2019 New England Gathering trip report

[James]

The hardware store rubber gloves that are basically cotton dipped in rubber start smelling really bad. Drying them with air causes an immediate need for Febreeze.
I'm going to attempt to wash them.

The other thing to do with regular gloves that are soaked is wear a pair of nitrile exam gloves inside. That will help keep the hands warm. If you take them off you'll probably never get them on again without forced air drying.

 

[KevinF]

The last time I skied Stowe was with Josh in conditions like that, in probably early 2011. I remember skiing through bumps just like the ones you described, and when we were done with that particular miserable section Josh said something like, "I don't know, if you move to Colorado you're going to forget how to ski." I am happy to say that he has been proven 100% right.

I've been enjoying this thread! It's giving me Vermont nostalgia.

"Vermont nostalgia" is code for "Damn, I'm glad I don't have to put up with that crap anymore".

 

[James]

"Vermont nostalgia" is code for "Damn, I'm glad I don't have to put up with that crap anymore".

Yeah but Stowe gets more snow than most places in Colorado.

The entry to National was all rock. Not sure what happened this year. I'll guess: too many snows that had high winds plus the liquid events with wind. Essentially pressure washing a thin base at the top because it's unprotected.

Skiing the ice mounds with powder troughs was extra difficult because you couldn't see the possible rogue ice bump that's hiding in the powder. If you remain standing after hitting it, it throws you off line, into the ice mound you were going around. It can get bad very quickly.
At some point it got better. I don't know if it's I figured it out more, the bumps were more regular or there were less hidden dangers. It became enjoyable in real time.

Now the Gulch trail on the other hand just got worse as tou went down. Looked so nice. Left side had soft wind drifts and piles that were knee deep. Just when you got a rythym going you'd hit some hideous hard icy thing underneath that sent you reeling, hoping to recover before slamming an ice bump. Never figured that one out.

The Titanic wasn't sunk by the ice they could see...
(Pretty much the theme for the day)

 

[KevinF]

The entry to National was all rock. Not sure what happened this year. I'll guess: too many snows that had high winds plus the liquid events with wind. Essentially pressure washing a thin base at the top because it's unprotected.

Did you take the traverse entrance in or drop in off the Haychute (the Haychute is that little cat-track that leads down to Goat)? Dropping in off the Haychute is so rarely a good idea that I've done it exactly once. I did it on a powder day and caused a mini avalanche.

Coming in on the high traverse from Liiftine is usually OK.

 

[tball]

Yesterday at this spot and time 52 degrees and raining. Today 19 degrees and very windy with new snow. 33 degrees difference!

Y'all are seriously core. Much admiration watching the NE Gathering from afar!

I've got a few questions I'm curious about (in a morbid dateline murder mystery sort of way).

If it hadn't snowed four inches overnight would the mountain even open the next morning? Could you possibly ski on snow soaked by all that rain refrozen at 19 degrees? Maybe just groomers if they hit them at the right time before they froze?

Many of you have been to A-basin mid-May (and hoping to see you all in a month). How much worse are refrozen surface conditions after rain than refrozen slush on a cold high-altitude morning? Just hoping to learn a bit without the painful first-hand experience.

 

[James]

Did you take the traverse entrance in or drop in off the Haychute (the Haychute is that little cat-track that leads down to Goat)? Dropping in off the Haychute is so rarely a good idea that I've done it exactly once. I did it on a powder day and caused a mini avalanche.

Coming in on the high traverse from Liiftine is usually OK.

No clue what you're talking about! I don't speak Steaux.

We went down towards National and Liftline. The entrance to National was roped off. The first 20 feet are rock, grass, dirt. We went to the side and took a narrow little curving access trail that @mdf got hurt on last year with the steep whoop de doo. Those things are dangerous and that one is a blind curve.

 

[Josh Matta]

Y'all are seriously core. Much admiration watching the NE Gathering from afar!

I've got a few questions I'm curious about (in a morbid dateline murder mystery sort of way).

If it hadn't snowed four inches overnight would the mountain even open the next morning? Could you possibly ski on snow soaked by all that rain refrozen at 19 degrees? Maybe just groomers if they hit them at the right time before they froze?

Many of you have been to A-basin mid-May (and hoping to see you all in a month). How much worse are refrozen surface conditions after rain than refrozen slush on a cold high-altitude morning? Just hoping to learn a bit without the painful first-hand experience.

it would have been easier if it had not have snowed but they would have had all the steep bump runs closed. because the perception would have been it was harder(and potentially dangerous to ski). I could easily ski it, so could a couple from our group . The reality is though that 4 inch of new snow was actually making it tougher to ski on something like upper national, but made things like Nosedive woods better.

The only trail I couldnt figure out was the hayride bumps. .......again though you basically ski as if nothing will go you way, and you will be alright.

 

[Marker]

Enjoyed viewing everyone's photos, but I can see if I'm going to attend a future NEG I'm going to have to up my bump game. I did work on those with @Guy in Shorts and @Wannabeskibum at Killington on Saturday and practiced on Sunday (when it stopped raining) and Monday. GIS regaled us with stories of the MRG day and the fun of following y'all down all those bump runs!

 

[KevinF]

Enjoyed viewing everyone's photos, but I can see if I'm going to attend a future NEG I'm going to have to up my bump game. I did work on those with @Guy in Shorts and @Wannabeskibum at Killington on Saturday and practiced on Sunday (when it stopped raining) and Monday. GIS regaled us with stories of the MRG day and the fun of following y'all down all those bump runs!

Please don't think you have to be an expert level bump (or tree, or groomer...) skier to attend the NEG! A willingness to try always helps though.

At Sugarbush those who didn't want to ski Castlerock for a few runs formed their own little group and skied easier terrain for a bit. We had multiple groups going at MRG as well.

Stowe days in particular are easy because both @Josh Matta and I know exactly where we're going -- i.e., we can easily form multiple groups if needed. We will always wait for you.

Gatherings are about hanging with cool people.

 

[mdf]

Gatherings are about hanging with cool people.

Quoted for truth. C'mon down next year!

Not everyone is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Bad Ideas.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

Please don't think you have to be an expert level bump (or tree, or groomer...) skier to attend the NEG! A willingness to try always helps though.

At Sugarbush those who didn't want to ski Castlerock for a few runs formed their own little group and skied easier terrain for a bit. We had multiple groups going at MRG as well.

Stowe days in particular are easy because both @Josh Matta and I know exactly where we're going -- i.e., we can easily form multiple groups if needed. We will always wait for you.

Gatherings are about hanging with cool people.

This makes me happy. I'm gun shy about attending one of these things because I have it in my mind that everyone is a double black expert skier and I'll get dragged somewhere gnarly and wind up having an anxiety attack. Maybe next year if timing works out........................

 

[James]

Yeah you should just come. No body cares what people ski. There's always a group going somewhere easier. Even on the advanced terrain there's wildly differing rates of descent.

If it hadn't snowed four inches overnight would the mountain even open the next morning? Could you possibly ski on snow soaked by all that rain at 19 degrees? Maybe just groomers if they hit them at the right time before they froze?

Well such things are sort of common. I can't speak to Stowe, the regulars would have to. My guess having experienced it, would be the steep mogul trails, National, Liftline, Goat, Starr, etc would be closed. The groomers would be open unless they're steep. It really depends if it froze before they groomed or not. If before, it can actually be good on the groomers.

In the old days they would not have closed skiable trails just because they were slick icy moguls. This is what I've been told, and sort of what I remember as a kid, but honestly never kept track of. Those trails could never be groomed though as there were no winch cats. It's likely the bumps were also better shaped with 195-205 straight skis and a better average bump skier

At the Jackson gathering @mdf and I skied the Hobacks after a refreeze. It was pretty bad. It's skiable though, you have to accept the jarring, vibrating feet, shaking eyesight, and possibility that the next turn initiation will go badly and send you off balance. Maybe way off balance. Honestly, it's way more skiable than manky glue. No way would I condemn myself to 20+ minutes of mank torture in there.

Refrozen bumps with those refrozen chunks on top offer a way to slow down on the top. Usually those chunks break a bit, and they don't completely impede going through them like rain soaked. We had such at Sugarbush on Saturday morning. In the fog you might as well go in because it's a natural speed limiter and you could usually see the next bump.

But say Slalom Slope at Abasin with huge refrozen bumps? Usually there's better ways down.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Last time I was there the front trails were closed but chin clip was full of big March icy moguls. It's not too steep but something like 4,000 feet long (not vert). It was pretty fun, sort of like bumping a skiff through big waves.

 

[TheArchitect]

I'll speak as the guy who attended the NEG with mediocre bump skills. I was nervous going because I knew these guys are better than me in general but much more so in the bumps. I've been slowly teaching myself how to ski them and while I've improved on the low angle mogul trails I still suck on the steeper terrain. I simply couldn't keep up. The group was patient and understanding at MRG but I didn't want to hold things up so after 2 bump runs I stuck to the groomers and intermediate bump runs. @dbostedo and I had a great time on those and a few others joined us on occasion.

On Saturday at Sugarbush I mostly avoided the bump trails but figured I'd give one a shot off of the North Lynx chair. Should have stuck to the groomers! When the group went up Castlerock I didn't, even though I've skied it before and much better than I did anything at MRG on Friday. The conditions weren't great for someone teaching themselves bumps. No one judged me and I didn't feel embarrassed...much.

Anyway, no one here should be fearful of attending a Gathering. Everyone is great to hang out with and more than happy to share tips. For myself I found the experience both humbling and motivating. Next year I'm going to focus even harder on bump skiing, including taking multiple lessons specifically for that.

 

[dbostedo]

If you take them off you'll probably never get them on again without forced air drying.

I took mine off to wring them out a couple of times, and was able to get them back on fine - they were cheap and not very form-fitting. They also went in the trash at the end of the day; I wasn't going to try to salvage them.

I was happy, though, that despite being soaked through, my hands stayed relatively warm. And my boots and jacket performed admirably... my pants, nearly admirably. And having a hood that fits over my helmet is terrific on storm days - the snow or r#@n kind.

 

[dbostedo]

Also - for folks who might not attend because they think everyone is expert, just remember... I've been at the last two, so clearly that proves that not everyone there is an expert (or even advanced).

Half the pics I took of people in the bumps were after I went around on the groomer to watch the others come down them.

 

[James]

Spring bumps are usually good for learning. At Sugarbush the ones on Lixi's Twist and Lower Twist were very good - soft spaced out. Moonshine also.

 

[Coach13]

Late this summer I’m going to wind my work schedule back quite a bit. I’m hoping to make a western gathering as well as this gathering next season.

 

[TheArchitect]

Spring bumps are usually good for learning. At Sugarbush the ones on Lixi's Twist and Lower Twist were very good - soft spaced out. Moonshine also.
View attachment 70341

I'm hoping to get a few more days in and try trails like those. The frustrating thing is that I can ski bumps a lot better out west, even on steeper terrain. Spacing and snow type matter a lot for me at this point in the learning curve. Big, close and steep eastern bumps are evil incarnate!

 

[KevinF]

Y'all are seriously core. Much admiration watching the NE Gathering from afar!

I've got a few questions I'm curious about (in a morbid dateline murder mystery sort of way).

If it hadn't snowed four inches overnight would the mountain even open the next morning? Could you possibly ski on snow soaked by all that rain refrozen at 19 degrees? Maybe just groomers if they hit them at the right time before they froze?

Many of you have been to A-basin mid-May (and hoping to see you all in a month). How much worse are refrozen surface conditions after rain than refrozen slush on a cold high-altitude morning? Just hoping to learn a bit without the painful first-hand experience.

New Englanders have as many words for "ice" as Eskimo's have for snow. Not all ice is the same.

The ice we had on Monday was pretty textured ice; i.e., the stuff was skiable, albeit punishing. I think they would have kept some of the bump runs open even without the new snow on Monday. Shiny flat ice is another matter... falling on that stuff can be an instant "slide for life".

Stowe had a freezing rain episode earlier this season which left the mountain looking like a mirror -- that closed virtually everything except for a few gentle groomers for a while until new snow could "soften up" the surface again.

The last steep pitch of Liftline (30 degree pitch or so) was groomed out but was covered in textured ice... I felt like I was going to rattle a tooth loose on the stuff, but I wasn't afraid of falling on it (besides how much it would hurt). It's much scarier when it's flat shiny ice.