Should Be Good Tuesday

With the snow we have had the last several days and the snow stake looking like this at 7:15 Monday night, I think the skiing Tuesday is going to be pretty darn good.

More Goods On The Steep Gullies

 It has been dumping all day  !!!

First Steep Gullies Run

Always fun, today I had my first Steep Gullies run of the season. There was a significant avalanche cycle in December that flushed out the starting zones. Skiing the 2nd, we tip toed and slow turn-stopped our way down the first third of the path. It was bony and tricky. That said, all the snow from the cycle had to go somewhere. The lower two thirds of the path was filled with deep new snow including a foot of fresh powder on top. That skiing was fantastic and made my day. We topped it off with a very nice 20 minute walk back to Pali Lift. The Steep Gullies experience is so unique and not found in many other places.

A Deep 6 Inches

Today was a beauty. It snowed heavily last night. One guy told me the snow was a foot deep in places. People were loving life. I skied a bit in the afternoon and found great snow everywhere I went. The forecast looks unsettled for the next few days, particularly on Monday. I will be seriously enjoying my day off tomorrow - skiing at The Basin.

 

Gentling's Glade

Zach Parsons sent me these weekend photos from Gentling's Glade. Jim Gentling was my predecessor at The Basin. And a pretty good guy.

GOAT

Mikaela, congratulations on # 83. You are the greatest alpine ski racer of all time. And the best is yet to come. 

Favorite Places

I have a lot of "Favorite Places" at The Basin. Standing at the top of Long Chute in Montezuma Bowl is definitely one of them.

 

Good Skiing

We received 4 inches of snow last night and the skiing is good. 

Pink Skies and Snow on the Way

 This morning was a classic Arapahoe Basin morning with pink skies. The pink skies have already turned into light snow. It looks like we would see a fair amount of snow tonight.  Open snow is forecasting 6-13 inches by end of day Wednesday.  I sure would love to see the high end of that forecast come through.  Tomorrow could be a really good day. 

Snowing

 It was snowing quite hard at the end of the day today.  I suspect some good skiing tomorrow.  

Beaver Bowl and Marmot

 We opened even more terrain this week.  Beaver Bowl and Marmot opened in the Beavers.  

MGD Open

 Yesterday we opened MGD (Max, Groswold and Durrance), which is the first part of the Zuma Cornice. I love to see us getting more terrain open, and MGD is some of the best.  Today was a perfect day in Zuma, great temps and good views.  I hope you get to enjoy Zuma this weekend. 

Managing the Numbers

We received 4 inches of snow yesterday and the skiing is truly phenomenal.  With the holiday weekend and fresh snow we have been closely managing our lift ticket quantities to create the best possible experience for our guests. We continue to strive for our comfortable carrying capacity which allows our terrain, lift lines and restaurants to have plenty of space for everyone who is here. We have sold out of lift tickets for Saturday and expect to sell out Sunday as well. We will still have a good turnout.

CARPOOLING OR RIDING THE BUS IS STRONGLY ENCOURAGED. We have seen about 80% of early riser be carpool. I would love to see this get to 100%.  We also suggest looking into the Snowstang and Treadshare as alternative options to getting here.

Hope to see you on the hill this weekend. 

Beautiful Morning with 4 new inches

 We received 4 inches of snow last night and this morning was stunning.  The clouds were in the valley and the sun was just peaking through. It looks like we have a bluebird powder day on our hands. 

It's Snowing Hard

I just had time to take a few quick runs on Pali and it was dumping snow.  Every run I took was freshly filled in and full of powder. I hope it keeps snowing like this, tomorrow could be a really good day. 

 

Basin Images

The skiing is good.

Hot Cocoa and Dynafit

 This morning Dynafit surprised our uphill guests will hot cocoa at the Summit.  Skinners at the summit enjoyed their hot cocoa and had a nice ski down with 2 inches of fresh snow.  

Prepping MGD

 MGD stands for Max (Dercum), (Thor) Groswold and (Dick) Durrance, three of the five original founders of Arapahoe Basin. Those trails are some of the next portions of Montezuma Bowl to open. Further down the ridge from MGD are (Larry) Jump and (Sandy) Schauffler, named for the other two founders.

The Ski Patrol has been very busy in MGD deploying explosives, ski cutting, ski packing and digging snow pits. I am not quite sure when opening day will back here, but we are getting close. This is definitely one of my favorite ski zones at The Basin.

Montezuma Bowl Opens Wednesday

Montezuma Bowl is opening Wednesday morning. These storms have been good for Zuma. Initially, terrain on the Eastern side of the Bowl will open. You know the way those Ski Patrollers and Cat Drivers are. They will get more stuff open before you know it.

Snowmaking Completed

This evening should be the last night of snowmaking for the season. We are allowed to divert water from September 1 through December 31 each year. At midnight on New Year's Eve the snowmaking crew plugged our diversion. That left a little bit of water in the reservoir that we are finishing off tonight.

Our available water for snowmaking is linked to the streamflow of the North Fork of the Snake River. As the Fall and Winter progress, the streamflow decreases. The higher the flow, the more water available for snowmaking and vice versa. We start the snowmaking season in October running 18-20 fan guns. Tonight we have 3 fan guns running. Last summer was fairly wet for us and we have had pretty good Fall snowfall. The streamflow has been good and as a result, we had a good snowmaking season making about 5-10% more snow than our 20 year average.

Humbug

Kay and I and family and friends shared a wonderful New Year's Day skiing at The Basin. Everywhere we went, the skiing was brilliant. A kind wind was blowing. Whether it was The Face, The Spine, Standard or Thick and Thin, the snow was soft and sweet. Humbug was exceptionally special. The wind was filling it up and it was buffed and chalky. Very nice.