Some of the smaller East Coast ski hills, especially the southern ones, may be closing after this weekend. A lot are closed the rest of this week in an effort to preserve snow for the weekend.
And we bought our Indy Passes for next season. One of the big draws, Powder Mountain in Utah, is dropping off the pass unfortunately.
First day on the hill yesterday–conditions are good after 3’ of snow in 5 days. My knee felt ok, although I pretty much stuck to groomers. Feels pretty tight this morning, but not painful. I guess that’s a win. My buddies are having a good week in BC. Bastards.
Had a little bit of everything today. Pulled up with broken clouds, turned to pretty heavy corn snow, then some fog. Decided to call it quits early, and was heading back to the car, when the sun came out, and huge flakes drifted down, casting shadows actually. It stopped soon after and then it was sunlight and big smooshy moguls.
I stayed another couple hours. Wore myself out good.
It was so perfect today, that if I skipped it, I would have been stricken down by fate. Managed to hammer out about 23k vertical. Not bad for an old fat injured bastard. Made turns so ridiculous, I was getting snow in my hair. Not enough sunscreen for a day like today!
Kinda overdid it really. But gotta stay away for a couple days. Can’t fight the weekend crowds. Can’t count on parking. Can’t hardly walk. 
I’ve got 4 weeks from today to prep for Last Frontier… Gonna have to put in some time!
Got back from Vail today. Not a cloud in the sky, and too hot. The thermometer at the base of the Mountain Top Express lift, at almost 10,700 feet, said it was 59F. The top \frac{2}{3} of the back bowls were great, but the bottom third was all spring skiing and slush. On the way home the air temperature at the top of Vail Pass was 44F.
Unfortunately, unless we get another big snow dump, which could happen, I’m done with Vail this year, having only been once, and won’t get to go to Beaver Creek at all. Things may still be good at some of the higher altitude runs at Breckenridge and Keystone.
I got a mid-week day up at Sunapee (firm and fast) and then more of a spring day this past weekend at Waterville. This coming weekend I’m headed to MRG and Bolton Valley, Mother Nature is trying to make up for a poor season by dumping on NoVT in mid-March.
Oh, and Indy Pass stopped selling 2024-25 passes yesterday, limiting the total number sold. I suspect they will release more later in the fall at a higher price, but the numbers will be limited.
Killed Comet Chair for 2 1/2 hours, nice lines down Little Dipper. Waved to my friend on the webcam. Went back to the car at the bottom of the tram and the Face was like cement. Only managed 3 runs. 
If the temps keep up like this, they ain’t getting near the announced closing date of May whatever.
Oh, get this: I was riding up Dipper chair to head back to California, and about 1000 yards from the bottom, I look down and see what is unmistakably Cold Hard Cash!
Well, that is a pretty long chair ride, and I was pretty near the bottom, but decided to chance it and haul ass down to were I saw it.
Amazingly, after 5 minutes one the chair, and all the people who were ahead of me, and all the people coming down before me, I got there and scooped up $25!
Almost enough for a beer at one of the lodges! 
At Keystone today, and it is so much better than Vail last week. Cold and snowing, but not too bad on the wind. Not enough visibility to see Breck. Perfect conditions as far as I’m concerned.
The new Bergman area is an open bowl that starts above tree line. It reminds me of Loveland.
I was at Breck (and Keystone for one day) last week and the conditions were pretty rough. No new snow for quite a few days and pretty warm (>40) in the afternoons. Up high in the bowls was decent, but it got slushy and scraped off pretty quick down lower. If only our Spring Break was one week later.
Still had a great time for my once-a-year Rockies ski trip.
We just spent a week of spring break at Mammoth, and then the weekend at Big Bear. Bottom half of Mammoth is good in the morning, then moving to the top half in the afternoon works well. We avoided the snowstorm on the weekend, which closed the summit due to high winds. Big Bear was wet snowing the whole weekend; the kind of snow that sticks to you and soaks in.
Might be able to get another weekend or two at Big Bear in April. Not sure if it’ll be worth it to go to Mammoth for Memorial Day.
Still training for my BC trip, but conditions at Bridger are rugged. Too icy for the tiller to make a dent in the groomed runs. 2 days of 60 degree weather really hurt. Picked up some new Elan Ripstick 96s yesterday, so at least I’ve got fresh edges. Got some Fischer Ranger 120s a month ago, and they’re actually pretty comfortable and ski well. What a concept. Hopefully northern BC gets some snow, or it’s going to be rugged also.
I’ve had a fairly busy ski season since I last posted.
First I went back to Pats Peak for our annual scout ski trip. As I mentioned previously, this is where I got badly injured last year…but nothing untoward happened this year. I even skied the same trail I got hurt on, and to help eradicate any remaining bad juju, I repeated the same trail (a fairly steep black diamond) another seven times.
The next week I went with my ski club to the country of Andorra in the Pyrenees. We skied three days at Grandvalira and one day each at Ordino-Arcalis and Pal Arinsal. I rented skis so I didn’t have to haul my own overseas but did bring my own boots. Ski rental was very reasonable. The premium rental skis were only 150 euros for the week and I got very nice Stöckli Monteros. Ski conditions were very good, which was reportedly not the case up until the week prior, so we were lucky there. It lightly snowed almost every day we were there, and was very sunny the last day. Unfortunately it was also above treeline, so I got a pretty bad sunburn on the exposed skin on my face, even with sunscreen. In any event, I highly recommend Andorra for skiing in Europe.
After two weeks at home and recovering from a GI bug I picked up on the plane flight home, I spent a week at Sugarloaf in Maine. Conditions were great except for last Thursday when everything was on wind hold due to a snowstorm. They got another snowstorm this last weekend after we left, so good snow conditions should persist there for at least another few weeks.
I was heading back home to Connecticut following the storm this past weekend, but decided to take advantage by spending a half-day at Okemo on Sunday. (I could have also gone to Sunapee or Mount Snow, but thought Okemo was most likely to have good conditions.) By the time I got there, it was bump city, so I got good practice skiing them. But my legs were burning by the time I skied 14k vertical feet of continuous bumps.
Next weekend will likely be my last bit of skiing, because I am headed down to Texas the following week for the eclipse. I want to get some more mileage out of my Epic pass, so I will probably go to Stowe in Vermont. They reportedly got a record amount of snow this season, and a lot is still left. I hope the moderate temps and rain that is forecast for the next few days doesn’t do too much damage.
I rolled up to HV just in time to catch a couple runs up top before getting shut down from wind. Winter Storm Warning took effect at 2pm and they were about spot-on. Started snowing pretty hard, and the winds just got worse. I bailed…
Easter in Big Bear was great! Over a foot of fresh powder and the temperature never got above freezing. That and the holiday seemed to keep the crowds away.
I finished off my season with a day at Okemo and two days at Stowe, Vermont.
I was surprised at how much of the 24” inches of snow that fell on Okemo the previous weekend vanished, but there was still enough base remaining for an enjoyable day of spring skiing.
Stowe, being further north, had better conditions. No snow whatsoever in the town, but plenty on the slopes. The upper third of the mountain was still in full winter garb with temps in the 20s. The middle third was soft and bumped up as the day progressed, and the bottom was getting slushy by the end of the day with full sun and temps in the 40s.
So all in all, I was able to get 25 days of skiing in this season.
Next year I am already considering a trip out west and maybe to Italy with my ski club. 
There’s a big storm coming later this week. I’m probably going to try to get some skiing in this weekend when I’m up north for the eclipse.
I hope you have a good time and can take advantage of this unseasonably late snowstorm!
I considered trying to add some skiing to my last-minute trip this weekend to Vermont to see the eclipse (following a likely change in plans in which I was originally supposed to fly to Texas). However, my adult son will be with me and I am positive he would not enjoy spring skiing or skiing in heavy, wet snow—and it doesn’t really make sense for us to drive up separately.
I also don’t want to risk injury the weekend before the eclipse—which would just be my luck. On that note, last Sunday I had a very minor fall in heavy snow, which apparently tweaked my knee a bit, and I don’t want to further aggravate it.
With all that said, it will be painful to drive up to Vermont with snow on the ground and not bring my skis!!
