Wachusett 2022-23

snowphoenix

Wednesday 1/18/23

https://newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=2946

Had a nice evening of skiing at Wachusett yesterday. The temperatures were in the low 30s and comfortable, the skies were clear and there was no wind except for a light breeze at the summit. Base depth and width were impressive considering the low natural snowfall and limited snowmaking opportunities this season and pretty much all of the core trails were open. The snow was soft and springlike on the lower mountain and a sugary loose granular near the summit. Some of the less popular trails like Shenanigans and Salamander Cutoff had more of a frozen granular surface. Most trails had a few ice patches but they were usually avoidable. There was no snowmaking last night but I did note some whales on Norm’s Way (closed) that haven’t been pushed out yet; they looked to be several days old.

All four chairlifts were open, and racing was in progress on Piece of Cake and (I believe) Challenger. I spent most of the night lapping the Polar Express as it served the steepest and most interesting terrain, but also did two runs on the Minuteman Express and one run on Vickery Bowl. For the first few runs it was quite busy and lift lines for the two main detachables were up to five minutes, but by the time I left there was only a few-chair wait for them. Vickery Bowl had no line.

Thanks to the short lines (for most of the night) and fast lifts, I was able to do eleven runs in only two hours. It was fun to go night skiing for the first time in a few years and I will probably be back later in the season, hopefully during the day so I can enjoy the great views from the summit.

Riding up the Minuteman Express

Look Mom

Riding up the Polar Express

10th Mountain Trail

Salamander Cutoff

Smith Walton

Riding up the Vickery Bowl Triple

Smith Walton

Conifer Connection

skelley19

Nice report! I usually hit Wachusett around lunch time most week days but I was actually up there last evening instead. Lines were a little long due to the high school ski clubs but nothing over 5 minutes as you said. Snow conditions were excellent especially on the sides where all the sugary snow was accumulating.

Other than Norm's Way which got those whales last week, any trails that you saw closed would be closed even if they had snow as they have no lights and typically get roped at 4:00. I imagine upper balance rock and part of Ropers Road will get snowmaking the next time they have a good window. I have really been impressed with how well covered the mountain has been especially given the lack of cold temps and natural snow this season.

I didn't see what was happening on Piece of Cake but typically it is HS age racing development on that trail. Nastar racing was taking place on Challenger.

newpylong

Is Balance Rock the one they string hose all over hell and back to reach?

Their snowmaking given their relatively mild temps compared to other players is always impressive to say the least.

skelley19

They definitely have to drag some hoses through the woods for Upper Balance Rock but the trail part of Ropers Road before it drops down onto a Sumer road they pull hoses all down it so that is probably what you are thinking of but both trails look less than fun for snowmakers.

skizilla

When there is more snow which of the car roads is best to ski? I know you should be able to get to ropers road and there is another road entry off lower mountain. will you get lost or do they all come back to the ski area eventually. My father did them years ago and said there was some minor poling but they were fun

NELSAP

Thanks for the report, good to see some Wachusett pics especially the Vickery Bowl lift. Miss that mountain - skied there all the time in Chelmsford High School Ski Club, where Tue nights we got to enjoy skiing there throughout the winter.

skelley19

Provided there is coverage, you can ride the roads. I marked up the summer hiking map to show you. The easiest one to do is the Down Mountain Road (red line) as that leads directly into Roper Road trail. It's nothing too special but can be fun to mix things up. The Red X is where it intersects with Ropers. You can veer off onto Conifer, Middle Balance Rock or 10th pretty easily from there and can take the Mass Pike East (aka back across conifer and then follow that road to a hiking parking lot or ride a short hiking trail down to the top of the Monadnock lift or take super fun hiking trail through the woods to the side of Sun Downer. If you veer off the red line and follow the purple you can get all the way across and back following the road but it can be tricky coming off the height of the snowmaking trails down to the natural roads

One of my favorite things to do is the Up Summit Road (orange line) but it is usually only in play a few days a season if that. Too much snow and you can get stuck and end up with a little bit of a slog out...when in doubt carry speed. I am not sure I have that line exactly the way I do it but it's a combo of the road and hiking trails and it can take you to the main parking lot. You can also get back on the Ralph's run very easily from a couple of points. If the storm cycle holds it might be in play in the next couple of weeks. If so I will try to get a better description and/or show you if we cross paths. Chances are if it's after a good dump, there will be tracks to follow. This is not one that I would recommend doing alone and be prepared as it might take a good half hour if it the trail isn't broken good and you need to hike.

I am pretty sure on this one I went through the woods and then connected to the road and then back into the woods/hiking trails and went all the way to the main parking lot:

I think I started in the woods here as well (hike a little way to lookers right as you get off the summit lift) but this one shows where I got back onto Ralph's as I didn't have time to go all the way to the parking lot.

Let me know if you need any more information.

skelley19

skelley19;c-58986 wrote If you veer off the red line and follow the purple you can get all the way across and back following the road but it can be tricky coming off the height of the snowmaking trails down to the natural roads

The summit lift was down for de-icing and tree removal while I was there yesterday so we hiked up to the summit on one run. Here are a couple pics of the drop down to the road I mentioned on the purple line. I impressive snowmaking to smooth out the road crossing on the trail.

DrJeff

Wachusett might be really good tomorrow.

The storm took the power out yesterday afternoon. It's still apparently out as of a little after noon today. Wachusett is saying that it may be 5PM before it's restored as they are being told by the power company. Wachusett has cancled their afternoon school programs, and my son's high school ski team was just notified that the the night training session that we were scheduled for this evening is now canceled.

Potentially Wachusett may not be able to open today depending on when the power is restored and how long that would give them to prep the mountain for opening, which means that while I am sure that they will groom a bunch of it, and there will be some uphill traffic going on, come Wednesday AM, most of the trails there may not have been skied/ridden on since Monday afternoon

skelley19

I just got back from hiking/riding there a few hours ago and unfortunately it looks like they groomed everything out last evening after the snow stopped. Every trail that is open that I saw was fresh cord even upper Smith Walton which they sometimes leave natural after storms. We came down Upper Balance Rock which had lots of untouched fresh snow as it is has not been opened for the season yet. We then continued on the Down Summit Road across 10th, Smith, by the lookout and onto Mass Pike West and then cut through the woods down to the top of the triple lift. @skizilla there is plenty of snow to ride the Down Summit Road but there might be some minor down tree issues to navigate. From there we took Piece of Cake down which had fresh snow off to the side of the snowmaking part of the trail which was lots of fun. Here is the route:

I am sure Wachusett will be fun tomorrow but I wouldn't expect to find too much untracked leftover snow but they have a great base for the next couple forecasted storms. I also just saw that power was restored as of 3:30 and they are opening at 4.

There were many low hanging frozen branches to navigate under/over or around that made the hike up the Pine Hill hiking trail an adventure.

But it was all worth it for the untracked run down Upper Balance Rock:

My friend's dog Ullr on a groomed out Upper Tenth:

NewEnglandSkier13

Looks like the snow was much heavier than the light fluffy stuff that we got here!

skelley19

NewEnglandSkier13;c-58999 wroteLooks like the snow was much heavier than the light fluffy stuff that we got here!

It rained for a few hours in the middle of the storm and then switched back to a bunch more snow on the back end. There is about 4-5" of light fluffy stuff on top of a breakable crust. Keep your tips up and it skis very nicely on the leftover fresh spots on the side. I was just out there from about 12-3 and was surprised how many fresh lines were available off to the side of the groomed track especially if you were willing to duck/swat branches.

skelley19

@snowphoenix sorry for hijacking your trip report. I was planning to start a Wachusett 2022/2023 thread but if you want you can just convert this thread to that. Otherwise I will start another one for future Wawa TRs and info.

snowphoenix

skelley19;c-59008 wrote@snowphoenix sorry for hijacking your trip report. I was planning to start a Wachusett 2022/2023 thread but if you want you can just convert this thread to that. Otherwise I will start another one for future Wawa TRs and info.

Thanks for sharing your reports & photos skelley19! I just renamed the thread as you suggested.

Did some more night skiing at Wawa tonight; full report and photos to come tomorrow morning.

skelley19

Thank you @snowphoenix! I have 36 days at Wawa so far this season and I put in some quick notes on my Slopes app after each visit. I will plan to go back and do a quick week by week summary soon but overall they have had a pretty good season and far above what should be expected given the weather most of the season. But that probably won't be until next week as I am heading up to Jay later today for the weekend. Should be a wild one up there if the forecast holds.

snowphoenix

Wednesday 1/25/23

https://newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=2972

I was hoping for some snow tonight, but alas it was hail instead, combined with low clouds on the upper mountain and eventually switching to freezing rain. Temperatures were in the 20s and the wind wasn't bad. I opted to ski without goggles as they kept getting coated with ice, but then had to deal with being pelted in the face by hailstones/rain while skiing. The trees looked pretty with so much snow and ice on them; many were sagging onto the sides of the trails due to the weight. The whole place looked much different from last week, when only artificial snow was present.

Lines started at about 5 minutes for the main detachables but were only a few chairs long when I left. The snow was packed powder (or less commonly, frozen granular) over hardpack, though there were a few ice patches. I was surprised to find that weren't many thin spots in areas with only natural coverage. What little untracked snow could be found on the sides of the trails had a crust on it and wasn't particularly soft.

Skied nine runs, then called it quits as I was covered head to toe in a layer of ice from the freezing rain. A fun evening overall despite the weather; made me wish that more of the "interesting" trails (Upper Balance Rock, Oxbow Chute, etc) were available for night skiing.

Ralph's Run

Snowy trees at the summit

Lower Smith Walton

Salamander Cutoff

10th Mountain Trail in the clouds

NELSAP

I have always wondered why they have not gone to 100% night skiing. In high school ski club, if we rushed to the lifts in the late afternoon, we might find Upper Balance Rock open before patrol would close it.

newpylong

That's the only trail besides Ropers that doesn't have night skiing and it only has snowmaking because they go through great efforts to do so. Close enough to 100% night skiing in my books.

xlr8r

The non-night skiing trails at Wawa are all pretty narrow, so its more difficult to light. The exception being Mass Pike.

snowphoenix

Wednesday 2/22/23

https://newenglandskiconditions.com/viewreport.php?reportid=3035

Another enjoyable evening at Wachusett, this time with some actual snow falling instead of freezing rain! Temperatures and winds were comfortable and all the night-skiing terrain was open. The snow surface was pretty good for Massachusetts considering the season we’ve had, with good base depths on all open trails and a couple inches of new snow over the older hardpack or loose granular. Boilerplate was only present on the narrower black diamonds Norm’s Way and Salamander Cutoff. The best snow could be found on the intermediate trails, but Smith Walton was also skiing well although the steepest pitch was a little scratchy in places.

The mountain was less crowded than the other times I’ve been to it this season, with the lift lines usually no more than a few chairs long. After starting with a warm-up run on the Monadnock Express, I spent the rest of the night lapping the Polar Express apart from a pair of runs on the Minuteman Express, getting a total of thirteen runs over two hours. Last night was a good warm-up/preview for the coming storm and I’m hoping it’ll only get better from here (for the next couple weeks at least).

The mountain and base lodge

Riding up the Monadnock Express

Sundowner

Norm's Way

10th Mountain Trail seen from the Polar Express

Smith Walton

Lower Conifer

Smith Walton

Challenger

Look Mom

Conifer Connection