# Worst conditions you've tolerated before..



## sketcheroo (Dec 29, 2010)

Worst time I've ever boarded was a few years ago at Heavenly in Tahoe it was -50 with windchill at the top. Needless to say a combination of wind and super cold temps making the snow sticky as all hell made it incredibly difficult to move off the cat tracks onto the runs because it was impossible to skate and had to unstrap to walk.


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## david_z (Dec 14, 2009)

frozen groomer lines and sled tracks are about as bad as you can get but I've never seen an entire ski area in that bad of shape. sorry to hear it but lucky you're getting a refund.

In Tahoe a few years back it was 0 at the top with a -30 wind chill. that's about as cold as I've ever been but there was a little fresh snow so it was actually a decent day to ride. 

In Whistler, 2006 we were there it hadn't snowed in over 14 days. Hardpack hardpack hardpack there wasn't any fresh, anywhere. It was between 0 and 5 degrees ever day and awfully icy. These were (disappointingly) some of the worst conditions I've ever ridden - as bad or worse than a bad day on the slopes here in the midwest.


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## freshy (Nov 18, 2009)

Wow I don't think anyone will beat a mountain of solid ice, yikes, sounds really bad.

My worst day was at Silver Star about 4 or 5 years ago. Freezing rain that was so bad your goggles would literally get a sheet of ice built up on them, no amount of wiping or scraping would help. The only way to get the ice off was to take off your goggles and twist so the ice sheet could break up. I tried riding without goggles and it felt like a million tiny needles were trying to puncture my eyeballs. It was already a thick pea soup of a foggy day, but with the ice on the goggles I literally couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me.
On the lifts my jacket and pants would also get a sheet of ice building up. 
There was a good half a foot of pow, but with a sheet of ice on top. So it hurt pretty bad when your nose went under and had to use your shin as an icebreaker.
I'm surprised we lasted the 5 or 6 runs we did, it really was terrible.


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

I experience frozen groomer lines alot, near the edges, Goes from a hard pack powder type stuff that is pretty enjoyable to skid through to frozen, but usually you leave behind some granular for the next person to wisk through easily..

I can't even imagine how the ENTIRE slope was like this today. 30% covered in a dusting of powder with 10% of it covered with 1" of powder, which IMMEDIATELY slowed you almost out of your boots lol, then you turn and find the only way to turn is to basically ice skate through it.

Will they find a way to chop this up? I'm surprised they only groom and dont have attachments for their equipment to churn up the snow and grind it up creating, and then grooming it.

I would think the only thing that could save my slopes would be some warm weather during the day to loosen it up, a gaggle of skiers to churn it up, and a good 2"-4" of fresh powder to mix in with it to create a ridable base?!?

last year was so much better. Powder almost all year, packed or fresh...in the east! 

Im used to loose granular heavy stuff on teh narrows and in between bumps on the steeps, I guess this is hated by many but for us east coasters this is fine, even the occasional solid sheet of ice on the most heavily traveled intersections of the steeps is fine, we learn to anticipate and adjust, 

But when you have solid ice with a dusting of powder in tiny spots, it's horrible. 

I feel bad, they dump off 5 buses of kids that had NO idea how to ride. Most of them looked like deer in headlights at the lodge as they tried to figure out how to ski/skate over to teh lift lol. They are going to HURT after tonight. There was already one kid that messed up his arm after only riding 2 times down. 

oh well, im done complaining , its over but sad. That much rain and you groom the slopes!??! what happens to a slush ball when you SMOOSH it together and then put it in the freezer!?? it becomes an ice ball! I wouldnt have groomed what so ever, would have waited for the fresh overnight stuff, made a boat load of snow overnight then groomed late late morning , and presto, great weekend. Now it's ruined for all their events


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## JoeR (Oct 30, 2010)

freshy said:


> Wow I don't think anyone will beat a mountain of solid ice, yikes, sounds really bad.


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

freshy said:


> Wow I don't think anyone will beat a mountain of solid ice, yikes, sounds really bad.
> 
> My worst day was at Silver Star about 4 or 5 years ago. Freezing rain that was so bad your goggles would literally get a sheet of ice built up on them, no amount of wiping or scraping would help. The only way to get the ice off was to take off your goggles and twist so the ice sheet could break up. I tried riding without goggles and it felt like a million tiny needles were trying to puncture my eyeballs. It was already a thick pea soup of a foggy day, but with the ice on the goggles I literally couldn't see more than a few feet in front of me.
> On the lifts my jacket and pants would also get a sheet of ice building up.
> ...


AH! I've been there too! Cruising along and you hit a 'fresh' spot of powder that hasn't been fluffed by anyone after a freezing rain (or during) and your legs / boots get chewed up by the crunchy stuff on top while you are floating on the powder underneath. 

Dunno. Wish they would be honest about conditions so people can decide if they really want to spend their money on a day like that.

makes me mad that the day before was sunny, 36, packed powder


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## Shocktroop531 (Aug 3, 2010)

-30 degrees with wind chills in the -70 range last january at stowe vermont. you haven't boarded in bad conditions until you've boarded solid ice slopes in vermont in january


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## arsenic0 (Nov 11, 2008)

I went to Skibowl our lowest resort(but best terrain with heavy snow) late in the season after a storm. About 30 minutes in it actually started to rain on us, and not like sprinkle but downright pour. My buddy apparently forgot to clean his vagine that morning because he got all butthurt and wanted to go inside(I dont care about getting wet, thats why i wear a waterproof goretex coat).

So we went inside and drank a beer until it stopped, pretty much everybody left but a few. And when it stopped, it turned into one of the best days ever lol. The rain had softened up the groomed snow and it was butter smooth and we had the entire mountain to ourself basically.

Same buddy didnt have a good day when we went to Timberline this season lol. First run hes like oh look Magic mile(the upper most run) was open, i saw clouds and fog and said i dunno i hate boarding in the god damn fog you cant see shit but said we can try it once. We get to the top and of course cant see shit, and he falls off the lift and bangs his knee right onto a block of ice. Like glacier ice up there lol it may as well been a piece of iron. Bad way to start the day...


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## john doe (Nov 6, 2009)

Last Sunday it got up to 73 degrees and I went with my friend to take his boys (6 and 8) for some slush boarding that night. Bad thing was that it got too hot and the massive amount of water combined with the "snow" to make one giant sheet of ice. Having kids try to falling leaf down and just falling on ice over and over makes for a hellish time. We went down twice. The second time was only to get back to the lodge.


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## NickCap (Feb 21, 2011)

yo sincraft were do you live in the east?!? i live in jersey and im going to blue mountain today... in a couple hours!!! hopefully its not like this!!! they said today was a great day to go... the sun is shining...


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## Argo (Feb 25, 2010)

The worst conditions I have been in were where I always go, wolf creek colorado. it was December 2009/jan 2010. It was -20 regular temp and I dont know about the wind chill. During the day while we were boarding it snowed 20", as close to white out as you can get all the way until 4pm. Everyone left for the day around 11am and the runs were wide open fresh powder runs all day long since it had been dumping for a couple of days prior too. I would ride straight to the lift and go right back up all afternoon. It was a pretty great day overall even with the crappy weather conditions. My wife and kids went and sat out the last hour or so in the truck waiting for me. The last couple of runs were in clear conditions since the snow stopped, it was awesome.... I didnt see a single other rider/skier on my last 4-5 runs.


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## fatboyj711 (Feb 1, 2010)

Argo said:


> The worst conditions I have been in were where I always go, wolf creek colorado. it was December 2009/jan 2010. It was -20 regular temp and I dont know about the wind chill. During the day while we were boarding it snowed 20", as close to white out as you can get all the way until 4pm. Everyone left for the day around 11am and the runs were wide open fresh powder runs all day long since it had been dumping for a couple of days prior too. I would ride straight to the lift and go right back up all afternoon. It was a pretty great day overall even with the crappy weather conditions. My wife and kids went and sat out the last hour or so in the truck waiting for me. The last couple of runs were in clear conditions since the snow stopped, it was awesome.... I didnt see a single other rider/skier on my last 4-5 runs.


You must hate your life


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## newguy36 (Feb 23, 2010)

It was last Sunday. I drove up in a snowstorm. The drive up sucked. Once I got to my hill and saw how much snow was in the parking lot, I was grateful i made the long drive up. It snow from the time i got there till about 1ish. I believe the area ended up getting 4-5 inches of snow (The Midwest never gets huge dumps . It was pretty amazing to experience something other than hard packed snow. Towards the end of the day it started sleeting. The sleet eventually turned into little pieces of hail. I toughed out a handful of runs at the end of the day, but ended up leaving early. God hail hurts when you don't have something covering your face.


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## AlexS (Feb 12, 2010)

Went to VT spring break last year april 4th or so? Was basically wakeboarding at mount snow/killington but it was still really fun


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## Inky (Feb 2, 2011)

Turoa, gale force winds and snow, I had to wear 3 thermals and insulated jacket and pants and my bandanna froze. Wind were so strong that no chairlifts could open, only the magic carpet by the learner slope which had about 30 meters of vertical and was almost flat. The snow was only a little better ice skating rink, it was like the whole slope was a dancefloor box. We were the only people there who weren't in the cafe. I just practiced buttering and tripods and taught my friend to ride. The wind got so strong that they closed the magic carpet and it was blowing me over while I was snowboarding and I had to crawl up the slope using my board as an ice axe like in Deeper to get back to the car. I'm seriously not exaggerating at all. It was still better then school or work, and I managed to have some fun.


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## Extremo (Nov 6, 2008)

Jay Peak Feb, 2009...5 degrees and 45 mph winds at the summit. Brutal!


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

maybe I'm a gluten for punishment, but Im heading back to the iceberg tonight. They had 4 full sessions and 2 nights groomer to get the ice broken up. 

Called and they said it got a bit scraped toward the evening yesterday but they groomed again last night and everything is fine.

Granular to loose granular. It's going to be pretty warm today, 40 degrees so I'm hoping that the weather busts up the ice underneath a bit. We shall see, not riding until I walk the entrance / slow area.

I just really want to get out as much as I can without resulting in divorce or loss of job! lol. Having some health problems that will end my riding times eventually. Gotta make the best of it.


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

Snowolf said:


> On days like that, the only place to ride is up on Mahogany Ridge.....


that's a nice bar! probably old.


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## JeffreyCH (Nov 21, 2009)

I had my worst day the Sat. before Christmas. The only way to describe it was chunky lol. The wind kicked up about 11am and blew away most of the snow leaving frozen wind lips all over. I did steady laps until about 1pm, last run before lunch I hit a big chunk of ice that caused me to wash out my heel edge, slammed my tailbone hard. I did a couple runs after lunch but had pretty much lost all motivation to be there, I just couldn't get my head into it. I had planned on staying until 6-7 but ended up calling it a day about 4. To top off the crappy conditions the night before was my company x-mas party, I was out getting tanked till 2am then got up and drove to the hill at 7am. Between the hangover and riding a meat grinder all day I was beat up made the hour an a half drive home almost as brutal. I just chalk that day up as a part of the leaning curve


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## InfiniteEclipse (Jan 2, 2009)

extremely windy, extremely cold, same old ice, WITH snowmaking.... shit felt like thousands of razor blades bouncing off my cheeks ... hurt like a mofo


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

Worst snow conditions I've had have been in Tahoe..., which were probably nothing compared to the Ice Coast.

Worst weather conditions? Well, it's a known fact here that the best powder days involve some of the worst weather conditions. Friday for example, was -10, -30+ windchill at the top of the lift, but there was some great powder. At least it was sunny then, normally it's foggier then shit, and you can't see 10 feet in front of you.

Opening day this season was pretty awful, the snow conditions weren't too bad but there was freezing rain, which caused your goggles to freeze over every 30 seconds, leaving you totally blind.


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## Sincraft (Sep 6, 2010)

I know that people dont like riding in granular or, what looks like what you get in a snowcone, wet granular, but MAN was today 100000000% better than friday. They groomed the heck out of the resort, DIDNT GROOM after that and let the skiers just scrape it all to heck and back. It was tough to ride on but taught me control bigtime. From level to 1' of granular stuff that tosses you, with a bit of ice here and there.

SOOO much better than the SOLID ICE that I was attempting to ride on Friday.

3 !!! runs down, and it destroyed my ptex. I have hairs on my edges all over now. Perfectly waxed before I went out that night too. Glad I didnt torture my board anymore that day.

honestly, there was less ice patches that I normally experience even on the steps. So if you end up one day going and it's an iceberg, have faith your ski resorts crew will fix her up for the next sessions. 

Typical spring conditions. It was about 60 degrees too! They predicted 45 as a high.  Weather people. Hopefully they will screw up the part about the heavy rain coming tonight  The hill is looking low my friends. The cat trail next to this long slope I learned on was about 10' below the main slope, now it's about 5'. They lost ALOT of snow in the past few days.


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## init (Mar 8, 2010)

Worst conditions so far:

My GF and I were at our local(est) resort this year. There are only the t-hook style lift at this resort, and the slope going up the hill were 100% ice. This mountain is also VERY steep going up some places. 

Just as we are on top of the steepest climb, a big chunk of ice (roughly 2x1x1 feet) comes sliding down in the middle of our path (WTF). I ollie the thing, but that gets my GF out of balance so we fall down. No biggie was my first thought. The problem was we were still going uphill, and it was sooo icy. We start sliding down, head first, the 150 ft long slope people are coming up. I went head first into some guy with skies (thank god for mye helmet), so I stopped 3/4 way down. My GF fell off a small cliff of ice and got scrapes from her waist up to her chest, needless to say she was black and blue the following week.

It was unreal for me, and I am glad my GF is a tough chick. If it was a crowded day things could have gone so much worse.


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## Notebender (Jan 16, 2012)

It snowed 3" a couple days ago, so I went to the local hill, just to find that there were 30mph winds at the top. The wind was moving the snow up hill, it looked like a desert. Anyways, that shit sucked, nothing like going to down hill with the wind pushing against you, you barely move.


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## nickwarrenn (Feb 11, 2011)

-40 celcius, old icy eastcoast snow, snow making guns on the whole time, pelting you from the chair with freezing water. It was also super windy, I forget numbers but it was gusting to the 80 kmh, shut down the chair at 3 ish and everyone called it a day.


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## roboelmo (Nov 30, 2010)

Some of the worst conditions I have ever seen:

Canada Olympic Park, on the weekdays its open till 9pm. However, during early and late season, when the temp is above zero and then drops bellow zero by 6pm; it gets dangerous. 

The entire hill becomes ice (not hard hard compact snow), but ICE. You can't even hold an edge on the hill. Some times I am supprised they are even allowed to open the hill. 

There was one day, the half pipe was about two inches of clear ice from top to bottom. It looked like a skating rink to me.


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## bakuhar (Jan 28, 2012)

HoboMaster said:


> Worst snow conditions I've had have been in Tahoe..., which were probably nothing compared to the Ice Coast.
> 
> Worst weather conditions? Well, it's a known fact here that the best powder days involve some of the worst weather conditions. Friday for example, was -10, -30+ windchill at the top of the lift, but there was some great powder. At least it was sunny then, normally it's foggier then shit, and you can't see 10 feet in front of you.
> 
> Opening day this season was pretty awful, the snow conditions weren't too bad but there was freezing rain, which caused your goggles to freeze over every 30 seconds, leaving you totally blind.


Fog, holy shit. Had an awesome powder day last season up at Powder Mtn, but you couldn't see the chair infront of you on the lift. At the top you couldn't even risk tree runs because you couldn't see shit. Me and my buddy were eventually at the point of thinking, 'Where the hell is the lift?' Fun factor was pretty low, you have to go fast enough to not get stuck in the pow, but not so fast you hit the people/trees/whatever 10 feet infront of you that are hidden in the fog.


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## Bones (Feb 24, 2008)

The Ice Storm of '98.

2 days of freezing rain and lots of it. And then a flash freeze.

I sent my staff home, but heard that it was snowing farther north. The reports were wrong! So wrong!

I made one run on the afternoon of day one, 2 inches of solid, clear bullet proof everywhere and growing. A zamboni operator would have been proud. Harder to stand up unstrapped because boots have no edge. They closed down because of the big chunks that were falling off the lift cable

I crawled home in my 4x4 at 20km/h and was white knuckled all the way. 
A state of emergency was declared as I finally made it to my driveway.


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

im not sure whats worse, a blue bird day where every single run is just iced over, or a freezing cold day where the falling snow is little chunks of ice and the wind is blowing to hard it A. Destroys any exposed skin in seconds and B. it prevents you from moving faster then 2 mph down an exposed cat track because you are getting blown back and sideways. its a toss up. shitty snow conditions, or shitty weather conditions


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## HoboMaster (May 16, 2010)

bakuhar said:


> Fog, holy shit. Had an awesome powder day last season up at Powder Mtn, but you couldn't see the chair infront of you on the lift. At the top you couldn't even risk tree runs because you couldn't see shit. Me and my buddy were eventually at the point of thinking, 'Where the hell is the lift?' Fun factor was pretty low, you have to go fast enough to not get stuck in the pow, but not so fast you hit the people/trees/whatever 10 feet infront of you that are hidden in the fog.


Ah my friend, any true tree-slayer knows that when the visibility is horrible, the trees are the best place to be


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## IdahoFreshies (Jul 9, 2011)

HoboMaster said:


> Ah my friend, any true tree-slayer knows that when the visibility is horrible, the trees are the best place to be


:thumbsup: :laugh:


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## Notebender (Jan 16, 2012)

Anybody going snowboarding tomorrow?

Hopefully the weather will be alright. I'm in the Midwest, so it's gonna be slushy in the day, and icy at night..... Awesome


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## ThunderChunky (Oct 1, 2011)

This entire season. My resort isn't even fully operation yet. They are at about 50 percent. One jump for the whole damn resort. By no means am I complaining, this spring like conditions have allowed me to try new tricks and no be so scared about smacking myself of ice and hard packed landings.


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## legallyillegal (Oct 6, 2008)

3ft of wet "powder" in a downpour


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## Qball (Jun 22, 2010)

Snowolf said:


> On days like that, the only place to ride is up on Mahogany Ridge.....



I've turned some of the crappiest rainy days into great days after some quality time at the bar!


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## Leo (Nov 24, 2009)

Most of you are princesses to us Michigan riders. Your worst is likely our best. I've ridden everything from solid sheets of ice to a foot of groomed (fucking hate this) powder. 99% of the time it's a mix of light dust of real snow on top of man-made stuff and ice patches aplenty. Days when the temps are in the 30's and the resort spent the night prior blowing and grooming are superb.

Oh, and rainy days have never stopped me. I actually prefer a day of drizzle over a day of ice.


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## Lunchball (Jan 2, 2012)

> -40 celcius


This made me chuckle, throwing the "Celsius" to make it sound extra cold  fun fact, -40C = -40F

Since this is only my first year, I don't have any super nasty conditions to report, but I did find it funny one day to pull into the parking lot and get out of my car to the loudest sounds of board on ice that I have ever heard coming from the hill.:laugh:

Not sure what is worse around here, the normal granular on top of ice or the one or two "good" days we have had in which you have 100 people per 100 feet on the run.


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## jdmccright (Apr 8, 2011)

Early this year at Killington. A mountain made of half dirt and Ice sucks. Oh and no refund for me I paid 80 for that shit. :thumbsdown:


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## LuckyRVA (Jan 18, 2011)

I don't mind the rain much. My gear is water resistant enough that I don't get wet at all unless I take off my helmet and/or gloves. Rode one day last season where it rained all day long (weather.com had only called for like a 10% chance of rain), most people cleared out early in the morning. Making me able to make laps all day long and have the chair to myself the rest of the day. 

A few weeks ago at Hunter Mountain was the worst. There was so much fog at the top that you couldn't see anyone in front of you. At one point I attempted to stop to look for a friend who I had lost sight of. Little did I know I had tried to stop on my heelside right in front of a mogul. My toeedge dug in and I went airborn, scorpioning so bad that the heelside edge of my board hit the back of my helmet. In addition, I landed on another mogul, knocking the wind out of me for a solid 5 minutes.


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