Sat 2/6- Got out early. Sunny and chilly. Did Top Ridge first and it was not good. Then Uncas to the SB Quad. Hawkeye was great with all the new manmade. Lapped that a bit. Got a rare run on Chati with some nice corduroy. Lies was pretty bad, ungroomed ice and hardpack bumps. OP was ok, the lower half was better. Got some OP>Lower Darby runs with some patrollers. Skied that until I was straightlining out of the bottom and managed to double-eject after burying my tips in a gully at the bottom. That one hurt. The conditions overall were MUCH improved from week ago.

Sun 2/7- Sunny again, but the summit was wrapped in a misty cloud. Where it was windy it was COLD. Lies got groomed overnight and was good. Hawkeye was still fun (snowmaking whales and some soft stuff). Hullabaloo was a lot of fun. They blew a lot of snow on the headwall making it higher and steeper. It was almost inverted in some spots. I was not impressed with the lower mountain. Any snow either got skied off or blown off. Overall it was a good day.

Frostillicus wrote:

Sat 2/6- Got out early. Sunny and chilly. Did Top Ridge first and it was not good. Then Uncas to the SB Quad. Hawkeye was great with all the new manmade. Lapped that a bit. Got a rare run on Chati with some nice corduroy. Lies was pretty bad, ungroomed ice and hardpack bumps. OP was ok, the lower half was better. Got some OP>Lower Darby runs with some patrollers. Skied that until I was straightlining out of the bottom and managed to double-eject after burying my tips in a gully at the bottom. That one hurt. The conditions overall were MUCH improved from week ago. Sun 2/7- Sunny again, but the summit was wrapped in a misty cloud. Where it was windy it was COLD. Lies got groomed overnight and was good. Hawkeye was still fun (snowmaking whales and some soft stuff). Hullabaloo was a lot of fun. They blew a lot of snow on the headwall making it higher and steeper. It was almost inverted in some spots. I was not impressed with the lower mountain. Any snow either got skied off or blown off. Overall it was a good day.

Frost, you didn't get to Sagamore?

That was the best part of the weekend!

Sagamore sure looked and sounded great last weekend.

I haven't really been paying attention to what they've been blowing on this week. Uncas and Fairview, what else?

Would totally appreciate any reports from today or tomorrow.

Probably coming up no matter what, but still curious about what's going on.

If was solo I think I'd head north, really far north. My buddy James is up in Canada and lovin it. Gore type vibe, NoVT type snow:

http://harvey44.blogspot.com/2010/02/mont-sutton-qc-2810.html

but looks like this weekend is for lessons, family and friends.

Who else is skiing this weekend?

Hey Harv. We are headed to WF for the weekend. Our place is rented for Pres. Day. I am going to miss Sagamore, but hoping for some good conditions up there. I love riding from the summit to the base. Wilmington trail seems to be in much better shape than it was at New Years. From the posts on the WF side conditions overall seem to be pretty good.

Maybe we'll get lucky and get some snow this week. We are signed up for the First Tracks program on Saturday morning. Will try to post a TR on the WF side at some point over the weekend.

Enjoy everyone!

Danzilla wrote:

I am going to miss Sagamore,

They Grommed it

I headed over before my run at my race Tuesday to see it completely flat. Such a disappointment. Right when I thought we were going to have a designated bump run, they flatten it out. Boo.

I can't believe they groomed Sag. I loved skiing those bumps last Sunday.

I wish they would leave it be. The bumps and the lines are beautiful and it's really the only thing the bump skiers have. There are plenty of cruisers for the bump-impaired

I did it as soon as it opened last Saturday morning (2 runs) -- very weird, but fun. The new man made whales were nice, but really grabbed your skis. By the afternoon (3 runs), after it was skied on, the bumps were perfect.

What would happen if they didn't flatten it every once in a while? Would the bumps become rock hard? I didn't ski it Sunday (left to get home to a Super Bowl party). Were they rock hard on Sunday?

Without really knowing what's going on ... how hard the bumps were, how much base is really there, what the plan is ... seems too bad.

We're coming up, and even though ma nature has overlooked us so far this season, I have to say I was thinking ... mmm Sagamore bumps mmm.

If there is a decent base there, and they leave it, maybe those bumps will be sweet by the weekend?

We skied Belleayre on Jan 31. One thing that I thought was unusual and kinda cool. After the big ugly two Mondays ago - Bell chose to concentrate their full snowmaking firepower on the bump runs. No grooming on those runs just 3-4 days of new manmade on top.

I was surprised actually, because they did it at the expense of all their green and blue cruisers. The mountain was pretty so-so except for those bump runs which were primo.

* * *

I've got a lot of people PM'ing me about conditions at Gore vs WF right now. I'm not much help because I haven't been to the Adks in two weeks. Anybody ski both recently, or know anybody who did?

My friend said he was skiing at Jiminy a while back and they blew a whole bunch of snow, then put bamboo stick or gates in the middle of the trail rhythmically and to make everyone turn around them and they became perfect bumps. Bump runs at Gore tend to not have so much rhythm, I think this would be an awesome way to make some perfect bumps. Might be a good idea for the Bump Comp instead of making them with a groomer...

fujative. wrote:

My friend said he was skiing at Jiminy a while back and they blew a whole bunch of snow, then put bamboo stick or gates in the middle of the trail rhythmically and to make everyone turn around them and they became perfect bumps. Bump runs at Gore tend to not have so much rhythm, I think this would be an awesome way to make some perfect bumps. Might be a good idea for the Bump Comp instead of making them with a groomer...

Sounds like a GREAT idea. Good rhythmic skiers make good bumps. Over-matched panicky skiers make disjointed troughs -- they don't ski, they scrape and slide.

Ever see a good continuous bump line down Lies, The Rumor or Lower Steilhang? Me neither

Spongeworthy wrote:

Sounds like a GREAT idea. Good rhythmic skiers make good bumps. Over-matched panicky skiers make disjointed troughs -- they don't ski, they scrape and slide. Ever see a good continuous bump line down Lies, The Rumor or Lower Steilhang? Me neither

Exactly. If Gore was ever to have a designated bump run or two (*cough* like maybe skier left of lower Hawkeye while leaving a cat pass or two for the less experienced who want to bail *cough*) that would be a great way to set everything up and keep some rhythm. It would take a LOT of bamboo/gates to run the entire lower half of hawkeye, though.

Skied Gore Sat, Sun, and Mon. By Sunday noon, the mountian was boilerplate except for Echo. By Mon, the entire mountain was boilerplate, due to two days of wind.

Yes, Sags was rockhard bumps. Great job with the coverage especially after the end of Jan weather issues, but not being strong in the bumps, they ate me up!

mattchuck2 wrote:

Frostillicus wrote: Sat 2/6- Got out early. Sunny and chilly. Did Top Ridge first and it was not good. Then Uncas to the SB Quad. Hawkeye was great with all the new manmade. Lapped that a bit. Got a rare run on Chati with some nice corduroy. Lies was pretty bad, ungroomed ice and hardpack bumps. OP was ok, the lower half was better. Got some OP>Lower Darby runs with some patrollers. Skied that until I was straightlining out of the bottom and managed to double-eject after burying my tips in a gully at the bottom. That one hurt. The conditions overall were MUCH improved from week ago. Sun 2/7- Sunny again, but the summit was wrapped in a misty cloud. Where it was windy it was COLD. Lies got groomed overnight and was good. Hawkeye was still fun (snowmaking whales and some soft stuff). Hullabaloo was a lot of fun. They blew a lot of snow on the headwall making it higher and steeper. It was almost inverted in some spots. I was not impressed with the lower mountain. Any snow either got skied off or blown off. Overall it was a good day. Frost, you didn't get to Sagamore? That was the best part of the weekend!

I have to admit I was just too stubborn and lazy to skate all the way around that darn race on Twister. I'm kicking myself for not heading over.

Hoser wrote:

... Sags was rockhard bumps..

In that case, the timing on the groom out sounds good to me.

Thanks for the report Hoser.

My sense is that the summit will be a priority in the upcoming period.

Once groomed, the bumps won't re-form without soft snow, either from snowmaking or from the sky. At least not good bumps like what we had. IMO, they should really refrain from grooming Sag out unless it gets absolutely terrible. I suspect that it wasn't yet to that point when it got groomed. IMO a light re-blowing of the trail would have been preferable. I beleive that's what Killington does on Outer Limits and Sugarbush on Stein's: they freshen up the snow rather than mow the sucker down.

There should certainly be more bumped terrain on the mountain - the idea above for lower hawkeye would be a great start and there are other areas of the mtn as well.