questionable ski reports at Wintergreen
January 25, 2006
Here is their post for today, 1/19/06:
"Ski report update for Thursday 1-19-06 at 10:08am
Mother Nature gave our phenomenal snowmaking team a hand last night and lowered the temperatures enough for us to add a couple of inches of snow to refresh our trails. We will be skiing and riding on 16 packed powder trails today and 3 lifts will be running. All trails were groomed overnight and are in great shape for some Spring-like skiing and riding. The Big Acorn lift will be closed again today as we continue our maintenance. The Plunge will be open with 2 hour sessions starting at 2:00 pm for some exciting tubing."
I was there today and was skiing at 9am. Being an intelligent skier, I was expecting spring conditions all along, and was not surprised to encounter spring conditions on the hill. I had a great day skiing because of the wonderful weather. But when I got home and read that snow report, it ticked me off. They make it sound like they blanketed the mountain in fresh snow last night, then groomed it in for wonderful packed powder, but that was clearly not the case (in fact I don't think it would be physically possible given the condition of the base). There was some new machine snow in spots for sure, but there were also plenty of bare spots and slush, along with ice and boilerplate snow. Just what you'd expect from the recent weather with a brief shot of cool weather last night.
Wintergreen has had lousy snow reports lately -- they are rarely updated in a timely manner (for instance, this one posted at 10am??) and they are way too optimistic, to the point of being misleading. I really wish they would write the reports in such a way that skiers who show up don't have to holler BS. Snowshoe is much more honest in their reporting.
I could start another thread on the lack of ski patrol presence in the Highlands expert area, where I saw at least a dozen dangerously out of control beginner skiers (including three boneheads sliding all the way down the hill on their butts without any ski equipment, presumably it was jettisoned further up the hill).
At wintergreen, don't read the paragraph describing the snow, just use your brain (their climate isn't that hard to figure out) or shoot me a PM I'm there almost every weekend. They're trail counts usually are correct though. The highlands is always filled with too many idiots. Usually their ski patrol presence is good on the highlands, that's weird that you thought it was bad.
Although I feel sorry for Wintergreen these days (with the exception of 2 weeks in Dec. they're having a marginal season) it sounds like they should being doing a better job with their ski reports.
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At wintergreen, don't read the paragraph describing the snow, just use your brain (their climate isn't that hard to figure out) or shoot me a PM I'm there almost every weekend. They're trail counts usually are correct though. The highlands is always filled with too many idiots. Usually their ski patrol presence is good on the highlands, that's weird that you thought it was bad.
I usually ski there every week, and they were doing OK in December. The reports were accurate and timely. In fact, by mid-late December, they would have been justified to brag a little -- the snow was excellent and they were 100% open. It was the best December I can remember in a long time.
For the last couple days, the Big Acorn lift has been down. They say maintenance on their website, but I saw a pallet of heavy lift parts get delivered today that leads me to believe something broke. Anyways, that probably pushed more crowds over to the Highlands. At 9am, only Dobie, the terrain park, upper Cliffhanger, Wild Turkey, and Outer limits were open. I don't think that "real" trail count was ever reflected on their website. Certainly not when I checked at 6:30 am, or tonight.
I noticed that lower diamond was listed as closed, was that the conditions, the adaptive ski event they are having this weekend, or something else?
big acorn lift has been shut down a few times this year, so i am actually glad to hear about the pallet of parts. i hope they are getting it fixed for good this time - before we're up there again.
we need some cold in a bad way.
I'd try to plan your next ski trip to Wintergreen sooner rather than later. The current weather trend for Central VA (highs in the 50s and even 60s) could wash-out even more of their base over the next few weeks.
We've been to WTG nearly every weekend this season, and overall, it's been pretty good - this time last season was *much* worse. The last two weekends had the potential to be bad, but weekend cold weather (and snowmaking) saved them both. I've had a lot of days of decent skiing, so I have little to complain about this year. Also, I'm convinced we're due for another cold snap at some point, in which case they'll build the base again.
But I agree about their optimistic weather reports, sometimes they are misleading. I think people will resent reading optimistic reports and then finding marginal conditions. I ignore the WTG website reports (except for the overnight snowmaking). In response to an earlier post, someone suggested this link, which is probably a better indicator of WTG conditions:
http://wdbj.weatherbug.com/stationObFull.asp?id=WNTREI really hope they consider replacing the Big Acorn lift this year. Wintergreen is pretty good about adding something new each season, and it seems the Big Acorn lift is due for a replacement. Either that or night skiing on the Highlands would be great.
I don't know about the current temp, it might be reliable, but the weather bug forecast is the just the same as the NWS for nellysford down at 700'. It always seems to me like a pretty good difference up on the mountain. Maybe not as good as the WTG forecast though, as you say.
Big acorn does need replacing.
Believe it or not, yesterday morning it got *warmer* as I was driving up the mountain in the morning, so there was actually a slight inversion. At the end of the day, it was 47F on the top and about 55F down in the valley, which was more normal.
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I noticed that lower diamond was listed as closed, was that the conditions, the adaptive ski event they are having this weekend, or something else?
big acorn lift has been shut down a few times this year, so i am actually glad to hear about the pallet of parts. i hope they are getting it fixed for good this time - before we're up there again.
we need some cold in a bad way.
I don't recall seeing many bare spots on lower diamond hill from the lift, but I only rode that lift 2-3 times and was not paying attention. The intersection where logger's run comes into diamond was getting real dicey by the end of the day, and there are large bare spots in that area and at the bottom of the terrain park. I haven't seen dirt there since about Dec 2!
I think the Big Acorn lift was the newest on the mountain prior to the new detachables (which replaced some old equip). So it probably has quite a few more years before something new comes along. But those are nice trails, and the lift is certainly feeling slow now, so I would welcome a detachable over there.
Overall we are doing better than last year, due to the cold early winter and WG being more agressive with snowmaking in December. Dec 05 was absolutely fantastic. I don't think I even started skiing at WG until mid-Jan this last season, so we got over a month's head start. It's a real pity that the warm snap is driving everything back towards zero, but I have confidence WG will ramp back up as soon as possible. I really think they have the best snowmaking system around.
fwiw, this afternoon's update of the forecast for next week is looking better at upper 40s/20s tue-sun with occaisional rain or a nano snow. see you up there friday?
strange that all of december was colder than all of january.
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fwiw, this afternoon's update of the forecast for next week is looking better at upper 40s/20s tue-sun with occaisional rain or a nano snow. see you up there friday?
strange that all of december was colder than all of january.
So far my schedule is looking good for next week, let's hope the weather cooperates too!
Today they are backwards (at 1:40pm)
WTG forecast: 37
Current weatherbug temp: 25
why do i care? i'll be there this wkend. photo shows snowmaking on eagle. wooo.
I was there today and the skiing was not to bad ( of course iv been in SLC in deep pow for 4 days so anything is sub par right now). Highlands was pretty good. they were making snow just about everywhere today. Winds were super high though.
Yeah, photo looks great! But Sunday forecast does not look encouraging - 50% chance of showers. I'm not sure this is looking very promising for the kids' long weekend.
