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The 2018-2019 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2
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Season ended on Mount Washington today. Left Pinkham Notch early and went to summit snow fields via Lions Head trail (summer route). I was pretty cooked when I reached the top of the snowfield just below the summit. Took a single run and then traversed and hiked over to Left Gully for a run down to bottom of bowl and then hike back down to the AMC's parking lot. Good # of folks in summit snow fields with auto road open. Surprisingly few people in bowl. My initial plan was to take a run on Hillmans but I was toast. Weather went from deep blue sky in AM to very light mist by end. Not many days downhill (less than a dozen) but 50+ on the skinny skis.

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Season ended on Mount Washington today. Left Pinkham Notch early and went to summit snow fields via Lions Head trail (summer route). I was pretty cooked when I reached the top of the snowfield just below the summit. Took a single run and then traversed and hiked over to Left Gully for a run down to bottom of bowl and then hike back down to the AMC's parking lot. Good # of folks in summit snow fields with auto road open. Surprisingly few people in bowl. My initial plan was to take a run on Hillmans but I was toast. Weather went from deep blue sky in AM to very light mist by end. Not many days downhill (less than a dozen) but 50+ on the skinny skis.
Do they have an official closing date? Looks like enough snow to keep skiing

.

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I don't know when the summit snow fields normally melt out. From what I could tell from internet banter, there was more snow and more vertical this year than normal on Memorial Day. Literally, you park your car either in the summit parking lots or along the auto road and simply walk and/or down climb to the snow. I know the various MT. Washington advocacy groups this year have been asking people to be careful not to destroy the alpine flora and fauna by trampling over it. I'm guessing this a result of growing popularity of driving up and skiing when the auto road opens. I've skied in the ravine in late June once and I know there is typically a strip of snow that can be and does get skied on July 4th. There is still quite a bit of snow in the ravine and left gully which is safest option this time of year had plenty of snow last time I looked at a webcam. I find increasingly the down climbing with my gear on my back makes for a sore body the next day especially as I get older! 

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On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 8:38 AM, Lava Rock said:

Do they have an official closing date? Looks like enough snow to keep skiing.

 

On ‎6‎/‎5‎/‎2019 at 1:10 PM, Angus said:

I don't know when the summit snow fields normally melt out. From what I could tell from internet banter, there was more snow and more vertical this year than normal on Memorial Day. Literally, you park your car either in the summit parking lots or along the auto road and simply walk and/or down climb to the snow. I know the various MT. Washington advocacy groups this year have been asking people to be careful not to destroy the alpine flora and fauna by trampling over it. I'm guessing this a result of growing popularity of driving up and skiing when the auto road opens. I've skied in the ravine in late June once and I know there is typically a strip of snow that can be and does get skied on July 4th. There is still quite a bit of snow in the ravine and left gully which is safest option this time of year had plenty of snow last time I looked at a webcam. I find increasingly the down climbing with my gear on my back makes for a sore body the next day especially as I get older! 

Lava, there are some constraints such as not being able to drive up to the snowfields until the road is actually open, and the ski patrollers in Tuckerman Ravine only provide avalanche reports and potential aid to a certain point in the spring, but there are no official opening or closing dates for the skiing or anything like that.  You can hike to any of it, and you’re on your own with respect to avalanche conditions, the constant issue of Mt. Washington’s potent weather, and every other standard big mountain danger that’s always present.  As you can see in the web cam image from yesterday, there’s still plenty of snow in the main summit snowfield (just to the right of the summit) and there are other snowfields still present.  There’s still lots of snow in Tuckerman Ravine, which is on the left side of the image.

07JUN19A.jpg

The summit snowfields usually melt out at some point in June, and as Angus said, you can often find snow in the ravine to July.  Over the past decade we’re done a lot of driving trips up to the snowfields because the boys haven’t been old enough to easily do the hike to Tuckerman Ravine.  They’re certainly capable of making the ascent now, but they often have soccer and other things this time of year, so fitting it in can be a challenge.  Even still, my wife and I love making trips up to the snowfields because there are typically far fewer people than in the ravine.  The main snowfield typically has some other skiers, but if you pick one of the smaller snowfields you can literally have the whole thing to yourself and it’s essentially your own private ski area:

01JUN14S.jpg

29MAY10AG.jpg

27MAY12C.jpg

One of the biggest challenges in simply getting one of those pristine spring days when the mountain is clear and without the typical big winds.  This weekend actually offers a really nice window, and I bet we’d be going if we didn’t have some graduation and soccer things going on.

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Cross your fingers for Saddleback!!! New article out today that there is a very solid buyer, Arctaris, which specializes in funding business opportunities in innercity and rural areas...Arctaris offered to purchase the mtn for well over the amount of debt the Berrys carry on the mtn...Arctaris has stated it would use its own capital to purchase Saddleback and does not need to take advantage of any special tax offerings or any commitment of funding from the community...

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On ‎6‎/‎14‎/‎2019 at 1:34 PM, #NoPoles said:

Cross your fingers for Saddleback!!! New article out today that there is a very solid buyer, Arctaris, which specializes in funding business opportunities in innercity and rural areas...Arctaris offered to purchase the mtn for well over the amount of debt the Berrys carry on the mtn...Arctaris has stated it would use its own capital to purchase Saddleback and does not need to take advantage of any special tax offerings or any commitment of funding from the community...

Hope that's real and not another mirage.  With the right management, snowmaking and customer base, that area's elevation and NW aspect could enable it to challenge K-Mart for longest season.

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I posted this in the NNE thread, but figured it would also be appropriate here.  Earlier this year I had an inquiry on the ski areas page of our website that prompted me to update the page, so I’ve done that now that we’re in the off season and I’ve had a bit of time.  Like my usual north to south list of the major ski areas that I use for storm reports, I created a similar north to south list of the state’s smaller areas that are currently in operation, with annual snowfall numbers that I could scrounge up/estimate.  Naturally, not all these ski areas have expansive websites like the major resorts, but I was able to get reasonably current/relevant links for all of them.  I was aware of many of these ski areas, but there were still some that I didn’t know were in operation.  I know there are a number of Vermont ski enthusiasts here, so I figured I’d pass the list along.

Hard’ack (82″)
Pete’s Tow (99″)
Lyndon Outing Club (103″)
Chapman Hill (79″)
Cochran’s (88”)
Cosmic Hill (104″)
Northeast Slopes (91″)
Pine Mountain (65″)
Harrington Hill (87″)
Twin Farms (82″)
Suicide Six (80″)
Ski Quechee (90″)
Bear Creek (150″)
Ascutney Outdoors (175″)
Timber Ridge (145″)
Bellows Falls (56″)
Hermitage (150″)
Living Memorial (56″)

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  • 4 weeks later...
37 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Vail just bought

 
  • Mount Snow in Vermont
  • Hunter Mountain in New York
  • Attitash Mountain ResortWildcat Mountain and Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire

They are taking over for sure.   I bought a $700 pass for my yearly trip to Breck/Vail, now I can use it at Okemo and Mt Snow with almost unlimited skiing-very good deal.  (I hate Hunter so not going there)

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That's pretty exciting in terms of season's passes.  I've got local day/night covered (Crotched/Sunapee).  Weekender type places in Mt. Snow, Attitash/Wildcat, and Stowe, and then Vacation worthy places out west.  Last time I was in S. Lake Tahoe I only went to Heavenly a couple days because the day ticket rate is so high and it was hard to find any vouchers (and the snow conditions sucked).

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They bought 17 ski areas today, but Wildcat is really the only one that I'm stoked about.  Can't wait to be able to use my pass there for those nor'easters that slip too far east and bury NH/ME and smoke cirrus in VT.

The other thing is in a bad winter, they have now secured some of the best snowmaking mountains in Vermont.  Killington is king for snowmaking, but Epic Pass offerings include Mt Snow, Okemo and Stowe.  All are known in Vermont for having relatively good conditions in those shit winters because of grooming/snowmaking infrastructure.  Good insurance to have access to those 3 ski areas in a down winter.

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Just now, powderfreak said:

They bought 17 ski areas today, but Wildcat is really the only one that I'm stoked about.  Can't wait to be able to use my pass there for those nor'easters that slip too far east and bury NH/ME and smoke cirrus in VT.

The other thing is in a bad winter, they have now secured some of the best snowmaking mountains in Vermont.  Killington is king for snowmaking, but Epic Pass offerings include Mt Snow, Okemo and Stowe.  All are known in Vermont for having relatively good conditions in those shit winters because of grooming/snowmaking infrastructure.  Good insurance to have access to those 3 ski areas in a down winter.

Sunapee has a good rep for snowmaking and grooming in NH too.  For people who want predictable corduroy surfaces on cruising trails it is good.

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2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

They bought 17 ski areas today, but Wildcat is really the only one that I'm stoked about.  Can't wait to be able to use my pass there for nor'easters that slip too far east and bury NH/ME and smoke cirrus in VT.

The other thing is in a bad winter, they have now secured some of the best snowmaking mountains in Vermont.  Killington is king for snowmaking, but Epic Pass offerings include Mt Snow, Okemo and Stowe.  All are known in Vermont for having relatively good conditions in those shit winters because of grooming/snowmaking infrastructure.  Good insurance to have access to those 3 ski areas in a down winter.

Who are you kidding?  You never leave Mansfield from October through April :P

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36 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

With this purchase, I would guess vail is out of the running for jay (probably didn't make sense with Stowe so close anyway) I wonder if we hear something from Alterra soon; not sure who else would buy them.  

VR certainly has looked long and hard at Jay... also Smuggs.  I don't know this other than knowing that they don't leave any stone unturned and would bet VR has a file on every ski area in North America.

From a contact at Jay, the rumor is that VR was looking at just the mountain operations (similar to Stowe, where they didn't buy any base area lodging) and wasn't interested in the lodging/hotels/waterpark/soccerplex/golf course/etc.  However, the federal receivership wants to sell it all as one package. 

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