East MF Coast 19/20.

[FussyDutchman]

My back has never been the same since. Awesome dog but definitely could have used some k9 Listerine!

[akokskis]

Sunshine at the Mighty? Snowed dawn to dusk bob.

Snowed, then sunned, then snowed, then suuuuuuuuunnnned beaut of a day.

cold start tooday, not even 2° in the lowlands.

[retirwntm]

Wow. Just wow!


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[Moeghoul]

FussyDutchman and I found the best of what Smuggs offers up today (and the menu was tasty).

Attachment 305197

Attachment 305198

Attachment 305199

ps - Moeghoul, you should have stuck around.

The season is young, grasshopper. You ain't seen nuthin yet! Glad you got to sample some!

[Greenstateofmind]

Wheelbarrowed over two rocks in bounds yesterday and thrashed a base - should've bought a lottery ticket instead??

Had to roll out of bed to faceplant to slow crawl to the coffee pot this morning. Still plenty o sharks out there kids

[Laps]

Plenty of pow covering those sharks as well.

And some thwack.

And some snow snakes.


All in all, I'll take it for early Dec.


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[jhyatt]

So much stoke! Jay was light and fluffy and deep. Found goods.


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[BGSTi_403]

Ventured into a super secret zone deep in the Western Mass backcountry.

Conditions were great with pretty heavy traffic.

Lets see how things hold up post the "consolidation" event next week...

A few pics:

[Vt-Freeheel]

37` and windy bob. Thankfully the wind is down to the teens and from a different direction than yesterday. Gusting 30-40 mph yesterday and making the house creak.
Stripped 10" of snow, crust layers and all, out of the yard.

It was a good run while it lasted.

From the bush afternoon report, who writes this shit? Do they even have access to a weather report?

"The wind has required us to close the Heavens Gate Lift, and there is no more hiking access to Castlerock until tomorrow. Come visit us tomorrow when this area of the mountain reopens for untouched powder!"

[retirwntm]

If Rog were around he’d say something about the December hot rains.

Good getting it while it lasted up there. Reminds me the only way to be an EC skier is to live there or always be able to chase the storms.


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[JerseyDave]

They should just remove the C rock chair. That would be a great area to leave natural. Also, Bolton should take out the Wilderness lift. I'd probably pay for an uphill pass for that type of management.
This will be a good time to get out with the trimmer and handsaw for final prep work on the ski trails.

No guarantees for snow. Go when it's good. Could be a week, or a month before we shred pow again. Got a handful of great runs in so far, not bad for late fall.

[Boreas]

I thought Wilderness was usually closed mid-week or Mon-Thurs, except for holidays and school vacations.

[MMMSKI]

Yuck Rain

[Laps]

I thought Wilderness was usually closed mid-week or Mon-Thurs, except for holidays and school vacations.

Or just because that chair is older than dirt and slower than death.


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[WaistDeepGroomers]

Fun day up high on Washington/Agiocochook yesterday. Thought we saw too much Avi potential on our approach and decided to ski away, but those couple turns didn't produce any of the reactivity we were expecting, so we turned around and had at it! Rare soft pow up there. Good while it lasted, let's see where things end up after this rain :/









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[cat in january]

Nice showing ecrc

Early season snow up on the big hill can be tricky to read as you may have heard

Stellar shot

[Goniff]

^^Looks great.

[Laps]

WDG wins the stoke contest. Hands down.


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[WaistDeepGroomers]

Nice showing ecrc

Early season snow up on the big hill can be tricky to read as you may have heard

Indeed. Not at all what we're used to evaluating (some new snow on a v firm base) mid-season up there. FWIW, for anyone interested....

We found sections on the lower fields that were pretty thin and punching through to rocks as we were booting up, other sections that were v deep. Right under the ice bulge, snow was a little upside down and found two reactive layers -- a thin, stiffer windslab and a softer slab underneath that would break away pretty easily in hand pits, but did not have a clean shear at all from the layer below it. With all that and two small convexities above a bunch of rocks and a climbing party in the far distance, and the fact that we'd be jumping off the ice bulge above and coming into all this with speed -- meaning we'd naturally turn hard upon landing to manage speed -- we felt at a 6/10 confidence level and decided to back off.

But on our small ski down, we found we weren't sinking in nearly as far as we thought we would and nothing was moving or cracking as we skied. Ended up turning around and hiking back up to the top of Central, finding much safer rightside-up snow and a lot more of a consolidated base in the bulk of the gully. Happy we made the cautious call and were rewarded with information that ultimately allowed us to do what we came out for.

[Harvey44]

All four of those shots ^^^^ are sweet!


Plattekill opening day 2019





My thing from Saturday at Plattekill:

https://nyskiblog.com/plattekill-opening-day-2019/

[Laps]

WDG, thanks for posting your thought process. Interesting to hear all the data and decision making process.


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[jhyatt]

Indeed. Not at all what we're used to evaluating (some new snow on a v firm base) mid-season up there. FWIW, for anyone interested....

We found sections on the lower fields that were pretty thin and punching through to rocks as we were booting up, other sections that were v deep. Right under the ice bulge, snow was a little upside down and found two reactive layers -- a thin, stiffer windslab and a softer slab underneath that would break away pretty easily in hand pits, but did not have a clean shear at all from the layer below it. With all that and two small convexities above a bunch of rocks and a climbing party in the far distance, and the fact that we'd be jumping off the ice bulge above and coming into all this with speed -- meaning we'd naturally turn hard upon landing to manage speed -- we felt at a 6/10 confidence level and decided to back off.

But on our small ski down, we found we weren't sinking in nearly as far as we thought we would and nothing was moving or cracking as we skied. Ended up turning around and hiking back up to the top of Central, finding much safer rightside-up snow and a lot more of a consolidated base in the bulk of the gully. Happy we made the cautious call and were rewarded with information that ultimately allowed us to do what we came out for.

When you finally did it, were you 10/10? Just compared to the 6/10 you wrote. Just curious. Something from AIARE 1 was never open closed terrain, but I follow your decisions just fine.
Awesome photos.


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[robrox]

Fun day up high on Washington/Agiocochook yesterday.
...

...

Well and truly played!

[WaistDeepGroomers]

When you finally did it, were you 10/10? Just compared to the 6/10 you wrote. Just curious. Something from AIARE 1 was never open closed terrain, but I follow your decisions just fine.
Awesome photos.


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I'd say we were at 9/10 (I would struggle to say 10/10 unless it was boilerplate). We were most concerned about the area right under the ice bulge, where we found reactive snow and thought we were going to punch through it pretty deep and break something off. We turned around there and skied that section gingerly, and when we found no reactivity, felt like by far our biggest concerns had been allayed. No fractures broke off and truly nothing "moved", which was really surprising. The avi report in the lodge at the base had called for biggest concern at the base of lines, which was consistent with what we saw. Usually the hazard mid winter is wind slaps on firm snow at the top of the run. One thing that was on our mind was the lack of skier compaction of the terrain (most likely) compared to stuff in Tucks, which has seen a lot of traffic.

Once we were in the main run above the bulge, we found a much easier hazard to manage (a little bit of loose snow on a firm base, with ankle-deep snow v. knee deep like down in the apron) and were confident that we had safe conditions to descend. In hindsight, we think that the poor shear quality (i.e. that the suspect layer was not breaking off from the snow below it in a clean, smooth block, but that it looked like a sandbox after a bunch of kids had tromped through it) meant that there was better bonding between the layers than we suspected.

All in all, it felt really nice to feel okay walking away, then to get info. that allowed us to really change our minds.

Glad folks like the pics! Harvey those Platte pics look $$!

[jackstraw]

(I would struggle to say 10/10 unless it was boilerplate).

That's the smartest thing you've said Dunfee.