A question

joegm

joegm

New member
quickly checking the areas of interest online if just found something that i'm confused about...not to be a wise guy and not to be busting anyones chops... really..., but maybe there is someone out there who could give perspective.. how is it possible that wildcat ( which i consider in the top 3 in n.e ) ski area, that claims to have received over 50 inches of snow in 2 days, and describes conditions of the last week as maybe the best ever, can have 2 trails and 1 lift open on december 12th? i find that incredible ( sad )i have seriously considered grabbing a cat pass in the past... why would anyone do it based on that? thoughts?
 
Perhaps this quote from the Mt. Washington Avalanche bulleting can help explain: <BR> <BR>"Hermit Lake endured periods of heavy rain with a rate of up to 1.25 cm (.5 in) an hour falling late yesterday with a total of 8.1 cm (3.17 in) for the 24 hour period!" <BR> <BR>Over 3 inches of rain just across the valley. Even 4 feet of light fluffy stuff goes fast when it's subjected to 3 inches of warm rain... especially when it has a very low water content to begin with.
 
They must be counting manmade. And in fact, they're probably using it for base, all over the place. So if they're still laying down base, that may explain why little is open. <BR> <BR>Stowe closed over 50% of it's trails that were open on Monday. Suggests that the snow was washed away, at least in parts. <BR> <BR>Down here in Mass. I had a knee-high snow-deep backyard. It's now ankle-high. They had the same moderating temps up there.
 
They also have the summit closed due to wind... a fairly common occurrence there. Perhaps they would have more trails open if the summitt Quad were running.
 
I had a 'cat pass in the past and havent renewed it since 00-01 because of decisions like this.I dont have the story as to why they diddnt open more of the mountain but I saw a report the day after the storm that read 2 lifts,9 trails.True wind takes out the summit quad alot.Way too much in fact.I read a post saying one of the summit lift towers was constructed to high and thus it's sensor keeps stopping the chair.I have always been an advocate for surface summit lifts and Wildcat,Cannon and Jay are prime examples for this argument(even though we arent arguing).Wildcat is a true gem and I belive there is a fine line between keeping it's "wild" feel and homogonizing it like ASC does with the sport.But if you cant get the customers what they are paying for then they will go where they can.Wildcat is harder to get to for the Boston area and isnt competeing with CAnnon for the Mass dollar.Good for fresh lines but not bottom lines. <BR>((* <BR>*))NHPH
 
The Achilles heel of eastern skiing (r@!n) rears its ugly head again. Mammoth has had similar snowfall to Stowe over the past week (36 vs. 40+) and season (109 vs. 95). Yet the measures of base depth (now 4-6 feet) and terrain open (now 75% of 3,500 acres) at Mammoth move in only one direction, up, until March/April. And the #1 reason for that is that it rains less than 1 day per ski season. <BR> <BR>I was surprised how low the base depths at 3 of the best Vermont areas (Stowe, MRG and Jay) were on March 15 of an above average season last year. It was fine while I was there, but it was obvious that they would start losing trails within a couple of weeks if the warm weather persisted. <BR> <BR>Out here the air behind a storm is the coldest we get. That's when our SoCal areas can make snow around the clock.
 
Could be worse. Sugarlof has given up for the day. They're calling it "wind hold"... <BR> <BR>Heh. Right.
 
cannon closed yesterday due to the wind and rain. decided to protect the snow and not play around with the wind. <BR> <BR>also, i've seen some aweful things done to ski slopes after a rain storm passed through followed by a sudden freeze. trails become simply un-skiable by even the best skiers when that impermiable non-breakable crust forms. i'm sure wildcat is a victim of this. i'm sure that insane 50+ inches of snow got blown off the upper mountain before it even settled... so i'd further wager the upper mountain never ever had powder lines, it was all lower mountain. just a guess. but wildcat isn't the only area suffering from the rain storm. trail counts are down all over new england.
 
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