tuesday 12/20 report

[skiadikt]

yesterday afternoon's snow kept the winning streak going. the sun played hide & seek during the morning before the fog won out in the afternoon. 9-2 shift. at the bell, the snowdon groomers skied beautifully. LEF still very firm & fast. once again the best skiing (no chair, so no canyon) was the needles area. will call needles rotd and vertigo ru. nice soft bumps on both. needles got an encore. cruise & bitter more of that firm & fast. supe still skiing very well. old supe & mid o benefited from the new snow. highline quite good. vagabond weedy but fun. finished out at rams w both timberline & swirl having the best snow.

as for snowmaking - learn to ski, mid needles, cruise, sections of GE, bearly, at least one tower on gateway going. couldn't see others but they could be out of sight. worst case scenario for the holidays, they start with bearly just to get bear open for the weekend and continue to fill in the other bear routes over the weekend. unfortunately there's this big ugly event happening on friday.

[PinnacleJim]

Annoying lift issues continue. Stuck on the Needles Eye Quad for 20 minutes yesterday. Snowdon Six down for a period late this morning resulting in a big line at the Ramshead Quad as everyone bailed. Similar situation this afternoon as the Superstar Quad was shut down for a repair. Nothing major but not hopefully not an indication of things to come.

[skiadikt]

Annoying lift issues continue. Stuck on the Needles Eye Quad for 20 minutes yesterday. Snowdon Six down for a period late this morning resulting in a big line at the Ramshead Quad as everyone bailed. Similar situation this afternoon as the Superstar Quad was shut down for a repair. Nothing major but not hopefully not an indication of things to come.

wow wasn't aware. experienced no issues at all.

[newpylong1]

yesterday afternoon's snow kept the winning streak going. the sun played hide & seek during the morning before the fog won out in the afternoon. 9-2 shift. at the bell, the snowdon groomers skied beautifully. LEF still very firm & fast. once again the best skiing (no chair, so no canyon) was the needles area. will call needles rotd and vertigo ru. nice soft bumps on both. needles got an encore. cruise & bitter more of that firm & fast. supe still skiing very well. old supe & mid o benefited from the new snow. highline quite good. vagabond weedy but fun. finished out at rams w both timberline & swirl having the best snow.

as for snowmaking - learn to ski, mid needles, cruise, sections of GE, bearly, at least one tower on gateway going. couldn't see others but they could be out of sight. worst case scenario for the holidays, they start with bearly just to get bear open for the weekend and continue to fill in the other bear routes over the weekend. unfortunately there's this big ugly event happening on friday.

Middle Needles as in the avoid Panic route all costs? Love it.

If they can't get Cruise shutdown by the end of the night and Lower Burst lit up I think that will seal the deal on just Bearly to start. Tonight and tomorrow night are prime.

[jimmywilson69]

Per webcam earlier today lower burst was lit at least within view of cam

[snoloco]

All I saw were the guns right at the bottom for the lift loading area.

[newpylong1]

Correct.

[skiadikt]

yesterday afternoon's snow kept the winning streak going. the sun played hide & seek during the morning before the fog won out in the afternoon. 9-2 shift. at the bell, the snowdon groomers skied beautifully. LEF still very firm & fast. once again the best skiing (no chair, so no canyon) was the needles area. will call needles rotd and vertigo ru. nice soft bumps on both. needles got an encore. cruise & bitter more of that firm & fast. supe still skiing very well. old supe & mid o benefited from the new snow. highline quite good. vagabond weedy but fun. finished out at rams w both timberline & swirl having the best snow.

as for snowmaking - learn to ski, mid needles, cruise, sections of GE, bearly, at least one tower on gateway going. couldn't see others but they could be out of sight. worst case scenario for the holidays, they start with bearly just to get bear open for the weekend and continue to fill in the other bear routes over the weekend. unfortunately there's this big ugly event happening on friday.

Middle Needles as in the avoid Panic route all costs? Love it.

If they can't get Cruise shutdown by the end of the night and Lower Burst lit up I think that will seal the deal on just Bearly to start. Tonight and tomorrow night are prime.

skied well. makes it a more intermediate way into needles proper and needs less snow than panic. sort of moot, because as well as needles is skiing on nat, it's all bumped, probably not enough to groom and will most likely be closed after the weather event.

even if they fire up burst tonite, 48 hrs is cutting it close. do remember another year recently when bearly was the first route opened into bear. we'll see in the morning.

[newpylong1]

Yeah but Middle Needles will now have a base for when they get to Lower. As that line is just a spur off GE they likely wanted to cover it while they were on that line.

They did end up firing up Skyeclaw last night and they'll be fine IMO. You'd be surprised how much water you can give 'em in this wet bulb compared to 20+.

[skiadikt]

Yeah but Middle Needles will now have a base for when they get to Lower. As that line is just a spur off GE they likely wanted to cover it while they were on that line.

They did end up firing up Skyeclaw last night and they'll be fine IMO. You'd be surprised how much water you can give 'em in this wet bulb compared to 20+.

figured that about mid needles. if you have some capacity, just keep filling in things while you're in the neighborhood. that trail is a recent addition and it's a good move because it's a quick hit that allows lesser skiers easier access to needles as opposed to panic.

heard earlier in the week from someone extremely close to the horse's mouth, that the plan was skyeclaw for friday. started to have my doubts as we got closer but looks like they'll get it done. thursday night shift will probably shut it down as the sh*t hits the fan around 2-3 am. good news is we might get 2-4" before it turns. looks like a 16 hr event with temps dropping as much as 35 degrees in 8 hrs on back end. fwiw they did move the towers that were on lower cascade to upper burst which should help with the throw there.

[snoloco]

Looks like they did start on Skyeclaw last night.

[Captain Hafski]

Mid/Late Day Bush Report: Another fun road trip to our Ikon sister resort up north. Nats were the place to be with varying degrees of thin cover to deal with. I'd say K has better nat cover than the Bush butt, lower skier traffic sorta balances things out.

ROTD: Moonshine. For whatever reason, the lower half, and exit, of this trail was in really good shape. Nice soft snowy moguls all the way down with some tip-toeing required in a few places.

Lixi's and Lower Twist very good also though the second half down to Mall was getting pretty bare. Mall was challenging [shocking, I know] with it's normal "manly" entrance. Birdland was great and even Lower Birdland decent. Stein's looked pretty beat.

Up top, nothing special. Ripcord was pretty good, with a variety of surfaces to be found, but upper half viz kept this from being a repeat. Organgrinder had it's ups and downs; nowhere near as good as last week with several very icy sections. Jester fine as it usually is; One of my favorite New England groomers and cool to take it over to the "Steins/Mall/Twist/Moonshine/Spring Fling" trails for a great 2400 + vertical TTB run.

Off the other lift Waterfall great, just bony on the one steeper section. Sleeper trails closed for some reason. And, not running Lynx chair.

Great day overall.

[brownman]

/\
Dude .. both Middle Earth and Cotillion were worth the effort yesterday

[Big Bob]

Superstar chair down first thing this morning. K 1 Gondola was starting and stopping numerous times for the one ride we did. Otger than that conditions where decent and was busy, but lift lines where short. New lodge was nice, just bring sunglasses depending on which way you are facing on a sunny day.