Mount Snow, VT: 2/7/16

My dad and I decided that Super Bowl Sunday would be a great day to ski Mount Snow.  We've skied this day at Hunter in the past and it has been very low crowds.  We came in hoping for the same experience at their now sister resort, but were prepared for any crowding scenario. Turns out, all expectations were exceeded and we skied onto the lifts all day.  Only lifts with lines were the Bluebird Express (bubble chair) and the Nitro Express (serving Carinthia terrain park), and those lines were under 5 minutes.  We used the Grand Summit Express and Canyon Express HSQ for most of the day.

We arrived about 7:40 at Carinthia and parked within 100 feet of the lodge and lift.  Always great to park so close to the lift.  We skied for free today as it was a "Peak Freedom Day" where if you had any type of season pass to a northeast Peak Resorts property, you could ski any one of them for free.  For example, if you had a Hunter midweek pass, you could ski Mount Snow for free, even if your pass wasn't normally valid that day.  We have full Hunter passes, so obviously this deal applied to us.

They were making snow at the base area, particularly in the Superpipe.  Looks like they want it open for President's Day.


The Nitro Express opened right on schedule at 8, and we got on at a few minutes after the hour.


Obligatory first run cord shot on Milky Way


First Chair on Sunbrook Quad


Lift Shadow


View from top of Sunbrook


Bluebird Express


Summit View near Cascade


The triple wide Snowdance trail.  If you don't like wide open groomers, look away now.


Top of Canyon


Oh no  we had to suffer the non bubble chair.  Nine minutes of hell.  Not...  The lift got new chairs the same year Bluebird went up and it's just as comfortable as the ADK Express and Burnt Ridge Quad.  We skied many laps on this lift and we skied onto it just about every time.  Repeated 1,700 vertical runs are hard to complain about.


Somerset Reservoir and Challenger Triple


Someone should've warned me about the horrible Southern Vermont crowds and hoards of gapers all over every trail.    We had the entire run to ourselves on Ego Alley.


Fallen Timbers


This was our best non-Steamboat day this season.  Although we wished they had opened more of their trails, there were plenty of choices and they were all in good condition.  Temps got up to about 35 degrees and Sunbrook was full on spring skiing.  We skied onto the Grand Summit Express and Canyon Express whenever we rode them.  Mount Snow may not have the toughest terrain out there, but if your looking to ski blue groomers, they have some of the best out there.  We had many very fast runs.  Our favorites were Ridge, Canyon, and Cloud 9/Thanks Walt.  The addition of the Bluebird Express has helped things greatly.  Previously the Grand Summit Express with the uncomfortable Yan chairs was your only high speed option to the summit, so it ran up huge lines.  If you didn't want to wait in the line or burn 20 minutes on the Summit Local, you either had to ski only the offerings from the Canyon Express, or use River Run to the Challenger Triple to reach the top.  Now, you can get on the Grand Summit Express or Canyon Express with little to no line, both of which get you great runs.  

Good report. I haven't been to mount snow in years but I used to get there a lot. You had a better day than me.

snoloco wrote

^^This looks like fun. What's the lake in the distance?

It's Somerset Reservoir.  Unfortunately this pic was taken at 3pm and I was too beat tonfully enjoy a mogul run.

Harvey wrote

snoloco wrote

^^This looks like fun. What's the lake in the distance?

That photo was taken looking down the north side, right Sno?  I only skied Mt Snow once (a 2-day trip), but I thought those north side trails were a lot of fun.  Some very nice, long glades on that side of the mountain too.

It could be that I'm somehow mis-wired, but I like Mount Snow quite a bit.  Stratton too.  Both are fun mountains when snow conditions are decent.  Neither mountain is super challenging, but so what?  Okemo is pretty much the only SoVt mountain that I truly dislike.

Anyhow, thanks for putting up the TR and pics (it seems you've worked out posting pics now?).

Haha, Okemo is the most overrated mountain in Vermont.  I have no problem skiing mostly groomers, but at Okemo, you ski one run, you've skied them all.  It looks like they copy and pasted every run on the mountain, and no, you can't put lipstick on a pig and put up 2 heated bubble lifts and a bunch of million dollar houses to make it better.

My biggest beef is that they put all these annoying whoop de doos in the trails to function as speed bumps.  You can't ski fast over them without launching into the air out of control.  Groomers ski best when you let the skis run fast, which you can do at Mount Snow and Stratton.  At Okemo, I felt like I was fighting my skis and constantly putting the brakes on to avoid flying into the next galaxy.  They put these things in to dumb down the good skiers so that a little kid in a full wedge can ski without getting "scared".  Their terrain might've actually been OK without them, but with, it's mediocre at best.

the north face has got some great terrain. some real nice narrow natural snow trails and decent glades. the rest of the mountain sucks.

That last picture is real pretty and makes me want to be there.

It's kind of crazy how quiet and empty the place looks. It's almost erie. I guess it hasn't been a winter where people are excited about skiing out there.

The last time I skied Mt. Snow was one of the busiest days I have ever seen at a ski area. It was nuts. I even got hit from behind which knocked me down and I slid into a ski patroller that fell on top of me breaking my nose. I was totally stunned and I didn't get to explain the situation to that patroller as he yelled at me for skiing out of control. I didn't care to ever go back. That was probably 1987 or 1988, maybe 89 at the latest.

raisingarizona wrote

That last picture is real pretty and makes me want to be there.

Agree,  Sno, that last shot is awesome.  Brings back good memories of the The North Face pod.  I think Fallen Tim was the first black diamond I skied as a youngster circa '83

mount snow was good today

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. I am considering heading over to Mount Snow Friday or Saturday. I'm also contemplating taking a trip up to Wildcat instead. If these pics are current, I may just go to Snow.