Wow, it was a warm day, which is weird as it was also a northeast wind morning. Usually warm temperatures and a northeast wind event do not go hand in hand. But looking back on the records, it was 39° at the base, 40° mid-mountain and 34° at Summit as we pulled into the parking lot this morning. Still the wind was blowing enough to keep the Summit lift on windhold, yet again for the first hour and a half this morning. Weird.
The snow was soft right away on our first runs, with groomers offering deep carves off of Roundhouse. By 9:30, our “Sherwood Test Run” areas were offering up creamed corn, and we were in Sherwood by 9:50. We did a couple of laps on Maid Robin Tucks, immediately bringing big smiles to our faces as we met back at the Sherwood base. With that being so great it didn’t take much convincing to head over toward the East Gully Zone, which offered some nicely rounded slush bumps. We were having so much fun I almost missed the tweet announcing that Summit had opened. I’m sorry I missed the opening.
It was a total slog to get back to the front side, as the Easy Return offered glue-like conditions, as did the Weasel Run and the Trail of Tears. So an early lunch happened, along with the “Thursday Ikon Pass Free Hot Wax”, available in the rental shop. I will point out that it is “misleading advertising”, as it is far from a “hot wax”. It’s a Wintersteiger machine buff wax, which is not near as good as a real “hot wax”. It is free, but you get what you pay for. Things were even more sticky after the free wax, but that could just have been due to rising temperatures.
My friends that managed to be in the right place at the right time and snag one for the first chairs up Summit around 11 am let me know that it was basically the best thing that ever happened to them. Apparently it was pretty perfect creamed corn in the Sunspot and Solar Flare zone. Nonetheless, we made a couple of awesome laps through Chicken Leg, which has really smoothed out with almost no traffic over the last month. We also made a great lap through the Tower 19 zone before we were committed to an early departure for some other stuff. Thanks Mom.
Roundhouse went on mechanical hold the last couple of hours of the day. It’s been getting a workout lately, filling in for Summit. Hope all is well for tomorrow and the upcoming weekend.
The heat is on for the next three days, with highs expected in the low 50’s and lows barely reaching freezing. Wax is your friend, and base structure too. There’s a high chance of seeing shorts and bathing suits on the hill, just like it was May…except it’s mid-February. Weird.
More weird is that snow is still in the forecast for Monday night into Tuesday morning. The afternoon GFS runs is still suggesting 3-4 inches. Then nothing. It won’t take long for that to get sticky. Wax. Invest in it.
