I'm filling in for Tin:

Looks like some decent snow showers have rolled in this morning. Has it turned into much on the mtn?

No. Some of the upper trails off Heaven's gate look like they need just a few more inches to become skiable. Looked like some ski patrol tracks going down Paradise. Looks like good cover from the lift. Spillsville still very thin in spots. Lots of people everywhere. Deathspout looks like 128 at rush hour. Just saw the gatehouse starting to spin.

Thanks for the update. How's the cover on Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder? If they could get Birdland or Murphy's open this weekend, that should help a bit with Deathspout. Of course an open lower Ripcord is helpful too.

Did look at those trails. I keep hoping they get the village double open as well to relieve some of the pressure. Amazing how many people are waiting in line to use the carpet at the first time area.

Thanks for filling in, RSG.

Looks like the front came through and knocked temps back down again - they had been dangerously close to 32. This should help with the important mid/lower mtn snowmaking efforts off Gatehouse and the Village Double.

Lower Paradise is a lot of work with its width, so unless they've already started on it, I wouldn't count on getting that open anytime soon. I think the best thing to do once they've got sufficient base on Lower OG and Jester to the base is to go all out on Glade and/or Birdland. With the HG traverse, you'll have all sorts of options to get to HG or just a nice cruise to the base. Obviously getting GH going with an option or two is critical as well. At least there's is consistent cold weather to make up for lost time. At some point, you need to start thinking about Snowball/Spring Fling to really spread out those crowds, but I doubt that happens during the holiday period.

Sorry to hear the snow showers aren't making a difference. They look impressive on the composite radar out of BTV. Looks like some more to the W and NW, so mayhbe it will help soften things up and get another run or three open (Upper Lookin Good, upper part of Bravo and Pupper half of Paradise come to mind).

random_ski_guy wrote:

Thanks for the update. How's the cover on Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder? If they could get Birdland or Murphy's open this weekend, that should help a bit with Deathspout. Of course an open lower Ripcord is helpful too.

Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder are both fairly well covered... lot of snowmaking going on on both right now, OG is very mogulled up because it hasn't been groomed, the base is clearly thin... all over the mountain there's ice developing in heavily traveled spots, but it's edgeable, certainly not boilerplate material... according to Sugarbush.com Birdland is now open... too bad they didn't drop the rope a few minutes earlier when I was there, it certainly looked nice all untouched... much snowmaking had gone on in addition, so it was definitely primed...
Murphy's looked similar, though of course it hadn't seen the snowmaking, but if that was opened it would indeed be excellent for spreading skier traffic, at least in the upper part of the Super Bravo pod... Win, any word on the opening of Murphy's?

Tonight should be very good for snowmaking.

ski_resort_observer wrote:

Tonight should be very good for snowmaking.

It's supposed to get down to 4 degrees at 3000'. Finally some whether that will cater to making VOLUMES of snow, instead of resurfacing with a couple inches at 25 degrees.

Strat wrote:

random_ski_guy wrote: Thanks for the update. How's the cover on Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder? If they could get Birdland or Murphy's open this weekend, that should help a bit with Deathspout. Of course an open lower Ripcord is helpful too. Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder are both fairly well covered... lot of snowmaking going on on both right now, OG is very mogulled up because it hasn't been groomed, the base is clearly thin... all over the mountain there's ice developing in heavily traveled spots, but it's edgeable, certainly not boilerplate material... according to Sugarbush.com Birdland is now open... too bad they didn't drop the rope a few minutes earlier when I was there, it certainly looked nice all untouched... much snowmaking had gone on in addition, so it was definitely primed... Murphy's looked similar, though of course it hadn't seen the snowmaking, but if that was opened it would indeed be excellent for spreading skier traffic, at least in the upper part of the Super Bravo pod... Win, any word on the opening of Murphy's?

Wait - they made snow on Birdland? I never saw that on the website and since I was spending my days at North recently, that was news to me. I thought they just opened it b/c that trail really is all grass in the summer and so would be easy to open with minimal natural base. If they really have been blowing on that, then great news. Eliminates that option for what's next and narrows it down to Glade and VH Traverse/Snowball/Spring Fling. My money is on the latter.

Tin Woodsman wrote:

Strat wrote: random_ski_guy wrote: Thanks for the update. How's the cover on Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder? If they could get Birdland or Murphy's open this weekend, that should help a bit with Deathspout. Of course an open lower Ripcord is helpful too. Lower Jester and Lower Organgrinder are both fairly well covered... lot of snowmaking going on on both right now, OG is very mogulled up because it hasn't been groomed, the base is clearly thin... all over the mountain there's ice developing in heavily traveled spots, but it's edgeable, certainly not boilerplate material... according to Sugarbush.com Birdland is now open... too bad they didn't drop the rope a few minutes earlier when I was there, it certainly looked nice all untouched... much snowmaking had gone on in addition, so it was definitely primed... Murphy's looked similar, though of course it hadn't seen the snowmaking, but if that was opened it would indeed be excellent for spreading skier traffic, at least in the upper part of the Super Bravo pod... Win, any word on the opening of Murphy's? Wait - they made snow on Birdland? I never saw that on the website and since I was spending my days at North recently, that was news to me. I thought they just opened it b/c that trail really is all grass in the summer and so would be easy to open with minimal natural base. If they really have been blowing on that, then great news. Eliminates that option for what's next and narrows it down to Glade and VH Traverse/Snowball/Spring Fling. My money is on the latter.

Well actually I can't guarantee they made snow... there were guns out, hooked up, which patrol was actually removing today around 12:30 (maybe a tad earlier? Didn't look at my watch), so it's possible nothing was made, but the trees looked pretty darn frosty in that area... maybe that was natural

I couldn't believe how clear the view from ME was today. You could see the Presidents and all the way up the spine of the Green's!

Already commented on the view in another thread, so I won't say much except to ask if you were there early. All day, it was great. But in the frosty morning, right after they opened the summit... gorgeous!

Was there early...I yo-yo'd the summit chair all day until I got bored. Then I went looking for excitement on cruiser!

update....have about 4" of pretty dry snow so far today at the base. Snowing moderately hard. It is very windy so winholds might be a problem.