Did a rare Sunday afternoon. Got good parking and stayed on the Face, so no lines. Snow is getting pretty ragged. My good lines are getting all chopped up, or some rocks are materializing. Need some more, for sure, but a really nice day.
Forgot the sunscreen, again. Oh well. It’s too late for all that.
Had kind of a crappy Saturday at Mt Snow. The storm left 1-2" of ice all around the area, and the staff had a hell of a time getting the lifts running. At 8:00 only two small lifts were running and the lines quickly grew to 45 minutes. Around 10:30 they got the Bluebird Express 6-pack running and lines there quickly swelled to 45+, with the singles line extending up the slope. They also ran one other beginners lift and the magic carpet.
It looked like they were working on getting one other quad up and running, but it appeared to be a weak effort, and it never spun more than a few chair lengths. Granted, the ice was some of the worst I’ve ever seen, but other ski areas managed to get more lifts running and/or restricted ticket sales. Not Mt Snow.
On the plus side, the conditions were pretty good, and they were making more snow. We were meeting friends there, so we were stuck. Otherwise we would have tried to go anywhere north of there, since they all got at least some snow. Bottom line, we had fun with our friends, so it was worth it, but it wasn’t the best ski experience.
Mount Sunapee (another Epic resort) had similar ice and was even worse responding to it. They had one smaller chair running, and never got their two big chairs moving after promising them all day. Attitash (another Epic resort) had major lift problems too, even though they had great snow and no ice. All in all, not a great day for Epic/Vail in New England.
So I had an interesting weekend myself at several of the New England Epic/Vail ski areas.
I was invited to go to a ski event for work this past Friday at Mount Snow. (Kind of like a golf event, but skiing instead.) The plan was to meet in the morning, have lunch, then go to an après-ski gathering afterward. However, Friday morning was an absolute mess. Instead of turning to snow as predicted, all of the precipitation was coming down as freezing rain. By mid-morning, they finally got a couple of fixed-grip lifts going on the lower mountain, but conditions were awful. I finally bailed, gave my regrets to the event organizer, and headed to Okemo around 11:30 am. (I wish I had made this decision a couple of hours earlier, though.) On the drive north to Okemo, the freezing rain switched to snow, and I got a couple of hours of great skiing in. Most of the lifts were open (though a couple were unaccountably closed). Lines were relatively short and the fresh snow was fun.
I was back the next day (Saturday) at Okemo, and conditions were even better. The lines were a little long, but ok for a Saturday (10-15 minutes). Everything was open. It was actually one of the best skiing days I’ve had all season.
Conditions were so good that I decided to extend the weekend and head to Stowe on Saturday evening. I got a last-minute hotel room for cheap. I’ve been hearing horror stories about the access road and parking situation, so I got up early on Sunday and was in the main parking lot by 7:30 am. Conditions were fantastic (though very cold) and the lines were short. It actually contributed to my overdoing it a bit. According to my tracker app, I skied 32,650 vertical feet yesterday, which is a record for me.
In talking to other skiers on the lifts, I gather that Stowe was a mess on Friday and Saturday. The access road (which is the only way in) had a two-hour backup on Friday morning, and Saturday wasn’t much better.
So all in all, despite a bad start and a waste of a vacation day on Friday, it looks like I picked the correct Epic resorts to go to this weekend. Lord knows I’ve had my share of crappy days this season, though, with very limited terrain open at Sunapee and Attitash in December, followed by all-day wind holds at Okemo in January.
Yeah, we did all sorts of things wrong this weekend. We still had a fun time, but we missed out on good skiing.
Was gonna ski today, but walked out and saw my truck with a flat tire (kid has been driving it since his car was stolen). Spent the morning patching that. Goddammit. Maybe tomorrow… but I be drinkin’ hard tonight…
I will say that the hinky-ass Harbour Freight Tire Tool has saved me HUNDREDS of dollars over the years, if you are into that kind of shit. Most normal adults are not. But I own Jeeps, hence flats…
OK, we finally nailed the weather. Granted, we didn’t get up to Saddleback when the snow was falling, but we got there soon after. Saturday was warm, and the snow in the Casablanca Glades was amazing. We lapped the upper lift, heading out the traverse over and over again, all morning until a late lunch back at the condo. Then out for a few more trips in the glades before ending the day on a couple of cruisers.
Saturday night turned bitter cold, so the woods firmed up pretty solid. It was 0 when the lifts started turning but warmed up to the low teens, and the sun came out turning it into a windless bluebird day. We explored the rest of the mountain, cruising on the groomers which skied very well. We went into the glades a few times, but they didn’t ski great so we decided to let them be.
Top of Casablanca Chute 2
In Dark Wizard
Looking up at Tight Line
Skied through the Super Bowl nonsense, and a good thing. Place mostly shut down due to winds today, but sadly, doesn’t look like any real snow is going to fall with this “storm”. Too bad. Heading for 50 days without a flake.
Headed to Utah (Powder Mt, Snowbasin, Park City) next week. Please tell me they’re getting something related to fresh snow this week?!
Be sure to bring those carvers, and tune those edges. I think Utah has had only slightly more snow than us out in CA. As Gatopescato said, we are parched out here.
Snowing lightly here in MT, so there’s hope for Utah. Worst drought in 1200 years according to the NYT.
There are a few days of snow showers in the next week, but that’s about it. 
Jackson just had its driest month in its history. BC just had rain to 8000’ in the interior (a buddy was there and bummed). Bridger has had 114" since Nov 1, about half of normal. Definitely a lot of friends (and myself) contemplating why we live where we do.
How about that? We actually got an inch overnite, and still falling lightly. Going to end soon however. Temps right back up tomorrow.
Bridger got 4 or 5". Not bad, although you’ve got to be light on your feet. There’s a lot of obstacles waiting to bite. There’s actually multiple small storms in the forecast. I head back to BC a week from Friday, so plan on a blizzard that day. At least it sounds like they’re clearing out those assholes blocking the border.
We’ll be at Powder Sun-Mon, Snowbasin Tue, and Park City Thu-Sat. Looks like we might get a few small storms during that time, but nothing to make up for all that is missing.
Back east we’re getting a warm rain Thu-Fri followed by a deep freeze.
I just got snow alerts for here Sunday, so there’s hope. You don’t need much to make it a refresh. Let us know how Powder Mt. is. I’m interested in areas that limit ticket sales. Vail seems to be hell-bent on fucking the ski industry.
Yeah, pretty sure we won’t be buying an Epic Pass next year. Maybe an Ikon, maybe just the Indy Pass again.
Check out open snow, Evan thayer does a great job with wasatxh snow forecasts. He used to be on Wasatch Snow Forecast but shifted platform.
Powder bouy is also a fun site. He looks and the mean wave hights of a measurement bouy out in the pacific , plus other data and gives a good forecast.
They keep track of snow levelrs and have links to sno tel levels
I’m really worried they are gonna institute ‘pay for parking’ at Heavenly. That will be the end of my skiing days.
Is there any talk of this? I think at Northstar they backtracked on the paid parking in the closer lot - it’s back to first-come-first-served. Not sure if the local uproar or the pandemic made them rethink that one.