Lots of snow here in the northeast. Alas, I’ve been sick with bronchitis and unable to take advantage of the conditions. Last week was school vacation week for my wife so I took all my meds and we headed up to Saddleback in Maine for a couple of wonderful days on snow.
Then we drove home, getting a half day of groomer runs at Mt Abram along the way. Indy Pass all the way. We’ve planned trips for the next three weekends: NH, Bolton Valley, Jay Peak and the Eastern Townships, all on Indy.
Just got back from northern BC. Pretty much nailed it. First six days it snowed about 5’ with relatively warm temperature, so almost all tree skiing, and fighting some schmoo at the bottom of some runs. Thursday was colder, and all-time conditions. I get told Friday at 5 (leaving Saturday at 7am) that they had a cancellation. After much fraught negotiations with my wife, I decided to stay on. Temps cooled, more snow, and pretty epic conditions ensued. Friday was some of the best snow quality I’ve ever experienced. Really got my skis under me after being injured the last few years and was skiing smoothly and fast. Very fun. I’ll post some pics later.
Kirkwood is sticking to it’s guns: April 19 is the official closing day as of just a couple of days ago. We shall see. And I will say that the ‘cat crews are doing yeoman’s work harvesting snow and moving it around the mountain.
You’ll probably be comfortable in shorts and t-shirts. Tuesday I skied in a t-shirt and powder pants (I have no choice), and I was HOT. Just make sure to reapply the sunscreen several times throughout the day!
From spring back to winter. Got two surprising (East Coast) powder days at Jay Peak this weekend. A few inches fell over night on Friday so we had 6" in the trees which made for some good runs though the lift lines were a bit long on the Flyer.
Sunday is started snowing at 4:00 AM and continued all day. The parking lot filled up early and the Tram and Flyer were down for wind hold so the lines for the Jet and Bonnie were extensive. But the woods had the goods, untracked 8" as far as you could see, plenty of open lines, and temps weren’t too cold. We took off around 1:00 because the lift lines weren’t getting shorter and our legs were shot. Plus a 4 hour drive home in the snow is better in daylight.
Kirkwood today, probably the last day of the season, with no precip in sight. Overnight low was 42F, with puddles and runoff as we parked. Cloudless and windless, and slush turned to mush by 11am as the temp reached for the upper 50s/low 60s. I did ski a couple runs in just short sleeves and loved it, but put my sweaty light jacket back on since my arms were unprotected and I didn’t want to fry them in the strong sun. When the sign says “thin cover” they meant “bare areas” - evidently the kids like to shoot thru these and try to make a turn while kicking up rocks. At least the large rocks were sticking up prominently in the runs so they were easy to avoid. Changed into shorts for the ride home. Still, it was a few hours of skiing as opposed to mowing the lawn and pruning!
Looking at the @Telemark pics above with envy, except that long line! WTF?
That’s the singles line, which moves fairly quickly on the Jet triple. It was a powder day in late March, parking lots were full and turning folks away, with the two Tramside lifts on wind hold. Yeah, taking 45 minutes a run (20 minutes skiing, 25 minutes lift) isn’t great but the skiing was. On Saturday all the lifts were running so it wasn’t quite that bad, but Saturday crowds were bigger so that didn’t help.
Bridger Bowl closed yesterday, 3 weeks early. Only announced the closing Thursday. Not surprising since it was in the 70s all week and didn’t get below freezing at night… One unique aspect of BB is that the Ridge (hiking access expert terrain) spans the entire width of the area above intermediate terrain, so when it gets too warm and avalanche danger spikes, half of the mountain has to close no matter the snow depth. Glad I got the BC trip in. What a crummy winter.
Agree. Out west it used to be a few storms before the holidays and you were likely, if not guaranteed to get in a day or two before New Year’s, and sometimes much earlier, like around Thxgiving. One year we got in a day before Halloween! And that ski season lasted for 6 months total!
This season we had a stormy week around the Holidays, and then a stormy week in Feb (the timeframe of the avalanche deaths near Tahoe), and otherwise nothin! Just two weeks of storms all winter. Just days and weeks of dry, and recently heat added to that. Not a good combo of conditions for snow sports. Boo!
Yeah, this is sad. The announced closing date is still April 19, but I find it hard to believe there’s gonna be enough snow to make it for nearly four weeks. They grooming crews are hard at work harvesting snow from closed runs to keep other runs open, but temps in the 60s aren’t helping. I guess I’ll have to pull my rock skis out of storage.
