Hello Skiers,
Snow this morning was binding depth. This represented the accumulation of snow that fell in spurts between closing May 4th and opening May 5th. The depth was enough to cover underlying ice on low angle slopes, but not enough to cover the arched backs of moguls or rubble pushed aside by skiers from previous days.
Low clouds, foggy conditions, drizzle, sleet, and light snow dropped from the sky in an off and on pattern for most of the day. Drizzle is one of my least appreciated conditions as a squeegee or glove thumb is required to clear off goggle lenses on a constant basis. I had my lightest lens on this morning and still had trouble discerning the variations in the terrain.
This is what drizzle looks like on goggle lens
Where were the more enjoyable places to ski today? It was a day to hunt for pockets of deeper snow on trails that were dotted with faces of ice. The following are a few places I skied this morning. I did not venture up Summit Chair as the visibility looked menacing. Chicken Leg and variations of it were good for a few runs early in the morning. Rock Garden, Fall Line, and off the groomed area of Charity allowed from some fresh tracks. Dropping down to Alpine Bowl Chair from Rock Garden was also free of tracks. Scott Meadow lay waiting for me and did not disappoint, but firm patches were not avoidable. Reily’s Run and Powerline also presented relatively blank palettes with just enough depth to retain a softness under foot. One of my favorite places to ski between trees that are awfully close together is the area at the top Sherwood Chair between Maid Marian and Nottingham’s Notch. For some reason enough snow fell in this treed area to obliterate the underlying layer of ice.
Riding Sherwood looking for sunshine, but not finding any.
Scott Chute was open, but it looked terrible. I debated with myself for awhile trying to decide if Gentian would be worth a try. The reason I went ahead and skied it, by myself by the way, was the improved visibility that was apparent in treed areas of the mountain. When I say I skied it by myself, I mean there was no one else anywhere to be seen. Very few tracks had been made in Gentian before I made my way down, and enough snow had built up to make it quite nice. There was some firmness under the new topping, but not as much as I imagined there would have been before I committed to the trail. Under the top layer it was softer than in other areas of the mountain. It was not perfect, but it was not unpleasant either. The lower portion of Subway Cirque was delightful.
Although I enjoyed a few hours of skiing this morning, the poor visibility, drizzle, sleet, and light wet snow that was falling most of the morning made me dream of a sunny, warm, spring day with a sweet corn surface. I know hot days are ahead, some of them will be hotter than we like, but I think we have had enough of the color gray at this point in the season. I say this even though gray is such a contemporary color.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Roundhouse and Summit opened late, so we went straight to Sherwood via Hotter Wheels. The protected area around Maid Marian was great, but as soon as you hit the wind scoured open slopes, all bets were off. We described it as if someone had licked the icing off of most of the cake. Moving back to Roundhouse, most low angle areas off of Roundhouse skied pretty well. But when you could not go more than a couple of hundred yards without wiping your goggles, we called it. Better than expected? Yes.