Christmas / New Years Week Looking Promising

[newpylong1]

I concur, looks like the front has shifted forward allowing for more precip Thur-Fri overnight and less of the hit piss Friday. Fingers crossed.

[skiadikt]

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.

and the year before it was 1/12. don't ever remember it being "days". on average more like a week and change depending, but the gap has widened.

as for last year, we had 6 thaw events in december and we'll end up with about the same this season with another on the way for the following weekend. very challenging times for sure.

could be wrong but my sense is that particularly for the weekend, we'll see more resurfacing as they try to provide a good experience on a couple trails. and with 2 lifts running out of bear and as many as 3 running out of northbrook and really only one lower mtn trail in each area open, the onus will be to get another trail (lower fire and needles) open to handle the crowd. if there's time and capacity, then perhaps they'll go for rt 4. but that window closes friday. don't forget there'll be only trail open in the canyon and after the new year, highline (because of the width counts as 2 trails) needs to get open for the various race programs. not sure where rt 4 falls on the priority list. fwiw plans change constantly. guns were set up upper chute, GB and upper header weeks ago. none ever fired and the ones on header removed.

agree peak to creek is special. can remember first time i skied k (as a novice skier) back in '74 being excited because they had a 5 mile green trail (GE) from the summit. thought it was the greatest.

[GMCrra]

The year before was COVID related. But if I recall in 2019 it was opened within days.

Sunrise is supposed to be within Bear + 1 week, the HOA pays Killington 80k if I recall correctly. GE usually opened within a week of Skye Peak Express or Needles and a bit ahead of Sunrise.

Weather, World Cup, Parks, Pumping to Pico all take their toll I guess

[DES]

Yikes, I typically don't ski during holiday week (unless conditions are really good, so this thread hadn't concerned me), but I've already gotten burned, Cannon decided not to open tomorrow because of high wind forecast. Everyone who gets out there enjoy!
ps - Edit to add for tomorrow, MRG is only planning Practice Slope and Callie’s Corner, and Jay Peak's forecast is "Gross" (and they are trying to not worry about the future after today)

[jimmywilson69]

I take it there wasn't enough snow to groom Bear cub and the sunrise trails to open?

[skiadikt]

The year before was COVID related. But if I recall in 2019 it was opened within days.

Sunrise is supposed to be Bear + 1 week, the HOA pays Killington 80k if I recall correctly. GE usually opened within a week of Skye Peak Express or Needles and a bit ahead of Sunrise.

every year is different. yes i believe 2019 was "closer" but that was an outlier. for a number of years, particularly in the later asc years and during nyberg's tenure, there was a lot of complaining from homeowners on the route. for a while, nyberg even planned to close it mid-week. management realizes the importance of rt 4 but sometimes mother nature decides, whether or not guests "understand". like i said, don't know their plan, but they have a lot on their plate and remains to be seen how they balance priorities.

[skiadikt]

I take it there wasn't enough snow to groom Bear cub and the sunrise trails to open?

we'll find out. believe they packed everything to preserve the base. upper pipedream was groomed when they opened the SR sunday. timberline seemed groomed this week as well. if they're able to groom cub, sunrise and GE, and the damage isn't too bad, that will go a long way to opening those areas.

[snoloco]

The SRQ is actually scheduled to run again tomorrow. I wonder if they'll have enough snow to groom Upper Pipe Dream and Falls Brook after this crappy storm. Even if they don't, there might be enough base leftover that it only takes 2-3 days of snowmaking to get Falls Brook open. Same applies with Lower Great Eastern.

[180]

17 degrees and starting to flurry when I left the summit at 4pm for my last beautiful natural powder bumps.

[DES]

17 degrees and starting to flurry when I left the summit at 4pm for my last beautiful natural powder bumps.

Hopefully it's not a long long time before natural powder bumps are back, I don't think I'm prepared for a month of groomer days as I may lose my mind (what's left of it that is)...at least I was saved from myself today, just came inside the house, a chairlift ride right now would be a little too exciting- they weren't kidding about the wind gusts.