West Mountain Conditions

Sounds pretty good, I will be there next Weds night. Thx for the update.

Looks like around 5" fresh this morning. Heading over for some lunch turns and will report back.

Can't beat that 2 hours + lunch for $24 deal. The only issue was the fact that some trails that should/could be opened were not (The Alley, Go-Go, etc.). They were all skiable and skied well. One run of a groomer over the Holy Mackerel could open that too. They've definitely made progress.

Did the lunch deal again. Nice cord all around. The Alley and GO-GO are now opened. Apparently they are planning on running the Triple Chair this weekend.

Skied last night from about 6:30 to 9pm.  It's supposed to be our telemark night, but I was the only one who showed up.  I guess the 9 degree temperature scared everyone else away.  K-man is in Big Sky, so at least he's got an excuse.  

Anyhow, conditions were quite good - nicely groomed manmade snow with the recent natural mixed in.  So far it's just the terrain off the double chair (which was just fine for 2+ hours), but snowmaking was going hard on Mach and on one of my last runs I noticed they moved two groomers over to start spreading out the piles.

Tower gun on Mach:


Groomer on Mach:


My pick of the night was Alley, a narrowish trail with an intermediate pitch and a couple twists to make it interesting.  The pic below doesn't really do it justice:



On my last run, one of the lift crew asked me to bring a care package up to the lift operator at the top.  He was going to be running the snowmaking equipment overnight and they had put together a box of snacks for him.  I don't know what all was in it, I would have wanted a six-pack.  You know it's a local hill when they ask the customers to help out.

The new management is really doing a great job with the snowmaking and grooming.  The whole place just looks a lot better maintained than a few years ago.  Anyone who got discouraged and gave up on West should definitely give it a try again.

After I was done skiing, I stopped by the bonfire going outside the lodge before heading in for a beverage.  Live music in the lounge upstairs.  



Besides the above-mentioned lunch deals, Mon and Tues nights are just $17

I was at West Wednesday morning from 10 to 12:30. Super premo snow excellant grooming and there was only 10 or 15 skiers. I had gotten discouraged with West the year before last and never went last season. Way nicer feel to the place in all areas. Amount of snow, the grooming, friendliness of my Grand daughters instructor, lodge & bathrooms way nicer, (bathrooms used to be scary) girls at ticket desk more helpful and friendly. If anyone had given up on West don’t they are back. I could even put up with the old lifts. Thou I did hear from the janitor that new ones are coming.  Give them a try you’ll be happy you did.

Very cool shots.  Good to hear West is heading in the right direction.

Very cool indeed. Looks like the racers were out for some Wed night mixing it up. I assume that was the local High Schools, love watching that age group - there are a lot of really talented kids and some have learned without the benefit of extensive mountain training programs.

Hmm you got me thinking maybe we should give West another shot this yr . We used to ski it on the 3rd day of our  annual family Gore excursion , but the last few yrs West was NOT up to it  . Lack of snow , poor or non existant grooming and the lifts oooh man they  need cushioning on the triple ......

BUT the mountain itself is decent , so hopefully the new  mgmt kids on the block KNOW how to take care of the customer and  the mountain

Pretty firm & fast last night, except for right where the guns were blowing.  Definitely not as nice as last week.  Had to ski a bit tentatively as you weren't exactly sure when and where your ski was going to slide out.  It was a good reminder that my skis need a tune.

Triple chair is running now, with Mach and Bannister.  They haven't moved guns onto Midway yet.

A half dozen of us skied (Weds tele night) with a few more showing up just for the bar.

Skied it. About 4-5" of complete blower on top of glare ice. Definitely interesting conditions. Should be good tomorrow if they groom it tonight.

We went yesterday from 4-6:30. There was some select spots w glare ice, but in my experience it was 5" of blower on top of a nice, firm base.
The ice under powder led to some comical falls. I was laughing at Jess just after she went down, next thing I knew I was sliding on my stomach only to look up to see my brother sliding down next to me.

West is best.

It's somewhat odd. Here at my house, close to West mtn, we got about 5 inches. Closer to Glens Falls, 2 inches.

It's always colder here than even 2 miles closer to GF. As soon as you pass under the Northway, the temps dip.

I guess we got lucky! The only glare ice we encountered was in the parking lot. Holy cow that was an ice rink. The ticket window line was 10 people deep so we went inside to the counter. Coughed up $25 for my six year old to get a season pass so we can park over at the triple next time (I ponied up for a midweek pass this year). We were there from 5:30-9 and had a blast. I guess maybe we are just powder starved. Mach and Bannister were our favorites. Midway was "unofficially" open but we didn't attempt it as it was getting too dark. Liftie on the triple said they hope to get it officially open by the weekend. My daughter managed to hit a snowmaking hydrant that was sticking up about 3 inches. Its on the skers left of the face by tower 4. Needs a lolipop if anyone is listening.

Danzilla wrote

My daughter managed to hit a snowmaking hydrant that was sticking up about 3 inches. Its on the skers left of the face by tower 4. Needs a lolipop if anyone is listening.

I saw that, accident waiting to happen. Hope she's OK

Chris wrote

Danzilla wrote

My daughter managed to hit a snowmaking hydrant that was sticking up about 3 inches. Its on the skers left of the face by tower 4. Needs a lolipop if anyone is listening.

I saw that, accident waiting to happen. Hope she's OK

Forwarded to West. Hope it helps.

Some say "hardpack" I still say glare ice. And it was cold.

But I didn't say it wasn't fun.

Chris wrote

Danzilla wrote

My daughter managed to hit a snowmaking hydrant that was sticking up about 3 inches. Its on the skers left of the face by tower 4. Needs a lolipop if anyone is listening.

I saw that, accident waiting to happen. Hope she's OK

Thanks Chris and Harv. My daughter was a little shook up last week which isn't necessarily a bad thing (a little fear can be good for a young speedster). I noticed tonight they had that whole section roped so someone got through. I'd like to think it was you Harv.

Fantastic conditions tonight. We pulled into the triple parking lot around 4:30 and had enough time to get a run in on AOA and Midway (almost) before they were roped. Sweet deep tracks to be had. It was almost too deep for my daughter - she ate her fair share of snow. The rest of the night we spent criss crossing the hill. Great pow every where. There were a few scrapey scrapes here and there, but for the most part is was deep cut up blower. Really nice light fluffy snow. They claimed 18+ and I think they got it. Groomers were already on Midway when we were leaving at 8:30. Hopefully they didn't groom anyone in that was skiing by moonlight!

Sure wish the lights were working on Midway. It would be another fun option on that side. I talked to a patroller and he said the lights aren't hooked up. Anyone know how long they've been dead?

Using my driveway as an indicator (I can see West from my back yard), the 18" claim is absolutely legit.

Fantastic conditions again yesterday at West. We arrived around 1:30 and skied till 6pm. Frontside stuff was already pretty tracked when we got there but there was so much fresh it didn't matter. I did manage to try and break a stump with my ankle on a semi-open trail. Ouch. Triple opened at 3pm and the best runs of the day were Mach, Midway and AOA. Bottomless boot deep untracked lines. It started to clear a bit and stayed light out so they left midway and aoa open until 5:30 which was a serious bonus. The weekly powder dump schedule has been really nice. Hopefully it keeps coming.