sunday river-100% hero

[icelanticskier]

day 1. headed up to the rivah to make some fall turns today. if sunday rivah does one thing well, it's make damn good snow. 9 trails, 3 top to bottom. the tower and new fan guns were goin full tilt and it was cold and not too busy, just passholders which most of whom i knew on some level. a few trails were groomed and you sank no less than 2 inches into the hero-ness on every turn with full coverage-no need for rock skis at the rivah, quiet snow. 2 out of the 3 t2b trails had tower guns blasting with no vis issues and easy skiing under the guns in 3-5 inches of hero baby powder with refills under the guns every run. rode my board for half the day and called it quits out of boredom. no ice or hard snow anywhere except for the very bottom by the lifts in one spot.
definitely exceeded my expectations, but given days of temps in the teens and low 20's with zero skier traffic from being closed, the decision to go was pretty easy and i was up that way already for mountain biking the day before which was way better than the skiing btw. got my new skis today so will save the snowboard for epic refill liftserved pow days. will most likely head back to the rivah tuesday for a potential natural snow day on my new skis.
rog

 

[BobR]

Nice stoke. I'll head up tonight for the weekend and again tues night through the holiday weekend. Be nice to ski something other than T2 and 1/2 of Sunday Punch.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Flexibility pays with snowmaking too. That's why in many seasons I only hit Big Bear once, sometime in December right after a big chunk of terrrain has opened for the first time of the season. It skis very close to natural packed snow if you get it before the hordes get a chance to scrape it down.

 

[icelanticskier]

Flexibility pays with snowmaking too. That's why in many seasons I only hit Big Bear once, sometime in December right after a big chunk of terrrain has opened for the first time of the season. It skis very close to natural packed snow if you get it before the hordes get a chance to scrape it down.

yes. glad i hit it yesterday cuz a friend of mine called me this morning with reports of horrible conditions today. they only groomed one trail overnight which turned that trail from perfect packed soft pow yesterday to frozen balls today. all of the great snowmaking trails yesterday that were super soft and deep had been left to set up overnight with no additional snowmaking or grooming as they have moved onto other terrain to open more up. he went open to close yesterday and took two runs today and called it quits today. as it pays to follow storms, it also pays to know snowmaking, grooming, traffic patterns as well, or just be lucky.
rog