Mad River Glen 12/29-30 (with link to pix)

[Sharon]

I think we hit it just right on this holiday weekend.

Many times I have by-passed MRG because the lift lines looked so long. This weekend I have learned that the 20 minute wait to get on the lift is a small price to pay for relatively crowd-free skiing. Once up on the mountain, there aren't a whole lot of people due to the low lift capacity. This makes the ski experience, especially on a busy weekend, all the more enjoyable.

Saturday morning we awoke to the sound of sleet on the window. We had low expectations of what we'd find on the mountain, but we were quite surprised to find 4" of creamed cheese frosting that beautifully covered the mountain and made nearly every line skiable.

We parked at the lot above the practice slope. From our first run on the practice slope it was clear that the skiing was going to be quite good. We got the first tracks on the practice slope as well as fresh snow on every run of the morning. We met up with our ski patroller friend who was "on assignment" to become more familiar with some of the off-piste lines, but was told not to go alone. Since we were with him, he felt it was necessary to explore beyond piste. He took us to a few interesting places (of which I do not know the names), one of which included a person-eating ditch. I escaped unscathed, but Pam was not so lucky. Once extracted from the ditch there were rewards of fresh snow. Our friend asked us if we were up for golfing. He took us into 20th hole and we found some beautiful untracked snow in a line he thinks is called "colostemizer". Whatever the name, we had some sweet turns in there.

After lunch we did 3 more runs. I cannot recall where we went, but it was all good and lots of moguls. The creamed cheese was no longer and the previously wet snow was beginning to set up as temperatures dropped.

On Sunday morning it was cold. Anything ungroomed was set up, so it was a great day to cruise the groomers. MRG did a great job of rolling them out. I telemarked with my friend who was learning to telemark and there were plenty of nice smooth trails for us to cruise. Ran into "world'sworsttelemarker" up there as well. I gave my friends some tips to help them get through the transition from alpine to telemark skiing and both of them had major breakthroughs in their skiing. It was quite satisfying for all of us. Hopefullly "world'sworsttelemarker" will be able to change his name soon. My other friend was much more graceful and was able to pick up the pole planting/turning rhythm and weighting the back ski quite easily.

After 4 hours of telemarking my legs were toast. My friend was so happy to be feeling like she made such progress and she was done for the day. We stopped for a tailgate lunch at the car. Pam wanted to ski more challenging terrain so I swapped out to alpine gear and went back out. Pam really wanted to do Antelope all the way to the bottom. While on the switchbacks of lower Antelope we noticed a trail into the woods. Curiosity got us and we decided to explore. These tracks led us into some very steep and gnarly terrain which was exacerbated by the set-up snow. The first few turns were somewhat powdery, but as we descended the lines got tighter and the snow stiffer. We had to give it everything we had to get through this. We got more than we had bargained for but it was quite an adventure. I don't know what this hidden off-piste area is called, but it was to the skier's left of Lower Antelope after in the upper curvey part.

Mad River Glen definitely provided a quality experience. It was very laid back and everyone was patient and friendly. The lifties and all the staff we encountered were extremely pleasant and warm, adding to the overall enjoyment during a very busy holiday weekend. The terrain is legendary. We enjoyed the classic New England-style narrow winding piste as well as the wooded off-piste terrain. We also enjoyed the low-volume traffic all day on the mountain. While the lift line waits seemed to take some time, it was quite worth it in the end. 8 quality runs is a good day at MRG. The next day at Pico we did 8 runs in less than 2 hours...but that was a whole nuther kind of day of skiing in a whole nuther world.

http://tinyurl.com/2qcd26

 

[joegm]

in the end. 8 quality runs is a good day at MRG.

god luv you sharon and thanks for putting up the report but that comment is why i thank god i don't have to ski on the weekends and holidays :shock: ... will be there on thurs and fri...

 

[riverc0il]

in the end. 8 quality runs is a good day at MRG.

god luv you sharon and thanks for putting up the report but that comment is why i thank god i don't have to ski on the weekends and holidays :shock: ... will be there on thurs and fri...

I think today I got about 8.5 or 9.5 runs total and there were no lines. All depends what you ski. My average run including lift from the Single was about 45 minutes today and I was drenched in sweet for my efforts. If you just bash bumps top to bottom on chute and liftline, then 20 runs in one day can easily be accomplished. Exploring though requires a lot more time. I would love to do the Vertical Challenge one day as part of the Triple Crown thing. I would really need to work on conditioning to do that though. They have a Mogul Challenge as part of the Triple Crown which is right up your alley joegm. Unconventional Terrain also looks interesting but I would like to see it first to see what the competition is like. I am all for dropping the rocks under the Single but will not be up to task if tricks and whacko stunts are par for course.

 

[joegm]

actually when we were there just before the holiday period madness , i think we skied liftline and chute once each....not even close to the best lines on the hill imo....i'm not into keeping an exact count of runs i ski in a day, but thinking about it, based on what was probably about 20 to 25 minutes for each run ...it was definitely more than 8 ( way too few ) and definitely not 20 ( i don't think that's realistic for just about anyone unless you are on the us mogul team or are skiing groomers and if you are doing that, what the hell are you doing at mrg in the first place? :roll: ) ... probably 14 or 15 ....my point is that 14 or 15 would probably be 8 if i was not skiing right onto the lift pretty much every time and standing around waiting in some ridiculous lift line...am i spoiled , yes i admit it....but at least im honest about it... if i have to stand around waiting in line to get on the chair for any substantial amount of time ie more than 4 or 5 min, im aggravated....the former owner of mrg admitted as much in the recent skiing mag article when she suggested that they should have made the single at least a double.....i just can't believe that making the single a double would have changed the character/snow surface, terrain conditions of the hill dramatically....i think it's great that they keep the volume down at the place , but it can be an interesting debate as to how far to go to keep it down....some of the shareholders apparently feel the place is being run too much like a private club on purpose...interesting debate for sure...but one thing i can say is that if they put a double in instead of a single, i really doubt that all the chumps who consistently go to places like loon and stratton and other cookie cutter placesfor their ski weekends would wake up one day and say " ohh, lets go to mad river now cause they just put in that kick ass fix grip double...."

 

[Tony Crocker]

As the vertical junkie of this forum, I'm not so sure 8 runs at MRG is terribly ski deprived. If all on the single that would be 16K. My day there was a Monday, and I was fairly worked after 18,100 considering that most of it was spring moguls. I also note that Sharon was on teles, and 8 runs on teles = what, 15-20 on alpine in terms of physical exertion? Maybe the lift lines were welcome rest breaks.

Nonetheless I'm in complete agreement with joegm that the new lift should have been a double and would have had minimal effect on snow conditions while making the weekend ski experience more manageable.

 

[Patrick]

in the end. 8 quality runs is a good day at MRG.

why i thank god i don't have to ski on the weekends and holidays :shock: ... will be there on thurs and fri...

8 runs is pretty good, if you look at the Smuggs-MRG Dec 16-17th report, you'll see that we only did 10 runs on Powder pre-Holiday Monday. Mind you we did ski mostly off the map + had things to take off at lunch + it was day 3 in a row.

However, I would say 10-12 runs is pretty much the average amount of runs (weekend or not) that I generally milk out at MRG. MRG - Dec 15th report

I would love to do the Vertical Challenge one day as part of the Triple Crown thing. I would really need to work on conditioning to do that though. They have a Mogul Challenge as part of the Triple Crown which is right up your alley joegm. Unconventional Terrain also looks interesting but I would like to see it first to see what the competition is like.

I know that a few years ago the winner got 23-24 runs + it had to be done on Chute/Liftline. :? I've seen a video of the Unconventional Terrain competition a few years ago, there was definitely a few sick runs in the lot.

.i'm not into keeping an exact count of runs i ski in a day, but thinking about it, based on what was probably about 20 to 25 minutes for each run ...

In the links that I posted, I've added my logs in case some people are interested. I personally never really looked at them after the fact, but you could probably figure the pace that I was going.

the former owner of mrg admitted as much in the recent skiing mag article when she suggested that they should have made the single at least a double.....i just can't believe that making the single a double would have changed the character/snow surface, terrain conditions of the hill dramatically....

Nonetheless I'm in complete agreement with joegm that the new lift should have been a double and would have had minimal effect on snow conditions while making the weekend ski experience more manageable.

However even if the Coop would've choosen the double option, the capacity would have been the same as the single. Shareholders needs to agree for increased lift capacity.

interesting debate for sure...but one thing i can say is that if they put a double in instead of a single, i really doubt that all the chumps who consistently go to places like loon and stratton and other cookie cutter placesfor their ski weekends would wake up one day and say " ohh, lets go to mad river now cause they just put in that kick ass fix grip double...."

Pretty lively debate for sure. However the single is an icon and is part of mystic. This mystic combine with other factors add to the appeal of the place.

 

[Sharon]

When my friend told me how busy it was on friday, it was taking her 1 hour for a run (including the lift line), but she skis much slower than I do. I figured we'd ski 6-7 runs. We actually skied 2 practice slope runs in addition to our 8 runs, but I didn't count that, b/c we parked up there. So add that in...but there was no wait for the lift there.

The day I skied alpine, we explore and went off-piste. I could have probably got in more runs if I wasn't with slower skiers, but I was not in any hurry. I was happy to be out on the trails and enjoying the terrain at a leisurely pace and not rushing back to wait on line. I think if you have the attitude of "enjoy the mountain, there's no rush" then it becomes a much nicer experience. But I do think that the slow lift capacity keeps the crowds off the mountain. Look at my pix. There are hardly any other people in my pictures and that was no coincidence.

My friend who is a shareholder believes the single chair is important for keeping the traffic low and she is in the majority who think that way. Also, I gotta say, I did not miss the snowboarders. It was just a very mellow scene, much unlike the other resorts, and I'm glad it is like that, even on a busy holiday weekend.

On tele's on Sunday I did 6 runs before a late lunch, then swapped out to alpine for 2 more runs...also, 2 more practice slope runs. We were cruising groomers all morning, so it went much quicker. We also took Birdland twice, since the terrain there was more favorable for my friend who was learning to tele. On Saturday, we could find untracked snow all day long, and I believe that is because of 2 things...1) low traffic and 2) the locals stayed home. Poking around in unknown woods can take some time and use some energy. I felt that the 8 runs we took were quality and tired me out sufficiently.

Pico is also 2000' vert and we did twice as many runs in half the time, ski onto the lift, no crowds, no lines on Monday...it was a great powder day, but the terrain was much less interesting and less challenging. It was a whole different experience.

 

[riverc0il]

Regarding the choice of keeping the Single, it has absolutely nothing to do with capacity. It would have been cheaper to install a double with half as many chairs. Surface conditions and skier experience would absolutely have been changed if the Single was replaced with a standard double with standard capacity. As noted by Sharon, during my runs yesterday, even when the Single was at capacity, once I entered the woods, I essentially did not see any other skiers until merging onto a trail. A unique experience for sure. Keeping the Single boils down to pure irrational and emotional attachment to the spirit and history of the ski area. Nothing to do with capacity as the option was there to install a double with reduced capacity. Lift lines are actually a much needed break when reasonable.

In response to joegm, I was only using Chute/Liftline as an example. Best bumps are definitely else where, I concur. I used that example because that is the run the Vertical Challenge is made on and as Patrick noted, 20+ runs are standard for that challenge. I am also spoiled and four to five minute wait is pushing my tolerance. Thus, I have a pass at Jay and not at Mad River even though I am a shareholder. Rather, I select the best days with minimal lines. On those powder days I queued up for a fifteen minute wait to ride the Single, it was worth it. Where else does the powder last well into the afternoon?

LOL to the comment about the "chumps" would not be interested in MRG if the decision had been made to install a fixed grip double with spaced out chairs. If anything, replacing the Single with a Double would have made the place less enticing to a lot of skiers. I don't know if I would have bought my share if the Single had been replaced. Like I said before, it was not a practical or intellectual decision, it was an emotional one of historical precedent that a ski area decides the value it offers its customers and owners is in not progressing.