Mt Ellen, 12/30/08 -- Quick recovery led to great turns!

[mattlucas]

dudes, we all know what grass looks like, keep bringing the stoke!

[summitchallenger]

Nice pics. Was up there today....it is tough for me because the last time I was there was 12/21 and it was powder skiing. It was sad to see the grass and ice today. Those pics of Exterminator are interesting...and certainly not my impression of what the conditions were like...although I did not ski it. FIS needs snowmaking and work. Why that is open is interesting.

[freeheel_skier]

I skied exterminator yesterday. I didn't think BMM was embellishing.

It was sketchy at the top, but the middle section was great! There were two distinct bump lines that skied very nicely. Firm, and a little icy underneath, but a solid 6-8" had blown in and filled in the troughs just enough to soften it up a little.

That is exactly how I thought it skied. I also thought FIS skied well too, but what do I know? I found a couple of shots where I could link up some nice turns. Overall the upper part of the mountain skied very nice yesterday!

Did it not is poor rain this past weekend? I think it was almost 60 deg the other day and now it is zero. I think ME is recovering nicely. A little more snow making and some natural will do the trick.

[BushMogulMaster]

I skied exterminator yesterday. I didn't think BMM was embellishing.

It was sketchy at the top, but the middle section was great! There were two distinct bump lines that skied very nicely. Firm, and a little icy underneath, but a solid 6-8" had blown in and filled in the troughs just enough to soften it up a little.

That is exactly how I thought it skied. I also thought FIS skied well too, but what do I know? I found a couple of shots where I could link up some nice turns. Overall the upper part of the mountain skied very nice yesterday!

Did it not is poor rain this past weekend? I think it was almost 60 deg the other day and now it is zero. I think ME is recovering nicely. A little more snow making and some natural will do the trick.

Right. I was wondering about the hostility... I thought I gave a pretty upfront, honest evaluation. Some of it was amazing, some of it was very technical.

I suppose it depends, too, on your skiing ability, style, and terrain preference. I'm a bump skier who skis 100+ days per season. Hardpack, ice, dirt, grass, and rocks don't bother me much. On the contrary, they are often a welcome challenge. Keeps me on my toes, so to speak! The top of Exterm was technical due to very hard base and some ice/rocks. Lower Exterm was technical because it was just plain thin. The middle section was fantastic. Yep... there was some ice on the backsides. But if you know how to execute a proper mogul turn, that doesn't cause an issue... you're not slipping down the backside anyway, you're attacking the mogul and being aggressive on your edges.

Just my additional .02 for this one.

[summitchallenger]

Not being hostile at all....just saying that I thought it was a tough day weather and conditions-wise. Yes, we are slowly recovering. I'm glad you found some goods....I'm sure they are there if you looked.

[vonski]

I think we should just call it what it is and since MRG is closed for the most part right now I think it is fitting. Sugarbush " ski it if you can". I think it is great that the bush keeps open trails that many places would close. Paradise the first day it opened this year was maybe one line of snow on the head wall along with grass and rocks. But once through that it was sweet. and even the single line was sweet in my opinion. And with the warm up and rain what does one expect on exterminator other than hard and scrappy with the troughs getting filled in.

[jwt]

It is - Exterminator- a double diamond after all.

Love the idea of open and risk it if YOU choose. Choice is good. Have to think every single ski area before snowmaking was like this. We run chairs/rope tows/T-bars/ you can take a risk and see if you can ski it. I lot less technical equipment, a lot less legal ramifications, and like an outdoor adventure should be - natural. You and the elements.

It is why we have so many marginal skiers , courd is what they learned on and know. I imagine we would not have a skier population that we have without all that stuff (groomers/s/m/etc) but if one is looking for what Mom Nature has to offer, leave it up to the customer. ( And yes, I appreciate snonmaking and grooming and the occasional courd, and I realize w/o all that we would not have at least a third of the the skier days we have now.

Happy New Year!