2024 East Coast Pugski/Renoun Gathering for the Eclipse. Dates: TBD

[graham418]

I'd vote for Jay, or Eastern Townships. How about Lake Placid as well. Jay usually has skiing into the 1st weekend in May, so it should be good. And there is usually a lot of sun in the east in the spring .
Lets hope there is still winter in 2024!!

 

[coskigirl]

@coskigirl @noncrazycanuck @scott43 @TheArchitect @Dadskier Can you vote now?

I can.

 

[Dadskier]

@coskigirl @noncrazycanuck @scott43 @TheArchitect @Dadskier Can you vote now?

Yes!

 

[Philpug]

Typical software glitch that happened between the interface of the keyboard my...errr... the chair.

 

[Mothertucker]

I'm gonna fly my Learjet to Nova Scotia, because I'm sooo vain.

 

[VickiK]

But you know it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime, right?

 

[Mothertucker]

Never rains in California, but girl don't they warn ya.

 

[Tony]

I was able to vote last night, but didn't comment as I don't like typing very much without a keyboard. A lot can change in almost 7 years, but assuming my brother-in-law is still in Austin, I will probably be watching 2024 Eclipse from Fredericksburg, a town founded by Germans, in what has become the Texas wine country, where they will get 4 1/2 minutes of totality. If I wanted to settle for less totality, the original location of the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood will get 2 1/2 minutes and is still BYOB.

I also have a friend who moved back to Buffalo, but will have to monitor the early April weather there and the rest of the eclipse path in the NE between now and then. @MadPatSki keeps tracks of ski area closing dates and there are usually a lot of options in the 1st half of April. But it sounds like there can be too much heat and some r--n in early April so not sure I want to cross the country to try to ski the East for eclipse. If he's ever done honeymooning, I'm sure @TonyC will have some advice for 2024.

I thought about Mexico, but with Sinaloa and most of the eclipse path being added to State Dept. travel warnings this week, I'm not sure that will be a good option in 2024.

 

[TonyC]

But what if they have the US Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame at the same time, at somewhere not in the path of totality?
Maybe they could have the HOF Induction in the path of Totality!

This is a great idea. I have been a member of NASJA since 1999 when it was going strong but has been in gradual decline over the past decade. I attended a meeting every year through 2013 but none since.

This year NASJA reorganized and next year's annual meeting will be in conjunction with the April HOF induction at Squaw Valley. I'm sure Phil and Trish will be there too. HOF inductions have been done in the NE before, very recently at Stowe IIRC. Rest assured I will lobby hard with anyone I know in NASJA or ISHA to get that 2024 meeting in the totality path.

As for the aesthetics of viewing, Jay in 2024 could easily rival what we saw atop Jackson. It's a relatively isolated peak right on centerline with a nearly 360 degree panoramic view. I could see to Mt. Washington the day I skied there in March 2003.

Unfortunately the weather odds are a deal breaker for us without a backup plan. The obvious plan is to buy plane tickets from the NE to Texas for April 7, then make call based upon the latest weather forecast.

The other option is to do what we did in Australia in 2012, where weather odds in the Cairns/Port Douglas area were not much better than the NE in 2024. Trip organizer Joe Cali chartered a plane to fly an hour and a half to an aboriginal settlement on the drier opposite side of the Cape York peninsula. The flight cost $515 whether you used it or not. 36 of Joe's group of 120 signed up for the backup flight and 18 of us went on it. Only 5 people stayed in resort area and got lucky with a hole in clouds which blocked the eclipse for all of Cairns and some of the beaches farther north. The remaining 90 people got up at 1:30am to drive 3+ hours over mountains to an area that was forecast clear the night before.

This year veteran eclipse chaser John Beattie chartered a flight from Lincoln, Nebraska which saw 3 minutes 48 seconds totality over mostly cloudy Missouri. I have sent him a detailed inquiry. I'd like to charter a backup flight from Burlington. Totality is at 3:45pm so it would be possible for the nutcases like me to ski a few hours in the morning and get to that flight from Burlington on time. Jay is too far for that option but Stowe is probably doable. Bolton is the safest ski option for ease of getting to the airport.

If we get lucky with a great weather forecast I would go to Jay.

 

[TonyC]

Liz favors Whiteface as a possible ski/eclipse option based upon her many years living in NYC.

From what MadPatSki says, it would make my day to ski the Slides on an eclipse day! If weather is good and the Slides are open, I would leave Vermont and drive to Whiteface.

 

[Philpug]

Liz favors Whiteface as a ski/eclipse option but doesn't know whether there's an airport close enough for the backup flight.

From what MadPatSki says, it would make my day to ski the Slides on an eclipse day!

Albany or Burlington.

Personally, I would head further North or east if you want a better chance of snow in April.

 

[Philpug]

I changed the "Other" to Whiteface since that is where the original "other"'s were posted and added a new other. So if you original "Other" was not Whiteface, feel free to change your vote to the other "Other".

 

[crgildart]

Another vote for Lake Placid/Whiteface.. Might fly in to Syracuse, rent an RV and hit Eclipse Totality Ski and Acadia National Park before or after the big event.

Would it be better or worse for school spring break to fall that week???

 

[Mothertucker]

Liz favors Whiteface as a possible ski/eclipse option based upon her many years living in NYC.

From what MadPatSki says, it would make my day to ski the Slides on an eclipse day! If weather is good and the Slides are open, I would leave Vermont and drive to Whiteface.

Might as well just start calling it "Skiclipse" 2024.

 

[Muleski]

It will be interesting to look at the weather history. I asked a fellow Sugarloaf friend about it. We're used to a lot of gray days, flat light, etc. during the early part of the season. As the sun stays higher in the sky, the days are longer, I tend to think of March and April as generally being pretty good. It could be because I remember and celebrate the great days.

The facts are that this past spring, we had FIVE clear days. The year before we had something like ten, and I guess the average is somewhere in between. Hmmm.

My wife emended me of all of the weather issues that we have had with big races the past few years during the last week of March and First week of April. We've had it all, and very few bluebird days.

2024 will be just before my 70th birthday....so maybe we'll be due! But I think it's a pretty big risk. Watching it on TV at the bar up on the mountain won't quite be the same.

I'm also betting that this will fall on the Monday after Reggae Fest. Which at my age is more and more of a non-event.

We'll see. It's a long way off.

 

[Philpug]

I am trying to talk @Cyrus Schenck in to getting Renoun to sponsor it.

 

[MadPatSki]

I also have a friend who moved back to Buffalo, but will have to monitor the early April weather there and the rest of the eclipse path in the NE between now and then. @MadPatSki keeps tracks of ski area closing dates and there are usually a lot of options in the 1st half of April. But it sounds like there can be too much heat and some r--n in early April so not sure I want to cross the country to try to ski the East for eclipse. If he's ever done honeymooning, I'm sure @TonyC will have some advice for 2024.

I've been keeping track and posting online for a decade, but also I've been observing since the early 1980s. Seven year is still pretty far away to predict the ski season as early April is becoming the "early May of the 1980s". If you look at the longterm trend, fewer ski areas open in early April then they did 15-20 years ago. I'm not necessarily concern about the ski areas still being open, but the fact that the eclipse is midweek (Monday), at towards the end of the season, some ski areas might be closed midweek. OR they might not even plan on opening on a ski eclipse day. I'm sure that @TonyC could maybe correlate previous total eclipse over ski areas during ski season in other parts of the World. Did the ski areas open during eclipse day in February 1979 in Montana? Also keep in mind that February isn't April.

As for the aesthetics of viewing, Jay in 2024 could easily rival what we saw atop Jackson. It's a relatively isolated peak right on centerline with a nearly 360 degree panoramic view. I could see to Mt. Washington the day I skied there in March 2003.

Unfortunately the weather odds are a deal breaker for us without a backup plan. The obvious plan is to buy plane tickets from the NE to Texas for April 7, then make call based upon the latest weather forecast.

Harder to ski outside on snow in Texas. Powderfreak at Stowe mentioned that he was planning to be on the Forerunner Quad on April 8, 2024. I asked him if he could tell us the forecast for that day. For once, we'll be hoping for him to give us a non-powder day.

Liz favors Whiteface as a possible ski/eclipse option based upon her many years living in NYC.

From what MadPatSki says, it would make my day to ski the Slides on an eclipse day! If weather is good and the Slides are open, I would leave Vermont and drive to Whiteface.

Again, Slides, early April, in 7 years, I wouldn't beat on it.

I changed the "Other" to Whiteface since that is where the original "other"'s were posted and added a new other. So if you original "Other" was not Whiteface, feel free to change your vote to the other "Other".

I think that some touring setup might be a good insurance policy. Mont Mégantic is also straight in the bulls eye. Marble Mountain in Newfoundland is also located in totality. I'm not including ski areas that are closed, never make it or future mega ski areas like Balsams Wilderness lol.
Marble Mountain NL
Sugarloaf ME
All the Eastern Townships ski areas in QC (Bromont, Sutton, Orford, Owl's Head).
Mont St-Bruno like Mt Royal in Montréal.
Northern Vermont from Sugarbush to Jay.
Whiteface NY.

Now if you look at places with great views:
Sugarloaf by hiking to top of snowfields.
Sutton could be cool as you can see (if you really look carefully) Montreal's skyline.
Orford - great view to the South towards Vermont.
Mad River Glen, not a fan of the view from Sugarbush.
Bolton's observation tower.
Stowe from the top of Mansfield
Whiteface.
Never been to Newfoundland.

 

[Tony S]

Skiing for several days. Eclipse for a couple of minutes. Choose wisely.

 

[Eleeski]

I"m conflicted. I would really enjoy a GTG with folks from here. I have skied with several, bantered with a few more and would enjoy face to face meetings. Add an eclipse and it's fantastic.

But I also waterski. Waterskiing in Texas in the spring is great (I did exactly that this year). The eclipse goes through Texas as well. I did really well this eclipse with a waterski trip coinciding with the eclipse in Idaho.

So where will the weather be better? And where will the scotch be better?

Eric

 

[TonyC]

The odds of the Slides at Whiteface being open on any given day are very low. But all the TR's I've read from there are in early spring.

And as bad as the NE weather odds are, they must be abysmal in Newfoundland. Don't even think about going there and being stuck on an island where you can't get off easily.

For anybody considering this eclipse mobility is paramount. You must consider every likely open area from Whiteface to Vermont to Townships to Sugarloaf and be ready to get up before dawn and drive to the one with the best late forecast. You may also want to get off the mountain by noon to drive away from clouds you might see.

And yes the weather odds are much better in Texas and Mexico. As I said before I'm not going to this eclipse in the NE without a backup plan. If you jump on an airline reservation as soon as available from somewhere in the NE to Dallas on April 7 and then back April 9, I think prices will be reasonable.

As for the skiing no, spring operations in the NE have not shifted by anything close to a month at the major areas in the eclipse path. They probably haven't shifted at all other than a couple of extreme horrible years like 2012 and 2016.

Nonetheless TonyS and Eleeski have a point. The NE areas can be open but conditions may suck and terrain may be limited. Committing to skiing an entire week in that time frame will often be disappointing.