Bristol finally opened about two weeks ago following less snow than normal in early December. Since the region received 4-6 inches of fresh snow on Sunday night, a buddy of mine and I decided to check out how much progress they have made. It was also our first time on skis this season.
Bristol has done a nice job with their snowmaking given the weather constraints. They had over half of their terrain open and were blowing snow on multiple trails throughout the day. Our day opened with a quick run from the top on the green trails (sunbelt to infinity) and we were greeted with some great packed powder conditions. Subsequent early runs on the steeper trails were also great (rocket, meteor and galaxy).
These three trails, however, appeared to all be ungroomed from the previous day. While the heavy powder was a lot of fun initially, the trails soon got messy with random mounds of snow/chunks between the exposed ice below. Skiing became a fair bit of work!
Crowds were a bit of an issue, but the wait in the singles line was short all day for the high-speed quad. No scenes reminiscent of the crowds on Great Northern at K that were posted here last month. There was also a Mountain Dew-sponsored race event going on.
We logged a little over 15,000 feet before calling it a day. All in all, a good start to the season. With a little more snowmaking and some proper GROOMING on non-bump trails, Bristol could shape up nicely. Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for Friday?
Bristol has done a nice job with their snowmaking given the weather constraints. They had over half of their terrain open and were blowing snow on multiple trails throughout the day. Our day opened with a quick run from the top on the green trails (sunbelt to infinity) and we were greeted with some great packed powder conditions. Subsequent early runs on the steeper trails were also great (rocket, meteor and galaxy).
These three trails, however, appeared to all be ungroomed from the previous day. While the heavy powder was a lot of fun initially, the trails soon got messy with random mounds of snow/chunks between the exposed ice below. Skiing became a fair bit of work!
Crowds were a bit of an issue, but the wait in the singles line was short all day for the high-speed quad. No scenes reminiscent of the crowds on Great Northern at K that were posted here last month. There was also a Mountain Dew-sponsored race event going on.
We logged a little over 15,000 feet before calling it a day. All in all, a good start to the season. With a little more snowmaking and some proper GROOMING on non-bump trails, Bristol could shape up nicely. Unfortunately rain is in the forecast for Friday?
