Mount Snow 2017-2018

ski_it

Couldn't find a JS style thread so....

Older related posts

http://snowjournal.nplas.com/discussion/1409/mt-snow-eb-5#latest

http://snowjournal.nplas.com/discussion/1487/mt-snow-vermont-nov-15-2017#latest

ski_it

12/26/2017 - I didn't go but the family did and reported the conditions were very good, 100% open, cold, no on going snowmaking and not crowded yesterday afternoon. Glade skiing too. Mrs. Ski_it tried out her new Christmas present to herself, Volkl Kenjas, and loves them.

They didn't have great things to say about all the lifties. Another ski group got in behind them sat down as they waited for their chair at the load line at Ego Alley and bowled them over. The lift finally stopped 50 ft beyond them.  Later they watched as multiple chairs hit an older guy at the Bluebird before they finally stopped it. I asked,"Like my age?" "No, older." I have to get further clarification on that incident as I'm not sure I followed the whole story. But we do know that you can't stop a lift instantaneously but they didn't feel the attendants were paying close enough attention. 

DrJeff

ski_it said:

12/26/2017 - I didn't go but the family did and reported the conditions were very good, 100% open, cold, no on going snowmaking and not crowded yesterday afternoon. Glade skiing too. Mrs. Ski_it tried out her new Christmas present to herself, Volkl Kenjas, and loves them.

They didn't have great things to say about all the lifties. Another ski group got in behind them sat down as they waited for their chair at the load line at Ego Alley and bowled them over. The lift finally stopped 50 ft beyond them.  Later they watched as multiple chairs hit an older guy at the Bluebird before they finally stopped it. I asked,"Like my age?" "No, older." I have to get further clarification on that incident as I'm not sure I followed the whole story. But we do know that you can't stop a lift instantaneously but they didn't feel the attendants were paying close enough attention. 

The seasonal foreign workers, many of whom based on their name tags appear to be from Peru this winter, showed up and have been working for maybe 10 days or so now. Still lots of training that needs to be done for sure, especially the crew who is working lifts.  I rode the Ego chair yesterday (the 26th) with my son, and the liftie didn't even bother to bump the chair before we loaded, and the running of various lift queues has been highly variable to at times non existent. As always, things will improve!

Snow wise, things were really good, to in places GREAT yesterday.  The rain/freezing rain even of Saturday froze into a nice base layer on top of the snow that fell about 10 days to 2 weeks ago, and then the 10"+ of light stuff that fell on Christmas was a blast to ski in on my powder boards!

Per my daughter who is up there all week, she says that while it's cold today, that lines are "normal weekend level" roughly on the Bluebird, and minimal on the other lifts.

Apparently per the snow report, they fired the snowmaking system back up today and are working on the BIG quantities of snow to finish the half pipe (they had what looks to be enough already for the South Wall yesterday) as well as making snow for Inferno's last BIG jumps and snow on Mineshaft and Beartrap (skiers left still needed snow yesterday) and apparently pulled some hoses through the woods from Ridge to make some snow around the pitch on Hop.

The West Lake project has been very impressive to see first hand the first 7 weeks of the season!!

ski_it

1/27/2018 sunny, warm near 45, 52 of 86 trails, all 20 lifts, machined groomed. Some WRODs. It was pretty crowded as expected. 25 min wait for the Blue Bird at 3pm for our one and only ride there. I finally took a ride on the Ego Alley chair. And managed to snag a golden chair...also the first time. I think the base outside bars were more crowded than the slopes. It was the day to take out of the way chairs with the Carinthia, Grand Summit and Bluebird queues filled. New lodge slowly taking shape

NELSAP

Great pic of the Ego Alley chair! Gotta love the hybrid C+S and Yan combo. One wonders how much longer this lift will operate.

newpylong

Ego is a legit lift.

NELSAP

Definitely a legit lift, but parts of it are 50 years old, and we've seen a lot of those older lifts replaced lately.

ski_it

Yeah I've passed it up many times so today was a perfect day to ride it. Other times it has closed at 3pm and I've missed it.

newman

NELSAP said:

Definitely a legit lift, but parts of it are 50 years old, and we've seen a lot of those older lifts replaced lately.

I would think just the lattice and the base of the towers are the only things about the lift still CS. When you think about it, there are still many bridges that are alot older.

newpylong

Last I looked the sheave trains were still CS.

newman

newpylong said:

Last I looked the sheave trains were still CS.

As I look at the photo, looks like the original crossarms also. For some reason I thought they replaced to top assembly.

ski_it

I should have taken pictures of some of the higher up crossbars. They have these double high bearing pedestals that looked massive

ciscokid

Love the lattice!

joshua_segal

While most of it has been replaced and upgraded, the lattice towers date to the 1969-70 season upon which ran the G2 "clamshell" 2-passenger gondolas that were at Mt. Snow thru the mid-80s.

Check out http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/lifts/viewlift.php?id=394 for details.

ski_it

Oh, yeah the first pic & one near the end on here shows a good view of what I called a pedestal. http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/lifts/viewlift.php?id=588

ciscokid

I think Conrad went to Rocket pic school
Miss the Rock