Mt Snow Trip Reports 2020-2021

ski_it

I think the time has come to start a new thread for the upcoming season.
Although I'm not sure if this will end up being my home mountain again.

DrJeff

The grass on the majority of trails that I could see has received it's pre Winter final cut, prep work around the maintenance garage areas appears as normal.

Lots of uncertainty about what the season will look like. Rumor is that later this week they'll announce the plans for season long youth programs for kids 6-18. Not much else other than more rumors that tend to conflict more often than agree.

Would be nice, even if it was under the pretense of "pending the state regulations at that time" if Vail could get more out in front of things planning wise with the penciled in opening date just over a month away now.....

yardsale

Podcast #29: Mount Snow General Manager Tracy Bartels on the Storm Skiing Podcast

https://skiing.substack.com/p/podcast-29-mount-snow-general-manager

ski_it

DrJeff;c-43692 wroteThe grass on the majority of trails that I could see has received it's pre Winter final cut.

We discussed this last year. There’s no way they mow all the trails!! ;) JK
I only spent 2 full seasons & off seasons visits there and I’m missing the valley big time. Even with all its warts it’s become a fun familiar place to me. :'( :'(

jgreco

I had a short late lunch window today. Got 3 laps on Free Fall and one down Long John. Coverage was impressive. No thin spots. About what you can imagine for 3 pm in November conditions. But my skis were sharp so it was fun.

Lack of masks in the Bluebird line was scary. Saw one attendant ask a pair of skiers to lift their masks up. Otherwise not much patrol of masks, which makes me nervous for the future of the ski season.

Challenger was ski-on.

Hopefully they got the kinks out. I heard there was a long wait to pick up passes today.

Noticeably a lot of beginners for early season. Long John looked like Prez weekend.

DrJeff

Quiet this morning. Did the 8-10:30 session with the mist starting to become a little more like light rain and the need to go get a turkey in the oven having my wife, son and I call it a day.

Hero snow, about as creamy smooth as the mashed potatoes I will be eating in a few hours all over the mountain.

A couple of Long John laps, a couple of Cascade-Canyon laps, a Cascade to River Run lap, 5 laps on Freefall and a pass through Discovery just to complete the open terrain.

Freefall was the most fun, and hence the extra repeats.

Everything was basically ski on, hardly anyone in line to pick up passes when we left, lots of mask compliance (especially if one wasn't dressed like and with gear you typically see using the park features ;) ) and pretty sure the lack of clear communications that lifts spun at 8 and not 9 today played a role in why it went from totally deserted in the 8-9 time frame to actually seeing another group or a few by the base of the Bluebird after 9...

Concerned about the potential traffic this weekend on Cascade/Canyon with the park crew lapping it and looking for anything and everything to jump off of along the sides of what is maybe the 100ish foot wide swath of skiable snow on that route....

Also found out that when they scan your Epic pass on your birthday that instead of the normal beep, it plays the first few notes of The Beatles "Today its your birthday" song!

ski_it

Happy Birthday! ?

NELSBEER

No mask? Why put up with it, stop the lift, get out your bull horn and notify the entire lift line the lift is not moving because of the idiot(s). Then inform the line that throwing snowballs is free speech. At some point common sense has to prevail if we are going to ski this winter.

joshua_segal

NELSBEER;c-44925 wroteNo mask? Why put up with it, stop the lift, get out your bull horn and notify the entire lift line the lift is not moving because of the idiot(s). Then inform the line that throwing snowballs is free speech. At some point common sense has to prevail if we are going to ski this winter.

yardsale

Nov 30 & Dec 1

Mon: Had to delay day 1 from Sunday to Monday. Monday AM was nice super soft snow down 3 main routes (plus river run). Coverage on long john and free fall was very good and provided nice early season skiing. The Cascade/Canyon route was stapled together near the bottom. River run was barely holding on between canyon and ripcord. Went 9-11am before the rain started to become heavy. Vail claimed no Bluebird due to wind, but the front was pretty far away - there was no wind until much later in the afternoon. Would have stayed out longer with the protection of the bubble and access to Long John required Challenger...

Tue: I would have thought the rain would have wiped out quite a bit. Somehow they pieced it together again. Free Fall took a hit between tower 6 & 7 of Challenger. Canyon/Cascade still skiable with some zip zags. Long John still has great coverage. Didn't even try river run as the bubble was good to go today. Credit where due - was surprised they made the effort to open today given wx and no skiers in numbers.

Freefall Mon

Summit Tues

yardsale

Wed 12/2/20

Long John = good
Cascade/Canyon = OK
Free Fall = very bad

Deer Run snow making:

yardsale

Thurs 12/3 thru Mon 12/7

Terrain wise, only Deer Run has been added. Saturday storm definitely a net positive. Base at 1900 ft turned to accumulating snow around 10am on Sat. Summit was all snow. MS reported 4" - maybe a bit more at summit. It was fun to ski in falling snow on Sat. Crowds and lines well managed on Sat. Sunday, they managed wind well. BB ran at reduced speed on Sun, but ran. Canyon slope was very crowded on the weekend days as both BB and Canyon HSQ were feeding it.

Snowmaking in earnest started Sat night/ Sun morn. Impressive. Chute, Gulch, Lil John, Ridge, Snowdance, NE Time along with resurfacing on Long John and widening Canyon.

Today 12/7 they are building Gulch while guns are still going. Canyon is much wider. Day tiks start up tomorrow.

yardsale

12/8

Seahorse on Free Fall. Chute tomorrow. More on Thursday

DrJeff

yardsale;c-45248 wrote12/8

Seahorse on Free Fall. Chute tomorrow. More on Thursday

I would think that Ridge and Snowdance should be in pretty good shape when they drop the ropes later this week, after about a 100hr snowmaking run in some pretty good temps the vast majority of the run time

yardsale

I think they are too slow... Not a huge deal but why wait until the weather turns to sh!t? I would have thought most everything they have been working on for tomorrow, not just Chute. Sure, Ridge & Snowdance will be up to Vail quality for an open on Thursday. Great, just great.

There are no surprise rope drops anymore. They said Thursday for the big expansion so thats what it will be. Nothing early. No mid day Wed gift. We are VAIL.

So, there is also the positive side. The 3 routes down have been pretty good based on early season standards. LJ the most consistent (and least crowded ironically). Free Fall, every other day it is good. Cascade/Canyon - they finally got Canyon wide enough to support the traffic on it. Today, they got a surprise few inches of natural.

They have had plenty of staff in the corals. Fairly well organized up to now. Polite, reminding people... only saw one tense exchange in the last week plus. Upbeat and friendly.

I might take a course in psychology... I find the matching up of unrelated groups at bluebird super interesting based on who is declining to take up singles... and singles requesting to ride alone or declining to ride with one unrelated group but then going up with another unrelated group.... I don't see how this can be sustained once the day ticket crowd shows up on a Saturday...

ski_it

Thanks for the reports and pics yardsale (and others)! You know, usually I'd be jealous & mad as hell that someone was skiing (with lifts) before me, but this season I'm actually glad people are getting out. That feeling may not last for long. I've been eyeing that 3/4" of broken snow in my yard & ice chippings outside ice arenas longingly.
Keep the pics coming!
PS: That seahorse looks familiar

yardsale

news today 12/9 delivered without bias :)

-It snowed today lightly all day
-Early season conditions are really pretty good
-Snow making suspended today. It was a little too warm.
-Vail did not deliver Chute today as earlier "promised" - it was stilled whaled up and closed
-A 4:25 update "claims" all of the new terrain delivered tomorrow, including Gulch with Nitro express added, that would be Lil John, Ridge, Chute, Seasons Pass (NOT Snow Dance or NE Time) - AND the shiny new base lodge at Carinthia will be CLOSED

4:40 at Carinthia base.

jgreco

yardsale;c-45276 wrote -Vail did not deliver Chute today as earlier "promised" - it was stilled whaled up and closed

It opened with whales around noon. First run was iffy with breakable snowmaking crust in spots but nice pockets of natural pow between whales. Then by the time I got back to the top, enough people had been down to chop up the crust and it was some excellent whale skiing.

yardsale

Damn. I was afraid of that. Must have been just after noon as I went up Challenger the last time at 11:45 and finished with LJ / Cascade Canyon. I had just lapped all the gravel on free fall for the 5th time. Why can't they push out openings on @MountSnowOps feed? Why why why? I would have stayed out for a whaled up chute.

DrJeff

yardsale;c-45276 wrotenews today 12/9 delivered without bias :)

-It snowed today lightly all day
-Early season conditions are really pretty good
-Snow making suspended today. It was a little too warm.
-Vail did not deliver Chute today as earlier "promised" - it was stilled whaled up and closed
-A 4:25 update "claims" all of the new terrain delivered tomorrow, including Gulch with Nitro express added, that would be Lil John, Ridge, Chute, Seasons Pass (NOT Snow Dance or NE Time) - AND the shiny new base lodge at Carinthia will be CLOSED

4:40 at Carinthia base.

Chute did eventually open up. One of my friends who's able to work remotely and has been living in his condo up there for about a month now, texted the group of friends who we all usually ski together, a picture of some of the whales he was skiing on. The pic came through about 2:30.

A bunch of ropes drop tomorrow, and then the rumor my friend heard from a mountain ops friend of ours, is that the cats are going to spend a bunch of time tomorrow pushing out the whales on Snowdance and as long as they have the production they feel they do there, the N.E. Time/Snowdance combo will be open Friday or possibly Saturday at the latest