Opening Day?

[skiadikt]

Those are really good points and a great video, glad you documented that piece of history. I remember getting brought up to the bottom of Canyon one year too in a hay wagon or something like that. Is my memory correct? Imagine the Tonies putting up with that today? Nope.

yes one season they "trucked" you up to the canyon chair from the parking lot instead of the K1 and trucking down to the NR. neither were comfortable rides. believe that was that was the last season of the trucks. a lot fewer people then - those were in the days before the current opening day feeding frenzy.

obviously looking forward to opening day but i've come to dislike the hike down the stairs. probably do that once, then wait til we can ski down and even then the NR gets old real qwik. the real fun doesn't begin until we can ski ttb.

[MrsG]

MrG did the truck days too - think we’ll probably skip the down stairs walk too …. getting old sucks

[daytripper]

The stairs (especially going down) suck no matter how old you are. I'll walk down then only once a year. Walking down in ski boots suck and I'm not interested in changing into my ski boots after walking down.

[rogman]

The stairs (especially going down) suck no matter how old you are. I'll walk down then only once a year. Walking down in ski boots suck and I'm not interested in changing into my ski boots after walking down.

I don’t like it but I do it. When it goes on for several weeks it gets real old. My recollection is there’s a defibrillator by the back door of the Peak Lodge. Every year that information seems more important. Katie also has good heart (re)starting remedies.

[Captain Hafski]

Timing a trip to FLA to hopefully miss most of the "stairs" !!

[wtf021]

Its too bad the mountain can't upgrade their snowmaking capacity allowing for the opening of Great Northern and North Ridge to happen at the same time.

[Mister Moose]

Its too bad the mountain can't upgrade their snowmaking capacity allowing for the opening of Great Northern and North Ridge to happen at the same time.

I kinda think they could run Rime and GN to the CQ together, but early season they may not want to spend the $ to watch it melt away several times. And they seem to value getting Reason park open higher than GN.

[newpylong1]

It really all depends on how much capacity Skye Peak is using at the time and what the wet bulb is doing. They typically don't leave capacity on the table. If GN off the summit could be done as well as all the others they would, but typically they can't.

[MrsG]

Agree with Moose here, they could do boomarang before the park on Rime

[snoloco]

I remember that they used to prioritize Upper East Fall over Great Northern. They'd have Rime, Reason, and Upper East Fall open, but not Great Northern. In 2021 and 2022 they did Great Northern immediately after Rime and Reason. This eliminates bidirectional stair use earlier, at the expense of more trail crowding on the lower portion of Rime. If they use the new HKD ground guns on Great Northern (they had them staged there at the end of September), then that's less air use, and might allow more guns to run at once.

I like putting Great Northern before Upper East Fall. Few people skied UEF because Reason is the only way to it, and it functions more as a hike park than a normal trail when they aren't top to bottom. Eliminating bidirectional stair use is more important. But I wish they'd get either Upper Downdraft or Upper Dipper open along with UEF sooner than they did the last 2 years. I'm not saying hit those trails at the expense of going top to bottom. However, having 2 full runs, plus the park on Reason, is a lot more enjoyable in the event of a long stairs season, than just having Rime and Reason. For clarification, I consider 3 or more weekends of continuous operations to be a "long stairs season".

[rogman]

They’re usually pretty quick about opening the GN from the top if they’ve got temps at all so no complaints there. Their attempts to get Upper East Fall open use to infuriate me but since they’ve fixed the leaks its better. If they have to make snow for a week again to get it open, I’ll reverse myself again. UEF is a more interesting trail than middle Great Northern, but mostly I don’t care. It puts them closer to T2B. T2B, lapping GN/Mousetrap/Lower Bunny gets old quick. Not a fan of the Gondi, especially in the warmer temps.

I wish they’d change it up more. It shouldn’t be about having the “perfect” opening strategy, but rather keeping it interesting. The same trail rollout year after year gets boring. Surprise me.

[Big Bob]

They’re usually pretty quick about opening the GN from the top if they’ve got temps at all so no complaints there. Their attempts to get Upper East Fall open use to infuriate me but since they’ve fixed the leaks its better. If they have to make snow for a week again to get it open, I’ll reverse myself again. UEF is a more interesting trail than middle Great Northern, but mostly I don’t care. It puts them closer to T2B. T2B, lapping GN/Mousetrap/Lower Bunny gets old quick. Not a fan of the Gondi, especially in the warmer temps.

I wish they’d change it up more. It shouldn’t be about having the “perfect” opening strategy, but rather keeping it interesting. The same trail rollout year after year gets boring. Surprise me.

If you want early season top to bottom head on over the Newry Maine or Lincon, NH, just sayin. :)

[twilkas]

marketing change.

[BoozeTan]

so when is it?
Strange there hasnt been any posts about it yet

[skiadikt]

just scroll down vvvv

they never announce a date. 60's this week. based on current forecast, there's a snowmaking overnight wednesday into friday. we'll see whether that's enough.