New England 2017-2018 Northeast Thread

[ADKmel]

Okemo was GREAT On Wednesday 3 trails top to bottom,(they call it 10) so nice skiing with no people, easy to rip it up. surface was mid winter conditions

 

[Read Blinn]

Another "midweek skiing is FANTASTIC!!!" comment. Jeez.

 

[QueueCT]

All this "skiing is fantastic" is simply the withdrawal speaking. Killington was ... fine ... today. Same old early season runs open, same old scraped off surface by noon, but blessedly short lift lines since they aren't the only game in town this season.

Looking forward to end of December when there's quite a bit more coverage and open trails.

 

[ADKmel]

The joys of being Self employed and arranging one's life around skiing midweek and not work is Fantastic

 

[ScottB]

I went to Sugarbush on Saturday afternoon with my son (picked him up from UVM for Thanks Giving break) Did a 1/2 day 1-3PM ski. They only had one trail open, it was off the main quad on the left looking up the hill. Not many skiers out so the trail held up pretty well and was enjoyable to ski. I was in the area, so glad I got a few runs in. Wasn't worth a 3 hr drive for a day trip. There was snow on all their other slopes, natural, about 2-4" so once they put the snow guns on them more terrain should open up fast. I actually thought they had 3-4 trails open, but I forget you divide the "marketing" number by 2 or 3 to get the real trail count.

 

[Handlebars]

Any stratton skiers here? I ski there most Sundays, will be there this Sunday and maybe another day this weekend.

 

[AJP]

ive seen some good stoke out of Jay this morning , close to 6inches fresh. The next 10 days look very good for the whole northeast with cold temperatures for snowmaking and some natural in the forecast as well.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

We'll be at Killington thanksgiving and the day after if anyone wants to take some turns. Looks like snowdon quad, northride triple and gondi will be open. Weather's looking divine for some pretty damn good conditions.

 

[LKLA]

Just saw this on the Mt Snow website -

After a spectacular opening week that saw Mount Snow play host to the most open terrain in the East, we’ve decided to give you all even more!

So, our snowmakers will be putting the most powerful snowmaking system in the East to the test, with the most ambitions five-day snowmaking plan we’ve ever undertaken.

The goal will be to add seven new trails by Wednesday, and another five by Saturday, with the plan being to get us to 200+ acres and 20+ trails open for skiing and riding by Thanksgiving weekend.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Obviously snowmaking capacity and water rights play a big part, but I'm surprised at how slow some areas are to get their terrain open. It seems like some places are happy if they have plenty of beginner trails plus a few intermediate and expert by Christmas vacation. It mostly affects season passholders because daypassers can pick and choose.

 

[Read Blinn]

Obviously snowmaking capacity and water rights play a big part, but I'm surprised at how slow some areas are to get their terrain open. It seems like some places are happy if they have plenty of beginner trails plus a few intermediate and expert by Christmas vacation. It mostly affects season passholders because daypassers can pick and choose.

Am I wrong in thinking resorts usually open more advanced trails first? (Snow was the exception this year.) I assumed that resorts believed that early-season skiers were diehards, and diehards were more accomplished skiers.

That turns out to be half-true/half-false, at least at Okemo.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

It seems that way. Mount Snow always has Long John (trail we skied on yesterday) as one of their first open runs. However, I think they are the exception. Killington only has intermediate and above and Bromley as well. Bromley almost always opens with 2 blues, a summit top to bottom blue and a mid mountain blue. This year due to better weather they are actually opening some greens also.

 

[ScottB]

It seems different mtn's do it differently. Getting skiers on and off the lift without having to cover too much base area that melts quick plays a role. I know Sunday River tries to cover certain trails that hold snow better due to direction and shading, plus skier logistics.

 

[Jully]

Bretton Woods always opens with beginner terrain. Long greens off their HSQs and they even open their learning center lift quite early.

Most places seem to open with blues or easier black groomers. Truly expert stuff takes too much snow to cover. The greens both won't attract many early season, more die-hard skiers, and also are usually lower, wider, and get beat on by the sun in my experience.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I think that as much as anything else, blue green or black opening first depends on elevation and just what makes sense in terms of being able to get the mountain open. If all of the beginner trails are low elevation and south facing, it may not be physically possible to open them first.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

I skipped the weekend at Stowe (not allowed on Saturday, and super windy yesterday). It seems that despite having gotten some rain, it was a net gain over the weekend. Surface was nice today. Upper Hayride is now open, snow was good on the ungroomed, but the blues were just begging for me to carve on them today. So that's mostly what I did.

 

[NHSkier]

I skipped the weekend at Stowe (not allowed on Saturday, and super windy yesterday). It seems that despite having gotten some rain, it was a net gain over the weekend. Surface was nice today. Upper Hayride is now open, snow was good on the ungroomed, but the blues were just begging for me to carve on them today. So that's mostly what I did.

Probably far too early to tell, but does the number or “type” of skiers seem different than prior years?

 

[tch]

I just returned from a couple weeks volunteering in FLA for Hurricane Irma clean-up. Is there any place in New England that's really open? Like more than 20%? Anyone know?
Thx.

 

[CalG]

On the drive in this morning, I have NEVER seen so much snow making at one time as witnessed at Mt. Snow this AM! The entire mountain was rolling in "smoke".
That same "smoke" made every trip down much like an experience of a sand storm in the desert. Tomorrow is going to be something spectacular for a machine made open terrain exposition ! (Tomorrow, IF they shut down guns long enough to run the groomers through, If not, Thursday will be promising.

post 229 captures the intent!
( I hear "snow making" at mount snow is looking to fill a bunch of open positions ;-)

 

[Read Blinn]

I just returned from a couple weeks volunteering in FLA for Hurricane Irma clean-up. Is there any place in New England that's really open? Like more than 20%? Anyone know?
Thx.

Mount Snow — 112 acres, ~18% open. They're shooting for 200 acres by Saturday. I believe they still have the most open terrain in New England.