EC Mags: TR's requested

[shmerham]

How was this weekend?

All those that went to Jay, Stowe, Smugg's, Killington, Blue Hills; let's hear it... and some pics would be nice too.

[gincognito]

Given the rippin' wind on the Flyer and the general tracked-outedness of the mountain (most groomers were windblown sheets of icy death and the official glades were fairly beat), Saturday was deemed an exploration day at Jay. So that's what we did. Some snow was found, some turns were made and some fun was had. Nothing epic, but a good way to spend a Saturday regardless.

Tomorrow, on the other hand, might rock. I'll be there. Anyone else?

Sick and ashamed and happy (and do you have any pics or vid from the EC summit, shmerham?),
d.

[shmerham]

Not too many pics - just the one of Raps that I had on my "two summits" TR.

I do have 2 vids; one of Mit and one of Raps dropping the cliff in BBP. I need to a) find the software to download the video and b) find a place to upload it.

[Dom]

Went to jay on saturday, just about all the known glades were tracked out. Had to venture to find the fresh, well worth it though. Had an awesome day until the last run on the freezer chair. The wind was kicking so bad, I have no idea how this happened. My rough idea is that the wind moved the board up in down, and the ratchet must of clipped the foot rest, got loose, and flew off. I seen it on the way down on the lift, my friend went to get it but it was already picked up. So it was a good day, gone bad. My fish is gone, I can't believe it. I've had the best days on that board and it will be missed.

[Core Shot]

Skied Jay Saturday.
Shit was hammered hard the day before.
No freshies except way out the gates.
Still decent snow considering the alternatives.
Lots of ice stumps and rocks on the glade entrances, but decent snow further in.

Was stoked, ashamed and happy to run into Gincognito at the top of the Beaver Pond hike.
Saw Spanky and a few others in the parking lot but had to run to catch my ride home.

BTW, did anyone ski Jay Sunday?
I can't figure it out. I missed Sundays report, but today they say they got 4 to 6" with 1 foot in the last 48 hours, which means Sunday had 6 to 8" at most, and yet they have these pics from Sunday.


These must be kids. Or are they using midgets?

[eug]

Spent weekend with my son at Sunday River. Decent coverage with surface ranging from very firm to ice conditions. All official glades closed. Negative windchills. They blew snow on White Heat Friday night into Saturday. Kids stoke will be forthcoming...

[glademaster]

Having just spent 2 days at Jay skiing with 2 people who know the mountain very well, I hafta say it's probably the most overrated hill I've ever skiied. Yeah, there is good terrain and decent treeskiing, but Sugarbush kicks Jay's ass all over the place regarding treeskiing and cut trail terrain. I'm sure 10 or 15 years ago when the place was far less crowded and the decent tree lines didn't get hammered in 10 seconds flat, the place ruled, but the hype of their great glades loses some meaning when everything but the tightest shots or farthest OB lines are tracked so shortly after it snows. Friday was good, pretty deep in spots, but started to get hammered fast, even out on Big Jay. Saturday was brutally cold and windy and the place was more or less tracked out aside from short little pockets. I switched over to tele gear on Saturday afternoon and tried that out for a change. It was still a good weekend all things considered, but the lack of base made fast skiing in the wood seriously sketch, with stumps and rocks lying just under the surface.

[shmerham]

You should've gone to Killington.

[DaveTV]

Spent weekend with my son at Sunday River. Decent coverage with surface ranging from very firm to ice conditions. All official glades closed. Negative windchills. .

Same for Attitash, got 3 good days in tho - a gal from our club broke her back after wiping out into a ravine Saturday, had to be airlifted to Maine Medical Center - no paralysis from what I'm getting tho, I am told she will be OK eventually

[glademaster]

I'm not complaning about my weekend in particular, it was as good as it got on the EC at the time, but all things considered in a normal winter, I'd rather be at MRG or Sugarbush. Powder is powder though so it's all good.

[tex1230]

took my son to Okemo Sat/sun - saturday ok, spotty coverage,a good day for carving
Sunday about 2" new snow over bulletproof ice...fun for the first couple of hours, but it didn't get warm enough to soften the ice...heard stratton & Mt Snow the same...Northern VT is far superior right now.

[Falldise]

I tend to agree on the Jay comments. Jay is better than most in the east for sure and gets the best snow. But I had been told by a friend that Jay had better trees than mrg. After being given a tour by a local I did not agree. In fact after skiing mads trees all season we were bombing through Jays spread out trees with perfect sight lines. As my buddy put it, when you enter the woods at Mad you are constantly problem solving. I cannot speak for Sugarbush but have heard they have similar goods to Mad. Mads opening back up wed-thur btw.

[DaveTV]

Personally, all things considered if I had to pick one place and one place only east of the Rockies, it would be Sugarbush..

[creaker]

I'm a sugarbush guy but spent the weekend at Whiteface. It was mostly a solid piece of ice, but I did find some nice stuff not too far off trail. I drooled at the closed Slides area, that looks like nothing I've seen in the East. Whiteface felt to me like a small western area. I was totally impressed with the vertical, pitch and terrain. Anyone go there much? How often are the slides open?

[peterslovo]

Friends of mine went to Stowe over the weekend and said they skied foot deep fresh lines in the trees all weekend long. Go figure.

[shmerham]

How often are the slides open?

A couple days a year. That mountain would be the shit if it got more snow and wasn't owned by the state of NY.

[milton]

Just got off the hill at the bush- whoa. Foot+ off of heavens gate, light winds, and Paradise woods were just plain silly...and the snow was super dry. Sorry no pics. If you can get out midweek in northern VT you will be rewarded. Looks like more of the same wed/wed night<antijinx>

[train07]

Friends of mine went to Stowe over the weekend and said they skied foot deep fresh lines in the trees all weekend long. Go figure.

Whoa...skied Stowe on Fri morn and back on road by 12...i definitely must of been skiing in the wrong places.
Ran into mildbill on the way out....he was very happy.

[half-fast]

How often are the slides open?

seems like they're opening them more often lately. they've been open more this year than last. they now have a system for regulating access

For access to the Slides, the Whiteface Ski Patrol has created the following Rules:

* Bronze – Slides will not open based on avalanche danger, lack of snow cover, or other operational considerations.
* Silver – Slides will open but based on conditions, ski patrol will require avalanche precautions such as a beacon, shovel, and probe.
* Gold – Slides are open with the stipulation that guests must be groups of two or more at ski patrol’s discretion.



Normal hours of operation are 10:00 am to 2:00 pm.

if you've ever seen the slides in the summer, you'd know why they're hardly ever open-thy're basically 45 degree rock-smooth rock. last year wf got a bunch of snow early, then a thaw and rain, which froze and then it stayed cold for most of the winter-any snow that fell on the slides after that just slid off!

[snowsprite]

I skiied at Killington, hence not much to report!

We got a few inches of snow on Sat. day/night to pad the slopes but it wasn't anything to write home about. The trees overall still appear to be un-doable, as are the secondary non-groomer slopes (old superstar, middle ovation--forget lower that's been closed all season, north star, vertigo)-- most of these secondaries are roped off anyway. Rocks and crap sticking up everywhere in trees visible from chair lifts...and folks who went in deeper not impressed. Semi-decent powder turns on the boulevard groomers very early but got tracked out ever so quickly.

Still had a nice time overall, but I hate you guys who got to Stowe and points north!

Sprite

[Benny Profane]

That mountain would be the shit if it got more snow and wasn't owned by the state of NY.

Well, it doesn't get much snow, and leaks water everywhere, so it's always a sheet of ice, except for April, and is always crowded, because it's a tourist town.
And that slides area is like a fantasy they put in front of your face and convince you it's real. It's not if you can never ski it.

There's nothing wrong with a mountain being run by the state. Tax dollars wasted well for my favorite winter activity. Gore is very well run - tons of snowmaking, modern and fast lifts, superb grooming on weekdays, tons of well trained patrollers for safety. Yeah, state workers can be a bit rude at times, but, hell, that place is heaven compared to the way shithole bankrupt KMart is being run into the ground. I'm getting my Gore pass for the first time next year ASAP.

BTW, I'm taking the snow tires off today. Maybe we'll finally get our first storm. yeah, right.

[Vinman]

Still on the IR and not too happy about it

[crashnburn'd]

Still on the IR and not too happy about it

Think you'll be skiing this coming weekend? Or hasn't the alien popped out yet?

[biggins]

Stowe report- Muy good.

Saturday, the usual sweet spot was fantastic. The traverse out is getting a bit hairy in spots, and the slog back is getting a little tenative down low, but everywhere in between had a lot of deep, light fresh. Trails were sheets of blue ice up high, but even the little gullies between the gondola trails had a lot of snow in there. Spruce was also fun, lots of snow, saw a sweet snowboarder line running down the alpine slide.

Sunday, roughly the same sweet spot, even better than Saturday!! They reported only 2-3" over night, but coverage on the whole mountain was noticably better than the day before. Mildbill wanted to check out a spot that had been surprisingly solid on Friday, so we went, and it was completely filled in and untracked. Lapped it about 4 times, then SMASHED my tailbone on some hardness and bailed on what were apparently the best bench laps of the weekend. Day was excellent, drive back to Boston was a miserable excercise in painful sitting.

Synopsis- snow on top was a surprising treat of deep and fluffy, base underneth, a little scary (holes, buried logs, stumps, rocks, trolls, leprechans, and snakes- lots of snakes).

Oh, and Jay is the tits. Anyone who says otherwise can stuff a big plate of poutine down their gullet.

MassLiberal- sorry we didn't cross paths, i was playing host to my brother and his never-skiied-before gf this weekend. I was a bit frantic. Next weekend maybe?

[Brewski2]

I have to agree, Jay is totally overrated. The terrain is lame and what little snow falls gets tracked out by noon. Long liftlines and annoying tele skiers everywhere. I highly recomend Sugarbush