The last few weeks at my local hill - Greek Peak in upstate NY, have seen rapidly deteriorating base and conditions. As the end of the season has neared, I've been surprised at what has remained open to skiers. Not that it's impossible to ski the open trails, but there seems to be a big divergence with the practices of past years where it seemed like trails would be closed way before they were unsafe to ski. This year it seems like just the opposite -- trails are being kept open with almost no base, sheets of icy bumps (not crust, but groundwater seeping up from underneath icy), lots of exposed dirt and rocks, etc.
So the only obvious difference between this year and last year is the $35 million dollar indoor water park and lodge/restaurant that the resort put in across the road. It seems, imo, that ski patrol must be getting pressured from the resort to keep more trails open so they can continue to attract visitors.
Yesterday for example, they reported 22 trails and 4 lifts open. Well for locals who know, one of those lifts was Chair 5, on the backside of the mountain. There was no point in skiing off this trail -- the only run down had you crossing some straw/hay at the beginning where the trail was bare, then skiing a few places where the "snow" narrowed to about 5 feet, and even that was dirty slush. At the bottom the lifties had to create a snow bridge over some mud to enable people to gingerly shuffle up to the lift line.
The front side of the mountain was better, but even then there were a couple trails that in the past would've been closed based on yesterday's conditions.
I'll be surprised if they stay open after today. Their snow report of 22-42" of base is a joke, since large patches of mud/dirt abound everywhere, and you can see through much of the base to the grass/dirt beneath in a lot of areas as well. I'd say their avg base is more realistically 0 to 12 inches.
So for ski patrol types -- do you guys get pressure from resort mgmt to keep trails open at times when you think they shoudl be closed?
The skiing yesterday was ok on about half the open trails. On the other half it was marginal (heavy slush) to downright stupid (walking over straw/hay to get to snow). There were lots of patrollers about, but they were just free skiing in a group, so I didn't bother chatting any of them up.
Sadly my local season is done. We had some decent local skiing this year, and the kids made great progress. We also had a fantastic trip to Utah -- which reminds me I need to move to someplace with better/more consistent snow. On a bright note, I started bike commuting this past week, and am taking the family out for a ride later today!
So the only obvious difference between this year and last year is the $35 million dollar indoor water park and lodge/restaurant that the resort put in across the road. It seems, imo, that ski patrol must be getting pressured from the resort to keep more trails open so they can continue to attract visitors.
Yesterday for example, they reported 22 trails and 4 lifts open. Well for locals who know, one of those lifts was Chair 5, on the backside of the mountain. There was no point in skiing off this trail -- the only run down had you crossing some straw/hay at the beginning where the trail was bare, then skiing a few places where the "snow" narrowed to about 5 feet, and even that was dirty slush. At the bottom the lifties had to create a snow bridge over some mud to enable people to gingerly shuffle up to the lift line.
The front side of the mountain was better, but even then there were a couple trails that in the past would've been closed based on yesterday's conditions.
I'll be surprised if they stay open after today. Their snow report of 22-42" of base is a joke, since large patches of mud/dirt abound everywhere, and you can see through much of the base to the grass/dirt beneath in a lot of areas as well. I'd say their avg base is more realistically 0 to 12 inches.
So for ski patrol types -- do you guys get pressure from resort mgmt to keep trails open at times when you think they shoudl be closed?
The skiing yesterday was ok on about half the open trails. On the other half it was marginal (heavy slush) to downright stupid (walking over straw/hay to get to snow). There were lots of patrollers about, but they were just free skiing in a group, so I didn't bother chatting any of them up.
Sadly my local season is done. We had some decent local skiing this year, and the kids made great progress. We also had a fantastic trip to Utah -- which reminds me I need to move to someplace with better/more consistent snow. On a bright note, I started bike commuting this past week, and am taking the family out for a ride later today!
