Category: Mad River Glen

2007-2008 Season, Mad River Glen, March

Curtailed Day on Firm Snow at Mad River

What a crowd today! Keep that up folks, no complaints here! We would be skiing into May if we could get half of today’s crowd not to hang up their skis for the season following this weekend. Because, as we all know, there is no more skiing come April.

Let’s review for those thinking about stopping to ski after this weekend: warm temperatures, no wind, sunshine, blue skies all day, lots of smiles all around, every trail open, huge base depth, and the snow still hasn’t even corned up which we can add to the list very soon. April will be sensational.

While the crowds were not expected, conditions today were much as I had anticipated. Three new inches helped refreshen surfaces earlier this week. But two days after the snow event, we are back to very firm conditions all around. Cannon today would have been night and day better conditions than Mad River Glen, but I had two vouchers to use and less than three weeks to use them. Purely an economical decision as I still have two more vouchers and a season pass. Not to mention that it is high time to think about Mount Washington. There is a pressing need to burn any remaining vouchers ASAP and today was a fine day for it.

Bumps on the trails looked rather scraped. Groomed trails skied wonderfully though shady spots not as well as those in the sun. Unmarked woods faired slightly better but were still pretty toasted. Due to a late start and needing to be back in Plymouth for a 6pm presentation (gotta love working Sunday night!), I only got four runs today as the Single was a full coral for much of the day. I found some great snow in the 20th and the drive was well worth those four runs. Earning turns gives you such a huge appreciation for one stellar run, let alone four of them. After yesterday’s bell to bell powder fest and four butt burners at Mad River today, I am one sore but satisfied skier.

2007-2008 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Foot of Fresh at Mad River Glen

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With an expected “18-30 inches by Thursday morning” as forecasted by many weather prognosticators, including MRG’s own Josh Fox, this storm bonked early but still delivered a foot of fresh to Mad River Glen. While Wednesday was a spectacular day and well worth a vacation day, it was a far cry from a minimum of 18″. While I had hoped for epic, I was willing to settle for just sensational.

By the time I had bought my ticket and geared up, six dozen skiers had queued up for the Single at 8:30 A.M. I quickly did the math. Given how many chairs were on the line, I was just as well skiing right onto the double rather than waiting for the Single for first run. The line would stay strong averaging an acceptable five to ten minute wait throughout the morning but got down to three to five minutes after lunch.

Ticket window folks were warning of no refunds if the mountain went on wind hold but Mad River kept all three lifts spinning all day despite some occasionally harsh winds. The snow was a dry but dense and wind blown variety that was somewhat grabby yet fast. No dusty light powder on top either but rather solid base building stuff which the mountain needed. Occasionally, I could sink down to the rock hard frozen base when cutting a hard turn through the foot of new snow. This storm will provide a sensational base for the Friday evening event to put the fluffy white stuff on top of.

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2007-2008 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Mad River Glen, VT

It has been just over a month since my last visit to Mad River and that was just over a month too long. Friday skiing rules. Except for having to deal with commuter traffic, school buses, snow plows, and getting up a half hour earlier in order to arrive at the mountain a half hour later. East/West ski commutes in Northern New England are a bitch.

Upon driving into the parking lot and getting a visual on the slopes, I was immediately disappointed. Thursday was the best day for post storm mid-week skiing despite the storm generally flying under the radar due to forecasts calling for mixed precipitation earlier this week. Queuing up for the first lift ride confirmed my suspicions of tracked out conditions. So much for warming up on some of the trails I don’t normally ski. I went straight into the woods on the first run.

A dense powder was found on short but memorable untracked lines. Adjusting to the less than desirable dense snow took a few runs. Not quite the sublime dense powder we saw during much of December. Instead of skiing through the snow, I was tending to land on top of it and let it slide and glide me into the next turn.

Boot to knee deep untracked was found in some of the usual places but I also found lots of tracks in many others. Still managed to find some untracked towards the end of the day around 3pm or so but generally short slots and lines. The cut up and tracked up loose powder snow skied rather well. Bumps were rather forgiving since they were still soft and not frozen. With only one or two inches falling last night and nothing today or tonight, there will be little to no powder at the starting gate tomorrow morning.

2007-2008 Season, January, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Ringing in the New Year at Mad River Glen

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What a way to ring in the new year. While less dedicated skiers were partying and drinking last night, I was setting an early alarm and falling asleep just before 10:00pm on New Year’s Eve. I can understand the draw of New Year’s festivities and celebrations. Many years ago, I was into that scene myself. But as the saying goes, you snooze you loose. Or, rather… you don’t snooze because you are working up a world class hang over for the next morning. You get up late and miss skiing right onto the Single Chair for almost four hours. On a holiday. On a powder day.

I was expecting the skiing at Mad River to be good but not great. Maybe I would find some good powder early morning. Or, maybe I would be nailing boot to knee deep untracked at 2:00pm on my last run of the day. Or perhaps both.

Conditions on the trails were a delightful packed powder due to snow from yesterday and most of today. Groomers skied really nicely with the light powder softening things up, especially on trail edges. Moguls still had some crusties under the new snow which occasionally showed through on the surface. Snow started falling off an on by 10am and began in earnest around noon time. By 2pm, it was starting to come down. Hard.

Trees were skiing amazingly well. Lower elevations only had trace remnants of the thaw/freeze and were not that bad. Upper elevations contained dreamy powder and packed powder conditions. With no waiting for the Single chair until noon, clearly there was not much competition or skier impact to conditions. When lines started building on the Single Chair, I moved over to the Sunnyside Double after my lunch break. I simply could not be bothered to wait two to three minutes on a powder day. Boot buckle deep snow was the general rule. Hitting stuff that had been clearly missed yesterday revealed boot deep untracked with occasional AMAZING drifts of knee deep. Some serious jaw dropping untracked was pillaged this fine morning in the lesser known tree areas. But boot deep untracked was still being scored on my last run at 2:00pm which indicated a fine powder day at Mad River Glen.

Three-quarters down one run, I had to laugh. While sucking wind, I realized how much further I had to go to finish the run and get back to the Single. Jay Peak has turned me into a bit of a powder princess with its wide open mellow powdery trees. Not many runs at Jay truly challenge and those runs are usually scraped down pretty sore if not skied first thing in the morning. It was really nice to rough it up today with Mad River Glen’s challenging terrain offerings. You simply do not get that type of challenge at Jay. Or any where else, for that matter.

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2006-2007 Season, April, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Powder Day at MRG: Last Day of The Original Single

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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.

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