skelley19
Based on the the radar and my local Boston weather reports I don't think they got much in the way of snow unfortunately. The rain/freezing rain/snow line seemed to be further north closer to Concord. The rain has stopped here in central Mass so I am guessing it will be at Crotched soon as well if it hasn't stopped already. While there is likely no new snow I would imagine it will not be too crowded and there should be some fun to be had.
NELSBEER
Tuesday -11 am, it is damp and grey on the hill. Grooming was done last night and this morning. Rain has infused the snow but not necessarily turned it to ice on the groomed areas. The few people here are skiing & boarding at reasonable speeds. Probably not a great novice day though.
The Rocket š is on ice hold. Valley quad, West Double and carpet are running. Summit temps seem to be a little lower than lower down, so no telling when Rocket may be cleared.
In short, it is skiable, lift lines are nil, so grab your hotbuns butt warmer and come out if you have and use edges on your šæ and don't mind a little grey & damp.
Quietman
Check the mountain's webcams before you decide to leave, the Rocket was down this morning due to icing. No new accumulation 10 miles south of the mountain, but the webcams where showing ice on the trees earlier.
Edit: Didn't see Nelsbeer's post until after I made my post.
ski_it
joshua_segal;c-46805 wroteQuietman;c-46804 wroteWas going to go, but the evidence pointed towards it being very busy and the social media posts confirmed this. Guess that Crotched is no longer off the radar to the masses, especially on a warm sunny day with good snow. Before this year, I can only recall parking being an issue once or twice in the previous 10+ seasons. I really wish that they would consider offering a 6-9pm ticket during the week.
I only skied a few hours this afternoon, but heard that at the peak of the day, the lift line on the Rocket went up to tower 2. People to whom I spoke said the following:
- I made my reservations on-line. When I got there, there was no parking. (This was a guy who wound up parking his camper in the condo parking lot in violation of condo rules. Under the circumstances, I looked the other way.)
- I waited over an hour to get my ticket.
- I got there at 1:15 and it was 2:30 before I got a place to park.
The snow held up well to the crowd, but I've never see it that crowded on the slopes.
That being said, if it was not a COVID-19 year and chairs were going up full, lines would have been much shorter and more manageable.
Ok, I understand the crowds, I understand the liftlines, I kinda understand the parking due to the crowd & fewer people per car these days, but I do not understand over an hour to get a ticket. Especially in these Epic pass days.
joshua_segal
ski_it;c-46982 wrotejoshua_segal;c-46805 wroteQuietman;c-46804 wroteWas going to go, but the evidence pointed towards it being very busy and the social media posts confirmed this. Guess that Crotched is no longer off the radar to the masses, especially on a warm sunny day with good snow. Before this year, I can only recall parking being an issue once or twice in the previous 10+ seasons. I really wish that they would consider offering a 6-9pm ticket during the week.
I only skied a few hours this afternoon, but heard that at the peak of the day, the lift line on the Rocket went up to tower 2. People to whom I spoke said the following:
- I made my reservations on-line. When I got there, there was no parking. (This was a guy who wound up parking his camper in the condo parking lot in violation of condo rules. Under the circumstances, I looked the other way.)
- I waited over an hour to get my ticket.
- I got there at 1:15 and it was 2:30 before I got a place to park.
The snow held up well to the crowd, but I've never see it that crowded on the slopes.
That being said, if it was not a COVID-19 year and chairs were going up full, lines would have been much shorter and more manageable.
Ok, I understand the crowds, I understand the liftlines, I kinda understand the parking due to the crowd & fewer people per car these days, but I do not understand over an hour to get a ticket. Especially in these Epic pass days.
I don't understand it either. I'm just reporting what is!
NELSBEER
Tuesday, 2:00 pm Rocket š is de-iced and just opened to the public. Minimal lines anywhere today.
Watch the terrain on first runs off the top, it had lots of time to harden up. Moonwalk to Milky way corner requires good edges and care.
Quietman
Might be showing the number of new skiers who have not skied at Crotched before. When I went on Sunday, they loaded the purchase onto the card from my previous visit, so no need to visit the ticket window.
tedede
ski_it;c-46982 wroteOk, I understand the crowds, I understand the liftlines, I kinda understand the parking due to the crowd & fewer people per car these days, but I do not understand over an hour to get a ticket. Especially in these Epic pass days.
According to my non-scientific research as a mask-minder at the Rocket on Saturdays, there are plenty of daily ticket purchasers. They issue RFID cards for the daily ticket holders which has to be slower than just printing out paper passes.
ski_it
tedede;c-46991 wroteski_it;c-46982 wroteOk, I understand the crowds, I understand the liftlines, I kinda understand the parking due to the crowd & fewer people per car these days, but I do not understand over an hour to get a ticket. Especially in these Epic pass days.
According to my non-scientific research as a mask-minder at the Rocket on Saturdays, there are plenty of daily ticket purchasers. They issue RFID cards for the daily ticket holders which has to be slower than just printing out paper passes.
So how many daily tickets are we talking about??
Okay, BUT have any of you waited in line for anything for an hour besides Fish tickets? If I was a novice and I had to wait an hour for just a ticket Iād be golfing in Florida today. Almost disgraceful as the vaccine rollout in this country.
joshua_segal
Weekend: Feb. 20-21, 2021
Full-parking lots at CM have become the weekend normative. In past years, it was a mere handfull of days in the entire season that the 3rd parking lot was even used (i.e. the lot west of Onset Rd.) Excluding this season, I can only remember 2-days when there were no parking spaces remaining - and the conditions just weren't that good following Tuesday's ice storm.
That being said, if chairs were going up full, IMO, the lines would be only 5 (or so) minutes.
Quietman
Wow, no postings about Crotched for 1 1/2 weeks! May try to get there this weekend, are the glades still skiable?
Thanks!
joshua_segal
Glades Report - Mar. 1, 2021
Much to my surprise, my boss asked me for a complete report on CM's glades. I asked, "Just the ones on the trail map?" He replied, "All of them."
Well, I didn't make it to all of the Glades and Chutes, but I was close:
I was on good skis and I did no damage.
West Ledges
- Peace Pipe: no
- Hellyuns: Needs some love and a large tree removed, but it was skiable.
- Pop Corn: Except for the top (again, a large tree blocks the best lines at the top), it was pleasant enough that I took it twice.
- West Ledges: Surprisingly good and one of the best views on the mountain. I took it twice. Once the regular way and once ending on the Nature Trail that runs parallel to and to the west of Super Nova. It required caution to avoid some stumps and rocks, but all-in all OK
- West Ledges II: no
West side below top of double:
- Nature Trail (that runs parallel to and to the west of Super Nova): Pleasant, but more of a chute than a glade unless you want to hit the snow board features.
- Final Frontier: Pleasant and well covered on every line I tried.
- Glades and chutes between the open part of Final Frontier and Super Nova: All skied nicely with plenty of cover.
- The Birches (parallel to Onset Rd. rejoining Super Nova at the top of the condo complex): Very easy run but nicely covered. It even appeared to have been groomed.
East side south of (i.e. above) the Valley chair
- Dark Star: Not well maintained. A line through it has developed by virtue of skier traffic and was better than I expected.
- T-Bar line: Some sections with thin cover, but one I would have taken again had I had the time.
- Upper Enchanted Forest: Only took one-trip through there. It was quite good with a few thin-cover spots.
- Snake Path: no
- Trailee (parallel to and east of Jupiter's Storm): Well covered. I would have taken again had I had the time.
Eastside below (north of) Valley Chair top
- Solstice Glade Trail: Thin cover center. Nice line on skier's left if you can stay within half a cat-track.
- Solstice Glade Glade: Thin cover center in spots, but plenty of well covered lines.
- Kuiper Belt upper: Needs more work. What I did last summer created lines that are too tight for most skiers.
- Kuiper Belt Lower: Surprised that it wasn't bonier. There were long stretches of continuous turns and then a section where I had to pick my way around rocks, stumps and dead-fall.
- Uranus (below Milky Way between UFO and Velocity): Well covered. Nice where it had traffic; grabby in places that were unskied.
- Brook Trail (east of and parallel to Big Dipper): Nice except for a small tree across it. I ran out of time or I would have returned with a bow saw.
Condo trails:
- All more or less OK and well covered.
joshua_segal
Above posting prepared a few days ago. I must have forgot to hit the "Post Comment" button.
Since then: A few of us cleaned up the Brook Trail, we removed the canopy of the downed tree in Hellyuns eliminating the squeeze point and we picked up a lot of deadfall in Dark Star.
Cover was still good although you'd be wise to wait for a day with a softer surface.
Quietman
Wow, what a thorough report! And better conditions than I would have expected. Guess that no one needs to ask any more where the glades are. :wink:
Thanks!!
Remski
Was there today and skied all from west ledges to dark star. All are skiing quite well. Some are thinner like west ledges and the bottom 1/2 of Kuiper belt that one I exited just below tower 7 onto Pluto but the top 1/2 is very nice. The snow is soft but not slushy and with more traffic they will just get better. Skied some with Joshua and we had a ball in frontier woods.
joshua_segal
Agree with Remski that Mar. 9 was a spectacular day at CM.
We had the 1st Annual Scottie Invitational Memorial 100 in memory of Scott Howard. Scott holds all of the daily vertical records at CM doing 175 runs on the Rocket 2-years ago, when Midnight Madness provided an 18-hour day of operations.
Scott passed last June. There were about 15 participants, although many of them were there to pay respects to his widow. As of now, I am aware of 5 who exceeded the goal of 100 runs. 131 was the record for the day.
With many schools off for elections resulting in liftlines and the requirement to go through the maze, the maximums were somewhat limited.
Not related to the event: One idiot showed up maskless and insisted that he was there to assert his freedom to ski maskless. He was stopped by the head of lift ops and there was a confrontation. All major managers were out at the lift dealing with the situation. He was a Vail pass holder and I suspect his ticket has been suspended.
NELSAP
That's sorry to hear about Scott. I didn't know him, but I enjoyed your commentary on his vertical records over the years. I can't imagine 175 runs in one day!
joshua_segal
NELSAP;c-47540 wroteThat's sorry to hear about Scott. I didn't know him, but I enjoyed your commentary on his vertical records over the years. I can't imagine 175 runs in one day!
Knowing how I felt after having done a meager 75 runs one day this year, I assure you: I can't imagine 175 runs in one day either!!!
joshua_segal
Jan. 12, 2021 - Fri.
Unless we get more snow, the CM Glades are pretty well done for this season. There was a lot of melting on the natural snow surfaces. Most of the trails have deep machine-made snow cover which will last well beyond our Mar. 28 scheduled closing date.
A lot of those not familiar with spring skiing thought that the Thurs./Fri. heat wave was skiing Armageddon. It was not. It was bright skies, low humidity and a steady breeze that kept the surface relatively dry. Skiing Armageddon would have been 2-days of 38 degrees and fog.
Quietman
Almost a month since my last visit, only my 3rd day out total. Arrived at 3 and skied till 8, never waited in line. Looked for Joshua didn't see him. The upper 2/3 of solstice glade is still skiable, but the bottom 1/3 is not. Hit the upper part and cut out to Galaxy 10 times after the 1st top to bottom attempt.
Overall the snow is holding up well, and grooming should take care of the few thin spots from this evening. Retro/Blastoff & Eclipse are the only areas that will not last much longer.
