Mount Snow, VT: 11/22/14

Ski Day #1

We were staying in Albany with family, so we headed out on the road at around 6:30 to head into Southern Vermont. Originally we were going to ski Whiteface because of all that open vert, but the wind was forecast to be excessive.

It was a balmy 21 degrees and cloudy at the base when we got there, but a calm wind and the snow looked great! Mount Snow was open top-to-bottom on opening day, with Long John, Ridge, Cascade, Canyon, and Snowdance - a great trail count for opening day! But no expert terrain.

Halfway up the mountain, the winds were extremely high -- i'd estimate at 25mph+. The bubble lift I've always made fun of came in handy...


Ridge was left ungroomed after several nights and days of steady snowmaking.


Ridge had some of the best man-made snow I've ever skied! (Pictured: not me)


The liftlines stayed fairly short - I'd say 5 minutes tops at the peak of the day. I skied solo for a majority of the day, so there was no wait in the singles lane.


The skies cleared and we were skiing under the sun by mid-morning. This is Cascade I believe..Both Cascade and Canyon were groomed - proved to be great in the morning, but skied off hardpack later in the day. The ungroomed man-made powder held very well through the day..



Some final runs on Snowdance. The wind started to pick up even more as the day went on, even at mid-mountain. It was typically better skier's left on the mountain rather than the trails to the right.

We stopped skiing at around 1:30 because we had to get back to the house for a party. Overall it was a really great, easy first day on the mountain to ease myself back into the season.

Looks surprisingly uncrowded in the video.
I wonder if the wind ended up being an issue at WF on Saturday, maybe one of the WF guys will chime in..

Adk Jeff wrote

Looks surprisingly uncrowded in the video.
I wonder if the wind ended up being an issue at WF on Saturday, maybe one of the WF guys will chime in..

I was impressed that it wasn't that crowded. A good number of the crowds stayed on the groomed trails for some reason..

And i really hope it was an issue at WF simply because I'll be kicking myself if it wasn't...

ahh maybe we will go there next weekend.