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Pico Outback
- Thread starter zamboni
- Start date
i'll bite-
if old man winter provides enough snow for good skiing, anything is open. be safe, and use your head. i'm a firm believer skiing involves inherent risks: injury, death, addiction, and even getting your ticket clipped.
that said, pico does look to be a forgotten mountain. it would seem to me that pico's exposure is very favorable for snow- north face, unobstructed to the west for prevailing weather patterns to deposit snow. upslope/dumps at k-ton can be good when conditions are righ- 2 years ago it was the bullseye for a 25" in one night dump, changed-over from rain event that started right as we passed pico...
k-ton was completely bumped up/skied out by 11 am. looking back, we should've gone to pico at that point- it was probably powder shots for 2 days after the mid-week storm. next time they're calling for a central/southern VT dump, i know where i'm going...
if old man winter provides enough snow for good skiing, anything is open. be safe, and use your head. i'm a firm believer skiing involves inherent risks: injury, death, addiction, and even getting your ticket clipped.
that said, pico does look to be a forgotten mountain. it would seem to me that pico's exposure is very favorable for snow- north face, unobstructed to the west for prevailing weather patterns to deposit snow. upslope/dumps at k-ton can be good when conditions are righ- 2 years ago it was the bullseye for a 25" in one night dump, changed-over from rain event that started right as we passed pico...
k-ton was completely bumped up/skied out by 11 am. looking back, we should've gone to pico at that point- it was probably powder shots for 2 days after the mid-week storm. next time they're calling for a central/southern VT dump, i know where i'm going...
zamboni":3tu5q6f8 said:Is the outback or outpost section still operational when there's enough snow at Pico? This is a very old school mountain that's very underated. For all the times I've been there, I've never seen it open. Looking forward to your responses.
FYI: It is definitely called "outpost"
I'm not sure if the above post was a response to your question or not... anyway, they do indeed open Outpost if there is enough snow. They even blow snow on Bronco (the wide trail to the skier's right of the chairlift) because the ski club @ pico likes to have races there... in fact it is an EXCELLENT slalom race hill... good for spectators and very challenging for racers -- i'd like to see a big time race there one day.
the lift last opened two years ago... last year they never got to it, and it doesn't look good for this year either. the trails there are still brushwacked in the summer, and i've seen the lift mechanics working on it occasionally in the summer time when i go for hikes up around there. i don't think they would be doing that if they had abandoned the lift.
and the skiing there is FANTASTIC when we have snow... when all those trails are open with fresh pow, that little old double can spin surisingly fast, and i've had days there where i must have gotten 50 runs the first half of which were on untracked pow, the second of which were on lightly chopped pow... indeed a VERY fun place to be. (there are even some pretty interesting runs that go out of bounds there, but be careful or you'll end up in a basin that is quite far from the base of pico :- )