It was a short morning for me as I had errands to run and people to meet. However, I did get in a few runs before noon.
I believe the lifts opened a few minutes early this morning. Perhaps this was a bonus after yesterday’s issues with lifts closing for periods of time, or perhaps it was an effort to avoid the build of lines that occurs when anxious skiers stand waiting for a lift to open. In any case it was a nice gesture by the ski area.
The light was flat this morning. Low clouds hung in the upper bowls. I was surprised by the amount of snow that had fallen overnight. Snow continued falling lightly during the morning hours. The weather reports I had noted the night before indicated partly cloudy weather in the morning with snow moving in around 1pm.
Low Hanging Clouds
We found untracked snow and made turns off God’s Knob, in Chicken Leg, and then through Sunspot and North Peril. North Peril was the best as skiing among the trees increased my ability to see the differences in terrain. We skidded over patches of ice at the top of Scott Chair on the way to the lower section of Standard Run where we found somewhat untracked snow. The snow on this face of the Standard Run was somewhat wind swept and a little stiffer than snow on other trails.
A quick comment regarding Treats Café and perhaps this applies to other food service spots on the mountain. We all love Melanie who owns and operates Treats Café located in the breezeway. This is a small operation and often the line to get to the window where an order is placed is long (today I understand it was exceptionally long). Those of us who love the food offered are willing to wait for a very long time to get our order. We have noticed that during times when the line in long and the wait just as long, friends of those in line think it is okay to ask their friend to add to their order as a favor. This only adds to the wait for those standing in line. This is poor behavior and should be stopped. If you want something from Treats Café, get in line at the end of the line.
Perhaps the lighting improved in the afternoon. I hope the exceptional crowd that found parking before the lots were “Full” enjoyed the day.
Get your rain gear ready as the weather report is calling for wet weather tomorrow.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Somehow I managed to be out there until 2:45 today. It’s not the lift lines that were long, it was everything else. The line at Treats was long all day with no breaks. The lines for the restrooms were also long this morning. If people could have, they would have lined up for indoor seating in the lodge. The mountain can accommodate the skiers but the facilities cannot handle the number of visitors. It seems like the powers that be would want to make sure that every possible food service operation was in full operation…instead we seem to be getting the COVID inspired business model of “make less and charge more”. Also today would have been a perfect day for a lunch gondola ride…but it was on wind hold.
Ah, wind hold. For the first time in my life those are sweet words. Shall we start a counter on how often it happens? (100% predictable) Given that the other side of the breezeway where Special Tickets used to be is EMPTY, perhaps Treats could scope out a kiosk area for the easy orders (just coffee). That is a lot of space with nada going on.