09-10: Earned Turns at Cannon, Day 1

Today was a gear test day, and kinda that first day back to the 'gym' after being away 6 months....

Headed over to Cannon around 10am, within miles grass turned to snow as I entered the notch... Checking out the front five from the highway, tracked out, with a few people visible on each trail.... I (somehow) convinced my girlfriend to come along for the trip, and we first did an easy hike up the tuckerbrook family area to check out the snow conditions and to give a first taste of fresh tracks for her.... Snow wasn't by any means light powder, but to be honest, I expected it to be heavier, or crusted over a bit more-- it wasn't bad going down on the new snowboard, got in a few fun turns before the run was over -- she had a hard time with not much speed over on Turkey Trot... We hiked back to the car, I switched boots and she took her book towards the lodge....

I gave my virgin climbing skins the blessing of Cannon, and ascended up lower cannon and mickeys... I was thinking Rocket or Gary's would be a great warmup, even if tracked out... this trip was more about getting some excercise in and my first attempt at touring/climbing.... The guy in the parking lot I skinned up with convinced me to check out Zoomer... First serious run of the year.... so much for easing into the season.... I told him going up was the easy part for me, usually on a chopped up deep day like today I'd be on a snowboard..... deep, ungroomed, grabby snow -- something I've never even thought about trying on tele's..... Fantastic views of the notch, and pretty much no wind and above freezing temps....



I ate A LOT of snow, probably ate it about 20 times on the way down.... but it was deep, maybe almost two feet -- no signs of bottom or colors/sounds of hitting ground.... Every tele turn I attempted would quickly end with a flop.... A few times fell face first over my ski's :) getting a lil speed and alpine turns, along with some persistance got me to the bottom ok...

08-09: Sugarloaf, Day 29+30

First time up at Sugarloaf for reggae weekend -- most certainly will not be the last! We headed up friday after work, and didn't get up to the mountain until around 11. Festivities/bands were playing, but we didn't bother to check them out... mostly deterred by the likely cover charges and after a long week of work I wasn't ready to rally...



Sat we got a good spring start, around 10am and was on the mtn most of the day... We followed the sun east-west, starting over at King Pine and working our way towards Timberline... The day before was very warm, and friday night I don't think it hit the freezing point on the mountain which gave us some nice spring snow to push around all day on Saturday. I couldn't believe the amount of snow coverage and trail counts, pretty much everything was open -- a few brownouts on the flats near the lifts, and the only trail I remember being roped off was the bottom of Ripcord. Bumps were great, mid mountain a blast, weather started off a bit grey but broke into sun/passing clouds in the afternoon... We made our way down to the base after Celtics playoff beverage(s) at Bullwinkles, to enjoy a Bag Burger and some reggae....


Sunday started off with sun, but a bit chillier.... We tried the same attack plan, starting over at King Pine -- but seems like freezing point did hit on Sat night and some of the bumps and trails had not softened up by around 10:30.... We stuck to spillway and superquad most of the day, as the snow was nice and soft here the whole day -- great for pushing around on a board, carving up nice turns, and launching off any spring jump/lip I could find! We took timberline a few times, and decided to hike up to the summit for some great views -- Snowfields were closed, but I think some folks were still hitting the front-top side of nitro.... still was pretty cold up there and hadn't really softened up all weekend...


Fantastic weekend at the loaf, they are talking May and I believe that -- unfortunately looking like it may be an end of season trip for me, Day 30 so got a solid month in this year... Until next year...

08-09: Sunday River, Day 27

With the forecast spelling out RAIN for day 1 of the Bust'N'Burn competition and the Parrot head weekend, we weren't too optimistic about the day. With spring skiing, usually there is no rush to be outside for first chair -- and conditions tend to get even better as the day goes on.. so we opted for the late night, late start... We got on the hill around 10am, starting over at Whitecap and working our way towards mid-mountain North Peak.. Trails had pretty good coverage, but being April -- there were some spots with thin/no-cover.. The rain held off most of the day, but temperatures didn't make it much past 40 and the sky stayed grey throughout.

08-09: Loon, Day 26

Instead of making it up to Jay Peak as we had planned, we turned off 93 a few hours earlier and stopped into the Woodstock station for dinner and drinks. We ended up the following day at Loon, another day on telemark ski's for me! We cruised around the mountain, getting around to almost all of our favorite kanq quad and north peak runs. Enjoyed an afternoon beer + burger in the sun of camp III! Great day with good friends, couldn't ask for more... well maybe some fresh snow :)

08-09: Stratton, Day 25

Bram and I decided to check out Stratton for the first time, weekend weather had sun and clear sky's predicted... and we looked forward to some spring slopes. The conditions were not as spring-like as we anticipated, with edge-to-edge snow coverage on the trails and the snow not really softening up until later in the afternoon. The mountain is great for intermediates and those that love groomed cruisers, but the most challenging terrain we found was some of the 'double-black' mogul runs, which weren't particularly steep or big. Other ratings were also comparable to other southern VT mountains, but most black-diamonds were blue cruisers in my opinion while most blue-squares seemed like pretty gentle advanced beginner slopes. We had a great day --

08-09: Stowe, Day 24

Another spring day at Stowe, a fog cloud covered the top 1/3 of the mountain which made visibility a major problem in the early morning... Although the bottom 2/3rds visibility was clear and the snow was nice and soft. I made a few runs on the main mountain, before heading into Burton's Demo tent, picking myself up a 167 Custom wide board, and heading over to check out Spruce peak for a few runs.
Spruce is on the sunny side, and holds some of the easier terrain on the mountain. On a nice spring day though, it was fun to cruise down some groomers and try to find every natural jump on the trails edge possible. Ended the day with a few more runs off the Gondola and the main mountain!

08-09: Stowe, Day 23

A preview of spring skiing was a good way to summarize today up at Stowe. Snow was soft, temps were warm, and it made for an excellent day of playing with soft bumps and carving. It was my first time at Stowe, while some of the lines were a bit long on Saturday (most notably the quad), the double chair and gondola lines were not too bad. Unfortunately a few of the trails I looked forward to trying were closed (Goat, Nose Dive glade) Stowe also looks like it has some great glades + trees which hopefully I'll get to see next time I'm there.

08-09: Sunday River, Day 22

Today was a much better day at Sunday River, although it still is pale in comparison to some of my best days at Sunday river. We started off at south ridge, made our way to Barker for a few runs and then headed straight for the terrain that was closed the day before -- We enjoyed cruisers on Aurora and Jordan, and I was starting to feel pretty confident with some speed on the tele's. Stopped for a brief lunch over at Sliders before making our way back towards the center of the mountain.

08-09: Sunday River, Day 21

Some rain and then having temps drop is pretty much the story of a typical new england winter on the slopes, fortunately the weather stayed very cold for most of the start of winter and we didn't have too many days like today. To start, things were crowded and not many lifts/runs were open. The groomers were still out most of the day, trying to get runs into shape before unleashing the masses onto them. Today was a very fast day, mostly covering just Southridge, Locke and Barker... The trails with the most traffic had the best snow conditions, as the traffic scraped up the powder and made it a bit more fun to turn in-- I was hoping Aurora and Jordan would be open a bit earlier, but we decided to save the runs for tommorow.

08-09: Jay Peak, Day 20

And just when you thought it couldn't have been any better, some more 'flurries' bring in another 10-18"



Whatever planet I was on today, it surely wasn't earth...

08-09: Jay Peak, Day 19

Speachless. No pictures, but the memories of this day I hope will stay with me for many years to come. The forecast called for flurries, 10" of new fluff ontop of 13" from the storm before -- It doesn't get any better than this in New England.

08-09: Loon Mountain, Day 18

We decided to day trip up to Loon. I tele'd with Ave + Bram, a bit of AM rain made
softened things up for decent morning. We ventured over to South Peak and I pointed down Ripsaw, a really fun new trail -- the bottom of Ripsaw held some of the best snow on the mountain.. After lunch, the temps dropped about 10 degrees and within minutes the whole mountain locked up and turned into an unsafe skating rink -- we decided to call it quits an hour early...

08-09: Cannon, Day 17

Superbowl Sunday and Mittersill!

Bram and I made the most of this day, although crowded we managed to make the most of the day -- finding some great lines down the tram-line, a few glades, and of course the trek over to Mittersill.

08-09: Ascutney, Day 16

Storm leftovers! Look out for that cliff on ski'rs left!!


A fun day of blasting through leftovers from a midweek storm. Ascutney saved some for me, without grooming it all down with a little bit of searching we found some deep untracked snow!

08-09: Mad River Glen, Day 15

As I've been primarily snowboarding most of my 'winter career', I never had the opportunity or motive to check out Mad River Glen and see what it was all about... Well with tickets rolling back to $3.50 cents like they were when they first opened -- I figured it a great opportunity to check out this piece of preserved ski-history in action. Taking up the single-chair is definately a classic example of the way things used to be -- and the whole mountain is covered in bumps! I didn't have a chance to explore too much of the difficult and wooded terrain which the mountain is so famous for, but I did get a feel for the layout, panoramic views from the top, and some of the 'skier-only' vibe and experience.

08-09: Smugglers Notch, Day 14

Another day back at Smugglers Notch, decided to put my Tele's on for a few runs in the morning and check out the family hill portion of the mountain. An excellent mix of greens, blues and a few ungroomed runs to challenge the intermediates with some more natural terrain. With a few inches (3-4) overnight, it was nice to get a patch of few powder turns on the tele's!

08-09: Smugglers Notch, Day 13

First time to check out Smugglers Notch, and we got some great conditions... While many northeast mountains would have some of these trails closed due to exposed rock, tree's, etc -- Smuggs seemed to have some excellent expert terrain and steeps, while isolating their beginner 'family' area almost completely from the main mountain. Looking forward to a day here in the glades and on some of the steeps!

08-09: Loon, Day 12

MLK monday, fantastic day on the slopes with Halsey + Laura. The drive up took a long time, stuck behind plows and traffic most of the way up. A fair amount of PP on the trail from the recent storm made for an excellent day on the hill. The sun came out, although it was a bit windy -- Ripsaw (Loons newly cut Double-black trail) was opened up and Halsey decided to give it a spin. He said it had a short steep pitch, but overall didn't think it deserved the trail difficulty rating.

08-09: Sugarloaf, Day 11

3" of some new fresh on the ground and another early start, King Pine wasn't on wind hold and we headed there and got to many of the runs we hadn't had a chance to do yet.... Flurried a few more inches throughout the morning, breaking into bluebird afternoon... I think I found myself in Blade Glade or White Nitro off the skiers right of Bubblecuffer, fantastic.... They had a supercross course setup, but around it, held deep stashes of powder, probably 9-11" deep.....

Fantastic weekend, only downside was the cold... which didn't affect me until getting back and realizing I had some minor frostbite on the tip of a thumb..... I thought the ride back would be a pain due to the southern storm, but roads were clear by early evening

08-09: Sugarloaf, Day 10

Got a bit later start, Timberline was running but we saved that for the afternoon... King Pine was still on wind hold, but we made our way over there anyway off of Spillway to a beautifully groomed out Haulback... Fantastic and fast -- although with the wind hold we found ourselves back at Whiffletree and a few stashes in there.... Another great groomer day with plenty of freshies still to be found if you looked in the right places...

08-09: Sugarloaf, Day 9

Got an early start, rode the Superquad and Spillway East most of the day... King Pine + Timberline were on wind hold all day... Sometimes would end up at Whiffletree and take that up...



Enjoyed Ripsaw, some wiffletree + bucksaw, and superquad glades the most... In the glades and on the sides of trails probably about 6-8" of untracked light + fluffy.... Sluice and other mid-mtn (Hayburner, Kings Landing) groomers were in great shape, I could carve and dig in my edges at any point of the day --

08-09: Loon, Day 8

Another fast day at Loon, morning started off great but towards later morning the hardpack boiler plate started to show through. Although they made snow with the cannons on Lower Picked Rock the night before, and that trail still had plenty of good snow for making turns in the afternoon!

GPS Track

08-09: Loon, Day 7

Stayed on tele's today, trying to improve my form and build some leg strength before taking a lesson. Conditions were fast and fun, but towards the end of the day got a bit scraped off. I spent the afternoon on the begginner slope teaching my sister how to ski. It was good that the trail Snubber is isolated from the rest of the mountain -- Loon could use some more natural snow!

GPS Track

08-09: Ragged Mountain, Day 6

My first time at Ragged -- a smaller mountain, but after some good natural snow it looks like it could be a great place to avoid the crowds and get some fresh turns in. Conditions today were a bit icy after last weeks melt, and this weeks freeze.. Mostly machine made packed powder, and towards the end of the day a fair amount of bare patches... Not a whole lot of trails were open, but it was great to see the mountain and a feel for it. Lodge and facilities were updated and great, I'll definately be back here on a blackout weekend on my pass soon!

Todays GPS track

08-09: Loon, Day 5

Powder Day!! Got to the mountain as early as I could, ran a powder filled run off the Kanc quad and then headed off to North Peak. Flume was deep, ungroomed, and a lot of fun.... Continued to find great snow the rest of the day, check out todays track here.

08-09: Sunday River, Day 4

Great day, made my way over towards Jordan bowl for lunch. On the way back ended up in Oz for a tough run, but found plenty of snow in the sides. GPS track of the day.

08-09: Sunday River, Day 3

Santa Sunday at Sunday River! I gave some money to charity and since I had a seasons pass, let my friend without one dress up in Santa attire for the discounted (10$!) lift ticket. Sunday Rivers natural base looked deeper than Loons, and overall the conditions were better and more trails were open. I decided to snowboard today, and had a lot of fun.. Some of the trails had some untracked natural snow on the sides, but melt/freeze created a breakable crust that was fun on the snowboard to break through and take advantage of. Sunday Rivers natural base is looking great, with a fresh storm on top they will be open a good amount of terrain! Risky Biz was one of my favorite trails of the day, good pitch and conditions, and challenging enough to get the heart beating strong.

GPS Track from most of the day..

08-09: Loon, Day 2

Back at Loon again, and with few new trails open aside from lower-walking boss. I was on my new(bought used) telemark ski's -- G3 Barons and stuck to mainly the easier trails on the mountain. Luckily with only green and blue terrain open, that practically meant any trail. While I'm still trying to get a hang of the telemark turns, the green trails Bear Claw, Grand Junction and Brookside offered the best conditions and the opportunity for me to work on my form. The trails got a bit scraped off towards the end of the day, but overall a pretty fun day on the hill.

GPS Track from the day.

08-09: Loon, Day 1

Chris and I got our season passes for Loon, Sunday River, and Sugarloaf squared away early in the day and we hit the slopes.
Early season conditions were surprisingly good, with great coverage on the trails. Probably about 4 inches of natural base, on top of a fair amount of man made packed powder made for a great first day on the hill to warm up the legs. Upper and lower picked rock, along with flying fox were some of the best runs of the day but the park offered some of the best snow quality we could find. Great to be back on the snow! GPS Track from most of the day...

Loon

Another nice spring day to get in some last runs of the year. I guess that makes 24 days on the slopes for me this year, with all the snow and looking back at some of the pictures and the 12 mountains I got to see -- It was a good one!

Jay Peak

A fantastic day up at Jay Peak, the ride up was great -- the conditions were 70+ degrees, springy, with excellent coverage on all trails. Saw some of the pond skimming event, the whole day was great! Wish some more friends could have come along, but most of them put away their gear in March... Too bad.

Loon

Today, the weatherman said it was to be a rainy, wet, mushy spring day... I was hesitant to day trip it, but knew the days left this season were numbered and got out there...

Instead the sun broke, and we had ourselves a fantastic sunny spring day!

Sunday River, Bust & Burn

Good spring days, fog was heavy on Saturday morning -- there was an inch or two of new slush on the trails. We made our way from Whitecap over to Oz/Jordan, and back. Sun came out in the afternoon!

Sunday was a bit quieter, later start.. Didn't make our way across the mountain, but enjoyed a few runs around Whitecap, Locke, and Barker. Can't end the season on this note, more snow, more sun please!

Ascutney

Sugarbush - Mt Ellen

St Patty's special, 17$ on the 17th on Mt Ellen at Sugarbush.

Great bluebird day, 3" of fluffy light pow on top of fantastic carvable base... Black Diamond, the straight down bump run was the most challenging of the day, upper F.I.S. and some of the glades around the not-so-tough woods were fun too.




Look forward to seeing Mt Lincoln next time I'm back.

Pico

Rocked Tele's (K2 World Piste's) for most of the day.. Got some turns in at Pico and Killington, conditions were great, lines non-existant.

Some end of day turns back on the snowboard of Pico's outback were some of the best of the day.

Killington

Sat at Killington, 4 inches of new snow... mostly wet snow, made for a slow pow day... Glades were nice, Devil's Den was the most challenging run of the day, but the unmarked tree trail next to Skyeburst was also fantastic.

Loon

My first full day on Tele's, and it was a good one. Back to green + blue trails for me. We made our way over to South mountain late morning, and checked out the 'new trails'. Crusier was in good shape. The whole mountain was in great shape, with everything open. The light powder got pushed and blown around, so there were spots of the black trails that were down to hard-pack-freeze, but the blue + green terrain was completely covered. I really enjoyed Picked Rock and Seven Brothers, didn't make it over to my old favorite Walking Boss, but I'm sure lower Boss was great.



There was so much snow outside, I was so excited with anticipation for the day ahead, that I put on my boots & ski's a bit early..

Okemo

With 10-12" of new fluffy light, it was time to take a mid-week vacation day and head up north. We did every double-black and un-groomed run on the map, and had a great pow day! They were about 110% open (128/117 trails).

Fav: Loose Spruce

Top Pics:
Stump Jumper, Forrest Bump, Double Diamond, Outrage, Peteys powerline
Black Hole, Big Bang, SuperNova, Limelight bonus tracks, Sel's Black Out forest

Yeah, the 'bad' runs of the day were perfect condition cruising groomers.... oh, I guess that Catwalk where you had to traverse the flat falls into that category.


Most of the storm was over by Wednesday morning, and Wednesday must have been a killer powder day for anyone lucky enough to be up there for it. I headed up Wednesday night after the storm had passed, dealing with just the occasional flurries and snow clouds along the way up. I was hoping there would still be plenty of freshies along the trails and in the woods (there was!).

Woke up around 7, and we had fresh cord tracks down from the house to the base station. We enjoyed a quick breakfast, and got out in line for first(4th) chair, we waited a few minutes in anticipation... it was cold.

Our goal was to make our way towards the South Face, we flew down a meticulously groomed Defiance run and by the time we were over there we once again were in a first(1st) chair and wait for them to open the lift situation... We spent most of the morning over on this side of the mountain, enjoyed every glade, bump, and ungroomed run we could find... A few off the map secrets really made our day, and challenged our technical abilities.



For the afternoon we made our way across the main face, and to the other side of the hill. There were some wind-exposed faces, which didn't hold the fluffy light powder well, but still -- 9 out of 10 kind of day. We continued to find the best 'trails' on the hill, and found ourselves making deep turns all day long. When tired or ready for a change, there was always the option of a perfect groomer run around --

Mount Snow

We were hoping that some of the storm would track a bit north and get over into southern vt for some nice fresh turns.. I'd say about 4-5" fell, and looked to be around 6" in some untouched places in the woods. North Face and Sunbrook were good, and with the mountain 100% open there was little to complain about. The trails just were not as challenging and steep as I would have liked, but if you are into Blue trails or need a nice warm up hill -- I still recommend Mount Snow.

Wachusett

Fridays storm looked like it was tracking for a direct and heavy hit on MA, so that left us with the obvious choice of hitting Wachusett for some night pow riding under the lights.

Being school vacation week, crowds were pretty minimal. Parents must have kept their kids at home too, knowing the roads were not ideal.. Bram's truckasaurus land cruiser made its way to the hill no prob, and we left as the snow was winding down.. Each run of the night got better, as more people left and more snow fell...

Sunday River

After a snowy week, we had to get up to enjoy what mother nature had brought. Bob, Max and I headed up to Sunday River. We decided to head over to Aurora / Oz / Jordan and stayed over there the whole day. After warming up on Escapade, we headed down Quantum Leap and headed up Aurura. The Oz lift wasn't running, so we enjoyed the trails off Oz from the Jordan lift. Tin Woodsman, Emerald City, Flying Monkey were great. We found the lost woods of Blind Ambition, Wizards Gulch, and upper wizards spell after some steep turns on Caramba. Black hole & Vortex were also both a lot of fun, while Rogue Angel and Excalibur made for some fast cruising runs. Today was a page out of the perfect book, and looks like Sunday may be another one.



0708: 12

Cannon pre-superbowl

Half-priced tix at Cannon made for a cheap day on the slopes.

day started off good and glad I got there early. Bit more crowded than Superbowl Sundays of years past... I started on the Peabody side, warmed up with some of the ones I knew would get icy later. Got to the front five pretty early. Skylight off the top was my fav trail of the day.

It was a 'naturally' fast day, with turning an option only at times... but there was little or no wind which is very unlike the Old Man's mountain.

0708: 11

Ascutney

From last mondays snow, and fridays snowstorm we had planned on going far north into Maine to check out Saddleback and Sugarloaf. Both received a fair amount of snow, and were far enough north to hopefully miss some of the traditional MLK weekend crowds.

Last minute, we changed our plans to a day trip. We decided to go close, where some decent snow had fallen but not a slope that was very well known... We took our chances on Ascutney.

Unfortunately, after buying our tickets we realized that only the lower half of the mountain was 'open' / lift serviceable. We got in all the runs we could on the fast packed powder conditions, lines were minimal which was nice. Melissa was flying on her new K2s. My favorite trail of the day was Exhibition, a fast straight down shot with some good gnolls for catching some high-speed air. I found some stale 'freshies' on the side, but the course of the week made a layer of crust near the top... I decided even with this layer of icy melt-freeze to go off and do some crud-busting.. I hiked over to Moments Rest and Terminator, and blasted my way through the crusty pow, cover was good, but I could see how if they opened it to the public it could have shown some rocks after some runs...

We were expecting a lot more for our day, but we still made the best of it. My general rule of thumb is to come back here when one of the double-blacks and top is opened up, hopefully after the next big snow. Powder days at this hill really do make it, but isn't that the case everywhere?

0708: 10

Wachusett Afternoon & Evening

With a foot of new snow(and work cancelled for the day!), an afternoon at Wachusett for 36$ was pretty good. Snow wasn't too heavy, but got bumped up pretty good, making some small manageable bumps pretty fun to carve around and jump off of.
At 4:00, we decided to upgrade our ticket to allow us to go all night too, it cost us an additional 10$ -- but after the sight of the first 4:00 groom-cat, it was clearly worth it. They groomed each run one at a time, but if you were lucky to head down it shortly after they opened the trail -- there was nice corduroy everywhere..... Fun eve at the local hill where I started to snowboard, so many years ago --

0708: 09

Killington New Year

Usually I try to avoid holiday weeks, weekends, and Killington. The last minute invite to come up and enjoy the new year, with 6-12" in the forcast was too good to pass up though. We shot up on the eve of new years eve, and enjoyed a powdery Monday at Killington. The top layer of new snow got pushed off pretty early, showing that ugly new england ice layer underneath.... But with so much terrain/lifts going, lift lines were minimal and overall the mountain was in pretty good shape. We started the day off over near bear peak, made our way completely over to the opposite side of the mountain and back before 1pm lunch.. Then enjoyed a few last turns before they shut down for the day...

A good day at the K, better than last years -- but still for the 79$ holiday rate, it made it tough to swallow. On new years day we were thinking about going over to Pico for a quieter/cheaper powder experience, but decided to save the cash for another day and try to beat the next wave of snow coming in --

Happy New Year!! 08 slopes are looking fantastic, lets hope it stays cold enough to keep the rain/ice away....

0708: 08

See what others are saying about Killington Conditions

Ascutney

Looking back, maybe the fact that I've mostly snowboarded/ski'd at more major resorts most of the time has never given me a true appreciation for the family-style resort... Saturday at Ascutney mountain was fantastic, throw in the Warren Miller coupon to make it an almost free day and we had ourselves a great day.

So on Thursday, 8" of snow fell, and on Friday, one or two lucky people must have had the whole mountain to themselves... We showed up early on Saturday, and it seemed like the snow had fallen over-night. We had mostly fresh tracks for a good amount of the day. The 'double-black' diamonds, seemed to scare people away as well as it was the terrain with the most virgin snow still on it... Ascutney is small, just a few lifts... but difficult, craggy terrain features make this mountain a lot of fun if you like to find natural terrain jumps and play around with the trails. It's not your typical over-groomed mountain, so I could see on a day/week without snow the mountain getting tough and not being as nice... but after a bit of natural snow, check this place out --

0708: 7

Loon

10 fell the day before, and Loon's fantastic groomers came out in full force in the middle of the trails. 4-5 more fell overnight and made for a great monday morning. Melissa and I split up for half the day, I tackled North Peak and some terrain off of the Summits double-chair while she stuck around the west basin and rocked the blues. She ripped upper and lower rumrunner with me though, good to see her on a black diamond this early in the season. Angel Street and Lower Speakeasy were my favourite on the day, too bad they were not open to the season pass holders, if you catch my pow drift...

We will be back at some point to check out South peaks 'new' runs...

0708: 6

Cannon Nor'Easter

A blustery day at Cannon, made for fresh tracks all day long... Each run was reset by the wind, filling in the gaps with more wind-blown powder... Front five were great early on, but the Zoomer chair closed early due to strong winds... A few off the Eagle triple were great, hardscrable wasn't completely bumped up yet... Skylight was fantastic, and I made a short venture over to mittersill to get into some December tree's...

0708: 5

Sugarloaf

Almost a week after the storm, without a thaw/freeze.... whats that mean? 16" of fresh got blown around, creating 8-32" drifts of pow. Wow. Only half of the mountain was lift serviceable, but I'd say at least 2/3rds to all of it was 'open'.... If you don't mind hopping over some small streams, the occasional shruberry sticking out of the snow, or a short hike.... this weekend was killer. The Loaf in all it's early season glory. If you prefer to stick to the lifts, you still had a pretty good early december day.

0708: 4

07-08: Sunday River

Santa Sunday, Monday, and Tues at Sunday River...

Sunday was a great day of man-made + natural groomed conditions... Fast.
Monday was a day in the snowstorm, can't see to far in front of you, but thats ok because there is nobody in front of you.
Tuesday only 8-16" all over the place, with a few new trails openened up for the first time of the year.

0708: 3

07-08

07-08

Next year is going to be tough, with seasons pass prices getting really expensive...
Look for the deals again and get the variety? or take the plunge and go to the same mountains all season long...

Northwest territory - BC? WA? WY?

Stratton (Coupons)
Okemo/Sunapee (10$ off coupons)
Jay Peak
Stowe
Sugarbush

Ascutney (Half price coupons)
Cannon (Tues and other 2-1 deals, half-price coupons)
Wildcat (Birthdays free, 10$ off coupons, 20$ Sunday afternoons)

Sugarloaf (Can drive, warren miller)
Saddleback (Cheaper than Sat at Loaf)
Sunday River (Santa Sunday, WM coupons, Bust'n burn)

Mobil Ski-3? Bestskiweather.com coupons/discounts?

Day 26 - Bretton Woods

Mid April, and the hills are looking like mid-february. Sunday it started snowing again in NH, and by the end of the day at Bretton Woods there was 3-5 more inches on top of their already strong base... For their last day of operations, they didn't have all the lifts running and we were a bit disappointed but got in as many runs as we could --

We were hoping to get a few feet of snow over at Wildcat and head over there, but the snow turned over to mixed/rain at lower elevations, and wind-holds prevented Wildcat from even opening up today...

Day 24&25: SR & Loon

Sunday River re-opened the Jordan/Aurora areas on Friday for some ungroomed fun, early on there was a layer of melt-freeze crust on top, but with still plenty of untracked snow it was a 'powder' day in the books... I felt like I was cutting through the crud with my board no prob, just keeping my front tip above the snow with some speed... It was one of those days where you could go fast over a gnoll, and land and not worry about hitting yourself on the ice.. the snow was pretty soft mid-day, although by the end of the day started to freeze over again and one trail we went down over on whitecap was pure garbage.. A great day, seemed more like February than April, but can't complain!

Sat we decided to go for a groomer day over at Loon, trails were pretty empty and we got in almost all of our favorite runs before calling it a day. Loons a good mtn, I've just done it so many times before its hard to be really excited unless we try something new... Looking forward to my next trip down the south-side of loon -- looks like they cut a trail a bit more for their expansion, if only there was a healthy fresh dumping of snow on top --

06-07: Day 23 Sunday River - Bust 'n' Burn

Another great spring day over at Sunday River!

2nd year in a row, I guess it's now tradition to have a day of Maine spring skiing on the slopes!! This year I found some cheap tickets on craigslist, worked out pretty well. Next year we will get a place for crashing on Saturday night...

06-07: Day 21 & 22 VT

We wanted to head up to VT on Friday eve, but the snowstorm came in mid-day Friday and roads would have been too treacherous to head up north.. We opted to wait until the bad driving was behind us, and instead of heading up Sat morning we held off until Sunday morning. We made our way up to Pico, that small mountain next to Killington...
It had snowed about 8 inches by the time we arrived, and snowed all day while we were there... The snow was the lightest, fluffiest snow I've ever seen in VT....
There was a local ski shop offering free Telemark equipment demo's, so I figured it was a good day to give it a try! It was fun, but by lunchtime I was ready to trade in the boots for the comfort of my own snowboarding boots... We ended the afternoon exploring the rest of the mountain.. A great place to head when you want to avoid the Killington crowds --

Melissa convinced me to head over to Okemo for monday, another mountain which I had never been too... A lot of nicely groomed runs, even the black diamonds were often groomed and conditions pretty consistently great across the whole mountain... A fun day of cruising, and pretty much the trails to ourselves!

See what others are saying about Pico Conditions, Killington Conditions, Okemo Conditions

06-07: Day 20 Cannon Mountain

06-07: Day 20 Cannon Mountain

Melissa and I headed up to Cannon, we found some of the best snow on the mountain over in the Tuckerbrook area.. The sides of the trails and woods held some powder, while the trails were great for carving some turns.. The top of the mountain was pretty windy, and by the end of the day some of the upper slopes got a bit ski'd off..

06-07: Day 19 Attitash-Bear Peak

We headed up to North Conway saturday eve, enjoyed a nice turkey dinner at Robs house with some of his family.

We then headed over to Attitash/Bear Peak for Sunday, we used a 2-for-1 coupon we found at our Inn and enjoyed a nice spring-like blue-sky day on the slopes. The conditions started off groomed on top with hardpack underneath.. Got a bit slick in the afternoon, but the trails that got hit by the sun softened up some. It was another fast day at Attitash for me.. Melissa is starting to look pretty good on ski's, and Bram may be ski'ng for the rest of the season..

06-07: Days 17-18 Loon/Cannon

Half-price midweek tickets at Loon on Weds, and Cannon on Thurs...

Valentines day blizzard on weds made for a cold day on the slopes of loon. Woke up to 6 inches on the ground, and about 6 more fell by the time we took the last chair up...
The roads got a bit sloppy, but it was a good day on the slopes with the mountain pretty empty.

Cannon mountain the next day, with 26" of fresh was fantastic. Rode the Zoomer lift in the morning, and the Tram/Chair to the summit mid-day. In the afternoon, made the way over to Mittersill and worked on some tough tight turns through the tree's....



Great couple of days!

06-07: Days 11-16 Colorado Trip

Saturday - Took it easy, Andy and Eileen got in a few afternoon runs at Breck
Sunday - Breckenridge!
Monday - Vail!!
Tuesday - Keystone
Wednesday - Vail
Thursday - Relaxing and Rest
Friday - Beaver Creek
Saturday - A-Basin!





Some video clips on YouTube!

06-07 : Day 10 - Sugarloaf

What amount of snow makes the 4+ hour trek up to Sugarloaf Maine worth it?
Well in January on this fine tuesday that would be a foot of snow..
Great day, found some stashes of light, cold, powda.. Most of the mountain was 'open', although you wouldn't expect many of these trails to normally be open with lots of growth, stumps and rocks that you would avoid if you saw them --

Experts only, the Loaf.

0607: 10

06-07 : Day 9 - Sunday River

Bram and I headed over to Sunday River, not a bad day with a few trails off of Aurora probably being the best ones of the day... Looking forward to Jordan area opening up before my next visit here in February or March..

0607: 9

06-07 : Day 8 - Loon

Spring skiing in January, with no base...

I decided to rent ski's instead of possibly hitting some rocks on my board... A lift ticket + rental + lesson at Loon was the same price as ticket + rental.. So I went for it.

Good day on ski's, worked some different muscles in hopes of getting myself in shape for Colorado in a few weeks!

0607: 8

06-07 : Day 7 - Mt. Snow

My brother Dan and I decided to day trip it over to Mount Snow to try out his new ski's and boots... Generally Mount Snow is a great 'warmup' mountain for me, with aprrox 75% blue terrain, it makes for a lot of nice fast cruisers... Mostly man-made base, but a few inches on Monday and Tuesday along with some man-made snow made for some nice turns in the snow... The trails were very crowded, but they had enough lifts going that the lines were not too bad...

06-07 : Day 6 - Killington

Spent the day up at Killington... Trails had a good amount of man-made snow on them, and many of the lifts were running. Although the rest of the mountain where they had not made snow was pretty much dry and green. I have never seen the surrounding area like that before, from the top of the mountain you could see a green golf course below. A strange scene for late December in the Killington area...

Melissa broke her wrist just as she was getting the hang of linking her S turns :(
The medical facility here was fantatastic, basically better than most doctors offices I've seen anywhere... They did x-rays, and set the break right on-mountain, we didn't have to stop by the hospital on the way home... instead we took a drive and sought the comfort of the Woodstock Station.

See what others are saying about Killington Conditions

06-07 : Day 4&5 Back to Cannon!

Cannon received only 8-14".... one more time, 8-14" wow... Other NH area's were not so lucky... With only a few trails open though, it didn't take long to follow one of Cannon's best motto's... Hike for powder.

With this much early snow, you take some chances at scratching up your board.. is it worth it? Definately... I can't believe how nice fresh tracks on some of Cannons slopes were.... wind drifts much deeper than 14" made for some great sections of the runs -- light and fluffy goodness...

Sunday, I spent some more time with Melissa on Brookside (Cannon offers Free tickets to this beginner trail all year long!!) After we started to link some S turns we decided to go for a short hike over in the Tuckerbrook beginner area that had not yet opened... Melissa got her first experience with some fresh tracks as we hiked up and floated down Bear Paw a few times before calling it a day...

We will definately be back soon --

0607: 5

06-07 : Day 2&3 Santa Sunday

Sunday River has an annual event for charity.. Donate to a local food bank, put on your Santa outfit, and get a few free days on the slopes!

Melissa and I put on our suits and enjoyed some of the first turns of the year. They had a few trails open off of Barker and Locke Mountain.. Mostly man-made snow, and ski'ers had turned the hill into a mogul challenge...

Good first day for me -- Melissa learned about the challenges of moguls a bit more painfully... The opened up T2 as well, which was fantastic to get out onto a Black Diamond...

0607: 3

06-07 : Day 1 Cannon Mountain

We hoped that Loon Mountain may have been open by now, but it wasn't.. It looked like a trip over to Sunday River or Killington may have been our only options for getting onto some snow...

We decided to head over to Cannon, and maybe do a bit of hiking... Well, when we got there we saw that there was a patch of man-made snow on a beginner trail and decided to give it a few runs... Good times :) The whole trail/mountain to ourselves :)

0607: 1

07 NorthEast

Without a seasons pass this year, I'm going where the snow and deals take me....

Here's a tentative calendar for me, but will change if I can find better deals or snow lands elsewhere --

Dec


Jan


Feb
Cannon Mountain - Superbowl Sunday, Tuesdays and Thursdays.. (2 for 54$ )

March

Non-Holiday Deals
Mobile Ski 3 (15$ off AMC mountains)

Mount Snow
Newbie Lesson and rental, 89$ - Friend ski's free..

Jay Peak
Bring a Newbie (Free pass for non-newbie, newbie gets free season pass after 3 days!)

WildCat
2-1 Weds, 20$ Sunday Afternoon's, Free on your Birthday!, Add a day for 25$

Cranmore
Add a day for 29$

Warren Miller Show (Free weekday pass to Sunday River, Sugarloaf, and 2-1 Killington)

07 Colorado - Jan 20-28th

Arapahoe Basin, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, and Vail
(373$)

We'll get to go to each of these mountains, and go back to two of our favorites...
7 out of 8 days on the slopes!!!
Looking forward to it :)


New snow depth:

06-07

What's on tap for next year?

Oct/Nov - Trips to where it snows?

Colorado - Mid/Late January...
Probably staying in Frisco and going to Copper, A-basin, Keystone, Breck, Vail..

Feb/March -

Jay Peak!!!
Okemo!
Sugarloaf!!

Killington/Pico!
Stowe!!
Mt Snow!!
Sunday River!
Sugarbush?
Attitash?
Loon? Cannon? Wildcat? Cranmore?

Sugarloaf gets nailed

EPIC

14" of pow

0506DayCount: 28

Late season, when everyone else is getting spring rain, not Sugarloaf.
words or pictures just don't do this day justice...
best day of the season out east...

my last day on the slopes, fantastic way to end it...

Sunday River - Bust 'n' Burn

Horvitz was competing in the Bust'n'Burn mogul challenge, while Bram and I got some of our last Sunday River run's in... Nice spring day, mostly clear but rained for a bit.. Snow was slushy and good for carving, nobody was on the hill being this late in the season... but it was a saturday and I was surprised... Sunday River has a ton of little rolling bumps in the trails, perfect for hitting jumps off of.. I pretty much tried to get every one of them until my legs were completely dead.. We started the day at Whitecap on the far left, worked our way across the whole mountain to Jordan Bowl area where we stopped for a beverage and to enjoy the sun... Then we ventured our way back across the mountain..

Great day! could be one of the last ones, unless a surprise snowstorm brings some and temperatures get a bit colder --

0506DayCount: 27

mt baker

After attending a conference in Seattle, I had a day on Saturday to enjoy the west... I met up with Francis and we hit Mount Baker, home of the world record snowfall
(1140" in 98-99)

A fantastic day!!




0506DayCount: 26

Sugarloaf 3/10- 3/12

We got up to Sugarloaf thurs night during the snow,
roads were horrible... (4-6" total fell during the drive up)...

Friday was nice, although thick fog made visibility low
and the snow was very sticky and slow....
Sat wasn't too good, iced over, wind closed most lifts,
and lines were off the hook...
We spent half the day at the Widowmaker though,
and made the most of this day...
Sunday was sweet.. warmed up, and there was plenty of
snow for some good carving...

[View Snapfish Album]



Approx 3/4 miles from the Carrabassett Inn

0506DayCount: 25

Utah Powder 2/24 -> 3/1

Park City, Utah
parkcity2006.blogspot.com

Nice One!!!

0506DayCount: 22

Sugarloaf Trip 2 - Super Bowl weekend

Dates: 2/2 -> 2/6
Website: www.sugarloaf.com
Attendees:
Tara & Mike
Nancy & Chris
Jeremy & Colleen
Bram & Sara
Corey C
Fisher & Heather

A few of us headed up on Thurs night, to enjoy Friday's snowstorm.. The morning started off great, with a few inches already on the ground and a few more by lunchtime.. Tough on the legs though, as the snow was a bit wet and over the course of the day transitioned from snow, to sleet, to rain... A great day on the slopes though...

Saturday we got a late start, but that gave the hill some time to warm up and soften up the snow.. We enjoyed some good turns most of the day.. and a great day to be on the hill...

[Jertronic at the summit]


Sunday it ended up raining instead of snowing, and we decided to call it a weekend and head home early... We still had a blast, and look forward to coming up again in March!!!

0506DayCount: 17

VT (Killington & Mt Snow)

We headed before the crack of dawn on Sat to head up to Killington... We got there a bit late due to a detour, and as most mid-winter Saturdays can be.. the slopes were pretty crowded and got ski'd off early... We enjoyed the terrain, there were some trails with very light cover open which made for interesting manuevers to keep our boards from hitting ground... I think I have to come back to the K on a weekday after a big dumping of snow to truly enjoy all this mountain has to offer..

Sunday we went to Mount Snow, we woke up again early.. but since we stayed 15 miles from the mountain our drive was quick and we arrived at the mountain right after opening... We cruised down many of the beautifully groomed trails, along with a few of the ungroomed pistes... With trails on each face of the mountain, it gives Mount Snow the feel of a few peaks, but all on one central hill.. I enjoyed the mountain and look forward to coming back and riding a few tree trails after some snow dumps...

Bram, Sarah, Fisher and I had another good weekend, we're just praying for some more serious snow!!

06DayCount: 15

Loon - MLK

3 day weekend at Loon, totally different conditions each day!



sat was like spring skiing in the rain, very soft and mashed potatoes like... good for throwing yourself off jumps.... I worked on my 180's and they are starting to feel good..

sun most of it freezed over, and then 2-4 inches of light cover came down on top, making for a bit of powder on the sides, but icy underneath... It was fast, but due to the varying powder/ice it was very challenging..

mon was frigid!!! coldest day ever on loon for me, I was completely covered.. the gondola and north peak quad both shut down due to high winds.... aside from the temps, conditions were better than sun cause they made some more snow too... and there was nobody on the hill... So I could go as fast as the aerodynamics and wind in my face would allow...

we also hung out at the Country Cow, a nice restaurant/bar on a river off of exit 27 on 93... and found the Mad River Tavern off of exit 28... it was a great weekend!

06DayCount: 13

Attitash - Trip 1

After driving from Maine to NH for Friday night, Fisher, Shaggy, and I opted to check out Attitash... It was very fast with smooth/hard secondary conditions with a very light cover of snow... Compared to Sunday River on thurs and friday, conditions were not that great... but it was good to see the mountain, and a reminder to always go to where the snow falls the most if possible.... With the first Pats playoff game that night, we were anxious to get a day in on the slopes and be back in time for kickoff...

Day 10 on the slopes for me, not bad for early Jan...
06DayCount: 10

[Fisher eating up the trail sides with Mount Washington in the background]

Sunday River - Trip 2

Woke up Thurs morning at Sunday River to a few inches of fresh powder, and it snowed hard all day... Snow reports weighed in with 5-7 inches total... Thurs was great, and my first powder day of the year, Friday was nice too.. they groomed the snow, and it made for some nice turns...

Accomodations were nice, I stayed in a large house right off Sunday River road. (Near Bob & Terry's rental shop right past the Sunday River Brewery... In the future it may be cool to stay right on the mountain, over at the Grand Jordan or Grand Summit lodges which are right on the mountain for easy access to the slopes.

06DayCount: 9

Loon - Trip 2 & 3

So I took a well needed vacation between Xmas and New Years, and of course since I opted for the Bronze AllForOne pass I had blackout days all week... Well, I couldn't have all that free time and not go boarding at all...


[jerry on ski's and andy rocks out on a board]

Ended up at Loon for lessons 2&3 (learn to ski package) and now have a Season's pass at Loon as well... Excellent...

Want 3 lessons/rentals and a seasons pass for 290$? Check out loon's Take 3 - learn to ski/ride packages.

06DayCount: 7

Loon - Trip 1

Ended up taking a lesson in skiing on Sunday at Loon... Got a few runs in with the snowboard, (which I still have a lot more fun on) but trying to learn some techniques and practicing skiing was fun and challenging too...

06DayCount: 5

Sunday River Trip 1

After the snowstorm, we decided to head over to Maine... Even though lower VT&NH got more snow, we figured the lift lines would be a bit shorter and there would be more open trails out at Sunday River.. Conditions on some trails were good, some were a bit scraped off and icy by the time we made it there... But in general, Sunday River is a great mountain... Lots of lifts, and lots of peaks... I look forward to coming back here after they've been hit with a few more storms!

06DayCount: 4

Waterville - Trip 1

Took Friday off from work, and headed up to NH thurs night... Woke up Friday to the sight of fresh powder falling, and anticipation of a good amount to come that day...

We decided to make the short drive to Waterville, and it fell hard all day long.. They didn't have a whole lot of terrain available yet, but it was great to push around some snow... I probably won't go back to Waterville this year, but it was good to get a trip there in....

06DayCount: 3

Mount Snow Trip 1

Checked out Mount Snow on Sunday, after they got some thanksgiving snow conditions were pretty good... much better than last week at Sugarloaf.

Bram, Sara and I ripped it up... starting to get into the swing of it again..

0506DayCount: 2

Sugarloaf Trip 1

Heading up to Sugarloaf for opening Weekend!

Trip Report:
Conditions were ok, only 3 trails open... Lines weren't bad, but with 2 lifts running and 3 trails open the trails were a bit crowded and got worn off early...

Looking forward to coming back in December though... looks like a tough mountain.

0506DayCount: 1

Roco '05-06

Tentative (last revised: 11/09/05)
5 long weekends (10-20 nights, 0-10 vacation days)

- Jan 4th-8th - tentative- Sunday River?
- Jan 19-22nd - tentative- K? Okemo? Attitash?
- Feb 2nd-5th - Sugarloaf (Jerry)
- Feb 9th-12th - tentative- Mt. Snow?
- Mar 2-5th - tentative- Killington?

369$ :: Bronze ::
14 blackout days: (days we can go to mountains not on our pass)
Nov. 11/25 & 11/26, 2005
Dec. 12/26 thru 12/31, 2005
Jan. 1/14 & 1/15, 2006
Feb. 2/18 thru 2/20, 2/25, 2006