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The 2017-18 Ski Season Thread

Skivt2

By Skivt2,
in New England

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powderfreak

powderfreak

Posted
Posted

I posted this elsewhere but figured I'd share it here too... I still think if you told me on Friday that it was going to snow 10" in two events over 36 hours I would've laughed at you.

 

Looking back on the weekend...the Greens definitely "stole" a weekend of awesome skiing. This thaw was always coming but we stole some quality days amid a terrible weather pattern. When it was raining on Friday at noon, with cold air coming in, the outlook was bleak. The thought of another holiday weekend featuring beach sand over glare ice was not pleasant. Then it turned to snow. Things started looking up after a quick 3-4" squall. Better.

But then Saturday night's surprise was the real deal. You can't time it any better, snow starts around midnight (after first shift grooming is completed) and dumps 1"/hr until 6am. Next thing you know 3,000ft at High Road has seen 10" of cumulative snow (~8" on top of the crust with the settling). It felt good to finally steal a weekend of "better than expected" skiing after a winter's worth of challenging weekend weather.

Top it off with Monday's Colorado-like bluebird skies with temps of 25-35F and I found myself thinking back to Friday at noon. It is always nice to be pleasantly surprised.

28164774_10103335186211960_1500288966784

27973886_10103335186616150_7713925744653

 

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mreaves

mreaves

Posted
Posted
51 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I posted this elsewhere but figured I'd share it here too... I still think if you told me on Friday that it was going to snow 10" in two events over 36 hours I would've laughed at you.

 

Looking back on the weekend...the Greens definitely "stole" a weekend of awesome skiing. This thaw was always coming but we stole some quality days amid a terrible weather pattern. When it was raining on Friday at noon, with cold air coming in, the outlook was bleak. The thought of another holiday weekend featuring beach sand over glare ice was not pleasant. Then it turned to snow. Things started looking up after a quick 3-4" squall. Better.

But then Saturday night's surprise was the real deal. You can't time it any better, snow starts around midnight (after first shift grooming is completed) and dumps 1"/hr until 6am. Next thing you know 3,000ft at High Road has seen 10" of cumulative snow (~8" on top of the crust with the settling). It felt good to finally steal a weekend of "better than expected" skiing after a winter's worth of challenging weekend weather.

Top it off with Monday's Colorado-like bluebird skies with temps of 25-35F and I found myself thinking back to Friday at noon. It is always nice to be pleasantly surprised.

28164774_10103335186211960_1500288966784

27973886_10103335186616150_7713925744653

 

Not just skiing either, snowmobiling was surprisingly good. I wish I had gone Monday too. 

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sankaty

sankaty

Posted
Posted

More details on the Ikon Pass here:  https://www.ikonpass.com/en/

It replaces both the MAX pass and Rocky Mountain Super Pass, though has no add-on option like the MAX did.

For folks like me who ski Pico/Killington/Okemo, it's a terrible development.  On the MAX pass, our family of four will ski at least 5 days each at Killington, Okemo, and Copper, plus unlimited days at Pico (5 so far) for about $2300.  Making some optimistic assumptions, the same ski days with the Ikon Base Pass option would cost about $3650.  Not sure what we'll do.  I'm hoping there are enough changes to the Mountain Collective to make that a reasonable alternative, but I'm not optimistic.

In VT, the Ikon adds days at Sugarbush but drops both Okemo and Pico.  Why it includes Killington and not Pico seems crazy to me, but Killington has confirmed this multiple times.  Maybe that will change. 

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Baroclinic Zone

Baroclinic Zone

Posted
Posted

Saw this coming awhile ago.

http://www.newenglandskiindustry.com/viewstory.php?storyid=660

Quote

A dire situation is escalating at the private Hermitage Club, owner of Haystack Mountain. On Friday afternoon, Berkshire Bank filed a foreclosure complaint, according to the Deerfield Valley News. Also on Friday, Hermitage founder Jim Barnes stepped down from his day to day role and named Vice President Bob Rubin to interim president.

In addition to the foreclosure, Barnes and the Hermitage Club are reportedly facing sex discrimination and whistleblower complaints, as well as a reports of a membership coup. Significant layoffs occurred as well, resulting in a Vermont Department of Labor rapid response this week.

According to the Deerfield Valley News, "Berkshire Bank is seeking foreclosure on several Hermitage properties including the Hermitage Inn, Haystack Ski Resort and ski area lands, Haystack Base Lodge, Haystack Golf Course, Chamonix Townhouse Village, Haystack Golf Course, water rights to Mirror Lake, hundreds of acres of land, along with several smaller parcels" and three inns.

The Hermitage reportedly owes the bank over $16.5 million for its 80,000 square foot main lodge constructed in 2014, as well as subsequent bridge loans. In addition, the Hermitage's check for Wilmington property tax this month bounced, triggering a mortgage default. Beyond the mortgage default, $9.7 million in liens have been reportedly attached to the properties.

The ski area has remained open this season, though operations have been scaled back.

Located in the Deerfield Valley near Mount Snow, the club features the Haystack ski area, a golf course, and numerous inns and restaurants. Hermitage founder Jim Barnes acquired the defunct Haystack ski area in October 2011 and soon installed two new quad chairlifts. An 80,000 square foot lodge was constructed for 2014-15 and a $7.3 million heated, high speed detachable six person chairlift for 2015-16.

 

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Angus

Angus

Posted
Posted

I was at the Weston ski track (intersection of masspike and rt. 128) this AM...it was pretty grim as expected. I've had some fun days downhill skiing in the rain, cross-country not so much! Berkshire East gets a shout out for hosting the MIAA High School nordic championships this Tuesday - hopefully the kids don't get dizzy looping around the base area!

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LongBeachSurfFreak

LongBeachSurfFreak

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

So I'm likely heading back to the slopes next season.  My daughter has indicated that she would like to learn to snowboard.  I said I'd do it with her so we can both looks like a couple of inept people on a board.  Probably do it at Sunday River.

Make sure you are mentally ready for frustration and some bumps and bruises. It’s a tuff sport to learn but when it clicks it’s one of the best pleasures in life. 

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Redmorninglight

Redmorninglight

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

Make sure you are mentally ready for frustration and some bumps and bruises. It’s a tuff sport to learn but when it clicks it’s one of the best pleasures in life. 

I totally agree with you. I skied for almost 30 years before my daughter and I both learned to board. That was 6 years ago and I have not been on skis since. My surfing buddy was the reason for the switch since the motion and sensation are similar. It makes one look at the mountain in a completely different light. Best to all. Pray for snow since I think we are getting swell instead. Win/win. 

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LongBeachSurfFreak

LongBeachSurfFreak

Posted
Posted
45 minutes ago, Redmorninglight said:

I totally agree with you. I skied for almost 30 years before my daughter and I both learned to board. That was 6 years ago and I have not been on skis since. My surfing buddy was the reason for the switch since the motion and sensation are similar. It makes one look at the mountain in a completely different light. Best to all. Pray for snow since I think we are getting swell instead. Win/win. 

I’ll take the snow any day of the week this time of the year. Winter surfing in the northeast Is a brutal endeavor. It’s going to be large and in charge that’s for sure. But putting on a 5/4 and paddeling out in double over head nor’easter surf when your out of shape can be insane. I’ll be heading north Thursday night instead of south. There’s big potential for the mountains the next 2 weeks. We just need one to click to bring the season back.

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Baroclinic Zone

Baroclinic Zone

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Redmorninglight said:

I totally agree with you. I skied for almost 30 years before my daughter and I both learned to board. That was 6 years ago and I have not been on skis since. My surfing buddy was the reason for the switch since the motion and sensation are similar. It makes one look at the mountain in a completely different light. Best to all. Pray for snow since I think we are getting swell instead. Win/win. 

Sounds about right.  I'm almost 44 now.  It's been ~7 years since I skied.  This will be an interesting experiment for sure. :lmao:  I know what I'm in for as I did witness a friend try it when we were in our late teens/early 20s.   

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snowgeek

snowgeek

Posted
Posted

I'm trying to plan a last minute ski trip out west from 3/29 - 4/4.  Cheapest airfare is Denver but the conditions don't seem great?  Utah is a definite option.  Airfare isn't too bad and the ski areas are easy to get to.  Conditions have gotten pretty good? Lake Tahoe looks to get dumped on this week, so conditions should improve fast.  Jackson Hole looks too expensive.  Big Sky looks expensive and hard to get to.  British Columbia looks great right now, but hard to get too?  I'm looking for:

1) Deep base.

2) Easy to get too.  Easy flights so I can get 4-5 days of skiing in.

3) Not too pricey

 

Any recommendations and ideas would be appreciated.  Do you guys think Utah conditions have improved enough?  Any areas in Colorado have enough snow to make it worthwhile?

Thanks,

Ken

 

 

 

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Hitman

Hitman

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, snowgeek said:

I'm trying to plan a last minute ski trip out west from 3/29 - 4/4.  Cheapest airfare is Denver but the conditions don't seem great?  Utah is a definite option.  Airfare isn't too bad and the ski areas are easy to get to.  Conditions have gotten pretty good? Lake Tahoe looks to get dumped on this week, so conditions should improve fast.  Jackson Hole looks too expensive.  Big Sky looks expensive and hard to get to.  British Columbia looks great right now, but hard to get too?  I'm looking for:

1) Deep base.

2) Easy to get too.  Easy flights so I can get 4-5 days of skiing in.

3) Not too pricey

 

Any recommendations and ideas would be appreciated.  Do you guys think Utah conditions have improved enough?  Any areas in Colorado have enough snow to make it worthwhile?

Thanks,

Ken

 

 

 

Having just gotten back from Nelson bc, I can tell you the conditions are great, skiing is awesome, inexpensive (relatively), but a b**ch to get to.  Took us 18 hours door to door from nyc.  Well worth the schlep.

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Southshorewx

Southshorewx

Posted
Posted
11 hours ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

Sounds about right.  I'm almost 44 now.  It's been ~7 years since I skied.  This will be an interesting experiment for sure. :lmao:  I know what I'm in for as I did witness a friend try it when we were in our late teens/early 20s.   

Take a private or two person half day lesson. The money you would spend on lift tickets being miserable is drastically decreased.   Took a lesson with girlfriend at Killington and was on a normal lift by 11am.  Went two more times that season and was comfortable on blues by the end of my third day.  Took a lesson at the beginning of the second season and haven't looked back. Also skied for 30 years before the switch.  Spend the money take a lesson!

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Professional Lurker

Professional Lurker

Posted
Posted
So I'm likely heading back to the slopes next season.  My daughter has indicated that she would like to learn to snowboard.  I said I'd do it with her so we can both looks like a couple of inept people on a board.  Probably do it at Sunday River.
Seems like a long drive and an expensive lift ticket just to spend time on your butt figuring out your edges on the bunny hill and on greens. ...just sayin that there are closer, cheaper places for you to learn how to snowboard. It's certainly not skiing; its much tougher to learn.

Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

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