[IMG]mountsnow.com/images/spacer.gif[/IMG]
Have you noticed that it’s tough to find a trail count on mountsnow.com? That’s because we’ve changed our snow reporting strategy to reflect honesty and accuracy. The bottom line: skiable acres are what’s important, not a high trail count.
We’ve all seen it: Mount Snow reports 28 open trails, but in reality there are only 4 top to bottom runs made up of connectors and “lower” and “upper” portions of trails. We would report 54 out of 107 trails open and it gave the impression that our mountain was 50% open, when in fact, only about 25% of our terrain was skiable. Misleading, right? That’s why we’re dropping out of the trail count game and reporting open acreage instead. An acre is an acre – you can’t spin that. When you read our snow report you’ll know exactly what to expect.
Take a popular trail like Snowdance as an example. It has 24 skiable acres. On the other hand, Upper Lodge, Lodge, Choke, Charlie’s Chase, Yard Sale, Uncle’s and Launch Pad, added all together, give you 19 acres. In this case, one trail has more skiable terrain than seven trails combined.
No trail count? How will I know what’s open?As we say bye bye to trail count, we welcome a new mountain measurement: acreage. We’ll let you know how many acres are open, and what percentage of the whole mountain is open. Don’t worry, we’ll still let you know exactly which trails are open, and if they’ve been groomed or if they saw overnight snowmaking. Everything else – like snowfall tallies, snow conditions, base depth, etc. – will be reported as usual.
I noticed your trails are now categorized into Premium, Classic, and Natural. What’s that?That’s our new trail designation system. Every trail on the mountain falls into one of these categories:
Premium –The kings of the hill. They are long, wide runs that are flanked by new-technology fan guns. They are groomed nearly every day, if not every day, and feature the best snow conditions. Try: Snowdance, Standard, Exhibition, Ridge, Deer Run, Long John
Classic – Classic trails feature traditional air/water snowmaking. They are groomed 1 to 3 times a week and are generally geared toward the more advanced skier and rider. Try: Free Fall, Ego Alley, Fallen Timbers, South Bowl, Thanks Walt
Natural – For the hardcore skiers and riders. Natural trails feature no manmade snow and are groomed only after certain weather events. Try: Olympic, Big Dipper, One More Time, Jaws, Uncle’s, Hop
No way. If a trail has enough snow to sustain a skier or rider, we’ll open ‘er up. We realize there are those of you who live for ungroomed, “classic New England” trails, and we’re not about to change that.
What exactly is an acre?Picture a football field. Got it? That is approximately one acre. Now picture 20 football fields, all laid out in front of you, blanketed in snow and groomed to perfection and you’ll have an understanding of why we work so hard to open Standard, a blue square cruiser on the Main Face.
How will tree skiing be affected?From now on, glades will be open AT ALL TIMES – from opening day to closing day. Please use caution and sound judgment. Tree skiing will not be included in overall acreage statistics.
Will the new Carinthia be included in this new system?Carinthia freestyle terrain parks will be included in overall acreage statistics, but they will not be designated in the Premium, Classic and Natural categories. Instead, each park is tagged by size, from the extra small Grommet all the way up to the extra large Inferno park.
That’s it. If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us at info@mountsnow.com. After all, this is all for you.
As always, watch for obstructions both natural and manmade. Ice, thin spots, bare spots and variations on the snow surface can and will exist.
This shows that mounts now cares about what is open and wont make up how much is open when they open a upper run. mount snow is for the people haha
