Crotched Mountain 2016-2017

NELSBEER

They were able to run the guns much longer on the upper mountain than the lower slopes. There are snow whales drying out on Moonwalk, Satellite Summit, Upper Meteor & Galaxy.  The tops of Rocket & Valley lifts have more snow than is evident on the webcam views of the lower mountain.

If the rain isn’t too bad they should be able to spread what they have and blast Galaxy with the doubled up guns that are in place, maybe 2-3 days of solid cold needed to get things running. The ponds are only down about 4 feet and are getting some flow off the hill.

Unfortunately it looks like the cold won’t here before next weekend.

There were one set of ski tracks top to bottom (moonwalk, Galaxy  & Meteor) when I walked the dogs up yesterday.

joshua_segal

Sat., Nov. 26, 2016

I returned to ski country yesterday after a 2.5 week absence.

I noted earlier, “I noticed that Wachusett opened and they have similar weather and less fire-power than we have!”

At any rate, I put on my boots and hiked Super Nova to Milky Way and finally Moon Walk to the top.  Cover on Moonwalk was excellent from the summit right to the top of the Valley Chair.  From the top of the Valley Chair, I headed down Meteor.  It was well covered and the few thin spots cold have been filled in from some of the large whales.

At the junction with Galaxy, I walked back up Galaxy including Cosmic Blast.  It too was well covered and skied nicely.  The lower part of Meteor had lots of snow, but the water bars weren’t filled in and the “chicken heads” were more like stalagmites.

So now I understand.  CM’s management made an economic decision not to open.  I suspect we have as much (or more) snow than Wachusett has.  If we opened management could have called it 4-runs!

Mine were not the first tracks on the hill, but as far as I know, this is the first trip report on it.

NELSBEER

Welcome back from Florida Joshua, did you bring the warm weather with you this time?  I visited Pat’s while driving around last week; it looks like they too made snow but didn’t get enough of a window to open, Sunapee tried as well (according to their website) but won’t be opening until December 6th. So CM isn’t alone. 

With snowmaking temps/humidity returning to acceptable levels for 2-3 nights this weekend and again later in the week we should be seeing the lights dim as the snowmakers go to town. The ponds were down 4 feet after earlier efforts, I assume they are full again. 

Crotched has notified Ski Patrol to be ready for next Saturday morning, see you then.

joshua_segal

By Thursday, Dec. 1, I still skied it, but unlike last weekend, it was no longer continuous T2B.  Moonwalk was pretty good (although one 5 foot bare spot that could be negotiated without removing skis.)  Where Moonwalk crossed Pluto’s was pretty much bare.  Meteor was the best skiing with perhaps 300′ of continuous vertical.  The bottom of the mountain had 3 reasonable nice stretches (small vertical) separated by nasty (unskiable) water bars.

I agree with nelsbeer that there should be adequate snowmaking wx this week to be able to open easily on Moonwalk, Satellite Summit, Cosmic Blast, Galaxy and Meteor.  (We had a dusting of natural last night - but not enough to open the glade :-) .)

NELSBEER

The snowmakers have been watching their weather station,  the temp dropped a few more degrees and the lights came on as the wet bulb turned to snowmaking possible around midnight Saturday. I wonder if we will see an old fashioned race to open now?

joshua_segal

Considering some of the days they passed on last week, I was surprised to see the guns on this AM.  It looks like very intense snowmaking from the top of the Valley chair to the summit and they are still running 2 guns down by the base of the Valley Chair that by 10AM, are really just blowing water.

joshua_segal

Dec. 5, 2016 - Mon.

Well, if I were generous, I’d say we got 2″.  But after all the work I did de-stumping and de-rocking one of CM’s glades this summer, I wanted to make absolutely sure that I got first tracks on it.  So I ventured out today and I did it.  While I bottomed out a lot, I only hit dirt and twigs.  I certainly wouldn’t recommend it in its current state, I think it is pretty clear that 6″ of snow should be enough to do the run on a decent pair of skis.

They made a lot of snow over night on Galaxy, Moonwalk, Launch Pad and the base areas.  With continued projected cold nights, they should have no trouble opening T2B by the weekend.

NELSBEER

Did you check the other glade we worked on while you were at it? 8-|

We can only hope for the type of season where there are weekdays where the lift is actively carrying skiers up but no one is visibly coming down on the groomed trails.

joshua_segal

Did you check the other glade we worked on while you were at it? 8-|

We can only hope for the type of season where there are weekdays where the lift is actively carrying skiers up but no one is visibly coming down on the groomed trails.

</blockquote>

No.  That was not de-stumped and de-rocked.  It will ski much better this season,  but will still take a couple of feet of snow to cover the sharp rocks.

NELSBEER

I dropped by Crotched today (Wed. Dec. 7). Snowmaking was down because of warm temps.

They have been focusing on hammering the upper part of the mountain with snow, even smaller mountains get temperature differentials & the line has seemingly been in the middle of the mountain much of the season.

Lower Meteor & maybe Big Dipper have partial cover and will provide the connection to the base for this weekend.

Water has been pumped from the lower pond (now down 6 feet) to fill the upper pond to the top of the spillway. Meteor is lined with a double line of pole & carriage mount Pole Cat fan guns. When the temps drop later in the week they will be able to easily augment existing cover overnight and be ready to open in the AM.

The magic carpet area has some cover on it & should be ready to open as well.

Beyond that, the fryers in the kitchen have fresh oil, the freezers are stocked and the Bar Taps are awaiting us!

Remski

Thanks for the report.Great info particularly the “taps” part.

ski_it

</blockquote>Yes, 3.5°F/1000 feet…oops I meant 3.06/875 feet. ;)Thanks for the updates. :)

NELSBEER

Crotchety weather doesn’t follow rules. One day, before they made the mountain taller (with the Rocket), there was a perfect under cast of clouds stretching off to the horizon in all directions. Looked more like the top of Cannon than ‘the crotch’ .

Other metrics to consider  the SHED mountain brown ale new to the bar this year has a 7.4% ABV.  Rocket Fuel IPA is 7.0% & Working Man’s Porter is 5.2%.   

becca_m

That Rocket Fuel is SO yum yum on tap… BUT I cannot ski or ride after….. looking forward to the SHED on tap   :)

ski_it

Crotchety weather doesn’t follow rules.

Other metrics to consider  …….

</blockquote> Ahh-hhh, the Crotch Effect.And those are the kinda of metrics I like.

NELSBEER

Hopefully it’s just a bit of sun peaking through, but it looks like this gun may be running a little ‘hot’, Maybe they hooked the gas line up to give the snow a little more lift?

obienick

Anyone else prefer the old camera (from a few years ago before the site redo) that saved images from the whole day?

NELSBEER

Interesting, the picture changed, guess I got a link in to the real camera. The picture I pasted showed one gun’s output as a flaming red-orange fading to yellow.

I did like the old camera better, that was Chris Bradford’s work.  I’m not certain how often this one updates but it gives no sense of activity.

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“obienick”>Anyone else prefer the old camera (from a few years ago before the site redo) that saved images from the whole day?</blockquote>

Yes.  I did too.  I asked the GM about it and it apparently had something to do was a change in who was managing the web-site, but that discussion was sufficiently long ago,  that I no longer recal the details.

NELSBEER

They pulled all the websites under central control last year to give them a similar look and feel. I get the impression each area has control over content as long as it fits into the overall model.  Take a look at Peakresorts.com to see how they fit together.

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