It was cold and windy this morning. At 9am the temperature at the top of Summit was 18.9 degrees with winds blowing up to 45 miles per hour. The wind chill was more than we could appreciate, so we dropped down the hill and rode Roundhouse for a while. Grooming was perfect again this morning. We skied every possible way down Roundhouse that was groomed and then did some of them again.
Kangaroo Ridge was nicely groomed
After a few runs on the beautiful smooth corduroy my feet start to itch for something a little more challenging. Sometimes I just do something that I know is not going to be good, but I do it anyway. God’s Knob was the morning test of my stupidity. The short hillside faces south. This means it turned to spring snow a few days ago and then froze solid with the colder weather we have had for a couple of days. There was a little new snow that fell the other day and winds drifted some additional snow into the low spots, but it was basically dust on crust. I would not recommend it unless you just want to see if you can do it.
The other side of the hill is Sympathy. The moguls are not the most friendly, but the snow is much better on the north facing slope.
The first thing we noticed this morning as we skied down Rock Garden into Deer Camp Flat was that the run leading to the bottom of Alpine Bowl Chair was roped off with Closed Signs planted in the snow.
This area was temporarily closed so crews would not be disturbed doing the load test on Alpine Bowl Chair. The load test was being performed today in preparation for the opening of the lift this weekend. As you can see from the photos I took this morning, filled garbage bins are placed on the chairs to simulate a lift filled with real people.
Garbage Cans waiting to be loaded on the to chairs
Load Testing Alpine Bowl Chair
Orange fencing was being installed along Kangaroo Ridge. This is in preparation for Far West skier race training. A giant slalom course is being set up that includes racers screaming over The Face from Wolverine Bowl. This training is scheduled for the next 4 days. I assume some of Wolverine Bowl will be closed to the public.
Fencing Being Installed along Kangaroo Ridge for Far West Skier Race Training
We rode back up Summit Chair just before noon. At the top snow was blowing all over the place filling in low spots between moguls. The wind was pretty strong blowing in our faces as we exited off the chair, but once we turned around it was not a big deal as it was at our backs. We skied D7 where snow had made a nice level wind packed surface. After a very short break, I went back up Summit to find that the wind had died down significantly. Snow was not blowing around as violently as it had been earlier. I skied West Palisade where the snow was very nice, but the light was flat. Flat light makes it very difficult for me to see moguls so I took my time making turns down Palisades. It was a little better turning down High Yellow as rays of sun touched some of the area
My last run was to ski Gentian Gully. There are moguls in Gentian, but the snow and visibility was excellent. Interestingly, there was barely a breath of wind at the top of Scott. It warmed up to 25 degrees at the top of Summit Chair and 33 degrees at the base at 2pm. I am not sure this was enough of an increase in the warmth to soften south facing slopes at Sherwood, but I heard the groomed areas at Lakeview were pretty good.
The word on the street is that significant snow is coming our way next week.
Enjoy your day,
Andy