More Disruption

Members of our Snow Cat and Snow Safety teams had another big day operating the Disruption Roller on Pali. The bottom picture is a little dark, but if you look closely, you can see substantial "disruption" all the way to The Spine. They also made a big impact on The Face not visible in the photo.

Compaction / Disruption Roller

Back on September 7 of last year, I wrote a post about our new "Compaction Roller." The way the snow fell last year, very light to start and then heavy, heavy, heavy, we didn't get much of a chance to use it. This year has been different. This week we have been using the compaction roller on Middle Chute of Slalom Slope and Main Street and 2nd and 3rd Bowls on Pali with lots more to go.

I think we are changing our name of the device from Compaction Roller to Disruption Roller. The compaction component definitely helps and improves ski-ability. We are using the word Disruption because the machine disrupts snow slabs and disrupts the propagation pathways within those slabs reducing the chance of avalanches. So it is both a compaction and a disruption roller.

Moonlight Dinner

Last night Chefs Rybak and Vlass hosted a scrumptious dinner at Black Mountain Lodge. The theme was pork and it stretched from tip to tail. The moon was bright and the skies were clear. This was one of two randonee dinners so there was no chairlift. A packed house hiked, snowshoed or skinned up to enjoy the meal and made their way down under brilliant moonlight.

Poised and Ready

There is a lot of work that can be done prior to a snow event. Our snowmakers have been quite busy spreading snow just about everywhere within reach of the snowmaking system. The cat drivers are dozing and pushing every available pile of snow in preparation for skiers and riders. The ski patrollers have packed and impacted just about every snowfield and line within reasonable access. The lift crew has every one of their machines ready and on stand by. 

Right now, the forecast looks like we will see 3-6+ inches out of the pending Sunday/Monday storm. If that occurs, especially if we are on the high side of the forecast, there is going to be a lot of fine skiing and riding at The Basin.

We are poised and ready.

95% of the Cornice Run

The cat drivers have dozed and tilled about 95% of the Cornice Run. There is one little gap at the top to finish up. I am always excited to get this run and the West Wall open. It gives skiers another very different kind of experience and gets people out of the main corridor. The West Wall has seen some directed skiing. I suspect with just another storm or two this terrain will open up regularly.

The Cornice Run will be a critical connector from the top of The Beavers Lift to Davis.

Check out the little snowcat made ridge-line in the bottom photo. The Cornice Run already catches good snow, but this extra little ridge acts like a snowfence and catches even more snow. Typically, the width and quality of this trail expands rapidly as the snow falls and the wind blows.

The view isn't  bad either.

More On Beavers Lift Location

Lots of good comments on The Beavers Lift location. When we started working on The Beavers project more than a decade ago, we initially thought the lift would go all the way to the valley floor. For a lot of reasons, we changed our mind. Here are some of them.

-Our snow surveys indicated there was less snow at the lower elevations (duh). A more detailed study indicated that the lift would be open 60-90 days per season. When we moved the lift uphill, our estimated season length for the lift is 150+ days per season.

-The terrain below the proposed bottom terminal is pretty good, but steep and the snow would not hold up well to ALL of the skier traffic.

-Going down low would have required cutting a lot more trees and, being closer to or in the riparian zone, would have a much bigger impact on wildlife.

-There is no terrain suitable for blue trails down to the valley floor.

-Going to the valley floor (a couple of thousand more linear feet) would have forced the lift to be a longer detachable nearly tripling the cost.

So, we could have gone to the valley floor, but the season would be 1/2 the length, the terrain is not as good or diverse, the snow down low would not be as good, the impacts to the forest and wildlife would have been much greater, and it would have tripled the cost. 

Really, once we dug into the facts, it was a no-brainer.

Beavers Lift Location

Below is a map that includes the location of The Beavers Lift. We have intentionally kept this off the website to avoid confusion for the 2017-18 season. There is definitely not a lift in The Beavers this season and hiking is definitely required when skiing The Beavers.  There will be a chairlift for the 2018-19 season.

Which Opens First? Beavers or Zuma?

Yesterday blog's received a great question. Which will open first Beavers or Montezuma Bowl?

For now let's skip this season and move on to 2018-19. Once The Beavers Chairlift is running, The Beavers will probably open after Pali Lift opens and before Montezuma Bowl opens. The Steep Gullies will open sometime later. The Beavers and The Steep Gullies will be managed as two very separate areas. With the lift, The Beavers can open separately from The Steep Gullies and, most likely before Montezuma. The Beavers face predominantly North, receive very good snowfall and have some relatively smooth terrain surfaces.

The 2017-18 season has some unique challenges without the chairlift. The opening of The Beavers will be much more closely linked to The Steep Gullies. All the skier traffic from The Beavers will traverse across the toes of The Steep Gullies. The Steep Gullies don't have to be open for The Beavers to open, but our Snow Safety Team needs to be comfortable with allowing people to cross those run out zones. Without a chairlift this season, the process will be slower. So, back to the original question, for the 2017-18, I am not sure which of the areas (Beavers and Zuma) will open first. We will be pushing to open both of them as soon as we can. 

The Steep Gullies opening will be unaffected by The Beavers opening.

Montezuma Bowl has been open 10 years now. Over time, we have learned many tricks about managing the snow and speeding up its opening. We will take those lessons to The Beavers and The Steeps Gullies and, certainly, learn a few more. Over time, I suspect we will open the terrain more quickly.