Mountain Creek 1/16/17

My school has a ski club that goes to Mountain Creek 5 times each winter. Although I don't like Mountain Creek as much as some other hills, I put up with the combat skiing anyway because I can't pass up skiing on a school night. I had to miss the first week because I had to study. Everybody had to put their gear in the wrestling room before school started, not a very comfortable experience during wrestling practice. The bus left at 3:00, got to the mountain around 4:30. The teachers had to make sure we had Ski Patrol's phone number because a kid hurt his ankle the previous week.



When I got my ticket I noticed something different about it. They switched to the radio chip system like the one at Jiminy Peak. It was good because I could just ski onto the lifts. I wanted to use the quad at bear peak so I could ski the black diamond trails there but the lift was closed so I was stuck riding the Cabriolet, a pointless thing that makes you take off your skis and makes you stand up during your ride up the hill. I started off skiing Fox Tail, wanting to ski onto Charlie's Run so I could get to Granite Peak but I didn't because it had a thin cover. I was stuck riding the cabriolet the whole night.



I skied Vernon Peak the entire time, mainly doing trails like strait-away and zero g. They were good steep but short black diamond trails. I got on the cabriolet with a few people from my school group. They thought that I was just some random kid that walked on until I pulled down my neck gator. They were pretty surprised when they found out it was me. I tried staying with them and going down the same trail as them but still ended up losing them because I didn't wait for them to catch up. I tried doing a jump on one of the terrain parks and almost made the school go 0/2 on trips without injuries. I somehow landed it unevenly right next to a box where I could have hurt a rib. Whew.



When I went in to get dinner I had to sign in with the faculty so they knew that I was not strapped into a patrol sled on my way to the ambulance. I had a meal pass so I got a hamburger and fries. They were out of fries so everybody was waiting to get them and it turned into a war when the fries came out. A bunch of people leaned in at the same time. I lucked out and got some. I finished my dinner around 7:00.



After that, I got back on the cabriolet. I did that for a few runs but got tired of taking off my skis every run so I went to Sugar Quad at the beginner slope and decided it would be a nice time to teach myself how to ski backwards. It may be a small green trail but I did it anyway because it's fun. I kept skiing that run until about 8:15 when I had to go back in so I skied back to the lodge very fast and packed my stuff up, signed in and went to the bus. The bus got back to the school around 10:00 so I was really tired when I got back.


Sent from my iPad

I know MC like the back of my hand, and have over 150 days there, so I'll provide some information that will help for your future visits.

Was there any reason the Bear Lift was closed?  They often close the black diamonds off it for racing, but the blue, Bear Claw is always open to the public.  I skied all those trails in December, so they should've been open when you were there.  There are two lifts there, and the other one is South Peak, which doesn't serve only terrain parks anymore.  There's one full run that doesn't have features.  That's over a mile long run and it does have some character.

You can get to the other side by skiing to the Granite lift and then going down Southern Sojourn to South Base.  The Sojourn Lift from midway up South Peak will take you back to the top of Granite.  It's a long trip to go there and back, but I think it's pretty fun.  Personally, I'll explore both sides of the mountain on every visit as the terrain on only Vernon isn't enough to keep me interested all day.

The Cabriolet sucks and always will.  I call it either the Crappy-O, Crapiolet, Flying Garbage Can, or Cattlecar.  There's another lift on that peak which is a triple, but it's really slow and is closed midweek, except if the Crappy-O is on wind hold (which happens a lot).

Glad you had a great time, and great report.  I always loved being able to get out and ski on school days, and unfortunately I can't anymore.  

P.S.  Don't mention MC too much or people are going to start acting like assholes toward you.  Go to the search feature and type in Mountain Creek, author snoloco and you'll see exactly what I mean.  They were probably just butthurt that I skied more days than them due to being able to get out after school midweek.

Excellent Junior. Looking forward to reading about more of your experiences no matter where they are. Good luck this season!

Nice one junior.  I want to see you do the next Brownski Gore or Plattekill report.

I'd heard how stupid the Cabrio was but didn't understand that each car only held four (?) people?

No wonder people take a dump in there. They are pissed.

The Crappy-O cars can hold 8 people, but it's like the NYC Subway at rush hour, so they normally load it with a max of 6 or 7 if it's busy.  It's the dumbest lift ever.

It looked like they had good snow cover from the pics.  Impressive, considering they had 2 weeks of tropical warmth before this report was put up.  I think they doubled their snowmaking plant over the summer because they expanded terrain faster than I've ever seen before early in the season, and when I went on Christmas day, they had many trails open that I'd never seen open in December.

Junior....welcome, and thanks for the report.  Between ski clubs and/or ski teams, there's nothing like being on the snow frequently like that.  My local hill growing up was Big Birch, now Thunder Ridge.  The Crick  is a better hill, enjoy it!

As for this.....

"P.S.  Don't mention MC too much or people are going to start acting like assholes toward you."

Well, 'round here it generally isn't what you post about that gets a reaction, rather it's the manner in which you post about it!  Keep it coming and avoid using phrases like "butthurt" and you should be just fine.

JTG4eva! wrote

Well, 'round here it generally isn't what you post about that gets a reaction, rather it's the manner in which you post about it!  

Sound advice.

Hey kid ,I actually enjoyed reading that...I dig your humor...

Nice report. I spent many a Wednesday night at Mountain Creek when I was in high school, but that was a long time ago. I'm sure the mountain is nothing like it was then.

snoloco wrote

Don't mention MC too much or people are going to start acting like assholes toward you.

Mentioning Mountain Creek won't generate any negative responses ...

snoloco wrote

They were probably just butthurt that I skied more days than them due to being able to get out after school midweek.

Posts like this, on the other hand, almost certainly will.

It's not the mountain ... it's the man (or in some cases, child).

Face4Me wrote

It's not the mountain ... it's the man (or in some cases, child).

What he said ^^^

Harvey wrote

No wonder people take a dump in there. They are pissed.

True??

Very sorry I posted that. Can I take it back?

No worries, Harv. I'm sure Juniors eager to thank you guys for the support but he's gotten busted for liking instagram posts in the past and has learned to either put his phone away during school (hopefully) or at least avoid incriminating himself (probably)

You're the mod.  I'm still laughing.  Now back to listening to Howard Stern.

Thanks everybody. Didn't expect such a great reaction.

JasonWx wrote

Hey kid ,I actually enjoyed reading that...I dig your humor...

+1

"combat skiing" ---- I laughed

Brownski wrote

  he's gotten busted for liking instagram posts in the past and has learned to either put his phone away during school (hopefully) or at least avoid incriminating himself (probably)

Too funny

Cover your tracks Junior

It's classic Brownski pragmatism.