jgreco
I'm probably not qualified to give an accurate report (I didn't ski much of the mtn or very long today), but here was my MLK Saturday experience: 7" at 6:30 at 1800 ft in E. Dover. In the lot at 7. Report said lifts at 8 but no mention of AM Express being cancelled. We skated to the base at 7:15. Report said 20 lifts, report didn't show anything on hold... Only Canyon running at main base. Loaded around the 10th chair at 7:45 probably. Laps off of Canyon with the rope up on River Run. Stayed on the quad until about 8:15 when the line was out of the Canyon queue ropes. Still no summit access as far as we could tell. Skated to Tumbleweed. We were the dummies laying down the first couple laps in the short glades over there, skiing very gingerly and clipping lots of submerged wood and rock. Made a bunch of laps, mixing up routes on Tumbleweed. Wondered if anything else was open, snagged some turns on Yardsale at around 9:30. Summit X was open but a good line had formed. Figured we'd let the vacationers collect on summit turns and if it stayed snow all day, we'd tour this afternoon. Got home, measured 15" on the deck. Seemed like the mtn had less. Light rain from 11:30-12:30. Decided to call of the tour and just shovel. Also, power is out from our neighborhood over to Marlboro.
Takeaways:
Holy smokes, 15"! I was so pessimistic and just hoping for net snow of a couple inches.
What's up with the slow opening of lifts? It wasn't wind hold, as the wind actually picked up later in the morning as they opened more lifts.
As long as it stays cold, this storm should really revive us.
I wish I could remember more Warren Millerisms for all of the faceplants and powder flounders we saw today.
Happy for everyone who stuck around and navigated the lifts to get some good summit runs.
DrJeff
I was confused as well with the reporting of wind holds as the reason for the delayed openings... Was barely blowing 5, maybe 10mph at my condo across from the mountain at 2200ft as I was shoveling out around 6:30 this morning.. Never felt like the wind up on the mountain was much more than that during the 8 until 1ish time slot I was out there...
I fully get that getting employees to the mountain was a challenge this morning - heck, what I thought would be a 15 minute job in clearing the walkway and cars at my condo this morning ended up being a 35 minute job, and it was nuking snow that entire time, to the extent that in the 35 minutes from when I shoveled off the 1st step at my condo until when I finished and went back to that step, just under 2" had fallen! This storm over delivered total wise, a good foot is what I just finished clearing off my back deck after skiing, and that was with some settling between the light drizzle around noontime and it being 34 degrees on the thermometer on my back deck.
On the hill it was trying to avoid the masses and find open lifts..
Northface was the best in my book. Olympic and The Trials were worthy of a couple of laps. Jaws was fun too.
The lack of staff likely showed in the number of ropes that were still up. The projected winds never materialized.
My legs feel like 2 lead weights after 15 runs.
I can only imagine the complaints Guest Services staff will be hearing about all the bumps.. a foot of dense snow, with the heaviest couple of hours starting around 5AM and going until a bit after 9, the "few times a year masses" being there, limited terrain initially to funnel more people onto what was open... Recipe for guaranteed mogul mainia for the masses.
I will say that the guy bumping the Outpost lift was GREAT at both handling the bumping AND simultaneously calling out those not properly wearing their masks in the full queue lanes (millennial's seemed to be the primary offenders from what I saw)
Guessing the cats will be burning plenty of diesel tonight. And with the light drizzle at the end of the precip, when the temps drop back below 32 later, regardless of what tomorrow brings wind wise, this great base building snow should be staying in place and not being blown a few towns over!
DrJeff
The snow is great. The winds are gusting. The crowds are BIG. New benchmarks for the "longest length line ever for lift X" are likely being set. Atleast in the almost 40 years I've been a Mount Snow skier some of the lines I saw I have never seen close to where they were!
slatham
I heard Stratton had biggest crowd of year, 5,600, but thats approx 1/2 of normal MLK.
Magic sold out.
lotsoskiing
Sugarbush busy yesterday and today, but COVID-busy...still a big group, which is great and fingers crossed things improve Covid-wise in the state...
DrJeff
And for a Mount Snow perspective, having just driven through the lower parking lot down by Snow Lake, they're only roughly 1/2 full.
In the past, to get lines like today, those lots would be jammed, and there'd be a bunch of tour busses here as well.
I do forget sometimes that when I see a line these days, that they can appear artificially longer than they would be in a "normal" year as with the social distancing lanes in between the regular queue lanes, there are less queue lanes than in prior years, and with most chairs not going up full due to Covid seating protocols, there are more groups in those less than usual number of queue lanes.
Add in the wind hold induced reduction in over a 1/3rd of potential uphill capacity, and you get some long lines for sure!
Beast Patroller
Pre-Covid / Covid year I don't think it matters. A long lift line is a long lift line. When people pay big money for a lift ticket or a season pass they don't want to spend the majority of their time standing in a lift line. Understandably, with the 2 major summit lifts on hold that didn't help matters any but when you come up on a holiday weekend (especially with over a foot of new snow) you better expect these kind of long lines.
slatham
FWIW from totally hearsay sources of TGR/AlpineZone/SnowJournal/SocialMedia it does appear that Vail is not restricting tickets neither enough nor as much as other mountains.
That said, when you effectively have a “10 pack” not running due to wind on a snowy MLK Sunday lines will be long.
DrJeff
Crowds seemed like nothing today compared to Saturday and Sunday! All scheduled lifts spinning while I was on the hill from about 8:15 until 1. A couple of 10 minute lines around 10 for the Bluebird and then late morning for Sunbrook.
Actually took 6 consecutive rides on the Sunbrook quad, which might be a record for me in the 30 years or so that Quad has been there! Lots of great soft snow, some powder left over from yesterday and the 2-3" that fell overnight.
Truthfully though the highlight of the day for me was watching my son take some laps on Discovery with one of his friends from school, who has Cerebral Palsy, and had been out with the adaptive program coaches earlier in the day. His friend lost his father to suicide a little over a year ago and has been having a tough time between coping with that and then the lack of regular direct socialization that school provided (their Highschool has only had 4 in person days since the middle of last March). It was 2 15yr old friends just having fun participating in the sport we all love so much.
Kind of made me forget about the operational challenges the weekend put out there.
Mother nature and mountain ops have the mountain in GREAT shape right now.
I guess the only question on my mind right now is will the perfect snowmaking temps this coming week, see them firing them up on Inferno and the half pipe area to work towards the typical builds there, since in reality on the hill, that's about the only typical thing they haven't done yet this season.
Beast Patroller
DrJeff;c-46326 wroteTruthfully though the highlight of the day for me was watching my son take some laps on Discovery with one of his friends from school, who has Cerebral Palsy, and had been out with the adaptive program coaches earlier in the day. His friend lost his father to suicide a little over a year ago and has been having a tough time between coping with that and then the lack of regular direct socialization that school provided (their Highschool has only had 4 in person days since the middle of last March). It was 2 15yr old friends just having fun participating in the sport we all love so much.
Kind of made me forget about the operational challenges the weekend put out there.
Both Sue & you raised your kids right and this is an example of it. Everytime Lori & I have been with you and your family the kids have been well behaved & polite. Both of you should be proud of them.
yardsale
Beast Patroller;c-46327 wroteDrJeff;c-46326 wroteTruthfully though the highlight of the day for me was watching my son take some laps on Discovery with one of his friends from school, who has Cerebral Palsy, and had been out with the adaptive program coaches earlier in the day. His friend lost his father to suicide a little over a year ago and has been having a tough time between coping with that and then the lack of regular direct socialization that school provided (their Highschool has only had 4 in person days since the middle of last March). It was 2 15yr old friends just having fun participating in the sport we all love so much.
Kind of made me forget about the operational challenges the weekend put out there.
Both Sue & you raised your kids right and this is an example of it. Everytime Lori & I have been with you and your family the kids have been well behaved & polite. Both of you should be proud of them.
A+ here. That's a great day of skiing.
yardsale
1/19/2021 - I did regret not "reserving" a day over the past weekend. By the time the forecast moved in the right direction, my non-blackout Epic pass became blacked out. I could have gone out on Monday, but at that point, I needed the full day to finish a biggish project I started. I rested the legs and avoided the crowds. Oh well. All forgiven today.
First day for me going wire to wire this season... or probably the last 3 seasons. My wife joined me in the middle of the day for 3hrs after a quick 1/2 hour coffee break. This storm delivered in so many ways. Thick snow - followed by 6" of dry snow followed by 2" yesterday then another 2" or so today, There was no wrong choice today. I don't normally ski woods alone, but my wife wasn't feeling the trees and it was too tempting so I did duck in for a couple of laps between mineshaft and Nitro as well as single trip thru the short glade off Thanks Walt and a foray into swamp donkey. I have to think Ego Alley brought the most fun with untouched snow from Sunday on skiers right.. not sure why it was missed by the masses - perhaps because it was ungroomed and scared the usual's away? Not sure. There was some crazy things too - a groomed Narrow Gauge and a groomed Illusion - presumably to pack the snow in on these 2 and maybe hold on to them. Iron Run in the morning was great - went back when it was snowing hard at 3pm and it was better. Hop - exceptional. Uncles - good. Overbrook - insane. For me Overbrook is one of the hardest trails to ski on the Mt. Rarely open, too many water bars to count, the big crater half way down and no real flow to the thing...not steep, not skinny - but when you do get to ski, it is usually fun and rewarding - hard to explain.
Iron Run
Narrow Gauge
Ego
Lower part of Big Dipper
newpylong
Iron Run has always been one of my favorite runs anywhere.
Chuckstah
Great report. 2 questions.
Is iron run ever open to the bottom anymore, to the halfpipe?
What is Swamp Donkey? Skied Snow off and on for close to 40 years and never heard that term.
yardsale
I skied Iron into the superpipe yesterday. While the pipe isn't currently official, it wasnt roped off and was tracked up. Swamp Donkey is off One More Time
DrJeff
yardsale;c-46357 wroteI skied Iron into the superpipe yesterday. While the pipe isn't currently official, it wasnt roped off and was tracked up. Swamp Donkey is off One More Time
Iron run tends to be open all the way until something gets built in the half pipe area, then for safety, they rope off the last pitch.
Swamp Donkey and The Boonies are essentially the same thing, as Swamp Donkey is what the non snow season ops name for the Mountain Bike trail that goes through the tree area that used to be on the map off of One More Time known as the Boonies.
Swamp Donkey without a doubt was the site of my biggest DH mtb crash that I ever had a bunch of years ago! Left hip to the side of one of the stream crossing bridges that is part of the mtb trail. Definitely had me thinking for a few minutes that I was going to need the mtb patrol to haul me off the mountain with that one!!
Chuckstah
Thanks guys, I've definitely skied the mountain bike trails above the Boonies. Love that whole area, and One More Time.
ski_it
You're killing me Yardsale, killing me!
Looks superb. Did you ski Big Fatty too?
yardsale
I was out this morning 1/20/2021 9 til 11:15am. They rec'd another couple of inches of snow, although Plummit on the NF had around 4" of light fluffy 1st thing. It must have been groomed early... and the NF definitely picked up more. My legs were toast after yesterday.
I can report snow making on Upper Ex (below Ego barn), superpipe and the very lower section of inferno, middle section of upper fools gold?, and drop?
? not sure why snow making one section of upper fools (perhaps for another feature) or drop.
DrJeff
yardsale;c-46371 wroteI was out this morning 1/20/2021 9 til 11:15am. They rec'd another couple of inches of snow, although Plummit on the NF had around 4" of light fluffy 1st thing. It must have been groomed early... and the NF definitely picked up more. My legs were toast after yesterday.
I can report snow making on Upper Ex (below Ego barn), superpipe and the very lower section of inferno, middle section of upper fools gold?, and drop?
? not sure why snow making one section of upper fools (perhaps for another feature) or drop.
Drop is pretty much a staple when they're running lines in the general South Bowl/Ego/Middle Ex as the returns head to the mid mountain pond off to the side of Drop near the Roy Pump house (the snowmaking plant at the corner of Drop where it turns left towards Yardsale. They often just light up those snow logic towers on Drop because there's usually plenty of water and air during a relatively limited snowmaking effort in that general area of the mtn
