Just A Dusting

Mark will probably call me wussy for leaving after just a few runs this morning, and perhaps he would be correct. Snowfall last night barely covered the ground. A dusting might be the best description. Perhaps there were places on the mountain where a total of 1 inch of snow covered the ground. The most exciting turns I experiences this morning were just off the groomed area at the top of Treeline Cirque where the terrain was flat. It was soft under foot, and I left a squiggly line behind me. Can I call this a powder turn? I felt the same and drew the same line just to the skiers left of the run out leading to the base of Summit Chair.

There must have been snowmaking on Red Trail and Dance Floor last night as the gully appears to have been filled in which allowed for grooming to occur. This was the first day Dance Floor had been groomed, in a wide path, from top to bottom this year. The rest of the mountain other than Weasel and the beginner slopes have not been groomed. The point for today is that the rest of the mountain was frozen solid this morning. A dusting of new snow filled in, or covered, some very firm moguls. Icy patches waited for us to slide noisily across them. Early morning the sun was shining. It was followed by cloud cover for a little while which cleared shortly after leaving us with a clean blue covering. I was not out later in the morning or afternoon so I cannot report on the conditions that may have followed the firm morning surface. Perhaps the sun softened conditions later in the morning.

It was exciting to have white, even if it was minimal, on the ground for a change. We are hoping for more snow soon.

Enjoy Your Day,

Andy

Mark responds here, because he doesn’t have to use the comments section. I’m not calling Andy a wussy. We did one more run than he did, making 5 runs in nearly two hours. The lines were consistently out of the corral at Roundhouse, leaving a blob of people gathering to get into the corral, and social distancing went out the window. At that point the risk vs reward factor is definitely a question. I am not sure why they did not choose to open the overflow line from the Summit side to relieve the situation. Weekends are going to be this kind of madhouse until more terrain opens.