The 2017-18 Ski Season Thread

[Sugarloaf1989]

Currently Otis, Ward, Blandford and Nasoba Valley are closed. Catamount is opened for this weekend. I think this is the last week of midweek operations for all MA areas.

[Cold Miser]

14 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

For me Butternut, Catamount, Bosquet, Otis and Berkshire East are all under 1 1/2 hours away. I'll generally go where the best midweek lift ticket deal's are. 

I rarely ski Sundown because they don't offer any lift ticket deals. Mohawk does, but it's a PITA to get too and not worth the driving time.

I used to have middle and high school at ski-club at Jiminy Peak back in the day.  One year it was at the mountain over the ridge.  I forget the name, but it was also known as Kelly's Irish Slopes or something like that.  They had the green snow at St. Patrick's day. The mountain always felt low budget and never really seemed to compare with Jiminy.  They closed, and at one point I think one time Jiminy owner, Brian Fairbanks was going to purchase it. Not sure if the place even operates anymore.  they seemed to be a in a good spot for snow, even a bit more than Jiminy, but they had a south east facing slope if I recall so their snow retention was not very good.   

...Anyway. I digress before even getting to my point.  I lived about 30 minutes from Jiminy, just over the border in New York.  Me and my friends would go there when we could, but Bosquet always had better deals and as kids, cheaper was the way to go so we would hit that place up quite often.

I ended up working at Jiminy before going to college, doing the summer, alpine slide gig (way before the mountain coaster).  I miss those days. 

[Professional Lurker]

You can't do a real carve unless you have sufficient speed.....most skiers/riders scrape most of the time......skier scrape is more subtle depending on speed but since theres more skiers than riders the perception can be that skiers don't scrape as much......I think its the same fraction regardless......

Maybe. ... but I guess I spend most of my time at a place that is very racer-oriented with most of the skiers having above average ability. Other than the kid in a pizza on a green, they all carve.

I find that I can carve even at low speeds and I tend to blow out my turns when I'm going faster as I tend to ski very fast and don't need to break the sound barrier on steeps.

Unless they're using an alpine board with hard boots, snowboarders pretty much always scrape. Not a fan.

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[Sugarloaf1989]

2 hours ago, Cold Miser said:

I used to have middle and high school at ski-club at Jiminy Peak back in the day.  One year it was at the mountain over the ridge.  I forget the name, but it was also known as Kelly's Irish Slopes or something like that.  They had the green snow at St. Patrick's day. The mountain always felt low budget and never really seemed to compare with Jiminy.  They closed, and at one point I think one time Jiminy owner, Brian Fairbanks was going to purchase it. Not sure if the place even operates anymore.  they seemed to be a in a good spot for snow, even a bit more than Jiminy, but they had a south east facing slope if I recall so their snow retention was not very good.   

...Anyway. I digress before even getting to my point.  I lived about 30 minutes from Jiminy, just over the border in New York.  Me and my friends would go there when we could, but Bosquet always had better deals and as kids, cheaper was the way to go so we would hit that place up quite often.

I ended up working at Jiminy before going to college, doing the summer, alpine slide gig (way before the mountain coaster).  I miss those days. 

The mountain you are thinking of is Brodie and they have been gone since 2001. It was the largest mountain in Massachusetts vertical drop wise at 1,250. I skied there twice before they went out of business. I don't ski Jiminy Peak because there lift ticket prices are way too high for the mountain that it is. They wanted $60 yesterday, which is more than Mt Snow was asking. They never have any decent deals on Liftopia, so I don't go there. I probably have 24 days in there from when I lived in NYC.

[Sugarloaf1989]

Some pictures from Berkshire East yesterday:

 

[Cold Miser]

23 minutes ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

The mountain you are thinking of is Brodie and they have been gone since 2001. It was the largest mountain in Massachusetts vertical drop wise at 1,250. I skied there twice before they went out of business. I don't ski Jiminy Peak because there lift ticket prices are way too high for the mountain that it is. They wanted $60 yesterday, which is more than Mt Snow was asking. They never have any decent deals on Liftopia, so I don't go there. I probably have 24 days in there from when I lived in NYC.

Yeah. I always thought Jiminy seemed to be overpriced even as a kid. It was always worth it to go somewhere else, even Brodie, or Bosquet,or even Mt. Snow.  The thing with Jiminy was that was as far as my mom would take us since I was old enough to drive yet.

[HoarfrostHubb]

7 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Currently Otis, Ward, Blandford and Nasoba Valley are closed. Catamount is opened for this weekend. I think this is the last week of midweek operations for all MA areas.

Wachusett hopes for April 14/15, but as you stated, weekends only after this week (probably)

[ice1972]

2 hours ago, Professional Lurker said:

Maybe. ... but I guess I spend most of my time at a place that is very racer-oriented with most of the skiers having above average ability. Other than the kid in a pizza on a green, they all carve.

I find that I can carve even at low speeds and I tend to blow out my turns when I'm going faster as I tend to ski very fast and don't need to break the sound barrier on steeps.

Unless they're using an alpine board with hard boots, snowboarders pretty much always scrape. Not a fan.

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I can hold a very clean edge on my freeride board thats like 18 years old and my soft boots and bindings no problem......I will grant that most riders don't do that but you don't need the racing board and boots to do it.......

[HoarfrostHubb]

My only issue with boarders (or skiers) is when they are parked around a blind curve in the middle of a trail...

[powderfreak]

19 hours ago, Professional Lurker said:

It's all scraping unless you're carving, regardless of skis or snowboards. Of course, just about all snowboarders scrape. Can't say the same for skiers.

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Skiers have two edges to scrape, too. 

Everyone scrapes and it's ok.  

[Sugarloaf1989]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Skiers have two edges to scrape, too. 

Everyone scrapes and it's ok.  

NSR, but do you know when Stowe stops daily operations?

[ORH_wxman]

Good snow boarders are usually not an issue on the trails...in fact they are quite amazing riding on an edge through steep trails and are fun to watch...but beginners or even average snow boarders on steep trails can do a lot of damage very quickly to the surface. Bad skiers do too, but usually not at the pace of bad boarders.

[Redmorninglight]

I agree Will. A boarder who is on a trail they have no business on beats up the trail far more than a skier in the same situation. I took my kid and her friend down lower ovation at killington 2 years ago on boards and it was hard packed. The skiers just shook their heads as we pushed what little snow there was down to the bottom. 

[Ginx snewx]

6 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Some pictures from Berkshire East yesterday:

 

Nice look Ma no skiers, let PF say what he wants no way do you ever get a whole hill to yourself like you can at the Beast. I have been there at times cutting new tracks at 3 pm. Good timing man, super jealous

[Sugarloaf1989]

Yesterday had the least amount of people out on the mountain that I can recall. I did four runs on Thunder/Bolt and only came across another skier once. There was still plenty of groomer at 12:30. The fun part was how stiff the snow remained, allowing for high speed runs on a normally slower trail.

[ice1972]

5 hours ago, ORH_wxman said:

Good snow boarders are usually not an issue on the trails...in fact they are quite amazing riding on an edge through steep trails and are fun to watch...but beginners or even average snow boarders on steep trails can do a lot of damage very quickly to the surface. Bad skiers do too, but usually not at the pace of bad boarders.

Myth...bad skiers or even average skiers scrape as much as bad or average riders.....in the end it doesn’t matter....

[ice1972]

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Skiers have two edges to scrape, too. 

Everyone scrapes and it's ok.  

Skiers have four edges....and half of the scrape gets obscured because it’s buried by the adjacent ski....man I thought we were over the skier v rider thing

[powderfreak]

10 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

NSR, but do you know when Stowe stops daily operations?

April 15th... 3rd Sunday in April historically, which falls early this year because the 1st is a Sunday.

Like almost every year except for 2012 when we had those 70-80F days in the base area, there's more than enough snow but not enough skiers.  Can already see it this week... mid-week has been dead despite sunny nice days. 

There's usually one week when it hits that it's pretty much done and this week was that.  Last year we still had some big snowstorms the first two weekends in April (both weekends had over 12" storms last year) and it kept people interested.  But at this point its like a folks from town who come up for a few runs and then go back to work or home.  And if it isn't sunny out, its a real ghost town.

[powderfreak]

5 hours ago, ice1972 said:

Skiers have four edges....and half of the scrape gets obscured because it’s buried by the adjacent ski....man I thought we were over the skier v rider thing

Right but if you somehow have all four edges rubbing the snow at the same time either your foot or your equipment is broken.

I thought we were over it too.  As someone who is in the business and has a reasonable grasp on snow management, I'll have to disagree with a lot of the posts in here.  It's all about ability levels, an intermediate skier pushes just as much snow as an intermediate snowboarder.  I've seen more than enough skiers slide-slip steep terrain and same with borders, especially in steeper tighter glades skiers will destroy it a lot more.

Beginners are what they are, I mean there's a reason it's called the "snowplow"...it's push as much snow as possible out of your way, ha.  And the ol' windshield wiper type turns of a skier down a steep groomed trail moves an incredible amount of snow.  Good bye corduroy.

[powderfreak]

8 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

Nice look Ma no skiers, let PF say what he wants no way do you ever get a whole hill to yourself like you can at the Beast. I have been there at times cutting new tracks at 3 pm. Good timing man, super jealous

lol yeah that's on another level as there isn't a human being in sight.  I was thinking you'd at least have like 30 people around, hard to operate with that crowd level for very long...but yeah that's certainly "whole hill to yourself".  I mean a lot of midweek days you can ski whole runs by yourself without really seeing anyone at a lot of spots midweek, but at least once back to the base of the lift there are a few people.

[Ginx snewx]

49 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

lol yeah that's on another level as there isn't a human being in sight.  I was thinking you'd at least have like 30 people around, hard to operate with that crowd level for very long...but yeah that's certainly "whole hill to yourself".  I mean a lot of midweek days you can ski whole runs by yourself without really seeing anyone at a lot of spots midweek, but at least once back to the base of the lift there are a few people.

They make ching on night skiing from 3 on where its packed with school kids

[powderfreak]

46 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

They make ching on night skiing from 3 on where its packed with school kids

Ahh yes, that makes sense.  I always forget the night skiing function.

[Sugarloaf1989]

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

April 15th... 3rd Sunday in April historically, which falls early this year because the 1st is a Sunday.

Like almost every year except for 2012 when we had those 70-80F days in the base area, there's more than enough snow but not enough skiers.  Can already see it this week... mid-week has been dead despite sunny nice days. 

There's usually one week when it hits that it's pretty much done and this week was that.  Last year we still had some big snowstorms the first two weekends in April (both weekends had over 12" storms last year) and it kept people interested.  But at this point its like a folks from town who come up for a few runs and then go back to work or home.  And if it isn't sunny out, its a real ghost town.

Thanks, I'm just looking for a weather alternative in case Sugarloaf is a no go during the time period we want to go up. I don't want to be there for reggae, which is going on during part of the week my son has off.

 

[Angus]

Sugarloaf1989... why don't you run right up rt. 2. -- progressively ski Wildcat, Sunday River and then Sugarloaf. Reggaefest is going to draw SR skiers and Wildcat will be fine given the elevation and your son will enjoy the views. heck you could stop at Cannon day one, spend nite in Gorham, ski Wildcat on day two. I love variety! I know the Town and Country in Gorham does a ski/stay deal with wildcat.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

21 hours ago, ice1972 said:

I can hold a very clean edge on my freeride board thats like 18 years old and my soft boots and bindings no problem......I will grant that most riders don't do that but you don't need the racing board and boots to do it.......

If your ridding smooth and consistently you push very little snow. Took me a long time to get to that level. 

I just got off the mountian at Stratton just now. Gondi rides all to myself with primo conditions. It’s amazing how empty it is based on the conditions.

[Sugarloaf1989]

16 minutes ago, Angus said:

Sugarloaf1989... why don't you run right up rt. 2. -- progressively ski Wildcat, Sunday River and then Sugarloaf. Reggaefest is going to draw SR skiers and Wildcat will be fine given the elevation and your son will enjoy the views. heck you could stop at Cannon day one, spend nite in Gorham, ski Wildcat on day two. I love variety! I know the Town and Country in Gorham does a ski/stay deal with wildcat.

Son and father both don't care very much for Wildcat. Sugarloaf wants  $80 midweek which I find ridiculous. We may do Bretton Woods/Cannon. He's also interested in skiing at Smugglers Notch if they stay opened that long. I'll take my pillow along for the chairlift rides.

[Angus]

5 minutes ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Son and father both don't care very much for Wildcat. Sugarloaf wants  $80 midweek which I find ridiculous. We may do Bretton Woods/Cannon. He's also interested in skiing at Smugglers Notch if they stay opened that long. I'll take my pillow along for the chairlift rides.

Wow, I really would like to head up to Sugarloaf too but at that price in April - yeah, no thanks. I just looked at their online store...silly. 

[Sugarloaf1989]

21 minutes ago, Angus said:

Wow, I really would like to head up to Sugarloaf too but at that price in April - yeah, no thanks. I just looked at their online store...silly. 

What's really silly is that Sunday River is in the low $50 range that week compared to Sugarloaf. You would think one of the most remote area's in New England would offer better deals. Bretton Woods is $39 for the rest of the season. Cannon is two for $77 on Tu/Th. Hell KMart is less money than Sugarloaf by far in the upper $40 range that week. 

[ORH_wxman]

I'm surprised at how expensive SL and SR are still for April...usually you see 30s by this time...maybe the big late seasons in recent years (really since 2013) have made them bolder. But I'll bet they will see fewer people out there for sure at those prices.

[Sugarloaf1989]

I wish we had the Saddleback oprion. That's my son's favorite place in New England. I can't believe that April 18th will be three years since they closed. We got closing day that year.