This report is essentially useless gloating as Mad River Glen is now closed for the season. This is due to the construction schedule for the Single Chair rebuild including an important Haul Line inspection during early April. Work begins immediately and even a one week delay would have put an already tight schedule behind. With cold weather to persist through this week and potential snow fall Thursday and Friday, it is conceivable with the current base that Mad River could be skiable from top to bottom perhaps for the entire month of April. Even without the Single construction plans, given the extremely low turn out for three powder days in a row at one of the best mountains on the East Coast, I doubt operations would have turned profitable for an additional week, which is unfortunate for late season skiing in general, let alone late season skiing at Mad River Glen.
Three inches fell over night though it seemed like more in places on the Upper mountain. It snowed all day with not much accumulation. Though it really started coming down hard as I began driving home at 5:30p. Tomorrow will be an amazing fifth straight powder day for the Northern Greens. This is April? This weekend certainly has not sucked. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday combine for a three way/day tie for my third best day(s) of the season. Not the deepest powder but pretty close at times and no competition all weekend with lots of untracked. It has really been sick out there.
Open to Close today for the final day of the original Single Chair operations. Though I begged forgiveness by opting out of the final Chair load at 4:30p despite an opportunity for one more run. I actually felt physically better than yesterday despite the royal powder pounding I gave my body. If I was on the fence before, I am certainly a believer now. Mad River is such a special little place in the world. The terrain continues to amaze as I further explore the lesser known areas of General Stark Mountain. And when eight runs last from 9a-4:30p with an hour off for lunch and every minute was well spent, my mantra of quality over quantity is confirmed. How the mountain was so empty with $29 tickets being offered on a powder weekend is still beyond me.
For the third day in a row, boot to knee deep untracked was still plentiful, albeit slightly harder to find than the previous days. Untracked lines were shorter and less frequent but amazingly numerous. The general rule was lots of loose powder everywhere with occasional patches of day old untracked on the sides. The trees owned it yet again with delightful slots though the more well known locations were well played but still nice. Bumps were finally beginning to develop anew as most were gone from the previous melt out. Lower mountain off trail was questionable with the fresh powder tracked out and not much base. The snow was soft and where packed was a delightful quanlity of mid-winter after a fresh storm style packed pow. Some of the best non-powder snow I skied all season on the packed powder sections.
Unreal.