Tuesday Rando Race Cancelled

Tomorrow's Tuesday Randonee Race is cancelled. It is snowing heavily now and we are expecting heavy snowfall the rest of today and tonight and tomorrow. Both A-Basin and CDOT have extensive avalanche mitigation work scheduled for tomorrow morning. It is simply not a good time to run the race.

We will re-schedule this race. Give us a few days to sort out the options and details. Sorry about that, but Mother Nature is doing her thing right now.

.........And it is dumping.

Good Looking Snow Cam

With a good looking snow cam like this, a couple of feet of snow in the forecast and incredible coverage, you gotta' be pleased with ski conditions at The Basin. Today was another extraordinary day. Between 5 and 6 I walked around the A-Frame and The 6th Alley. The vibe could only be described as electric.

Managing Busy Days - Carpool and the Summit Stage

Today was a big day at The Basin. The holidays are over. We had 28 inches of snow this week. It was sunny and beautiful. The skiing and riding is fantastic. A lot of people showed up to soak it all in. There are periods during those busy days when parking can be a challenge even though the skiing on the mountain still has plenty of room. I have a few tips that may make these busy days a little easier for you.

Ride the Summit Stage. If it works for you, skip the whole parking piece and ride the bus.

Carpool. If everyone had one more person in their car, the entire parking issue would go away.

Arrive early or late. On peak days, typically Saturdays and occasionally Sundays, the parking tends to be full between about 11 AM and 1 PM. After 1 PM, people start leaving and plenty of spots open up. Avoid mid-day arrivals on peak days. This could be an excuse to really sleep in.

On Saturdays our employees are required to carpool, ride the employee shuttle or ride the Stage. I know the parking can be a headache, but the hassles can be avoided fairly easily.

There happens to be a great view of the mountain from our Upper Last Chance parking lot.

Snow Cam

Well, we finally have a Snow Cam. You can find it on our website with the other webcams. We spent a lot of time pondering this project. We wanted this cam to be really fun and to give people a qualitative understanding about what the weather is actually doing up here. We decided to avoid a pure "quantitative ruler" stake and came up with a cool image of the iconic "Flaming A" (thank you Master Woodworker Bumpy).  The "Flaming A" is 18 inches tall. We looked at a lot of snow stake cams and our favorite was "Gnorm the Powder Gnome" at Revelstoke. We tried to mirror the spirit of that very creative image.

So if you are totally into geeking out about the exact inches of snow compared to other areas, you might be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are trying to get a feel for what is going on here while you are away, recognizing a 4" day a The Basin with the good wind can be like skiing 6" or 8" elsewhere, you might really get a kick out of this. I do hope you enjoy it.

......And it has snowed more than two feet the last couple of days.

7 Inches At Report Time, Snowing Heavily

At 5 AM we reported 7 inches of new snow. It has been snowing heavily since then without a break. The heaviest snow is predicted to fall today, tonight and tomorrow. We are in for a good one. Driving in this morning, the roads were challenging. Be extra careful getting here. The rewards will be many.

The Snow Has Started To Fall

Snowing has been falling steadily for a few hours now. There is already a couple of new inches on the ground.  We have a very kind West wind blowing about 20 mph on the Summit. These are perfect conditions for filling the ski area with snow. So far so good.

A Good Week Ahead

Attached is the forecast for The Basin from opensnow.com. Considering how solid the base and the coverage is right now, this forecast will make for some tremendous skiing. The Snow Safety crew has been working the East Wall for the past week in anticipation of future storms. In addition to shooting the avalauncher, they have done extensive routes in North Pole, Willy's Wide and The Tree Chutes The timing of this snow forecast is ideal. It will be a very, very good week.

The Face Is Buffed

The wind has been very kind to The Face. This afternoon I took several runs there enjoying the velvety smooth surface. It is definitely buffed and in excellent shape. Other parts of the mountain have similar conditions like The Spine, Lenawee Parks and Rock Garden. Too much fun.