First Trip to Sno - Give me a Summary/Preview

[oldtimeskier]

Going to Sno on Friday for the first time. Staying away from Elk (Winterfest) and JF (WMMR day). What should I expect?

 

I am a beginner to intermediate skier. Any long runs or cruisers?

 

How is the food? Should I pack a lunch or is the food decent.

 

Thanks!

[snoskier]

You should expect good snow and short lift lines.

 

As a beginner to intermediate you should enjoy anything on the top half of the mountain. If the long haul lift is open you can get some nice top to bottom runs on fast track and runaway. The lower portions of both trails are solid intermediate terrain. There are a couple steep headwalls but a solid intermediate should be able to get down with no issues. Whistler and switch off the iron horse lift are both nice cruisers. If your up for a challenge cannonball is pretty fun with some steeper headwalls although it is an "advanced" trail. Boomer is one of my favorite trials it has a very nice steeper pitch and usually skis well. Smoke and White are the two toughest trails. You will see white from the bottom of the quad - can't miss it. As a beg/intermediate If I was just getting there I would take a run down mainline to warm up and check the conditions then go across the top to whistler, then move skiers right and ski upper runaway back to the iron horse and then do a top to bottom on fast track if your up to it.

 

If they blow snow the night before you can expect chalky powdery conditions. If you get there early there will plenty of nice corduroy to ski.

 

If you ski during the day you will probably have the place to yourself as I don't imagine there will be ton of people. Friday nights tend to get more people as a lot of schools have trips, but during the day you should be fine.

 

For food you have a choice between the bar and the cafeteria. Bar food is actually pretty good, but a little more expensive. The Caf gives you standard fare pizza, burgers ect. (8 for burger and fries i think) but usually has good soup and chili. I know on the weekends they will spread out other dishes e.g. pastas, meats ect. I can't say for Fridays. Personally I would spend the couple extra dollars and eat in the bar especially if its just burgers ect. If you're there for dinner look for the pasta bar (I know its sat/sun (maybe fri) in the bar. It is 10 bucks and REALLY good.

 

Have fun and enjoy.

[trackbiker]

snoskier summed it up pretty well. Mainline is the beginner terrain park so you may want to warm up on one of the other runs. All of the top of the mountain has about the same pitch, so they are all easy. The Long Haul lift likely won't be running during the day but you can ski top to bottom by taking the Phoebe lift and skiing to the Iron Horse lift in about the same amount of time. You'll have to skate over to the top of Upper Runaway and Fast Track but it's worth it for the fresh snow. Be careful not to carry too much speed into the bottom of the lower part of those trails as there are drop offs and they get steeper at the bottom without a runout. That catches a lot of novices by surprise. Cannonball should be doable if you can ski the bottom of those two runs and is likely easier.

Check out Buckman's for discount tickets. New Britian township also sells discount tickets at the township building but I'm not sure if they have Sno tickets.

[oldtimeskier]

Snoskier and Trackbiker:

 

Thanks for the info it will be helpful!

[riderossi]

They gave pretty much all the info you will need. Just to touch on another thing, you will find there is usually a huge difference in conditions and weather from the top of the mountain and the bottom ( referred to as north face). If you find that the conditions get a bit rough up top you are much better off staying on north face. I'd take lower runaway (found right at the bottom of the iron horse lift). The trail starts off really mellow and then drops down a slight headewall. At that point you can continue down runaway or tAke a crossover to lower fastttack on your right. My girlfriend is a beginner at snowboarding and she found fast track a bit easier. But if you can handle either of those it would be wise of you to hang out on north face if the winds get too bad up top. If you can do those with ease you can head over to cannonball and give that a whirl. On your right while riding up the quad will be Boomer. You can decide then whether or not you think you are up to it or not. The diamonds always have the best conditions in the morning as they usually blow fresh snow ontop every night and there is less wind blowing it all over the place like it dies up top. White lightning is bumped up now, starting to get deep in the middle but the skiieea right side is still mellow. It stayed powder until atleast 7 last night when I left. Plus the quad lift will be the warmest and shortest lift to ride. So in short if you feel you can do the bottom hills after you taste a bit of runaway and fast track then stick there and enjoy it. As they said bar food is good, cafe is decent buy pricey, a lot of times they don't even gave cafe food on weekdays, not sure about friday. There's also a wendys 5 minutes away at the bottom of the

mountain on Davis street. A bunch of restraunts even closer at the shoppes at montage.

[snoskier]

I was up last night and the conditions were awesome.

[oldtimeskier]

Thanks for the recommendation. Just got back from Friday at Sno.

 

Fabulous conditions, two inches on natty does not hurt. Could not believe how empty. Possibly because of the special events at JF and Elk?

 

Big mountain! Laid out kinda strange, takes some getting used to.

 

Morning was awesome, light snow and kind of warm. The wind rolled in around noon, got colder.

 

Great time....will go back.

[riderossi]

Nope, always that dead on weekdays.