New England 2020/21 Northeast

[James]

You did it wrong James. Snowdon at first bell was sweet, with smooth freshly groomed surfaces. And Northridge was decent later in the morning. Once they get heavy, then it's time to hit the Superstar chair.

That’s what I figured. But early Skylark was sweet. So now you either A) park at Snowdon, B) take the Gondi up and ski the 2.5miles down, C) walk the trail of dirt for 300yds?
I’ll take B. Is there a D?

They could really use the snow and cold temps. This will delay the corn harvest, and be difficult on the mud skiers with frozen mud. The upside is the frozen grass should be fast.

 

[MadPatSki]

Here is this week's status on who's still spinning.

Meltdown – Eastern Closing Thread 2021 – Part 3

Meltdown – Eastern Closing Thread 2021 – Part 3

* Update: April 15, 7:30PM: Winter storm warning for part of New England. Magic Mountain VT might reopen for one day, on Saturday, if it receives enough snow. ** Update: April 16, 5:30PM: Magic did…

madpatski.wordpress.com

 

[PinnacleJim]

That’s what I figured. But early Skylark was sweet. So now you either A) park at Snowdon, B) take the Gondi up and ski the 2.5miles down, C) walk the trail of dirt for 300yds?
I’ll take B. Is there a D?

D. Take lower Bunny Buster to the K1 Lodge. Take the short cutoff just below the KSC building rather than going down to the entry to the K1 gondola. That short stretch is currently bare so you do have to walk a bit, but nothing like C.

E. Not sure but I believe Launch Pad is still open. I did notice today Blue Heaven was open this morning, and that's the only place it could be leading to since Bear and Needles are closed. Didn't try it myself however.

 

[James]

Yes, it’s open. Have taken Launch pad last 4 days.

 

[James]

Weather predictions are for 6 to 18 inches of snow for central and southern VT Thursday night and Friday. Fingers crossed.

Wow. Thurs could be miserable though. Sounds like Monday was.

 

[Phelmut]

Opensnow is a lot more optimistic for Killington. I showed it to a friend and she said the exaggeration of that forecast showed it was clearly made by a man.

 

[sparty]

I got out for a few runs at Sunday River today. The grooming crew is doing impressive work moving snow to link things back together, but the recent weather has not been kind to the snowpack.

If we do get real snow Friday, be advised that you should probably not trust what it may be hiding.

 

[James]

More classic spring at Killington.
Missed the Snowdon window again. Suspect that 10:30 it closes. Pitch on Bunny Buster is the best thing there. Did a couple laps before abandoning the area. Fair number of people this morning probably trashed the place skiing it.


Superstar Headwall. Start your bump experience here.
A wee bit of rain early morning or overnight. Drama clouds still hanging around.


Pretty warm today. Don’t know, about 60? Lots of sun again when the clouds didn’t block. Canyons lift closed today for some reason, despite apparently pushing more snow down there than the last two days. So if you skied Cascade, which is still in very good shape, you had to walk out.
East Fall is toast, with mandatory mud run section. The mudskiers love steep mud, but didn’t see attempts.




No escaping the bumps.
Afternoon, 3:20. Didn’t get the late telepalooza event today, nor many post work skiers. I think most skied am, knowing tmrw is supposed to be crap.


Heading out, 3:55. Cloud reflection in puddle.
All in all another tremendous spring day at Killington. Nothing like the sound of corn moving off a mogul. If you want to farm a smooth field of corn, start at 9am.

 

[Slide of Hans]

More classic spring at Killington.


Pretty warm today. Don’t know, about 60? Lots of sun again when the clouds didn’t block. Canyons lift closed today for some reason, despite apparently pushing more snow down there than the last two days. So if you skied Cascade, which is still in very good shape, you had to walk out.

How far was the walk out? Any snow left on the runout below the Canyon load terminal?

 

[Wilhelmson]

Thanks for the photos. We will be up in Maine but this broken collarbone (mtb injury) will have me stuck easy hiking or fishing. I had wanted to ski vt too.

 

[James]

How far was the walk out? Any snow left on the runout below the Canyon load terminal?

Pretty far. No, no snow below the terminal. Barely enough to make the turn into the lift.
Though ironically, today seemed to be the best approach in days and it was closed.

They’ve had to push snow to the terminal every night starting Saturday when it was thoroughly trashed.
Basically bare till it gets quite flat and even towards the end of that. There’s snow at the end towards the lodge open space.
Downdraft was closed yesterday. Not enough snow at bottom. But that could be solved if they get new snow.

 

[Tony S]

Lot of chatter about real snow Friday. I am taking it seriously. Planning on the Loaf for Saturday, now that they've finally dropped ticket prices to reasonable. ($54 as of this post.)

 

[sparty]

Another thing not to trust: that a groomed trail is smooth and groomed all the way down, even where it stays white. I think it's just been too soft for the groomers to keep things smooth all the time, but I ran into significant bumps mid-groom on both Punch and Monday Mourning today.

You'd think that having done it first run on Punch would've had me attentive to the possibility on Monday Mourning, but nope, I was having too much fun getting 100mm-underfoot skis to arc down a decent pitch, until I arced one of them right into a berm and went over the handlebars. Thankfully, the freshly groomed stuff was soft and creamy, so the landing wasn't too painful.

I'm still impressed with what they've pieced together and kept open. Wildfire is hanging in there and had some pretty good turns, and even the groomed portions of Monday Mourning were rather pleasant (bumps and divots aside).

I'm also starting to think that freeride comps in the East really ought to be scheduled for the springtime. There's a lot more opportunity to demonstrate a creative line with technical skill this time of year, even on terrain that is usually pretty boring.

 

[Phelmut]

Punch and Monday Mourning? I don't think I've ever heard of those trails and I've skied there many times. Where are they?

 

[Tony S]

Punch and Monday Mourning? I don't think I've ever heard of those trails and I've skied there many times. Where are they?

Punch is short for Sunday Punch. Both are primary trails in the original Barker / Locke pod. Monday Mourning - which ends at the base of the Locke triple - usually has a race going on it, so it's not available for free skiing much.

 

[James]

Donuts!

 

[Phelmut]

Punch is short for Sunday Punch. Both are primary trails in the original Barker / Locke pod. Monday Mourning - which ends at the base of the Locke triple - usually has a race going on it, so it's not available for free skiing much.

I thought my Alzheimer's was acting up, but that explains why I was confused. I saw Wildfire and thought he was referring to Bear at Killington.

 

[sparty]

Punch is short for Sunday Punch. Both are primary trails in the original Barker / Locke pod. Monday Mourning - which ends at the base of the Locke triple - usually has a race going on it, so it's not available for free skiing much.

Exactly. I think Monday Mourning is more often than not open after 2:30 p.m. or so, but at that point it's usually had a non-trivial number of race courses set and pulled, so finding a rut-free line may present a challenge.

 

[Slide of Hans]

Im not sure of projected snow totals in VT but if enough falls, magic mtn is crazy enough to reopen! Thats why its the best, always customer first.

if there is enough snow on lower mountain, we may open Green Chair to mid-mtn for Saturday April 17th, just for the heck of it. Since there is no base snow left, it would be all-natural, no grooming, whatever it is type stuff. There would be no lodge or take-out food or rentals etc. Just the T-BAR for refreshments, chili and dogs, and Tavern for a few bevies. Laid-back, take a few indie bonus runs. Tickets at the window would be $39 if it is a go. Won’t know that until late Friday as we see how much falls at base of Green Lift. Since we are closed for the 20/21 season, I guess this would be the unofficial earliest opening for the 21/22 season–IF it can happen. Stay tuned here.

 

[James]

Today at Killington the near opposite of yesterday. About 40 deg at base. Raining. Foggy. Not sure we’ll end up ahead if only 6 inches of snow falls. Maybe better to have no rain.

Can’t see the rain.
This visibility was good for there, it got worse. Maybe 3 chairs visibility. The trails to the side of Superstar didn’t have bad visibility at anytime.

Well what to do? Killington ski partner done for the season. Most out were on the gondola or Snowdon bubble. Frankly not worth going to either place. The corn wasn’t “fly to Iceland in June” quality. After a bunch of pivot slips decided to work on technique and attempt to do 100% parallel, 180 degree turns. That morphed into how many turns could I do to the bottom? Something in the 90’s.

The challenge is to do a parallel turn the whole way. Where there’s pitch skis are at right angles or uphill to the fall line. No discontinuities in line for bare spots or rocks. Plan ahead. There’s almost no one out so avoiding humans is a non issue. No poling on flats. No stopping till liftline gate.

I was able to get it up to 163 starting at the top. With a different ski might be able to get more, don’t know.

This way to Bittersweet made for the most turns.
Then I had to do Superstar. Oddly, by far the worst snow was the bottom 50 yards. Dimpled golf ball with some soft spots.
The thing about the endless turning runs is you just keep turning and suddenly I’m on the final pitch. Then I had to do it without stopping since I paused after the headwall. After a continuous run, couldn’t stop there since 1 run is lame. Did two more, then another endless turn, and polished it off with one more continuous down Superstar.

Left after 3 hours totally soaked.