Mt Snow Trip Reports 2020-2021

lotsoskiing

I like it when steep terrain gets groomed once in a while. Better for long-term snow condition. Stein's Run at Sugarbush with corduroy is a hoot. Upper FIS, Middle Earth...sure you have a day of smooth snow but the bumps return soon enough.

slatham

Ok, grooming Jaws this week after sleet storm was necessary.Today? Vail sissies. I mean other than Ripcord if they groom all of the Northface then Mt Snow is just Stratton or Okemo. Actually, worse than Stratton! Hope this is not the way of the future.

DrJeff

slatham;c-47120 wroteOk, grooming Jaws this week after sleet storm was necessary.Today? Vail sissies. I mean other than Ripcord if they groom all of the Northface then Mt Snow is just Stratton or Okemo. Actually, worse than Stratton! Hope this is not the way of the future.

Ripcord is far from groomed right now! Big 'ol irregular shaped frozen snowmaking whales with some poach tracks in the fluff on top of it, and a few long "skid marks" from sliders (former skiers or riders who poached). No argument whatsoever with the rope being up on it now!

Honestly if it doesn't snow a bunch this week or warm up nicely by next weekend, wouldn't be surprised at all if they winch it this week.

Bumps reforming on Challenger and Boulder Pile.

Tough to get bumps forming with a bunch of sugary snow underneath a decent thickness breakable crust from the freeze up after the Tuesday slop

jaytrem

slatham;c-47120 wroteOk, grooming Jaws this week after sleet storm was necessary.Today? Vail sissies. I mean other than Ripcord if they groom all of the Northface then Mt Snow is just Stratton or Okemo. Actually, worse than Stratton! Hope this is not the way of the future.

The initial groom wasn't after sleet or a thaw/freeze. It was in prime form (as long as you don't mind a few rocks). At least they left bumps in the middle of Freefall when they did the initial Jaws groom, along with Boulder Pile.

yardsale

Snow started around 10:30am. Wind picked up as well. Skied 9am til 1pm. Progressed to the bubble once the wind started whipping. 5 minute wait there but was worth the protection. Snow finished up around 6:30pm. Looks like 3-4" in the valley - maybe more higher up? Flirting with warmer temps down low, currently 30(f) at 8pm. This is Hop around 12:30pm

yardsale

02/23/2021 - another exceptional day. Opened with 4-5 inches of total snow from yesterday and last night. The wind helped a little last night with reloading some terrain i.e. skiers right on north face runs. Where this snow was a bit denser, there was some better bonding to the existing surface. Took nice runs down choke, hop, shootout and uncles on the main face. The woods were very much in play as well. Question mark on weather for the rest of the week so really tried to enjoy today.

Chute around 9:30am

A groomed Iron run

An empty Gulch at 1pm

IBRAKEFORTBARS

What’s the Snowdance trail looking like these days?

yardsale

IBRAKEFORTBARS;c-47206 wroteWhat’s the Snowdance trail looking like these days?

Ha. I think Mt. Snow may win the award for renaming trails willy nilly throughout the years.

To answer your question, Upper Sundance, now shootout was excellent today - skied it around 10:15am- a bit tracked up but super nice. The lower part of Sundance, which would encompass the lower part of South Bowl, part of Ridge and Coopers Jnct gets skied a bunch as you make your way back to the main base or Sundance Lodge/Tumbleweed. I like the section skiers left between Link and Drop which can get some wind load and isn't groomed. I went in there today after race training finished on South Bowl around 12 noonish and was surprised by the amount of snow in the section.

newpylong

He said Snowdance :)

IBRAKEFORTBARS

Yes, Snowdance not Sundance 😃

lotsoskiing

IBRAKEFORTBARS;c-47212 wroteYes, Snowdance not Sundance 😃

Pretty wide and flat?

DrJeff

lotsoskiing;c-47213 wrote
IBRAKEFORTBARS;c-47212 wroteYes, Snowdance not Sundance 😃
Pretty wide and flat?

All 100 yards of width are fully in play, so you get to play around on the terrain on skiers/riders right that isn't always in play and very often even when is in play isn't as "smoothed" out via weeks and weeks of cat passes pushing the natural and man-made snow out and "softening" some of the natural rollers as skiers/riders left is.

Frankly this year, even on a weekend day, with less volume of people heading down the hill (or atleast it often feels that way to me) it's fun to be able to make some big, wide arcs on Snowdance as it seems like when one pauses at the top of the pitch on Snowdance and looks down that you're much more likely to see only 10 or 15 people on that expanse of terrain infront of you over the say 100 or so people you typically would see on a "normal season" weekend day. It's a fun combo right now with all of the full width of Snowdance in play and a generally significantly less volume of people on it!

yardsale

oops. I'll go with wide and flat too. I like skiers left as it is more "natural"

yardsale

02/24/2021 - today was a big surprise. What appeared to be a dusting in the valley was a good 3-5 inches for the upper half of the Mt. Funny that Vail failed to mention the new snow on their tweet/daily web report. On north face, the wind loaded the snow skiers left so it skied more like 6". It was a time race, however, as the sun was out and it was going to get warm. We timed things fairly well over 9am to 1pm to avoid the mashed. We had some memorable powder runs down Timbers, Plummet, Chute... Skated up to Big Dipper just in time as the sun was baking that quickly. By 11am, the upper half of the Mt on the main face was still A-Ok - but on the lower half we were shade seekers. Roller-coaster was surprising good top to bottom around noon - the bottom half is shady. Finished with Uncles just before 1pm and that was great. It was 35(f) at the base when we quit with a thin layer of clouds - but the temp shot up around 2:30pm into the 40's. Could be crunchy tomorrow.

Chute @ 9:40 ish

Big Dipper @ 10:15

yardsale

2/25/2021 - afternoon shift - 12:15 til 3:30. Much better than I thought it would be. Lots of very loose granular snow and not overly hard packed conditions. I lapped the GSE until they had a grip problem with 2 chairs together in the bottom terminal around 3:15. The chair was stopped for 20 min's plus - felt lucky I missed that.

2/26/2021 - morning shift 9- 12:30. Beautiful weather brought out the largest crowd I have seen on a week day all season. GSE and Challenger both broke in the morning, adding to the crowded conditions. Waited at Canyon 15 minutes at 9:40. Went to North Face with just Outpost as mechanics were up in the load terminal on Challenger. Made it 2 trips until Outpost got backed up to a 20 min wait on our 3rd trip. When we loaded on the 3rd trip, the liftie told me GSE had just reopened. Super - went Thanks Walt to Bear Trap and back to GSE which was packed but found the singles line to work better. Had a memorable track down Ego with still lots of cord. We went up Canyon and planned a river run to Northface for a redo of plummet because it had been super good. Encountered an interesting situation at this point. River run closed with a rope and 2 ambassadors there and a crowd formed. Multiple questions from the crowd as to why. Their answers were strange... "Mgt told them to close the run - gave no reason". "You can still access NF from the summit, but not from river run" Huh? The crowd dispersed but my wife and I hung out trying to plan the rest of our morning. She asked again, why can't you tell us why this run is closed? "Can't tell you" If your a logical person, you have to keep asking I think. My wife and I both told the ambassadors that Vail had put them in a crappy position with the crowd - not being able to explain the situation. Then it happened... "well we will tell you why"... Vail didn't want us to know that the crowd at Outpost was way beyond the coral.. bad covid optics, Challenger was almost ready to reopen and they wanted to keep more people from heading down there. I asked him why he didn't just tell us the truth - that I was sure most people would understand. "We just follow orders"

OK - so if you lie to your customers guess what happens. No one ever trusts you. So Vail management put 2 ambassadors in front of a crowd and told them to lie. Nice.

DrJeff

yardsale;c-47306 wrote2/25/2021 - afternoon shift - 12:15 til 3:30. Much better than I thought it would be. Lots of very loose granular snow and not overly hard packed conditions. I lapped the GSE until they had a grip problem with 2 chairs together in the bottom terminal around 3:15. The chair was stopped for 20 min's plus - felt lucky I missed that.

2/26/2021 - morning shift 9- 12:30. Beautiful weather brought out the largest crowd I have seen on a week day all season. GSE and Challenger both broke in the morning, adding to the crowded conditions. Waited at Canyon 15 minutes at 9:40. Went to North Face with just Outpost as mechanics were up in the load terminal on Challenger. Made it 2 trips until Outpost got backed up to a 20 min wait on our 3rd trip. When we loaded on the 3rd trip, the liftie told me GSE had just reopened. Super - went Thanks Walt to Bear Trap and back to GSE which was packed but found the singles line to work better. Had a memorable track down Ego with still lots of cord. We went up Canyon and planned a river run to Northface for a redo of plummet because it had been super good. Encountered an interesting situation at this point. River run closed with a rope and 2 ambassadors there and a crowd formed. Multiple questions from the crowd as to why. Their answers were strange... "Mgt told them to close the run - gave no reason". "You can still access NF from the summit, but not from river run" Huh? The crowd dispersed but my wife and I hung out trying to plan the rest of our morning. She asked again, why can't you tell us why this run is closed? "Can't tell you" If your a logical person, you have to keep asking I think. My wife and I both told the ambassadors that Vail had put them in a crappy position with the crowd - not being able to explain the situation. Then it happened... "well we will tell you why"... Vail didn't want us to know that the crowd at Outpost was way beyond the coral.. bad covid optics, Challenger was almost ready to reopen and they wanted to keep more people from heading down there. I asked him why he didn't just tell us the truth - that I was sure most people would understand. "We just follow orders"

OK - so if you lie to your customers guess what happens. No one ever trusts you. So Vail management put 2 ambassadors in front of a crowd and told them to lie. Nice.

Heck, at that point they should of thrown an operator in the winch cat and made a b-line for Ripcord!

Atleast "we currently have a winch cat operating on Ripcord and can't have anyone in the area for safety reasons" would of sounded way better!!

slatham

Funny thing is the truth - the line is out of control - is a very beneficial and welcome bit of information that I would appreciate hearing. Thanks, I'll just go ski elsewhere for a bit. Don't understand logic of not be forthright.

DrJeff

2-3" of medium density snow that skied like a dream at the opening bell.

Winds not too bad, but building out of the South as the morning went on.

Light snow switched to freezing fog around 10, made keeping your goggles clear a challenge.... was happy to have a 10:30 base lodge reservation to de-ice and drip dry for 30 minutes... switched to light drizzle at the base during our break.

That was enough for my wife and I and a few friends we were skiing with to call it a day (the big lines in the base area around 11 helped convince us too).

The grand summit express went on hold for icing about 11:15 just after we got our boots off in the Mount Snow Ski Club and headed for the car.

Still light drizzle/fine mist in the air at 2:30 as I type this and the temp on my back deck is currently at 33.

Good couple of hours on the hill. Wouldn't of minded if mother nature had cooperated for a few more hours and held off with the freezing fog!!

yardsale

DrJeff;c-47324 wrote2-3" of medium density snow that skied like a dream at the opening bell.

Winds not too bad, but building out of the South as the morning went on.

Light snow switched to freezing fog around 10, made keeping your goggles clear a challenge.... was happy to have a 10:30 base lodge reservation to de-ice and drip dry for 30 minutes... switched to light drizzle at the base during our break.

That was enough for my wife and I and a few friends we were skiing with to call it a day (the big lines in the base area around 11 helped convince us too).

The grand summit express went on hold for icing about 11:15 just after we got our boots off in the Mount Snow Ski Club and headed for the car.

Still light drizzle/fine mist in the air at 2:30 as I type this and the temp on my back deck is currently at 33.

Good couple of hours on the hill. Wouldn't of minded if mother nature had cooperated for a few more hours and held off with the freezing fog!!

100% true report - the Mt skied like a dream from 7:30 til 10. 10am was an instant "on" for the freezing stuff. One minute it was light snow, the next, a thick frozen mess. I had to ditch the goggles and take the needles in the eyes for my final 2 runs. I quit at 10:30.

ciscokid

Hey very unique pic up close to the lattice tower yardsale! Cool

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