This morning the wet conditions we have had the past few days caught up with us. Overnight our temperatures dropped just enough to freeze everything on the surface. This made the groomed slopes firm and the off-piste areas unpleasant. Firm corduroy and firm lumpy off-piste for the morning hours. Later in the day the sunbaked slopes softened making both the off-piste and groomed runs more desirable. My ski day lasted until noon so I was not able to take advantage of the softer conditions.
However, I was able to ski new terrain this morning. I was surprised to see Lower Beaver Bowl open late this morning as well as Promised Land and Gentian Gully (one of my favorite runs). I could not help myself so I traversed Wolverine Bowl and skied in the trees on the ridge between Wolverine and Beaver Bowls.
I did not venture into Beaver Bowl, but I witnessed a number of people skiing down the Sisters and coming out of Beaver above Kangaroo. The area I skied offered some soft powder snow left from the other day interspersed with a thin crusty surface. It was the kind of thin crust that can throw one off and spin a person into a tree trunk. Take care going anywhere off piste, where the area has not been previously well skied.
I could not help myself when I arrived at the top of Scott Chair and saw the closed sign for Gentian Gully turned to open. Off I went to ski alone, in the silence of one of my favorite treed slopes. It is very well treed at this point in time, as deep snow has not covered many of the trees in this forest. There was a thin crust and some soft snow. My turns were varied, including a stem christy to avoid being tripped up by the crust, to pleasant turns in soft snow that left there mark in today’s basically pristine forest. Caution must be used in these areas as the trees are so close together and the snow tricky. I was told that Promised Land and Gentian were closed later in the day. I do not know the reason.
A rumor was floating around today that Sherwood might open Friday. Opening Sherwood would make many of us very happy. The red closed signs that have been in place below the access from the top of TLC to Expert Shortcut, cutting off access to the Sherwood Forest trees, were moved downhill this morning to a spot closing off access to the base of the Sherwood Lift. This allowed tracks to be made through Sherwood Forest.
The Palisades App indicates light snow accumulation tomorrow and partly cloudy skies through Saturday.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I skied Promised Land and Gentian until 4. Definitely the best snow I found all day.
Interesting, both the PT app and website indicated those areas as closed at 3pm today.
Just learned of your site – rad!
There was a cat working at Sherwood this evening…Ian sent a pic.