Mt Snow Trip Reports 2020-2021

yardsale

2/3/2021 - All terrain is A+ again. The groomed stuff is amazing. The natural trails are great as the crust has been broken up. The woods are very good. Plenty of snow in them - watch out for some of the untracked in the woods as the crust can grab you.

Things were late this morning. It appeared to me that only Canyon kicked off in time, although the tweet mentioned Canyon would be late too. Tumbleweed 15 mins late, Bluebird over 15 mins late, Nitro late. Vail said this was the reason: "(lifts) may be a few minutes late opening as we dust off the powder from the snowstorm". The snowstorm that stopped almost 24 hours earlier? I think I know the reason... see below.

They also announced via twitter that Canyon runs in place of GSE tomorrow - which stinks - the lines at Bluebird was 15 minutes each ride today. GSE is the way better option to get to the summit with out the wait. GSE is also a Covid friendly lift. Bad decision IMO.

Bluebird had some issues during the day - 4 or 5 chairs in 70's wouldn't open automatically at the base. At one point an unopened chair swooped 2 skiers into the pit as an inattentive lift operator looked on. Looked kind of painful, but they hopped on the chair and went up.

Photos

You can't tell, but this is a beautifully groomed Big Dipper - It appeared I was 2nd or 3rd down at 10:25am - I made the uphill skate for the reward from Challenger.

This is the reason things are late. The clock facing the Mt. is 25 min slow.

yardsale

2/5/2021 - it's just unbelievable how the snow globe gets shaken a little every day. Today - woke up to around 2". At 9am it snowed hard again for around 45 minutes - lull - then a reshake of the globe and hard again from 10:30 until 11:30. I'd guess another 2" since 9am. A little wind at the summit slowed GSE to roughly 3/4 speed. All other lifts OK (can't say how Bluebird was, that line looked long). Canyon ran as well which I lapped a few times - so all 3 fast main base lifts ran - thank you Vail.
Thank you also - Nitro loaded 5 minutes early. Only downer was a wicked thick summit fog around noon - but that was short lived as the sun began to poke thru around 1:30pm.

Base temps spiked around 34(f). Despite skiing solo all day, today was one of the best all around days of the season for me.

2nd run down Shootout 9:20am

Olympic

I found some untracked in the woods - at Mt. Snow!

ski_it

Wowser!!

It figures this would be the best snow year ever...,,, :'( :'( :'(

yardsale

02/06/21 - AM Express

yardsale

On Sat, 2/6/21 I was an AM express skier from 7:30am until about 10:15. Ski tracks tells me 12 runs and almost 13k of vert. After 4 runs on the main face, I skied exclusively on North Face - except to ski back to base when I finished via Sunbrook/Bear Trap. I skied on every lift on Sat morning but later heard it was the busiest day of the year.

On Sun, 2/7/21 I skied 1pm to 3:30pm. There was no one here. They all went home. A light snow fell during the afternoon. I logged 11 runs and 15k vert skiing exclusively on GSE (except for 1 Tumbleweed trip) and skiing solo.

On Mon, 2/8/21 the sun finally showed - a true blue bird day. My wife I skied together in the afternoon and again, my take was that there was no one here.

Today, 2/9/2021 moderate snow started this AM after an overnight dusting. Heavy at times with a brief lull around 1pm. I'd guess 4 inches throughout the day. Temps stayed in the teens, so it was a chilly day with the snow falling. Once again, a positive conditions reset for us. For a semi powder day, once again, there was no one here - the lightest weekday crowd I have seen since before Christmas. From today:

Plummet @ 10am.

Yardsale @ 1:40pm

Inferno @ 2:30pm

newpylong

Did they take the trees down between Inferno and the half pipe only to put a fence up to help them regrow?

jaytrem

newpylong;c-46863 wroteDid they take the trees down between Inferno and the half pipe only to put a fence up to help them regrow?

I seem to recall hearing something about them not having the proper permits. Not sure if it's true. That's private property, so I guess not as bad as doing it on National Forest land.

yardsale

Some one, maybe ski_it, had photos of the trees coming down. If I remember right, they cut them down at the end of the ski season 3 or 4 years ago.. maybe while the Mt was still open.

newpylong

Thought so thanks.

rickbolger

awesome photos and reports, thanks for sharing with us!

yardsale

2/10/21 - a bit busier today - the day after snow effect - concentrated in the morning. The place cleared out around 11:30am. At this point, conditions have been so consistent, its hard to give an assessment of what is good or bad. It's all good and it becomes repetitive, I'm sure. I am going on hiatus while the masses show up - doing some x-country skiing and snow shoeing and some neglected projects.

They groomed Challenger:

ski_it

yardsale;c-46868 wroteSome one, maybe ski_it, had photos of the trees coming down. If I remember right, they cut them down at the end of the ski season 3 or 4 years ago.. maybe while the Mt was still open.

Cut in April 2019
Dr Jeff said, "And the official answer from mtn ops about those trees coming down is that next season, the plan will be to move the jump line on Inferno a little closer to the half pipe and then combine some of the snow for the North wall of the half pipe into use for the base for that massive last jump on Inferno to more efficiently use the snow from 2 adjacent large snowmaking items. Some reworking of the piping in the area will be happening as well this Summer to allow this to happen.

Nov 2019 Ski_it said, "Over at Carinthia base they cleared all the trees they cut & de-stumped. They put up several telephone poles a quarter of the way into the trail on Inferno at the top of the pipe. South of that they’ve planted 6 or so large evergreens. I was talking to the snow making manager and he said they were building a wind break to protect bat habitat."

yardsale

Funny, I just went back and looked and found your post right at the same time. Also funny, they now use inferno more as a race training trail and a parking lot for all the pipes, boxes, rails not currently being used as opposed to a big jump trail. It feels more like a used car lot.

ski_its photo.

DrJeff

If they never want to build out a HUGE park on Inferno again, and keep it a ski trail, no complaints from me.

Might also get a few extra non park folks down to use that new base lodge and it's nice beverage and dining establishments once things get back to "normal" again in the F&B and lodge use world

newpylong

Seems to make perfect sense to me. How many L/XL features do they really need to build? Especially now that Upper Fools Gold has snowmaking. Inferno could be a snowmaking run there that anyone, even the development team can use and get fairly quick laps off of.

DrJeff

GREAT day, with lines noticeably less than the last many Saturdays!!

The longest line I waited in wasn't for a lift, but at Canned just before 2 to get an apres ski adult beverage with my wife and friends! That line was a solid 15, maybe 20 minutes!

Comfortable temps, essentially no wind, sunny most of the day, and GREAT snow everywhere!

Love the Epic Northeast Value pass black out days!

jgreco

DrJeff;c-46949 wroteGREAT day, with lines noticeably less than the last many Saturdays!

Was wondering this. Drove past a few resorts today and visible lots/nearby roads seemed noticeably quiet. Did everyone go last weekend thinking they'd beat the holiday crowd?

lotsoskiing

jgreco;c-46950 wrote
DrJeff;c-46949 wroteGREAT day, with lines noticeably less than the last many Saturdays!
Was wondering this. Drove past a few resorts today and visible lots/nearby roads seemed noticeably quiet. Did everyone go last weekend thinking they'd beat the holiday crowd?

I think there were two reasons, at least for the same phenomenon at Sugarbush last weekend and yesterday:
-Last weekend saw many Ikon or mt. passholders (no reservations needed) take advantage of great powder and turn out in droves.
-Yesterday it was well below zero at the time those passholders were deciding whether or not to ski, so many stayed away. My guess is the majority were the 'captive' audience: folks with resort lodging and those who reserved for that day.

Thankfully the sun came out and it did warm a bit, but still pretty cold, especially with refuge hard to utilize.

TomWhite

Looking at web cams: Ragged lines were modest; Waterville and Wildcat not as big as last Sat.; Sunday River seemed modest.

newpylong

That's the longest you'll ever see the lines at Ragged.

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