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OMG! Are we going to get to ski those?!


The answer is “yes.”

Full Trip Report is in the making for the workweek!

With my legs still burning from skiing Smuggs the day before, I continued my mad dash to use the rest of my prepaid vouchers today at Mad River Glen. The faithful were out in force today to enjoy the last of this long week full of perfect spring skiing days. Despite the sun disappearing shortly after lunch time and being replaced by clouds and a mild breeze, the snow was stellar and well corned in places though just a tad mushy occasionally as well. Lines were long for the Single but tolerable, especially considering the shaky status of my legs by mid-day.

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Ski Day 26



It's not going to be possible to recount the day. Usually I can go through the pictures and grasp the day in my mind. I just can't do it tonight. Today was too ... multifaceted.


Matty on Uncas

I ran in to Matty out front and we got into the Gondi. We hit Uncas. Carvy in the single swath that was groomed, and crunchy on the sides.



At the top of the Straightbrook, we start to form a group. It was as big as 14 as small as maybe 7. I think. Matty, EDeO, Chuck, Russ, Ike, Powderqueen, Pammy, Rick, Rochester, Lauri, Jeff, Daniel and Laurie. I finally met Perilous Paul.



EDeO wanted to hit Burnt Ridge early. After some stalling in the sun on Lies and a few other places, we headed over.


Rick on Sagamore

Sagamore skied extremely well. After two runs we were headed back on Echo, when patrol suggested an alternate route.


Good timing

We zoomed down Hedges and found some of the most difficult skiing of the day in Tahawas. Tahawas needs skier traffic. Up the North Chair, down to the Summit Chair and into the Dark Side. What followed, was, without a doubt one of the best days this season.

Highly trafficked Darkside routes had the best snow all day.


The Dark Side


Pam


PDQ


More please


Midday Cloud


EDeO on Lower Darby


Rochester Mark brings it

On the Sugar Road at Trapp nordic center today — the first day of spring — we heard birds...

Posted by Jason:



Since my daughter Zoe had no school on Friday, we decided to head to Vermont - Mad River Glen was our destination. Considering Mad makes NO SNOW, the coverage was excellent.


Zoe gets Mad

The only green trail on the hill, was the only groomed run. Everything else was wall to wall bumps, but they were perfectly soft. The woods were also bumped but skied beautifully.

Mad River is fascinating and completely fun - nothing cookie-cutter about it. Intermediate trails like Antelope and Catamount would be black diamonds on any other hill in the northeast.


Mad River Man

The place has the best vibe of any ski area I've been to. It is definitely my favorite ski area in the northeast.

And Harv ... these are YOUR PEOPLE. The place is CRAWLING with Teleskiers. You have GOT to get here.

JUST RIGHT! The high elevation east coast snow pack continues to cook to perfection as if it were a delicious curry being prepared in a mountain hut. The recent weather has provided a surprise early taste of spring, and if you aren’t skiing this weekend you are doing yourself a disservice. We’ll get a full trip report later (after the weekend is over–duh!), but suffice it say for now that 800 feet of high alpine powder and then 2200+ feet of absolutely perfect peel-away corn soon followed:


Special thanks to Zach “Rollnthunder”–the notch master. He led the way and I followed. Thanks dude! You ROCK!

“Discretion is the better part of valor.” A proverb I sagely doled out last week at Stowe in the climbing gully to a snowboarder that had never hiked the ridge before. And it was advice I was heeding myself Friday morning. Original plans called for a summit of Mount Washington and descent via a western facing gully that I have yet to ski. Exploring a new area solo when I did not have beta on snow conditions and feared possible wind and clouds blowing in later that day did not add up well in the risk assessment arena. Perhaps I was overly cautious in my decision making but I by passed the Route 3 exit and continued north en route to Smuggs.

A decision to go lift serviced on Friday could not possibly have gone wrong whereas a mishap was certainly a possibility with the alternative (though that is part of the sense of adventure!). I arrived at Smuggs shortly after 10:00 A.M. to find the snow still in the process of softening due to a hard freeze the night before. I took a warm up run on Sterling hitting the lower part of Exhibition under the lift where bumps were still rather firm. I tried to follow the sun and made my way over to Madonna 1 and skied down to the bumps under the Madonna 2 lift which were still firm and a little icy. I opted to take a short break and let the sun do its thing.

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Revelstoke and Grand Junction Mesa avlanches, opinion and report.

"ORDA planning for $1M less than it expected"

LAKE PLACID - The Olympic Regional Development Authority anticipates receiving $1 million less than expected in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

According to ORDA spokesman Jon Lundin, ORDA's Board of Directors learned of the proposed budget cuts after Gov. David Paterson announced his Executive Budget in February. ORDA may receive $5.7 million instead of an expected $6.7 million from the state.

ORDA's board members had a budget set in December that included the anticipated $6.7 million but have since considered a new budget.

Full Article from Adirondack Daily Enterprise

Sunny spring skiing continues in Vermont today and Saturday. Wow, it's been an incredible stretch...

That flooding rain last weekend was heavy snow in the white Mountains of New Hampshire. Check the deep new snow in this SkiNH video shot Tuesday March 16, 2010 at Waterville Valley New Hampshire.

Posted by Jeff:


Ten of us get together each year for a couple days of skiing at a ski area in Vermont. This year’s destination was Mount Snow, an area I had never been to before. I had expected to find mostly groomed cruisers. While Mount Snow has those, happily I also found some really great tree skiing, bumps and some challenging black diamonds on the mountain’s North side. Great snow and weather to boot.


Thursday morning started out firm and fast. A couple of runs on frozen corduroy shook the fog that remained from Saint Patrick’s Day out of me. By 10 am, the snow softened up enough to do a bit of exploring. We enjoyed some moderate bumps and more cruisers on the Main Face, and then hit the North Side, where we stayed for the rest of the day.


We found some really nice tree skiing on the North side. We lapped one favorite tree run that went top to bottom - over 1000' vert - 3 times. I was surprised at how much snow there was in the woods, easily 4 feet. Coverage was great right to the bottom of the mountain. We also enjoyed some nice bump runs at North, with forgiving, well-formed moguls. The north-facing aspect kept the snow soft without turning it to mush or slush.


On Friday, the snow seemed to soften up right from the start. After just a few runs on the Main Face, we headed back over to the North side for more trees and bumps. We enjoyed some of the same trails and trees that we skied on Thursday, and found a few new ones as well. I added a few more pictures from today below.


My friend Howard, pictured above, is evidence that Harv isn't the only skier renowned for his butt-bag.


Greg's board was no problem in the beautiful open glades. A nice, laid back pitch, kinda like the Twister Glades at Gore, but even longer.


We had several snowboarders in our group. Two of them happened to be named Greg. This Greg didn't like the trees so much, but loved the steeper terrain on the North Side.

We haven't decided where we'll go next year, but it'll be hard to beat the fun skiing we had at Mount Snow this year.

I know all of you are asking the same question right now: Is winter over? While it sure is going to seem that way over the next few days, I think the answer is no.

After a period of extremely nice weather over the next few days where sunshine and light winds will combine to create really fantastic spring like days. Look- I love winter as much as anybody, but I can’t deny that a 72 degree day with no wind, no clouds and no humidity isn’t sweet. It is. So appreciate it. Enjoy it. Find some corn. The clear nights should allow for significant cooling so re-freezing should be common. Hit the south facing slopes first and then swing around to the north facing slopes. When it gets too wet, descend, pop the top on the beverage of choice and put on the NCAA tourney. Not a bad day if you ask me.

By Sunday evening however changes will certainly be afoot as a large storm system enters the middle section of the country and some cold air builds into canada.

Looking at the beginning of next week right now it seems that the most likely scenario is as follows:
Spike in temps Saturday, warm Sunday, crashing temps with passing of front between 18z Sun and 18z Monday (Sunday afternoon, Monday afternoon), followed by upper elevation snows (graupel) Monday into Tuesday. After Tuesday it should stay more seasonable. Now some models really want to interact the legit winter air in Canada with this storm system on D-5 (Monday). Were that to happen we could get a very nice elevation dependent storm. It’s certainly not unprecedented for a sharp march warm-up to be followed by crashing temps and substantial elevation snows. We’ll have to see how this plays out but the potential is there for a return to …well…lets call it late October- to late November conditions by the beginning of next week.

Still have wooden skis or long, straight skis kicking around? If they pre-date 1975, consider...

Still have wooden skis or long, straight skis kicking around? If they pre-date 1975, consider...

Comparison review of G3 Onyx with Dynafit FT12 and ST backcountry skiing bindings.

Woof.  A week or two of silence from the FIS western contingent.  Fear not, we’ve still been sleuthing around, snarking pow.

Click here for more early morning gusto.

Harv's Note: I'm trying to compile a timeline history of Gore. Below is what I have so far, taken from the Gore website. If you have additions, please post them in the comments, and I'll add them.



1934: The first ski patrol was formed by Lois Perret.

1934: The first snow train carrying 378 skiers to North Creek from Schenectady on March 4th.

1946: 300’ Tbar installed servicing 839 vertical feet at the North Creek ski bowl.

1964: Gore Mountain is developed with a J bar, a T bar and a double chair, the longest lift in the East at the time.

1967: Gore installs the first Gondola in New York State.

1976: Installation of the snowmaking system on four trails.

1982: Major improvements to Old Red Gondola, including new hangars and towers, to increase speed to summit (25 minutes) and decrease wind swaying over the first valley, that often puts the Gondola on wind hold.

1984: Installation of the Adirondack Express, a high-speed triple chair - the only lift of it’s kind in the East.

1995: Rumor is cut from the summit. With a 33 degree headwall pitch, it's one of the steepest trails in the East.

1998: Burnt Ridge North and South Backcountry areas added as part of the nordic trail system. This progressive idea added a very unique aspect to an already diverse skiing experience at Gore.

1999: New hi-speed eight-passenger Northwoods gondola to the top of Bear Mountain replaces the original gondola to the summit of Gore.

2002:  Topridge area is introduced on Bear Mountain including a new lift and 4 new trails.

2003: North Creek Ski Bowl is re-opened for lift service tubing.

2006: Ruby Run was added to allow beginners to ski from the summit of Bear Mountain to the base of Gore.

2007: Opening of the Northwoods Lodge and a new lift at the North Creek Ski Bowl for day and night skiing and riding.

2008: The addition of  Burnt Ridge Mountain increases Gore’s vertical to 2300 feet providing a new high speed Quad, four new trails and two more glades.

The heavens are lightning up Green for Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 2010.
It was brought to our attention we have high solar activity this week. So we checked out SpaceWeather.com.. look what we found. This letter was sent..
Dear Dr.Phillips and all at SpaceWeather.com,
May we show an aurora image from you on our NECN TV News here in New England?
We will tell everyone to go to SpaceWeather.com for more.
Also, how would you feel about us posting a photo on our NewEnglandWeather.com blog, with link and credit to you?
This is the response (ya!).
Dear Tim,
Permission granted, with pleasure. regards, Tony
Here is a brief description, and image, lifted from Dr. Tony Phillips, SpaceWeather.com.

“This green corona lit up the night sky sky over the weekend,” reports photographer Fredrik Broms of Kvaløya, Norway. “It was absolutely breathtaking–and the best may be yet to come!”

He’s right. A coronal mass ejection (CME) is heading toward Earth and it could spark strong geomagnetic activity when it arrives on March 17th or 18th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras.

Mostly clear skies should make for fine viewing the next couple nights, though some clouds are crossing northern New England, where we set more record high temperatures again today. More of the same into the weekend! Our first 70° since December 3, 2009 will be Thursday or Friday.
.
RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU, ME
0426 PM EDT WED MAR 17 2010

…RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT BANGOR ME…

A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 62 DEGREES WAS SET AT BANGOR ME TODAY.
THIS TIES THE OLD RECORD OF 62 SET IN 1936.

Anyone Remember The March 1936 Flood of record for New England?

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CARIBOU, ME
0426 PM EDT WED MAR 17 2010

…RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT CARIBOU ME…

A RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE OF 54 DEGREES WAS SET AT CARIBOU ME TODAY.
THIS BREAKS THE OLD RECORD OF 45 SET IN 2007.

Portland ME also set record of 64°, beating 62° March 17, 1990.