More Skiing

It has been a very busy week for the avalanche crew. We have added skiing in Falcon and Dragon. The cat crew continues to buff out the Lenawee Parks zone and other nooks and crannies. There have been some limited openings in the Standard / 13 Cornices area.

I know the million dollar question is "When is Pali opening?" Of course my answer is that sort of waffling, "I'm not sure, but soon" b.s. that drives my wife crazy. Well, maybe I know a little more than that. There is still signifcant avalanche work to do. Pallavicini is a major avalanche path and opening it takes weeks of extensive work by the patrollers. Over the next few days, you will be hearing lots of very loud bangs coming from that area. We have a long list of procedures for explosives, ski cuts, ski packing, ski testing, snowpits and more. The good news is that we are getting close. Sometime in the next few days, we will likely open it for an hour or two one afternoon. A little bit of ski pressure packs the snow down. After the packed snow sits overnight it gets firmer. The next day we will open it for another hour or two and pack it some more. We will continue with this limited type of pressure and access until we think she is ready to be open all day. This way we build a good and durable pack out there. The snow is fragile. Opening it at 8:30 one day and skiing it into the ground is very short sighted. Our goal is to get it open soon and have it be good all season.

I know you want it. I know you want it now. It's coming. Give us a few more days.