21-22 Ski/Snowboard thread

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Norm said:
Generally the first 2 hours of the day are good too. The problem with the afternoon - at least on the East Coast where I exist - is that by the afternoon many much ice sheets litter the hill(s).
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All the good snow is pushed to the sides, I spend most of my time skiing the 2-3ft. at the very edges of the trails.

UtahJoe said:
Compared to anything around here, its amazing....compared to its neighbors in utah etc....the snow/terrain is just not as good imo....Really, my point was more that the place was DEAD as a doornail for eions....its still the same ski terrain, but now its got fancy hotels, resturants, nicer lifts.

And I hear you about MRG....with no snowmaking, its a crapshoot and the reason for owning rock skis 🙂 But dam I love when every surface of a mountain is paved with bumps

I dont mind the single lift since I dont typically count ski miles, or runs...I like that there will be few people on the hill and I want to get off that lift...head out into the woods and explore...if the run takes and hour, whatever.....Just find some untracked line, chute, etc.....I love that stuff. MRG reminds me of the fun we used to have in Utah exploring all of the unmarked lines in Park city...from Pincone to the mcconkeys....riding up the lift with my idiot friends going "ok...how can we get to THAT spot". Something I really miss now...unless we are talking MRG, Jay, Smuggs...not to much of that around here.
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Over the last 10yrs they opened up all of the woods up in Stowe. None of the twice a year crowd from Boston or NYC skis in the woods. You just have to pay Mountain Rescue they need to come stretcher you out. There are a lot of woods, however most are local-knowledge.

Ironically one of my best days last year was when I drove up to Hunter, I mean Hunt-ah, during the last big storm. No one was there, and they left 2ft. of pow completely ungroomed. There were freshies to be had well into the afternoon. They also cleaned up a section of the woods (stumps, blow-downs, etc.) and opened it up.
 
UtahJoe said:
compared to its neighbors in utah etc....the snow/terrain is just not as good imo....Really, my point was more that the place was DEAD as a doornail for eions....its still the same ski terrain, but now its got fancy hotels, resturants, nicer lifts.
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Believe it or not, its still dead as a doornail, everybody is at the PC side. I haven't been in the 2 or 3 years since I switched to Ikon, but I've been out there with absolutely no lift lines at the Canyon side and the PC side was mobbed. That gondola between the 2 sides is very high!
UtahJoe said:
And I hear you about MRG....with no snowmaking, its a crapshoot and the reason for owning rock skis 🙂 But dam I love when every surface of a mountain is paved with bumps
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I used to like when the whole mountain was bumps, not so much any more. Every once in a while if I'm feeling good and the bumps are soft, I'm in. But for the most part, I'm avoiding moguls.
UtahJoe said:
I dont mind the single lift since I dont typically count ski miles, or runs...I like that there will be few people on the hill and I want to get off that lift...head out into the woods and explore...if the run takes and hour, whatever.....Just find some untracked line, chute, etc.....I love that stuff.
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It is so true, its great when there is nobody when you get off the lift. I don't mind the lift so much as the line, I've waited on some decent lines there, where you know you would have just skied on the lift at Sugarbush. I love an untracked line myself!!
UtahJoe said:
MRG reminds me of the fun we used to have in Utah exploring all of the unmarked lines in Park city...from Pincone to the mcconkeys....riding up the lift with my idiot friends going "ok...how can we get to THAT spot". Something I really miss now...unless we are talking MRG, Jay, Smuggs...not to much of that around here.
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If they get a decent storm now, you'll be able to go wherever you want. I am hoping to get up there as soon as a decent storm comes.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
No, its still all open, nothing is really off-limits except when things are roped off. You can still basically ski off of any trail, however if you get in over your head you it will cost you $$$ to get pulled out.
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I was fortunate enough to hit Stowe during a major dump 2 years ago, I can confirm, you can go anywhere you want. I also think the trees between the gondola and quad are some of the best in the east.
 
roc said:
Believe it or not, its still dead as a doornail, everybody is at the PC side. I haven't been in the 2 or 3 years since I switched to Ikon, but I've been out there with absolutely no lift lines at the Canyon side and the PC side was mobbed. That gondola between the 2 sides is very high!
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Ya, its ONE nice thing about that place being to totally gigantic....I dont remember ever waiting on liftline.....but you should have seen this place in the 80-90s...it was like Mad River level of "quaint"

And my buddies used to love to get on the old original PC gondola and kick the door open when it was high up over the waterfall trail. Fuckers lol.
 
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roc said:
I was fortunate enough to hit Stowe during a major dump 2 years ago, I can confirm, you can go anywhere you want. I also think the trees between the gondola and quad are some of the best in the east.
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Specially when you drop in through the kitchen sink. Working on getting my ass up there before the alleged storm this Friday.

Zaskar said:
I laughed a few times.

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This is a combination of what I say to my kids and what they now say to me.
 
UtahJoe said:
Compared to anything around here, its amazing....compared to its neighbors in utah etc....the snow/terrain is just not as good imo....Really, my point was more that the place was DEAD as a doornail for eions....its still the same ski terrain, but now its got fancy hotels, resturants, nicer lifts.

And I hear you about MRG....with no snowmaking, its a crapshoot and the reason for owning rock skis 🙂 But dam I love when every surface of a mountain is paved with bumps

I dont mind the single lift since I dont typically count ski miles, or runs...I like that there will be few people on the hill and I want to get off that lift...head out into the woods and explore...if the run takes and hour, whatever.....Just find some untracked line, chute, etc.....I love that stuff. MRG reminds me of the fun we used to have in Utah exploring all of the unmarked lines in Park city...from Pincone to the mcconkeys....riding up the lift with my idiot friends going "ok...how can we get to THAT spot". Something I really miss now...unless we are talking MRG, Jay, Smuggs...not to much of that around here.
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We were in PC a few years ago and went over to Canyons via the gondola that connects the 2 resorts. I didn't get to ride the upper ridge that looked interesting but a quick day there I felt the same way snow and terrain didn't compare to Park City (but the lifts were new and nice as well as the newer base area). I can see exactly what you mean.

I try and ride like you wrote in the last paragraph - looking for powder stashes and fun spots. I feel like every ski area has a little something that can be found even if it's a few turns.
 
Taking my kids and a couple of their friends to Mountain Creek after school today. Any deals out there for creek?
 
roc said:
Taking my kids and a couple of their friends to Mountain Creek after school today. Any deals out there for creek?
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I checked around, I dont see anything....

Reminded me tho, my wife had 7 kids at once last friday from mountain creek in the ER 🙂 nobody was dying, kid injuries.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
All the good snow is pushed to the sides, I spend most of my time skiing the 2-3ft. at the very edges of the trails.


Over the last 10yrs they opened up all of the woods up in Stowe. None of the twice a year crowd from Boston or NYC skis in the woods. You just have to pay Mountain Rescue they need to come stretcher you out. There are a lot of woods, however most are local-knowledge.

Ironically one of my best days last year was when I drove up to Hunter, I mean Hunt-ah, during the last big storm. No one was there, and they left 2ft. of pow completely ungroomed. There were freshies to be had well into the afternoon. They also cleaned up a section of the woods (stumps, blow-downs, etc.) and opened it up.
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I do the same and ride the edges. There are certain parts of certain trails where people won't touch them and it holds really good snow run after run. And on bump runs the moguls are spread out more on the sides which suits my snowboarding style nicely.

There are some gnarly sections off of Stowe and people have gotten into some big trouble as you know (those 2 dudes from CT that one fell off a cliff and died on Spruce a couple seasons ago comes to mind).

I feel like the woods skiing goes in waves or some of those Boston/NYC caught wind of "the goods stash" and certain parts get blown up. Last season I was riding off the gondola and noticed a ton of people cutting into the woods skier's left and remembered the season before it wasn't so enjoyable for the work needed in that area. I went back to a river bed that I hadn't been on since the 90's and was happy with the lack of tracks and snow quality. Starr woods seems to get that high traffic too but skiing the other side of it and the snow is way better. Like UtahJoe said its' fun to explore for those good turns and really learn the mountain.
 
UtahJoe said:
interesting, so its like natural but totally not natural? as in the jumps are man made

I kinda prefer this myself (K12 from better off dead)

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I was lucky enough to be in Snowbird for a week years ago, and it snowed 2-3 ft. every day for 7 days straight. Rented my first set of real pow skis for the week, woke up every morning to the avalanche guns going off. Those rocks at the bottom of the "K12" were almost covered (good thing my skis were rentals). What makes it particularly memorable was one morning I endeavored to hit every chute off the top of the tram in descending order, there was no one there so it was first tracks, a series of avalanches closed the road coming up so no one was coming or going. When I got to the last chute, I was pissed because someone beat me to it, and left a real messy line going down, almost looked like they tumbled and walked. When I got to the bottom there was a guy pushing his way out on one ski. It wasn't Lane Meyer, this guy was missing hi ski, boot, and sock. I offered to help but he waved me off in disgust. I wish I could have witnessed it.
 
Captain Brainstorm said:
Unfortunately it seems that the popularity of a place is directly proportional to how nice the base lodge and hotels are. Taking Stowe as an example, after 12-1pm, the lines are usually gone and crowd has thinned out. Once people go in for lunch and have a beer, or over-pay for their Whistle Pig, they're done for the day. What remains on the hill are the people who are actually there to ski.
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The Whistle Pig comment had me 🤣

What has happened at Spruce over the last 10 years has been an eye opener. People in robes from the spa picking up their kids at ski school at 3pm has me shaking my head every time. We would drop the kids off at Spruce in the morning, hit Mansfield and then grab them after lunch to hang with them and see what they learned or what spots they found. Those were the best days and the kids still talk about that.

Happy to have had all my kids ski and learn there with the original lodge for the oldest and the temp one in the parking lot for the other 2. Still a great place to learn and afternoon laps there in the sun adds to a great day of skiing.
 
don said:
I do the same and ride the edges. There are certain parts of certain trails where people won't touch them and it holds really good snow run after run. And on bump runs the moguls are spread out more on the sides which suits my snowboarding style nicely.

There are some gnarly sections off of Stowe and people have gotten into some big trouble as you know (those 2 dudes from CT that one fell off a cliff and died on Spruce a couple seasons ago comes to mind).

I feel like the woods skiing goes in waves or some of those Boston/NYC caught wind of "the goods stash" and certain parts get blown up. Last season I was riding off the gondola and noticed a ton of people cutting into the woods skier's left and remembered the season before it wasn't so enjoyable for the work needed in that area. I went back to a river bed that I hadn't been on since the 90's and was happy with the lack of tracks and snow quality. Starr woods seems to get that high traffic too but skiing the other side of it and the snow is way better. Like UtahJoe said its' fun to explore for those good turns and really learn the mountain.
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I was there when those 2 dudes got caught out. It was sad because they were brothers, and the one was just looking over the cliff and slipped. They had to call 10th Mountain from Ethan Allen because of the difficulty of the recovery.

People are always getting caught over their heads, I read about it in the Stowe Reporter all the time. Every time mountain rescue needs to go in, it makes the paper (including my MTB "extraction").

There's still plenty of good woods to be had, you just need to know where to look and follow Fight Club rules. There's also some good stuff in the surrounding hills that the local skinning crew has made that no one knows about except the local skinning crew.
 
don said:
The Whistle Pig comment had me 🤣

What has happened at Spruce over the last 10 years has been an eye opener. People in robes from the spa picking up their kids at ski school at 3pm has me shaking my head every time. We would drop the kids off at Spruce in the morning, hit Mansfield and then grab them after lunch to hang with them and see what they learned or what spots they found. Those were the best days and the kids still talk about that.

Happy to have had all my kids ski and learn there with the original lodge for the oldest and the temp one in the parking lot for the other 2. Still a great place to learn and afternoon laps there in the sun adds to a great day of skiing.
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I'm with you, my kids also learned there at the same time as yours, that really was a good ski school, way, way better teachers than me. I'm at the point now where they ski with me, and even the youngest can hang, except I won't take her too far into the woods just yet.
 
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