New England 2018/19 Northeast

[EricG]

Smuggs was dead too. About 2pm the NY & CT started to roll in.

 

[James]

Do you want to try to connect? I have no idea where anything is, and don't really know when I will arrive Saturday.

Just fyi if it snows. The Loon lot is quite good for like donuts and skid testing. Thought the Minister of Bad Ideas should know.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Just fyi if it snows. The Loon lot is quite good for like donuts and skid testing. Thought the Minister of Bad Ideas should know.

Now that is some useful information. Speaking of useful information, I found out that if you hold down the traction control button in the S4 for 10 seconds it fully defeats the traction control and stability. Drift mode engage!

 

[mdf]

Just fyi if it snows. The Loon lot is quite good for like donuts and skid testing. Thought the Minister of Bad Ideas should know.

My authority is severely limited when the Ministry does not have a quorum.

 

[Guy in Shorts]

Pried myself away from Killington for day up at da Bush. Great snow with sweet wind loaded lines everywhere. Snowmaking cloud over Heaven’s Gate made visibility a challenge. Popped a boot and drove over to the Ellen side for more powder chasing. Great day but this place really needs a Gondola or two.

 

[KevinF]

Saturday Stowe report. Quad, gondola and Sensation lifts are all on wind hold although they’re loading gondola cabins onto the cable. So... maybe?

Line for the triple appears to be everybody in northern Vermont.

@TheArchitect good call on delaying your visit.

Oh did I mention I managed to break my glasses getting dressed this morning? Overall great start to the day. At least I got here late to discover that nothing is running.

 

[TheArchitect]

Saturday Stowe report. Quad, gondola and Sensation lifts are all on wind hold although they’re loading gondola cabins onto the cable. So... maybe?

Line for the triple appears to be everybody in northern Vermont.

@TheArchitect good call on delaying your visit.

Oh did I mention I managed to break my glasses getting dressed this morning? Overall great start to the day. At least I got here late to discover that nothing is running.

Thanks for posting this. I was considering heading up from the inn and taking my chances. Now I’ll stick to skiing just tomorrow and will hang around here with the girlfriend.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I think it's going to be a glorious weekend at bromley this weekend with pretty much the entire mountain open including pushover (natural snow only trail). Magic is looking good too. Here's the view from condo with green and red chairs spinning. Just saw two 2 people ski out the front door below.

 

[EricG]

Smuggs was a bit chilly this morning. Somewhat windy on top, but decent snow to be found along the edges. Heard Lots of people complaining about the cold, the snowmaking and the periodic closure of lifts due to wind.

 

[KevinF]

I wound up taking today off. I left shortly after the gondola began loading and everybody headed there. Apparently they got the quad going as well.

Relaxed in town for the day... heard ambulances racing by every hour or so. I don’t know what the regular frequency of ambulance rides is, but I imagine today’s conditions involved a lot of big checks that weren’t necessarily cash able.

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Actually turned out to be a great day at Stowe. By lunchtime everything was running.

 

[TheArchitect]

I wound up taking today off. I left shortly after the gondola began loading and everybody headed there. Apparently they got the quad going as well.

Relaxed in town for the day... heard ambulances racing by every hour or so. I don’t know what the regular frequency of ambulance rides is, but I imagine today’s conditions involved a lot of big checks that weren’t necessarily cash able.

We stayed in town except for a trip up to the mountain to show my GF (she’s never been there). Had a lunch crepe and beers at Skinny Pancake and saw a few lifts spinning but we had a lot of company inside.

 

[Corgski]

Looks like I'll be probably be able to ski in New England on January 25th and 26th... the only caveat being that I'll be driving from Merrimack, NH the night of the 24h, and have to be back there the night of the 26th. Otherwise, I'm pretty open for where to ski. Last season I did Okemo and Sugarbush. Earlier this year I hit Sunday River. Mostly groomer/intermediate skier, but will do some bumps and ungroomed stuff occasionally.

Suggestions?

I93 is your best bet, gives you Loon, Cannon and Bretton Woods, which are all close enough to pick any 2 for a two day trip. Bretton Woods is the furthest with only 2 hours driving. Also gets you to some of the most scenic spots in the NorthEast.

Merrimack is not a good starting point to access Southern Vermont, if you want Vermont you might as well go directly to Killington or Stowe. Stowe is approaching 3 hours but still feasible for a 2 day trip.

Mostly open road, easy driving. However if you go west to Southern Vermont, not much traffic either but slow driving on small roads through small towns.

A few closer smaller options as well if all you have are a few hours in the evening. Pats Peak and Crotched Mountain are small but only about 45 minutes away and are open to 9pm. Gunstock is significantly bigger but about 15 minutes further away and only open to 8pm.

 

[Josh Matta]

I think I ad my best groomer run ever in my life today at 3:30 on gondolier....

Snow was so sweet and edgable.

 

[dbostedo]

I93 is your best bet, gives you Loon, Cannon and Bretton Woods, which are all close enough to pick any 2 for a two day trip. Bretton Woods is the furthest with only 2 hours driving. Also gets you to some of the most scenic spots in the NorthEast.

Merrimack is not a good starting point to access Southern Vermont, if you want Vermont you might as well go directly to Killington or Stowe. Stowe is approaching 3 hours but still feasible for a 2 day trip.

Mostly open road, easy driving. However if you go west to Southern Vermont, not much traffic either but slow driving on small roads through small towns.

A few closer smaller options as well if all you have are a few hours in the evening. Pats Peak and Crotched Mountain are small but only about 45 minutes away and are open to 9pm. Gunstock is significantly bigger but about 15 minutes further away and only open to 8pm.

Thanks @Corgski! I've driven to Okemo from Merrimack a couple of times (including once for just a day trip) so I know the roads a little. And I've actually skied Pat's Peak!

In this case, I'll just be starting in Merrimack, and planning to stay near wherever I'm skiing for a couple of nights. Just need to be back in Merrimack to fly out early Sunday.

I like the idea of Mount Snow/Stratton/Bromley area and picking two of those. It's only a bit over 2 hours from Merrimack, so that's the way I'm leaning. Although Canonn/Loon/Bretton sounds good too... too many choices!

 

[mdf]

I'm going to ski Loon a half day Saturday and then Sunday. I haven't been there for about 30 years. But it is close and on my Ikon. I figure I was unlikely to use those days anyway, so won't mind "wasting" a pass day on a partial day. Anybody else interested?

I was very happy with my Loon plan. I dropped my wife at the airport and then zipped up 93. The parking lots were full, just walking through the cafeteria was difficult, and the gondola line looked endless. But the slopes were pretty emtpy, and I never waited more than 3 minutes in the singles line. The East Basin chair (a fixed double) never had a line, at least by the time I got that far. After 2:00 the North Peak detachable quad was pretty empty, and by 3 there was literally zero line -- everyone just skied on.

I'm sure the fact that it was 13 degrees at the base and 2 at the top helped keep the crowds down. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmner, but there IS a Patriots football game in the afternoon -- I'm hopeful.

The black runs in the North Peak area are mostly pretty nice cruisers, though I guess there were some ice patches (did I mention I LOVE these skis?). And there was, praise the lord, one real bump run, only part of which was ice bumps (did I mention I LOVE these skis?).

That was my first real bump run of the season. The first try was pretty pathetic, but I was able to ski it non stop with only a little huffing and puffing by the third try. I don't see how I'm going to ski Al's Run non-stop in three weeks at this rate... (I've pretty much resigned myself to having Grump make fun of my heavy breathing -- I will be happy just to do it.)

 

[speedster]

Loon mountain question.


One person on our group is taking the "learn to ski" lesson there on day 1. Suggestions on the very next trails to use on day 2 and day 3 assuming day 1 goes well? In other words, which trails have the gentlest slopes (and maybe even have natural speed reducing inclinations) but is also wide and not a cat track?

 

[mdf]

I'm not a regular at Loon, so I can't give you advice . Hopefully someone else can .

 

[Erik Timmerman]

Just went out to start the car, porch thermometer says -20! Clear sky though, should be great skiing today. Hopefully everyone is gone early to watch the Pats.

 

[LiquidFeet]

....The parking lots were full, just walking through the cafeteria was difficult, and the gondola line looked endless. But the slopes were pretty emtpy....
I'm sure the fact that it was 13 degrees at the base and 2 at the top helped keep the crowds down....

This perfectly describes Bretton Woods yesterday, Saturday. Snow was hero on groomers and in the woods; great everywhere. And the sun did shine. It was frigid, never getting above the single digits. No wind at Bretton Woods, by the way.

On low pitch beginner terrain where I taught it was difficult to get going. I was lazy and had not put cold wax on. But it was fine with some pitch.

The good part of really cold snow for an instructor is that it's the easiest snow for teaching beginners to skate. The rental shop is lazy like me about cold wax, so the beginner's can't get their rental skis to slide. Skating is the only option for downhill movement. It gets them edging, flexing and extending legs left-right-left-right, and moving from one foot to the other. And skating gets them out of the back seat.

They end up skating downhill just to get moving, and learn to love the help offered by gravity. Whoo-hoo!!!