NELSBEER
I suspect he is out hanging ropes and checking for poachers.
Nice number of skiers today, parking in the big lot for a while now. Kids and adults seem to be handling "working from home " well.
Kayaker
NELSBEER;c-45477 wroteI suspect he is out hanging ropes and checking for poachers.
Hope no one gets those two verbs switched around. Some places are real serious about poachers.
Quietman
Anyone know what they are charging for night tickets? Facebook post says to call the mtn, but can't get tickets or customer service to answer, and no response to emails.
1st year that I wont be an employee since 2011!
They finally posted the following on FB to another person's request.
joshua_segal
Quietman;c-45474 wroteSo who gets to sit at the top of West with a sled? Joshua? :smile:
No ropes on West. Everything was open.
I suspect by tomorrow, Milky Way will be open. It, like Pluto's, was being poached liberally.
There was a sled sitting at the top of west, but no patroller was stationed there.
Chuckstah
Was today as bad as I'm reading all over social media? Sounds like more peeps now, with reservations, than most days of past with usual sales. Doesn't sound good. I'm hoping it's all blown out of proportion with the Vail sucks movement.
NELSBEER
No question there were a lot more people here on Friday and Saturday thañ this time prior seasons. Saturday was further complicated by a power failure over ñight that left 2 lifts and the carpet in need of special attention in the am. Everything was running by 10:30.
The hill itself was in good shape with more groomed trails opened and a number of natural trails open like Comet Drop and Final Frontier.
Parking got tight, they did what they could to backfill vacated spaces.
Don't know if this a Epic thing specifically or we just happened to hit a really good storm at a time when people really wanted to get out of the house. We'll see in coming weeks.
ski_it
Social media doesn’t seem to be as kind about Saturday’s experience Nelsbeer. 2 hour line for a day pass? They gave out free hot chocolate to people waiting in line which makes me believe the 2 hours might be correct.
So I’m confused about the parking issues here & at Mt Sneaux. Did they or did they not reduce the # of tickets available for the day? If they did why is parking an issue?
Quietman
I packed put local trail with snowshoes yesterday evening and today made a couple of laps, on CC skis, 3 miles total on perfect packed powder. Saw only two others out on showshoes and I thanked them for helping to pack the trail. Really cleared my head to get out with peace and quiet, before the busy upcoming week.
I miss downhill but things need to settle before I cough up some $$$ to ski.
xwhaler
Was at CM Sunday with the family---large crowd but better managed than what I heard Saturday was like. The coverage is good on the snowmaking routes (as is typical for CM)
Not sure why Milky Way is not yet open? That would be a priority for me if I were running the mtn especially in a COVID yr when Vail stated goal is "safety" Lots of trail crowding but having folks funnel down on 2 sides would be better. Also wish the line queue for the Rocket could be accessed from either side as in the past.
NELSBEER
They had Milky Way open on Saturday with natural cover, getting it open was a real stretch. By Sunday it was simply worn out. The pond is very low from covering Vellocity, Super Nova and the lower part of West, actually a lot was done for the second week of snowmaking ops. The natural snow put them another week ahead in trail availability.
With some rain and cold weather coming up they should be able to get Milky Way back but may lose some of the natural trails.
The scuttlebutt about the ticket sales/ capacity algorithm are rampant around the hill, hopefully it will be adjusted.
Fortunately everyone was good about keeping reasonable distances and wearing masks.
Today (monday) skier volume was much closer to normal.., easy parking and no to short lines.
joshua_segal
While I wasn't at the mountain on Saturday, I read so much negativity about it, I did some research. (BTW, Sunday and Monday were both excellent days with no real problems.)
Clearly, what happened was a convergence of many unrelated events.
1) The amazing early season storm created unprecedented early season interest in skiing. Many of the mountain staff is new and didn't have a chance to settle into a routine. It was truly a Baptism of fire.
2) There was a power outage overnight in the region - completely beyond the control of the mountain. That delayed the opening of the Valley Quad and the West Double, thereby dumping the entire crowd on the Rocket.
3) A lot of people hadn't picked up their season passes yet which created artificially long lines at the ticket windows.
4) Skiers had unreasonable expectations about what should be open. The truth is, 18" of snow on the bare unfrozen ground of the trails on which no machine-made snow had been made will not hold up to the traffic. The storm also did not cover the water bars.
5) Some complained that the Park Chair wasn't running. The fact is, that is a very short chair that would not have made much of a difference - but admittedly, it looked bad given the crowd.
6) Why wasn't more snow made? It was a very dry summer and the ground water that normally refills the snowmaking pond was not able to keep up with the water used to open most of the mountain. 60% open this early in the season is IMO, darn good. We even had several glades open.
So, I hope that any of you who had a bad experience on Sat., Dec. 19, will give us another look.
Quietman
According to today's report, Milky Way is open and groomed.
joshua_segal
Quietman;c-45605 wroteAccording to today's report, Milky Way is open and groomed.
Milky Way is closed, but if you are willing to hike up from the top of the double, UFO/Equinox is open.
tedede
Dec. 25, 2020 - Friday.
Mountain is closed today. Thunderstorms on the radar. You'll need to get your midnight madness fix tomorrow night instead of tonight.
NELSBEER
Monday December 28th 2020. Life at Crotched seems to be settling into a more normal pattern. There's a few more cars in the parking lot than past years, lifts are generally ski on to a minute or two wait and yes, you can buy food /bottled beer upstairs (just have to walk around the building to get it.)
Mother nature took back much of the natural snow that allowed so many extra trails to be open a week ago but left enough water for the snowmaking crew to get back to their job in ernest.
Current efforts are focused on refinishing existing snow making trails and getting a few popular Black Diamonds (Pluto's Plunge & Jupiter Storm ) open. The kid's mini park is going onto NCC-1701 ASAP, leaving Galaxy as a pure green trail. They'll be trying for a few more trails by the weekend given the good water flow still coming off the hill.
Actually Crotched looks pretty much normal for three weeks into the season.
xwhaler
Are there no pipes on Milky Way and they just re direct fans from Velocity, UFO, and Pluto's onto milky way and then push out the piles?
I'm surprised Milky Way was not a priority to get open---it would make the mtn flow a lot better and space crowds out. Just curious, seemed like an easy solution that is usually open early most seasons. Was surprised to see snow made on sat Jupiter's before Milky Way. Also figured UFO would open before Jupe's.
Son and I skied CM yesterday (my 3rd CM day of the season) It was nice, especially first thing. The ticket scanners are doing a nice job and things were running smoothly.
looking fwd to getting more terrain open.
NELSBEER
When they widened Milky Way they also added snow making pipes and electric. They were not able to get any pole guns (probably a budget thing) for that trail.
About the same time some of the portable carriage guns were converted to towers for Jupiter's Storm and Moonwalk. Until they get some more portable guns there will be a contest for carriage guns between trails. Getting the mini park off of Galaxy and onto NCC seems to have been the highest priority this week.
Colder temps are back today, started blowing snow at 5am focused on West side refresh & Pluto's for the weekend.
Quietman
CROTCHED CAMS ARE ONLINE!!!! :p
tedede
While they do have a pipe on Milky Way, I believe it joins the top of two of the three loops. So it's not the most efficient use of the system to run that section.
That being said, you are right @xwhaler, having Milky way open helps the flow a lot. And typically it is open by the third weekend of the season. Had we not received the washout on Christmas it would be. I expect it'll be open by this weekend.
Quietman
Could they be keeping Milky Way offline on purpose to encourage more use of the West double to access Velocity & Super Nova?
