Ride Delaware ?

I actually love the NRT pod early season. There are some really fun trees up there. It's got a good cruiser in the Great Northern and some technical stuff on East Fall when ungroomed. Also have a great blue cruiser in Rime and a pretty nice pitch on the terrain park trail. I've yet to go on a weekend, so no complaints on crowds either. I've gone on a weekend in late November with Snowdon open and there were no crowds then either. Mid season I head to Pico, but Killington is good if you manage your expectations.

Killington is great for what it is. They've got some good trees and they have a great early season setup. I go there for those reasons.

They have a full list on their website. I'm too lazy to track it down again...

Depends on when and where your season starts. Dec 1. Puts you on solid footing for PA. I'm hoping that I get on the snow in about 6 weeks. I would love to log an October day. Killington posted October openings in 11/12/13 and a Nov 3 opening last year. I know it's not the norm, but I'm pretty excited for a chance at it.

Like a new job as in a new window cleaning job for your business, or just a new job?

I wear mine until they physically can't be put on my body...

Had to wear jeans and a hoodie tonight for the first time this "year".

Just saw that Mount Washington observatory saw trace amounts of snow yesterday.

If the temps drop, then we are only about 6 weeks away from Killington's avg opening the past 3-4 years. I'm going off memory, but I think I'm close

Went camping in western MD this past weekend. Leaves are starting to change. Mostly yellows, but some reds starting.

http://www.weather.com/news/climate/news/strong-el-nino-noaa-update-september2015

I've been watching the Meathead Films neo web series... So good.

No real comparison. The natural snow just wasn't there. Sugarbush was deep and just as cold. I wasn't hitting anything at the Bush. I was hitting everything at the face. There were also plenty of bare spots coming through at the base.

I didn't hike. Just went to the top of lift served. Love how they point out your passing the peak of all these other New England mountains on the lift ride.

I'm looking to continue my summer trip report series, so I figured I would post this gem from Whiteface. I have one last set of photos from Gore that I'll create into a trip report sometime around the first of the month. The past two years I have purchased the Fox 44 discount card from My Champlain Valley. What a steal. This year they added Whiteface for a minimal cost increase. I decided to hit Gore and Whiteface on my north to the MRV even though Whiteface is particularly out of the way. I had ridden at Gore the day before, so I drove up the night of the 30th, grabbed a cheap room in Lake Placid at one of the budget chain hotels, and grabbed some food downtown at a brewpub of sorts. I woke up the next morning to about an inch of snow on the car. It might have been slightly less. I grabbed some snacks at the breakfast "buffet" before heading over to the mountain. I got in about 8:45, was excited to see about 4" of fresh, and booted up in the lot. I had never been to Whiteface before, and this place is really out here. The temperature was quite mild at around 30 degrees. There were definitely some cars in the lot, but it was still a weekday late season, so I was hardly afraid of running into crowds. I walked across the bridge and noticed the mountain was looking mighty fine. I went to the ticket window but was told I would have to redeem the ticket at the customer service desk on the 2nd floor. I was able to get it at Gore at the ticket window, so I gave them some lip about similar management practices etc, then headed down to the gondola. I had to share a couple cabins, but it was many. Most of them I rode solo, especially after 11 AM when everyone had spread out. I couldn't tell you where I went, but I lapped the gondi several times before heading elsewhere. It was really easy to find some fresh snow. The snow was wet, but there was no crust, so it was still a bunch of fun. Really bumped up after a couple hours. The slides weren't open, but coverage looked pretty decent. I'm sure it was because of the wet snow. I hit a couple runs off the top and I was still getting freshies on the front face until I left. I hit some glades here and there which had pretty good spacing, but there were a fair amount of obstacles underneath the freshies. I was on the rock board, so it didn't stop me from exploring. I did a couple laps on the newest terrain (Lookout?) before going back for a couple final runs on the gondi. The trails were long, kinda flat, and really slow at times with the fresh snow, but I could see some cruising potential with some groomed hard pack. There were some really long nice looking glades, but they were closed and I didn't take the time to find the entrances anyway. After about 5 hours on the slopes, I packed up and headed for the car. I left about 2:30 and rolled into the Bush about 6:30. It was a fun little trip and I would make it a yearly excursion if they continue to offer that discount card.

Where do you patrol VTmark? I don't know how liberal Killington is with their comp ticket policy. I haven't tried...

I am going to snag a couple of them since I have a couple extra emails, but the fact that it's only one day until midnight is definitely a change of pace for them.

I read something that although El Niño usually isn't good news, there have been a couple years where strong El Ninos can bring a decent NE season depending on Pacific temps...

Many folks use the term snirt...

I'm pretty sure Doug was just jealous he didn't come up with it... He will be using it for seasons to come. Nah mean?

Smuggs is great. Less runs but high quality goods...

Snow + dirt = snirt

Snirt is a technical term...

I don't believe I have any that haven't already hit the press...

I'm a morning person when I'm in a routine. When it's a powder day, I'm there first thing. No need to rush out on a day like this. I'm sure I have some somewhere, but I probably posted most of the SR stuff already...