Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Whiteface: 03/24/2018

Whiteface Mountain, Saturday 3/24/2018.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

We've spent a lot of time skiing in Vermont lately but our visit to Whiteface last weekend was a good reminder of how great the skiing can be in New York. When conditions are as good as they were on Saturday, Whiteface rivals any mountain for King of the East. And when the Slides are open, if you ask me there's no contest.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

Sugarbush, VT: 03/17 & 03/18/2018

Sugarbush, VT, Saint Patrick's Day weekend 2018.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

It’s been an amazing March for Vermont ski areas, with monthy snowfall totals in the 4 to 5 feet range. We headed up to Sugarbush this weekend to make use of our Mountain Collective passes.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Stratton, VT: 03/10/2018

Stratton, VT, Saturday 03/10/2018.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

Southern Vermont was in the jackpot zone for last week's storm system and the ski areas all posted some impressive snowfall totals. Stratton's multi-day accumulation came in somewhere north of 30 inches, which was enough to coax us into flexing our MaxPasses for a return visit.

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Pico Mountain, VT: 03/03/2018

Pico Mountain, Saturday 3/03/2018.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

With the Catskills chalking up some huge snowfall totals from last Friday’s storm, we almost headed south for the weekend. After hearing about all the power outages and long lines just to get in the parking lots, I guess it’s a good thing that we didn’t. Instead, we headed over to Pico Saturday morning, where a modest 9 inches or so had fallen.

The late February thaw(s) that plagued the northeast hit Pico’s natural terrain particularly hard, but somehow just enough base survived to stage a comeback with the new snow.

Thursday, March 1, 2018

Utah Sampler: 02/17 - 02/23/2018

I’ve got a mile long list of all the people who told me I should cancel my Utah trip. “So-and-so pulled the plug on their Utah trip and is going to Jackson instead” they’d say. Or Big Sky. Or Grand Targhee. Even TGR was dishing out the anti-stoke. I hatched a hair-brained scheme (which we fortunately didn’t execute) to ditch our last couple days in Utah and drive 5 hours north to Jackson instead.

Snowbird, Utah, February 2018.

The Saratoga Skier and Hiker, first-hand accounts of adventures in the Adirondacks and beyond, and Gore Mountain ski blog.

Lucky for us, Utah’s long awaited pattern change started to kick in a week before our trip. 18 to 20 inches of snow fell across the Cottonwoods the week before our arrival with predictions of significantly more.