Do you know what happens when water freezes? Yep! Ice is formed. Yesterday was another soggy day on the mountain with drizzle and rain falling from the sky. This wet condition created a moist surface on the slopes, as well as on the chairlift towers and other lift mechanisms. Rime ice formed overnight. This condition requires ice to be removed from the lifts, thus delaying lift operations. Almost every lift was delayed this morning.
A few flakes of snow dropped onto a frozen surface early this morning, making the slopes look pretty. The trails looked pretty, especially under a bright blue sunny sky that graced us this morning. Early morning turns were best on groomed trails, even though they were not as soft as we had hoped. They were firm corduroy in the beginning. As the steeper groomed slopes were skied, and the top layer shaved off, very slick icy patches formed creating a “slide for life” situation.
Any slope, for example Sunspot, where small moguls had been formed the day before held a dusting of snow in their troughs and frozen coral heads everywhere else. Off-piste, unless you found a very low angle slope, it was miserable to ski in the morning. A dusting of pretty white snow on top of frozen ski tracks, and/or frozen coral heads does not make for a smooth powder experience. I could ski this condition, but it was very jarring and quite unpleasant.
The good news is that sunshine softens slopes as the day moves along and temperatures rise. Sunspot and other slopes that receive lots of morning sun softened by 11:30. The skiing experience increased in enjoyment after noon.
Weather permitting, it is my understanding that Sherwood will open in the morning. We skied from the top of TLC to the return road and found some soft smooth lines while gazing down to the base of Sherwood. Looking at the smooth slope below the return road made me wish we could have just skied down, passing red closed signs, to the base of Sherwood. It just looked so inviting, but we obeyed the red lollipop signs and returned to TLC.
If conditions remain the same over the next few days, I would recommend starting the morning closer to 11am than 9am.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
I felt like I skied in three different seasons today.
Mark,
Let me guess: winter, spring and Great Barrier Reef?
Winner winner chicken dinner!
Nice weather on the other side but skiing was not pleasant.
Yes I waited till 11am hoping the sun would start softening the surface.
Did not happen. Middle and lower slopes had a thick rain crust unless groomed.
I heard the icy surface on Red Dog was downright scary.
Low angle trails like Oregon or open woods to Solitude chair
was nice but powder surface was only an inch or two over hardpack.
Headwall lift which only opened a few days ago had better than expected snow
on Nose and Headwall run. Wasn’t sure if headwall from top was safe so I headed down Nose
then cut into headwall half way down. good surface with some blown snow sifted in.
Headwall would have been fine from top. Only 1 day at Alpine & 3 at OV this season.
Almost quit after 5 runs. At least most rocks are now covered. Just need a better surface.
Tomorrow will probably be more of the same (NE ice) as it will likely cloud over. A lot of warmup
this weekend should help.
I so appreciate these posts & the straight talk about conditions.