radarman Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 Dust off your powder planks and head to Berkshire East on Wednesday boys and girls. Epic day incoming! Feel for ya bro. I'm thinking Tuesday and Wednesday actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbutts Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 So from a business perspective, is this a perfect storm at least as forecast now? Nails all the population centers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zeepowderhunter Posted January 25, 2015 Share Posted January 25, 2015 What are the estimates for places such as Mt. Snow and Magic? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongBeachSurfFreak Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 What are the estimates for places such as Mt. Snow and Magic? Mt snow should get crushed. I would have to think Wednesday will be epic there. Lifts closed Tuesday for wind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professional Lurker Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Berk east will get more pow than mt snow. It's cheaper and will have maybe 100 people on wed. I seriously doubt anything will be groomed. Magic will be good. It's your call, but i know where I'd go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Mt snow should get crushed. I would have to think Wednesday will be epic there. Lifts closed Tuesday for wind I don't know... WAY Too much wind will mean no powder/severely wind affected/compacted powder on many of the trails at mt snow. Most of the snow will end up in the trees in drifts. Not exactly epic if you want to ski the trails. Is there anyway to find a wind forecast for 2500-3000 feet? Anyone have any links for layman that I could use? What trails at mt snow have the best wind protection? I know the north face must get absolutely hammered on a NNE wind, RIght? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Berk east will get more pow than mt snow. It's cheaper and will have maybe 100 people on wed. I seriously doubt anything will be groomed. Magic will be good. It's your call, but i know where I'd go! It's definitely a better deal value for your dollar at berkshire east. Not to be a debbie downer but If there's 100 people for first chair you'll be lucky to get 2 runs down before all fresh tracks are gone and it's chopped to hell due to limited terrain at Berkshire east. It's a small ski area. That's assuming there's actually any powder on the trails anyway with forecasted winds. Going to be big drifts then sudden hardpack. Does B'east leave EVERYTHING ungroomed. Even exhibition is steep enough for powder and is really wide(more acreage). Do they leave that ungroomed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 If there's 100 people for first chair you'll be lucky to get 2 runs down before all fresh tracks are gone and it's chopped to hell due to limited terrain at Berkshire east. It's a small ski area. That's assuming there's actually any powder on the trails anyway with forecasted winds. Umm. No. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Umm. No. Please elaborate. Do they leave EVERYTHING ungroomed? THat makes a huge difference. A couple of trails and 100 people is going to get chopped out mega fast. When i said that, I mean fresh tracks where you're not crossing into other people's tracks. Untracked pow won't last long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Please elaborate. Do they leave EVERYTHING ungroomed. THat makes a huge difference. Ok. They might groom outback/roundabout. Exhibition will probably be half groomed. Skiers right is nearly always ungroomed, skiers left is usually groomed. In all likelihood that will be the only groomed terrain on wednesday. They have been known to snake a cat up into oncoming skier traffic so once things get chopped after lunch you might see a stripe or two here and there but not much. Secondly as for powder in the slopes, the mountain is definitely not known for wind being situated in the Deerfield valley. I can remember very few wind holds. That said, Competition/Exhibition being wide open are the only trails that *might* suffer. The rest are generally narrow enough and lined with tall trees that it won't be bad, even Big Chief. In fact Berkshire East has one of the best selection of old school narrow, windy trails anywhere and those will absolutely be fine. Thirdly, the mountain ain't Whistler we all know it but there will be plenty of fresh untracked turns the whole day. Barely two runs is pure hyperbole. The first 10 at least will be untracked as long as you know what order to progress in. Finally... your post seemed to have disdain for chowda. Maybe I misread it, and even if not I certainly won't argue a matter of taste, but for my money light chowda is awesome and certainly not anything to let negatively affect one's day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Whislter doesn't have fresh pow lasting long inbounds actually due to crowds. That's the last place I'd go for long lasting untracked powder(unless it's bombing and tracks are getting refilled) if I was in B.C. Much better options. Trust me. It's not in a valley. It rises out the valley. It's nearly 2000 feet summit. The valley is at 250 feet in greenfield. Is it wind affected like higher up in vermont? Of course not. That's one the reasons on trail pow sucks a lot of the time up there. But I'm talking about this specific storm with a tight pressure gradient and a low bombing off the coast. Winds will be 50mph + in the valley, forget on a 2000 foot hill. It's funny, The OWNER of berkshire east gave me quite a different grooming schedule on a powder day when I specifically asked him. He also stated he'll doing more grooming when winds will be high during a storm to stop all the powder from blowing away. Maybe you consider a trail where you can't see cord as "powder" during a 2 foot storm because 2 inches of fresh are on top of it after it was groomed in the morning. I do have disdain for heavily tracked out powder/crud. Oh and I never said I was at berkshire east on powder day and got 2 runs in that were descent. I was purely guessing based on past experiences at similiar sized hills. So maybe it does last longer. 100 people on say 3 top to bottom trails will take a pounding quickly. If he leaves everything untouched that's a different story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 In 50 mph winds lasting for hour and hours narrow trails will suffer as well as wide ones. Also, wider trails = more acreage which equals pow lasting longer. One trail is 10 feet wide and one trails is 200 feet wide. Which trail will get tracked out quicker assuming equal skier traffic. Overall acreage is important. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 As someone who skis there more than a dozen times a year including just about all decent powder days I don't agree with your take. Will be there and will take plenty of pics. If I'm miserable crossing a track here and there I'll concede. Lol @ calling light chowda crud though. Please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 As someone who skis there more than a dozen times a year including just about all decent powder days I don't agree with your take. Will be there and will take plenty of pics. If I'm miserable crossing a track here and there I'll concede. Lol @ calling light chowda crud though. Please. My take was that I've never been there on a powder day....LOL! What you've said it dully noted. I'm going to have to check this place out on a powder day If I was you, I would never advertise good conditions like that. It would bring more people to the mountain and suddenly it wouldn't be so empty. I guess I have a surfers mentality of keeping "secret spots" secret. lol Remember at one time many of these big destation resorts were empty and you had powder all day long. Then big corps took over with their marketing department. I honestly think the worst thing that could happen there is to get a high speed quad. Suddenly it would be a destination resort. yuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 My take was that I've never been there on a powder day....LOL! What you've said it dully noted. I'm going to have to check this place out on a powder day If I was you, I would never advertise good conditions like that. It would bring more people to the mountain and suddenly it wouldn't be so empty. I guess I have a surfers mentality of keeping "secret spots" secret. lol Remember at one time many of these big destation resorts were empty and you had powder all day long. Then big corps took over with their marketing department. I honestly think the worst thing that could happen there is to get a high speed quad. Suddenly it would be a destination resort. yuck Its a fine line about advertising. Much as I love the private resort feel I want to see the place make money so they stay in business. The next decent place to ski from here is Magic but they are in even worse financial straits. It would be a crushing blow to see Berkshire East go under but they do seem well capitalized even if they operate in the red. You simply aren't going to get the Boston or NY crowd to go out there though. Western MA, specifically that area in the Mohawk trail does not exist in their consciousness. So we have to get the local crowd to patronize the place even if it means by 2pm freshies are harder to come by outside of the woods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Its a fine line about advertising. Much as I love the private resort feel I want to see the place make money so they stay in business. The next decent place to ski from here is Magic but they are in even worse financial straits. It would be a crushing blow to see Berkshire East go under but they do seem well capitalized even if they operate in the red. You simply aren't going to get the Boston or NY crowd to go out there though. Western MA, specifically that area in the Mohawk trail does not exist in their consciousness. So we have to get the local crowd to patronize the place even if it means by 2pm freshies are harder to come by outside of the woods. But they go to jiminy peak, right? What do they have? High speed quads/condos. That'st the difference. Simliar vertical/size ect. I highly doubt that place is going to go under. That would be horrible. Didn't they just build a coaster? How do you know they operate in the red? Isn't it privately owned? 2pm is fine, but I was at one hill with 575 feet vertical and there was only 50 people and powder(left on 2 trails) was gone after 3 runs...lol And I'm not talking chowda. I'm talking straight up gone. Mashed down into crud. As long as I get 2 hours where it's good, I'm all good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 One thing I've heard about magic is they don't do a good job grooming or with snowmaking. I've heard berkshire east does a great job. I'm not talking about a powder day where you flatten everything into cord. I'm just talking about normal operations so when powder does come you don't sink onto ice/hardpack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radarman Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 But they go to jiminy peak, right? What do they have? High speed quads/condos. That'st the difference. Simliar vertical/size ect. I highly doubt that place is going to go under. That would be horrible. Didn't they just build a coaster? How do you know they operate in the red? Isn't it privately owned? 2pm is fine, but I was at one hill with 575 feet vertical and there was only 50 people and powder(left on 2 trails) was gone after 3 runs...lol And I'm not talking chowda. I'm talking straight up gone. Mashed down into crud. As long as I get 2 hours where it's good, I'm all good The NYC crowd goes to Jiminy. Yes they do have the resort feel which helps but most importantly it is just a lot easier to get there from NYC. There is really no good way to get to Berkshire East. As for operating in the red you are right I absolutely don't know for sure. Just rumors which are admittedly worth very little. Hope I'm wrong about that. They've bought a lot of property and made a number of capital investments. There is a four season feel now. But ultimately it is location location location. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolMike Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Trail condition picky skiers should learn to snowboard. A good stiff board bombs through chop, slop, corn, crud, crust, boot high powder, even waist high powder if you set your stance back a hair. I like to laugh at skiers when they complain of death cookies. Exposed rocks and logs are your only nemesis since your not as agile as a good skier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlizzardHunter Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Trail condition picky skiers should learn to snowboard. A good stiff board bombs through chop, slop, corn, crud, crust, boot high powder, even waist high powder if you set your stance back a hair. I like to laugh at skiers when they complain of death cookies. Exposed rocks and logs are your only nemesis since your not as agile as a good skier. Good for you. You're amazing. lol I like skiing certain conditions. It's my personal preference and I do know how to snowboard. You can snowboard bottomless powder on a snowboard if you know what you're doing. They float better than ski's. It's like surfing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professional Lurker Posted January 27, 2015 Share Posted January 27, 2015 Lol. That's all i can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Holy crap dude. Relax Anyway. Hitting WaWa at first light. Parking will be an issue. They prob got 20" or so but the crowds will come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolMike Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Good for you. You're amazing. lol I like skiing certain conditions. It's my personal preference and I do know how to snowboard. You can snowboard bottomless powder on a snowboard if you know what you're doing. They float better than ski's. It's like surfing. Yeah. Sorry. I was excited for the storm and getting punchie. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subdude Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Wachusett website states 31" lol. I find that hard to believe as I live right on the backside of Wachusett and got 14.5" IMBY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORH_wxman Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Wachusett website states 31" lol. I find that hard to believe as I live right on the backside of Wachusett and got 14.5" IMBY. Maybe they skied all the way down through the trees to the intersection of 62 and 140 and measured there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 No way did they have 31". My estimation is 18" or so. Skied nice in the morning. Huge crowd. Some fun in the woods Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobbutts Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Powder skiing is great, but Powder snowboarding is even better IMHO. I never tried fat skis though, if I had, maybe I'd feel differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan76 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 sorry if already here http://opensnow.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HoarfrostHubb Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Yeah. Wachusett grooms 100%. But I am guessing it is due to the aforementioned crowds Still, I got to float some ungroomed stuff on the edges early on. Our kids snuck into the woods for a bit. Fun times. Since it is only a 15 min drive fr my garage to row 1, that's our hill. Wish I lived closer to Betkshire East Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Well we only got 2-3" from "Juno" up this way, but we've been getting decent snow all this year so the mountain snowpack is set up nicely heading into February/March/April... every snowfall now is an awesome powder day, no matter if its 2" or 18". Today's 2-3" with sunny skies by 10-11am was great. And for all those folks that say you can't find untracked in the East after a run or two... well you haven't been to Stowe mid-week then. These photos were taken around 11am, when we were finding the over-looked trails completely untracked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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