I'm skiing Friday. I just noticed Spills, Ripcord and Paradise are now open again. I was hoping for Mall, Twist and Moonshine, and maybe Stein's. I prefer moguls and/or natural snow terrain. Based on that, what would you plan to ski this Friday? LP or Ellen?

I've only been skiing ME this season. I really can't speak first hand about LP. However, I did ride some chairs with people who skied LP over the weekend (sat.,sun., mon.) and most commented on how much more snow ME had.

On the other hand, it's going to be very cold this week. Ideal for snowmaking. So LP might be a different story by Friday. I don't know if that helps. Check in again on Thurs. to see how things are shaping up.

North has much better manufactured snow. Bumps on Exterminator and FIS get good reviews.

Paradise and Spills are natural, tho thin, at the moment. Ripcord is under snowmaking, which Tin said was god, and I said was very sticky. (It was very sticky. As to whether or not that is good... ) Temps have dropped a lot, so those guns might be putting out a nice powder, by now.

It is only Tuesday. Who knows what will be up by Friday?

Just to reiterate Lostone's and freeheel_skier's points, definitely ask again Thursday.

If you were coming out today, I would say Mt. Ellen unquestionably. But one just never knows what the rest of the week will bring

why not ski both??

SKIQUATTRO wrote:

why not ski both??

That's gonna be the plan, I think. Ellen in the am and then over to LP for the afternoon.

Greg wrote:

SKIQUATTRO wrote: why not ski both?? That's gonna be the plan, I think. Ellen in the am and then over to LP for the afternoon.

If you have time, stop by the Visitor Center. I am not here on weekends, but it is still open every day.

Definitely ask late Thursday and see if we are getting any natural stuff. We will have very good snowmaking temperatures this week. Our focus is to get Slowpoke and Hot Shot in good shape and then possibly work on Sleeper over the weekend if it is still cold enough at the base level. We were on Ripcord all day today and are coming off this afternoon and putting that capacity onto Snowball and Spring fling where were have been running all day as well. We might be able to open tomorrow sometime as we keep blowing. NASTAR by the weekend but we may do this week's ski bum race on Slow Poke as Spring fling probably shouldn't be groomed out until Friday. We also have some other areas like the lower portion of Upper Birland and Lower Organgrinder that need work. I would like to get on Stein's soon as well - possibly next week. At ME we were on Exterminator and are coming off that and moving over to Inverness so GMVS can get their needed training and racing space. That is 20 acres and takes several days using most of our capacity even in cold temperatures. Any excess will be used on Lower Crackerjack so we have some more beginner terrain. We blew a hole in the pipe on Which Way, so we need to get an excavator up there to fix it this week. Had we not blown the pipe we would have made snow there first and then gone to Inverness. ME is skiing really well, but with just 6-8" on natural snow, many more trails at LP could be ready with the hard base we now have. Exterminator is the pick of the day tomorrow. Bundle up!

Crazy question perhaps....
does the Slide Brook Express plan to run on wknds now, with a little bit of snow in them their hills? Last time I saw it a couple weeks ago, there were some chairs still off.

Personally since I stay at North most of the time it doesn't concern me, but I have friends and fam coming up later this month and its nice to give them the whole tour of the mtns.

-Jay

I would love to see North Lynx open soon. Wonder where in the snowmaking schedule it lies? They did blow lots of snow today and it was good. The snow event over the weekend did put a good base down every where. Now if we could just get a 2 feet of natural!!!!

Talked to people who skied Stowe Yesturday and contrary to their snow report they said they also got sleet and r--- at the end of the event. I also heard that Kmart got all r----

Treeskier, something tells me you're more inclided to ski the backside rather than the front of north lynx (avitar perhaps). C'mon, are you really jonesing for sunrise and birches? Fine runs indeed, but I'm not buying that its your true motivation to ride the Lynx chair.

Took my first LP runs of the season today. YIKES! Ripcord was the only place to find much skiable snow, and the snowmaking on it was really great... light and fluffy. Most of the mountain was hard as a rock, and the groomers were fast and a bit icy. Visibility was awful on the summit... couldn't differentiate between fog/snowmaking/snow surface. Hopefully we'll get some snow over the next week to soften things up a bit over there. They are making quite a bit of snow at LP, but mostly over on Spring Fling, et. al. Ripcord will probably be the only decent expert terrain until some more snow falls. Organgrinder is scary scary scary. As much as I hate having steep trails groomed, it needs winched badly. As of right now, Mt. Ellen is skiing MUCH better, IMHO, and if we don't get any more snow, you might want to spend your whole day at ME. But I'm sure we'll all keep you posted over the next couple of days as the week plays out.

I skied LP Monday and it was fine until after lunch. Birdland was a was silky smooth first run and then there was nice snow on L. Paradise, Paradise extension and Ripcord.

ME today was good except I tried elbow on the first run and it was a bit hard to say the least. I actually saw some guys pop out of the woods by Exterminator and they said it was "crunchy'.

Thanks for the updates folks! How Black Diamond holding up?

North Lynx will be last priority for snowmaking at LP. Maybe late next week if we keep the temperatures. Snowball and Spring Fling will be sweet when they open - maybe later today. We do plan to groom out Exterminator and Organgrinder but want to do that when there will be some snow falling afterwards so it sets up well.