opening thread 2015

[winjr]

Not a good night for snowmaking last night. While we had 120 guns running, the temps never came down very far, and we had to shut down in the middle of the night. Snowmaking temps won't return until late Friday and will only last through afternoon or early evening on Sunday. So the game plan is to preserve all what we have with the warm and wet days we are going to get next week. We need depth to preserve and groom so that will be the priority at LP. ME is unlikely to open now until Sunday given today and tonight's forecast and definitely only Rim Run to the plateau and downloading on GMX. But at least some extra intermediate terrain will take some pressure off the trails at LP. Keep the faith. Winter will arrive.

[Hawk]

Hawk: It is well known and hope you got out on the arm and maybe into Hemispheres, but some of the best terrain is touring out of the Heather Meadows parking lot and over to Galena Lakes via Herman saddle. You can run the whole Table circuit. Hope you hit all of that.

Not that well know to me. There were fresh tracks every where. More so than any place I have been recently. Yes on the arm but we got spooked when we saw a small Avi so we did not venture out too far. The Vis was bad also and I have never been before. Next time and with a guide for sure! good people out there. Very good on sharing in the intel. I will be back.

[cdskier]

Skiing was pleasantly surprising today. Downspout was very nice especially early this morning. Organ grinder skied well and seems to have good depth. Jester was better today after some "human grooming" although is certainly still thin in spots. Being able to see today could also have something to do with me thinking it was better.

The bottom of the mountain needs cold air ASAP. Coffee run is getting thinner and thinner and I wouldn't be surprised to see walking required at some point unless they can move some snow from somewhere. I doubt there is much to move though.

[ahm]

Hear ya on the vis...................it was the first time I had heard the term "milk bird". The place can be very low vis, but really the best stuff is out of Heather Meadows touring. THere are so many fresh lines to be had all over that area. Do the Table loop.

[HowieT2]

I remember that year very well. Work was slow and I was there for extended days over several of those storms. That was the year that we had some of our biggest off piste adventures.
As for Baker, we really did not slow down long enough to take vid. I only have a few scattered pics. Snow was very deep and that place is actually a not so well know gem.
A ski patroller told me to tell everybody out east, " It rains at Baker, don't go" LOL

disappointing

[Benski]

Uhh hell. No video? What are we? Chopped liver. Need to see some real skiing?

Not being spoiled with west coast powder and in the spirit of making lemonade out of lemons, this weekend might not be so bad....at least relatively. Solid snow making temps and chance of some natural. Sunday could turn out to be a good day.

Got some video

[tedwillie]

Got some video

That shot at 36-37 seconds is sick!

[Benski]

So mount Ellen won't open till Sunday now and no elbow. I do they not have enough snow? When will ripcord open? Will elbow open any time soon? I believe they made snow on it.

[cdskier]

I'd assume Ripcord will open once they can make enough snow on lower ripcord to open that. As of my last trip up HG on Thursday before the rain, Lower Ripcord needed a lot of snowmaking... Route 21 as of Thursday was also down to dirt so is no longer an option. The cold temps now should help production especially up high though.

[djd66]

So mount Ellen won't open till Sunday now and no elbow. I do they not have enough snow? When will ripcord open? Will elbow open any time soon? I believe they made snow on it.

Benski - not sure where you live,... But have you seen the weather we have had this past week? I think my Ellen being down is the least of their problems. Yes (and i'm not being a wise ass) they do not have enough snow,.... And neither do Sinday River and Ktown. I was reading on another site that a bunch of areas have thrown in the towel and have shut down until after Christmas. Next weeks forecast is not going to help matters. This is by far the worst December we have had for skiing that we ever seen. Hopefully things will average out in the end once it does get cold!

[cdskier]

Lower Ripcord on Thursday morning...
vlcsnap-5245-05-04-16h23m45s340.jpg

[sugarbushskier]

Good morning. Tough start - yes, but weather after the 29th or so looks good. Keep the faith as mid winter should produce and guns going now should cover at least some tbt. Get through this early xmas time and SB will shine as one of the best in the NE. 30 year veteran and seen this before. Keep your calendars flexible.....

[sugarbushskier]

BTW, why so many web cam issues? It's your visibility to the public. As I've mentioned before, top of NR looking out at FIS and GH looking up to NL would provide some great publicity of terrain.

[Benski]

I have not been up but I am going up the 23rd. The webcams don't really any open trails so you guys and the trail report are my only resources for knowing how bad it is. Kinda hoping for good news. There should be one on top of heavens gate and one facing mt Ellen trails.

[winjr]

Was with a bunch of my peers yesterday. No one is in better shape so misery loved company. That said, Sunday will be the better day this weekend. We have 193 guns putting our around 5,400 GPM at both mountains. We are maxing water and some of the guns are running wet, but we have to take advantage of any cold temps to get down the most we can. Tonight and tomorrow are forecasted to be a bit cooler, so we should continue to get better depth to last through the next warm-up starting on Tuesday. ME will open tomorrow with downloading and we will likely close and reopen next weekend. If we do ME passholders can ski at LP which remains open every day. Cooler next weekend???? Possibly.

We have had some feed issue with the Web Cam after the new web site was installed but should be getting resolved.