Windham Conditions

From Windham's Facebook page this morning:

"Our eyes are fixed on the temperature gauge, waiting for the right weather window to fire up our snowmaking system, which is charged & ready to go. Our projected opening is December 8th (weather permitting), however we will absolutely open sooner pending Mother Nature's cooperation! Hang tight skiers and riders - we will open as soon as possible!"

WINDHAM MOUNTAIN, N.Y. (November 28, 2012) – Windham Mountain will officially opened for the 2012-13 skiing and riding season on Friday, November 30, 2012. Starting with 7 trails, 44 skiable acres and a high-speed detachable quad the resort, like its guests, is thrilled to have the winter season underway.
 
Windham Mountain has continued to refine its snowmaking process for this winter, investing $100,000 in improvements to make more high-quality snow in less time. These upgrades, along with lower than normal temperatures for the end of the month, set up to the resort’s first November opening since the 2008-09 season.
 
“Last season’s challenging winter allowed Windham Mountain to recognize its strengths in snowmaking and grooming,” said Chip Seamans, president and general manager of Windham Mountain. “A large portion of this year’s investment was aimed at building on these improvements to ensure the best possible snow quality for our loyal guests.”

   Got there Fri morning for opening ,two ways down, small frozen rollers with gullies all over, groomed halfway down. Wolverine skied better than the other trail, hey its still november if they plow it off for tomorow, won't be bad. Ski shop did a fast  ,first thing in the morning, remount to get us out fast.

Gray day.  Mountain empty. Primo soft snow.

txt from ml242:

I was there today as well.  My first day ever skiing Windham, so I dont know what's it's normally like, but I thought it was decent.  You could definitely tell you were skiing on man-made snow, but boy did they create a lot of it.  There werent many bare spots on the entire mountain, yet anything not on a ski trail had no snow on it.

 Some of the prettiest trail signs I've ever seen though, and I thought the base area was very nice.  

Perhaps I got the wrong impression since I was skiing with an advanced-beginner or low-intermediate, but when I wandered off it didn't seem like the "expert" terrain was very impressive (although perhaps that's a function of the conditions and lack of real snow).

Hey,
I don't know what you skied exactly but I really like Wedel.... one of my faves there for sure. My take on the day was overall very positive:
http://nyskiblog.com/forums/#nabble-f2108721

I went on Saturday 3/30.  Best spring skiing day so far this season as they were 100% open.  The snow was soft and there was still alot of it.  I don't know why they closed the day after though as there was enough snow to at least make it to the 7th.

snoloco wrote

I went on Saturday 3/30.  Best spring skiing day so far this season as they were 100% open.  The snow was soft and there was still alot of it.  I don't know why they closed the day after though as there was enough snow to at least make it to the 7th.

We were there Sunday - by 2 pm there was almost nobody left there.  We were on one of the last chairs of the day just before  the 4 pm closing time.  There was lots of snow left, typical soft spring skiing with - afternoon got kinda slow and sticy, just had to stay on the steeper stuff.

It was our first time there, and we liked the mountain.  I'm not sure what it would be like when it's crowded though.  

Had a couple weird incidents.  One, a teen snowboarder hit me with a snowball from the lift.  It wasn't a huge deal, but if it had hit me in the face it could have done some damage.  I got the chair number he was on with his girl, and told the liftie a minute later, but she didn't do anything about it.  I hope he didn't hit anyone else.

Second incident was when me and the kids and my wife were taking a few laps through the small terrain park - they had a nice series of 4 jumps in a row that were just right and we were all enjoying the nice soft landing zones.  As we approached the entrance one time there were about four people waiting to go. I stopped below them, but knew they were waiting.  THere was a snowboarder rolling around in the landing zone of the second or third jump...really taking a long time to move, and it was a dangerous place to be. If someone had come down and jumped the line the boarder was really in a bad spot...so I casually waved for the person to move out of the area.  Well turns out one of the people waiting was her dad - a big german dude who got pissed that I waved - I guess he thought I was being impatient and trying to jump the lineup.  I told him his daughter was going to get hurt there, and shouldn't be rolling about in the landing zone of the jump.  He skied down at me, got in my face, said something about it beign harder for her to get up and move because she was on a board, called me a douchebag, and skied off.  I just stayed calm the whole time. Clearly he misunderstood my intent, which was to get this kid out of harms way...I  mean, if it were my kid in that area I would have foregone the jumps and skied down to help, and to signal to others when it was clear.  It freaked my kids out a bit, but I just used it as a teaching moment to not escalate a situation by yelling or cursing back at someone.  Oh well - I didnt' let it ruin my day.

They must be closing due to lack of customers.

Windham closes each year around the same time regardless of snow. It's usually the first Sunday in April, but this year it's a week earlier.  For the most part their customers don't demand that they push the season - I've never heard any outcry from passholders. That may make them the envy of the other GMs.  There is very little money to be made after presidents week.  Most mountains are losing money at this time of year, especially on weekdays.

From Windham this afternoon:

"The warm weather is officially gone and the cold air that moved in is ideal for incredible snowmaking. Windham Mountain Resort’s snowmakers started back up Monday night resurfacing our open terrain and plan to move toward expanding trail availability as soon as possible. We are ready for a great wintery-Christmas week with great skiing and riding on expanding terrain."


Windham lights it up

(via mobile)

Windham was so soft today. No lines. Just soft turns. It was so good.

"Calling all Powder Hounds, 9-13” total from this storm so far with an additional 1-2"possible today as the storm moves on out."

Last powder storm they were pretty spot on with their condition report (12/14-12/15).  I'm going to assume this isn't an overstatement.  How crowded do we think its going to be for 8am open tomorrow (specifically Holiday crowd hangover)?  Unfortunately I find a lot of terrain skied off by noon after storms of this size : /

windham did not disappoint today fresh tracks until I had to leave at noon

Was at Windham on 3/1.  Decent temps with snow falling all day, not too crowded.  Trails were a little bit skied off, and icy towards the end of the day, but decent on the sides.  Wedel skiied SUPER fast.  Damn there is a ton of snow in the woods!  Basically can go anywhere.  Saw tracks going thru the cleared lots above C lift!  

Windham April 1st


Absolutely gorgeous sunny day with temperatures around 32. A, D and G lifts were running, mostly empty. Good coverage everywhere and not icy. Wolverine, Wedel and Why Not were all in a great shape. It feels wrong that the resort is closing this Sunday, when skiing is at its best!

Welcome to the forums essiee.

That's the way they roll at Windham. They feel that their customers have moved on by mid-April and they shut 'er down.

Having some hills close down may make operations more profitable for those who do stay open.

Thanks for the pics and report.

Thanks Harvey. I guess it makes sense to close down, if there are no customers... I wish more people would take advantage of these beautiful spring days!

essiee wrote

I guess it makes sense to close down, if there are no customers... I wish more people would take advantage of these beautiful spring days!

Not none, but certainly a lot less after President's Day.  I'd bet most here are in agreement that April skiing is better than November, but humans are human...they do what they do.

Plattekill, Belle, Hunter after this weekend... or farther north.

Hey Harv, do you know when they're going to shut down Plattekill?