New England How is Sunday River in the Xmas-New Year week generally?

[speedster]

Do they have good grooming early in the season? If anyone's been there recently this year, how are the conditions?

 

[dbostedo]

Paging @Tony S and @elemmac

 

[sparty]

While a snowstorm or three to open up the natural-snow stuff would be nice, having snowmaking trails open from edge to edge (White Heat and Jordan are both open) will spread the crowds out nicely and usually makes it possible to find pockets of calm even during vacation weeks.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Ya typical holiday base area bottlenecks but the crowds spread out. Ya need big storms but weve been spoiled for a couple years.

Plan on half the day on one side half on the other.

 

[ScottB]

Do they have good grooming early in the season? If anyone's been there recently this year, how are the conditions?

I have skied there twice so far this year and have a ski buddy with a season ticket who is there often. I am hearing conditions are excellent for early season. Not everything is open, but what is open is in good shape. They have most of their peaks open now, but not their natural snow expert terrain.

As a general statement, Sunday River is one of the better NE mtn's in terms of snowmaking and grooming. I think Kton gets more snow and puts out more snowmaking, but SR is not that far behind. SR is one of the better groomed mtn's, meaning if its icey conditions, they get the grooming machines to chop it up and soften it up as well as any mtn.

This year is not as good as last years phenomenal start, but things are pretty decent overall. I am heading there for New Years week myself.

 

[Tony S]

Do they have good grooming early in the season? If anyone's been there recently this year, how are the conditions?

I was there on Sunday. It was fine. I admire them grudgingly for putting food on the table, so to speak, even though it's hardly soul food. Their grooming is good. Of course when you dump that many people on the hill, the surface deteriorates pretty fast, but you can say the same of dozens of other popular areas in the NE.

You don't go there for captivating terrain. You don't go there for atmosphere or luxury or tradition. God knows you don't go there for ungroomed natural snow. You go there because you've got an itch and they can scratch it.

 

[sparty]

The wife and I got a few runs in this morning before going to the in-laws place for Christmas festivities. Of the three rooms, two (Lazy River to lower Risky to Tourist Trap and Ecstacy to Cascades) had awesome hero snow: soft enough to easily sink an edge in even without perfect moment, firm enough to hold up to real pressure. Right Stuff was a bit more to the firm side--still very carvable but a bit more demanding of putting the pressure on the front of the ski.

I'd guess that's a reasonable sample across the resort--excellent groomed surfaces where they've been able to resurface recently, and good but slightly more demanding ones elsewhere.

 

[Tony S]

The wife and I got a few runs in this morning before going to the in-laws place for Christmas festivities. Of the three rooms, two (Lazy River to lower Risky to Tourist Trap and Ecstacy to Cascades) had awesome hero snow: soft enough to easily sink an edge in even without perfect moment, firm enough to hold up to real pressure. Right Stuff was a bit more to the firm side--still very carvable but a bit more demanding of putting the pressure on the front of the ski.

I'd guess that's a reasonable sample across the resort--excellent groomed surfaces where they've been able to resurface recently, and good but slightly more demanding ones elsewhere.

Sounds good. I've heard rumors of a dump Sunday night. Will you still be there then?

 

[sparty]

Sounds good. I've heard rumors of a dump Sunday night. Will you still be there then?

I'll keep my fingers crossed. The forecasts so far this year have had an annoying tendency to break the wrong way.

I'll be here but working.