New England 2021-2022 Northeast Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups

[flying_j]

Sugarloaf skied really well today. Firm groomers to start off which then went through all phases: thick and chunky chowder, thinner chowder, creamed corn, and then finally smooth perfectly whipped mashed potatoes. Everything was nice soft bumps late in the day. Skidder was an absolute hoot late afternoon. Lower flats held up well too, no real sticky struggles down low today.
sunny bluebird day all day. Good day to go out on.
For those of you who still can, I’d highly recommend the loaf this week.

 

[Wilhelmson]

So what would be the better time of the season for Mount Snow

I feel like late February has a slightly higher snow to rain ratio, and if the snowpack isn’t good, chances are that March won’t be much better.

 

[Tony S]

Sugarloaf skied really well today. Firm groomers to start off which then went through all phases: thick and chunky chowder, thinner chowder, creamed corn, and then finally smooth perfectly whipped mashed potatoes. Everything was nice soft bumps late in the day. Skidder was an absolute hoot late afternoon. Lower flats held up well too, no real sticky struggles down low today.
sunny bluebird day all day. Good day to go out on.
For those of you who still can, I’d highly recommend the loaf this week.

Groan

 

[Chip]

OK- Planning for next year. Looking for some input on Mount Snow and Okemo.
This year we had the Ikon pass and used the hell out of it in Utah and Colorado. But next year I won't be getting 30 days in- hopefully I can get about 10. Fingers crossed.
So our plan is to purchase the mid-tier Epic multi-day passes which gives us the Vermont resorts as well as Keystone in Colorado. The family has expressed interest in skiing in Vermont again. My wife has a college friend that works at Stratton, and we have stayed with her in the past and skied Stratton. She always has some discounted tickets for us to use. So if we stay with her, Mount Snow and Okemo are short drives and since we have never skied at those resorts we thought it would be fun to try them out.
I'll probably make a trip out to Colorado with some friends- So I'll get a few extra days on the Epic pass and probably purchase a 3 day pass at ABasin as well- cause who doesn't love ABasin?

So what would be the better time of the season for Mount Snow and Okemo? Was thinking sometime in the later January to early March timeframe- avoiding holidays of course and shooting for midweek. The plan would be 3 days at these two resorts and hopefully get another day at Stratton.
I think I remember reading some issues regarding closed lifts at Okemo this season- will this be an ongoing issue for them?

OK- change of plans. The wife really wants to go to Stowe, so we are going to Stowe.
Looking at skiing Mon-Wed either Jan 30 to Feb 1. Or Feb 6 to Feb 8. Does anyone know if there is anything going on either of those weeks that would make the mountain crowded? Looks like the Mid Winter break for the schools happens later in Feb. and this will be after MLK. I would also think that waiting another week might help with snow coverage. But the way the weather has been- that's prolly a crap shoot anyway.

 

[dbostedo]

OK- change of plans. The wife really wants to go to Stowe, so we are going to Stowe.
Looking at skiing Mon-Wed either Jan 30 to Feb 1. Or Feb 6 to Feb 8. Does anyone know if there is anything going on either of those weeks that would make the mountain crowded? Looks like the Mid Winter break for the schools happens later in Feb. and this will be after MLK. I would also think that waiting another week might help with snow coverage. But the way the weather has been- that's prolly a crap shoot anyway.

Well local weather and the particular season can completely change any given week or weekend. BUT on average late January is slightly better than early Feb. for snow quality at Stowe per ZRankings:



(Note that the scale is for all resorts in North America, so Stowe only gets above 50 compared to the top resort out west - Alta in this case.)

 

[Tony S]

Closing day at the Loaf yesterday with @aveski.

 

[Tony S]

Well local weather and the particular season can completely change any given week or weekend. BUT on average late January is slightly better than early Feb. for snow quality at Stowe per ZRankings:

View attachment 168088

(Note that the scale is for all resorts in North America, so Stowe only gets above 50 compared to the top resort out west - Alta in this case.)

I think what that chart shows is that skiing in the west gets so good starting in February that no east coast area can avoid a downward trend line by comparison, no matter how good conditions might be. If the starting point for your planning is that you are going to be skiing in the east, I see it it as anti-helpful.

 

[dbostedo]

I think what that chart shows is that skiing in the west gets so good starting in February that no east coast area can avoid a downward trend line by comparison, no matter how good conditions might be. If the starting point for your planning is that you are going to be skiing in the east, I see it it as anti-helpful.

Hmm... well the definition of "100" doesn't change over time for that particular graph. Here's Alta's, for instance, which hits 100, but it's not pegged at 100 all season:




So the improving conditions out west through February should not be the reason that Stowe's conditions decline after the beginning of Feb.

The other main graph on ZRankings is relative and changes over time ("Snow quality compared w/ rest of North American resorts"), and improving conditions out west could cause a steady eastern resort to appear to go down. In that case, Alta IS pegged at 100, so all resorts are being compared to that.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Well local weather and the particular season can completely change any given week or weekend. BUT on average late January is slightly better than early Feb. for snow quality at Stowe per ZRankings:

View attachment 168088

(Note that the scale is for all resorts in North America, so Stowe only gets above 50 compared to the top resort out west - Alta in this case.)

It’s sort of hard to believe that The snow (whatever that means). Is 10% better on Jan 15 than Feb 15. We have had some pretty good MLK weekend storms the last few years though.

 

[Tony S]

It’s sort of hard to believe that The snow (whatever that means). Is 10% better on Jan 15 than Feb 15.

Certainly not better on Jan 15 than Feb 15, on average.

 

[dbostedo]

It’s sort of hard to believe that The snow (whatever that means). Is 10% better on Jan 15 than Feb 15. We have had some pretty good MLK weekend storms the last few years though.

Certainly not better on Jan 15 than Feb 15, on average.

They aren't real clear about the methodology on the website. But that graph appears to take the snowfall, and make adjustments for a bunch of things. They say all eastern areas get a big knock for altitude and rain. Here's some detail from the "Snow Score" rankings; It's not explicit, but I think the graph in question is "Snow Score" over time - though the peak of the graph and Stowe's Snow Score are not the same. So something more subtle is going on too.

• Snowfall Score
  This is a rating accounting for snowfall quantity, quality and consistency. It’s a good indicator of the attractiveness of a resort for powder skiing.
• Total Snow Score
  The reality is that powder days occur not much more than 20% of the time even at the snowiest places. The final snow score adjusts the snowfall score for the factors than help or hurt preservation of snowpack and packed powder conditions the other 80+% of the time. The key factors affecting snow preservation are exposure, altitude, latitude and rain incidence. Many Colorado and Vermont areas have similar snowfall scores, but most Colorado areas get large positive adjustments for the snow preservation factors while all Eastern areas take a big hit for low altitude and rain incidence.

I suppose it's completely possible that they make some global adjustments to the snowfall that aren't accurate to real conditions. E.g., just to make up a possibility, maybe rain is much more prevalent in mid-January than mid-February, but ZRankings applies the same rain factor to each month. Hard to tell without them providing very explicit detail.

 

[James]

Does anyone know if there is anything going on either of those weeks that would make the mountain crowded?

Other than Epic randomness?
Mon-Wed Should be pretty safe.

 

[ilovepugs]

OK- change of plans. The wife really wants to go to Stowe, so we are going to Stowe.
Looking at skiing Mon-Wed either Jan 30 to Feb 1. Or Feb 6 to Feb 8. Does anyone know if there is anything going on either of those weeks that would make the mountain crowded?

Dates for 2023 winter carnival not yet announced, but will probably end immediately before the week of Jan 30.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Winter Carnival doesn't mean anything anymore. If we even had one this year I sure didn't notice.

 

[Chip]

Other than Epic randomness?
Mon-Wed Should be pretty safe.

I guess the real question is when will Goat, Starr, the glades, etc be open?

Again- no crystal ball to see into the future, but typically when are these steeper trails open?

 

[ScottB]

From the curve in the post a few back, Mid Jan through Feb is when the NE skis the best. We need a few natural storms to open the steeper trails that don't have snow making on them. You roll the dice with freeze/thaw cycles, nothing you can do about that in advance. All the mtn's have a Xmas rush, so they make snow as much as possible to open terrain for the holidays, Xmas, MLK weekend, and Pres. weekend. After that its mother nature's ball game and usually mid Feb to mid March is the best chance of a storm.

 

[ilovepugs]

Winter Carnival doesn't mean anything anymore. If we even had one this year I sure didn't notice.

That’s sad.

 

[aveski]

FWIW, I'll be doing an alpine tour up Saddleback on Wednesday with a friend of mine. He'll be fast, I'll be slow if anyone wants to join us.

 

[aveski]

My friend and I did an alpine tour at Saddleback today, 5/11. We skinned up Grey Ghost to Tri-Color and then skied down Tightline. My original plan was to skin or hike up Green Weaver and ski down Grey Ghost. Unfortunately I hadn't done a tour since February and my legs were beat , so we just hiked down a snowless Lower Peachy's. The snow wasn't exactly soft. The top of Tightline was rather firm. That being said, I have a feeling things are going to melt out rather quickly.

 

[TheArchitect]

Some movement on the sale of Jay Peak. Pacific Resorts Group has put in a "Stalking Horse" bid.

Pacific Group Resorts Enters Asset Purchase Agreement for Jay Peak

Receiver will still accept additional bids

www.stormskiing.com

The sale of Jay is not final, and is still “subject to a competitive bidding and auction process.” PRG is defined as the initial, or “stalking horse” bidder, and the receiver will accept additional bids for no less than PRG’s offer price. If there one or more qualified bids are submitted, the receiver will hold an auction for the resort.