So for a quick question for all of the Skiers here.
I was planing on heading to to Hunter or something next week for a couple of days but I am wondering with the recent warm weather have the conditions deteriorated much?.
Should I try to hit VT or NH instead?.
The next few days should prove to offer some level of precip for NY and VT.
They are talking about freezing rain on thursday as the blocking high pressure that is in place is slow to get pushed off. This should hold some warm air aloft as the new low dips down on thursday.
I am headed to Stratton on Friday as it looks like the mix will occur all the way to Canada. If it were to be all Snow I would be headed to Jay Peak for sure.
Hunter has good base depths and they seem to recover well. The exception seems to be on a hard freeze after a warm wet day.
The cycle of freeze thaw seems to be best dealt with at Stratton.
The cycle after a thaw freeze offers chunky granular snow on day after and usually by the 2nd day of grooming the snow chunks are broken down into smaller bits that feel smoother underfoot.
I rented a ski house at Stratton for a # of years and I was always impressed with their grooming as compared to the surrounding mts. I can't say for sure but they must either have way better grooming equip or at least better techniques. My though is that they do double pass grooming in one night. Perhaps grooming the same trail in the evening and again in the very early morning.
They also use or used at least a skier mounted radar system that would measure based depths across the entire hill. They could add more snow as need by accurately measuring base depths everywhere, rather than guessing
http://www.stratton.com/mountain/snowFacts/index.htm
In a lot of ways I hate the mt layout and the "Vail east" vibe, but if you hit it on a weekday and use an express card it is worth the $40 bucks. I have been snowboarding here since 1987 and I guess since I learned here it feels like home.
btw...
Look at the current Map!!!:
6-12" in the next 48 hrs!!
http://www.weather.com/maps/news/forecastsummary/floater6_large.html?from=hp_main_maps