Crotched Mountain 2019-20 Season

joshua_segal

I usually start this thread in August when it's closer to this season than to last, but so little has been happening, there was little to report. Other than routine maintenance, not much was going on. This makes sense because Peak Resorts certainly wasn't going to put anything into the mountain once the sale was announced and Vail wasn't going to put anything into the mountain until the deal closed. (Last years thread: http://www.snowjournal.com/discussion/2034/crotched-mountain-2018-2019/p3)

There is a lot of uncertainty both among employees and guests (aka, customers) as to the future of CM and how Vail will change things from the way Peak Resorts operated. If Vail's pattern is followed, things will be the same this year as last year. Vail observers will get "the lay of the land" and the major changes will begin next summer for the 2020-21 season.

In the meantime, fall colors at CM are quite lovely.

Remski

So I gather from your report, work on the glades hasn’t happened yet?

Blaze

There has been some activity this summer
Glades off super nova that have been cut by Nelson and Paul in years past have have been de-puckered and deadfall removed.
The top of the old t-bar has been widened and de-puckered with a new cut off to Jupiter Storm so you can ski the top with snowmaking snow drifting in
The top of the old quad before the rocket was installed is now devoid of pucker with a few chutes thrown in to take advantage of snowmaking also making it wider

Remski

Thanks Blaze. That’s great to hear.

joshua_segal

Remski;c-37933 wroteSo I gather from your report, work on the glades hasn’t happened yet?

About 1.5 acres on the west side of Solstice: De-rocked and de-stumped. The west side is the steeper side and it is cut as a genuine Black Diamond that should be skiable with minimal natural snow.

Remski

You the man!

joshua_segal

I saw the new trail map for 2019-20.

While there was no additional terrain added, there were 3 notable changes.
1. On the east side of the mountain the "small feature terrain park" has been extended from the bottom of NCC-1701 to the top of Big Dipper in essence decreasing the usable width of Galaxy.
2. Also on the east side, the small terrain park at the bottom of Big Dipper that was piloted toward the end of last season is officially on the trail map as "Little Dipper".
3. On the West side, Super Nova used to go only from the top of the West Double to where it crosses Comet Drop (the lift line). At that point, it became Comet and went down the West side of the Zero-G terrain park back to the double. That is all one trail now.
4. From the top of the Zero-G Triple, there was a segment unnamed on the map, but known to Ski Patrol as "Lower Shooting Star". That segment is now named "Comet".

Not on the trail map, there has been work done by a variety of volunteers on various glades:
1. About 1.5 acres on the west side of the Solstice Glade Glade (differentiating Solstice Glade Trail from the real Solstice Glade Glade) has been de-stumped and re-rocked. It should provide a number of additional powder lines to explore on powder days, and because it is de-stumped and de-rocked, it won't take much cover to be skiable.

This I have seen. What follows has been reported to me.
2. The T-Bar line part of Dark Star has been cleaned up and maintained by SJ member, Blaze and his son. I am told the large tree at the exit which really requires a chainsaw, has not been removed, so that little jump at the bottom will still be necessary.
3. The glades and chutes to the east of Final Frontier have been cleaned up. They hadn't received much love since Remski's leaving our "glades crew" and there were a lot of saplings to negotiate last season.
4. I am told that there has been some work on the West Ledges and the Enchanted Forest (not on the trail map), but I haven't seen it and if it has been done, I don't know by whom.

Remski

Thanks again Joshua and also to Blaze and his son and any others who are putting in the effort to keep the glades at the Crotch safer and better.

Blaze

Spent the day with my son poking around the crotch and noticed quite a few improvements.
Both ponds are filled to the brim with bubbles installed
Crotched parks built a neat feature of the Star Trek ship looks like the real thing!
Most of the trails have been mowed and look great
The ski patrol shack up top has been freshly painted
The old t bar trail is ready to ski top to bottom along with dark star.

Hiked over to the west ledges to see if anything was done over there unfortunately it didn’t look that good

All things considered we got a good vibe at crotched today. It seems things are more gung-ho compared to years past....

ski_it

Thanks for the info

joshua_segal

Blaze;c-38371 wrote....

Hiked over to the west ledges to see if anything was done over there unfortunately it didn’t look that good

...

There is actually a nasty rock at the top of the exit from Popcorn that has been almost impossible to avoid. I had a few hours last week, so I decided to go up to remove it. When I actually got there, I was pretty shocked to see what we had been skiing over. I removed a half dozen sharp rocks that were sticking out plus several stumps, but I never got high enough on the hill to remove target rock. Cleaning up that area may be my summer 2020 project.

Remski

That section always was the edge and base nemesis. I always wanted to find a better way around that section but that area is full of ledge and rocks. Perhaps skiers way right of that section may be better.

joshua_segal

Remski;c-38386 wroteThat section always was the edge and base nemesis. I always wanted to find a better way around that section but that area is full of ledge and rocks. Perhaps skiers way right of that section may be better.

I'll try to fix it next summer!

joshua_segal

Snow - at least enough to make the upper third of the mountain appear to be white this AM (Nov. 8).

joshua_segal

As I passed CM yesterday evening (Nov. 14), I was pleasantly surprised to see the hill lights on and the snow guns blasting away.

joshua_segal

Nov. 17, 2019 - Sun.

I hiked CM: It is T2B skiable - full width and deep. I went up Galaxy to Moonwalk and skied down Moonwalk to Meteor. Mine were not the first tracks.

Assuming that there is no serious adverse weather, opening day is purely a management decision. There's no shortage of snow on the 3-trails mentioned above.

Quietman

Groomed or whales? :p

joshua_segal

Quietman;c-38697 wroteGroomed or whales? :p

Groomed track + whales. A few nasty water bars near the bottom.

tedede

Webcams are back online, and it looks like snowmaking on Magnitude (under the Valley Chair).

Crotched Opens Friday Dec 6 from 1-9. Sat & Sun 9-5.

Complete list of hours.

joshua_segal

I'm back from Thanksgiving in Florida. My understanding is there have been several heavy duty snowmaking sessions on Magnitude. Can't say what the impact of the current storm might be on opening day.

But it would appear that snowmaking has covered Moon Walk and Satellite Summit from the top of the Rocket; and Meteor, Magnitude and Galaxy from the top of the Valley Chair.

As of this afternoon, there was no observable machine made snow on the west side or on the Carpet hill (Launch Pad).