Ride Delaware ?

We were still up north for Thanksgiving, so we decided to head back to Sunday River for another weekday session before the holiday. We were meeting someone there, so we got a slightly later jump on the day than we wanted. Although the roads were snowy in northern NH, they were clear by the Maine/NH border. We got to Sunday River about 10:15 and were on the slopes around 10:30. They had opened some new terrain in the past 5 days, including Cascades over at Barker Mountain, but with that being ungroomed and the only open lift there still being the triple, we decided to go to Jordan Bowl where they had three top to bottom open trails, two of which were groomed. That is some of the best terrain at the resort, is serviced by a fancy high speed 8 person bubble lift, and since the mountain is currently fragmented, it was the better place to ride for the day. Snowmaking was ongoing around the resort, but was limited to closed trails and only on the upper mountain. The side parking lot at Jordan was about half full, which was way more full than last year, but with an 8 person lift, every lift had somebody on it, but no lift line. Rogue Angel and Lollapalooza were both groomed. Lolla is more mellow than Rogue, so conditions held up better and didn’t ski off as quick. Lots of fun rollers and speed on both trails. Easy carving on the outside of the trail. Base was deep. Excalibur wasn’t groomed, and wasn’t very enjoyable. There was some snow to ride on the outside of the trail, but lots of ice chunks and obstacles. Subsequently, we only did one run on it. We also logged 3 on Rogue and 4 on Lolla because it’s the only way to get back to the parking lot. There wasn’t a quick food option available at the Jordan hotel, which is the only “base lodge” available. All in all, definitely worth the 3 hour round trip. As always, pics below:

Way to silence the haters. I’m glad it was a good time. Sounds like typical early season when Killington isn’t the only show in town.

You rocking the Epic Northeast Pass? It’s a nice offering at $600 for early bird rates. Shake off the haters. With so many resorts opening tomorrow, including Bell down the street, I bet the crowds won’t be that bad.

Since we were up in New England before the holidays, we figured we might as well get a couple of days in. I figured there would be more open than Killington and Sunday River, but as of yesterday, they were the only two operating daily. Sunday River is only an hour twenty from where we are staying, so that was the logical choice. We’ve got 5 days there on the iKon, so we figured we would use one. We always regulate ticket usage early on and end up with days leftover anyway. I told my wife that the first day costs $1,100 and every day after that is free… I had been following the snow reports, and knew they had been making a ton of snow, so I was surprised that they had just gotten to the bottom of the Locke triple on Tuesday. Before that was just uploading and downloading for two upper mountain trails. We pulled into the Barker lot at 10 AM with guns still firing top to bottom. The lot there is tiny, but we found a spot, and there were still probably 15-20 spots left to be had. We happened to be there at the “busiest” time, so the lot got emptier from there on out. We booted up in the parking lot, and by the time we got on the lift, the lower mountain guns were off. The top 3 trails had been groomed and did not have snowmaking on open terrain. The bottom had snowmaking that had been turned off, but it wasn’t quite deep enough to be groomed yet. We hopped on the lift, which had no line, and headed to the top. I hadn’t been on it since I worked there, and I forgot how painfully long and slow that lift was. The two “real” trails off the top were Sunday Punch and T2. Both had a deep base and had been groomed. They both skied smoothly and had no ice. Fast carvable surface. Sunday Punch is a little longer and has some nice turns and humps. T2 is a race trail, so it’s just fast and fairly straight. We had already decided to skip the mid station and ride to the bottom, but the line at the mid station confirmed it was the right call. They started loading every other chair at the bottom to leave space for mid station skiers after our first run. Lower Sunday Punch below the mid station was variable to say the least. It was icy hardened manmade snowpack right from the beginning, especially under the guns. They had been running wet, and once that water drained, it locked up. However, the blow over snow on the far edge of the trail was soft and carried a good edge. There were also some small bumps forming. It was a narrower trail and thinner snowpack at the bottom. It started out wet, but locked up as the day went on. We did 4 t2b runs and 2 mid station runs once the line there cleared out around noon. We did 3 runs on each upper mountain trail. It was a leg burner, but all in all, a good day. They used to concentrate all the early season snowmaking on Locke and South Ridge, but now they kind of spread it out across the mountain. Guns were firing everywhere, and the Jordan Bowl opens with 3 t2b runs tomorrow. The mountain fragmentation is annoying, but those trails are all top notch cruisers. I might have to try them next week. As usual, pics below for stoke:

Sugar in NC opened today. Currently 15 degrees at base and 10 at the summit. Base Cam looks Sweet!

Looks promising for any early season player in New England to open next week. I could see somebody going for an unadvertised afternoon opening on Tuesday. That used to be a pretty common thing 10 or so years ago, but it’s disappeared as of late. Killington’s upper mountain base looks good, so with upper mountain temps in the teens Monday night, I could see them going for a Veteran’s Day afternoon special…

I’m sure Nate Dogggg is already camped out…

There was snow at 7 Springs yesterday. Killington looking good to fire up the guns November 4th right now. Even if it’s only overnight snowmaking, I could see a Nov 7th or 8th opening with hiking to and from Rime. Not ideal, but not bad for 600’ of vert and a dedicated lift…

Temps starting to look better in VT for snowmaking to start around November 1. October is out of the cards. Hoping to be in New England for an extended Thanksgiving trip about a week after that, work depending, but might delay it and extend on the back end if nothing is open.

Anybody been to both Massif de Charlevoix and Mont Tremblant? My guess is @Johnny Law is the surest bet. I just found out that the closest ski area to my in laws is actually Mont Orford, so I’ll probably hit that once or twice this season, but I will probably be able to score a 2-3 day trip somewhere in QC, and I’ve never been to Tremblant. I absolutely love Charlevoix and MDS, so I’m leaving that way, especially since it’s been 6 years, but Tremblant is a similar distance and I wanted some intel on whether it was comparable or not.

I’m sure it’s an expensive project. I have no idea what commercial LED lights cost nowadays, but I remember buying 30 exterior rated LED bulbs in 2010 when they were first coming out for like $35 apiece. It did cut the cost from $100 a month to $30 a month on electric, and did last 7-8 years, so it paid off, but I remember thinking it was crazy to spend $1,000 on lightbulbs, especially when regular ones were $2 apiece.

Just purchased the ikon base pass today. 23/24 got 4 days. 24/25 got 12. Really hoping to top 20 again this year. They added Blue and CB last year, so hoping to get a few more days there this year. They added Le Massif de Charlevoix this year, so hoping to get back there on an in-law vacation to northern NH.

Almost the 15 year anniversary of this thread… Huge Stoke!

It took me awhile to get to this, but I figured it’s better late than never. I hadn’t been to Snowshoe since 2004 when I was a senior in high school, so when my parents, who have an affinity for WV, offered to take us on a trip there, we jumped on it. When we last went, they hadn’t finished Corridor H or Snowshoe Drive over the backside of the mountain, so the trip was much shorter this time. It would have been about 7 hours without any extra stops, but they are tough to avoid when you have extra people, so it took us about 8. The last hour or so on the winding WV roads were partially snow covered too, which added to the adventure. It’s been difficult to justify going to WV when the drive to Southern VT is the same distance and has much more consistent snow, but we just got really lucky this time. Outside of days in the northeast where I’ve gotten free refills all day, this was probably top 3 in terms of pure snow conditions. They hadn’t experienced a freeze thaw event in almost a month, snow guns were constantly going, and they had received 6 feet of snow in the previous two weeks. We stayed ski in/ski out at the top of the mountain. We got into our accommodations at 3 on Monday, got an hour or so the first day, went bell to bell with some stops Tuesday-Thursday, and then did another hour in the morning Friday before we left. We got a couple inches of fresh snow Tuesday night and a couple more Thursday night, so in addition to the snowmaking, there were some little refreshes in there. Overall, the mountain is relatively mellow, but has some great cruisers. It’s also a top/down mountain which is unique. There are 3 distinct mountain areas. The main mountain is where most of the lodging and village are located. Silver Creek is a little smaller, has the night skiing, and you have to take a shuttle to it. The Western Territory is where they have “4” runs that are the full 1,500’ vert, and they are fast, open, and really make the mountain ride/ski a lot bigger than the stats show. Those runs compete with some of the runs up in VT, but there aren’t many of them. They were also blowing snow on open terrain which you don’t see too much of south of NY, so that was cool to see too. There’s plenty of high speed lifts, so you can cover the mountain quickly and really rack up some runs. Most of the trip was spent at the main area. All the trails were packed powder. There wasn’t any ice. It was incredible. The main HSQ in the middle of the mountain, Ballhooter, was by far the busiest lift, sometimes having a 5 minute lift line, but every other lift was ski on/off. I spent most of my time on the Soaring Eagle and Powder Monkey lifts. Since I was there last, they also added some glade skiing. They were cut well, but even with all the natural they had gotten, there were still obstacles and they could have used another foot in there. On Thursday we took the opportunity to go to the Western Territory by walking across the road at the top of the Powder Monkey lift. It’s about a 100 yard walk. I knocked out 7 or 8 runs in about an hour and 15 minutes. There were some hard pack spots over there due to the sun exposure, but all in all, nothing to complain about. The view there is very reminiscent of out west minus the lack of above tree line views. The amenities are really nice. We stayed at the Mountain Lodge, which has a great location, but being one of the first lodges built in the late 70’s/early 80’s, is very dated. The village is great. Nice mix of shops and food. There is a small grocer at the top, which comes in handy for overpriced necessities, but make sure you bring what you need since Snowshoe is out in the middle of absolutely nowhere. There’s a Dollar General at the base, but if you can’t find it there, you’re traveling an hour plus for a real grocery store or a Wal-Mart. Great trip overall. I’d go back, but you just don’t get that lucky on conditions that often. When we were there, they had more snowfall for the year than Sugarbush had. Sometimes you just get lucky.

I’m sure this has been addressed in the thousands of posts I missed before this, but did any of you spring the extra $$& for a Peak to Peak pass for Camelback. I’m guessing GSS didn’t… It’s not always feasible to drive to Sugarbush now, so there could be a venue change for a few years. Not sure yet. Weighing our options.