Crotched skied very nicely today. Groomers were soft, but I keep skiing through the woods to get to the 2-3" of powder on Jupiters(never ducked the rope at the top) and then hit Solstice Glade(the real one), sometimes with an early exit as the bottom was a little rough. My tracks were the only ones that I saw in there all day. I hope they open next weekend, and that Saturdays predicted rain goes elsewhere.
Joshua, I was looking for you but no sightings. Also the post about the helicopter is funny as I was running the West lift that night and the patient was not a skier but my daughter's boyfriend who was in a car accident nearby. He recovered with no issues.
Joshua, I was looking for you but no sightings. Also the post about the helicopter is funny as I was running the West lift that night and the patient was not a skier but my daughter's boyfriend who was in a car accident nearby. He recovered with no issues.
End-of-season wanderlust. I'm off in Maine for a few days. I hope that CM gets one more weekend. They were open well over 100 days this season. All that being said, Saturday, the 25th was my last lift-serviced day at CM for this season. (I have other long-scheduled non-skiing plans for the first weekend of April.)
Skinned Crotched a couple times late today - conditions were EXCELLENT even after all that rain!!!! Nearly wall-to-wall snow on the open trails. Only an occasional rock showing through in the few "dirt" patches.
Bluebird day. Snowshoed to the top and skied a run. No sign of closing: ropes still up; Patrol shack not boarded up. Who knows? CM has been open several time on the 2nd weekend of April over my 10 years at the mountain.
My trip took me up Galaxy to Moonwalk; down Satellite Summit to Meteor. Everything that is listed as open on the snow report looks really good and with the upcoming snow, it should be a great weekend. I suspect the glades will be back in play on Sunday, if the predicted snowfall materializes.
April 1st 10-12" still snowing wet flakes. Rocket is finally turning over at noon still no passengers. Boooo!! People hiking up to ski the top untracked. I hiked up to do Pluto. Some glades too. Plenty of snow and the place is empty. Powder in April in southern NH...sweet 1pm still no loads on the Rocket. A chair slipped back when they first started so I guess deicing is on going
ISNE-I Skied New England | NESAP-the New England Ski Area Project | SOSA-Saving Our Ski Areas - Location SW of Boston MA
They starting loading the Rocket at 2:30. I think I saw Nelsbeer leading the way. Untracked deep lines on top, albeit short lines. I never saw Moonwalk ski so good!! They picked up another 3-4" while we were there. Big drifts on top. The first runs down Pluto & S Summit were silky goodness. Winter has returned for a little while anyway. And still snowing
Mother nature definitely gave some and took some away today. The late opening of the Rocket was largely due to the amount of ice, wet, cold etc. dumped on the hill. The blessing was everyone was forced onto the lower mountain for the morning opening up glade tracks that haven't been skied in years (ever). We pulled all the lower mountain ropes as quickly as we could, Comet Drop, Final Frontier, Shooting Star & all those little unnamed bits of trail were open to those that could handle the somewhat heavy 'powder' that was thick enough to provide its own base on areas that had been bare a few days ago. The Uranus glade (up Milky Way from the West lift), which we (REMSKI etal) did major a major clean up of last summer was drawing a lot of foot traffic in the am. It normally takes 2 feet of snow to get it open,
More opened when the Rocket finally got rolling (yes that was me in the 'first chair', We had to get fully staffed at the top shack, so I didn't really get first tracks off the top,
Anyway, with the storm over tomorrow promises to be a great mix of groomed trails, wild woods and some great tailgating weather... closing day? I'm not sure, its up to mother nature & the number of skiers
Great report & perspective Nelsbeer. Yeah we and others thought the shutdown was a cost savings move since so few people were there. We were WRONG! The skiing was amazing even without it. I was doing stuff this old guy shouldn't be doing. Good thing for me this hill is small. I saw grins all over the mountain, well except for a couple people who can't ski crud. When in trouble point them down hill. Sorry Cisco no glade pics. The camera only came out once today. With the flat light and the snow going sideways, my pics don't show the real conditions.
ISNE-I Skied New England | NESAP-the New England Ski Area Project | SOSA-Saving Our Ski Areas - Location SW of Boston MA
I arrived at 2:30, very happy to see the rocket loading after delaying my arrival after seeing ski_it's 1st post of the day.
The glades were much better than expected, as the sleet from the 1st part of the storm provided some base, as there wasn't much before. I bypassed Uranus and Kyber belt, as everything else was so nice. Up top was deep with drifts, down lower it was still nice. Snow was indeed cream cheese variety but for 4/1 at the Crotch, it was FANTASTIC!!! Tried to stay fairly light on my edges due to the lack of base, and was pleasantly surprised that I have only a few new light scratches from the rocks that I did hit. Here are some pics from my crappy cell camera, light was flat and I did not get pics of some of the glades. I missed you Joshua!!
Got there at 2:30 today, what was cream cheese yesterday was mashed potatoes today. The woods were still great, maybe even better as the sun was shining and I could see the hazards. And the soft bumps on the groomers were really nice. Got one of the last chairs up, and took jupiters to solitude glades and for 4/2, it was great!. They are saying that they haven't closed the book yet, but next weeks weather aint too promising. Considering what conditions were like the weekend of 3/11, with only 1/2 coverage on Pluto's and bare spots everywhere, the conditions today were amazing!!
Sunday was pure delight. The Rocket was up at 9 am sharp and ran with a 1 - 2 minute max lift line all day. Sunglasses were in order due to bright sun, temps topped at 50 on top for a while. The groomed trails were seemingly bottomless packed powder and there was enough loose stuff on trails like Comet Drop, Final Frontier, Magnitude & UFO to provide some variety. Soft skiable moguls kicked up on steeper grades & the sun did soften things up later in the afternoon. Basically the best parts of spring skiing without the slop, bare spots and crud.
Next weekend? No definite word, the weather will be the deciding factor... watch the Website.
Saturday and Sunday will be the make up days for the Spring Skiing we haven't seen yet this year. There is still a fair amount of snow on the hill as of today, more than there was 1 1/2 weeks ago... it is virtually all white natural stuff so far, hopefully tomorrows rain will roll off. Saturday will be overcast in the am & clearing, Sunday looks like a perfect warm sunny spring day to slop around in soft stuff, get a sun burn & tailgate a little.
Amazing that we are sharing our closing date with Mount Snow & Mount Attitash. Guess the next stop is Wildcat.
Live from Crotched. Super spring skiing conditions. Coverage is great and the groomers are stellar. Believe it or not the glades are still in play and the cover on them is remarkable for April 8/9. Kieper belt and and West Ledges are the only 2 I don't recommend but the rest have at them!!!! I recommend Dark star, Popcorn,Uranus, Hellions Gate and the top half of Kieper Belt but exit at the start shack on Meteor. Hey! And the bar is open+++++ Joshua I skied several twice just for you.
Tomorrow (Sunday 9th) should be the best skiing of any closing day of the season (they keep getting pushed back). Today the temps never broke 35 degrees on the upper slopes and the wind sucked moisture out of the snow on most of the hill, only the bottom got wet. With temps dropping again tonight we should be back to winter conditions for the morning softening after noon as the sun gets overhead. Winter skiing and tailgating weather together, only in New England.
They did restock the cafeteria and bar for this final weekend... On draft Switchback, Henniker's Working Man;s Porter & Rocket Fuel IPA. We drained the taps 2 weeks ago, so come help us do it again!
I was a great closing day. Great coverage, even poached Jupiters a few times. I felt bad for the mountain that the crowd was so light, makes it hard to get them to do it next year.
I was a great closing day. Great coverage, even poached Jupiters a few times. I felt bad for the mountain that the crowd was so light, makes it hard to get them to do it next year.
Being in FL, my only contact with the hill this weekend, was an occasional look at the Webcam. Today things looked dead, but it looked like there was a decent crowd on Saturday. Nelsbeer: what did you see?
When I arrived at 1pm today, there were no cars in the lot next to the carpet, and that's dead for an absolutely gorgeous sunny Sunday. There were almost nice icy/thin spots on the open trails. I hope there were more people there yesterday. Sad as it may be my last day this year, but the last 3 weekends have been amazing.
Things were darn good considering this was the fourth planned closing date, all the others were snowed out. Starting at 8:30 (that red coat is good for somethings) I got 20 nice runs in before noon. Initially everything was firm, as the groomed stuff in the sun softened so did the ungroomed. E.g. Pluto's chute yielded more interesting terrain as it softened. The groomers did some extra work on Comet Drop and we were able to drop the rope on it, its more shaded than most trails and did well all day. Yes, some folks were still in the woods getting a few last licks.
The crowd was about equal to a good weekday, most Rocket chairs were carrying riders early in the day. Not nearly the crowd heavily discounted tickets had drawn the prior week. By 1 pm things had softened up to spring slush moguls on the steeper parts Satellite Summit, Moonwalk and the like were fun to cut through. The Zero G/Comet area got down to the wet draggy stuff.while the bottom slowly thinned to white streaks in the mud.
Probably as nice a closing day as I have ever seen at Crotched. No question of closing too soon, it just feels done.
Comments
1pm still no loads on the Rocket. A chair slipped back when they first started so I guess deicing is on going
Keep it up, some glade pics if possible
Sorry Cisco no glade pics. The camera only came out once today. With the flat light and the snow going sideways, my pics don't show the real conditions.
Wow ask and you shall receive.
Nice glade pics
Josh, these 2 guys are filling in nicely for you and I'm enjoying what the Crotched looks like
Joshua I skied several twice just for you.