Christmas / New Years Week Looking Promising

[nsvencer1]

Looking Back at Photos etc and trying to piece it together:

2021 - Bad - r*in - we planned to stay up the entire school break and left early
2020 - Did not come up - COVID year (and we respected travel advisories)
2019 - No memory or photo records
2018 - From what I can tell OK. Just man made conditions (no big snowstorm, but no massive r*in/thaw either)
2017 - No Memory or photo records
2016 - I think OK Man-Made conditions
2015 - Terrible. Worst year ever. I think this was the year they didn't even have Snowshed open?
2014 - I see quite a bit of dirt and grass in the background of some photos.

Nothing further to dig back on.

Edit: I also think that 2015 was the year that Pico did not open at all until January.

Stormchaser had a good idea - and did not take long to find. It also spurred my memory on these years. From reading some of the reports (and confirming with "Time Machine" on Dark Sky.

2019 - Reports of r*in on the 27th, then of lifts down due to icing and power outages on the 28th (i assume due to freezing r*in)
2017 - This was the year of insanely cold. Temps well below zero (before wind chill) for much of the week. Lows of -15, highs of -5 at the base etc.
2013 - Looks like there was a r*in/ice event on the 22nd. Then the week between xmas and new years fell into the "conditions exceeded our low expectations" category.

All in all its a pretty bad run of holiday weeks. for at least the past 8-0years.

2017 Christmas Day was a good snow fall, maybe 10"

[Low Rider]

Christmas week 2002, the winter after I moved to Vermont. We had approximately 30” of snow on Christmas Eve up until early morning of Christmas Day. Many lifts were delayed so they could get them shoveled out. Little if anything was groomed. Christmas Day and most of the rest of the week was outrageous to say the least.

That is probably the year I am remembering - skied hard all week and then another big snowstorm on or just before New Years Eve.

[PinnacleJim]

Current NOAA forecast at elevation at Killington is not looking too bad. Thursday night 3 to 7 inches snow with little to no ice. Friday r*in changing to snow late with 1 to 3 inches possible. May not be a complete disaster after all.

[newpylong1]

That's awesome...sometimes it's okay to lemonade from lemons.

[snoloco]

Bear opens on Saturday. Since the temps look perfect next week, the smart thing would be to get Great Eastern open all the way to Route 4. Unfortunately, next weekend looks terrible.

[skiadikt]

Bear opens on Saturday. Since the temps look perfect next week, the smart thing would be to get Great Eastern open all the way to Route 4. Unfortunately, next weekend looks terrible.

so you're getting bear this weekend and now you're moving onto rt 4 ...

first of all, there could be lots of resurfacing necessary. could be wrong but think getting both a 2nd lower route in bear (wildfire) and an additional run in needles open takes precedence over rt 4. realize rt 4 adds parking but you can't have both the bear base and northbrook base more than likely running multiple lifts and have only one trail open. fwiw they didn't open rt 4 until jan 21 last season. we'll see ...

[skiadikt]

Current NOAA forecast at elevation at Killington is not looking too bad. Thursday night 3 to 7 inches snow with little to no ice. Friday r*in changing to snow late with 1 to 3 inches possible. May not be a complete disaster after all.

indeed forecast looks a "little better." hope for the best.

[snoloco]

fwiw they didn't open rt 4 until jan 21 last season.

Not opening Stage 1 until January 21st was pathetic and it should've been open at least 3 weeks earlier. There have been previous years where Bear and Skyeship both opened within days of each other.

[newpylong1]

My $.02:

Looking at the long range for next week, even assuming a moderate resurfacing effort required post Friday, I still see the hours to comfortably get Route 4 open by the following weekend. There are 144 "good" to "excellent" non-stop snowmaking hours.

If this "event" wasn't going to happen Friday I'd say Route 4 and Sunrise would both be a lock by next weekend. Unfortunately I can't see committing resources to Falls Brook to get to Sun Dog just yet unless the forecast for the following weekend improves. Too much uncertainty and too much mileage.

[GMCrra]

The pipe blowout on GE last year delayed the opening past MLK, which stunk. Bear and GE opened within days of each other prior.

The peak to creek is a differentiating feature from other resorts, and the only way to ski the full 3000 ft vert at K. It is disappointing to homeowners and guests when its not open for the xmas to new years holiday. We understand more operational detail as enthusiasts, but the guest coming after a 2 ft dump doesnt understand why it cant be opened. Nor do they care that it r*ined until mid december. It would be nice to have the customer volume and demand, and ability to open it earlier in the new weather patterns.

[newpylong1]

What's kinda crazy is that President Smith undertook the massive project to install snowmaking on Lower 4 Mile (today's Home Stretch) and cut Touchdown (and installed snowmaking on that) in combination with the Skyeship installation. I can't recall ever seeing snow made on either. Imagine having the weather/time and the demand to cover two routes down to Route 4?

[KingsFourMan]

What's kinda crazy is that President Smith undertook the massive project to install snowmaking on Lower 4 Mile (today's Home Stretch) and cut Touchdown (and installed snowmaking on that) in combination with the Skyeship installation. I can't recall ever seeing snow made on either. Imagine having the weather/time and the demand to cover two routes down to Route 4?

It is pretty hard to image that now but they used to do it all the time - when lower Sunrise Mtn was open. Plus, at least 1 or 2 of the 3 runs off the mid-station that had snowmaking. Without the mid-station runs, northeast passage was pretty useless except for the ski in ski out access and the additional entry point. There used to be a lot of pressure from the Sunrise condo people to get Sunrise open for the holiday week and I remember Killington trying hard to do it in the 80s and 90s.

Speaking of old Sunrise Mountain, anyone want to buy a big chunk of it:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/Fall ... 9499_zpid/

[newpylong1]

Yes, so that would actually be 3 intended routes down to Route 4. Hard to imagine is an understatement.

[asher2789]

The word Promising in the topic title jinxed it ..

I accept full responsibility for the jinx, I thought the word "promising" instead of "good" would prevent the jinx. I should have known better.

make another post about a shitty christmas/new years week and maybe well get snow instead!

[skiadikt]

The word Promising in the topic title jinxed it ..

I accept full responsibility for the jinx, I thought the word "promising" instead of "good" would prevent the jinx. I should have known better.

make another post about a shitty christmas/new years week and maybe well get snow instead!

the good news is the window of unfavorable weather is shrinking w more snow on the front end. maybe an 8-10 hr temp spike. hopefully that front end snow absorbs the moisture and there's no net loss of snow. then they roll in the back end snow. surfaces will be hard for sure and the nats closed but it might not be as bad as it could be. saturday though, could be brutal w temps in the single digits and high winds. then they have maybe 6 days to resurface and expand before the weather turns on us again. sounds a lot like last year ...