Given that all eyes are on this week’s possible monstah storm , I’ll make this brief.
Pico was really good on Saturday morning.
In addition to some light upslope snow during last week, they got 4” from Friday’s system, so the best options were some really nice groomed choices, as well as some powder skiing (on top of a good, fast New England base!) in the woods and ungroomed trails that didn’t have a particularly steep pitch.
It was good to see a decent crowd (by Pico standards) at 7:45 AM in the parking lot – there was a real good vibe in the base lodge prior to opening bell. I saw lots of racers from local areas (Okemo, Suicide Six), and everybody in there was quite pleased from the Friday’s localized snowfall on the hill (only 2” down in the Upper Valley, East of the mtns).
The big “score” was when the patrol dropped the rope on Upper Pike at 9 AM.
Not only did it open up that trail, but more importantly (to me) it opened up access to Upper Birch Glade and mid-Giant Killer, which provided excellent powder skiing throughout the morning – in large part because with Upper Pike closed, no one was able to ski or ride these trails or woods shots during the week’s accumulating snowfalls. In fact, that’s where I spent most of time until I had to leave around Noon, and it was really satisfying. For folks who have skied a lot this year, some new snow on a firm base may not hold that much appeal, but given this was only my 2nd day skiing this season, it was very meaningful to me! :lol:
The woods shots off the Outpost chair were also pretty good, but it’s probably in the category of “could use one more good dump and then it will be great”.
I also managed to get in a really enjoyable “sunset” x-country jaunt down in the valley, 2 snowshoe treks with my 3 year old in my backpack, several sledding sessions with him, and 3 take out meals – all within a 44 hour period. Life was definitely good this weekend!
Pico was really good on Saturday morning.
In addition to some light upslope snow during last week, they got 4” from Friday’s system, so the best options were some really nice groomed choices, as well as some powder skiing (on top of a good, fast New England base!) in the woods and ungroomed trails that didn’t have a particularly steep pitch.It was good to see a decent crowd (by Pico standards) at 7:45 AM in the parking lot – there was a real good vibe in the base lodge prior to opening bell. I saw lots of racers from local areas (Okemo, Suicide Six), and everybody in there was quite pleased from the Friday’s localized snowfall on the hill (only 2” down in the Upper Valley, East of the mtns).
The big “score” was when the patrol dropped the rope on Upper Pike at 9 AM.
Not only did it open up that trail, but more importantly (to me) it opened up access to Upper Birch Glade and mid-Giant Killer, which provided excellent powder skiing throughout the morning – in large part because with Upper Pike closed, no one was able to ski or ride these trails or woods shots during the week’s accumulating snowfalls. In fact, that’s where I spent most of time until I had to leave around Noon, and it was really satisfying. For folks who have skied a lot this year, some new snow on a firm base may not hold that much appeal, but given this was only my 2nd day skiing this season, it was very meaningful to me! :lol: The woods shots off the Outpost chair were also pretty good, but it’s probably in the category of “could use one more good dump and then it will be great”.
I also managed to get in a really enjoyable “sunset” x-country jaunt down in the valley, 2 snowshoe treks with my 3 year old in my backpack, several sledding sessions with him, and 3 take out meals – all within a 44 hour period. Life was definitely good this weekend!