Looks great doesn’t it! I know what you’re thinking, how could a storm that was only supposed to drop a couple inches of snow result in blower pow turns like the one above? Well the truth is, as sick as that turn looks, face shot and all, it sounded more like nails on a chalkboard.
I talked Jordan into doing some ski acting for me and he totally nailed it! But he was actually edging on some rock hard ice underneath all of that super light blower. That’s what the day was though, something of a deception. Storm day skiing with low crowds and high stoke. Plenty of faceshots to go around for anyone who made it out today, but realistically it was a classic dust on crust scenario. Very very firm crust. Actually it was more like dust on hardened volcanic pumice.
If you’re getting fired up for a pow day tomorrow by all means get psyched, there is good snow to be had out there. But be warned, there are also plenty of firm objects just beneath the surface.
This first storm of the week is bringing in some much needed snow. The pow was knee deep or higher in spots all over the mountain today and as you can see from the photos above it is sticking nicely to the rocks despite the fluffy low water content. It’s still dumping outside even as I’m writing this.
Tomorrow is supposed to be a windy day and if we are lucky some of the fluff that we have on the mountain right now will become wind pressed before the larger storm rolling in on Tuesday night through Wednesday. Nothing on Headwall or KT was open today and if it gets packed down and smoothed out before Wednesday’s dump we could be looking at some EPIC conditions later in the week!
Don’t jump the gun though. This was a common sight today. Snow duff all around but very frozen ground just below the surface. Skiing off piste meant ice moguls under the snow and skiing on piste often meant ice slabs under the snow. Some of the best skiing was on low angle groomed terrain. Shirley Lake had some good conditions, so did Gold Coast and areas under the Siberia chair. If you were light on your feet you could sneak in a few soft turns. If you ventured into steeper terrain or edged a little hard in the bottom of your turn you were definitely skiing on ice today, even while you were getting a facefull of cold white stuff.
The wind tomorrow is going to play a major role in creating good and bad spots on the mountain. Above you can see soft snow just below the Emigrant chair, but on the shoulder of the Funnel where the two snowboarders are getting hung up, you can see that the wind has hammered that shoulder all year and the thin light coverage doesn’t exactly make for smooth sailing. If you get out tomorrow I’d recommend taking rock skis if you have a pair.
Anyway you look at it we’ve got more snow and that is awesome! Even more snow on the way. It had to happen sooner or later. Sure, it’s a leap year, but march is right around the corner people!Â