Mount Snow

So, I worked my first day at Mount Snow today. It was so windy only three lifts were open. That made teaching at a new resort very interesting. But I made it to the proper terrain for the students AND I didn't get lost. Oh, and I only had to look at the map I stashed in my pocket once :)! As you can see, we might not be tall, but we are fairly big. Big enough to get lost on the first day. I also included some pictures of the drive: an open valley with a dairy farm, the cute little town I turn right to go and left to go home, and the view from one of the peaks I drive over. It was really cloudy and windy so the pictures aren't too clear. When the weather is better I'll get more up.

Thought you all might like to know, too, that Mount Snow is not named because it is so snowy or because we are trying to make our 250 inches of annual snowfall sound any better than it is. In 1953 Mount Pisgah was purchased from Mr. Snow by "Walt" a Russian immigrant who moved to VT to live in the snow. Funny where names come from!

More Mount Snow facts:
Summit Elevation: 3,600 ft (1,100 m)

Vertical Drop: 1,700 ft (520 m)

Skiable area: 768 acres (3.11 km²)

Trails: 135

Snowmaking: 86%

Lifts 19 Total: 4 High Speed Quads: 3 - Fixed Quads: 1 - Triples: 7 - Doubles: 4 - Surface Lifts: 3 - Rope Tows: 1

Trail ratings:

Green Circle (novice): 20%

Blue Square (more difficult): 63%

Black Diamond (most difficult): 17%

Parks & pipes

The Gut: a 460-foot (140 m)-long, 18-foot (5.5 m)-high competition superpipe. The Vermontster: The longest, and most poorly named, terrain park in the East at 4,940 feet (1,506 m) to be installed in the 2007-2008 season. Un Blanco Gulch: The East’s original snowboard park. Jiblet: A specially designed park with smaller features. Grommet: Another specially designed park with smaller features. Au Natural: A terrain park designed from natural snow. (So, I better get my park and pipe skills honed!)

My comment: it has FANTASTIC teaching terrain and the people I work with are very friendly and fun. And while there are no BIG, majestic mountain views, looking out over the famous ridge lines of Vermont which are lined with leafless birch trees right now is beautiful, too. And while I miss Sundance and all its people, sometimes a change of "scenary" is good. To mix it up and get out of ruts is often fun, exciting, and helpful in so many ways! As it appears that so much has changed in my resort, somethings haven't. We are still horribly understaffed (we need at least 50 more people to keep up with the demand), we struggle with no shows (with no notification) and we struggle with being so busy there isn't time for training. Somethings change, somethings always stay the same. ;)

YOU ALL SHOULD COME OUT AND ENJOY SOUTHERN VERMONT SKIING WITH ME! (If for no other reason, but for breakfast before skiing with REAL maple syrup!) :)