I’ve done four days so far this season: two at Mount Snow in southern Vermont and two at Loon in New Hampshire.
Mount Snow was in great shape both times. The first was a few days before Christmas and the second was today.
We did Loon last weekend. It was very cold and icy, but we got some really great runs the second day off of the new 8-seater (the Kancamagus 8) because it was apparently down most of the day and we hit it in the afternoon right after they put it in service.
Got my first day in yesterday, for a number of reasons. Went up late on purpose to Kirkwood, no traffic, easy reservation parking (new this season), and almost no walking to get on the slopes with the shuttle. Anyway, firm to icy and thin cover in some areas with no snow since around New Years, what they like to call “packed powder” (bullshit). Sunny with a slight breeze and cold, high of about 31. Skied almost to the closing bell. Awesome day all told!
Good day at Bridger, but… It was 22 degrees at the house, so dressed normally. At Bridger (5 miles) it was 14 with 30 mph winds. Everyone was cold and they had frostbite warnings out. At my age and history of frostnip heated socks are not optional.
Been cold as shit, so they are making snow at HV all the time, but the problem is the wind blows it to places unneeded. Last couple of days its just a sheet of ice with some fluff here and there. Moguls are like concrete. Getting sunburned and frostbit at the same time! But no lines, and good parking! Nothing even in the long term forecast.
Took a daytrip up to Waterville Valley on Saturday. It was colder than we anticipated (-5 in the parking lot) and when we arrived we found out that there was a World Cup Double Moguls competition going on. It was pretty cool seeing all the young, fit athletes from all over the world stretching and warming up in the lodge, then riding up the lift with them.
You could ski along side the course, watching them go by from less than 10 feet away. Pretty cool, and their skiing is just insane to watch.
Just got back from coastal BC. Awesome and a little (lot) intimidating. Conditions varied from great powder to wind-affect to sun crust. Stability was great so we skied some steep lines–like 45-47 degrees for 1000’ vert. I got scared but survived. I need to get stronger and take some steep lessons if I’m going to do a week like that again.
After a variety of annoying physical issues, I finally got my first day of the season. Extremely light traffic on I-70, and not many people at Keystone. Unfortunately, the Epic app listed it as spring conditions. There wasn’t any slush or mud by the time I left, but I bet by 4 there would be. The best runs were sun softened snow, and the worst were wind swept and hard.
A big upside of being so warm was that forgetting my ski pants didn’t matter. I skied in jeans, and wasn’t cold at all. Probably looked like an idiot (or Californian) with my jeans all bunched up above my boots.
The day did prove that my back and feet problems didn’t interfere with skiing. Hopefully I’ll still feel fine in the morning.
And, @Telemark, I saw someone on tele skis on a groomed blue at Keystone. Maybe he missed the turn for A-basin, as that’s historically the only place I see them, and it’s only a few miles away.
Finally getting some snow in the northern Sierra, after a dry January, and rain at pass level preceeding this storm over the weekend. Should be piling up nice during this week, to the tune of several feet.
Getting some vert in at Canyons/ParkCity. Just under foot of snow last night although it came in as grauple, to start , then the temp dropped so we have some heavy snow on top of ball bearings on top of a thawed then frozen base . It’s like 4th July with all the avy bombing, definitely not a back country weekend .
I was in line 45 mins before the lifts started spinning , I spoke with some people who had made it up a bit later and they were waiting in line for almost an hour from lift opening , so paying attention to the alarm clock paid off. Time to finish the lunch I packed up and get back to it.
Nice backcountry powder day up at Mt Cardigan, we were late and slow so we didn’t get fresh tracks on the Alexandria trail, but we know some hidden gems so we were able to find untracked in the early afternoon.
Snuck in another day before the storm slides in. Epic! Cold as shit, but the natural snow was just perfect. Nice soft moguls, turn at will, sun came out about 10 minutes after I showed up.
On the last run before heading back to the other side of the mountain, spyied an unopened beer under the chair on an advanced slope. Went and grabbed it, a Tall Modelo, unfrozen. Bonus!
A goodly amount of snow over the Presidents’ Day weekend , alas no skiing as I was digging out a seasons worth of snow and ice from the house we bought. Maybe next weekend . At least it was right side up this time so the avy risk isn’t off the charts.
Drove up north for school vacation week, hit Black Mountain of NH on Sunday’s powder day, then Black Mountain of Maine for Monday’s day after powder day. Drove up to Rangeley for a few days at Saddleback but everything was on wind hold and wind chills were around -20. So we planned to ski Wed and Thu but got a call about a family medical emergency and had to cut the trip short. Missed out on some epic skiing, but no question that it was the right call.
Face of Heavenly was like semi-cured cement today. They had some kinda Rave DJ thing going up at the top of the Tram. They charged hipsters $35 bucks to ride the tram and listen to bass/drum for 2 hours. Reminded me of the Lou Reed song, to paraphrase…
“Somewhere there is a landlord laughing till he wets his pants”
I did a dozen runs and was absolutely dead by the end. Almost couldn’t push the clutch in. A difficult ski.
