West Mountain Conditions

Last night West fired up the snow guns for the first time this season.  I can hear that hum from my house.  

saw them going today

Went over the West to stretch my legs after work yesterday and was pleasantly suprised.  The 3-inches of new was mixed with some loose granular and piled up along the sides of almost every trail.  

Sweet, hope to get there this season.

Yeah, the skiing was good Wednesday night.  But… overall I’ve been unimpressed with West’s snowmaking and grooming last year and so far this year.  In the past I felt they really put out a quality product. While there are many factors, not the least of which is weather, the bottom line is I think their product has deteriorated.

Hard and fast tonight as was expected, lost a lot of snow on all the trails. Time to make again.

Good conditions at West last night.  Snowmakers have built up some impressive mounds, guns were running last night.

I hit West after work yesterday and I have to say, it was really nice.  It snowed all evening, hard at times, and was soft hero snow.  I didn't hit anything even close to hard pack.  We were hitting 4-5 inches of untracked along the sides of the trails all evening.  For the last hour the liftie told us there were only 8 people on the hill and 5 of them were kids, so that's why were were getting the untracked.  Skied till the lifts closed at 9 p.m. I only ski West in the evenings, and this was the best night skiing in the past couple years.  

Lift tickets are now $17 to ski any five hours for the rest of the season.

Hit West last night. $17 for 8 or so runs. They got a lot of snow, but it was the heavy stuff. Got my wife back out on skis for the first time in 2 years.

On the downside, the place is kind of falling apart. No brush cutting, chairs and poles rusting away. Etc. Sad.

Agree West is a mess !!!  we skied there last week and it looks dilapidated ,like someone has milked the csh cow DRY .

The hill was not in good shape , most trails closed , puckerbrush sticking up , snow was MASHED glop and the lift system is NOT maintained well , the seats are ass breakers, and well the place NEEDS management badly !

Cmon West  u can do better !!!

Skied at West Wednesday evening, the day after 10-12 inches of new snow.  Arrived a bit earlier than usual (with my 9-yr-old son) so we got in a few more runs than usual before hooking up with the regular Weds night tele crowd (K-Man & Co.). Trails were in great packed powder shape, skiing should be very nice this weekend for anyone skiing locally.  Ungroomed snow was generally stiff and a bit dense.

Here's my TR and pics (more than usual thanks to daylight savings time).

warp daddy wrote

Agree West is a mess !!!  we skied there last week and it looks dilapidated ,like someone has milked the csh cow DRY .

The hill was not in good shape , most trails closed , puckerbrush sticking up , snow was MASHED glop and the lift system is NOT maintained well , the seats are ass breakers, and well the place NEEDS management badly !

Cmon West  u can do better !!!

Despite some very nice snow and fun skiing the other night, I can't disagree with ^^ these comments, and I've made similar observations (perhaps worded more diplomatically) in my trip reports from West this year.   Snowmaking and grooming overall this year were not very good.  The lifts have always been something of a joke but have been really showing their age the last year or two.  I hope West had a financially successful year because they need it, but I suspect it's been a tough winter for them.

West's double chair, Wednesday evening:

Well, for whatever reason they are running snow mobile races on the mountain tonight... so... any idea of good snow is now out.  

Mysterious txt from an unknown source with the words in the caption:


"west mt monday morning"

Snowmaking started 1am Monday (today) morning.

I saw that on the way to work this morning. It looked like they were blowing on the Face (obviously) and maybe a little further up the Frolic as well.

I have to give the new management at West a big hand because they've really turned things around on that hill.  Snowmaking and grooming has been top-notch this year.  Skied last night and every trail was in beautiful shape.  Frankly  I've seen a lot more scrape and hardpack at Gore this winter than at West.  Last night was only my second night at West this winter, but it's clear that a lot more attention is being given to snowmaking and grooming.  The lodge has been spruced up a bit and the new bathrooms are a HUGE improvement.

For anyone who lives locally, you really owe it to yourself to give West a try, especially if you had gotten discourage with conditions there the last couple winters.  I beleive they are still offering $17 lift tix Mon & Tues nights.

I put up a short tr from last night on my blog, here.  And here's another from a few weeks ago.

Thanks for the update Jeff. I was wondering how they were doing this year. You've motivated me to take my oldest on Monday or Tuesday night after school. I'll post an update after.

Don't quote me on it, but I think they are also doing 2 hours of skiing plus lunch (1/2 sandwich, bowl of soup, and a non-alcoholic beverage) for $24 during the week.

Adk Jeff wrote

Snowmaking and grooming has been top-notch this year.  Skied last night and every trail was in beautiful shape.  Frankly  I've seen a lot more scrape and hardpack at Gore this winter than at West.  Last night was only my second night at West this winter, but it's clear that a lot more attention is being given to snowmaking and grooming.  The lodge has been spruced up a bit and the new bathrooms are a HUGE improvement.

I've skied West Tuesday and Thursday for the past two weeks and I agree that the snowmaking and especially the grooming have been phenomenal. You're exactly right that West has been better than Gore on this front. There has been some suspect grooming at Gore lately (of course, I guess when you "lose" your head groomer...).

West is really good this year. If they ever get their act together financially, they could really cash in on the Real Estate front and then upgrade the lifts to make a sweet suburban ski spot.