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The 2021-2022 Ski season thread


Skivt2
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On 11/11/2021 at 9:27 AM, PhineasC said:

BW says no night skiing again this season, a minor bummer. It's a nostalgia thing for me, I grew up night skiing with my dad after he'd get home from work a couple nights a week. Hopefully Cranmore does it.

Night skiing was the best, crowds were thinner and you got more runs in then go to the bar for a couple beers after, sleep like a baby, it was great.

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On 11/11/2021 at 9:27 AM, PhineasC said:

BW says no night skiing again this season, a minor bummer. It's a nostalgia thing for me, I grew up night skiing with my dad after he'd get home from work a couple nights a week. Hopefully Cranmore does it.

I grew up night skiing too.  It’s a big part of my childhood skiing experiences.  Memories from turning under the lights and riding the chairlift in the dark still dominate from that time in life.

Stowe used to do night skiing off the Gondola when I was in college.  It was always empty and cold, but there’s a different feel on the mountain in the evening.  Stopped offering it due to lack of participation, among other reasons.  Folks on ski vacations like to ski during the day; they are tired at night or want to go out to dinner/socialize.

Bolton Valley still offers night skiing and is only 25 min from the Burlington area.  That market keeps the night light dream alive.

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5 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I grew up night skiing too.  It’s a big part of my childhood skiing experiences.  Memories from turning under the lights and riding the chairlift in the dark still dominate from that time in life.

Stowe used to do night skiing off the Gondola when I was in college.  It was always empty and cold, but there’s a different feel on the mountain in the evening.  Stopped offering it due to lack of participation, among other reasons.  Folks on ski vacations like to ski during the day; they are tired at night or want to go out to dinner/socialize.

Bolton Valley still offers night skiing and is only 25 min from the Burlington area.  That market keeps the night light dream alive.

We have always tried to ski as many days as possible. We started buying season passes the year I graduated college.  Our first passes were at Mt. Tom.  We would get 50 days in a year, mostly nights after work.  After 3 years we went back to where we learned to ski and got Sundown season passes for 3 more years but still skied at night.  We always had to have clear goggle lens.  Lol.  By 6 years out of college we could finally start skiing VT 50+ days a year and rarely skied nights after that.  It definitely has a different feel.  I find the frenzy of getting to the mountain for first chair sort of annoying and too high strung. Ironically weekdays seem the worst with the same daily crowd punching the clock.  I like the last hours of the day.  Much Mellower.  I have found the clear goggles again though.  In mid to late December last chair is almost after dark only without lights.

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18 hours ago, Sugarloaf1989 said:

Killington used to download from Killington Peak for early and late season skiing via the double chair. Now it's just a limited time for early season skiing. 

Killington 10/31/92:

 

October31st19921.jpg

I remember this back in the 90s.  One Vet's day we  skied off this lift in the morning, and when the mid station line got too long, we switched to mountain biking off the same lift in the afternoon. 

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On 11/13/2021 at 10:19 AM, Brewbeer said:

I remember this back in the 90s.  One Vet's day we  skied off this lift in the morning, and when the mid station line got too long, we switched to mountain biking off the same lift in the afternoon. 

Yeah, that liftline could get long. Killington Double Chair mid-station loading.  October 31st, 1992. Boomerang,  Upper Goat Path and Upper Cascade being the opened trails.

October31st19922.jpg.ffc7dd5eb442d2c8e8b7cc3c4170572d.jpg

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47 minutes ago, Skivt2 said:

E7DB5D56-00FF-45A7-BDF7-5C464B34D2AB.jpegFirepower!  A snow gun roughly every 9-10 feet.  

It's impressive.  By far the most impressive snowmaking effort you'll see in northeastern US (and likely the whole continent).  The World Cup is an awesome event from the "energy" it creates in all facets.  There's no other trail that gets crushed with as much liquid equivalent as Superstar.  That system just pumps water into the atmosphere.  

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I've been checking the killington webcams periodically and they are still at it. they will have to turn off the guns most likely this morning at some point with warming temps but it will be interesting to see the size of the piles. Pretty awesome effort.

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Going to be interesting how Thanksgiving weekend shakes down.  I don't care about snow or snowmaking weather in my hood but up north it would be nice to see places open Wednesday and Thursday next week.  Monday looks not so nice for the fresh made snow. Hopefully it is a light rain. 

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15 hours ago, snowgeek said:

Stratton planning on 12 trails with top to bottom opening on Wednesday. Boom. They have a serious snowmaking system. And their trails are wide so they get those acres open. Damn!!!


.

As of right now,  it's only snowmaking on the upper mountain down to mid-station. Rain and warmth coming tomorrow and Monday. 

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15 hours ago, snowgeek said:

Stratton planning on 12 trails with top to bottom opening on Wednesday. Boom. They have a serious snowmaking system. And their trails are wide so they get those acres open. Damn!!!


.

I'll be there!  Looks like they may be getting some natural tomorrow and some heavy wet snow on Monday.  

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18 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I would like to speak to your manager, sir. I paid a lot of money to ski this week and it is outrageous that Stowe can’t make enough snow. :)  

It’s definitely harder to convince people that with 2100 vertical we need *all* of it sufficiently deep to sustain nightly grooming and high skier traffic.  We are ready on 1600 verts which is a lot of skiing to be honest.  But telling folks that the lowest few hundred verts are holding up the whole thing is tough.

We just don’t have the upload/download set up that some other hills have.  And 1500ft mid-slope has been cold enough for natural but not cold enough for long productive snowmaking.  Same issue we had most of last winter to be honest.  Days and days of upper 20s to mid 30s.

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1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

It’s definitely harder to convince people that with 2100 vertical we need *all* of it sufficiently deep to sustain nightly grooming and high skier traffic.  We are ready on 1600 verts which is a lot of skiing to be honest.  But telling folks that the lowest few hundred verts are holding up the whole thing is tough.

We just don’t have the upload/download set up that some other hills have.  And 1500ft mid-slope has been cold enough for natural but not cold enough for long productive snowmaking.  Same issue we had most of last winter to be honest.  Days and days of upper 20s to mid 30s.

Nice write up.  I always appreciate getting the updates even if it’s bad news.  I love the mountains that have more detailed write ups in their snow reports throughout the day.  One thing some resorts do well is let you know where they are making snow, and where they are headed.  It gives you an idea of how to plan. 
 

The people that bitch about snowmaking are the same people that don’t understand why there’s a wind hold because they are at 1500 ft and it’s not windy (meanwhile at tower 15, it’s gusting to 60mph)  

 

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