Nordic Area Conditions

Mt. Van Hoevenberg Opens for Nordic Skiing
 
LAKE PLACID, N.Y. – Mt. Van Hoevenberg is open for cross country skiing, with day passes only $8. The mountain center will be open through Sunday, Nov. 23, and then re-open Friday, Nov. 28 (conditions and weather permitting). There are no rentals, food or merchandise being sold until the transition into fully-operational mode, but season passes are on sale now and are being sold at the mountain.
 
These world-class cross country ski trails range over 50 km of rolling Adirondack terrain. The following trails have been rolled and are setting up nicely: Beginner terrain - flatlander, bobcat, miniloop, campground, flatlander extension. More difficult - east Mt. cutoff, east hill. Expert - Ladies 5 inner and outer loops.
 
Season passes are on sale now, and prices will go up after December 1. Adults/$170, Teen/Senior/$135, junior/$95, 70+/$50 and children six and under are free. As an added bonus to get the whole family out enjoying the beautiful weather, when you buy two adult passes, all children in the family under 19 ski free.
 
New this season, the 12.5K Cross Country Ski Challenge is an abbreviated version of the rigorous 25K and 50K Loppet races traditionally held at Mt. Van Hoevenberg and is designed to be more suitable for the Nordic enthusiast. This event will be on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m.
 
For more information, visit the Mt. Van Hoevenberg Facebook page.

Osceola XC in Camden NY on the Tug Hill Plateau has about 40 k of trails open., 30" of new snow.

Trap Family Lodge in Stowe to open tomorrow, 22 November, on ~ 3 km.  Craftsbury VT open with about 20 km.  Sounds like these have less base than van Ho or Osceola.  But don't quote me.  I'm homebound this weekend, this info is from the inter web.

Ski Day 4: Incredible conditions at Garnet Hill today.  12 inches of beautiful is enough to open a lot on the GHL trails.  15 or 20k (?I have no idea) of rolled terrain. More than we could ski after driving from the flatlands.

Zelda, Neve and I skied past this, but I circled back.


First slarve on liftline

Went local today to Saratoga Spa SP to have the dog chase me on skis.  I avoided it yesterday because of the wet snow.  Figured an overnight freeze would fix it.  Still wet on the bottom today.  Ended up walking back on the road after a half mile of not being able to glide because of clumping on unwaxed skis.
OK. It's still November.
Maybe I'll visit Olavi over the weekend.  He says he got a foot on Wednesday.

Mike

Olavi should be in good shape I'd think.

I'm poking around in the woods and finding it just a little to thin for my new Rossis.

Garnet Hill has a good amount of terrain and the snow is nice.

Mount van Hoevenberg, 12/29 and 12/30:  Surface ranged from frozen granular to hardpack.  Blue klister for kick = wicked fast conditions.  Most trails were open except for the upper section of Ladies' 5 and the far reaches of Porter Mountain.  On the trails that were open, there were bare spots here and there that you could navigate around.

There are flurries in the forecast the next few days, which would freshen things up.  But it's supposed to warm up again on the weekend.

Sorry, no photos.  Spent too much time skiing.

Prospect Mountain, Woodford VT, 3 January  2015.  About 15 k open, good fast skate conditions  - or blue blister for classic - on frozen granular.  There are some icy and dirty spots, and a couple of rocks that are easily avoided.  Overall quite nice considering the weather the last couple of weeks.

There's a new connector trail between Workout and Whistlepig, intended to be part of Williams College's race loop.  Nicely cut, and a lot of fun.

It appears that Prospect missed Saturday evening's rain down low and got a dusting of snow.  Hopefully they'll survive today's warm temperatures.

yo guys, both lapland and garnet hill are skiing GREAT currently and for the foreseeable future little to no ice or dirt. The backcountry trails around garnet hill are excellent no ice to speak of, a few downed trees but enough snow to give it a go. I can not speak for the steeper trails like the raymond brook run the snow depth may not be enough to ski out the steeper sections. One may find to much exposed rock. but with that said the more rolling terrain like the botheration pond trail run clock wise was a blast yesterday jan 14th. hey once again i am putting out a call for fellow backcountry skiers. i am not local so i am not tied into the groups of local skiers. and as we know going backcountry skiing by oneself is pretty stupid. i plan on being up in the southern adirondacks a few times a winter soooo if anyone is interested in skiing the backcountry let know. cheers and happy trails, bob

Bob!  Thanks for that very precise and highly relevant (to me!) update.

For us Saratoga-Capital Region locals, I went for my usual dog walk at Saratoga State Park with my skis late this afternoon.  The golf course track was groomed this morning.  Very good conditions!  Plenty of skiable powder if you want to hit the walking trails as well!

I had really wanted to go to Whiteface today, but the reports of rain last night and 0" on this morning's ski conditions page put a damper on that.  Then I saw that Killington / Pico got 14" and briefly considered spending my retirement savings on a day of skiing over there for the 4 of us.  Instead, we headed over to Lapland Lake for a day of nordic skiing.

We've been waiting to introduce our kids to cross country skiing.  We wanted them to be big enough (they're 7 and almost 11) that they could really do it successfully.  Nothing worse than having it be frustrating or boring.  Daniel (the 10 yr old) has already been XCDing around the backyard woods with me a bunch of times this year, so I knew he'd do great, but I wasn't sure if Sylvie (the 7 yr old) would "get it."

Anyhow, they both did great.  They took to it immediately and were off kicking and gliding.  Daniel skied on his XCDs (they're really Beth's) and we rented gear for Sylvie.  All the days they've logged on alpine skis, especially the double poling and skating on traverses and negotiating on- and off-the-map glades at Gore, made the transition a piece of cake for them.  And the best part is they both really had a lot of fun with it.  This is really great for Beth and me since we both have pretty strong nordic roots.

We ended up covering quite a bit of terrain, so the whole outing was quite satisfying for all of us.  Conditions at Lapland were just about perfect.  They got 2 - 3 inches of snow last night, and had already been skiing on a decent base across their entire 50K trail system.  As usual, Olavi's grooming was impeccable, and every trail was packed powder perfection with beautifully set tracks.  I've skied at Lapland many times, and while conditions are almost always good, it was really great today.

As many of you know, Olavi and Ann Hirvonen have sold Lapland Lake.  We briefly met the new owners today, and also got a chance to chat with Olavi for a few minutes and introduce him to our kids, which was great.  I interviewed Olavi a few years back, he's really an inspiring person.  

A couple pics from the day:

Adk Jeff wrote

All the days they've logged on alpine skis, especially the double poling and skating on traverses and negotiating on- and off-the-map glades at Gore, made the transition a piece of cake for them.

LOL

This is really cool on about 11 levels.

Today, 25 January:  Hero snow at Prospect Mountain, Woodford, VT.  Everything open, although I didn't ski Shay's or Mountain Trail.  No obvious rocks or stuff like that in the trail.  All the usual suspects were out there.  Awesome. conditions and awesome company.  Great to ski with my kid.

Saratoga Spa SP was groomed today and for the most part a good ski with a few exposed patches of ice from the last ice storm a week and a half ago.  The light snow packed down to only a thin packed powder over the ice base.  The next snow on Thurs and Friday should improve things significantly.

I am a recent transplant from Minnesota to the Oneonta area, and I'm trying to find groomed nordic trails near Oneonta.

Lapland and Hunter are the closest I know of right now, but they're still 1:15-1:30 from me.  I'd like to find somewhere closer to ski daily.  Can any of you point me in the right direction?  For example, do any of the golf courses or city parks groom?

@ Caleb, there's a place called oak Hill Farms in Esperance NY, approximately 52 miles from Oneonta.  Additional info about Oak Hill can be found in the nordic ski area directory.  http://nyskiblog.com/directory/  They're only open weekends according to the info I compiled a couple years ago.  Haven't skied there myself but that's a start.  I'd also strongly recommend Lapland Lake, where I've put in many days.

I wish I was only an75 minute drive from Lapland.  A good place.  If you go to Oak Hill, it would be appreciated if you could post on the trails, conditions and etc.  Thank you,

Anyone else put there skis out to get cold before clicking in?

@Peter.  Thanks, I made it up to Lapland last weekend and had a good ski.  Some of their trails are a bit narrow and soft on the edges, but overall the terrain and scenery were really nice.  Thanks for the recommendation.

Harv

Harvey wrote

Anyone else put there skis out to get cold before clicking in?

Definitely,

Conditions at Lake Minnewaska State park / Mohonk Preserve, New Paltz NY, 3/8/2015.

A study in contrasts.  After a thaw and re-freeze cycle, Mohonk was a hardback horror show with postholes from boot hikers and chunks of frozen snow.  Very difficult to ride a flat ski.  I bagged it after an hour and drove to lake Minnewaska, which was primarily spring conditions and had been groomed recently.  Very good coverage, not too much dirt.  Fast in the shade and slower in the sun.  Enjoy this now, with the temperatures this coming week, it's not going to last.