The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread

[mreaves]

Seems like the World Cup was a big success. Hopefully skivt2 chimes in with a first person report. 

https://vtdigger.org/2016/11/27/shiffrin-comes-big-world-cup-return-vermont/?utm_source=VTDigger+Subscribers+and+Donors&utm_campaign=48564a7cfa-Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-48564a7cfa-405566485

[ApacheTrout]

I was there for the 2nd half of the 1st heat on Saturday.  My family and I climbed the hill to the right (looking up hill) and got a great view of the bottom half of the course.  The stands were absolutely packed and boisterous, especially when Americans left the gate and headed downhill.  Killington did terrific job pulling off a world-class event.  Awesome skiers, great vendors, tons of food, huge stage for O.A.R. and numerous events planned to make it one heck of a party weekend.

About my only complaint was the parking shuttle system, which was unorganized at base's drop off/pick up area, leaving many fans with 45-60 minute waits and no designated spots for each bus route.  Some people waited quite a while in one spot to only have their bus pull up 50 yards away and start picking up passengers, some of whom just walked right up and got on without a wait.  That's a solvable problem though, and did little to mar the fantastic feeling of seeing the best skiers in the world right here in Vermont.

[mreaves]

17 minutes ago, ApacheTrout said:

I was there for the 2nd half of the 1st heat.  My family and I climbed the hill to the right (looking up hill) and got a great view of the bottom half of the course.  The stands were absolutely packed and boisterous, especially when Americans left the gate and headed downhill.  Killington did terrific job pulling off a world-class event.  Awesome skiers, great vendors, tons of food, huge stage for O.A.R. and numerous events planned to make it one heck of a party weekend.

About my only complaint was the parking shuttle system, which was unorganized at base's drop off/pick up area, leaving many fans with 45-60 minute waits and no designated spots for each bus route.  Some people waited quite a while in one spot to only have their bus pull up 50 yards away and start picking up passengers, some of whom just walked right up and got on without a wait.  That's a solvable problem though, and did little to mar the fantastic feeling of seeing the best skiers in the world right here in Vermont.

I had thought about going but figured the parking and traffic would be a nightmare.  I wish I had sucked it up and gone anyway 

[powderfreak]

A shot I liked today of a member of the snowmaking team.

[masomenos]

37 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

A shot I liked today of a member of the snowmaking team.

 

You'd think handling leaky hoses and pipes in sub-freezing temps, high winds, and steep terrain would be a miserable job, yet any snowmaker I've come across seems to genuinely enjoy their work. Hats off to them.

[powderfreak]

13 hours ago, masomenos said:

You'd think handling leaky hoses and pipes in sub-freezing temps, high winds, and steep terrain would be a miserable job, yet any snowmaker I've come across seems to genuinely enjoy their work. Hats off to them.

They do...they take extreme pride in what they do.  It wouldn't be for me....long nights, walking steep terrain in every condition imaginable, high pressure water and air, you can't hear anything, you can't see anything, and yet they are so stoked to go out and get as many guns going as possible.  

As with anything, there's a pride in doing a gnarly job.  If you can spend a night on the mountain doing snowmaking, you probably feel like you could do just about anything. 

[ORH_wxman]

3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

They do...they take extreme pride in what they do.  It wouldn't be for me....long nights, walking steep terrain in every condition imaginable, high pressure water and air, you can't hear anything, you can't see anything, and yet they are so stoked to go out and get as many guns going as possible.  

As with anything, there's a pride in doing a gnarly job.  If you can spend a night on the mountain doing snowmaking, you probably feel like you could do just about anything. 

 

They must be dressed in legit arctic gear a lot of the time. There's gotta be some absolutely brutal conditions...being up at 3000 feet with temps in the single digits and windy in the dark has to be life threatening if you aren't dressed for it.

[mreaves]

19 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

 

They must be dressed in legit arctic gear a lot of the time. There's gotta be some absolutely brutal conditions...being up at 3000 feet with temps in the single digits and windy in the dark has to be life threatening if you aren't dressed for it.

I've run into a few snowmaking guys at convenience stores ar wherever on their way in for a shift and indeed they have the legit gear.  Big boots good to -40 or lower and outer wear that looks like you would be heading towards the south pole.

[Sugarloaf1989]

Area skied: Mount Snow, Vermont

Date skied: November 28th, 2016 from 12:00pm - 2:30pm

Weather: Sunshine, temperatures in the low to mid 30's

Surface conditions: Packed powder, wet packed, hard-packed and variable.

I skied solo yesterday afternoon to enjoy the last of the good early season snow conditions before the rainy deluge sets in. I was really impressed with the large amount of high temperature snowmaking going on especially with 1-2" of rain in the forecast for the mountain. It was 36F on my car thermometer when I arrived at Carinthia with fan guns blazing.

Snowmaking on Inferno:

Snowmaking on Little John which will most likely be opened on Friday:

Snowmaking on Ridge which will probably open next week:

A totally Empty Long John Trail:

 

[masomenos]

3 hours ago, powderfreak said:

They do...they take extreme pride in what they do.  It wouldn't be for me....long nights, walking steep terrain in every condition imaginable, high pressure water and air, you can't hear anything, you can't see anything, and yet they are so stoked to go out and get as many guns going as possible.  

As with anything, there's a pride in doing a gnarly job.  If you can spend a night on the mountain doing snowmaking, you probably feel like you could do just about anything. 

Not quite as brutal as crab fishing, coal mining, or logging, but it's definitely up there. They don't get paid much either from what I know--somewhere in the 10-13 range.  You'd also think being exposed to that scummy pond water all the time must be somewhat of a health risk, too...

[powderfreak]

5 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

 

They must be dressed in legit arctic gear a lot of the time. There's gotta be some absolutely brutal conditions...being up at 3000 feet with temps in the single digits and windy in the dark has to be life threatening if you aren't dressed for it.

Oh yeah and it's buddy system all the way.  They do have keys to all on hill buildings for shelter, often have the bus cat nearby for transport, but if you go on a gun run they are pretty much walking down 2,000 vertical feet several times a night, about an hour per walk.  Those guys put an incredible amount of miles on their feet in a winter.  

But yeah they wear gear most normal people would never need.  There are always a bunch of groomers out there too, so it's reassuring to knows warm snowcat could get to you within 10-15 minutes tops at any given time.

[Quakertown needs snow]

 

 

 

[Skivt2]

The World Cup was an amazing experience.  It's hard to describe the feeling of pride the community feels.  We all ski Superstar for weeks after all the rest of the trails close.  We watched the NBC telecast recorded Saturday night.  It was surreal to see the trail we know so well on the world stage.  The crowd was electric.  Everyone was incredibly joyful.  I actually skied quite a bit before the race and during the OAR concert etc.. For Thanksgiving the trails were much better and less crowded most of the day because of the event.  I was trail side at Superstar when Shiffron won the Slalom.  It was a fairytale ending to a perfect weekend. Each successive racer moved into 1st place. Shiffron went last because she was the fastest racer in the qualifying run.  As she came down the course people went wild.  And as she crossed the line and the Jumbotron showed her in 1st it was bedlam.  Later we found out that it was the first time her 95 year old grandmother has seen her race in the World Cup.  The hometown girl won!  So much went exactly right.  We were there from the 17th through Sunday 11/27.  The preceding Saturday 11/19 the two open trails in the North Ridge area were down to big moguls with dirt in between and it was Tshirt weather.  The mountain was bare except for the Superstar trail area.  And then the temp dropped and the snow fell.  I had heard 15.5".  Folks were poaching top to bottom by Sunday afternoon.  It snowed hard through Monday evening.  The mountain was transformed into midwinter.  The perfect backdrop for the races had been created.  Folks saw the fog come in Saturday afternoon but what you might not realize was that it brought in a snow squall that fell during most of the second run and beyond on Saturday.  It was beautiful mood snow.  It's as though the heavens were rooting for Killington.  It could not have been better.

[adk]

19 hours ago, mreaves said:

I've run into a few snowmaking guys at convenience stores ar wherever on their way in for a shift and indeed they have the legit gear.  Big boots good to -40 or lower and outer wear that looks like you would be heading towards the south pole.

The south pole is warmer sometimes. Though I've noticed that Stowe tends not to make snow (as with a lot of places) when the temps get crazy low. PF can tell us more but I think the system doesn't work super well below like -10F with the optimal temp being like 10-15F....

 

 

[CoastalWx]

1 hour ago, Skivt2 said:

The World Cup was an amazing experience.  It's hard to describe the feeling of pride the community feels.  We all ski Superstar for weeks after all the rest of the trails close.  We watched the NBC telecast recorded Saturday night.  It was surreal to see the trail we know so well on the world stage.  The crowd was electric.  Everyone was incredibly joyful.  I actually skied quite a bit before the race and during the OAR concert etc.. For Thanksgiving the trails were much better and less crowded most of the day because of the event.  I was trail side at Superstar when Shiffron won the Slalom.  It was a fairytale ending to a perfect weekend. Each successive racer moved into 1st place. Shiffron went last because she was the fastest racer in the qualifying run.  As she came down the course people went wild.  And as she crossed the line and the Jumbotron showed her in 1st it was bedlam.  Later we found out that it was the first time her 95 year old grandmother has seen her race in the World Cup.  The hometown girl won!  So much went exactly right.  We were there from the 17th through Sunday 11/27.  The preceding Saturday 11/19 the two open trails in the North Ridge area were down to big moguls with dirt in between and it was Tshirt weather.  The mountain was bare except for the Superstar trail area.  And then the temp dropped and the snow fell.  I had heard 15.5".  Folks were poaching top to bottom by Sunday afternoon.  It snowed hard through Monday evening.  The mountain was transformed into midwinter.  The perfect backdrop for the races had been created.  Folks saw the fog come in Saturday afternoon but what you might not realize was that it brought in a snow squall that fell during most of the second run and beyond on Saturday.  It was beautiful mood snow.  It's as though the heavens were rooting for Killington.  It could not have been better.

Glad it worked out. You guys really had great timing for those conditions. Hopefully the east gets to host it again .

[Skivt2]

http://alpine.usskiteam.com/news/killington-crowds-leave-lasting-impact-sport-skiing

nice article about the World Cup.

 

[Southshorewx]

On 11/29/2016 at 5:25 PM, powderfreak said:

Oh yeah and it's buddy system all the way.  They do have keys to all on hill buildings for shelter, often have the bus cat nearby for transport, but if you go on a gun run they are pretty much walking down 2,000 vertical feet several times a night, about an hour per walk.  Those guys put an incredible amount of miles on their feet in a winter.  

But yeah they wear gear most normal people would never need.  There are always a bunch of groomers out there too, so it's reassuring to knows warm snowcat could get to you within 10-15 minutes tops at any given time.

Worked as a snowmaker at Attitash for a winter.  Not the biggest mountain but we had all the gear.  Koflack ice climbing boots (gotta have them for new England ice coast resorts) and the whole deal.   Snowcat picked me up when I broke my leg and couldn't get back to my snowmobile.    Buddy system with radio.  So loud next to the guns you had to use hand signals to adjust them.  Day shift road the lifts up and had to run down the snow ramp at the top.   Got pretty good at sliding down the mountain in just boots.   That was a great winter. 

[mreaves]

Watching the women's downhill from Lake Louise. Beautiful place but the crowds were better last week at Killington. I guess it just goes to show how starved the east was for this. 

[eyewall]

I hit Smuggs for the second time this season yesterday and honestly it was more enjoyable than any day in mid winter last season. Sure only a few trails are open but the conditions were very serviceable for this time of the year and I had a good time. There were some dense powder stashes for those looking for that and some soft spots on the groomers that were fun on top of a harder packed base. Traffic created a few soft moguls as the day went on.

[radarman]

stowe was awesome today.  Steep, powdery bumps, woods... As good a first day as I've had in years.

[Ginx snewx]

14 minutes ago, radarman said:

stowe was awesome today.  Steep, powdery bumps, woods... As good a first day as I've had in years.

AWT

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, radarman said:

stowe was awesome today.  Steep, powdery bumps, woods... As good a first day as I've had in years.

This was my favorite weekend in a couple years...by far.  The sheer surprise of a game changing storm (we get upslope often but not 2" liquid equivalent upslope events) and this will set us up for the entire season.  I can't say enough about how happy I am to get this sort of dense snow on the ground covering everything evenly.  Not wind blow and drifted...just an even thick mantle of snow.

I posted these in the NNE thread but this gives a good indication of the snow accumulation.  This is down at 2,200ft...but I haven't seen a storm like this (no settling at all, just small flake dense snow) in a while.  Back in 2010-11 we had a big upslope event in early December too...but it was all fluff.  We had people breaking their legs on closed trails even with 30" of snow because they were hitting the ground on every turn.  This type of snow you only sink in a little bit and gives that awesome surfy feel.

But I mean, this was practically bare ground on Wednesday afternoon after the second rain event in two days.  It felt like winter was still a long way away.  Then all the sudden Mother Nature decided to just spread a thick frosting over everything and this is already a better base than we had last year haha.

[radarman]

Wysiwyg skiing ftw

Never thought I'd be in the woods and didn't even have to pay the price for it really.

[amarshall]

Looked like mid winter at Bretton woods today 1" new last night. Cannon looked good too. Attitash was grass. I heard Loon was making a lot of snow today.






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[radarman]

couple shots from yesterday at Stowe:

Perry Merrill right after opening for the year, while the sun was still out:

Solid 18-20" in the woods:

Some things were rockin:

Some things weren't quite ready:

[eyewall]

I have a feeling a few people will have a case of the powder flu today.

[Southshorewx]

Headed up to Killington next weekend.  I've been skiing since I was a kid and made the switch to snowboarding a couple years ago. I consider myself and girlfriend begginers and Im not sure it's worth spending the money so early in the season.  Any ideas what trails are opening by next weekend? 

[radarman]

4 minutes ago, Southshorewx said:

Headed up to Killington next weekend.  I've been skiing since I was a kid and made the switch to snowboarding a couple years ago. I consider myself and girlfriend begginers and Im not sure it's worth spending the money so early in the season.  Any ideas what trails are opening by next weekend? 

If you are looking for beginner terrain, you should monitor progress on Ram's Head.  If that's not open your options are going to be pretty limited.

[CoolMike]

28 minutes ago, Southshorewx said:

Headed up to Killington next weekend.  I've been skiing since I was a kid and made the switch to snowboarding a couple years ago. I consider myself and girlfriend begginers and Im not sure it's worth spending the money so early in the season.  Any ideas what trails are opening by next weekend? 

Why not go to Bretton Woods?  BW is great for the first turns of the year.  Its got a really mellow slope, the runs aren't too long so fatigue is not an issue, the run outs are reasonable, and the lifts handle the crowds well.  At 3:30 head over to the old hotel and snap a few great photographs of Mt Washington and have a hot and/or boozy drink.

I do it every year for my first day out and its always fun.  I'm a low end 'expert' snowboarder and still really enjoy playing on the shallow slopes of BW.

[Southshorewx]

2 hours ago, CoolMike said:

Why not go to Bretton Woods?  BW is great for the first turns of the year.  Its got a really mellow slope, the runs aren't too long so fatigue is not an issue, the run outs are reasonable, and the lifts handle the crowds well.  At 3:30 head over to the old hotel and snap a few great photographs of Mt Washington and have a hot and/or boozy drink.

I do it every year for my first day out and its always fun.  I'm a low end 'expert' snowboarder and still really enjoy playing on the shallow slopes of BW.

Bretton woods is probably my favorite mountain.  We have friends from Connecticut who are expert snowboarders meeting us up in Killington.  Regardless of the conditions we will still be staying up that way and may end up hanging out at the bar and I'm OK with that. Haha 

2 hours ago, radarman said:

If you are looking for beginner terrain, you should monitor progress on Ram's Head.  If that's not open your options are going to be pretty limited.

We snowboarded most of the mountain last year but really only enjoyed ramshead.  It was a lot of work making it all the way to the ...left side... of the mountain and back.   I was hoping they are starting to blow snow over on that ramshead side. Tough to spend the big bucks and white knuckle it all day.   I'd rather save the money on lift tickets for another weekend.