From Your First Day of the Season

[nopoleskier]

Wow, @nopoleskier - the snow looks perfect! Was it as firm and smooth as it looks? Maybe it’s just my imagination, thinking about how cold it was overnight!

Surprisingly it was soft and plenty of it, no death cookies, true packed powder, (mostly man made) but even after it got skied (after 1) it had 'slickery' spots but no ICE!! All carveable. One trail on the bottom was like mid winter conditions!!

 

[captain_hug99]

This is my daughter and myself. We were at Monarch, there were several areas where the snow was thin, but I found a good run and skied it a whole bunch. It felt so good to be back out there!

 

[LKillick]

Thursday/Thanksgiving! We are at Sunday River... amazing conditions. Thurs was very cold but today was gorgeous. Had a fantastic private lesson and demoed skis too! So happy to be here.

 

[Jilly]

Saturday was day 1 for me. First run, I was in the back seat, pushing my ski out and not a great run. Got it together next run. Quit about 2pm as my friends had condo association meetings. Went home and changed. Did some site seeing shopping. Apres with friends. My turn for dinner with my group, which I made at home and brought up. Somewhere in the night it started to rain, so didn't even brother getting up early this morning. Packed up and headed home. The advantages of the season pass! Tomorrow (or next time) is a another day.

 

[marzNC]

Last Monday, 11/19, was my first day. Ended up deciding that Killington made the most sense on my way to Boston. The Snowdon triple was open in addition to the K1 gondola and North Peak, so got to explore a bit a new terrain that wasn't open a year ago.

Foggy on the upper mountain until mid-afternoon. But most of the time visibility for skiing was okay.


Clearing in the afternoon

 

[snoWYmonkey]

I stepped out of my comfort zone and taught a lesson my first day back on skis. Scored a 5 year old high level skier, and by lunch the powder was all bumped up, with soft cold snow, and so fun! Less fun is that this is the first year in 17 of full time skiing that the knees are really bothering me. Both of them, but thankfully not while skiing. Looking forward to a few more storms before things fill in between the groomers. Hurray, it's on!

 

[KBee]

Today was our first day! Gorgeous sunny day at Timberline. Did laps on the one of two open lifts that wasn't the bunny lift. Was super fun.

Tried my new old stock remarkably ugly Icelantic SKNY pilgrims. Fun carvers for the blues. Sooo sloooow compared to the Kenjas, but not as tiring to use. Will see how they are after a good tuning.

Saw a lot of 4WD trucks spinning their wheels in the lot, and one Camaro (why, people?) that was not having it. Camaro would not go home. Feel a lot better about the snow tires now.

 

[Sparky]

Mammoth got off to a slow start this year. Last Thursday was my first day, right after the first big storm hit with 14-20” of much needed fresh snow. They’re at 19-30” now but expecting at least 2-3 feet this week which should help set a good base and open a lot more of the mountain. Conditions are pretty good, considering, but can’t wait to really get off-piste!

 

[KBee]

Mammoth got off to a slow start this year. Last Thursday was my first day, right after the first big storm hit with 14-20” of much needed fresh snow. They’re at 19-30” now but expecting at least 2-3 feet this week which should help set a good base and open a lot more of the mountain. Conditions are pretty good, considering, but can’t wait to really get off-piste!
View attachment 9649

I love how the Sierras just get so, so, much snow. I have memories of watching walls of it striated by storm as we drove up.

 

[TeleChica]

My first actual ski day was 2 hours at Wachusett when they opened early for just $28. There were a lot of young slope rockets zipping by on narrow trails, so it was spicy. My first tour was on Thursday; we skinned Bolton. It was WINDY and COLD. So cold I became a bit hypothermic---took me about an hour to stop shivering once we got to the car.



Then we had a fantastic day at Stowe on Friday using our passes (first time we ever bought one). They dropped a rope on an ungroomed trail (forget which one), and we found powder. A bit wind buffed, so I found it a little tough going, but still fun! (Sorry pic is so big)



With this weeks snow up north, this weekend should be great. Hope to get out to do more BC on Saturday at Cardigan. What a great start to the season!!

 

[snoWYmonkey]

Tele Chica, I am borrowing your spicy term. Such a fun way to describe a challenging now scene.

 

[mustski]

Our first day was today, but we only had a WROD of man made stuff. Still, it was skiing and I had no pain from the IT Band injury so that is awesome.

 

[MI-skier]

My daughter and I. She is GS racing on Black Friday afternoon. (I have another daughter who swam and I thought that was expensive...HA! Just bought racing mittens for her that were $285--mind boggling!) Beautiful day at our local hill Pine Knob, MI. Mostly man made but time with daughter-priceless.

 

[diymom]

I got my first day in at Wachusett on Black Friday. Well, not a day, but a few hours, by the time I got there (slight power steering issues on the way, but thanks to AAA and a friendly mechanic at a nearby Honda dealership I did make it there eventually.)

My first run I was blindsided by an armpit height rugrat. But in spite of the force of the hit, he was apparently stable enough, and I am apparently solid enough that neither of us fell. He kind of ricocheted off me and kept skiing. Future ski cross competitor in the making?

Inauspicious starts aside, it was a great day. The snow was good, there were no lines, and it wasn't too cold. I can't wait for my second day now!

 

[NewEnglandSkier]

Had my first day of the season at Wachusett today. Not a full day, but skied for a couple hours. Conditions were pretty decent--not too icy. Pretty soft in some areas actually.
Typical early season mid week day--very uncrowded, just the way I like it! I got there a little later than I expected, due to having one of our cars that had the battery die overnight, so AAA had to be called first, as my car was trapped in the garage by the other car!
It was a bit windy, but was a good start to the season.
Took advantage of driving out Route 2 and stopped for ice cream at Bedford Farms in Concord on the way home--one of my "must dos" when driving from Wachusett.

 

[altagirl]

I asked last Saturday at Alta, and it was boot deep fluffy powder. Not at lot open and it was blustery and storming but we had a good time! And I felt pretty good for skiing powder the first day of the season. Cannot complain!

 

[Mary Tee]

I had my first 4 days at Mount Snow. With 15” of snow Monday night and 6 more on Tuesday night, it was the perfect time to get back on skis after 2 years away. My face hurt from smiling so much!!! Unfortunately I didn’t even think about taking pictures...too busy skiing!

 

[kiki]

Yesterday was day 1 for me at Whistler.
We've had warm weather and low precipitation so only a limited part of the hill is open. The bunny hills are all closed as lower down and every one of all levels was packed into a small green/blue area. I've never seen it so crowded.
But i digress!
My new boots were ready for pick up and i didn't know if they'd be able to adjust my bindings for them without adjusting the screw holes. Driving up i was scared and excited and grinning to myself in the car like a maniac lol!
The sun was shinning, blue sky, no wind. Gorgeous.
Boots felt great and the girl got the bindings adjusted with no problem


My fabulous new boots and I made it up the lift and I was so happy to be up there, so beautiful, such joy just to be there again


First run, better shape than expected! No fear! Feels GREAT! Love my new boots and skis are perfect for the conditions.
Yes, skiing is a bit sloppy compared to end of last season but shocked it's going so well

Then a snowboarder slams into me from behind. I go flying, skis and poles and me separate. I feel bad things happening in my leg. Then i land on my thumb. Crying. Lots of crying. Make it to the lift and back to first aid. Some good samaritains on the way helped a lot. More crying. Spained thumb. Overextended leg. No more skiing for at least a week, maybe 3. More crying. At the bottom the folks at the ski shop babied me and helped me get my boots off and checked my skis for damage---such kind people, it made me feel so much better.
Hoping for a speedy recovery and more snow! I love skiing!!! It felt so good to be there, so joyous!

 

[Skiwino]

So sorry to hear you got knocked down, @kiki. I hope you are ok and back up there soon. Love your enthusiasm. Thank-you for sharing pictures.

 

[Jenny]

Well, crap! I don’t like the twist in an otherwise happy story.