EAST COAST ROLL CALL #8 14/15 A NEW HOPE

[robrox]

Jon and Andy's excellent Adventure! Nicely done, one and all.

[Vt-Freeheel]

33.3` bob, been snowing lightly for a couple of hours, 3/4" wet snow so far.

[Jonathan S.]

Looks like a state job

Hah!
Yes, the output as shown there was indeed minimal.
But the input was arduous (ugh): I’ve dug full pits in the same time and effort that yesterday’s little hole required (ugh).

Below I’ll mix and match comments from different forums since they’re all on the same topic:

Were you expecting to find something else in the holes or attempts at the holes that you dug?

I was hoping (although not necessarily *expecting*) to find something more like this:

In the Moderate rated areas, the upper snowpack is predominantly 1F to 4F hardness windblown slab.

Existing stability is generally good to very good in most of the forecast area either because the upper snowpack is wind packed or wind scoured [...]

That is, as opposed to the K & P hardness wind slab we found, along with stability that ranged from Very Good to, well, Excellent isn’t in the SWAG, but that sure was exceptional for a winter snowpack (w/o a “paveover” event).
The educational goal was to show that even when a “steel slab” might ski like what I was skinning at Magic the day before and then Berkshire East the day after, the stability reality is otherwise, but unfortunately we weren’t able to achieve (though fortunately that meant more terrain options were on the menu).

I was wondering about your pit placement as I was reading it. I wasn't sure if you were looking for representational snow or just snow geeking.

Ideally both.
So setting aside aspect for the moment and just looking at the elevations, the Tux microfx was focusing on start zones somewhere around 4,800' to 5,100'.
Lakes hut is 5,012' minus a small amount for the nice little loaded rollover in that ridiculous picture. Anything below that near the ART was too scoured or at least definitely just as firm.
Airplane Bowl pit was ~5,300'. (The focus of the tour was definitely *not* snow science and formal obs, so we weren’t meticulous about recording observations for things we could look up later.) Too far below that and the Oakes tree cover throws off everything. Above that and we were skinning and then hiking on very thin snow.
NE Snowfield is higher still, and the firm conditions seems unlikely to yield anything different.
From the near the top of RG we were hiking across thin snow, so no good opportunities there.
(Looking back at it, might have been educational to ski down more and to our right close to the rim of Tux to find some small features there for digging, which still moderate-angled enough to ski back up and over easily.)
The snowpit at the top of the West Snowfields (generously described!) was definitely way too high. A better alternative would have been in the half-pipe feature leading into Central just before the pitch really picked up into avy terrain.
Also, lower down in Central – too low of course to be practical for decision making, but still valuable for educational purposes – the terrain offers some opportunities to pull off to the side out of the line of fire on little features that also might have yielded some more interesting results.

[Vt-Freeheel]

33.3` bob, been snowing lightly for a couple of hours, 3/4" wet snow so far.

Morning update: 32.0` bob with 7/8" total snowfall, bush reporting 2" mid 6" summit. Lower mountain will be crispy today.

[ConHelado]

Nice TR Jonathan! I've been eying Tuckerman for several years but never done it and was planning to bite this bullet this Saturday and head up from Pinkham Notch with a few friends. The recent avy reports have basically made me decide to can the operation. Doesn't seem like a good time for a relative newb to be tackling it. Just thought I'd see if anyone wanted to talk me in to still going but had a less formidable route to suggest?

[Bottleman]

[cinnepa]

Looks like a state job

nah, missing 4 more inspectors - and i'm a state employee

[east or bust]

Steaux wasn't bad early this morning. Somehow I always forget the quad doesn't open until 8 on weekdays... needless to say I got first chair.

Up high was definitely more than the 2" they had in the report, low by about 2-3" and was on the heavy side but still lighter than I had expected. It was pretty much empty so I stuck to trails since they were skiing good, was still hitting untracked on Liftline at 10. Mid mountain woods skied ok but down low was extremely grabby.

Overall good excursion before class

[From_the_NEK]

Nice TR Jonathan! I've been eying Tuckerman for several years but never done it and was planning to bite this bullet this Saturday and head up from Pinkham Notch with a few friends. The recent avy reports have basically made me decide to can the operation. Doesn't seem like a good time for a relative newb to be tackling it. Just thought I'd see if anyone wanted to talk me in to still going but had a less formidable route to suggest?

Hiking up to bottom of the bowl to check it out and then back tracking and skiing down the Sherburne trail is still a good time.

[Goniff]

Anyone ski Jay today? Curious about conditions in the trees. Also, are big crowds likely this Saturday?

[mtl_ripper]

Yo Melonman, I was up on mont brome last night also, did you happen to see 4 dudes on monoskis ?

Who, these guys?

[danmelon]

Who, these guys?

That's a rad crew! Wait, is that Bubbles? Dee-cent! It does not surprise me that he would Monoski.

[BushwackerinPA]

Steaux wasn't bad early this morning. Somehow I always forget the quad doesn't open until 8 on weekdays... needless to say I got first chair.

Up high was definitely more than the 2" they had in the report, low by about 2-3" and was on the heavy side but still lighter than I had expected. It was pretty much empty so I stuck to trails since they were skiing good, was still hitting untracked on Liftline at 10. Mid mountain woods skied ok but down low was extremely grabby.

Overall good excursion before class

Gondi trails were the best that I found before 9am. weird day when I would rather be on groomers than in the woods . end of day did some corn laps on Sunny which will be frozen solid tomorrow.

[east or bust]

Gondi trails were the best that I found before 9am. weird day when I would rather be on groomers than in the woods . end of day did some corn laps on Sunny which will be frozen solid tomorrow.

Before 9? Did a little hiking did ya now, or did you get the employee special early ride up?

[mtl_ripper]

Tomorrow is cold, if any of you find pow-like substances, well, good on ya, and please share pics. We're building backyard banked slaloms and doing boring other stuff. Word.

[BushwackerinPA]

Before 9? Did a little hiking did ya now, or did you get the employee special early ride up?

Gondi open at 8:30

[Mr. Multiglisse]

Crust season has officially begun north of the North Woods. Great conditions to be out on the "skinny" metal edge schwacking skis. There has to be two feet of snow under my feet and only the tip of a ski pole can penetrate below the thin veneer of dust on crust:

[biggins]

Bottle- soup report?
Buttah- Moody Killi intagrams?

Feed the gimp! I need stoke!

[akokskis]

soup report?

Soup was not as advertised, but still delicious & the skiing surprisingly good. Groomer zooming is fun!!

[buttahflake]

Bottle- soup report?
Buttah- Moody Killi intagrams?

Feed the gimp! I need stoke!

i got spoiled by Utah, we hit one of the only good cycles of the year, i need more pow or some 50 degree sunny days.
this in between stuff, no bueno.
i did make 20 runs at Kmart on Wed, wicked nice day.
stoked that Superstar will, once again, be staying open till five.
it's gonna be a long, fun spring.

[Bottleman]

Soup was not as advertised, but still delicious & the skiing surprisingly good. Groomer zooming is fun!!

Explain "not as advertised," please.

[Boosh]

shredded Jay today, groomers were super nice in the morning, woods on the upper part of the mountain still had some fresh stuff from Thursdays storm but the lower woods were pretty firm/crusty, headwall was deece took one run left of pump house and found a quality stash, Andres was prime, good amount of fresh and or lightly ski stuff back there we lapped that for most of the afternoon, trekking to Big Jay tomorrow morning in hopes of some more untapped lines, anyone been out there recently?

[Vt-Freeheel]

BABA JI

[biggins]

Just watched a kid from the Mad River Valley, Drew Duffy, win the US Alpine Championships in Super G. Beat Nyman and Ganong for gold. Sick. Go Ver-mon'.

[Peruvian]

Day 64 and 65 in the books.

If anyone has a need for a free rental at Bromley, my friends left a coupon here that they didn't use.