The 2013-2014 Ski Season Thread

[NECT]

Yeah its primarily only skiable above 2,500ft now, as below that there's still snow, but its too low tide to be worth chancing an injury at this time of year.  I will say the woods are a little sketchy in that when it melts, it does so in odd ways.  Ie, like you're skiing down on a 4-5 foot snowpack, but then find an area where some running water undermined the snow and its caved in and melted out to the ground.  But yeah, not too often we are skiing the trees (any trees, even if higher elevation) as we head to closing weekend.

 

You'd like this Ginxy...with over 20" of liquid equivalent in the snowpack up high prior to the warmth and rain on Monday/Tuesday, a portion of that was released, and the summit picked up around 2" of rainfall....so probably looking at even as much as 6-8" of combined liquid came out of the upper elevations during that past event.  The Gondola is closed so this occurred on closed terrain, but I was looking over the new river the cropped up in the middle of a trail...its drifted and filled in with yesterday's new snow, but its about a 3-5 foot deep chasm and the water must've been cranking through here because the mud flow stretches wayyy down slope. 

 

photo 3.JPG

Saw one of those at Sugarloaf today. Most of the mountain was rather firm. They could only do so much with grooming, and they didn't seem interested at that. Once it warms up, should be some good turns left. Too bad it's a 5+ hour drive.

[Skivt2]

Killington was absolutely awesome today!! They had Bear, Needles, Superstar, the canyon quad, and the K1 gondola running. So much terrain. Everything skied really well too. Open until 5 everyday now with no end to the season in sight. Already announced at least both Superstar and K1 gondola open for next weekend. Decent crowd skiing today. Not too crowded but no doubt the mountain made some $ today.

[powderfreak]

Great skiing yesterday, today looks murky though it is snowing, and tomorrow looks awesome. Tomorrow is the pick of the weekend with 40s and 50s and full sunshine.

I'm looking forward to closing tomorrow...gotta admit I'm a little burnt out at this point. Starting Monday I won't have to be awake at 4am and can go back to normal business hours. The ski season is long from over, too...we'll be skiing Mansfield for weeks still at least.

The mountain never closes, the lifts just stop running. The funny thing is come Monday, there'll be more people skinning than there would be riding the lifts. It's like every backcountry skier in northern VT shows up because they know the place is closed, tolerates uphill off-season traffic, and there's no snow for them to earn turns at elsewhere.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Loon closes this weekend. Great that numerous areas are still rocking

[ono]

yesterday at Smuggs was probably it for me.  I've come to the conclusion that, for spring bump skiing, Sugarbush and Stowe are just better options.  Mid-winter skiing at Smuggs is great, but when they get into the spring season, they only spin Sterling lift.  The terrain there is not so conducive to bump skiing like stuff off the quad at Stowe- it lacks long, straight, steep sustained pitches (at least, that remain ungroomed) to allow for nice big spring bump runs.  

 

Still, a fun day.  Good late season skiing once things started to soften up in the afternoon.

[powderfreak]

Tim Kelley throwing me a shout-out, haha.  He just happened to put the lowest angle woods where speed was definitely an issue, so boring skiing haha.  Of note.. if you look closely, you can see I am wearing a facemask.  That was Wednesday morning when wind chills were near -20F and ambient temps were in the single digits.  Its funny that the final video of the season in April included a day requiring full winter-garb.  You can also see in his brief shot of the snow falling at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, the nice, floating dendrites that look like January snow instead of April snow.

 

Always fun skiing (and drinking) with Tim...he may make some long-shot weather calls, but he's a fun dude. 

 

http://www.skitheeast.net/ste-snowcast-20132014-spring-finale/

[wxeyeNH]

Tim Kelley throwing me a shout-out, haha.  He just happened to put the lowest angle woods where speed was definitely an issue, so boring skiing haha.  Of note.. if you look closely, you can see I am wearing a facemask.  That was Wednesday morning when wind chills were near -20F and ambient temps were in the single digits.  Its funny that the final video of the season in April included a day requiring full winter-garb.  You can also see in his brief shot of the snow falling at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, the nice, floating dendrites that look like January snow instead of April snow.

 

Always fun skiing (and drinking) with Tim...he may make some long-shot weather calls, but he's a fun dude. 

 

http://www.skitheeast.net/ste-snowcast-20132014-spring-finale/

Powder,  are you one of the guys when you click on the video and see Tim on the left?  Just trying to put a face to the name!

[powderfreak]

Powder,  are you one of the guys when you click on the video and see Tim on the left?  Just trying to put a face to the name!

 

Nah that's Chris and Geoff from Meathead Films. 

 

Here's a shot of me from March 2013.  I haven't changed too much, haha.

 

[CoastalWx]

Nah that's Chris and Geoff from Meathead Films. 

 

Here's a shot of me from March 2013.  I haven't changed too much, haha.

 

 

[wxeyeNH]

Thanks Powder.  Nice view too.  Looks like you can just reach out and touch the Cu

[CoastalWx]

Thanks Powder.  Nice view too.  Looks like you can just reach out and touch the Cu

It is a sick view. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

Great video. Always get a little depressed when the season ends. But, like Tim said, only 5 months between seasons

[powderfreak]

Not going to argue with ya there

[powderfreak]

What an awesome season we had... still a ridiculous amount of snow out there that we'll be skinning and skiing for a while to come.  I skinned a lap today, enjoyed getting tan, and there had to be over a hundred people out there doing the same thing on a Monday afternoon.  The number of Mad River Glen bumped stickers in the Stowe parking lot increased 500% in the last day, haha.  I literally counted like 15 of those stickers on cars at 2pm this afternoon when you rarely see them at all in the winter.  Its nice to see them get to enjoy Mansfield's bounty too.

 

This was this afternoon...we made too much snow this year, haha.  We pumped a resort record of over 300 million gallons of water through the snow guns this season, so quite literally made more snow than ever before (last year was the previous record at 288 million gallons), and new records look to continue with all the snowmaking improvements taking place again this summer.  But today I skied the glades up top and then ended up on Perry Merrill on the way down which is still wall-to-wall and 5-10 feet deep in most areas.  What's amazing to me, is even the glades are still skiable down to 2,000ft (about 500ft above the base area).

 

 

 

Closing day was one of the best I can remember in my 10 years skiing here.  Bluebird skis and temps in the 50s.  The 4pm party at the top of the Quad was awesome...locals just enjoying and celebrating the season.

 

 

And here's an afternoon shot from my buddy Mike Hitelman...

 

 

 

 

 

[powderfreak]

Props to the mountains staying open right now...its just such a shame that people stop skiing this time of year.  Weather is warm and nice, the spring snow is fun, and its a good time to be outside as its still too early and muddy to do much else outside.

 

Its just too bad that its been a mild and partly sunny morning, and at noon there is literally no one at Sugarbush right now.  I see they've decided to stop mid-week operations after this week, which is probably a very good idea from business standpoint.  This same weather, one month ago would've brought out a thousand+ people, even on a Tuesday.  

 

 

 

[Hitman]

Props to the mountains staying open right now...its just such a shame that people stop skiing this time of year.  Weather is warm and nice, the spring snow is fun, and its a good time to be outside as its still too early and muddy to do much else outside.

 

Its just too bad that its been a mild and partly sunny morning, and at noon there is literally no one at Sugarbush right now.  I see they've decided to stop mid-week operations after this week, which is probably a very good idea from business standpoint.  This same weather, one month ago would've brought out a thousand+ people, even on a Tuesday.  

 

unnamed.jpg

There may very well be no one there, but the only base lift operating is behind and hidden by that lodge.  So you wouldnt be able to see the skiers from that webcam.

[Hitman]

What an awesome season we had... still a ridiculous amount of snow out there that we'll be skinning and skiing for a while to come.  I skinned a lap today, enjoyed getting tan, and there had to be over a hundred people out there doing the same thing on a Monday afternoon.  The number of Mad River Glen bumped stickers in the Stowe parking lot increased 500% in the last day, haha.  I literally counted like 15 of those stickers on cars at 2pm this afternoon when you rarely see them at all in the winter.  Its nice to see them get to enjoy Mansfield's bounty too.

 

This was this afternoon...we made too much snow this year, haha.  We pumped a resort record of over 300 million gallons of water through the snow guns this season, so quite literally made more snow than ever before (last year was the previous record at 288 million gallons), and new records look to continue with all the snowmaking improvements taking place again this summer.  But today I skied the glades up top and then ended up on Perry Merrill on the way down which is still wall-to-wall and 5-10 feet deep in most areas.  What's amazing to me, is even the glades are still skiable down to 2,000ft (about 500ft above the base area).

 

April_21.jpg

 

 

Closing day was one of the best I can remember in my 10 years skiing here.  Bluebird skis and temps in the 50s.  The 4pm party at the top of the Quad was awesome...locals just enjoying and celebrating the season.

 

 

And here's an afternoon shot from my buddy Mike Hitelman...

 

 

 

"awesome season"???  are you reevaluating your winter grade?

[powderfreak]

"awesome season"??? are you reevaluating your winter grade?

Haha, it's always an "awesome season" emotionally . Skied 137 days of lift-served out of a 150 day operating schedule.

I'd give the season a B- for snowfall...but I think the last two months of the season made up for January. From Valentines Day onward it was solid. Funny how that was the turning point in two different seasons within the last 7 years. The record cold March and snowiest since 2007, was a ton of fun.

[powderfreak]

There may very well be no one there, but the only base lift operating is behind and hidden by that lodge. So you wouldnt be able to see the skiers from that webcam.

Yeah I was looking at them all...Heavens Gate didn't see a rider for like 30 minutes at one point haha.

I've been there though...before we closed we had some midweek days where by 11am you've seen 31 public skiers/riders. It makes you just want to close due to lack of interest. People truly just lose interest. Even the locals have burned all their mid-week days off and family hall passes by this time of year, haha.

[Hitman]

Haha, it's always an "awesome season" emotionally . Skied 137 days of lift-served out of a 150 day operating schedule.

I'd give the season a B- for snowfall...but I think the last two months of the season made up for January. From Valentines Day onward it was solid. Funny how that was the turning point in two different seasons within the last 7 years. The record cold March and snowiest since 2007, was a ton of fun.

That is quite impressive.

I'm very pleased with my 45, given my commute is a tad longer

[powderfreak]

That is quite impressive.

I'm very pleased with my 45, given my commute is a tad longer

 

Anyone that doesn't directly live in the mountains and manages to get 30+ days is doing pretty good.  That's say 15 weekends of skiing both Sat/Sun, plus some other vacation periods and stuff like that.  I know you've got a place near SB, but even still, 45 days is darn impressive for someone holding down a life in the flatlands. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

Guessing here (did not keep accurate track) but around 35 days this season. Quite low. Other things kept cropping up.

[radarman]

Guessing here (did not keep accurate track) but around 35 days this season. Quite low. Other things kept cropping up.

 

Going by your sig you had a heck of a March! 

 

22 here... 7 over quota.  Got some very high end days in as well.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Those sig numbers are off even for the months I put them in. Not sure why...I kept losing count

But I did ski a bunch in March and in early April up thru the 13th

[adk]

Anyone that doesn't directly live in the mountains and manages to get 30+ days is doing pretty good.  That's say 15 weekends of skiing both Sat/Sun, plus some other vacation periods and stuff like that.  I know you've got a place near SB, but even still, 45 days is darn impressive for someone holding down a life in the flatlands. 

 

I'm very happy with my 97 days this year. Last year I had 108.  I think that's good given how cold it was this winter and how much the stretch from Xmas to MLK was ...(and really the rest of January too).   Cold gets me when a solid 50% of my skiing happens before 8am. -25 makes it hard to enjoy a pre-sunrise skin.

 

Grading the season- B+. The same as every year. Good stretches. Bad stretches. Pow sometimes. Rain others. Frozen piste laps on sharp edged skis....it's all about the same. 

[MarkO]

Hiked Waterville Valley yesterday. The weather was perfect. About 65 at the base and probably mod 50's at the Schwendi Hutte. Only did one run, but that's about 1600 feet vertical. Not much natural snow left, but plenty of snow on man made trails. I pushed my pole in at least 30" in some areas and probably more.

I'm going to weigh my pack when I get home, but skis, boots and beverages probably weighed in at 30-40#'s which makes a huge difference in the hike. Well worth the effort. First time I've hiked a ski mountain in years. 

 

Edit: This was day 23 for me. First time in the 20's since my old ski house days! As I write this a nice gusty wind is blowing in some light precip. Might be snow above me. Currently 41.6/35

[bobbutts]

Yeah its primarily only skiable above 2,500ft now, as below that there's still snow, but its too low tide to be worth chancing an injury at this time of year.  I will say the woods are a little sketchy in that when it melts, it does so in odd ways.  Ie, like you're skiing down on a 4-5 foot snowpack, but then find an area where some running water undermined the snow and its caved in and melted out to the ground.  But yeah, not too often we are skiing the trees (any trees, even if higher elevation) as we head to closing weekend.

 

You'd like this Ginxy...with over 20" of liquid equivalent in the snowpack up high prior to the warmth and rain on Monday/Tuesday, a portion of that was released, and the summit picked up around 2" of rainfall....so probably looking at even as much as 6-8" of combined liquid came out of the upper elevations during that past event.  The Gondola is closed so this occurred on closed terrain, but I was looking over the new river the cropped up in the middle of a trail...its drifted and filled in with yesterday's new snow, but its about a 3-5 foot deep chasm and the water must've been cranking through here because the mud flow stretches wayyy down slope. 

 

photo 3.JPG

this is pretty cool, looks like it's the same river you photographed

[powderfreak]

this is pretty cool, looks like it's the same river you photographed

Yep that's the one...I know a bunch of those guys. Awesome that they got to it when the water was flowing.

[powderfreak]

Hiked Waterville Valley yesterday. The weather was perfect. About 65 at the base and probably mod 50's at the Schwendi Hutte. Only did one run, but that's about 1600 feet vertical. Not much natural snow left, but plenty of snow on man made trails. I pushed my pole in at least 30" in some areas and probably more.

I'm going to weigh my pack when I get home, but skis, boots and beverages probably weighed in at 30-40#'s which makes a huge difference in the hike. Well worth the effort. First time I've hiked a ski mountain in years.

Edit: This was day 23 for me. First time in the 20's since my old ski house days! As I write this a nice gusty wind is blowing in some light precip. Might be snow above me. Currently 41.6/35

Nice! You should think about investing in alpine touring bindings and skins....when I got some like 6 years ago I haven't hiked with my skis and gear on my back since. Skinning up is waaaay easier than hiking up because the ski gear is on your feet, as opposed to putting that weight on your back and carrying it up.

Awesome though to get out there and hike for it...props.

[Skivt2]

Lift served Ski season still going strong at Killington. Up to 62 days now and hoping to hit 70. Feeling pretty good about that given my 300 mile round trip to the hill.