Category: April

2009-2010 Season, April, Wildcat

Closing Weekend at Wildcat

After skiing on closing weekend at Sugarbush the day before and missing out on the foot of fresh that Wildcat received, I headed over to Pinkham notch to partake in closing weekend at Wildcat. The storm was not supposed to move so quickly and I had expected Sunday to be the better day at Wildcat. Much to my chagrin, no new snow fell over night and all the powder from the day before had been completely tracked out.

Upper Wildcat yielded pleasant natural packed snow with occasional bumps. Regardless of missing the powder, it was nice to ski on true packed powder instead of frozen, wet, or corn snow. I ducked into some trees which were fun and had very nice packed snow. No left over powder to be seen. Mid-mountain started to see the effects of warmer temperatures and frozen manked snow on Middle Catapult. By lower mountain, the frozen mank was complete and groomers were better than natural snow. Visibility was non-existent and the groomed snow on Bobcat was teeth rattling.

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2009-2010 Season, April, Sugarbush

Closing Weekend at Sugarbush

With prepaid vouchers in hand, it was “use it or lose it” time regardless of conditions. And conditions truly were not worth the drive to ski Spring Fling and Stein’s off the Valley House Double. Meanwhile, skiers at Wildcat were enjoying a foot of fresh due to the storm moving faster than anticipated. Suffice to say, this was probably my worst call of the season on a destination.

My hopes were high as I skied off the lift and down Snowball to Spring Fling. Two inches of fresh provided a creamy surface. Skier’s left on Spring Fling was untracked and surfy and skied extraordinarily well. However, halfway down Spring Fling, the creamy new snow transitioned into sticky wet snow on top of frozen cat tracks necessitating careful skiing that was better where the new snow had been cleared down to the base. I lapped Spring Fling a few times chewing up what was left of the untracked surfy snow on upper Spring Fling.

Eventually, I tired of dealing with the wet and manky snow on lower Spring Fling and opted to try Stein’s which was bumped from top to bottom.Conditions were extremely variable on Stein’s with better turns where traffic had already slid off the new snow. An extreme amount of effort was put forth for minimal enjoyment. My knees were rather sore after my run down Stein’s and I knew that would be my only run in the bumps for the day.

I took the lift back up for one more run down Spring Fling. The mountain was empty with no more than fifty people on the mountain including the lift operators and patrol. Sugarbush had planned on staying open one more weekend, but with so little snow at the base and so little demand, it makes sense for them to close up shop this weekend.

2009-2010 Season, April, Jay Peak

Jay: April 11th

Jay has retained impressive coverage considering the past month’s weather. As many lifts were running as there were available routes (read routes, not trails) which is in sharp contrast to typical late season operations at most other areas. But Jay’s setup neccesitates the number of lifts due to its horizontal spread out nature.

Available routes included Northway off the Tram, Goat and Green Mountain Boys off the Bonnie, and Jet, Haynes, and Motrealer/Wiggle off the Jet. Snow ran out at the end of Wiggle about 50 feet shy of the Bonnie (which was required to get to Tramside). There was no snow between Stateside and the Jet which required a walk  (but that is to be expected this time of year). Other than those two hiking aspects, all open trails were wall to wall coverage with no bare spots excepting parts of the bump line under the Jet.

Jay got some snow this weekend and it was snowing/sleeting when arrived at the mountain. Snow conditions were loose wet granular. Fairly decent skiing though the fog made for low visibility. Goat was promoted to a black run per signs as it was rather slick. Other than the small bump line under the Jet, there are no moguls which was a little disappointing. But given the weather, I will take good snow conditions on groomers over a barely skiable bump run.

Jay has plenty of snow for the next weekend and I am sure they can do two more weekends. Three though, might be a stretch but they are planning on staying open until the first weekend in May.

2009-2010 Season, April, Killington

Is THE BEAST Back?

That is difficult for me to judge as I have never skied Killington during the spring. So I have no basis for comparison. The the new Killington logo with its foofy elegant script juxtaposed to the big bold THE BEAST logo is an identity crisis at its worst. Powd’r wants to demonstrate that this is a different Killington while simultaneously retaining, rediscovering, and redeveloping its prior culture and image.

Is THE BEAST Back? It may be too early to judge. But they are setup to go as late into spring as weather allows. I see no reason why they could not be last to close in the east. Whether or not they do depends if Killington wants to write the word “closed for the season” in flowery and flowy script or big bold lettering. Time will tell.

I worked the mountain south to north starting at Outer Limits and working back to the Canyon area. Having never skied south of Skye Peak at Killington nor the Canyon area, I tried so ski every steeper pitched open trail on the mountain and finally completie my knowledge of the terrain to a sufficient level (minus the trees). Snow varied from just past prime corn to sloppy mush. Conditions were best on moderately steep bumps and worst on flatter terrain, especially groomed out blue squares.

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2009-2010 Season, Ammonoosuc Ravine, April, Earned Turns, East Snowfields, Mount Washington

Mount Washington with Descents of Ammonoosuc Ravine & the East Snowfields

Mount Washington Summit

Ammonoosuc Ravine

Follow your dreams and don’t ever look back.

Ten years ago during August 2000, after the conclusion of my last two undergraduate classes and prior to beginning my first full time job, I decided to take up hiking. Inspired by reading Waterfalls of the White Mountains by Bolnick, I began planning various Waterfall hikes. I bought an AMC White Mountain Guide. And for my first peak bagging experience, I targeted none other than New England’s highest peak, Mount Washington. Why start small, right?

This ill fated first attempt at hiking involved limping up the summit cone via the Tuckerman Ravine Trail due to a sore and fatigued leg muscle. Despite a severe blow to my ego, at the summit I opted to take a stage coach down the Auto Road to avoid further injuring my leg. My first hiking experience ended in failure. But it was the first step down a road leading to many adventures.

Since that first hiking experience, I have always held a grudge against Mount Washington. While I have hiked and skied the Rock Pile frequently during the past ten years, I have never summited and returned to the base using my own leg power. Skiing off the summit has been an elusive goal since I first started earning turns in 2005. Ten years after my first major hiking experience and five years after beginning to earn turns, I have finally skied off the summit of Big George.

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