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Afton Alps 19/20


Scott.Creer

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I went to Mankato State. only went skiing twice there.

when my nephews went to school there we all went to Mt. Kato. it was snowing hard that day. the front run might be okay for carving. its steep but short. backside runs were flat. we couldn't turn with slowing down too much due to snow.

hope it works out.

 

 

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Looks like a fun hill. Kind of a mini Afton. It would be fun to hit, on a day off. Andre's Tower Hills looks pretty sweet, too!

Afton has been great, this year. Finally opening more terrain, but perfect timing on their part. The Canteen is a great addition, as is the look of the creek re-direction.

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I have been out twice this week. Monday and last night. The snow is really good for this early. I skied on Monday and it was nice. I brought out the hard boots last night. It was on my Coiler which is pretty forgiving. The snow required commitment, but it held really well, and when it didn't, it wasn't super dramatic. There where "powder" piles all over, but they where light and you could just go through them. 

Good times.

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Afton was good, today (Fri, 13DEC); Great snow, no crowd, bar was open at 11am. They were grooming everything on the Alps side, so I'm guessing there will be a lot more terrain open, this weekend. A liftie was saying there is a big ski race/event this weekend, which will make the best runs, moot. On the flip side, it'll be cold as all getout, so should keep things quiet.

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late notice... do NOT come to afton this weekend, unless you like long lines and hills covered in gates.

racing on hills 1,2, and 7. also 200+ kids in the jr race program, and they'll be everywhere else (probably all over chair 3 and 5). highlands is supposed to open sunday, so it might be better. but the racers will still have all the best (open) hills taken.

plus, they just groomed 1 and 2 yesterday for the first time. doubtful it will be set up yet. but, it sure made installing all the b-netting easier.

-trent

 

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Fri 20DEC19

Great day, today! Mellow crowd, and super-fun conditions. No gates anywhere to be seen! Ran into Trent, dragging knuckles riding the sticks. No other 'Booters.

Highlands needs some work; lumpy, uneven. Feels like they need to run the groomer over it a few more days, and it should be good.

Keep up the excellent work, Afton!

WP_20191220_11_43_49_Rich[7916].jpg

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12/27/19

decided to ride afton. my brother and his family were going to be there.

met mnsurfer on chair 7. both of us were riding donek freecarves. identical topsheets. i had problems with riding 7. snow was too fast. i couldn't maintain a decent edge. i was hitting ice.

brother arrived and we went to the highlands. the runs were turning into sugar from everyone skidding off the ice. it wasn't really that much fun. it was a rodeo trying to avoid children. lift lines were getting long.

the trail from 7 going towards the main chalet, the piles were deep. i had saw a few kids on skis fall down on that trail. when i went back to the chalet on that trail i understood why. the piles were everywhere from people skidding. i tried to carve but was getting bounced.

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heads up, d-team/arc racing sat 1/11 at afton. teams from mt kato, welch, coffee mill, and afton will be everywhere. expect all of the front hills to be covered in gates. 

the good news is sunday should be much better. they have a race at troll. so probably only have to deal with possible special olympic racers, and the dreaded red coats and their idiotic training across an entire run. 😉

-trent

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7 hours ago, MNSurfer said:

Thank you! This has been especially obnoxious, this season. Couldn't they just pick a run that no one uses, and rope it off? 

we had a large group show up on a weekend morning at Buck. i had jumped onto the webcam at 7AM and the lift was running. I could tell it was ski patrol. by time i got there the cord was already scraped. why can't they do it in their training in evenings and leave us the good snow????


what pissed me off was that day was I arrived early at 8:45AM and the chair was already running. in times past the lifty would people board early. this lunch lady in the red coat would not let ANYONE board the chair, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION" was all she would say.

i just lost it. i complained to the woman that no one was going up the chair, no one was coming down the run, and let us on the chair. there was at least a dozen or more ski patrollers standing around the lift line just talking. some even had taken off their skis. so she yells to them, "ONE MORE RUN!!!" and then "THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION" to everyone else in line.

it took ski patrol several minutes to get ready, to pair up, figure out the toboggan, and then board the chair.

when it reached way 9AM I told lunch lady the lift should be open. she just said "THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION". I replied "...but i don't want to cooperate". I think I got on the chair several minutes past 9AM.

took one run. Got to the bottom about 6-7 minutes later. there was another ski patroller blocking my way telling me the lift was not open to the public. I said "nope... its past 9AM so its open". So the ski patrol calls to the lifty "IS IT OPEN??? IS IT OPEN FOR BUSINESS???". I pushed past him. the lifty told him "it's open!!!".

everytime...

LEFT TURN

CLEAR!!!!

RIGHT TURN

CLEAR!!!

 

 

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I was out Monday evening the 13th.

Snow was pretty good. Very hard, but only icy in a few areas. It required commitment, but when you did, it held.

The weird one of the night was they had very few lifts open. Just enough to get around (highland was open), but nothing more. You really had to pay attention or you were walking.

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16JAN19

-8F at lift open. Empty, obviously, but I won't complain. Fantastic, grippy groom. 7 Lift was closed, but you could still make the run from 6, with a couple of hops. Kind of neat to look up, at 1:00, and see only your turns.

Bonus: 5 coach busses of women's ski club. Paul's Pub looked like a scene out of an 80's ski flick, albeit minus any sign of dudes.

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warning(s)!!!!

racing at afton friday 2/24 morning/afternoon. hills 1 and 2 will be covered in high school racers. race starts at noon, but they'll be setting gates, and possibly training earlier.

another d-team race sat 2/25. 400+ kids take over hills 1,2, and 3. ussa kids not going to lacrosse will be on hill 7. so, if you like the highland, the park, or hill 5, come on out! otherwise, find someplace else to play. 😉

sunday should be ok. d-team is heading to wild. so only have to worry about potential lumberjack races, or as always, the dreaded red coats showing how they can ignore almost all of the skiers code while "training".

-trent

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I was skiing yesterday. In the morning it was total hero snow, really good, kind of slow though. As the sun went down it firmed up, you could still find good snow in the highlands, the front SUCKED, 7 was racers.

It will be interesting to see what we get on Wednesday. I will have an update Tuesday. 

Cross our fingers.

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On 1/24/2020 at 8:26 PM, MUD said:

I was skiing yesterday. In the morning it was total hero snow, really good, kind of slow though. As the sun went down it firmed up, you could still find good snow in the highlands, the front SUCKED, 7 was racers.

It will be interesting to see what we get on Wednesday. I will have an update Tuesday. 

Cross our fingers.

Pretty fun, today (Monday). Looks like a rinse/repeat for the next several days, albeit a little colder (so that that should help). As long as the sun doesn't come out, which it shouldn't, MES should have some good snow. There were a lot of grade-school kids out. Not sure what that's about, but hopefully not an issue for Wednesday.

Yeah, the snow was great. Though with these "warmer" temperatures, and a little help from a Proteus (thanks Alex!), it only took me about 45-minutes to make a mess of 7. MES crew will need to keep it moving. Maybe give Afton a heads-up, so they can have a groomer follow behind us.

 

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