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Arizona/New Mexico The 2017/2018 Four Corners Thread
All the man made stuff on the upper mountain will hold up just fine. The bottom area around the GCE terminal is where they are going to have the challenge. Cool to see they are going to try to push it as long as possible. I was expecting an early April closing date.
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- Dec 1, 2015
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Went up last Saturday. Looked really rough and scratched the crap out of my bases. Casino and half of volcano were no go's last week as well as both lift lines.
I saw on the webcam today that they "harvested" most of the sunset terrain park snow. Was hoping they could save that until next weekend but clearly they couldn't. Ops crew did serious work to push snow to the bottoms. I don't know how they make it another weekend, but the Ops crew has been proving everyone wrong so far this year, so I'm not betting against them. Agassiz only is my wager after this weekend.
I saw on the webcam today that they "harvested" most of the sunset terrain park snow. Was hoping they could save that until next weekend but clearly they couldn't. Ops crew did serious work to push snow to the bottoms. I don't know how they make it another weekend, but the Ops crew has been proving everyone wrong so far this year, so I'm not betting against them. Agassiz only is my wager after this weekend.
Yeah, pretty crazy how they are keeping it open on the bottom. I may go up and make a run or two to close out the season this weekend. We skied Nov. through April in the worst winter in 20 years, I thank Coleman and his crews for that for sure. I just bought my pass for next season, get the discount while you can.
I lapped Ridge down to the bumps on Lower Volcano several times on Saturday. It hadn't frozen overnight, so skied superbly until the base got too sloppy. To be honest, one of the best days of the season. I came back for more on Sunday, but it was frozen solid and I didn't have the patience to wait it out. It looks like this weekend may be pretty cold as well. I'm not sure if I'll go back for more, but a pretty good end to the season if that's it.
I've only skied snowbowl the past few years. How does this season compare to others?
I'm going only with the power pass next year (I usually have the mountain collective too). I'm starting to like the little ski areas more and more. I figure with the partner options I could get a couple CO trips in if I have the time and maybe hit those two small NM areas for fun. Hopefully powderhorn gets added back in as that gives options to accompany sunlight when taking that route back from Denver.
We only had real winter for about a month this year from Feb. to mid-March, base never got over like 30" on the Snotel. Like I said, worst winter in a long time. If they didn't blast the whole mountain with man-made we would've had at best a couple weeks of skiing up there if they even opened. Figuring in CO and UT trips I always get way more than my money's worth out of the power pass.
I went to powder mountain this year and it was fun. Hopefully they'll add somewhere else in UT to make it worthwhile.
Interesting news on Agassiz replacement...
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/ar...cle_b4aad3cc-c583-5386-b607-09abe0b338ee.html
http://azdailysun.com/news/local/ar...cle_b4aad3cc-c583-5386-b607-09abe0b338ee.html
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- Dec 1, 2015
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If anything, the last season was a reminder of how important location diversity is in the partner program. We really didn't have a partner in the PNW to go to pre-Feb 1 outside of Bogus Basin, which is a stretch to call PNW. I turned down an early Feb trip back to PowMo because of how little terrain was open. I also cancelled my early Jan trip to CO for the same reason. I certainly felt trapped in that there were no partners in the PNW that were benefiting from our la nina pain
On the positive, the best resorts from 2017 appear to be back: Powmo, Copper, Loveland and obviously Purg. Seeing Powderhorn, Sunlight and Monarch back is also nice.
Marmot looks like a decent addition, but a beast to get to.
That's quite a lift. Is it even necessary though, doesn't the new 6 pack Grand Canyon Expess serve as main lift now?
The GCE does look after the bulk of the traffic, but excludes the steeps and trees for expert skiers. I would prefer to see a mid mountain lift serve that terrain, so the base has less traffic, but I’ll take a high speed chondola over the current, slow, outdated, wind prone, Agassiz lift.
Dumping for final weekend at AZSB! https://www.snowbowl.ski/the-mountain/webcams/
I thought the reason they didn't replace Agassiz was not enough room for the additional congestion at the top. Is it necessary? Probably not but after riding that long trip up in the bitter cold, you'll be thankful.
BTW, Coleman approved my request for an additional option in Utah and came up with Nordic Valley. I drove by it on the way to Powmow and it doesn't look like much.
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- Dec 1, 2015
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Every lift upgrade they've made thus far has been part of the 2005 approved master plan. That's why as soon as Coleman and his $$$ showed up, they've been able to knock the upgrades out. See ~page 59 on this link
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3831728.pdf
The Agassiz lift upgrade wasn't part of the proposed master plan at that time. I've not seen a Chondola in operation, but everything I read indicates that it will help them offer better year round experiences. I don't mind the "scenic chairlift" visitors. If they're willing to pay 20$, I'm happy that AZSB is making EZ Money that isn't coming out of my pocket.
I also had a chance, while working on some guest service issues over the April 7th weekend, to talk with one of the resort directors. Agassiz didn't come up in conversation, but In addition, he indicated that they were "doing engineering" on a new building for ski school over by Hart's Prairie to alleviate the crapshow that is the rental area. Additionally, the Aspen replacement would likely realigned to take it up higher.
Thread Starter
TS
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- Sep 30, 2016
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Thanks! I hadn't seen that until now. That was me in the vid with my daughter doing "the point".