Category: April

2010-2011 Season, April, Whiteface

Dacks Day 1: Whiteface & The Slides

Harv in Slide 1

More than just another area to cross off The List, Whiteface is a “must do” for any serious northeast skier. Many sources designate Lake Placid as a premier northeast skiing destination. Ski Magazine ranked Whiteface number one in the eastern United States (and Whiteface won’t let you forget it). Two-time site of the Winter Olympics, Whiteface boasts the biggest vertical drop east of the Rockies and is host to the only on map slide skiing in the east. It looks great as marketing fluff. But how does Whiteface actually stack up?

Quite well, actually. Despite premonitions of disappointment, I tremendously enjoyed all that Whiteface has to offer. The mountain continually surprised me throughout the day. It is more than just a steep groomer paradise and is well billed as a premier destination in the northeast. The vertical drop is truly impressive even accounting for the long run out serviced by the aptly but unfortunately named “Face Lift”.

While top to bottom leg burners can be skied via the two quads, the best policy seems to be lapping the three fixed grip upper mountain lifts and reserving the detachables for moving out of the base area. During our visit, the Little Whiteface Double was off line. But with our attention was focused on the Slides, we primarily skied off the Summit Quad most of the day with occasional excursions on the Cloudsplitter.

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2010-2011 Season, April, Mad River Glen

Mad River Glen: All Options on the Table

Tree Skiing at Mad River Glen

Today featured a little bit of everything from powder to packed powder, scraped bumps to corn bumps, variable snow to mank. Things got started in incredible fashion with untracked powder in the trees–almost deep enough for Powder Day status. After my first run, I changed skis to my powder boards. Trees were excellent with great coverage and occasional untracked lines yielding four inches or more of somewhat fluffy snow up high. The trails were well covered with many liftline cliffs (including Birdcage) open; amazing coverage for April 2nd.

Tree Skiing at Mad River Glen

As the morning progressed, the air got warmer down low and stayed cooler up high. The mank level slowly worked its way up the mountain. By late day, trees off the Sunnyside were too manky for my tastes. So I abandoned the woods for a top to bottom down Chute to Liftline. After hitting Cannon on Friday, my legs were failing to deliver a back-to-back bell-to-bell performance. I bailed to the ladies tee on the Liftline cliffs and opted to call it a day before I hurt myself.

2010-2011 Season, April, Cannon Mountain

Cannon: Jokes On Us, but We Are No Fools

Cannon Trees (Horizontal)

The joke was on skiers this April Fool’s Day. Two day out prognostications looked epic but subsequent forecasts shifted the storm further and further east. By last chair on Friday, the ten hour total for Cannon was only four inches. It was still snowing when we left, but totals will surely fall short of predicted amounts. Maine is no fooling this weekend while the rest of New England looks like chumps.

While today was not a powder day, we more than made the best of great late season conditions at Cannon and had an awesome day. Early turns were best on moderate angle groomers that had collected an inch or two of fluff over firm. Steeper pitches yielded variable patches of fluff and scraped hard pack. Bump troughs also were firm hard pack. The best snow was on open trails of gentler pitch.

In the Trees

After lunch we went exploring and found good snow in the upper mountain trees. Bumps in the trees still had firm hard pack troughs with occasional scrape but were easy to manage. Excellent tight tree skiing was had and the day began improving with every run. We explored further afield and found packed and loose powder delights.

Earlier in the day, I pondered why exactly do I love Cannon so much. What connects me so deeply to this specific mountain? I still can not put a firm finger on the reason. But by the end of the day, I was hooting and hollering with delight as I rediscovered a narrow chute that I hadn’t skied in a dozen years. The conditions were not epic but my turns flowed poetically down an aesthetic line that got me turned on to tight chute skiing years ago. It was as good of an answer as I may ever get; it is always good to come home.

2009-2010 Season, April, Cannon Mountain, Earned Turns, Powder Day

The Powder Days Started Here, The Powder Days Finish Here: Over Two Feet of Fresh at Cannon

The Powder Days Started Here. The Powder Days Finish Here. This is Cannon. This is my home.

Just when you thought it was safe to put away the powder skis and take off the snow tires, old man winter says he ain’t finished quite yet. An impressive storm system dropped copious amounts of snow from Northern Vermont clear across the White Mountains pushing the Avalanche Advisory for Tuckerman Ravine to a rare Extreme rating.

Two feet seems to be the average for terrain above two thousand feet in favored aspects. Cannon got two feet and them some with drifts of three to four feet in places. Cannon historically delivers early season and late season. So it comes as no surprise that my first and last powder days book end the season at Cannon.

With early morning meetings at work and a physical therapy session for my knee (LOL) just after noon, my turn earning was delayed until later in the day. Driving north on I-93, I saw nothing but bare ground and rain which might have tested a less knowledgeable die hard’s resolve. But I know Cannon. And I know what these types of storms do in the Notch.

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2009-2010 Season, April, Killington

Closing Weekend at Killington — THE BEAST is Dead

 

Much to the dismay of Killington pass holders, Killington die hards, and spring bump skiers everywhere, Killington recently announced that this would be there last weekend in operation despite having previously promoted that they would ski into May if conditions allow. As we would find out throughout the afternoon, conditions most certainly would allow at least one more weekend of skiing if not two more weekends with a little effort. Three weeks ago, I skied Killington and asked whether or not THE BEAST is back. In answer to the question I posed, Killington will write the words “Closed for the Season” in the new flowery and flowy script of Powd’r and not the big bold letters of the beast of old.

With a freeze overnight, we arrived at Killington shortly after 10 A.M. and went about booting up at a leisurely pace to allow the sun and temperatures to work their magic. Even as early as 11 A.M., some surfaces were still a little firm and variable. By by noon time, epic spring bump conditions arrived and it was game on for a great afternoon of bumps.

The center of Superstar was groomed which proved to be a disaster. The snow formed long well spaced out mounds of snow. Right and left sides had bumps but lines were fairly irregular though things did get better after noon. Upper Ovation was a narrow ribbon down skier’s left and I would be surprised if it was still open on Sunday. There is a 10 foot break in the snow mid-trail. Sensible folks were taking off their skis and down hiking but more adventurous folks, such as yours truly, just pointed the skis straight down the wet grass and went for it. The portage back to Superstar was short and not the problem.

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