As you all know, eastern weather is insane right now, but I figured I'd post a quick report about my day yesterday at Windham (sorry I couldn't get this up earlier).
My run to Greek Peak on Thursday wet my appetite for more, so my fiancee and I decided to ditch work and use up our Warren Miller vouchers at Windham on Friday. There was a bit of light rain and sleet on the drive out, and when we got to Windham at about 10 AM, temperatures at the base were around 40 degrees. We had no idea what to expect, but overall were pretty happy with what we found.
Windham had shut down to only one trail earlier in the week after the ass-tastic weekend of 60 degrees and rain, and it was obvious that they had really cranked their snow making from Monday on. We pretty much sampled all the terrain that was open, spending most of our time lapping the main high-speed quad. Whistler was decent overall, but got pretty sticky by mid-mountain (and very pasty near the base). In general, the best conditions were found at 2000' or higher.
We were extremely impressed with the state of all of the expert trails Windham had open. We did a whole bunch of laps through Upper Wolverine and Wedel, and conditions were actually some of the best I've skied on these trails in my visit to Windham in the last 3 years (I've often found them very icey). Everything was machine made packed powder, there was only about 2 inches of natural snow left around, primarily at elevation. Evidence of Windham's increased snow making capability was all over the place though, and they definitely can rival Hunter now.
We also did two laps on the new blue trail they cut along with installing a detachable quad to replace the triple on the other summit. The trail was fun, but had pretty sketchy coverage and snow conditions in areas (again, the higher you were, the better the conditions were). The addition of the second quad is really great though, and I can't wait to ski this place sometime in the future when they have all three of the black trails off the second summit open. I didn't get a chance to time the ride, but it couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 minutes to the top.
Overall, we both had a really great time and I do look forward to getting back to Windham sometime later this season once all this insane weather runs its course this weekend and they can get more terrain up and running.
-Craig
My run to Greek Peak on Thursday wet my appetite for more, so my fiancee and I decided to ditch work and use up our Warren Miller vouchers at Windham on Friday. There was a bit of light rain and sleet on the drive out, and when we got to Windham at about 10 AM, temperatures at the base were around 40 degrees. We had no idea what to expect, but overall were pretty happy with what we found.
Windham had shut down to only one trail earlier in the week after the ass-tastic weekend of 60 degrees and rain, and it was obvious that they had really cranked their snow making from Monday on. We pretty much sampled all the terrain that was open, spending most of our time lapping the main high-speed quad. Whistler was decent overall, but got pretty sticky by mid-mountain (and very pasty near the base). In general, the best conditions were found at 2000' or higher.
We were extremely impressed with the state of all of the expert trails Windham had open. We did a whole bunch of laps through Upper Wolverine and Wedel, and conditions were actually some of the best I've skied on these trails in my visit to Windham in the last 3 years (I've often found them very icey). Everything was machine made packed powder, there was only about 2 inches of natural snow left around, primarily at elevation. Evidence of Windham's increased snow making capability was all over the place though, and they definitely can rival Hunter now.
We also did two laps on the new blue trail they cut along with installing a detachable quad to replace the triple on the other summit. The trail was fun, but had pretty sketchy coverage and snow conditions in areas (again, the higher you were, the better the conditions were). The addition of the second quad is really great though, and I can't wait to ski this place sometime in the future when they have all three of the black trails off the second summit open. I didn't get a chance to time the ride, but it couldn't have been more than 3 or 4 minutes to the top.
Overall, we both had a really great time and I do look forward to getting back to Windham sometime later this season once all this insane weather runs its course this weekend and they can get more terrain up and running.
-Craig