The 2021-2022 Ski season thread

[snowgeek]

M-F jobs suck!!


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[powderfreak]

5 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Jay is in really good shape right now..tnrw should be good too.  With the Bonnie open, if you hike that little bit on northway to jfk, you’ll find all those glades on tramside basically untouched; just make sure you have a way to get back from tramside.  Saturday sucks because they were really getting there.

Every time we start really getting natural stuff in play (we opened some natural snow trails today that’ll be closed by Sat AM), it rains again.  Like someone said up thread, sounds like eastern skiing .

[PhineasC]

This cutter's timing works out well for us. We don't ski the weekends usually. BW didn't get much snow from this system though. One of those kind of events where it crushes in Randolph and they get shadowed a little. I think it was 1-2 inches down that way.

[mreaves]

Just watched a shot movie on VT PBS about Bolton Valley. Ralph DesLauriers was saying they were supposed to open December 15, 1966 but there was no snow at all. He was having dinner with a local priest who said grace and mentioned they could really use some snow. He said it started snowing half an hour later and continued for something like 54 hours and dumped like 48”. They were able to open for Christmas and had a decent snow year after that. 

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 3.3” Snow/0.14” L.E.

 

We’ve had some flurries out there, but I think that’s the tail end of this system.  The next chance for snow appears to be tonight with a weak warm front.

 

Details from the 6:00 P.M. Waterbury observations:

New Snow: 0.4 inches

New Liquid: 0.01 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 40.0

Snow Density: 2.5% H2O

Temperature: 18.5 F

Sky: Flurries

Snow at the stake: 3.0 inches

[mreaves]

@J.Spin I thought of you while watching that Bolton Valley show. They devoted a fair bit to the back country part. 

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 0.7” Snow/0.03” L.E.

 

Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations:

New Snow: 0.7 inches

New Liquid: 0.03 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 23.3

Snow Density: 4.3% H2O

Temperature: 22.6 F

Sky: Light Snow (1-5 mm flakes)

Snow at the stake: 3.0 inches

[J.Spin]

10 hours ago, mreaves said:

@J.Spin I thought of you while watching that Bolton Valley show. They devoted a fair bit to the back country part. 

Yeah, it sounds like a great piece - I know lots about the resort from being around and skiing there so much, but had never heard that story.  Such a cool story for a resort opening.  I'll have to see if I can catch the show.

[GCWarrior]

23 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Jay is in really good shape right now..tnrw should be good too.  With the Bonnie open, if you hike that little bit on northway to jfk, you’ll find all those glades on tramside basically untouched; just make sure you have a way to get back from tramside.  Saturday sucks because they were really getting there.

Jay Is straight up awesome! Woods are pretty game on.  Thinking about tomorrow makes me sad. 

[snowgeek]

Cutter = Crickets. Pretty quiet in this thread lol. Oh well, things should be looking up soon. My son skied Copper yesterday and had a blast. They finally got enough snow to open about 1/2 the front side. He got to experience the I70 so tragic for the first time. Woot!!


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[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, snowgeek said:

Cutter = Crickets. Pretty quiet in this thread lol. Oh well, things should be looking up soon. My son skied Copper yesterday and had a blast. They finally got enough snow to open about 1/2 the front side. He got to experience the I70 so tragic for the first time. Woot!!


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Lol look at the snow texture around the Mansfield stake.  That’s all you need to know.  Firm and weird.

At least there’s something white still on the ground I guess.

And the texture today on RT 108 (closed) near the Stowe gate into Smugglers Notch at 1500ft.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

11 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Lol look at the snow texture around the Mansfield stake.  That’s all you need to know.  Firm and weird.

At least there’s something white still on the ground I guess.

And the texture today on RT 108 (closed) near the Stowe gate into Smugglers Notch at 1500ft.

Looks allot like spring. Luckily good times on the way. Spending the day after to Christmas through New Years up in Vt. Very exiting!

[mcglups]

Surprisingly, Sunday River was pretty darn good today, people said yesterday was not so much.  Overall, plenty of terrain especially relative to the small amount of people up here.  Did some hiking on the unopened trails and there are quite a few with huge whales curing, I can see how 3 feet of man made comes to be!

[Sugarloaf1989]

One of the original advertisements for Powder Ridge has me in the picture.  Taken by my friend in January of 1992. They took it off the internet,  probably from Alpinezone.

[Professional Lurker]

One of the original advertisements for Powder Ridge has me in the picture.  Taken by my friend in January of 1992. They took it off the internet,  probably from Alpinezone.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[Professional Lurker]

Lol sorry... I had to.

Pretty cool vintage ad, and it IS cool that you're in it.

Sent from my SM-A505U using Tapatalk

[Baroclinic Zone]

I had a friend of mine and his sister show up in the annual brochure for Sunday River back in 1987.  It showed the both of them getting on the lift out of south ridge.   No one knew they were going to be in it until we all saw it and did a double take.

[snowgeek]

Awesome pic!  Love the old chairlift....basically a pole the bottom of a park bench.  Still tons of those lifts in the west where they rarely put the bars down in they even exist.  We are more safety oriented in the east lol.

[snowgeek]

I was going to go to Stratton on Saturday, but now I'm thinking Sunday might be better as a decent amount of the snow looks to arrive after lifts close on Sat.  Thoughts?

[MRVexpat]

1 hour ago, snowgeek said:

I was going to go to Stratton on Saturday, but now I'm thinking Sunday might be better as a decent amount of the snow looks to arrive after lifts close on Sat.  Thoughts?

Definitely looks like Sunday will be the day. Especially if this prompts any additional trail openings. 

[GCWarrior]

My friend is at Stratton now and says it's glorious spring skiing.  No base left in the woods though but 6-10" of meat would greatly help that situation.  I'm arranging my schedule to head there on Monday. 

[snowgeek]

52 minutes ago, MRVexpat said:

Definitely looks like Sunday will be the day. Especially if this prompts any additional trail openings. 

Woot.  That's what I was thinking.  And then i can sleep late and enjoy the storm tomorrow.

[alex]

Amazing how nicely Bretton Woods skied today considering the last 2 weeks of weather. Snowmaking and great grooming can do wonders 

[PowderBeard]

Checking who got what this morning and K is either having a rare year or are measuring in centimeters. I've noticed a few times early in the season when the cams and chairs would show an inch or two and they reported 5 or 6". Season totals thus far:

Jay: 63"

K: 61"

Smuggs: 60"

Stowe: 60"

Sugarbush: 39"

Cannon: 36"

MRG: 20-32"

Burke: 21"

Okemo: 21"

Stratton: 19"

Mount Snow: 16"

Magic: 11"

Wildcat: 11"

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

16 minutes ago, PowderBeard said:

Checking who got what this morning and K is either having a rare year or are measuring in centimeters. I've noticed a few times early in the season when the cams and chairs would show an inch or two and they reported 5 or 6". Season totals thus far:

Jay: 63"

K: 61"

Smuggs: 60"

Stowe: 60"

Sugarbush: 39"

Cannon: 36"

MRG: 20-32"

Burke: 21"

Okemo: 21"

Stratton: 19"

Mount Snow: 16"

Magic: 11"

Wildcat: 11"

Absolutely no shot K has 61 and Okemo 21 when they are only about 30 miles apart and in a very similar geographical area with similar weather. The reality is probably something like 40 and 30. I’ve noticed at Stratton the last 2 winters snow measuring has been conservative to almost under measuring. 

[MRVexpat]

3 hours ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

Absolutely no shot K has 61 and Okemo 21 when they are only about 30 miles apart and in a very similar geographical area with similar weather. The reality is probably something like 40 and 30. I’ve noticed at Stratton the last 2 winters snow measuring has been conservative to almost under measuring. 

Yeah, I feel like this gets discussed at the start of every season. Chalk it up to a marketing ploy with the goal of capitalizing on that early season demand? 

I know we've also debated their seasonal snowfall #s as not lining up with others in the area. 

[Angus]

i noticed Killington reported 11" this AM versus 6" for Okemo and the storm a few weeks ago Killington reported 19" not sure about Okemo but I bet that represents a bulk of delta.

[LongBeachSurfFreak]

6 hours ago, Angus said:

i noticed Killington reported 11" this AM versus 6" for Okemo and the storm a few weeks ago Killington reported 19" not sure about Okemo but I bet that represents a bulk of delta.

11” seems very high. I was at Stratton this weekend and we had about 5”. It just wasn’t enough to really rebound the mountain. There were some major ice challenges by the early afternoon

[snowgeek]

Stratton was decent today. They reported 6” which looked accurate but it was mixed with sleet and freezing rain. Gondola windows had a nice coating of ice. Surface was nice on the greens and blues. Blacks turned quickly to boiler plate ice. Used the singles lines and only had to wait 1-3 minutes in lift lines. Skied 10am-1pm and got 10K in. Glad I went but craving the soft fully open conditions that we love.


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[Skivt2]

Following the Killington vs Okemo discussion here.   I was a weekly commuter to VT for 30 years driving through Ludlow to Killington.   I have skied at both of those mountains plus Pico probably 1000 days combined.  I would most certainly find no issue thinking Killington gets substantially more snow then Okemo.  There are huge topography differences.  Killington is farther north enough to be much more part of the snow cloud that hits the larger core green mountains after passing the Champlain basin.  It’s not shadowed by Mt. Holly.  It’s base is at high elevation of vs Okemo and it’s over 4000 feet.  Try driving there from Okemo and you will notice you are headed uphill the whole way. The area is full of microclimates.  Plymouth, where I live is a perfect example as it’s a huge snow belt.  It’s not uncommon at all, for example, to drive north on 100 leaving Ludlow and have it flurrying lightly, only to have it be dumping in Plymouth, and then flurrying lightly at the rt 4 intersection then Pounding snow again at the bottom of the K access road and over Sherburne pass at Pico where I used to live.  That’s a very very common occurrence midwinter where heavy dustings occur night after night without a storm.