything in life, skiing included. I know that small, family run resorts like berkshire east simply cannot compete withplaces like kmart.

I hope your not saying that you hope they fail...

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The coming arctic chill should further widen the gap between thoose who resurface aggressively or those who just "try and get by"

Just bad luck for mtns/ eyes all bolton would have ski'd better this pm (or they have a shot to) w some upslope

 

So in reality it's Stowe, SR and Killington vs the rest of NE ski areas.  lol

 

Trust me, they are the only ones doing any widespread snow making.

 

February better rock up north or a lot of mountains are going to be in the red financially.

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Ouch for Sugarloaf. Looks like the redheaded stepchild suffers again in the hands of a large ski corporation:

 

Just came in after 2 1/2 hours of skiing ice, with a teaspoon of powdah on top.. if I did not live here I would NEVER buy a season pass, not with 3 million in snow guns sittin idle and only 2 blowing at the top of gauge, hayburner by far was the worst, skiing on race skis with razors for edges was the only salvation. snowstorms will help, but trust in the corporation is dismal at best. maybe too many bonuses for our CEO'S and wanna be CEO'S, and saving money to bail out mountains that have not opened yet like CRYSTAL,, maybe its time for a seasons pass to SADDLEBACK,

 

Brutal year up there so far.  My brother and family are pass holders and he is bullsh*t about how poor a job they've done with the snow making.  I'm not sure if there has been a single day of glade skiing there this year.

You'll save hundreds with a Saddleback pass but don't expect snow making. lol  Great ski mountain though.

 

Down my way Mt Snow and Stratton have been brutal by all reports and Magic has barely been open.  Berkshire East has had much better skiing than S. VT. 

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Brutal year up there so far.  My brother and family are pass holders and he is bullsh*t about how poor a job they've done with the snow making.  I'm not sure if there has been a single day of glade skiing there this year.

You'll save hundreds with a Saddleback pass but don't expect snow making. lol  Great ski mountain though.

 

Down my way Mt Snow and Stratton have been brutal by all reports and Magic has barely been open.  Berkshire East has had much better skiing than S. VT. 

 

 

Saddleback has an extensive snowmaking system, but it's airless for the most part. They use mobile fan guns to cover alot of their trails, as a result, snowmaking is slow to move from run to run with the exception of Grey Ghost with it's fixed fan guns.

 

I have two day passes to Magic that I bought at the Boston Ski Expo, what a year I choose to do this.

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So in reality it's Stowe, SR and Killington vs the rest of NE ski areas.  lol

 

Trust me, they are the only ones doing any widespread snow making.

 

February better rock up north or a lot of mountains are going to be in the red financially.

Okemo, Loon, Sunapee, and others beg to differ

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Saddleback has an extensive snowmaking system, but it's airless for the most part. They use mobile fan guns to cover alot of their trails, as a result, snowmaking is slow to move from run to run with the exception of Grey Ghost with it's fixed fan guns.

 

I have two day passes to Magic that I bought at the Boston Ski Expo, what a year I choose to do this.

 

Hopefully things break better but there's a lot of base building that needs to be done.  Magic is a great Mountain.  Reminds me a little of Burke and Wildcat in terms of trails.

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Hopefully things break better but there's a lot of base building that needs to be done.  Magic is a great Mountain.  Reminds me a little of Burke and Wildcat in terms of trails.

 

 

Magic is finally making snow on Wizard and Talisman, at least that something more to ski on if they don't get enough natural snowfall to open up more of the mountain.

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Gotta work at Wawa tonight. Gonna be another biting cold night up there. I fully expect the nuts to be out there right up until last lift at 10pm. Been really testing the cold weather gear this season. Tonight is my 7th night working and 4 of them have been 5 degrees or under with negative wind chills. 3-4 runs, in to warm up, rinse and repeat. 

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I have not heard any first hand reports from Sunapee but friends who went to Okemo this weekend were not impressed with conditions on the snow making trails.

I live in Ludlow, there were 12,000 people on the mountain this weekend. It was literally impossible for anyone to be impressed with the snow conditions after the first 30 minutes. Having said that, conditions are mixed at best. We need snow. Killington skiing about the same right now except for Bear which is skiing better. At this stage of the season snowmaking isn't going to do much except maintain what we have. We need natural snow and we've had too much rain. Okemo is at 69" at 3300 and 57" at 1500 ft, and a lot of that melted.

I'm thinking road trip to Stowe if they can start getting their 2-3 inch days, several times per week. Last 3 days look promising up there. Less so here.

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