Natural trail status

I see all the good stuff at LP is still open. How are the natural trails off Castlerock and Heaven's Gate skiing?

[gone.skiing]

On the weekend they were an adventure. Not sure how much Monday improved things.

[Hawk]

It's all a matter of perception. Mine is like this....On upper mountain terain that was not groomed you have 6" of newsnow on a 1 to 2 foot layer of rain soaked snow with a 1/4" layer of frozen rain on top. It was edgeable on Sunday but just barely. Now with this new 6" I would say that the lower angle slopes are sking good but I bet steeper stuff got skied off in a hurry. In the end I am sure if you know were to look the skiing is just fine.. :wink:

[Bubba]

I see all the good stuff at LP is still open. How are the natural trails off Castlerock and Heaven's Gate skiing?


It's wicked pissah!

Really.

Everything is coming around very nicely. The snow yesterday did wonders. Friday's snow will be awesome.

[atkinson]

Quit lying Dave. It still sucks really bad.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/012008-Liftline1.jpg
Horrible conditions on Liftline today.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/012008-Liftline2.jpg
More of the same.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/012008-TRoad1.jpg
Lap #5, just as bad as the first. ;)

John

[gone.skiing]

I would say that qualifies as improvement over Saturday morning.

[stovepipe]

Hit up both ME and LP today,
The groomers are getting much better. Did a run on liftline also,was fun-a lot of crusty under that 4-6"but fun.Over at ME the gun snow on cruiser was nice and dry. FIS in full FIS form,lower still closed as should be. Skiers right from mid-point down on upper-nice. Tumbler better that the chatter fest that was last weekend. Al in all things looking up .Doing the snow dance.
JC

[HowieT2]

That is much better than I expected to hear.

[Go Figure]

Its Great to see photos again after it snows.Funny when Greg asked for damage photos the company cameras were silent. :wink:


Today: Sunny, with a high near 20. North wind between 3 and 7 mph.

Tonight: Mostly clear, with a low around 0. Calm wind.

Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 30. Calm wind becoming south around 6 mph. Winds could gust as high as 22 mph.

Thursday Night: Snow likely, mainly after 4am. Cloudy, with a low around 22. South wind between 5 and 9 mph, with gusts as high as 33 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Friday: Periods of snow, mainly before noon. High near 30. Southwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Friday Night: A chance of snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 14. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Saturday: A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a high near 21. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Saturday Night: A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around 4. Chance of precipitation is 50%.

Sunday: A chance of snow showers. Partly sunny and cold, with a high near 8. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Sunday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around -13.

M.L.King Day: Mostly sunny and cold, with a high near 6.

Monday Night: A chance of snow showers. Cloudy, with a low around -6. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

NOAA from 1673' local forcasters saying some mixed Friday.which could mean haevy snow that would fill and bond allowing the final few trails to open :D

[Tin Woodsman]

Its Great to see photos again after it snows.Funny when Greg asked for damage photos the company cameras were silent. :wink:

Indeed.



NOAA from 1673' local forcasters saying some mixed Friday.which could mean haevy snow that would fill and bond allowing the final few trails to open :D

But what does it say for 2932' in elevation? My Magic Eight Ball says a high of 26 degrees. Could always be warmer higher up, but I get the sense this is all snow.

[atkinson]

Sorry I didn't have the time to shoot photos of random patches of grass. 90+% of the terrain was open and I was busy shooting the bump comp and doing other work. Next time, I'll get my priorities straight. ;)

John

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/012008-USSA_CRSun-026email.jpg

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/012008-USSA_CRSun-001email.jpg

[Hawk]

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

I don't have the luxury of going up every weekend. Typically, I have to plan trips ahead of time and only get up to the MRV a handful of times each season. Just nice to know what the conditions are really like.

[Hawk]

I have a great idea. We need to implement the Lostone daily report. I think his objective reporting would be a nice feature. He is at the mountain every day.... :wink:

[Lostone]

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

People express interest because that is why they are looking in, here. Some do come up every weekend, but some haven't been up, and are looking for good conditions. There are a lot more people looking in then those that post. Check out the number of views of topics, as opposed to the amount of replies.

That is one of the major purposes of the board.

As for the 90% open, I have to say I feel much of that is thru force of will. Been down Lower Birdland? Middle Domino? They are open, and there are a few that go down them, but those are tough trails, right now, and they aren't seeing a lot of traffic.

That said, Skiing is quite good. I've had a great time, Monday thru yesterday. (Might have been good Sunday, but my memory doesn't go that far back. :roll: )

But to give the impression that we have similar to what we had in December, would be dishonest. We have New England skiing.

Would I come up if I was a weekend warrior? Almost definitely. Is there fun to be had here? If you try, you can find it. If you can't find it... you didn't try hard enough. The vast majority are saying they are having a great time. Are all the open trails good? Good to who? :wink: They're good to someone. 8)

[freeheel_skier]

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

I dunno either. I guess some of it might be the morbid curiosity factor in all of us. 8)

[Tin Woodsman]

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

I dunno either. I guess some of it might be the morbid curiosity factor in all of us. 8)

As Greg stated, that's not it at all. Some people have limited opportunities to head up, and they want to know whether they should expend those opportunities to do so on a weekend when SB won't be showing it's best face. Man-made, bulletproof garbage can be found anywhere in New England, and usually much close to home for the majority of skiers. It's absolutely legitimate, and the "90% was open" statement is disingenuous in that regard. If you're going to chide people for not being up there skiing when conditions are good, then don't go radio silent when they suck. Plain and simple. Even for an employee, this approach begins to strain your credibility. Sorry if I'm not "core" enough to just come up regardless of conditions. If I wanted the company line, I'd call the snow phone.

[gone.skiing]

Amen, Tin.

What I do not get is why waste your time telling someone on a message board
* they should not want to see a picture of a natural snow trail, or
* should not need to know where they can watch a football game, or
* should not watch football game and spend time with their kids instead?

And my personal favorite: telling the founder of this message board that he should call people up instead of asking a question here...

How about answering original question or starting a new thread if you need to preach. Picture of Lower Birdland from last weekend would have told a lot more about conditions then check mark on snow report.

[flakeydog]

With most things in life, I always try to get a second opinion. For my Mad River Valley ski condition information I often consult the Mad River Glen website.

Key reasons include:

1) great weather stat/links on their "weather" page.
Temps and wind charted for the last 48 hrs or so. How long was it above freezing? are the wind howling....
Links to weather blogs and sites
Several views of clouds/radar from different sources
2) they are typically pretty open about the conditions and the actions they are taking in dealing with them
3) webcam
4) trail count- being familiar with the mountain, I can get a sense of the condition of trails based on what is open. Mad River seems to do a lot of proactive trail closure (especially midweek) in the name of preservation of snow etc.

Not that MRGs site is the end-all be-all, just another source of info when I want to figure out what it is like on the mountain. The good news is that I usually see more similarities than differences when checking the two, especially on snowfall totals (season snowfall as of today: SB = 131" MRG= 88-132", not bad...)

With most things in life, I always try to get a second opinion. For my Mad River Valley ski condition information I often consult the Mad River Glen website.

Key reasons include:

1) great weather stat/links on their "weather" page.
Temps and wind charted for the last 48 hrs or so. How long was it above freezing? are the wind howling....
Links to weather blogs and sites
Several views of clouds/radar from different sources
2) they are typically pretty open about the conditions and the actions they are taking in dealing with them
3) webcam
4) trail count- being familiar with the mountain, I can get a sense of the condition of trails based on what is open. Mad River seems to do a lot of proactive trail closure (especially midweek) in the name of preservation of snow etc.

Not that MRGs site is the end-all be-all, just another source of info when I want to figure out what it is like on the mountain. The good news is that I usually see more similarities than differences when checking the two, especially on snowfall totals (season snowfall as of today: SB = 131" MRG= 88-132", not bad...)

Agreed. I have several sources of information - SkiMRV, AZ, NWS point forecast/discussions, MRG site, EasternWX forums, Josh Fox's blog, Scott Braaten's posts, Intellicast radar, etc. I can usually make a pretty informed decision based on all that, but it's nice to have visual confirmation (i.e. the pics request) of what you think the conditions might be like...

Right now I believe tomorrow will be a lot better than folks are expecting...

[HowieT2]

With most things in life, I always try to get a second opinion. For my Mad River Valley ski condition information I often consult the Mad River Glen website.

Key reasons include:

1) great weather stat/links on their "weather" page.
Temps and wind charted for the last 48 hrs or so. How long was it above freezing? are the wind howling....
Links to weather blogs and sites
Several views of clouds/radar from different sources
2) they are typically pretty open about the conditions and the actions they are taking in dealing with them
3) webcam
4) trail count- being familiar with the mountain, I can get a sense of the condition of trails based on what is open. Mad River seems to do a lot of proactive trail closure (especially midweek) in the name of preservation of snow etc.

Not that MRGs site is the end-all be-all, just another source of info when I want to figure out what it is like on the mountain. The good news is that I usually see more similarities than differences when checking the two, especially on snowfall totals (season snowfall as of today: SB = 131" MRG= 88-132", not bad...)

Agreed. I have several sources of information - SkiMRV, AZ, NWS point forecast/discussions, MRG site, EasternWX forums, Josh Fox's blog, Scott Braaten's posts, Intellicast radar, etc. I can usually make a pretty informed decision based on all that, but it's nice to have visual confirmation (i.e. the pics request) of what you think the conditions might be like...

Right now I believe tomorrow will be a lot better than folks are expecting...

Greg-I saw your post on easternwx forum a couple of days ago. i troll around there. There is some serious winter blues there after that last storm busted.

[Hawk]

First of all I was responding to the statement "Funny when Greg asked for damage photos the company cameras were silent".
It's not the "Company's" job to post pictures on this site". Mr. Atkinson was posting his personal pics to distribute some stoke. Do do you think that someone working for the mountain is going to post images of bad conditions to scare people away?

Preaching? Please....look around :roll: . I'm not the first and won't be the last. There is alot of preaching done on this site by all. And by the way I knew where to watch the football game and I watched it with someone else’s kids :wink:

As for "telling the founder of this message board that he should call people up instead of asking a question here"....that is not what I said at all. The point was that if you are not getting the anwsers you want here then call your friends at the hill. I guess if you don't have any friends then that is a problem.

That is all..... 8)

Greg-I saw your post on easternwx forum a couple of days ago. i troll around there. There is some serious winter blues there after that last storm busted.

There must be a huge mid-Atlantic contingent over there. A lot of whining about not getting any snow this season. Uhmm......duh - you're latitudinally challenge! :roll:

[HowieT2]

Greg-I saw your post on easternwx forum a couple of days ago. i troll around there. There is some serious winter blues there after that last storm busted.

There must be a huge mid-Atlantic contingent over there. A lot of whining about not getting any snow this season. Uhmm......duh - you're latitudinally challenge! :roll:

I've noticed that a lot more this year than last. It's a little difficult to take whining about snow from those living below the Mason-Dixon line.

I guess if you don't have any friends then that is a problem.

I'm definitely out of luck then... ;)

[atkinson]

Listen, it rained just about all last week, so I didn't shoot any photos. The camera doesn't like wet. I hardly went "radio silent" though. 90% open is just that, 90% open. And every skier and rider knows the equation, rain plus cold equals ice. How is this being disingenuous? I stated how much was open. The conditions were tough, but not bad. Bad conditions are no snow. I don't consider any snow to be "garbage" either.

Here's a little excerpt from my weekly email to better explain this perspective.

"When I talk about the conditions at the mountain, people often accuse me of having rosy goggles. “It’s not as good as you make it out to be,” they complain. Granted, my affinity for snow in all its forms is nearly boundless, so how could I portray the skiing and riding as bad?

Do the Blazer kids get bummed about the conditions? Not really. Do they wear rosy goggles too? I don’t think it matters. The mountain is a special place to be, no matter what, and they understand that."

I apologize if my enthusiasm offended anyone.

John

[Yard Sale]

Apology not accepted. You don'towe anyone an apology. I (And I think everyone else) very much enjoy the photos and commentaries you provide. I'm guessing you do either as part of your job or just from your own enthusiasm for SB have an obligation to promote the mountain. So thanks and please keep up the good work.

[Tin Woodsman]

Apology not accepted. You don'towe anyone an apology. I (And I think everyone else) very much enjoy the photos and commentaries you provide. I'm guessing you do either as part of your job or just from your own enthusiasm for SB have an obligation to promote the mountain. So thanks and please keep up the good work.

Amen. I neither asked for nor deserve an apology. Man do I love your enthusiasm. What I chafe at is the chiding of others who have to make real, difficult decisions as to whether they should expend their limited chips/money/time to drive up when conditions are significantly worse than normal, let alone ideal.

You threw the 90% open comment out there as if that, in and of itself, was all the justification anyone needed for driving on up. The reality was a bit more complex, and you know that.

[gone.skiing]

I guess if you don't have any friends then that is a problem.

I do not need to call, I was there. Lapping Steins with barkbiter until 4:20 both Sunday and Saturday...

[Hawk]

I guess if you don't have any friends then that is a problem.

I do not need to call, I was there. Lapping Steins with barkbiter until 4:20 both Sunday and Saturday...

.....and we did it switch with blindfolds on and ........ :shock:

Alright, alright...truce.

[Sugaree]

John -- Please don't post any pictures of powder, sunsets, beautiful mountains, country roads, or any of the other delicacies of the Mad River Valley on this site. You must stop now. Cease and desist from showing us Digger's ear to ear smile. And, please, I'm begging you, do NOT show any shots of John Egan doing what we all wish we could do. Clearly, this is not the proper forum. Instead, fire us up, get us stoked, sock to to us. Fire us up so we can bear the ride up (with, or course, some nourishment from Lui Lui's in West Lebanon). From now, give us only pictures of rocks, grass, ice, sticks, whalebacks, etc. The more misery the better. Rock and roll.

[Yard Sale]

Snow's comin'. Everything is going to be O.K. Steady as she goes.

[Plowboy]

Snow's comin'. Everything is going to be O.K. Steady as she goes.

:lol: Aighhhhhhhhhhhhhh Captain!

[freeheel_skier]

I don't get why people need to see pictures of the damage. I am assuming that most of the people in here are experienced enough to know what is going on by just watching the weather. Personally I don't even worry. I just go up every weekend and Ski!!! Conditions are irrelevant. :wink:

If you have to know then call your friends that live or work at the mountain and inquire. There is no substitute for first hand reports. 8)

I dunno either. I guess some of it might be the morbid curiosity factor in all of us. 8)

As Greg stated, that's not it at all. Some people have limited opportunities to head up, and they want to know whether they should expend those opportunities to do so on a weekend when SB won't be showing it's best face. Man-made, bulletproof garbage can be found anywhere in New England, and usually much close to home for the majority of skiers. It's absolutely legitimate, and the "90% was open" statement is disingenuous in that regard. If you're going to chide people for not being up there skiing when conditions are good, then don't go radio silent when they suck. Plain and simple. Even for an employee, this approach begins to strain your credibility. Sorry if I'm not "core" enough to just come up regardless of conditions. If I wanted the company line, I'd call the snow phone.

Hey listen...I was speaking for myself when I said all of us :? If I can't see misery for myself while away, I want to see it via the web. I usually don't ask for bad news. I wait for someone else to...... :shock:

[Bubba]

Yow!
You folks get so whipped up over the littlest things.
Some are so quick to throw stones, and that, apparently is your "job" on this board. If someone should throw back, however, it's just "outrageous". Your feelings get hurt so easily.
I'm pretty sure that we are all adults here.
How's about we just smile and ride whatever there is to ride on?
Maybe you wouldn't be so uptight if you were going to Utah with Powderpuff. :wink:

[ski_resort_observer]

Yow!
You folks get so whipped up over the littlest things.
Some are so quick to throw stones, and that, apparently is your "job" on this board. If someone should throw back, however, it's just "outrageous". Your feelings get hurt so easily.
I'm pretty sure that we are all adults here.
How's about we just smile and ride whatever there is to ride on?
Maybe you wouldn't be so uptight if you were going to Utah with Powderpuff. :wink:

LMAO

[007]

......changed over to a clear lens this morning at 7:00 am
Been snowing here in the MR Valley for a few hours now, without wind
Plow has come up the driveway twice this morning.

Should snow until noon today, then again tomorrow.
No need to use your imagination........

[freeheel_skier]

Yow!
You folks get so whipped up over the littlest things.
Some are so quick to throw stones, and that, apparently is your "job" on this board. If someone should throw back, however, it's just "outrageous". Your feelings get hurt so easily.
I'm pretty sure that we are all adults here.
How's about we just smile and ride whatever there is to ride on?
Maybe you wouldn't be so uptight if you were going to Utah with Powderpuff. :wink:


:D :lol: :lol: :D

[Treehugger]

Mad River had basically one or two choices for getting top to bottom. The steeps were all closed. The rest were fast and groomed flat. Did I mention fast? Almost all the cross trails were closed, so you didn't need to slow at intersections. Haven't ever slid much faster there.

The bush was icier, and fast. Snowmaking on spring fling made it the choice, but I skied other stuff like steins and organgrinder. Flat and fast. Sharpen your skis and you'll have lot's of fun.

[noski]

Yow!
You folks get so whipped up over the littlest things.
Some are so quick to throw stones, and that, apparently is your "job" on this board. If someone should throw back, however, it's just "outrageous". Your feelings get hurt so easily.
I'm pretty sure that we are all adults here.
How's about we just smile and ride whatever there is to ride on?
Maybe you wouldn't be so uptight if you were going to Utah with Powderpuff. :wink:


:D :lol: :lol: :D

The whole lot of you are simply whacko. But I love you anyway.

[HowieT2]

Yow!
You folks get so whipped up over the littlest things.
Some are so quick to throw stones, and that, apparently is your "job" on this board. If someone should throw back, however, it's just "outrageous". Your feelings get hurt so easily.
I'm pretty sure that we are all adults here.
How's about we just smile and ride whatever there is to ride on?
Maybe you wouldn't be so uptight if you were going to Utah with Powderpuff. :wink:


:D :lol: :lol: :D

The whole lot of you are simply whacko. But I love you anyway.

Funny, that's exactly what my wife called me last year as we drove through a field of debris on the Taconic (crash was on the other side of the roadway) in the snow on the way up for St. Pattys day weekend.

[Yard Sale]

I think what you deal with here is a flatlander disorder known as snow angst, clinacly refered to as Elevation Seperation Anxiety. It hapopens all the time. That is why we flatlanders jones for photos and mountain info. Last year at this time this powerful disorder was fueled by an absence of snow. This year it is the unusual abundance of early snow and then to have Ma Nature ruthlessly return to New England norms. Symptoms of ESA include electronic sirliness. Remember how touchy feely everyone got just after MLK. Just wait for it. It's a comin'. Oh, it's comin'

Wanting updates on conditions, perfectly legit. If someone wants to volunteer to do that type of autopsy photography, fine. Asking SB staff to photograph and post bare ground, a little insensative imho.

What I do find suspicious, however, is the lack of photos of the fried squirrel.

Looking forward to what I hope is a treacherous drive tonight.

[ski_resort_observer]

Looking forward to what I hope is a treacherous drive tonight.

Appreciate the sentiment but the snow has stopped, beautiful blue sky and with the warm temps it shouldn't be too bad, tho I can't speak for the conditions downcountry from here but checking in with 1-800-ICY-ROAD should be able to give you some insight as to the other roads in Vermont.

[win]

I had a nice ride on the lit with Greg and a nice couple of runs with him and his friends , so let him tell you what it was like today!

[atkinson]

These are from Wednesday, but I had to share. Egan in his element. Castlerock.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/01152008-Egan-075print.JPG

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/01152008-Egan-058print.JPG

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/01152008-Egan-065print.JPG

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/medium/01152008-Egan-126print.JPG

Enjoy!

John

[HowieT2]

thanks John. Now I'm stoked.

Friday was good. Damn good:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/22889-sugarbush-1-18-2008-a.html

High Res Video (http://skiadk.com/skivids/Sugarbush_011808.wmv) (120 MB! :shock: )

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y9I1S28L0I

Even got in some quality face-to-face time with Win!

[skiladi]

Friday was good. Damn good:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/22889-sugarbush-1-18-2008-a.html

High Res Video (http://skiadk.com/skivids/Sugarbush_011808.wmv) (120 MB! :shock: )

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y9I1S28L0I

Even got in some quality face-to-face time with Win!

Glad you enjoyed the skiing. Thanks for the video. You guys had goggles up a lot. Poor vis or showing off your features? ; }

Friday was good. Damn good:

http://forums.alpinezone.com/22889-sugarbush-1-18-2008-a.html

High Res Video (http://skiadk.com/skivids/Sugarbush_011808.wmv) (120 MB! :shock: )

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y9I1S28L0I

Even got in some quality face-to-face time with Win!

Glad you enjoyed the skiing. Thanks for the video. You guys had goggles up a lot. Poor vis or showing off your features? ; }

I can't speak for the other guys, but if I can get away with goggles up (not in the trees, no precip/snowmaking, not too cold) I put them up. As you can see in the video, I don't ski particularly fast, so tearing is not a problem.

[HowieT2]

I skied sat/sun at LP and monday at ME. The tree skiing was surprisingly doable. Paradise woods has a decent icy base. Any snow and the skiing there will be fine. Egan's woods were good but the top of the woods off birch run are impassable. I would think the latter needs 1-2' before venturing in there again. At ME, semi-tough was good with untracked powder.

Heading to Utah tomorrow. Hoping to bring some back.

[Tin Woodsman]

Egan's woods were good but the top of the woods off birch run are impassable. I would think the latter needs 1-2' before venturing in there again.
Not impassable, just not easy to find the route to the promised land (as ever during low snow periods). Once there, it was untracked - so thanks for turning back. :lol:

[HowieT2]

Egan's woods were good but the top of the woods off birch run are impassable. I would think the latter needs 1-2' before venturing in there again.
Not impassable, just not easy to find the route to the promised land (as ever during low snow periods). Once there, it was untracked - so thanks for turning back. :lol:

LOL- who said anything about turning back?
It would have been irresponsible of me not to warn others of the dangers that lurk near the top.

[boze]

Knowing Howie pretty well, I am certain he pushed on. That, or had his son scout ahead (his kid's kinda wiry and can slip through just about anything - - and ski it well to boot!)
:wink:

[Tin Woodsman]

Egan's woods were good but the top of the woods off birch run are impassable. I would think the latter needs 1-2' before venturing in there again.
Not impassable, just not easy to find the route to the promised land (as ever during low snow periods). Once there, it was untracked - so thanks for turning back. :lol:

LOL- who said anything about turning back?
It would have been irresponsible of me not to warn others of the dangers that lurk near the top.

Was that you I passed on the way out? As near as I could tell, it was a father/son combo.

[HowieT2]

Egan's woods were good but the top of the woods off birch run are impassable. I would think the latter needs 1-2' before venturing in there again.
Not impassable, just not easy to find the route to the promised land (as ever during low snow periods). Once there, it was untracked - so thanks for turning back. :lol:

LOL- who said anything about turning back?
It would have been irresponsible of me not to warn others of the dangers that lurk near the top.

Was that you I passed on the way out? As near as I could tell, it was a father/son combo.

No my son was skiing with a friend and I was in there with 3 others.

How are things lately?

[freeheel_skier]

Pretty good @ ME. The sugary natural that we picked up Friday night was really sweet Saturday am. Can't speak for LP though.

[win]

I was really pleasantly surprised when I got out on the mountain early Saturday. It had snowed at the mountain until around 3-3:30pm and then we start to get some sleet. However, the freezing rain never materialized overnight on the mountain and in total there was 6-8" of new snow that had bonded well to the firm stuff and filled in the troughs between the moguls. The groomed trails were creamy and my first runs down Twis at 8am and then Morning Star at 9am were sweet as were the first runs on Castletock Run and Middle Earth. Late in the day the natural trail had been skied off but there was still nice stuff on the sides. The early Sunday runs on the groomed trails were terrific and while the Naturals were not a nice as the morning before, they were still pleasant but firmer and edges were needed. I did not get into Slidebrook, but I heard good reports on both days from those who ventured in. We really escaped a bullet Friday night and those that got here this weekend had some good skiing and riding. Good was soft. While we are in for some more funky weather tomorrow and early Wednesday, there is snow in the forecast and it could be shaping up to be a good weekend.

[atkinson]

Interpret at will. Caveat lector.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/020308-Slide8.jpg
Saturday afternoon. Slide Brook. Coach Dave.

http://forums.alpinezone.com/gallery/data/515/020308-Slide7.jpg
And a proud Adventure Blazer sporting the colors of Team Big Dog. Aaaaarrrrrooooo!

Pretty darn good, way better than this time last year and our snowiest months are still to come.

John

[win]

Could that be snow outside my door this morning? The Valley schools are closed, so I bet some people are going to get fresh tracks this morning!

[ski_resort_observer]

Yup....looks nice! The boys on DEV "broadcasting from the top of Sugarbush" just mentioned that the roads in northern Vermont are "treacherous" ....so be careful out there.

[HowieT2]

How much fell on the mtn?
what a pleasant surprise.

[win]

3-4". It was a wet and somewhat heavy snow (less so the higher you got) and it bonded superbly to what was already there. We had some light rain for a while early this am and then dry. I had some really excellent runs down Spring Fling, Twist, Stein's, Domino and Eden before I had to go in. I found fresh tracks on each and floated on top! Tonight we are likely to see a bit more mixed, and then it is snow for the balance of the week. My prediction is for a very nice week!

[shadyjay]

Woke up this AM to some 4-6" in my driveway - what a surprise.
And personally, I didn't think the roads were that bad... the snow was packed on 100 and 100b this AM, Moretown local roads were pretty good as well. A couple spinouts/off-roads on 89 between Ex 9 and 11, including one FL plate. 89 was in pretty good shape at 7am.

Seems like the forecast for this week is a complete 180 from what they were predicting days earlier... and that's a 180 in the right direction.

See ya Saturday!

[Lostone]

Started on Pushover. Took a few turns and my skis just slid. Seemed to have a slight glaze over the groomed snow. Found that I had to stress the turn, and then it would be ok. Worried about the ungroomed.

Found an untracked area and jumped into it tentatively. The skis just floated. Niiiiice! 8) hit a large area of untracked on Slowpoke. 2 things became apparent. I) This was going to be fun. And B) I was on the wrong lift.

Ran into the same situation off Bravo. The groomed was still stiff and if you weren't actively setting an edge, you slid, but the untracked was a nice sweet-turning float.

As the day moved on, the groomed toward the bottom turned to an almost corn consistency, while the ungroomed started becoming sticky.

This is exactly the snow we needed. It is coating the natural trails and will give a nice cover to all but the gray ice. Took trips down Domino and Moonshine. Set land slow (Kinda like land speed, but different? :wink: ) records. I was in the fall line, but I think I was moving about 2mph. :lol:

Now, if we can get the weather to help out, a little and meet or beat the forecast ... 8)