Looking at trail counts and ouch- Laurel and HV not doing so great.  Will they fire the guns and with some (hopefully) natural snow get more terrain open this weekend?

7S looks to be in better shape - guns are on as I write this.  Will they get giant steps open this weekend?

 As negative as I have been this season about Vail, deservedly so, HV has been trying like heck to recover.  Last Saturday (I couldn't bear to stay and ski Sunday, it was that bad) was about as close to needing closed as a resort can be while still being open.

I hate promoting this fact because it will already be an overcrowded weekend, but as far as conditions, HV is most likely your best bet of the three.  And for coverage and amount of terrain open, probably 7S.  

But in observing casually all week on the webcam, HV has been blowing snow almost any time they could.  So apparently they are at least trying.  Which I will begrudgingly give them partial credit for.

RodneyBD wrote:

Looking at trail counts and ouch- Laurel and HV not doing so great.  Will they fire the guns and with some (hopefully) natural snow get more terrain open this weekend?

7S looks to be in better shape - guns are on as I write this.  Will they get giant steps open this weekend?

LM really made great efforts to make alot of snow on their snowmaking trails. On Lower Wildcat, they made huge amounts of snow. From Jan 22 to Feb 13, a 3 week period, there were only 2-4 night time periods with temperatures and humidity levels that were appropriate for snow making. During that same period, we did get some rain and perhaps 4" of snow. 7S/HV/LM managed to barely keep their core trails open. 3 weeks is a long time with no snowmaking, even here in the Mid-Atlantic banana belt. I think all three resorts are frantically making snow to replenish the core trail bases. Not sure if new terrain will be opened? Snow is predicted for later this week....not sure how much. The last storm on Tuesday was a big bust with up to 9" predicted and only 1-2 inches received. If Pittsburgh gets snow on Friday, look for big crowds this weekend.

CBski wrote:

I believe all of the slopes at LM that have snowmaking are open. 

Just looked on my Epic app- closed areas are trails that have no snowmaking.  

If not all tracked out, anyone braving the crowds Monday? 

Looking to meet up to ski on the 19th

Here is a recap- skied Laurel on Sunday.  The good- 9 inches of snow meant a bit of fun powder poaching here and there.  Wildcat was packed powder, great.  Literally parked 27 yards from the lift.  One time I had to wait in line for almost 90 seconds.  The sun was out and the breeze is really only noticeable at the top.  The bad- only 4 trails open.  And regretting not driving up in january for that great weekend.  When the place is open wall to wall you can see and ski a lot of fun lines.

7S Monday the lines were very manageable.  Few minutes at most.  None after lunch.  Everytime I go back to 7S I think "what a wacky place".  But the snow was in good shape and the sun was out.  When you are on skis life is great.

Was a LM on Monday.  Skied great, snow was awesome and sun out all day.  No lift lines (as always).

There was a decent base and they were making some whales in the morning.  

So, I ended up at Hidden Valley Monday. Amazing that most everything that had snowmaking was open, except for Voyager Jaguar, and Firebird (do the latter two even have snowmaking? ) Stingray was closed at the top, but was accessible half way down through Continental glades. There was some brown spots, as did Riviera Bowl (along with an ice flow as it looked like there had been a line break at one of the T-A guns.) Unfortunately, that meant 2 ways down from the North Summit.  Thunderbird was bumped up skiers right and groomed for flyers skiers left? 

Lots of other guns were blowing, however, which actually lead to the one small headache of the day. It was very sticky snow under the guns so you had to brace for the change or be up on edges. Around 2pm, the Blizzard lift (it will always be 'New Lightning' in my mind) was taken out of service. I was on it when they were shutting it down, so I got to scoot back over to the North side while I could. Crowds got smaller and smaller on the Avalanche lift as Tracker became "one way" and was soon skiing on. When I finally went back over, Imperial was empty and I could take a run without bracing for others possibly yard sale-ed over each crest.  

For a holiday, crowds were never that bad. I don't know if a lot of people left when Blizzard went down, but it was not a mad mob for Sunrise/Sunset. On mountain staff was friendly, and I got to dance with the scanner lady @Avalanche as I got the birthday Easter Egg. 😊😉

There is a lot of complaining about Vail's snowmaking strategy, but they seemed to do a really good job and revitalizing slopes where they could during this last cold snap. Locals said that the guns had been on since the cold had returned. I applaud them for being able to get so much back in operation.