New Year’s Day 2024

[MrsG]

Nobody there at the bell! Your gift for the new year is a full blown Highline - looks covered edge to edge! Not sure if people poaching, but saw several coming down through the guns!
Only skied Sup to Bear! Gateway to Skyburst great - Viper Pit still has a taupe hue to it! Lower Sup better than lower Sky. Cruise, High Road and Bitter had stones across in places. Used middle Sup most to get around and it continued to ski great. Highlander to Sup, and Snowshed to shuttle were soft. Would have done more do-overs but got cold, and those that slept in were arriving! Be safe out there!

[wgo]

Your gift for the new year is a full blown Highline - looks covered edge to edge! Not sure if people poaching, but saw several coming down through the guns!

Trail report says it it open - but one of the things I am learning from this forum is that the report is not always to be trusted!

[skiadikt]

the gift for the new year was that big orb smiling down on us. a sight for sore eyes. indeed a brisk, chilly day. overall seemed to be a light turnout. obviously very light at the bell. 8-12 shift.

to my skis seemed the mtn did a great recovering. a few spots here & there need help and yeah the viper pit had some brownish snow that actually skied well. even held up for our last run just before noon.

the usual peak day bear start. a couple warmups down claw/burst. skied well. as did cruise. high road fine. supe HW under the guns (nothing particularly wet) garnered an honorable mention and multiple swipes. mid very good and lower decent. lark good and lower ok (freshly tuned skis were useful).

never got to the peak because the k1 wasn't running when we passed by. NR was the NR. nothing special, decent enough. never skied anything in snowdon proper. full house was groomed cement. and rotd was highline under the guns. again multiple swipes. not the best bump lines but soft and dry. actually could ski close to guns with impunity. a good day to start the new year.

[newpylong1]

Man it's nice to see the orb today, even if I'm not skiing.

[rogman]

Conditions today were excellent, mountain ops didn’t just put the mountain back together for the umpteenth time in a row, but improved on it. Started a bit after 8 at the SPE, and did a run back to that, then one down Cruise. Both good. Viper Pit now has a wall to wall brownish tint, but skied well, and looked like it would hold up. We then headed down Skyelark, also good. We planned to go up top and try Downdraft Headwall, but the Gondi was down and we carried on over to the Bubble. Guns were still on Highline, but no sign of peeps. We decided to try the reopened Full House. Groomed while still wet, it was a bit “firm”, but it did take us past HIghline, open under the guns! Not sure when the drop occurred but still largely (completely?) untracked. Not the just the run of the day, but the run of the year (2024 is suddently off to an excellent start, btw), and easily the best thing any of our crew had skied in several weeks. Best part was the snow quality, T2B without a google wipe. We lapped it five times until we had to leave. The return through Viper Pit was disappointingly uneventful.

[PinnacleJim]

Highline was indeed open. Big soft bumps under the guns interspersed with patches of of ice and dirt. Interesting.

Word on the street was they had 175 guns running. Don't tell the guys over on the Expansion thread. They would rather complain than deal with reality.

[180]

Lapped the Box with a beautiful Upper DD to Highline. Happy New Year KZONE!

[snoloco]

Word on the street was they had 175 guns running. Don't tell the guys over on the Expansion thread. They would rather complain than deal with reality.

No way there were 175 guns going, at least in the morning. They did light up all of Bittersweet and at least some of the guns on Cruise Control by the end of the day, but I would be shocked if that was maxed out. They had way more guns going in the run up to opening Bear.

That being said, despite the disappointing snowmaking effort, there was good skiing to be had, and it was the best day of the weekend. I was surprised to find Full House and Highline open. My favorite runs were Downdraft Headwall to Upper East Fall to Lower East Fall, and Full House to Highline.

[Captain Hafski]

Mid Day Report: Mostly been said above, except for the bitching.

ROTD: Pretty easy call today - Welcome back Highline. No rocks / ice unless you tried to ski right of center [on one hand, in the Rogman 'extra hang time' area, butt on the other hand the thin cover side]. As SA posted, the air hogs were doing their thing and with the temps / humidity [it was not 90% as someone posted] we had today, perfect snowmaking conditions. My best runs were pretty far left. And, bumped up nicely most of the way down !

Great day overall with improved conditions and best viz we've had in a while. Not overly impressed with much of the stuff on Supe POD as Highline, Skye Claw, and even LEF got my attention.

Yep - Read what's been said before about Full House although it made a better schlep [than Killink, or the Mouse Run park where they have it heavily fenced at the bottom] to get to Highline.

LEF much better than it's been including fixing up the somewhat Ladies Tee entrance.

I thought Cruise Control was a bit of a disgrace for a very prolific Blue Square. Needs some lovin'.

[rogman]

Word on the street was they had 175 guns running. Don't tell the guys over on the Expansion thread. They would rather complain than deal with reality.

I saw no more than 100, but didn’t actively search for operating guns either. I documented where I didn’t look, and it was a significant area. Particularly due to the early ground fog it was hard to tell if guns were in use from a distance. Could have totalled 175 guns, IDK. However, I don’t give a lot of credence to ski area estimates either; it’s like snow reports only less reliable. I certainly saw guns deployed that were not in use. I don’t count them. Certainly what is planned operationally and what actually is executed may be different. It is what it is, and perception really doesn’t matter, what matters is the results on a daily, weekly, and seasonal basis. A snapshot doesn’t really reveal much, just as a snapshot of a basketball game doesn’t reveal much. You have to look at the whole game, and the whole season.

[RustyK]

Out at the crack o noon for a couple of hours.

Yes. Cruise and the viper pit still need love. But the guns we’re bringing everything back.

What a great new years gift.

IMG_0604.jpeg (529.78 KiB) Viewed 1667 times

At the fireworks,
DJ Dave really got the crowd on the deck going like a European happy hour.

Maybe we could have him on the deck in the spring to bring that vibe in the afternoon?

[makemoreturns]

They only had 174 guns running. What a disgrace! I’m going to Okemo.