Crotched Mountain 2016-2017

tedede

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“joshua_segal”>It is a shame that these decisions are made by desk jockeys as opposed to those who are actually skiing.</blockquote>

Just because it’s poachable on your rock skis doesn’t mean it’s safe to open to the general public.

I find it somewhat ironic that the ropes that you complain about actually protect the limited natural snow that you enjoy when you duck under them.

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“tedede”><blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“joshua_segal”>It is a shame that these decisions are made by desk jockeys as opposed to those who are actually skiing.</blockquote>

Just because it’s poachable on your rock skis doesn’t mean it’s safe to open to the general public.

I find it somewhat ironic that the ropes that you complain about actually protect the limited natural snow that you enjoy when you duck under them.

</blockquote>

Ted: I’m not talking about the natural snow terrain.  I am talking about upper Pluto’s, Retro and Cosmic Blast, all of which are fully covered and waterbars fully filled in - and any ropes I’ve ducked following Monday’s storm - were not on rock skis.

And one more thing: To get home without walking, I went down Milky Way late on Monday, PM.  It was fully packed out by skiers traffic.  Thin cover - yes.  But it shows that when ropes are there for no good reason, my Milky Way example demonstrates that many skiers will lose respect for ropes that are up for a good reason, when they are used to seeing their frivolous use.  Thin cover warnings: Good.  Roped off due to open water bars: Good.  Roped off because of ongoing grooming - good.  The other day, Magnitude was groomed, fully covered and closed - not good.

NELSBEER

Crotched generally does not like opening main trails until they are adequately covered edge to edge for most any skier & with enough snow to keep the trails open once the ropes are dropped. Decreasing announced trail counts really rub people the wrong way.  

The patrol asks the same questions as Joshua but has to wait for clearance before dropping ropes. The trails mentioned have been opened over the last few days. We got some new signs mandated by the risk people and got all clears from snowmaking (there were electrical wires on some of the closed trails). Magnitude opened the day after Joshua mentioned. Pluto’s chute & Cosmic Blast opened today (with CAUTION / Ungroomed / Thin cover signs)… Unfortunately the upper hill was on wind hold. 

Snowmakers ran wires and hoses down Milky Way Thursday morning, are blasting it with snow today and tomorrow & should have it open for the weekend. Velocity, Comet, Super Nova & the park above the base lodge are about ready for the weekend with fresh very powdery snow being made in the current cold snap on top of earlier production. They were doing final checks on the West double Lift today & the carpet has been running for a few days. Ropes and signs are largely in place for this weekend… not bad for starting a week ago.

All areas are cooperating to get as much open as possible for the weekend. Here’s a photo of a few patrollers helping another area get ready.

Yep, that’s<font color=“#ff6666”> “Rocket Fuel”</font> now in larger kegs to avoid running out.  

ski_it

Who you kidding?? That’s going right in your car ain’t it. :D :D

lysikj

Josh if it’s there ski it. LIVE FREE AND SKI!!!!!!!!!!!  Thanks to a new person added to snow making this year it’s been great. About time they give the kid a chance

ski_it

I finally met Joshua, briefly while he was heading down with Nelsbeer on his 30th something run and I was on my 6th at sunset. It was nice(for me anyway ;) )to finally say hi. Rode the lift later with Nelsbeer. It’s been a few years since I’ve been night skiing, but it’s been enjoyable. Nobodies here, most of mountain is open except that upper & middle trail under the Rocket. The snows not bad and the beer is great. As I headed out the driveway onto the highway a Crotchety old fox ran across the street.

NELSBEER

Actually we process the beer & return it to the pond before the next cold snap.

They pretty much sucked the ponds dry during the last cold snap getting a few more trails open, UFO & Jupiter Storm are among the steeper trails on the hill and the Zero-G park opened with some jumps and other intermediate park fare.

Some areas were dusted up with powder when temps were in the lower teens earlier this week.

There is still a fair flow of water into the ponds from the rain last weekend, hopefully there will be enough water to get the last few major up/down trails open when the temps drop next week.

The mountain crew was out all day today making sure the lights are all ready for MIDNIGHT MADNESS next weekend, 3am on Friday and Saturday. Could be quite the party if forecasts hold true. There is no special party, prices aren’t jacked up or anything…  

becca_m

Actually we process the beer & return it to the pond before the next cold snap.

Some areas were dusted up with powder when temps were in the lower teens earlier this week.

There is still a fair flow of water into the ponds from the rain last weekend, hopefully there will be enough water to get the last few major up/down trails open when the temps drop next week.

</blockquote>

   question about the lights….i noticed the other night (Wednesday) that there were a few random lights out on the trails, but, a bunch out on Supernova - was like a black tunnel - would those be replaced soon?

ski_it

The mountain crew was out all day today making sure the lights are all ready for MIDNIGHT MADNESS next weekend….  

</blockquote>

   question aboutes the lights….i noticed the other night (Wednesday) that there were a few random lights out on the trails, but, a bunch out on Supernova - was like a black tunnel - would those be replaced soon?</blockquote>

Hmmm, I didn’t go over there after dark and didn’t notice if the lights were on there. I did see a couple crews fixing lites elswhere. Seemed pretty well lit except after where Moonwalk crosses Pluto. I did come down from UFO to the bottom of Velocity above the lodge and that was very well lit.

joshua_segal

There are about 30 total that are out.  They were working on the tower lights on the Rocket yesterday (about 10 were out).  I know there are 8 to 10 out on Magnitude/Park, which I heard were on the to-do list.  I hadn’t been on Supernova at night  to notice, but hopefully, someone in ops has been!  

In keeping with the Star Trek theme, perhaps one of these trails could temporarily be renamed, “Moonlight”!

Remski

we could say there are a few black holes on the mt.

joshua_segal

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“Remski”>we could say there are a few black holes on the mt.</blockquote>

That works too.

NELSBEER

Tonight there a lot fewer than last week, nothing really eerily dark. Single lights on Super Nova & Galaxy rather than big black holes. They apparently ran out of bulbs so we may see more improvement when they restock. Definitely enough light to kick off Midnight Madness in style.

The lights were still on at 6pm when I left, maybe a little touch up snowmaking is in the works?. 

joshua_segal

The lights were still on at 6pm when I left, maybe a little touch up snowmaking is in the works?. 

</blockquote>

This PM, I saw 4 out on Super Nova, 4 out in the Big Park, 1 on Magnitude and 1 out on the top tower of the Rocket.  I missed the one you noticed on Galaxy.

The water level in the pond looked adequate for some serious snowmaking and the forecast looks like serious cold weather.  It would be nice to have Pluto’s within the week.

yardsale

I visited Crotched today 12/26.  I was on the 3rd chair on Rocket which they opened a few minutes early.  Surfaces were hard groomed - fast and firm but easily edgible.  .Snow making was ongoing on Pluto’s.  No crowd to speak of but traffic did pick up as the morning progressed. 

I had to drop my son off at the 128 Amtrak station at 6:45am for him to get back to NYC so headed right up after I dropped him off. It is exactly a 1hr30min drive from the train station.  I had not been to Crotched since I was very young, maybe 10-12 years old - mid 1970’s.  My grandparents lived in Peterborough and I would ski at Temple Mt and occasionally Crotched with my father and siblings.  However, I didn’t recognize or remember anything about the mountain from those years.

I really enjoyed the slopes there today.  The Rocket is set up perfectly for lapping the whole layout.  I’m guessing I got in 20+ runs in the 3 hours I skied.

The grooming on Jupiters Storm/NCC-1701 was a bit rough, but everything else was very good.

Satellite Summit with some fan gun snow

  some ice marbles on Jupiter’s Storm  

moon walk - nice view.

ski_it

I had not been to Crotched since I was very young, maybe 10-12 years old - mid 1970’s.  My grandparents lived in Peterborough and I would ski at Temple Mt and occasionally Crotched with my father and siblings.  However, I didn’t recognize or remember anything about the mountain from those years."

</blockquote><p> Hmmm, I have the same feelings then I remember that’s because it closed in 1989 and what you are skiing on today was Onset\Bobcat\Crotched West which was only part of Crotched East from 1981/82 to 1989/90. And then Peak bought, rebuilt & renamed everything open here today. The West Double is probably what’s left of the only original chair. I don’t think we really ski on the actual Crotched Mtn anymore, unless its the northern flank of it.</p><p></p><p>See Bobcat & Crotched here with a lot of info from Chris Bradford:</p><p>http://www.nelsap.org/nh/nh.html and https://skimap.org/SkiAreas/view/343 and here too of course from (timberleaf maybe?) : http://www.newenglandskihistory.com/NewHampshire/crotchedmtn.php </p><p>Ice Marbles? We call those death cookies. Nice pics. Cisco the last shows the cliffs with the trail.</p><p> </p>

NELSBEER

Ice Marbles? Too negative we don’t use ICE anywhere anymore… How about Marbleous conditions?

Anyway everything will soften up today, something of a delicious Butter Cream surface while we wait for Thursday’s snow.

joshua_segal

Ice Marbles? Too negative we don’t use ICE anywhere anymore… How about Marbleous conditions?

Anyway everything will soften up today, something of a delicious Butter Cream surface while we wait for Thursday’s snow.

</blockquote>

Dec. 27, 2016: Quite amazing how much snow was lost last night and the small brown patches of yesterday have  grown. The skiing is quite pleasant, but temps are already on the way down and tomorrow may be firm.  And like everybody else, I’m living in hope of an epic storm on Thursday.<div></div><div>One bit of good news.  The pond is up at 4 to 6 feet and I think that most of that water was not melt from the hill.</div>

joshua_segal

Dec. 29, 2016 - Thurs.

The storm was a bit of a disappointment.  We were expecting 8″ to 14″.  Unless there is another burst of snow, we came in at 6″ to 8″.  Still better than any storm of last season.

newpylong

Same here in thr upper Valley - 7 " They had us pegged at 12 to 18″.

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