# Mount Snow 1-30-16



## sankaty (Jan 31, 2016)

*Date(s) Skied: *1-30-16

*Resort or Ski Area: *Mount Snow

*Conditions: *Some man-made PP, mostly hardpack

*Trip Report: *

The conditions were not memorable, but still a fun day of skiing.  Despite just a typical weekend crowd, the trails were pretty congested due to a relatively low trail count.  Most of the man-made packed powder was relegated to the fringes of the trails after the first hour or so.  I was skiing mostly with family, so I didn't even try steeper ugroomed stuff, but I can't imagine it was in very good shape unless there was a trail I missed where they had recently been blasting the snow guns.  Woods that I saw were generally not in play by typical standards.  Lift lines were very reasonable; typically just a few minutes on the Grand Summit Express.

A bigger problem was people skiing/riding way too fast for the crowds and conditions.  I got hit from behind twice while just skiing my very predictable narrow line on the edge of the trail.  No damage done either time, but it was very annoying and potentially unsafe.  I routinely saw folks zoom past my kids at unsafe speeds and distances, especially on the green slopes.

On the plus side, this was my first real test of a new pair of Blizzard Magnum 8.5 TI skis.  I got a great deal on them over the summer of 2014 with the intention of making them my go-to skis on days where I was likely to be doing mostly frontside hardpack skiing.  I mercifully didn't have any occasion to use them last season.  They really excelled today.  Nimble enough to dance in the stip of soft snow on the extreme edge of the trail, but they had a super tenacious and predictable grip on the hardpack.  These skis made the day so much more fun.


----------



## bdfreetuna (Jan 31, 2016)

Sounds like you made the best of it. You gotta get up to Northern Vermont, it's awesome up there right now.

Wait till after Tuesday they're gonna get another 6" of freshies all the way from Sugarbush, MRG, Bolton, Stowe, Smuggs, etc.

And another inch or two over night every other day in the forecast as well.


----------



## drjeff (Jan 31, 2016)

I made it out for a few runs about 2:45 on Saturday (it had been a LATE night Friday night in both the Seaport District and the North End of Boston with friends at a convention I was at last Wed - Sat AM) - all things considered what the weather has been, and literally the snowpack outside of my condo across route 100 from Mount Snow that looks way more like s hockey rink than a skiable surface, even late in the day it wasn't too bad.

That being said, it wasn't too far from a polar opposite snow surface than what I had skied on less than a week before out in Utah!! Lol! Front side, daily driver power carving skis where appreciated!!


----------



## yeggous (Jan 31, 2016)

I skied there for the first time today. Snow surface was good but surprisingly thin. Crowds were out of control by the standards I am used to, but I am told it was a quiet day by their standards.


----------



## KustyTheKlown (Jan 31, 2016)

bdfreetuna said:


> Sounds like you made the best of it. You gotta get up to Northern Vermont, it's awesome up there right now.
> 
> Wait till after Tuesday they're gonna get another 6" of freshies all the way from Sugarbush, MRG, Bolton, Stowe, Smuggs, etc.
> 
> And another inch or two over night every other day in the forecast as well.



Dude. Where are you seeing that? You've posted it in multiple threads. Every weather source says Wednesday is going to rain and ice and sleet. You need to gauge your expectations big time.


----------



## deadheadskier (Jan 31, 2016)

He's always overly optimistic on weather.  Earlier this season when we had pretty much the only system produce for all of Northern New England, he was calling for well over a foot at Killington and skiing trees.  They got 6" tops.


----------



## drjeff (Jan 31, 2016)

yeggous said:


> I skied there for the first time today. Snow surface was good but surprisingly thin. Crowds were out of control by the standards I am used to, but I am told it was a quiet day by their standards.



As someone who skis Mount Snow 40+ days a year, and has for probably close to 20 years now, anything on a mid winter weekend where the main lifts have less than a 5 minute line is considered a "quiet" day!!  I couldn't comment on today as I was at Bromley watching my kids race, the only thing I saw was when I got back to my condo across route 100 from the mountain and looked out my back deck window about 3:30, even my wife and kids commented about how empty the mountain looked, and driving down Route 100 into Wilmington a little before 4 wasn't even a 2 light wait to turn onto route 9, which on a busy day can be a 20+ light wait! 

The Mount Snow crowds are something that dare I say I've gotten used to over the years, but at the same point can negotiate my way around and still easily get 20k vertical feet in on a busy day by noon time and be up in the base lodge enjoying a few apres ski beer before the masses descend on my favorite bar and try to occupy my favorite corner barstool!!  :lol:

As we Mount Snow regulars know, they've got 20 lifts spinning on full operation winter weekends, only about half of which the "masses" tend to ride - the other half do serve some good pods of terrain that, even when it's snowmaking only terrain as it is now, can give you some wide open cruising even when 1 or 2 trails over it's practically WROD skiing!!! 

If and when you come down to my home mountain again,  and my kids aren't at an away race as they were today, let me know and I will gladly show you those "other 10 lifts" and how to beat the crowds at Mount Snow!


----------



## deadheadskier (Jan 31, 2016)

yeggous said:


> I skied there for the first time today. Snow surface was good but surprisingly thin. Crowds were out of control by the standards I am used to, but I am told it was a quiet day by their standards.



I had an "oh crap" crowd moment at Sugarloaf on Saturday.  From 10-11 we waited in back to back %20 min lines for Superquad and Skyline.  Took an early lunch and we barely encountered a 5 minute wait the rest of the day wherever we went.

This was not something I hope to see again this year :


----------



## yeggous (Jan 31, 2016)

drjeff said:


> As someone who skis Mount Snow 40+ days a year, and has for probably close to 20 years now, anything on a mid winter weekend where the main lifts have less than a 5 minute line is considered a "quiet" day!!  I couldn't comment on today as I was at Bromley watching my kids race, the only thing I saw was when I got back to my condo across route 100 from the mountain and looked out my back deck window about 3:30, even my wife and kids commented about how empty the mountain looked, and driving down Route 100 into Wilmington a little before 4 wasn't even a 2 light wait to turn onto route 9, which on a busy day can be a 20+ light wait!
> 
> The Mount Snow crowds are something that dare I say I've gotten used to over the years, but at the same point can negotiate my way around and still easily get 20k vertical feet in on a busy day by noon time and be up in the base lodge enjoying a few apres ski beer before the masses descend on my favorite bar and try to occupy my favorite corner barstool!!  :lol:
> 
> ...



It's worth noting that I did indeed get my free tickets with the free Fan Fare card courtesy of my Granite Pass.

The lines were probably 10 minutes for the Blue Bird when I dared to hit it in the afternoon. They were clearly longer in the morning but I stayed away. At this same time this morning lines were about 10 minutes at all the other lifts, but down to 3-5 minutes by 11am when they opened the second lift on the north side. The crowd largely emptied out around 1:30 when the snow got sticky.

I tried to dodge the lines in the morning but could not shake them. I'm used to seeing some lines on detachable lifts but never on fixed grips.


----------



## drjeff (Jan 31, 2016)

yeggous said:


> It's worth noting that I did indeed get my free tickets with the free Fan Fare card courtesy of my Granite Pass.
> 
> The lines were probably 10 minutes for the Blue Bird when I dared to hit it in the afternoon. They were clearly longer in the morning but I stayed away. At this same time this morning lines were about 10 minutes at all the other lifts, but down to 3-5 minutes by 11am when they opened the second lift on the north side. The crowd largely emptied out around 1:30 when the snow got sticky.
> 
> I tried to dodge the lines in the morning but could not shake them. I'm used to seeing some lines on detachable lifts but never on fixed grips.



Mount Snow's main base area lifts are usually 5 min, or WAY less, until about 9:30, then the "crack o' 9:30 to 10:30" masses hit, most of whom then go to the North Face by 10 to about 11:15 - then migrate into Sunbrook on the backside of the mountain between about 10:45 and noon and then on over to Carinthia by 11:30 until about 1 - after about 12:30/1 you get most folks evenly distributed over all 20 lifts and/or eating lunch (or in the regulars case done for the day and starting apres ski in the bars ;-) ) and it skis with much less lines!!!

As much as the Bluebird will always have the largest lines on the mountain on any given day, there are for sure some days where I WILL purposely wait in them simply because I know in the long run that the extra warmth and/or dryness the bubble gives me will translate into more runs by the end of the day than riding an open, exposed lift would comfortably allow me to do. 

Has the bubble "made me soft" the last 4.5 seasons I've had it as my main lift?? Maybe so.  However I have averaged, by over 150k vertical feet, more vertical feet per season, with roughly the same number of days skied per year since the Bluebird was installed!! And per my VISA bill, my apres ski charges per year haven't gone down at all either!!  :beer: :lol:


----------



## deadheadskier (Jan 31, 2016)

drjeff said:


> Mount Snow's main base area lifts are usually 5 min, or WAY less, until about 9:30, :



This made me chuckle.  The concept of an amount of time WAY less than 5 minutes. :lol:

I completely get the rest of what you're saying though.  Multi lift and terrain pod mountains like Snow you learn the traffic flow and can mitigate the frustration.  I learned that at Okemo growing up.  

Once you get used to elbow room and no crowds, it's tough going back to that.  Basically what yeggous and I experience at Wildcat is closer to what your buddies pay many thousands to experience at Hermitage than what the Mount Snow experience is.


----------



## VTKilarney (Feb 1, 2016)

deadheadskier said:


> He's always overly optimistic on weather.  Earlier this season when we had pretty much the only system produce for all of Northern New England, he was calling for well over a foot at Killington and skiing trees.  They got 6" tops.



This had me scratching my head.  It's BAD out there and it's only going to get worse by the time Wednesday is over.


----------



## Glenn (Feb 1, 2016)

Nice TR. We rode up the Stratton gondola yesterday with some kids on the 18/26 passes (The one you can use at both mountains) and they mentioned Snow was pretty busy Saturday. My wife and I have had better luck with Sunday skiing this year.


----------



## bdfreetuna (Feb 1, 2016)

VTKilarney said:


> This had me scratching my head.  It's BAD out there and it's only going to get worse by the time Wednesday is over.



And I'm always right as well. You should come skiing with me, I'll show y'all how it's done


----------



## Newpylong (Feb 1, 2016)

VTKilarney said:


> This had me scratching my head.  It's BAD out there and it's only going to get worse by the time Wednesday is over.



Bad is an understatement. Whaleback just threw in the towel until Saturday. Not that the base was deep to begin with but this weather is unreal. 57 deg in Lebanon NH earlier.


----------

