Okemo
Did you daytrip from CT to VT? I’m wondering about the VT travel restrictions. Right now it looks like we can only ski in MA and NH practically, without at least a 7-day quarantine.
So VT allows visitors to quarantine pre-arrival in their home state as well (as long as you use a private vehicle to get there). Fortunately my work has been allowing me to work remotely recently so I’m able to do that. (My wife and son have been working at home since March.)
MA allows transitory travel, but otherwise requires a quarantine after arrival or negative COVID test. Maine is similar (as of November), which means we’re going to have to get tested before our trips there next month.
NH has no travel quarantine requirements for those traveling from the surrounding New England states.
We can quarantine for 7-days and get tested (for free, yay Somerville) so we might still try to get to VT. It’s just a lot of work and we want to follow proper protocol. We’re both working from home so neither of us needs to leave the house if we plan properly.
Hit Heavenly today. Snagged Primo parking. Sweet! Weather was perfect. Sweater and spring gloves. Got to Powderbowl and saw what looked to be a good half-hour line. Figured it was gonna be worse up higher. Homey don’t play that. Retreated back to the Face, which was 4H (lots of agriculture) and World Cup a sheet of Terror Ice, It was still early, and not a ray of sunshine hit this yet. Snow was actually pretty good, all things considering. Managed to find a pretty good few lines after a couple runs and avoided the rocks and stuff. Wore myself out good. I guess I need to wait till the holidays are over.
Nice to get out of the house at any rate.
I got my third day of skiing in this season today.
Overall it was a good day, but at the end of the day I took a bad spill after getting hit by an out-of-control snowboarder from behind in my blind spot. 
He didn’t even stop to make sure I was OK. By the time I got up, checked myself out, and skied to the bottom, he was long gone. The biggest issue seems to be a bruised gluteus maximus, which is now pretty sore. Hopefully there’s nothing worse.
Conditions were great, though. Thin coverage in a few spots, but plenty of snow overall. However, they’re predicting a warmup with rain starting tomorrow here in the Northeast with temps in the 50s and 60s, followed by plummeting temperatures this weekend.
You’ve heard the joke, right? What does a snowboarder say when he meets you for the first time? “Sorry, dude!”
In this case, I didn’t even get a “Sorry, dude!” out of the deal. Just a “Whoa!” from behind a split-second before impact.
I did successfully avoid a collision earlier in the day. I was following a kid on a narrow traverse at a pretty good clip. The kid hit a bump or something and just collapsed in a heap right in front of me. I immediately veered right into the ungroomed snow off to the side and missed him with room to spare. (Fortunately it was the uphill side and not a dropoff!)
Almost went up for Christmas skiing. Was kinda gloomy and cold, so remained on the couch. Good thing, too. I checked the website, and pretty much everything was shut down by 11 due to wind. That’s just about when I would have been rolling into the lot. That would have sucked.
The bright side is: It’s starting to snow up there, now! Weeeee!
By midday yesterday here in New England, with temps in the 50s and warm rain on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, virtually all of the snow on the ground here was gone. However, a cold front followed the storm, and with temps now in the 20s, the snow guns are all blowing again at the NE ski resorts. Hopefully they still have some base left and can recover soon.
I just got back from a week at Sugarloaf in Maine. Conditions were pretty good overall, though the base was thinner than usual. They were making a lot of snow and gradually opened more trails over the course of the week. Crowds were low and everyone was wearing a facemask. I rode the lift up either alone or with another single on the opposite side of a four-person lift.
The trip also included a week of complimentary 90-minute group lessons for any level skier. I got placed in a completely appropriate level for me (level 4 out of 5). I was the only student in my class for the first and last day, with only one additional student for days 2-4. The two of us students were pretty well-matched, so it worked out well. Anyway, I think the lessons really helped me improve my technique this past week.
Because of the low crowds and good conditions, I got a lot of skiing in. On Thursday, I skied over 30,000 vertical feet! I skied from first chair to last without a break, other than the mid-day lesson. I also skied a trail that I later found out was the steepest trail on the mountain and a double black diamond. Starting off was like looking over the edge of a cliff. 
All in all, it was a great week.
Cool–I grew up in Maine and Sugarloaf is the real deal. It’s grim out here in MT–low snow, 90 MPH winds Wednesday and warm. Rode the dirtbike today which was by far the best option. And crappy avalanche danger. The year(s) that keep on giving!
Got three days of skiing in Maine again last weekend, this time at Sunday River with my son. There were a lot of challenges, including the pandemic, single-digit temps, and wind holds across the mountain.
Because of the wind holds, our ski-in/ski-out hotel turned into ski-out only, which is not too helpful. We had to take a shuttle back, which I had been trying to avoid.
On the third day, I therefore decided to drive over to another base area and boot up in the car, which is an experience in conditions like that. Hard to boot up without opening a car door, and every time we opened more than one door things started to blow away in the howling wind.
My son was ready to call it as soon as we started that day, but I managed to convince him to stick it out—and we actually had a decent day, all things considered, because the snow conditions were just perfect. With most of the lifts on wind hold, they started running the competition T-bar on Locke, which opened up the mountain somewhat. Crowds were nonexistent. Few people were evidently willing to brave the elements…or they have better sense. 
On another note, because of these trips, I’ve been getting tested for Covid on a nearly weekly basis to comply with the various state rules.
Got my latest first day of the season Feb 3 at Pat’s Peak, a small mountain in central NH. It’s the closest place on the Indy Pass and I just wanted to get some time on snow. Skied 8:30 to 1:00 without stopping, 22 pretty short runs, then ate lunch in the car and drove home. Skied tele all day, although I had my alpine skis in the car. Even hit the one bump run on the mountain, didn’t suck.
On a more somber note, we had our first NH avalanche death in a while on Mt Washington last week. An experienced backcountry skier on a Low avy danger day, just got caught is a small slide over a terrain trap and was buried. Skiing alone certainly didn’t help, but having someone there might not have changed the outcome. A few days later there were 4 avy deaths in Utah but this one is close to home.
Yeah–last week was the worst week for avalanches since 1910. 4 in UT, 4 in CO, 3 in AK. We got lucky here in MT, although a snowmobiler died yesterday. Bridger Bowl got 5’ in 5 days. Damn good skiing, although the reservation system makes it hard to get a ticket. Rode the snowbike (moto) on Thursday and it was handlebar deep.
Pats Peak holds a special place in my heart because that’s where I finally learned to ski a few years ago after repeatedly trying and failing my whole life (with large gaps between attempts). IMHO, they have the best steady progression of slopes I’ve seen anywhere, from practically flat (but long enough to be interesting) to intermediate trails to a couple of decently steep trails, including their F.I.S. race trail.
They also allow youth groups (like Scout troops) to ski until 10pm at night and to then sleep overnight on the carpeted floor of the lodge (in sleeping bags). The fee is fairly modest and also includes breakfast in their cafeteria. This would have been our troop’s 7th annual trip this year (which I’ve organized every year), but all overnight trips for Scouts have been suspended indefinitely due to covid. We will probably go back in 2022, though.
I still haven’t mastered their bump run, though (or anyone else’s). It’s on my list of things to learn, though.
I skied Pats Peak a couple weeks ago. My first time on skis in 12 years, after skiing 30+ days a year from age 4 to 22 (the perils of marrying a non-skier). It was the same howling wind, bitter cold Friday @robby was at Sunday River. I and a friend got in 27 runs between 9:00 and 1pm, seemed like we were the only people on the mountian. Whole runs to ourselves, ski straight to the chair with no lines (the staff apparently had a pool going on how low the attendance would be that day). I haven’t had that great of a day in years. I don’t mean great day skiing, either. I mean great day overall. An absolute blast.
I was very worried that I’d be quite rusty - last time I skied I was on straight 210s, I had tried shaped skis once and they were horrible. The modern shaped skis (rentals) were great. Our first run was Puff, everything came back like it was the first day of the season. Knees are a little less stable than I remember, and hitting the little jumps was a bit of a surprise (the “well, that was a poor choice” feeling as your legs go somewhere you did not expect), but the skiing bug is certainly back.
I have to visit a town on 89 just past Henniker about once a month for work, which was partially why Pats became the mountian of choice. There are going to be at least two more visits this year, more if I can swing the days off.
Had a great backcountry day on Mt Cardigan in central NH Sunday. Got there early and did a few laps of some hidden secret glades, all fresh untracked lines, and even a bonus run on an old downhill trail that was recently cleared. Then the rains came, but carpe ski 'em!
I have only been up a handful of time so far this season, and the experiences have been mixed. Went to Northstar on the Friday as a big storm was ending - took forever to get there and forever to get on the slopes - did not start making turns until after 12:00 noon. I should have known better. My last day a week ago Monday at Heavenly was the opposite - easy drive, primo parking, nary a lift line, great snow coverage and conditions, and that amazing view from Ridge Run! Reminded me of how much fun a day skiing can be, and probably what @Gatopescado gets to enjoy all the time!
The parking out here has been a situation. Seems most people that would have either carpooled or taken public transit (from Tahoe area accommodations) either are not or cannot do either. The result is most everyone driving there alone and parking lots filling-up early, with some having to turn away people who had reservations for the day or purchased tickets for that day - there is literally no place to put more cars.
I am going to favor more weekdays and just burn some vacation time this season, weekends have been totally nuts.
Just saw the Utah avalanche centers warning diagram. Black on all faces , all elevations , all slope angles
It cant go any higher.