# Bretton Woods 12/28/2010



## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

Bretton Woods reported 36" total new snow from this storm and I can vouch for that. I also can vouch for the fact that it's an awfully flat mountain ... even though the snow was strikingly NOT wind-affected, I got stuck in > knee-deep too many times to count. Had a fine time on relatively steeper stuff and some small glades shots though. With the possible exception of Magic last Feb, this was the deepest pow I've ever skied. That floating sensation - and the ability (in fact the need) to straight-line stuff that normally would require turns - will never get old.

With three teen/pre-teen boys we got off to a later start than we'd planned (comedy of errors in the a.m.) but we skied to the closing bell and one run beyond, as with our day passes we were able to ride the lift for one run of night skiing. Even there I was grabbing deep pow on trail edges ... and taking the last two of a rather large number of spectacular but painless falls for the day.

As mentioned in another thread I'd been trying to decide between Magic and Cannon. As we approached Concord on 93 I decided we'd hit either Cannon or BW - I love Magic but couldn't ignore that the N NH hills had basically twice as much snowfall. And that difference is entirely north of the notches - dramatically deeper snow there. As we approached Cannon I decided on BW, thinking perhaps it wouldn't be as crowded (not sure I was right about that, though the Rosebrook Summit chair was fine all afternoon; post-lunch lines at the base were 10 min or so) and less windy (don't know about Cannon but except for extremely isolated strong gusts, it was basically calm at BW).

If I had it to do over again in these circumstances I might have chosen Cannon, though I'd need to see more reports from there yesterday to really say.

Photos or videos later. I only shot a little, toward the end of the day, but the alpenglow over Mt Washington was incredible.


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## Edd (Dec 29, 2010)

Score with 3 ft of snow! Did you ski the new glades on Mt Stickney?


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## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

Edd said:


> Score with 3 ft of snow! Did you ski the new glades on Mt Stickney?



No. Wanted to - in fact that was one factor in my decision to hit BW - but when I went by on Two Miles Home in the early afternoon there was (for some reason) a rope across the traverse to get to them, and as my kids were waiting for me in the lodge I wasn't feeling that adventurous. I've read a report elsewhere that they weren't that impressive but the person who wrote that admitted maybe he just missed the good stuff. 

It really is too bad BW doesn't have steeper terrain because they certainly get the snow, often when other areas nearby do not.


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## Edd (Dec 29, 2010)

Weird to say but at some spots there you're better off with 6" of fresh rather than more.  I do remember hitting a groomed green there last year with close to 2' of ungroomed on the side; I came to a dead stop at one point.  Hard to get too irriitated on a day like that though.

What keeps me going there are the glades.  Without those BW would be a snore.


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## hiroto (Dec 29, 2010)

I was there  12/24-26 and thought I had pretty good condition for X'mas weekend.  But seeing what came after we left, didn't feel like writing a trip report :sad:


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## thetrailboss (Dec 29, 2010)

polski said:


> It really is too bad BW doesn't have steeper terrain because they certainly get the snow, often when other areas nearby do not.


 
The difference with regards to snow between BW and Attitash is night and day and they are within 30 miles of each other on 302.


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## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

Edd, care to share where the best BW glades are? (a PM would be fine ....) A couple that I hit on West Mtn didn't have quite enough pitch with this much snow. Rosebrook glades were good but fairly (though not entirely) tracked out by the time we got there. 

Agreed, hard to get irritated when there's 3' of pow but it could be frustrating at times. I've had a couple lesser powder days at BW that in some respects were more skiable all in all.

One other thing I'll say is I'm definitely spoiled by extremely low skier density on the trails at my two favorite places, MRG and Magic. The massive uphill capacity of HSQs is great for minimizing lines and time spent riding the chairs but the crowds at a few of the steeper spots at BW and even at times in Rosebrook glades were a bit of a :-o to me.


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## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

thetrailboss said:


> The difference with regards to snow between BW and Attitash is night and day and they are within 30 miles of each other on 302.


Judging by the plow banks there was easily 2X and perhaps 3X more snow on the north side of Franconia Notch than just south of it. Amazing.


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## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

And to partially answer my own question re BW glades, now that I look at the map again I see plenty we did not hit. My bad - as I say, I only made the BW call as we were driving north so I hadn't really studied the map beforehand; we ran late so I didn't spend time in the lodge making much of a plan; and then I ski without my glasses so I'm unable to read the trail map once I'm already out there :-{  A couple that I did hit, Inferno and Stinger, were basically single narrow scraped-off chutes and those didn't really do it for me; I like my trees a bit more open than that.


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## Edd (Dec 29, 2010)

In regard to Rosebrook Canyon, look out for Roz.  You don't see the sign for it until you're in the middle of the Black Forest Glade so I didn't notice it the first deason I skied there.  A long narrow interesting trail.

On the West mountain Cliff's Cliff to Wild West is a good long glade run with some natural terrain park features made from trees in the middle of the glade (although I haven't been there this season so they may have changed that).  Those features are easy to avoid as the glade is wide; I don't do them.

Also on the West is John Grave's Glades and Maple Woods; both challenging runs.


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## polski (Dec 29, 2010)

Edd said:


> On the West mountain Cliff's Cliff to Wild West is a good long glade run with some natural terrain park features made from trees in the middle of the glade (although I haven't been there this season so they may have changed that).  Those features are easy to avoid as the glade is wide; I don't do them.


Yup, did that a few times in the morning. Most of Wild West was a bit too low-angle for untracked but it skied well where others had hit it. Mr. Magoo here missed John Graves and Maple Woods though ...


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## cannonist (Dec 29, 2010)

Glade West is a good long glade


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## polski (Dec 30, 2010)

Thanks. I actually wanted to hit Glade West on our first run but missed the entrance and never got back to it ...


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