Mt Snow Sat Sun 3/4-3/5/2017
These guys said it well.http://www.snowjournal.com/discussion/1090/a-snow-making-thread#latest.
It was damn cold Saturday & Sunday morning. Rode my 3rd "lift" new this season in New England. Most boarders just walked up it.
I didn't readily see any evidence of a fallen trees on the Sunbrook but with just 3 partial trails you weren't missing too much.
It was damn cold Saturday & Sunday morning. Rode my 3rd "lift" new this season in New England. Most boarders just walked up it.
I didn't readily see any evidence of a fallen trees on the Sunbrook but with just 3 partial trails you weren't missing too much.
ISNE-I Skied New England | NESAP-the New England Ski Area Project | SOSA-Saving Our Ski Areas - Location SW of Boston MA
Comments
Like the pic of north face and lake/reservoir
Jay Peak has two of them
With GoPro I'm close to 7 '
I'm used to ducking
It would be nice to see summit snowmaking with the record cold this weekend, but that looks unlikely. It's frustrating to see my local mtn have much deeper cover than on most of Mt Snow.
The reality is that weather permitting, they've got 4-5 more weeks of daily operations this season (at least through the weekend April 8/9 and likely through Easter weekend), after that, if both the crowd volume and the snow volume are good that "last weekend", and the forecast for the following weekend looks good, they'll probably open up for 1 additional weekend of skiing before closing down the 3rd or possibly 4th weekend of April (they have a bunch of on hill work to do this summer, especially over in the Carinthia base area) and the construction time frame is tight.
The fact that Lodge didn't get any snowmaking last weekend, pretty much says that they're going to let mother nature, and some groomers, handle the Lodge/Exhibition route for the remainder of it's season. They've got a bunch of snow near, and on Cascade that they can push around to keep the Cascade/Canyon/Snowdance routes open off that side of the main face likely until closing day (it may not be the "prettiest snow" right now, but they've got snow to work with and move around, which is often far less expensive and labor intensive than hooking up the ratniks that line the top of Cascade above where the fanguns are.
They've got enough snow, from their years of experience on Long John, to keep the Long John/Ridge/Carinthia access off the summit routes open on that side of the mountain until the seasons end.
There's a ton of snow over on the snowmaking trails on the North face, and with it's northern exposure, that's rarely an issue with complete and total melt out over there before closing day. Sunbrook, unless it snow a bunch and the natural stuff is in play once again, likely has 2, maybe 3 more weekends before it's shut down for the season for business reasons (although they have in recent years spun just the Beartrap lift occasionally for an extra wekend, if the weather looks like it will be a fun, soft day to bash bumps and enjoy the tunes on Beartrap, - that remains to be seen this year in the coming weeks.
Frankly, as a longtime Mount Snow skier, who most years will ski it from opening weekend to closing weekend (and any weekend in between that I'm either not at a different area with my kids racing or out West skiing), I'm quite happy with where they're at snow volume wise on their core trails right now, and short of a straight week of highs in the 70's and lows in the 50's, they'll make that likely 3rd or 4th weekend in April closing date that I'm guessing they have "loosely" penciled in on their calendar. Ever since the fan guns went in now close to a decade ago, the reality is that while yes they cvertainly do make snow after President week, it's almost always on fan gun trails, and their ops crew has a really good handle on how much snow is on the mountain, where it tends to melt out earlier than other spots, and how best to mange and farm what snow they have to keep the core trails they've identified (basically the fan gun trails) going until the seasons end.
Additionally, after next weekend (St Patrick's Day weekend) you're likely going to start seeing a reduction in on mountain services, such as the number of food venues open, the number of "accessory" lifts that run, etc, as in the next 2 weeks, that when many of the foreign workers who make up a decent amount of the winter staff, will be heading home to their native countries, and that will culminate with Kelly's annual Blog Post where she recognizes via lots of pictures and commentary, the employees of the mountain who made the winter work.
That's the reality of what the Mount Snow business model is. I'm quite happy with it, as it has gotten much better over the years IMHO
Who's knows, even though their announced plans for Thursday night through ? Saturday? Sunday? is only fan gun trails, maybe they'll fire up the base area compressors and send some air up the hill along with the planned water??
With what they have volume wise, and where it's located currently, I'm not worried, short of a full out melt out week like we had in mid/late March 4 or 5 years ago, of them cost effectively making it to the last day of the season...
Heck, if they were going to send some air up the hill, I'd LOVE a good resurfacing of Ripcord, as while there's a ton of snow on it, it's going to take a bunch of warmth and/or decent natural snowfall to get it safe to open again after it freezes solid once the front passes
I'd love to see them fire up some select air/water guns for sure this weekend. Just doubting that they will based on past history and current snow volume/locations......
My legs can't handle slop, so once the trails get that way I'm done for the season with the exception of early morning groomer, that's why Upper Cascade has me concerned.
Just another reason why as a basically every weekend Mount Snower, I'm not too worried about their core trails off the Bluebird making it to closing day using only fan guns for whatever snowmaking efforts remain.....
They've got a bunch of snow on the hill in the late season locations they want already, and ample firepower available without sending any air up the hill.
Mount Snow will realistically never be one of those mountains that close with over 50% of it's terrain still open + skiable - a couple of main face routes, a Northface route or 2 and a couple of Carinthia routes, with if it's sunny the grill running on Cuzzins deck and a bunch of big buckets fill of beer on ice, that's what they strive for closing weekend each year
Do you like the retro lodge? I actually went in there for the first time and it's nice. I went into Carinthia for the first time too. That one won't be missed next year for it's architecture, perhaps for its simplicity though.
We've talked about how much snow and effort they put into building features. The stuff they make is amazing. Look at the size of just these two jumps and half pipe. You can see just one of the huge lead ins poking up above the upper one. And that's just a small percentage of what they have on Nitro & Grommet. Wasted on this old cruiser but I'm sure the younguns love them. Although I saw a couple injuries occur during my limited time there. Just saw a ten year old girl knock herself out. And do ski/board manufacturers subsidize those metal & wood structures? Boy, my skis are ruined and I stay on what I think is snow...
All I can say is that when I left my condo at Mount Snow about 5PM and looked across route 100 at the mountain - ungroomed trails were shiny, groomed stuff looked to have a decent surface.
They shut the guns down for the most part Friday afternoon (either because of the projected temps and winds this weekend, they were happy with the snow surfaces or the realization that the looming storm is going to hit.... who knows the exact reason?) The only caveat to that is as I was leaving today, they did have some fan guns running on the tubing Hill
Bottom line is if you want smooth and fast, my hunch is that's EXACTLY what Monday will be