# Bretton Woods 11/28/09



## Northernflight (Nov 28, 2009)

First off if anyone hasn't gotten out yet and is thinking about going to BW tomorrow, GO! There is so much snow up there its ridicules. Now back to your schedraled program.

I got an earlier than expected start and it was a good thing, the drive was brutal. I'm very surprised I did not get blown off the highway, came close a few times. The weather was good until I hit the Laconia ext., 20 I think, then on it was a constant downpour and gusting winds that required two hands on the steering wheel. The rain-snow line was at the Franconia Notch sigh, literally right at it. 40 degrees and raining in Lincoln 32 and snowing in Franconia Notch, amazing what 10 minuets and a thousand feet in elevation can do. Cannon itself is covered in snow, looks like mid winter up there. The only thing that got me through that drive was thinking about the 15 inches of powder I was driving too. 

I got started skiing around 9:40 and at that time only the Learning Center quad was running, they had three trails thanks to mother nature. The HSQ was spinning all morning and there were rumors and hope it would open but in the meantime I skied the mighty Rose brook lane. At first the crowds were bearable, a two minute wait. But after my sixth run there was a mob of people were attacking the quad, easily a eight minuet wait. I did not feel like standing in that line,  if they didn't open the summit lift in ten minutes I was grabbing my backpack and hiking. At 10:30.....they opened the HSQ.

"we are 100% open, you can ski anything, just watch out for water bars, rocks, and downed trees. Its knarlly terrain up there right now so be careful"
Almost two feet of powder, untouched, I almost cried. Caught the third chair up and began the real day. My first run was completely untracked down Fabyan's Express and Ben. My next run I was the second one down Deception Bowl. My third run I made first tracks down Darby's Drop, my pick of the day, there was close to two feet on that trail. For the next couple of hours I was skiing in untracked powder and quit literally was in heaven. At that point I was exhausted but before I went in for lunch I wanted to see how far to the skiers left I could get. The short story, it took me a lot of effort to traverse to a roadblock of downed trees and bail on that plan. They weren't kidding when they said trees were down, they were down everywhere. Made for some pretty interesting obstacles. 

I broke for a late lunch and than lapped the HSQ for the last two hours of the day, a nice mogul line had formed under the top part of the lift so I took a few runs down that, ending my mogul charade with  high speed turns downed Bretton's Wood, basically everyone went down this trail so it was packed down like it was groomed. I didn't catch the last chair up but the sunset distracted me enough to be the last one off the mountain. Quit the memorable day. I could still find powder on my last run. I think winter has made up for its late entrance.  
Pics to come.


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## Northernflight (Nov 28, 2009)

Sunset







Deception Bowl





Lift Line





Ride up





Downed Trees





Deception Bowl again





Looking down Fabyans





Bigger Ben





First Tracks down Darby's Drop


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## polski (Nov 28, 2009)

WOW. I have a feeling sloppy seconds are gonna be pretty damn good tomorrow. Congrats on nailing it! And excellent photos.

You should've posted this as a separate TR instead of burying it though. That said, the "105 runs" and "tried to make my own mogul line" details in the 11/21 TR were most excellent. I told my boys about that as we were driving north tonight and they were howling.


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## jack97 (Nov 29, 2009)

ditto on the wow.... those pics do strike my inner core, lots of fond memories on that mountain. 

thanks for the pics


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## psyflyer (Nov 29, 2009)

Northernflight said:


> First off if anyone hasn't gotten out yet and is thinking about going to BW tomorrow, GO! There is so much snow up there its ridicules. Now back to your schedraled program.
> 
> I got an earlier than expected start and it was a good thing, the drive was brutal. I'm very surprised I did not get blown off the highway, came close a few times. The weather was good until I hit the Laconia ext., 20 I think, then on it was a constant downpour and gusting winds that required two hands on the steering wheel. The rain-snow line was at the Franconia Notch sigh, literally right at it. 40 degrees and raining in Lincoln 32 and snowing in Franconia Notch, amazing what 10 minuets and a thousand feet in elevation can do. Cannon itself is covered in snow, looks like mid winter up there. The only thing that got me through that drive was thinking about the 15 inches of powder I was driving too.
> 
> ...



Thanks for your report, Im heading there today and hoping not to bump into too many crowds.


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## Skier75 (Nov 29, 2009)

WOW, what am I doing sitting here??? That's looks awesome!


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## Northernflight (Nov 29, 2009)

> You should've posted this as a separate TR instead of burying it though. That said, the "105 runs" and "tried to make my own mogul line" details in the 11/21 TR were most excellent. I told my boys about that as we were driving north tonight and they were howling.



That would've been the best thing to do. I was exhausted when I was putting this together so I wasn't thinking that much. Glad I made someone laugh 8)
I was tempted to drive back up again today, probably would've been there if I didn't have lacrosse today, enjoy the powde'.


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## bvibert (Nov 29, 2009)

Sweet pics!  Deception Bowl looks like fun from the pictures.


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## bvibert (Nov 29, 2009)

polski said:


> You should've posted this as a separate TR instead of burying it though.



Agreed.  I took the liberty of separating it into it's own thread.


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## WJenness (Nov 29, 2009)

Damn... That looks awesome.

When is the last time BW had the most open terrain in the east?

-w


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## Edd (Nov 29, 2009)

Ooof, I was debating going there this morning as it's 30 minutes from where I'm staying this week; went to SR instead, which was a bit of a s***show.


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## riverc0il (Nov 29, 2009)

WJenness said:


> When is the last time BW had the most open terrain in the east?


It certainly is surprising more areas did not take advantage of the situation. I imagine Cannon and Wildcat could have easily opened their lifts as well... especially considering they were supposed to open this weekend any ways. But I also suppose they had not scheduled employees and other operational issues kept things from happening. Did Killington not get enough snow on Bunny Buster to open back up? Most mountains did not pick up enough at the base to have a solid base I don't think. Bretton happened to be in the right place at the right time it seems... with the desire to open already having been made even if it was only one beginner trail. Props to BW! Wish my legs still had some energy today or else I would have been there.


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## jack97 (Nov 29, 2009)

WJenness said:


> When is the last time BW had the most open terrain in the east?
> 
> -w



I'll tell you a secret but it has to stay in this forum.....:dunce:

Been skiing BW in the early season for a number of years. The place is situated in a notch and usually gets snow when places like Cannon and Loon gets non crystaline percipitation. I talk to others who have ski houses or condos up there, they and myself have witness the same thing over the years. Maybe its the proximity to the Presidental Range that blankets the air cool up there but that's my guess. 



bvibert said:


> Sweet pics!  Deception Bowl looks like fun from the pictures.



It is fun... even better with 8 inches of fresh powder. The place does have nice terrain... the glades at west mountain is a blast and it has sections where you can introduce new skiers to this type of terrain.


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## Johnskiismore (Nov 29, 2009)

Great pictures!!  I will be there tomorrow!

Sweet times!


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## psyflyer (Nov 29, 2009)

Edd said:


> Ooof, I was debating going there this morning as it's 30 minutes from where I'm staying this week; went to SR instead, which was a bit of a s***show.



Just got back from BW and it was terrific.  They got pounded with powder and there where plenty of fresh tracks on the side.  We were treated to superb conditions, truly fantastic November skiing, frankly as goold as Ive seen it in New England, it was that good.  Good turn out,the longest I had to wait in line was about 5 minutes and it never was crowded around us.  On the side ungroomed slopes at times we where alone throughout the ride with 1-2 feet of powder, impressive.  BW is a very nice place and we were happy to make the hour long ride!


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## Johnskiismore (Nov 29, 2009)

Damn, I just looked at the weather forecast for tomorrow.... have mercy Ullr


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## hrstrat57 (Nov 29, 2009)

Good stuff....I just got off the golf course....this looks much better!


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## severine (Nov 29, 2009)

Nice! Wish I could have headed up there instead of doing homework today. :dunce: Thanks for posting pics, too!


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## Northernflight (Nov 29, 2009)

I find it funny how tickets were $15 Saturday and than jumped to $39 on Sunday.  That probably was the best value anyone is going to find this year. Good to hear the snow was still holding up today.


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## mikestaple (Nov 29, 2009)

Ah - Deception Bowl.  My first black - albeit a BW black.  Second lesson, the instructor takes us down this black.  We were all shaking in out boots.  LOL.  That is a great fun run - just look out for all the folks popping out of the woods on skier's right during the season.

Great powder.  Wow.  Nice job BW on getting so much open.


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## Ice Queen (Nov 29, 2009)

Excellent. I was up there last weekend, stopped by because I happened to be in the area for the weekend, and it was sad, watching a few people ski on Rosebrook amidst all the brown. What a difference a big dump makes. 

Hey, that could be an advertisting slogan for Ex-Lax!


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