Drove up tonight. Must be 6 inches if fresh pow pow
Nice - I'll be watching the weather. I keep peeking at the webcams and every time I do, it seems like it's always snowing.
Hoping to be there late Thu ..... if Fri + Sat are NOT going to be washouts.
I'm staying on top of Snowshoe right now. Temp is -16 with a windchill of -40. Winds were gusting up to 45 mph last night. Not sure if I'll be skiing at all today but should be interesting nevertheless.
Although still frigid, I think it's ~15 degrees warmer in VT than in the mid-Atlantic today.
Wisconsin/BlueDon,
Why so many trails & lifts closed today at Snowshoe? Did ultra cold impact lift operations?
The Colonel
The Colonel wrote:
Wisconsin/BlueDon,
Why so many trails & lifts closed today at Snowshoe? Did ultra cold impact lift operations?
The Colonel
I'm not really sure to be honest. My intent was to talk with ski patrol but ultimately wasn't able to as we were only out there for 2-3 hours today. My best guess is the cold - there were about 52 trails open yesterday which dropped to 37 today. The only blacks open in the basin area were Grabhammer and Knot Bumper which were straight ice down the fall line (maybe a little crud to the sides).
The friends I am with are fans of the terrain park. Unfortunately, that doesn't leave much for me, as the only runs with semi-respectable conditions were the greens today. One of my buddies seems to be under the impression that crud is the same thing as deep powder - no matter how much I try to explain to him that this is not the case, he won't stop telling me that the conditions were just fine on the blacks today. Ah well, just a difference of opinion I guess.
In any case, I'm hoping for better conditions as the week progresses, as I'll be here for a few more days.
Not 100% sure but I believe the low # of expected skiers allowed them to easily close West Terr and Soaring Eagle areas. Seems like they just wanted to keep everyone in the basin area which has some protection from the wind. Expect for the top of Ballhooter which can be brutal at the top.
Just my opinion .... not fact.
Someone asked what was up with all the closings on their facebook page. This is the response "Due to the extremely cold temperatures this morning, we did have some lift closings which limited access to terrain. As temperatures return to normal late tonight and in the morning, lifts and terrain will reopen. In fact, we hope to expand terrain later this week!"
Wisco - are they blowing snow on just Upper Shays or Lower too? We heard they were hitting upper hard.
We have a BIG group (20+) coming in on Thu + Fri to celebrate the "Silver Anniversary" of the Blue Don ..... :)
Blue Don 1982 wrote:
Wisco - are they blowing snow on just Upper Shays or Lower too? We heard they were hitting upper hard.
We have a BIG group (20+) coming in on Thu + Fri to celebrate the "Silver Anniversary" of the Blue Don ..... :)
According to the snow report they are not. However they are open again today.
I should be skiing on them by the afternoon so I'll come back here and let you know.
Ive been riding at Snowshoe today 15 ft whales covering lower Shays and they are hammering it hard with snowmaking today still.Suns out , Lower Shays isnt open yet but the top is and is great .Quick break and heading back out , lots of smiling faces on the slopes
Took a picture from almost the same spot Brook!
Definitely a nice day here at Snowshoe. Started off great at 9 AM with fresh lines on groomers. Even the blacks over by Soaring Eagle were in good condition. Upper Shay's was the prize today - packed powder with some crud on top. All of the blacks got icy toward the afternoon - especially Lower Cupp and the steeper runs on the front side. As Brook said Lower Shay's is being hit hard with massive whales already formed.
Blue Don - I would advise you get out early while you're here!
Wisco wrote:
Blue Don - I would advise you get out early while you're here!
All systems go for rope drop at 9 AM on Fri. Down Spruce to Powder Monkey lift then over to Cupp / Shays. If the group gets energetic, we may go early with Skidder to Shavers then walk over to Cupp.
PS - Pic won't show
All of Shays (to bottom) opening tomorrow?
The Colonel
Sorry for thread hijack. The Pirates are phasing out the jolly roger logo. Blue Don are you going to have to change your avatar to a yellow pee?? Or maybe this:
JimK wrote:
Sorry for thread hijack. The Pirates are phasing out the jolly roger logo. Blue Don are you going to have to change your avatar to a yellow pee?? Or maybe this:
I thought about that yesterday. What a punk move by their marketing dept. Who the hell cares about a "P".
I see the Clev Indians are ditching the Wahoo Indian too. The Pirates are the Bucs and the Indians are the Tribe and I don't care who it offends.
I'm going with YINZ
Further hijack...does the new coach of the Redskins look like he as all the answers?
Jay Gruden took a rookie QB and a rookie WR to the playoffs 3 years in a row. I know they didnt do anything once they got there, but whatever. I'm a Bengals fan myself. Watching them go 1 and out the last three years is making me excited for the change. I just hope Zimmer is the still the defensive coordinator in Cincinnati. The man is a genious.
Also, who is offended by the pirate? I had no clue that was an ofensive thing.
I like how they had the guns running and aimed high up in the air this morning on Cupp , goggles never got glazed and it made for some really soft turns near the guns . Looked like they were close to having Lower Shays wenched and ready to open real soon . Another fun day out there . I guess eventually we'll get some decent powder days again out in WV
Looks like it will be fog and rain up here on top of the mountain this morning.. Not sure if I'll be going out.
Wisco wrote:
Looks like it will be fog and rain up here on top of the mountain this morning.. Not sure if I'll be going out.
Go for it. Skiing in the fog/rain for 3-4 hours (need decent DWR) is tons of fun. Snow surface is usually like buttah.
I'll be doing the same tomorrow at some point. Helps to have a season pass (which I guess you do) for those shorter days.
Wisco wrote:
Looks like it will be fog and rain up here on top of the mountain this morning.. Not sure if I'll be going out.
I'm waiting until afternoon when the rest of my crew arrives. No need to get wet twice today.
On a brighter note - LOWER SHAYS did open today. We saw the groomer lights around 10:30 last night while driving in.
I ended up skiing until about noon today. John was right - conditions were fairly good on most runs. Western Territory held its own through the rain/fog blitz. The upper runs are starting to bump up down the center lines which I like.
Would love to hear how Lower Shays turned out. The lift attendant told me 1:00 was the expected opening time.
Wisco wrote:
Would love to hear how Lower Shays turned out. The lift attendant told me 1:00 was the expected opening time.
I've only ever skied Lower Shay's once when it was groomed. It's pretty fun and pretty fast.
Frequently Lower Shays will be groomed on one side & bumped up on other. Do not have current knowledge of conditions.
The Colonel
The Colonel wrote:
Frequently Lower Shays will be groomed on one side & bumped up on other. Do not have current knowledge of conditions.
The Colonel
Lower Shays had the BEST snow on the mountain on Friday. It opened around 1:30 and we got there about 2. NO, ZERO, ZIPPO ice on Lower Shays.
I've never skied it like that. Soft but firm. It was fantastic.
With the rain on Sat, I did not try it and this morning we stayed around Ballhooter as Mrs Blue Don wanted to head home by noon.
Weather got cold over Sat night and we got about an inch or so of fresh snow over night. Everything was frozen granular when we left but it skied just fine.
Here's a quick video from Jan 12 at SS.
In one part we came across a kid who slid off the slopes on Upperhootnanny. He was OK some we had some fun with him. In the raw video, I heard my buddy say, "you know I'm filming this shi*"
Then my son fell on Camp 99 and decided to do the "scorpion slide". We made sure no one was around or coming down to keep things safe.
Blue Don, looks like plenty of elbow room on those slopes. Could you comment on whether the popular $99 season pass sale had any kind of negative effect by overwhelming Snowshoe with guests so far this season?
Actually pass was $199.
The Colonel
JimK,
The video was shot on Sunday from about 9 - 11AM. That's a great time to ski as all the weekenders are packing up to head home.
In 3 visits this year there seems to be more people on the slopes. In talking with our staff at Mtn Lodge, they say there is a definite increase in occupancy in our bldg. I've seen the same with my rentals as well.
Obviously the goal was to get more people to visit and it appears to be working.
One negative I've noticed is the lines seem long at Arbuckles and Boathouse during lunch. They are just not designed for fast service. I can't speak to the village at night as we usually eat in.
Lift lines really don't seem to be any worse / better than last year. The key is to avoid ballhooter during "peak" times. Western Express and Soaring Eagle are rarely busy.
I have plans to visit about 4 more times so I'm curious to see how things materialize with crowds etc now that almost all the slopes are open.
We were there over Thanksgiving (!) and a week or two before Christmas, and the slopes seemed more crowded those times than they looked in your video. There were fewer trails open of course, but Ballhooter had quite a long liftline at the peak times, like you said.
Commitment to snow is what anchors Snowshoe's reputation for superior conditions. Been here 5+ days, received about 18 inches of natural snow and still the guns pour out more snow every night!
The Colonel
Yesterday was awesome .Filmed this clip at the 9 AM rope drop. Bet it snowed another 8 +inches more throughout the day after this clip was filmed . https://vimeo.com/84709547
Brook wrote:
Yesterday was awesome .Filmed this clip at the 9 AM rope drop. Bet it snowed another 8 +inches more throughout the day after this clip was filmed . https://vimeo.com/84709547
That's soooo nice to see.
Bonus points for giving the viewer face shots.
Drove home from Snowshoe Wed afternoon. Roads were surprisingly mostly snow free. Kudos to WV road crews. Shoe received 1 foot snow on Tues. Wed AM was cold, still below 0 when I left at 1:40, but not much wind. Surface conditions were near perfect! Get up to Shoe and enjoy, dress warmly!
The Colonel
I happened to peek at the Snowshoe webcam last night and I saw they were blowing snow in the beginners area. That sort of surprised me given all the natural snow they recently received. Kuddos to them for plugging along.
My buddy was lucky like The Colonel to be there Mon - Wed this past week. I'm expecting a really good GoPro video from him in the next few days to rub it in.
Ditto on the snowmaking. I was suprised at TL and CV this past weekend. There seemed to be tepid interest in getting more terrain open. Based on my count, TL had two unopended trails, Thuderstruck (i think) and Twister, and CV was missing the run under the lift and Gravity. I saw only limited snowmaking on Sat. at CV. But what suprised me was that I woke up early on Monday and went X-C in the state park and it looked to me like both TL and CV had not turned the guns on over Sunday night. Temps and winds were all favorable on Sunday night. Coverage was very good on what was open it will certainly be a different story over there this weekend.
Another awesome Snowshoe video my buddy created during a mid week trip to Snowshoe last week.
Awesome video! I am ready for another trip to the Shoe... So much and varied terrain coupled with fantastic snow making.
The Colonel
The Colonel wrote:
I am ready for another trip to the Shoe.
The Colonel
Heading down tomorrow .... I see they are getting the Boathouse Cam running again.
http://www.resortcams.com/webcameras-snowshoe-boathouse.php
JimK wrote:
Blue Don, looks like plenty of elbow room on those slopes. Could you comment on whether the popular $99 season pass sale had any kind of negative effect by overwhelming Snowshoe with guests so far this season?
As a follow up on this question, Snowshoe basin was REALLY crowded on Sat. Ballhooter was PACKED solid. We spent most of the morning on Cupp / Shays and went to Silver Creek after lunch. Maximum wait at SC (2 minutes)
If they are going to sell 16,000 season passes and fill that place every weekend, they are going to have to increase uphill capacity to move all those skiers. The slopes did not seem over crowded but ALL the basin lifts were a backed up mess.
I was also there all day Fri. I could not believe how many people were there. I heard VA and some WV kids were off on Fri. Had to be true as there were tons of young'ins ou there. I skied the basin early, then did Cupp / Shays until 11:30.
I hopped on the shuttle from Cupp to SC for their new M-F noon opening. I caught first chair on Cascade and skied all the blacks and blues in SC multiple times Fri afternoon. My advice is that if you are there mid week, do the same. You'll get fresh tracks 2 times - the basin at 9AM and SC at noon.
Snow Cam at Shaver Center is stll inoperable!
The Colonel
The Colonel wrote:
Snow Cam at Shaver Center is stll inoperable!
The Colonel
Just happened to peak at the Shavers Cam (11 PM Thu) They are blowing snow like crazy on the Skidder Slope.
Anyone have any insight on Snowshoe closing date? There is nothing on their webpage and when I called and asked I got a vary vague "we will be open in March and we will stay open weather depending blah blah". What has Intrawest done in the last few years? Anyone think they will try to make it to 3/30? Or do they throw in the towel regardless of the conditions?
3/30? It depends on the year. Least year was very snowy in march and the conditions were FANTASTIC when I went on 3/29. I would say it's a safe bet that way would be open for 3/30...very safe. Might be spring slush though. Here is the pick from last year (12-20" of natural on the ground)
A few more from 3/29/13
I skied there at the end of March last year as well, I'm thinking around the 26th or so, and we got maybe 15 inches the four days we were there. 3 (?) years ago we skied there on April 1. They will stay open late if there is snow and people are still coming, but will close very soon after the beginning of April, even if there is a lot of snow left.
"Unofficial" closing is set for Sunday March 30.
FYI - The videos below are from April 6 + 7, 2013. That's my son on the pond skim at the end on Sunday April 7th
