This is the Friday after Thanxgiving. As we have had a couple days of widely advertised snow, I expected a crowd. I was not disappointed. I arrived early and was in the line for the GMX when it opened. We’d had a lot of snow overnight. I was expecting powder for the first run and maybe a touch left for the second. I was disappointed. Everything had been groomed this morning. The only powder was on FIS, and that is not a first run trail for me.

I headed down Rim Run. Looked on the right. Small strip, but nothing. When the trail turned left, I saw a one person wide strip of powder on the lefts side. Quickly checking and finding that I was only one person, I decided to give it a try. There were a few places where I had to abandon it due to a snowgun or a few branches, but mostly it was great! I had my own personal powder run while everyone around me was making much better time back to the lift, cruising the packed powder. (The packed powder, by the way was a really nice surface. It was mostly soft and so carveable that I almost dumped a few times on the early part. I was setting a slight edge and it was taking quicker than I expected.)

I did one on Looking Good (with a detour onto the trail formerly known as Zip.) and one on Elbow. They were ok, but there were a lot of people at the lift. Second run the singles line worked, but the third, it was well beyond the regular line and I made better time pairing (quadding?) up with some other people.

On the third run I met up with the people that I was supposed to be meeting, so I figured I’d maybe head out after the fourth. As I approached Northridge, I saw the Thin Cover sign by Exterminator. Not one of my favorite trails, but I figured that if it was to be a four run day, I should at least run one down something tough.

I went past the sign and found that although there were rocks around (On Exterminator? Imagine that!) but that the snow was all soft, and what bumps there were, were powder puffs. It told me to come back and see it sometime. And I did so… twice more. Then I was getting ready to head out, but as I came across the traverse, toward that lift, there was an ambassador saying that they would be opening to the bottom in about an hour. There was also a line halfway across the flats to the downloading side of the lift. Hey, I can do Exterminator again.

By the time I got down to the bottom of Lower Elbow, they were pulling the rope off the way down to Cruiser. The line to the lift had been pretty long, and I was stopping to take a few pix along the way, but there was no way it was as much as a half hour. Still, I was there. What could I do?

I went around the rope, cut hard left and had a great untracked powder run for about 50 yards. Then I hit the area that had been covered by the snowgun. I bounced off the top.

The rest of the way down was very tricky. There was unbreakable crust, breakable crust and heavy powder. There were a few times I had great untracked powder on the right side, tight up by the woods and others when I was doing my best not to get killed.

Cruiser was tough. Straight Shot was ugly! There was a packed line, which had a lot of people crashing all over the place. The left side was where the guns were working, and that was more of the maybe, maybe not breakable crust. There were also a lot of moving rocks in the packed line. As I got to the bottom of Crackerjack and saw people coming down it, I realized I’d made a bad choice.

At the bottom, my friend headed and his wife headed in. I headed back to the lift. It was tough, but there was enough snow to justify another try. On the way up, I noticed people coming down Cliffs. Then I saw people coming down Encore. Then I realized they had thrown the mountain open.

There were lots of rocks around, but there was a lot of natural snow. If you went past a Thin Cover sign, don’t whine about the rocks. Enjoy the snow.

I went down Cliffs. By the time I got there a lot of people had found it, so there was no untracked powder. Still, all the snow was soft, and it was a true blast. At the bottom, I diverted to Crackerjack. There were lots more rocks around and the waterbars were… exciting. Still, there were large patches of semi and untracked snow. I went up, did the same, again.

Then I decided that there is a thin line between having a great run and having a sled ride to the bottom. I decided to leave the rest for others. I left the mountain with a very sore back, two very sore legs, and… a really big smile.

Pix to follow.

Great report! I will be up there this weekend but unfortunately of have to work at LL Bean on Sunday so I won't have time to do my errands and ski. If I have the time I will get to the base for a look see.

If you go to the base for a looksee, expect to see a lot of people. This is the zoo day.

I'm getting ready to do my laundry.


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never had time to get there but ran into a ski patroller who told me there were 500 paid skiers yesterday which is pretty good considering. Since my place is rented I hung out in Chelsea, about 6" of snow is on the ground, looks like winter and snowed ever so lightly all day.

As I was cruising by the Vermont Law School I yelled out Trailboss's name but all I got was a few confused looks.

Quote:

As I was cruising by the Vermont Law School I yelled out Trailboss's name but all I got was a few confused looks.

That may work over in the Alpine Zone, young man... But not over here!

Over here, you'd have to call out Summit Challenger's name.




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Nice TR, wouldn't it have fit better in the Trip Reports forum though?

Sounds like a great day, I wish I was on the slope somewhere instead of doing whatever it is I was doing... Now where are those pics?!?!

I could have put it in the trip report section, but I feel a little guilty, when my "trip" is about 2,5 miles.

As for the pix, didn't realize I hadn't posted them here. See some of them here.


There is a link on the top, right to view as a slideshow.




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Nice pics! The pic above is pretty sweet! The conditions looked pretty good.

The mountain is closed!

So... You're saying I spoke too soon?

Day number 12. I had said, yesterday that I was surprised that they weren't top to bottom. When I got to the mountain, I found that they were. What is more, the snow they were making at the bottom was soft and sweet. Did more skiing at the bottom than at the top. (AKA Bottom feeder )

I was also expecting Elbow to be closed. It was open all day.

Today was pretty much similar, except that Elbow was closed most of the day. On the good side, when the racers went in for lunch, they took down their gates and let us play.

On the bad side, there were a couple of the guns were set a little on the wet side. (Set on stun.) This was especially bad for the ones that were on the alley that were either on or above Mainstream. Not a lot of options there, but to run the gauntlet.

Skiing was still doing laps, but FIS has been in pretty good shape and the laps had a couple different options.

And at the same time, you could see the snow flurries that have continued, have been working on the other trails. This portends well for the future.

Lostone wrote:

And at the same time, you could see the snow flurries that have continued, have been working on the other trails. This portends well for the future.

Please elaborate. Natural or man-made flurries. If the latter, where are they working on? The website isn't exactly revealing on this subject right now. Or at least it wasn't last I checked this afternoon.

What I was referring to was natural ones.

That said, they are blasting Cruiser, Straight Shot, Lower Elbow and the base area. They may also have been doing FIS, but I can't remember, right now.

It's still surprising how little terrain they have open. We probably got an inch on the valley floor last night and there's practically enough to ski on here on our property. I've got to think SB and MRG base would have 30-50% more natural snow than we've got and the upper limits up to 2X.

Yet of the 156 trails in the MRV there are what, five trails open? Six?

I've got family coming into town this weekend for skiing.

....economics of opening. Seems the mellow vibe of the valley extends to a mellow approach to openings...