The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread

[eyewall]

Bolton has moved up their opening day to Friday. That works for me because I am off and have free lift tickets from early season last year that couldn't be used.

[SR Airglow]

On 11/20/2016 at 9:16 AM, Hitman said:

Have no fear.  I had acl surgery in may and had no problems skiing the following december.  Keep riding the bike.

Everything feels solid - D1 at K with VW bus sized bumps was definitely an unforgiving welcome back, but Loon last weekend with some new snow felt great. Sneaking away for a day tomorrow to head back to Loon and then up to SR this weekend and hopefully the Loaf the weekend after if they get something decent in the next 10 days and can open more terrain. Very happy to have a great start to the season after the disastrous Decembers of recent years past.

[Brewbeer]

22 hours ago, powderfreak said:

 I'm really blown away with what I was skiing today.

Wish we lived there. 

[radarman]

Berkshire East opening Sunday, not a moment too soon perhaps.

[MarkO]

With Jay reporting 36"+ this week, I'm surprised they're not dropping ropes yet on natural snow. I hear Stowe got 30" in the same period and has the most open terrain in the east. That's great. PF, do you guys have any natural/glade skiing yet?

[ono]

11 minutes ago, MarkO said:

With Jay reporting 36"+ this week, I'm surprised they're not dropping ropes yet on natural snow. I hear Stowe got 30" in the same period and has the most open terrain in the east. That's great. PF, do you guys have any natural/glade skiing yet?

the thing with Jay - a lot of their trails are very exposed to wind, and it's a VERY windy mountain as we know. Natural snow with drifting doesn't work out the same with a groomer vs manmade- so opening up routes with variable coverage and exposed waterbars could be problematic maybe? I just remember ducking ropes like crazy at that place after a big fluff dump and it was variable all over with exposed stuff. They have built out the glade network for a reason (where all the snow goes!), which makes for a fun ski- but the trail system was poorly planned back in the day when fewer people skied off trail (cut in the 70's/80's- and they advertised how wide some of their trails are!).

 

 Has always seemed like they could benefit from an MRG trail management style (building protected tree islands for wind breaks and all) if they could get them to actually them grow, though- it's a tough mountain- it's just so windy and exposed, and the natural snow doesn't stay put. Smuggs has somewhat similar problems on Madonna, though they kept things a bit tighter up top- just an opinion.

[radarman]

57 minutes ago, ono said:

the thing with Jay - a lot of their trails are very exposed to wind, and it's a VERY windy mountain as we know. Natural snow with drifting doesn't work out the same with a groomer vs manmade- so opening up routes with variable coverage and exposed waterbars could be problematic maybe? I just remember ducking ropes like crazy at that place after a big fluff dump and it was variable all over with exposed stuff. They have built out the glade network for a reason (where all the snow goes!), which makes for a fun ski- but the trail system was poorly planned back in the day when fewer people skied off trail (cut in the 70's/80's- and they advertised how wide some of their trails are!).

 

 Has always seemed like they could benefit from an MRG trail management style (building protected tree islands for wind breaks and all) if they could get them to actually them grow, though- it's a tough mountain- it's just so windy and exposed, and the natural snow doesn't stay put. Smuggs has somewhat similar problems on Madonna, though they kept things a bit tighter up top- just an opinion.

That is very true.  As often as not that I've been there it's blowing and low vis on the trails.  Need to duck in, not just for the snow catch, but for the contrast.

[ORH_wxman]

Yep...I hate some of Jay Peak's trails...the glades are sweet, but some of those upper mountain trails...esp to the left, are pretty brutal.

 

But I've always been a fan of the old school New England style narrow trails through the trees. So not everyone shares that same view.

[MarkO]

Yeah, forgot about the wind up there. I once skied there in -17F at the base. Wind was blowing in the 50's. Most lifts were on wind hold. But it was the day after a storm and they had reported about 30" over the past two days. What a waste. I think I did two runs. It was so cold, your skis stuck to the snow. 

As for wide trails, I hate 'em. Love the old school winding narrow trails of MRG or the Castlerock chair at SB

[ORH_wxman]

Just now, MarkO said:

Yeah, forgot about the wind up there. I once skied there in -17F at the base. Wind was blowing in the 50's. Most lifts were on wind hold. But it was the day after a storm and they had reported about 30" over the past two days. What a waste. I think I did two runs. It was so cold, your skis stuck to the snow. 

As for wide trails, I hate 'em. Love the old school winding narrow trails of MRG or the Castlerock chair at SB

One of my trips to Jay in early February 2007 was during an upslope snowstorm...they had about 25" new over the past 36 hours when I got there and it was snowing for the two days I was there....I went off upper Milk run and it was almost pure ice for the first 50 feet....despite all that new snow. Temp was about 0-5F above too and windy. Awful.

 

The glades were really nice though...so after that I stuck mostly to the trees, where there was a huge difference in quality of skiing.

[Hitman]

19 hours ago, SR Airglow said:

Everything feels solid - D1 at K with VW bus sized bumps was definitely an unforgiving welcome back, but Loon last weekend with some new snow felt great. Sneaking away for a day tomorrow to head back to Loon and then up to SR this weekend and hopefully the Loaf the weekend after if they get something decent in the next 10 days and can open more terrain. Very happy to have a great start to the season after the disastrous Decembers of recent years past.

Good for you.  

[powderfreak]

16 hours ago, ono said:

the thing with Jay - a lot of their trails are very exposed to wind, and it's a VERY windy mountain as we know. Natural snow with drifting doesn't work out the same with a groomer vs manmade- so opening up routes with variable coverage and exposed waterbars could be problematic maybe? I just remember ducking ropes like crazy at that place after a big fluff dump and it was variable all over with exposed stuff. They have built out the glade network for a reason (where all the snow goes!), which makes for a fun ski- but the trail system was poorly planned back in the day when fewer people skied off trail (cut in the 70's/80's- and they advertised how wide some of their trails are!).

 

There's more going on at Jay Peak than waterbars that are preventing them from opening stuff. 

All I've heard is second hand information but was confirmed to some degree by one of their lift mechanics that something happened to the Tram in recent weeks.

The story goes a week or two ago we had some ridiculous rime icing and Jay Peak got it the worst.  There's a video I can try and find of the rime icing on the chairlifts that's like feet thick.  Jay Peak's Tram cables were caked very heavily for multiple days.  Then it warmed up last week and rained for a couple days before this snow blitz hit.  The story goes that as the rime ice released in large chunks from the Tram cables, the cable rebounded and stretched so much that it de-roped itself from the tower, breaking a bunch of stuff in the process.

They need a helicopter to come in order to put the cable back on the tower in the correct place.  You cannot get a helicopter on short notice.  I heard maybe in January they might be able to get it.  There's also talk that they cannot open that terrain under the Tram for safety concerns and can't run that Bonnie Quad or whatever that is due to the Tram cables dangling.

Again this is all second hand information but it may explain why they aren't expanding quite like you might expect with 45" falling in 7 days up there.

[zeepowderhunter]

Just got a new phone and don't know how to use the thing. Anyway just read a article on vtdigger.org that the tram cable is fixed and tram should be running the week of the 19th. 

[powderfreak]

4 minutes ago, zeepowderhunter said:

Just got a new phone and don't know how to use the thing. Anyway just read a article on vtdigger.org that the tram cable is fixed and tram should be running the week of the 19th. 

Awesome!  Can you link that article?

When all you hear is second hand info its hard to know what's true.

[powderfreak]

Ah found it.  So the Tram cable got wrapped around other cables up there it sounds like.  It says a specialty crew is coming to do repairs late this week.  Man that's gotta be a gnarly job...hanging in the winter cold several hundred feet up in the air to untangle high-tension cables.

https://vtdigger.org/2016/12/08/fast-melting-ice-prompts-tram-cable-fix-jay-peak/

[zeepowderhunter]

Yeah gnarly for sure. I remember the days of the old tram and workers up on top of those things all the time.

[ono]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

There's more going on at Jay Peak than waterbars that are preventing them from opening stuff. 

All I've heard is second hand information but was confirmed to some degree by one of their lift mechanics that something happened to the Tram in recent weeks.

The story goes a week or two ago we had some ridiculous rime icing and Jay Peak got it the worst.  There's a video I can try and find of the rime icing on the chairlifts that's like feet thick.  Jay Peak's Tram cables were caked very heavily for multiple days.  Then it warmed up last week and rained for a couple days before this snow blitz hit.  The story goes that as the rime ice released in large chunks from the Tram cables, the cable rebounded and stretched so much that it de-roped itself from the tower, breaking a bunch of stuff in the process.

They need a helicopter to come in order to put the cable back on the tower in the correct place.  You cannot get a helicopter on short notice.  I heard maybe in January they might be able to get it.  There's also talk that they cannot open that terrain under the Tram for safety concerns and can't run that Bonnie Quad or whatever that is due to the Tram cables dangling.

Again this is all second hand information but it may explain why they aren't expanding quite like you might expect with 45" falling in 7 days up there.

They could hypothetically run the Flyer quad, as long as the Tram stuff if fixed... wondering if it's just the upper mountain coverage (which even with wind, 4 feet of reported snow in the past week should be enough to cover a fair bit), or if they're holding back until larger crowds/ticket sales due to the financial boondoggle they've experienced- keeping costs down/cash reserved.

[mreaves]

Burke Mt. opening up.  https://vtdigger.org/2016/12/08/burke-ski-season-banks-new-hotel-snowmaking/?utm_source=VTDigger+Subscribers+and+Donors&utm_campaign=82cca1a9a8-Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-82cca1a9a8-405566485

[alex]

From our neck of the woods.

[j24vt]

Skied Stowe yesterday and it was unbelievably good.  Snowed hard all day (and nothing in the village).

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, j24vt said:

Skied Stowe yesterday and it was unbelievably good.  Snowed hard all day (and nothing in the village).

Been snowing all day today too haha.  This is getting nuts.  

[eyewall]

Skiing Smuggs today was fantastic with a snow globe ongoing all day. There were some heavy bursts as well. The snow stayed fresh on the trail until later in the afternoon when the winds started gusting over 40. It was the most fun I had in quite awhile on the mountain. I got in 11 top to bottom runs (Sterling). The groomers were nice and creamy and yes some woods skiing certainly opened up. Depths were impressive for December but I couldn't exact numbwe



Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk

[powderfreak]

Oh man Jay Peak might get blasted for this

They waited until 5pm on Friday to release the information that no new terrain will be opening regardless of snowfall amounts because of the Tram situation...waited till the hotel was full then released the info.  Tough call...need the business in the hotels but can't make those folks feel good.

Jay Peak Resort

24 mins ·

In an attempt to try and manage what are understandably high expectations, this is what we have for you this weekend with respect to snow/lifts trails. Snow: A lot of it (I shoveled it all day, I know), 16-18” in the past 24 hours, still bombing now and 50”+ this week. Lifts: Our Tram is getting some repair work on its cable and, as such, will not roll this week. We’re still expecting it the week of December 19th. As a result of repair work on the Tram cable, we can’t run the Bonnie, although we do plan to have it sometime next week along with the Flyer that is scheduled to be inspected then as well. We’ll have the Jet accessing everything we have on Stateside along with the Taxi and moving carpet. We wish we had more uphill capacity for this weekend but what you find here, you’re going to enjoy. For another piece of perspective, this time last year we had one lift and one run with what snow we could scrape together. To say the least, we are extremely grateful for this strong start to the season, and we look forward to seeing Passholders at our Passholder appreciation party tomorrow; 4p in the IR. Travel safely all.

Sincerely,
Steve Wright | GM

[eyewall]

35 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Oh man Jay Peak might get blasted for this

They waited until 5pm on Friday to release the information that no new terrain will be opening regardless of snowfall amounts because of the Tram situation...waited till the hotel was full then released the info.  Tough call...need the business in the hotels but can't make those folks feel good.

Jay Peak Resort

24 mins ·

In an attempt to try and manage what are understandably high expectations, this is what we have for you this weekend with respect to snow/lifts trails. Snow: A lot of it (I shoveled it all day, I know), 16-18” in the past 24 hours, still bombing now and 50”+ this week. Lifts: Our Tram is getting some repair work on its cable and, as such, will not roll this week. We’re still expecting it the week of December 19th. As a result of repair work on the Tram cable, we can’t run the Bonnie, although we do plan to have it sometime next week along with the Flyer that is scheduled to be inspected then as well. We’ll have the Jet accessing everything we have on Stateside along with the Taxi and moving carpet. We wish we had more uphill capacity for this weekend but what you find here, you’re going to enjoy. For another piece of perspective, this time last year we had one lift and one run with what snow we could scrape together. To say the least, we are extremely grateful for this strong start to the season, and we look forward to seeing Passholders at our Passholder appreciation party tomorrow; 4p in the IR. Travel safely all.

Sincerely,
Steve Wright | GM

Yeah that is definitely not cool to wait for that. You may fill the hotel this weekend, but you may lose some customers long term.

[Professional Lurker]

Berkshire East opening Sunday, not a moment too soon perhaps.

I'll be there. ...then $12 mount snow on monday.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[Southshorewx]

Spent the day at Killington.  Couldn't have asked for a better 1st day out.  The cold temp kept the crowds off the mountain until around 930.  Spent a weekend here the second weekend of February last winter and they had just closed 30 trails the day before we came up because of rain.    Snowmakers are doing an amazing job.    Here's to a real northeast winter!

[alex]

Posted in NNE but this may be a better spot. Skied Cannon today... conditions were better than they ever were last year. Feels like mid-winter. 

[Southshorewx]

2 hours ago, alex said:

Posted in NNE but this may be a better spot. Skied Cannon today... conditions were better than they ever were last year. Feels like mid-winter. 

Same scenes at Killington. Snow on the trees at the top cell phone towers look like expanding foam.  Awesome early season 

[powderfreak]

21 hours ago, Albert A Clipper said:

SUgarbush is bs'ing worse than ever. First they are measuring snow at the very top and even that is a stretch, they are basically reporting 10 new inches almost every day! But they have the same exposed water bars on their run outs....every day. I put two years worth of wear on my equipment in two days because the lower half of what's open is so neglected in spots and the only way down. Today they will open more terrain that will be skied off to rocks and grass in 15 minutes just so they can say they are expanding terrain to go along with their awesome snow totals that are at the first 100 feet of vertical. Add to that, 41 advertised trails yesterday, that included an entire mountain that is closed until 12/16....but because there is race practice over there, they are counted all those trails the trail count....total bs. They also count like 8 trails open over in castle rock, including run outs because they are letting you hike over there for a few hours every day... not the entire day, mind you, and no lift access. Really sad what they've become from a marketing standpoint related to the actual product they are putting out. 

They are the first in New England reporting over 100" on the season so far.  But it sounds like for whatever reason that mountain has some insane elevational snowfall gradients.

[ono]

28 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

They are the first in New England reporting over 100" on the season so far.  But it sounds like for whatever reason that mountain has some insane elevational snowfall gradients.

seems like they're measuring drifted snow.