The 2018-2019 Ski Season Thread

[PowderBeard]

35 minutes ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

My son report's awful skiing conditions. Sheet ice, chunks of ice, water bars and low visibility with snowmaking. 45 minute wait for the GSE to open for downloading.

This was the report from K yesterday as well despite 6-8" of fresh snow on the ridge. They also were not able to get going until about 10am due to icing. Think our first day will be next Friday night.

[J.Spin]

On ‎11‎/‎9‎/‎2018 at 10:40 AM, PivotPoint said:

Thanks guys!

Oh, and J Spin, I lurk on your reports pretty heavily during the winter time. Love the detail and consistency! Thanks for sharing those.

I appreciate the insight PowderFreak -- I also always appreciate your "parking lot" reports when you report it's dumping at the base and it's a light mix in town. Gives me that warm fuzzy feeling lol

Any other spots you'd guys would go if you wanted a few preseason turns (without going out west of course) Thanks again

Around here in the Northern/Central Greens, I’d say the more lenient resorts with respect to people skinning for turns would be Mad River Glen, Bolton Valley, Smugg’s, and Jay Peak.  For the past several seasons, Sugarbush has seemed to be on the more restrictive side like most recent policies posted by Stowe, but even if you don’t visit those two resorts, that still leaves at least two eastern slope and two western slope options in the area.  Ideally it’s best to have them all in play, since some areas can do better than others in any given storm cycle.  I’m sure people are skinning for turns at Sugarbush and Stowe (PF noted the presence of cars), it’s probably just done a bit more covertly when the more restrictive policies are in place.  Wherever you go though, just be respectful of the mountain, and especially the mountain operations that are going on.  Ideally it’s just best to stay well away from any sort of work that’s being done (grooming, snowmaking, etc.), so if you can, choose a touring route that doesn’t go near any of that.

And I’m glad you’re making use of the reports I send out.  With mountain weather and snowpack conditions often changing so rapidly, and access to specific data from the higher elevations hard to come by, it can be really tough to know what’s going on up there.  Getting that beta out there for others to use is definitely one of the key reasons for putting the reports together.  When the snow is good, I’m typically going to be out there for recreation and exercise anyway.  I’m always going to write up something and get photos to put in my ski journal/website anyway, and getting the weather and snow/weather conditions in there is an important part of documenting the event.

[Sugarloaf1989]

Today is my birthday and I wanted to go skiing, but the only opened place is Killington and I don't want to deal with stairs. Snowmaking pictures from yesterday at Mount Snow and Stratton:

 

[PivotPoint]

On 11/11/2018 at 11:53 AM, J.Spin said:

Around here in the Northern/Central Greens, I’d say the more lenient resorts with respect to people skinning for turns would be Mad River Glen, Bolton Valley, Smugg’s, and Jay Peak.  For the past several seasons, Sugarbush has seemed to be on the more restrictive side like most recent policies posted by Stowe, but even if you don’t visit those two resorts, that still leaves at least two eastern slope and two western slope options in the area.  Ideally it’s best to have them all in play, since some areas can do better than others in any given storm cycle.  I’m sure people are skinning for turns at Sugarbush and Stowe (PF noted the presence of cars), it’s probably just done a bit more covertly when the more restrictive policies are in place.  Wherever you go though, just be respectful of the mountain, and especially the mountain operations that are going on.  Ideally it’s just best to stay well away from any sort of work that’s being done (grooming, snowmaking, etc.), so if you can, choose a touring route that doesn’t go near any of that.

And I’m glad you’re making use of the reports I send out.  With mountain weather and snowpack conditions often changing so rapidly, and access to specific data from the higher elevations hard to come by, it can be really tough to know what’s going on up there.  Getting that beta out there for others to use is definitely one of the key reasons for putting the reports together.  When the snow is good, I’m typically going to be out there for recreation and exercise anyway.  I’m always going to write up something and get photos to put in my ski journal/website anyway, and getting the weather and snow/weather conditions in there is an important part of documenting the event.

Great info. Really appreciate the scoop!

I'm going to try for Friday, most likely will make the trek to Jay considering I know mountain pretty well and after reading their policy (seems fairly generous) I feel good about the possibly for some turns.

Here’s hoping for many more storms to come this season!

[Hitman]

On 11/11/2018 at 11:53 AM, J.Spin said:

Around here in the Northern/Central Greens, I’d say the more lenient resorts with respect to people skinning for turns would be Mad River Glen, Bolton Valley, Smugg’s, and Jay Peak.  For the past several seasons, Sugarbush has seemed to be on the more restrictive side like most recent policies posted by Stowe, but even if you don’t visit those two resorts, that still leaves at least two eastern slope and two western slope options in the area.  Ideally it’s best to have them all in play, since some areas can do better than others in any given storm cycle.  I’m sure people are skinning for turns at Sugarbush and Stowe (PF noted the presence of cars), it’s probably just done a bit more covertly when the more restrictive policies are in place.  Wherever you go though, just be respectful of the mountain, and especially the mountain operations that are going on.  Ideally it’s just best to stay well away from any sort of work that’s being done (grooming, snowmaking, etc.), so if you can, choose a touring route that doesn’t go near any of that.

And I’m glad you’re making use of the reports I send out.  With mountain weather and snowpack conditions often changing so rapidly, and access to specific data from the higher elevations hard to come by, it can be really tough to know what’s going on up there.  Getting that beta out there for others to use is definitely one of the key reasons for putting the reports together.  When the snow is good, I’m typically going to be out there for recreation and exercise anyway.  I’m always going to write up something and get photos to put in my ski journal/website anyway, and getting the weather and snow/weather conditions in there is an important part of documenting the event.

here's the sb policy.  note that you can skin up the slidebrook anytime.

Hiking or skinning on designated trails at both Lincoln Peak and Mount Ellen is not permitted before the mountains open for the winter season, nor is hiking or skinning permitted during the operating hours of the resort.

Hiking or skinning is permitted once the mountains are open, before and after operating hours at both mountains, with the following provisions:

All uphill travelers must obtain an Uphill Travel Pass online or in person at Guest Services at Lincoln Peak.

At Lincoln Peak

• between the hours of 5 PM to 10 PM on the following trail: Easy Rider to Lower Pushover to Pushover to Birch Run.
• between the hours of 4 AM to 7 AM on the following trails: Racer’s Edge to Lower Snowball to Snowball to the top of the Valley House Chair.
• Due to plowing, parking for hiking and skinning is provided at Lincoln Peak in the heli lot, to the right of The Schoolhouse.

At Mount Ellen

• between the hours of  5 PM to 10 PM and 4 AM to 7 AM on the following trails: Easy Does It to Straight Shot to Cruiser to Lower Rim Run to Rim Run.
• Due to plowing, parking for hiking and skinning is provided at Mt. Ellen in the lot next to the Sunny Double lift.

There will be times when skinning and hiking is closed due to weather conditions. Please check the Sugarbush snow report before proceeding. 

Hiking and Skinning during operating hours may be authorized under special circumstances (i.e. lift mechanical failure or weather hold, or special events) Hiking or skinning during operating hours on designated trails requires a day ticket or season pass and is only permitted when specifically authorized by the Resort (these routes are only open when the weather and conditions permit). Please call Guest Services at 802-583-6590 for current designated route.

[HoarfrostHubb]

Wachusett is going to try to open this weekend...

They made a little snow, but that will have mostly washed away today.  I'm guessing they can reverse that soon enough and are hoping that Thurs/Friday pans out

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

Will wait u til the end of the week.. but going to try to book a night or two up north for next Friday Saturday timeframe.

 

[alex]

Bretton Woods opens on Saturday. They reported 8-12" today on top of what was already there, which was over a foot in the upper elevations. Should be an awesome opening day!

[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, Albert A Clipper said:

how much terrain are you guys thinking for for friday/saturday?

At least the snowmaking routes of Lord to North Slope and Sunrise to Standard. 

Plenty of other stuff may be skiable but doubt Ski Patrol can set it up in time.  It can take a day of work to open 1 snowmaking trail on natural snow, as every gun needs to be padded, every hydrant needs bamboo (one for each water and one for air hydrants), along with other hazards that need markings.  It can be like a dozen trips with a sled filled with supplies to get a big trail open.

[alex]

Getting ready

[Sugarloaf1989]

Here in Connecticut, Mohawk Mountain and Ski Sundown are both making snow. This is very early for Connecticut skiing.

[powderfreak]

The early season skiing as been absolutely incredible.  Lots of folks skiing the glades at Stowe, Smuggs and Jay from social media photos and it looks damn good.

Skiing the trees in mid-November?  lol.

The turning conditions have been excellent.  Here's a few turns of mine from today. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

Wachusett opened today with 5 trails...really 4.

I think it was a few days earlier last year...

[Jason215]

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of tree skiing in November on the East Coast! That’s awesome. Looks like we’re off to a rockin start to the ski season. I can’t remember as robust an early season as this. Great combination of cold snowmaking temps plus several natural snowfalls and more of both over the next few weeks!  Heading over to Killington for next weekend’s World Cup. Thinking they should have quite a bit of terrain open by then. 

Jason

[PowderBeard]

Amazing what 2-3" of frozen cement and 6" on top can lead to. 

[HoarfrostHubb]

1 hour ago, PowderBeard said:

Amazing what 2-3" of frozen cement and 6" on top can lead to. 

Where is this?

[HoarfrostHubb]

Wachusett yesterday...not my picture

[Sugarloaf1989]

Im at Mount Snow currently and the conditions are mostly packed powder with a few areas of frozen granular. Full snowcover from Enfield to Mount Snow. Fall of yore.

[J.Spin]

15 hours ago, Jason215 said:

I don’t think I’ve ever heard of tree skiing in November on the East Coast!

I don’t have data for other areas of the Northeast, but tree skiing in November is actually rather common in the Northern Greens.  It starts in November in about ¼ (26.3%) of seasons.

Once the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake hits roughly 24 inches, that’s about the time you’ll find people starting to ski the trees around here (mean start date is Dec 12^th ± 19 days).  I ran an analysis several years back in which I compared that 24” number to actual empirical online reports of people tree skiing, and it lined up fairly well.  Using 24” is not overly aggressive (you’ll find people who will venture in before that), and it’s not as conservative at the 40” rule, it’s more of a decent measure of when semi-conservative folks will start venturing into appropriately maintained areas.

Early season snowpack here can sometimes start as a lot of fluff (which means more than 24” may required for tree skiing) or dense snow (where less than 24” can suffice), so the 24” value is going to be an average of those possibilities.

I’m not even sure if the stake has hit the 24” mark yet this season (the most recent report I’ve seen is 19”), so this is a great example of a season below that threshold because of the dense snowfall we’ve seen.

Having the tree skiing around here start this early in November is a bit less common, it happens in about 10% of seasons.

The updated plot (through 2017-2018) for the date of reaching 24” at the stake is posted below, which shows the number of times and dates in the past 60 years or so when tree skiing would have started in November.

[PowderBeard]

7 hours ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Where is this?

Magic Mt. Spent the weekend skinning and skiing there. Big base everywhere (except a couple trails). Going to check the Thunderbolt tomorrow.

[powderfreak]

Low angle woods have been very good this weekend.  Crazy to ski trees in mid-November, even if they are just noodle lines.  These are pretty low elevation too.

[Jason215]

9 hours ago, J.Spin said:

I don’t have data for other areas of the Northeast, but tree skiing in November is actually rather common in the Northern Greens.  It starts in November in about ¼ (26.3%) of seasons.

Once the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake hits roughly 24 inches, that’s about the time you’ll find people starting to ski the trees around here (mean start date is Dec 12^th ± 19 days).  I ran an analysis several years back in which I compared that 24” number to actual empirical online reports of people tree skiing, and it lined up fairly well.  Using 24” is not overly aggressive (you’ll find people who will venture in before that), and it’s not as conservative at the 40” rule, it’s more of a decent measure of when semi-conservative folks will start venturing into appropriately maintained areas.

Early season snowpack here can sometimes start as a lot of fluff (which means more than 24” may required for tree skiing) or dense snow (where less than 24” can suffice), so the 24” value is going to be an average of those possibilities.

I’m not even sure if the stake has hit the 24” mark yet this season (the most recent report I’ve seen is 19”), so this is a great example of a season below that threshold because of the dense snowfall we’ve seen.

Having the tree skiing around here start this early in November is a bit less common, it happens in about 10% of seasons.

The updated plot (through 2017-2018) for the date of reaching 24” at the stake is posted below, which shows the number of times and dates in the past 60 years or so when tree skiing would have started in November.

Thanks for the informative post JSpin. I figured we were close to a month ahead of schedule for trees in the Northen Greens. What I didn’t realize is that November tree skiing in mid-November was not as rare as I had thought. 

[Jason215]

35 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Low angle woods have been very good this weekend.  Crazy to ski trees in mid-November, even if they are just noodle lines.  These are pretty low elevation too.

Thanks for the great pic. It looks like mid-January.  I usually write off all of November and half of December for skiing since it’s usually marginal most years (especially Killington southward). 

[subdude]

Awesome pics everyone, skiing the glades mid-Nov in New England is the start of a great season. The pic of Wachusett is great. I was there on Sat. Didn't ski but there was a good crowd for mid-Nov.  

[J.Spin]

10 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Low angle woods have been very good this weekend.  Crazy to ski trees in mid-November, even if they are just noodle lines.  These are pretty low elevation too.

Nice stuff PF – indeed those are some of the easiest glades to get rolling in the early season; there’s generally nothing overly aggressive with respect to obstacles, and lower slope angle means even high speed lift-served skier traffic levels aren’t going to be tearing away the snow cover too quickly.  From what I’ve seen, those glades are typically well in play by the time the stake has hit the 24” mark, unless the snow is total fluff or the snowfall has been extremely elevation dependent.

I jumped into the trees for a bit at Bolton Valley yesterday on moderate-angle terrain at around 2,300’, and with probably 20 inches of reasonably dense snowpack topped with powder, there were certainly no issues.  More things are in play/sustainable of course when it’s only non-lift-served skier traffic.

I’m actually curious to see what the stake has got for snowpack, since it was last at 19” but hasn’t been updated for a couple of days.  That is about a foot above average for this time of year though.

[MarkO]

Pretty awesome to have such great conditions so early. I don't think there's enough snow to ski trees in my neck of the woods, but I hear folks are skiing the Sherbie on sufficient cover without any rocks. So after Tuesday/Wednesday 3-6" I guess it might be possible... I'm guessing there will be enough to ski on some trails that traditionally hold more snow on one favored side, but we're only a decent storm or two away from dropping ropes on natural trails. 

Friday going to feel like mid winter skiing in single digits. 

 

Edit, the trail that comes to mind is Vista. Just saw this posted on Cannon's website:

Cannon will kick off our 80th season Friday, November 23rd. Cold temperatures and a little help from Mother Nature will have us skiing and riding on at least 20 trails with the potential for some turns on natural snow. So far, we've seen a total of 14" of new snow and could pick up another 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow.

[#NoPoles]

2 hours ago, MarkO said:

Pretty awesome to have such great conditions so early. I don't think there's enough snow to ski trees in my neck of the woods, but I hear folks are skiing the Sherbie on sufficient cover without any rocks. So after Tuesday/Wednesday 3-6" I guess it might be possible... I'm guessing there will be enough to ski on some trails that traditionally hold more snow on one favored side, but we're only a decent storm or two away from dropping ropes on natural trails. 

Friday going to feel like mid winter skiing in single digits. 

 

Edit, the trail that comes to mind is Vista. Just saw this posted on Cannon's website:

Cannon will kick off our 80th season Friday, November 23rd. Cold temperatures and a little help from Mother Nature will have us skiing and riding on at least 20 trails with the potential for some turns on natural snow. So far, we've seen a total of 14" of new snow and could pick up another 3-6 inches of snow tomorrow.

Cannon is my fav, such a pretty area and the people are amazing

[powderfreak]

9 hours ago, J.Spin said:

Nice stuff PF – indeed those are some of the easiest glades to get rolling in the early season; there’s generally nothing overly aggressive with respect to obstacles, and lower slope angle means even high speed lift-served skier traffic levels aren’t going to be tearing away the snow cover too quickly.  From what I’ve seen, those glades are typically well in play by the time the stake has hit the 24” mark, unless the snow is total fluff or the snowfall has been extremely elevation dependent.

I jumped into the trees for a bit at Bolton Valley yesterday on moderate-angle terrain at around 2,300’, and with probably 20 inches of reasonably dense snowpack topped with powder, there were certainly no issues.  More things are in play/sustainable of course when it’s only non-lift-served skier traffic.

I’m actually curious to see what the stake has got for snowpack, since it was last at 19” but hasn’t been updated for a couple of days.  That is about a foot above average for this time of year though.

Yeah if you are first through any sort of maintained line, it's pretty much good to go with this snow... I still think the right side up layering really has helped us all from a skiing perspective.  Dense, dense stuff on the bottom. 

[PowderBeard]

The 8-10" Magic got up high on Tuesday skied pretty well. They have so much snow they are opening Saturday with 30+ trails.

 

[#NoPoles]

7 hours ago, PowderBeard said:

The 8-10" Magic got up high on Tuesday skied pretty well. They have so much snow they are opening Saturday with 30+ trails.

 

Thats awesome!