Mad River Glen, VT: 01/01/08

[riverc0il]

=D>

What a way to ring in the new year. While less dedicated sliders were partying and drinking, I was setting an early alarm and falling asleep just before 10:00pm New Year's Eve. I can understand why people are into that scene, I used to be for a while. But you snooze you loose. Or, um, rather... you don't snooze, you get up late and miss skiing onto the single for almost four hours. On a holiday. On a powder day. :shock: Yup, good decision to hit Mad River today instead of Jay Peak.

So I was expecting it to be good but not great. Maybe I would find some good pow early morning. Or, maybe I would be nailing boot to knee deep untracked at 2pm on my last run. Okay, both.

Trails had a delightful packed powder with groomers skiing really nicely with the light powder softening things up. Moguls still had some crusties under the new soft snow which occasionally surfaced. Started snowing off an on by 10am and began in earnest shortly around noon time. By 2pm on my last run, it was starting to come down. Hard.

Mark my words, tomorrow will be a top three day of the season for many locations. And I do not make that prediction lightly, especially considering I have an unavoidable work meeting scheduled.

Any ways, long story short, trees were skiing amazingly well. Lower elevations only had remnants of the thaw/freeze and still were not that bad, only when scraped off. With ski on Single chair lines until noon, clearly there was not much scraping off going on. Moved over to the Double when lines started building up on the Single... because I simply could not be bothered to wait two to three minutes. :lol: Boot buckle deep snow was the general rule. Hitting stuff that had been clearly missed yesterday revealed boot deep untracked with occasional AMAZING drifts of knee deep. :shock:

I could only hope for an encore but it is not going to happen for me. 3/4 down one run, I had to laugh, despite sucking wind, as I realized how much further I had to go to get back to the lift. Jay Peak has turned me into a bit of a powder princess, really nice to rough it up today was MRG's super challenging terrain offerings. Simply don't get that type of challenge at Jay. Or any where else for that matter.

 

[awf170]

Mark my words, tomorrow will be a top three day of the season for many locations. And I do not make that prediction lightly, especially considering I have an unavoidable work meeting scheduled.

I'll be at Mad River... have fun at work.















(sorry I had to)

 

[riverc0il]

Don't worry about me, I will still be dawn patrolling Tenney Mountain. :twisted: Looks like they still have not run the Summit Double chair yet, might make this a daily morning routine this week... =P~

 

[icelanticskier]

nailed it.
pulled into pinkam notch at 9 am. started skinning toward gulf o slides and at 10 am started absolutely puking. skinned up to the main gully to check the snowpack and whattya know , must have slid yesterday big with smooth avi debris filling the runout like 15 feet deep. didn't ski th upper gully because a firm bed surface didn't sound too fun so skied beautiful untracked pow down to the cache and back down to pinkham to meet lesley. blizzard conditions by now-noon. skinned with les all the way back to gully one to show her the debris pile. by now 4-6 inches had fallen. let me tell ya the next run down matched my previous run in feb of 96' which stood as my best gos trail run. it was so good we decided not to go to wildcat for the last few hours of the day and did a third gos trail run. started the last run at 3:30 with totals pushing 8+ inches. got down to the car and could hardly find it. epic day with no one else up there for the deep stuff. heard wildcat was complete refillls every run too. totals now are pushing a foot pluts now in jackson and it's coming straight dow hard. called a buddy at burke and said it only snowed 3 or so inches by 7 pm- he's headin this way,smart move.
tomorrow, wildcat for sure till noon unless it's still dumpin with gulf of slides in afternoon.
noaa was right, big snow for nh/maine.
till tomorrow
rog

 

[riverc0il]

And a few photos.

 

[Sharon]

really nice to rough it up today was MRG's super challenging terrain offerings. Simply don't get that type of challenge at Jay. Or any where else for that matter.

I concur!

After skiing Jay Peak 3 powder-filled days in a row 3 weeks ago I was not at all sore. After 2 days at MRG I was very sore. Add on another powder day at Pico and today I could hardly walk. MRG is considerably more challenging than most any other eastern ski area, especially if you are skiing off-piste.

I enjoyed being back home New Year's Eve and partying with my friends. It was very easy to sleep until 10:30 this morning...something I haven't done in a very long time. The 6am wake-up times to get first tracks, with just a few hours of sleep before skiing hard for 3 days in a row has really taken it's toll. I have not been this exhausted in a while. While I wish I could be skiing tmrw in VT, I am actually relieved that I'm home and can finally rest.

It seems that this coming weekend will be a good opportunity for spring-like conditions, but Powderfreak, Josh Fox and other mets are saying possibly more than 2 weeks of above normal temps. I'm a little concerned.

 

[Patrick]

It was very easy to sleep until 10:30 this morning...something I haven't done in a very long time.

Yep, I know the feeling. That is why I only got a couple hours of late afternoon powder turns at one of the locals. I've never seen so much snow since I moved to Ottawa 13 years ago. Another 10cm in town today. I'm amazed. :shock: Haven't needed sharp edges all year so far.

 

[riverc0il]

After 2 days at MRG I was very sore.

Speaking of sore... that dawn patrol tomorrow is not looking too promising. My right knee is a little tender Probably could ski but the skin up would be rather painful.

 

[awf170]

Mark my words, tomorrow will be a top three day of the season for many locations. And I do not make that prediction lightly, especially considering I have an unavoidable work meeting scheduled.

It was good, but not that good. Today was my 4th lift served day this season at MRG and actually the worst. I'm not saying that it wasn't great, it just wasn't as good as the others. Though the absolutely brutal cold probably had something to do with it.

 

[riverc0il]

Seems like the storm started early enough that a good amount of snow fell before the ski area closed and totals after 4pm were not as high as could have been. Brutal cold can certainly have a negative effect on the day but I am surprised to hear that it was that much lacking compared to your other days there this season.

 

[awf170]

Seems like the storm started early enough that a good amount of snow fell before the ski area closed and totals after 4pm were not as high as could have been. Brutal cold can certainly have a negative effect on the day but I am surprised to hear that it was that much lacking compared to your other days there this season.

It wasn't that much behind my other days. It was just slightly worse. The snow was actually too fluffy. Even with a foot of untracked you constantly bottomed out. And once you bottomed out you hit bumps. Personally I prefer dense snow to powder, unless there is over 2 ft. The Dec. 16/17 storm that dropped 16-20 inches was better IMO because the snow was so dense. Even the first day when there was only 8-10 you could not hit bottom no matter how hard you tried. Also, MRG woods are just so tight you get too much speed in powder. When you have a foot of dense snow you never have to do speed checks even in the steepest, tightest woods.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Personally I prefer dense snow to powder, unless there is over 2 ft.

This summarizes my take on lift served powder days exactly.

The snow was actually too fluffy. Even with a foot of untracked you constantly bottomed out.

This is what 80% of Colorado storms are like.

Larry Schick has better powder days in Seattle than the typical Denver local, because:
1) more of the storms are over 2 feet
2) In the smaller storms the snow might still be dense enough to prevent bottoming out

Then of course we have the spoiled Utah locals who get the fluff and the over 2 feet on a consistent basis.

 

[riverc0il]

Even with a foot of untracked you constantly bottomed out. And once you bottomed out you hit bumps.

Well, that is your problem... you were skiing places that had already been bumped up...

Personally I prefer dense snow to powder, unless there is over 2 ft.

Not quite sure I could put a preference on my favorite variety of powder. Depends on conditions and terrain and competition. Dense stuff definitely works best for thin cover or varied terrain. When the coverage is great and terrain is predictable, blower is pretty hard to beat and so infrequent around these parts.