Swain 1/22/11

In college I skied Bristol quite a bit as well as the Syracuse areas and Snow Ridge...but a place that was just a bit too far from Oswego was Swain...so this weekend amid college visits, I had 4 hours to ski Swain.  It was definitely a local family area.  There are some moderate steeps at the top of the knoll.  I'd say Swain is right in between Willard and West in size.  

The best part of this mountain is that they leave 15+ feet on the sides of the trails ungroomed.  It was cold but the wind had died and the sun was out...there was 6" of untouched on the sides of the trails.  It was 2 pm and I was still getting freshies.  I had to try the woods. "The Glade" is like Sunway through the trees (the black diamond is because of the trees...the hidden ones)  I was skiing a fresh line when I noticed some blowdown(too late)  It's tough to get the GS skis up and one ski went over and one under...it broke the plastic tip off.   Thankfully the binding gave before the knee.  

I skied most of the day with one tip (awkward) but I did take the same path on the next run and found the tip.  There was a high school race going on and a decent crowd for all the fear the weatherman put out there.  No major waits in line.  I love how they leave so much ungroomed.  They also have some great cruising groomers.  Conditiions were fantastic.  Neat lifts though...they were quads with the pole in the middle and separate safety bars for each pair...they run at one speed and there is no lifty to catch the chair, so you need to put an arm down.  I would definitely ski there again, especially if my daughter goes to school out there.
It's just...

From the website:

sudsnbumps wrote

The best part of this mountain is that they leave 15+ feet on the sides of the trails ungroomed ... there was 6" of untouched on the sides of the trails.  It was 2 pm and I was still getting freshies.

Nice.

sudsnbumps wrote

I had to try the woods. "The Glade" is like Sunway through the trees ... I was skiing a fresh line when I noticed some blowdown(too late)  It's tough to get the GS skis up and one ski went over and one under...it broke the plastic tip off.  Thankfully the binding gave before the knee.  I skied most of the day with one tip (awkward) but I did take the same path on the next run and found the tip.

Way to persist.  

Suds ... nice report!  It's a HR goal to get a trip report from each lift served mountain in the state.  

Swain = CHECK √.

I had to look up Swain's website -- it claims 650 verts (about the size of Song) and 130 inches.

Which college is it near?

It was in between Alfred and Nazareth about an hour south of Rochester.  Very friendly folks.  It skis about the same as Song.  Better pitch than Lab and not as many trees as Togg.  It may have been the weather (or weather reports) but it was quite "uncrowded" for a Saturday.

Swain has always been a world class hill. Their snow-making and grooming are on a par with Okemo for quality and consistency.

I've never skied here but I've hiked around the backside a couple times.  I did again this past weekend and I walked down midway to most of the trails to get a feel for the pitch and how it was laid out.

First off - I think there are a couple pitches steeper than Bristol, particularly upper Robinson and Last Will, but the actually steep area only seemed to drop 100' or so.  The whole hill seems to carry this feature across, but the pitch gets more mild until you eventually peter out at the greens all the way at the east side.

I had eyeballed the steeper stuff at 25+ degrees and the upper parts of the blues (like clark) to about 15 degrees.  I went home and hillmapped it to see how good my estimates were.  The steeper stuff apparently does hit 30 degrees for a very short section and the blue I estimated at 15 peaked out 18-19.  So I was underestimating it a bit.  

Compared with Bristol, which has more consistent pitches over longer drops, it is steeper.  But it doesn't have anything steep and sustained.

Looks like a fun place to try out, but I have a feeling of how it will ski - short blast of speed with lots of runout... most of the lower pitches drop to half the angle up the uppers.  Good bomber hill!

Also being up on top it looks a lot shorter than 650', might be shelving of the pitch too making it look less.  On hillmap I was measuring right around 530'... actually most of the stuff I measured out came a little short of what they claimed.