Whole Lotta' Footpackin' Going On

Great weekend with the Ski Patrol all the mountain. Lots of skis cuts, foot packing, and charges. Even had a crew on Pali.

High Divide Terrain Park

What a picture perfect bluebird day. The High Divide Terrain Park was going off. Lots of folks in there having a great time.

Did another tour on the Upper Mountain late morning. The grooming and snowmaking has made good progress the last two days. I also skied Cornice Run and Grizzly Road and was very impressed with condtions there. We are planning on getting that Upper Mountain open soon.

Ramrod and Sundance Open

Sundance and Ramrod are now open. The snowcats have done a bunch of track packing up high. Snowmakers are making it happen on Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch. The ski patrollers have begun their avalanche mitigation works ski cutting and deploying explosives in Lenawee Parks, Fun Bowl, West Wall, and the East Wall perimiter. Soon

Great Skiing and Riding

Just went for a pretty substantial mountain tour skiing Ramrod, Sundance, Wrangler, Chisholm Trail, Lenawee Face, and Dercum's Gulch. The sun has popped out and the place looks spectacular. Mother Nature has been very kind.

Right now the snowmakers are pulling the snowmaking equipment off of Ramrod. In the photos you can see some huge "whales" they made down there. Tonight the cat drivers are going to push out the whales and put a final groom on the trail. Ramrod will open first thing in the morning Thursday.

We have made a slight adjustment to the snowmaking plan. Sundance is skiing great. Tonight we are going to put a few guns on the trail to make its opening just a bit more sustainable. You can look forward to seeing it open soon, probably late Thursday or Friday. Stay tuned.

The Upper Mountain looks really good. Since there is so much natural snow up there, I think we will have to make less snow than we usually do to get it open. Aside from Sundance, the rest of the snowmaking will be focused on Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch. Enjoy the photos.

8 More Inches

Geez. 8 more inches the last 24 hours. Snowcats went everywhere last night. Snowmakers are smiling and talking about powder skiing. Look for some changes. Should have an update on terrain before the day is done.

The Plan

Most of the snowguns are done making snow on High Noon. We are putting most of our energy into preparing Ramrod. Snowmaking there is going extremely well. The 2' of snow that has fallen with the storm has been a gift and will speed all trail openings. I expect Ramrod to open for the weekend, if not sooner. I'll know a lot more tomorrow. Once Ramrod is open we will move the snowmaking fleet to the Upper Mountain and work on opening Lenawee Face and Dercum's Gulch serviced by Lenawee Mountain Lift. Expect that terrain 1-2 weeks after Ramrod opens.

We are not too far away from being able to open trails with natural snow. Some of those first may be Sundance, Wrangler, Chisholm Trail and Humbug. The first steeper terrain to open with natural snow is Cornice Run / West Wall and the Lenawee Parks region.

It looks like winter around here.

8" New and Still Dumping

Oh Man. 8" new and still dumping. Our avalanche forecaster tells me 3-5" more today. Haven't had a chance for photos yet today. Lots of shovelling and I am putting my ski boots on now. The roads were slick this morning. Be careful driving up and don't forget to call in sick.

More Opening Day Photos

Opening Day Blizzard

It was a great opening morning full of smiles and laughter. We were all greeted with heavy snow. Despite a Loveland Pass closure the faithful arrived and are having a great time. I'll take some photos of the Terrain Park features later today and post them.