Surf's up!
Well, the 1st weekend day after the BIG STORM (a holday weekend, no less) saw lots of folks up in the hills. That was about as crowded at 8 AM as I've ever seen the Pico parking lot, which is actually not saying much. That's not to say in the 4.5 hrs I spent a Pico, that lift lines were a problem (maybe a 5 minute wait at the lower quad at 11 AM, that's it) but it does speak to the level of activity.
Anyway, as it's been referenced, the wind definitely affected the snow off-trail. There were bizzare humpbacks and waves of snow that made for both interesting skiing and great opportunities for catching air. I know this sound counter-intuitive, but I really had to focus on skiing on my heels in order to keep my tips. If your tips got buried in a big mound of snow, you were definitely at risk to come out of your binding, or get stuck. This happened to me a few times, when my skis either released from my bindings, or I had to actively click out of a ski because my ski was buried under a mound of windblown, heavy snow. The fatter one's skis, the better on this day. Or a snowboard would work well.
I would have to agree with Riverc0il's assertion that in some ways, it was better to ski where things had already been tracked because the windblown pow was difficult to turn in. Still, things were very enjoyable and I managed to hit all 5 major chairs and sample all the goods. I'd say the best runs on the mountain were:
-birch glades, which is decently wind protected and held soft snow practically throughout
-the "open slope" trail off the Knomes Knoll triple, particularly on the skier's left where the trees protected against the wind.
-mid pike...the Summit chair didn;t run much on Thurs/Friday, so this was still in great shape with plenty of fresh avlb during the morning.
-Wrangler, which is always a fun roller coaster ride that's not groomed yet rarely if ever bumped out. A great New Engalnd trail.
-by late morning/early afternoon, Upper Sunset 71 had wonderfully set-up bumps on it.
-once the woods to the skier's right off birch glades got some skier tracks going by late morning, that was doing well, too. I actually would not have wanted to make 1st tracks in it, since I could certainly envision getting stuck in the dense pow on the flat sections.
-the midsection of Summit glade was skiing quite nicely..nice mix of pow & bumps.
I was a bit disappointed with the Little Pico triple, as B slope got windscoured and A slope could still use more snow, given the wind and the fact that it needs quite a bit of snow to really fill in on the steep face.
But nonetheless, the day was very enjoyable, and I can only imagine how packed K-Mart must have been (a line going at the Rt 4 gondola at 7:45 AM!!). And it was obviously nice to see snow on the drive home South/Southeast of the mtns...it was pretty depressing just 2 weeks ago when the snowpack from Concord NH, south was basically non-existent.
Well, the 1st weekend day after the BIG STORM (a holday weekend, no less) saw lots of folks up in the hills. That was about as crowded at 8 AM as I've ever seen the Pico parking lot, which is actually not saying much. That's not to say in the 4.5 hrs I spent a Pico, that lift lines were a problem (maybe a 5 minute wait at the lower quad at 11 AM, that's it) but it does speak to the level of activity.
Anyway, as it's been referenced, the wind definitely affected the snow off-trail. There were bizzare humpbacks and waves of snow that made for both interesting skiing and great opportunities for catching air. I know this sound counter-intuitive, but I really had to focus on skiing on my heels in order to keep my tips. If your tips got buried in a big mound of snow, you were definitely at risk to come out of your binding, or get stuck. This happened to me a few times, when my skis either released from my bindings, or I had to actively click out of a ski because my ski was buried under a mound of windblown, heavy snow. The fatter one's skis, the better on this day. Or a snowboard would work well.
I would have to agree with Riverc0il's assertion that in some ways, it was better to ski where things had already been tracked because the windblown pow was difficult to turn in. Still, things were very enjoyable and I managed to hit all 5 major chairs and sample all the goods. I'd say the best runs on the mountain were:
-birch glades, which is decently wind protected and held soft snow practically throughout
-the "open slope" trail off the Knomes Knoll triple, particularly on the skier's left where the trees protected against the wind.
-mid pike...the Summit chair didn;t run much on Thurs/Friday, so this was still in great shape with plenty of fresh avlb during the morning.
-Wrangler, which is always a fun roller coaster ride that's not groomed yet rarely if ever bumped out. A great New Engalnd trail.
-by late morning/early afternoon, Upper Sunset 71 had wonderfully set-up bumps on it.
-once the woods to the skier's right off birch glades got some skier tracks going by late morning, that was doing well, too. I actually would not have wanted to make 1st tracks in it, since I could certainly envision getting stuck in the dense pow on the flat sections.
-the midsection of Summit glade was skiing quite nicely..nice mix of pow & bumps.
I was a bit disappointed with the Little Pico triple, as B slope got windscoured and A slope could still use more snow, given the wind and the fact that it needs quite a bit of snow to really fill in on the steep face.
But nonetheless, the day was very enjoyable, and I can only imagine how packed K-Mart must have been (a line going at the Rt 4 gondola at 7:45 AM!!). And it was obviously nice to see snow on the drive home South/Southeast of the mtns...it was pretty depressing just 2 weeks ago when the snowpack from Concord NH, south was basically non-existent.