West Mountain: 01/11/2012, UPDATED 01/14/2012 WITH SNOWMAKING VIDEO

Wednesday telemark night at West Mountain, week 2. While those who skipped last week missed out on a fine night of skiing, those who skipped this week probably made the right call. Loose granular snow over a hardpack base plus crowded slopes (mostly school groups) added up to less-than-stellar skiing. It’s still skiing though, and those of us who braved the slopes were all smiles by 9:15 (in the bar) as the first beers were poured.

Gore Mountain: 01/08/2012

Before I'm accused of being a complete shill, I'll tell you that the skiing on Gore's lower mountain today was not very good. We found uninspiring conditions on our warm-up lap down Wild Air: loose frozen granular ice shavings over a hardpack base. Given yesterday's warm temperatures followed by a (relatively) cold snap today, I wasn't surprised. It took just that one run down the front side to convince us that the summit was the place to be.

Lies

West Mountain: 01/04/2012

Cold temperatures and a generally lackluster start to the ski season kept away quite a few of our usual Wednesday night telemarkers. But cold doesn’t really bother me, and I figured the skiing would be pretty good under the guns at West Mountain. Too bad for those who skipped, because the skiing turned out to be quite good: cold temperatures over the past couple of days produced nice, silky manmade packed powder conditions last night.

Gore Mountain: 01/02/2012

Yesterday's wet granular conditions are today's frozen granular surfaces. Sure, the skiing was better on yesterday's soft snow, but at least today the mountain felt like winter might return.

Gore Mountain: 01/01/2012

It was a classic case of "You should have been here yesterday!" Other skiers told us how yesterday's weather somehow defied the forecasts, with morning showers giving way to clearing skies and snow that softened all the way from the base to the summit. We had decent snow today too, but gray skies and a socked-in summit.