East Coast Roll Call 6.0 Get Your Stoke On!

[ex-powderbroker]

VTSKI - wasn't that thing featured in a Columbia ad a few years ago... near Montpelier, correct?

Anyone skiing in the dacks this wknd? Heading up for a work retreat to ski some BC and WF. If anyone has a suggestion for easy trail BC I'd be much obliged. I'd really like to find a short tour with a bit more pitch than the toll road but not much until I can separate the yokels a bit.

[rdennhs]

Saw this update on FB.

"1/2/13
RE: Lift Update

Dear Magic Customers and Friends:

I want to advise you all as to the progress on the lift front the past two days. On Monday we pursued five different leads throughout the country for the necessary part on the Red Chair, and were able to get it shipped from Detroit to Boston on New Year’s Eve with the part eventually arriving at Magic at 2:30 AM yesterday. We arranged for a mechanical engineer in Springfield, VT to come in on New Year’s day. He worked all day removing the faulty parts, milling news fasteners, and installing the new part on the shaft. The shaft and braking mechanism are being installed this morning. The lift inspector will review the installation as soon as it is completed, and thereafter he has required that we load test the lift. A load test consists of putting weight on every chair by filling barrels of water on each chair and then executing a complete battery of tests. As part of the test, an electrical engineer will be on site making any necessary adjustments to the electrical and safety systems.

On the Black chair we arranged for a cable inspection which occurred yesterday with a positive result. Also, the lift inspector approved a process to be performed on each grip which will allow the chairs to swing freely (a requirement for the lift to pass inspection). With approval of that process the work on that task has begun on every chair.

Snowmaking also continued through the night at both the Beginner Tow Handle area and Tube Park to create enough base depth for the tow lifts to operate properly and last us though March. Now that there is enough machine-made snow, the lift tracks can be groomed out today and angled properly for safety purposes so they can be inspected this week as well.

This is obviously a great deal to accomplish in a short period of time, but we have the experts, the inspector and personnel in place to accomplish it. All hands are on deck in an effort to get the Red Chair, Beginner Handle Tow and Tube Park tow prepared to run on Saturday. I will update you all as to the progress on the above tasks as they move forward. If there are any questions, feel free to contact me.

Sincerely,
Jim Sullivan
President
Magic Mountain
802-824-5645 x117
Jsullivan@magicmtn.com"

Also, just to toot my own horn, made the front page of Powder today with an awesome article written by Mr. Dunfee about our trip to the Loaf last week. Have a read.
http://www.powdermag.com/stories/all-time-sugarloaf/

I won't dare post MTB content on here but we've also finished a 10 minute MTB video on the website below if anyone has interest.

Bolton is reporting 3" as of this morning, should have friggin gone up this morning but I'm still nursing a hangover from a wild first night in Manchester.

EDIT: Just watched the new Salomon TV Episode, very engaging - must watch.

[DRZ1050i]

Any of you peoples ever go/ been to Gore? Thinking about taking a day trip there later this week, heard they have fun trees but really don't know what to expect.

[therudeness]

Then, headed to Montreal in a snowstorm for a night of good food, good beer, and fun with the lady and some friends. Awoke to bluebird and cold the next morning and headed north to check out a spot suggested by Rudeness. Thanks for the tip! A fun little hike only neighborhood ski area with great conditions and some fun steep pitches. There is an impressive snowpack up north right now!



Then, we headed south New Years day and stopped at Mont Gabriel for some lift served fun. Great conditions and a fun little area with some great tree runs. Now, it is dumping again here in VT and I'm off to hit the backyard touring center. Winter is here!

NICE !! Haven't made it up there yet this year!! looks like i've gotta! Glad you had a good trip and the tip worked out

Happy New Year to All

[powbmps]

Also, just to toot my own horn, made the front page of Powder today with an awesome article written by Mr. Dunfee about our trip to the Loaf last week. Have a read.
http://www.powdermag.com/stories/all-time-sugarloaf/

Nice!

Sweet bike video too.

[From_the_NEK]

The lift inspector will review the installation as soon as it is completed, and thereafter he has required that we load test the lift. A load test consists of putting weight on every chair by filling barrels of water on each chair and then executing a complete battery of tests. As part of the test, an electrical engineer will be on site making any necessary adjustments to the electrical and safety systems.

With this weather, those barrels of water are going to be barrels of ice by the time they are off loaded. Sloshing water could also result in a lot of ice on the chair.

[Skrilla Gorilla]

i keep hearing about this 'focus' on snowmaking.
when everyone else in south-central was taking advantage of the long November snowmaking window's, around the clock for day's on end.
Magic didn't blow shit, thus forcing them to wait till xmas week to open.
while all the other hills have been up and running since before Thanksgiving.
sussing out any problems, making dollars, putting locals to work, and getting dialed for an incredible xmas week.
it's a good, steep, north facing hill in south-central, but it's not a good ski area.

Yet?

With some liquidity to fix the lifts and maybe dig a pond things could pick up me thinks.

[HankScorpio]

Looks like Magic learned their lesson last week. Running a single, often problematic lift during a holiday week is a dangerous game. They should have that black lift ready to turn at a moment's notice.

[gpcharles]

is that a hockey glove?
for bashing puck-ah-brush and whatnot?
no poles, hockey gloves, somehow that makes sense to me.
nice pic, looks frosty.




edit: the 'hardcore flatlander' comment was a compliment. you guys rip. that is all.

pictured are these giant mittens we found at Johnson Hardware. love them. never cold. dirt cheap.

i suppose it's not obvious in the picture, but the guy is snowboarding. it does kinda look like some goofy ski technique if you didnt realize he was riding...

super frosty. love it when the forests get like that. so serene.

there is literally too much stoke in this thread to address item by item, so i'll just say HIGH FIVE TO ALL! love seeing the EC get shredded in every nook and cranny... 'speshly like TBatts slide stoke. that stuff is off the charts. have fun in Utah mang!

to keep it going here's a shot of Hutz skiing some pow in a corner pocket on-trail on NYDay

[Anospa]

Solid last few days of 2012: left overs at Cannon Friday, storm turns at Sugarbush Saturday, touring Sunday, and then finished off again at Cannon on Monday.

I got out on my splitboard for the first time ever Sunday near Stowe with two friends. I'm as hooked as I thought I'd be; such a great day!! Started the run off with knee deep turns and ended with some fun glade turns. Great day, but damn it was cold; the wind was flying through the trees, I can only imagine how cold it was up on lifts!



I'll have some mediocre POV footage coming up later this week.

[vt_ski]

Actually, I think it was an issue of Ski Magazine, way, way back when it used to be kinda-semi-cool. It's somewhere in Central VT; I'll just leave it at that.

VTSKI - wasn't that thing featured in a Columbia ad a few years ago... near Montpelier, correct?

Anyone skiing in the dacks this wknd? Heading up for a work retreat to ski some BC and WF. If anyone has a suggestion for easy trail BC I'd be much obliged. I'd really like to find a short tour with a bit more pitch than the toll road but not much until I can separate the yokels a bit.

[ArmadaBC]

Anyone skiing in the dacks this wknd? Heading up for a work retreat to ski some BC and WF. If anyone has a suggestion for easy trail BC I'd be much obliged. I'd really like to find a short tour with a bit more pitch than the toll road but not much until I can separate the yokels a bit.

Finished up a VT trip with a tour in that neck of the woods yesterday, all the majors are good but rocky. LOJ to Marcy and Avy are rocky but were skied by others. Very low density shit on the ground now, nothing too serious just a thought if something else comes along and unless I'm mistaken it was pretty bare pre storm so tread lightly. Marcy around the bridge was good as was Jack Rabbit....easy I like Jack Rabbit, really fun ski and pretty simple though the distance I guess is kinda longish. Bennies is the easiest though I have no idea what is going on over there.

[jgb@etree]

Looks like Magic learned their lesson last week. Running a single, often problematic lift during a holiday week is a dangerous game. They should have that black lift ready to turn at a moment's notice.

Hopefully that 'lesson' doesn't cost them too much. I have to say, that after the fact, they've done a pretty damn good job in crisis managment mode. Coming out & owning the problem, and being honest and open about the repair progress. Another FB post this AM indicates that the part came in yesterday & will be installed today but it does require a full load test. Normally I'd think that sucks, but considering the nature of the failure I'll feel a lot better about my friends and family riding the lift after it has been repaired and re-inspected.

Sounds like the Black got a tenative thumbs up from the inspector, but apparently they need to make some sort of change to the grip on every chair before the lift gets green lighted by the inspector. And the rope tow should be running for the kiddies too. Hopefully they get it all together for the weekend and can get moving forward & past this debacle.

Fingers crossed.

[radam]

Sounds like the Black got a tenative thumbs up from the inspector, but apparently they need to make some sort of change to the grip on every chair before the lift gets green lighted by the inspector.

We saw them working on Black yesterday when we were skinning up. No idea how much progress has been made, but it was being worked on.

[HankScorpio]

We saw them working on Black yesterday when we were skinning up. No idea how much progress has been made, but it was being worked on.

The black triple's been "being worked on" since I last rode the chair in 2006.

[BigDaddy]

Heading to the snow bowl in the morning for my first time. Have a fun group in tow and would love a tour guide. If you can help out text me at three one five 559 three seven four two. Thanks mags!

Did you ever make it to the bowl? I hope you did, but not many ever really do... Giant black holes nearby usually suck them up.

[weasel1]

^^^^ Yup, Ak and the weaselbro showed them around.

[awf170]

Awesome. I love skin-track stoke. Especially when the skin-track is nice and deep like in this pic.

[radam]

^^^^ Yup, Ak and the weaselbro showed them around.

And a big thanks goes out to them! We had a ton of fun and will most definitely be back.

[weasel1]

For those folks finding themselves pleasantly surprised by the mighty Middlebury College Snow Bowl, please leave feedback on their Facebook page. We want to make sure they are hearing that people are coming for the woods skiing and enjoying their experiences there! And let them know we sent you... ;-)

[mtnbiker/boarder]

^^^^^ its as good as it getts and lets keep it down so the lift lines never get more than the 2 seconds they are now.LOL
the place is awesome for sure and a great kept secret...pulled into a packed lot and i mean packed lot to find bucket and no lift lines maybe 25 seconds long....go git sum at te bowl...hope to be up there in a few weeks.

[BigDaddy]

And a big thanks goes out to them! We had a ton of fun and will most definitely be back.

Cool... glad to hear. Place is truly awesome... especially when you get conditions like that and have personal tour guides like J & A!

[Anospa]

Awesome. I love skin-track stoke. Especially when the skin-track is nice and deep like in this pic.

Thankfully there was the remnants of someone's pre-storm skin track that we were able follow for most of the approach. I figured it was a great day to learn how to skin, 6"+ of fresh made things interesting to try and find how much grip I could get.

[smartyiak]

Over the New Years holiday, I had some fun...some disappointment...and some fun.
Skied Day 1 (12/27) at Magic...had fun in deep snow.


Woke up on Day 2 to this:

Talisman was phenominal...as was most everything.

Day 3, I woke up and went for my first skin session ever. I was the only one on the mountain:

and the trees bowed before me:

The red chair looked like it would for the remainder of our stay


So we headed to Okemo and skied hero conditions all day. We took the next day off b/c this guy was beat:


Based on a recommendation (Thanks Butta), we went to a local ski shop and picked up these guys:

After some intial analysis, they did the Fischer Vacuum process on the boot. Pretty cool stuff. The next morning, I took my skis back for binding adjustment (Thanks Butta)...and skied the rest of the day at Okemo (again in solid conditions...we did laps under the South Express Quad and there were almost no crowds at all).
Then, before heading back to DE, we rang in the New Year at BLT. Happy New Year everyone:

-Smarty

[drewvw]

A few of us ventured into a classic touring venue and were rewarded with some very nice turns.



I'm proud to say I got there first and tired myself out before austin and his crew tracked out the place!

Also met AngrySwede and his special lady. We were the lucky ones who got up the earliest and hit the pow first.

Next stop, back to avalanche terrain.