friday 1/6 report

[skiadikt]

one way or another this darkness got to give ...

well yet another in what seems to be the new norm - low viz. a rather foggy, soggy affair. the good news is the sog was from snow. great to see the mtn white again. when i left around noon, there was a good 3" in the NR. conditions overall were improved by the new snow except on snowdon where a frozen surface lurked underneath. maybe a tick above dust on crust. best skiing was in the NR. co-rotd reason & upper dipper. rime skied well due to the ongoing and overnight snowmaking. lower east "don't" fall quite slick. two boarders did just that and slip halfway down the trail. the line of demarcation for snowmaking appeared to great northern. skiing was also quite good in bear. cruise ok and mid lark the best in that pod. lower supe still off-limits.

as for snowmaking, very marginal. base temp was 32 both when i arrived and left. limited to upper elevations. they were hitting GN, rime, bear trax, etc. snow was very wet. but it's a positive step.

[spanky]

Mod note: Edited subject from 12/6 to 1/6.

[skiadikt]

Mod note: Edited subject from 12/6 to 1/6.

oops. thanks spanky

also not sure if it's been mentioned before but UEF all filled in and skiing like nothing happened.

[jimmywilson69]

Freudian Slip? Seems like the conditions are more akin to 12/6 :(

[PinnacleJim]

The runs at Bear (Claw, Lower Burst, Lower Wildfire) in the afternoon skied surprisingly well. Worth multiple repeats.

[Captain Hafski]

Afternoon Report: Best day in a while for us re: fog, lack of mist, etc. Overall mountain conditions were "not quite porcelin" chatteroy with a smattering of the new Norincher; guessing most of the mountain was groomed while still wet, then froze up early morning. With that said, as PJ posted, we found the best afternoon conditions at Bear [and lower Bear was the best].

ROTD: Lower Skyeburst. Viper Pit pretty good, then even better on the lower pitch. Lower Widlfire similar, but not quite as good.

Cruise Control was "meh". Opened Lower Needle's Eye in the afternoon [getting trail count up for the weekend advertising]; heard it wasn't good. Entrance into Panic Button is toast. Other than that, Bittersweet was skiable with the lower pitch losing ground day by day.

Early run down LEF, to get to Canyon chair and Bear, was decent. Later in the day, it had degraded to being quite slick. Final run down Snowdon / Mouse Trap was nothing special.

Gonna be dangerous out there Saturday.

Re: Snowmaking - A few guns at top of Bear and near the peak. Looks like getting ready to start up on Chute. Also, OL is fully "wired".

[skiadikt]

Re: Snowmaking - A few guns at top of Bear and near the peak. Looks like getting ready to start up on Chute. Also, OL is fully "wired".

guess that confirms what i heard the other day that OL was in the queue. and while i'd like to see it, a bit surprising since there's so much other terrain that "should" be higher on the list (sorry bruceol).

[newpylong1]

OL before Upper Burst and getting Sunrise back up would be odd. But often trails are hosed during downtime and not necesarily just prior to snowmaking operations. The others already are ready to go and just waiting for temps so it still could be a bit for OL.

[skiadikt]

OL before Upper Burst and getting Sunrise back up would be odd. But often trails are hosed during downtime and not necesarily just prior to snowmaking operations. The others already are ready to go and just waiting for temps so it still could be a bit for OL.

of course. upper chute & GB have been wired for over a month now. the opportunity to fire them hasn't been there. long list right now including upper burst, GE, cub, upper fire, panic/needles, cascade, highline in addition to the parks - timberline and stash.

the reality is we're about the same as last year at this time excepting that upper chute & GB were open. the new normal?

[newpylong1]

Let's hope not, ugh.

There is nearly everything in the Canyon and Ovation left to do too. Not a shot the highest hanging fruit are gotten to this year after all that.

[skifaster]

Cold weather is a coming!!!!