Rock Out... Where it is DEEP or CHEAP! Ski and Snowboard deals in the East

09-10: Earned Turns at Cannon, Day 1

2009-12-01T08:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-04-19T14:09:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-04T07:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-08T12:04:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-07T12:03:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-01T12:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-28T12:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-21T11:59:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-20T11:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-08T11:54:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-01T11:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-31T11:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T11:42:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-25T11:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-19T11:33:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T20:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-09T20:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-04T08:09:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T08:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-20T07:59:00.000-08:00

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.