Winter Wonderland!
Great Eastern and Launch Pad Junction.

Winter Wonderland!
Great Eastern and Launch Pad Junction.

I finally had a chance this morning to take a few turns on the hill today after a little adventure along the way(more on that later).

Todays conditions were mixed. Several inches of light snow had fallen overnight. In areas where the snow had blown together with the wind, the powder surface was fairly consistent. On areas where the wind had blown off the powder, those surfaces were also consistent. In between, where there was an inch or so of powder, surface conditions alternated between silky smooth and skid bumps.

I only had about an hour to ski today, as I had breakfast duty this morning and an appointment in Woodstock at Noon. I did a loop from the Snowshed Quad, thru the K1 Gondola to the Superstar Quad to the Rams Head Quad with a couple of runs at North Ridge. Chute had the skid bump effect in sections. Rime and East Falls were in very nice shape. Superstar was interesting at best.

On Superstar, snowmaking operations were taking place on the headwall. Middle Superstar was covered with whales of man made snow topped with an inch or so of natural. The surface was somewhat grabby. Edges were not necessary in Middle Superstar. Lower Superstar on the other hand was ugly. A strong up slope wind had scoured the crest of the lower headwall. Several very wet snow guns from prior days snowmaking laid down a skating rink in sections that the NHL would have been proud of. Edges were a must, but many people still wound up on their behinds and other places. As is usually the case after an extended snowmaking session, Lower Superstar had not yet been groomed. I am sure all of the sins will be taken care of once the grooming machines hit the surface.

I then looped down Skye Lark to High Road to Snow Shed, up the Rams Head Lift to Caper to the car. All of these trails were in great shape. I would have done more laps on Skye Lark if I had more time. But it was not meant to be.

Jeep sucked in by the K1 Parking Lot

For those of you who may be superstitious, we had our third car event of the week this morning. Because I was short on time this morning, I decided to park at the end of Bay 1 in the K1 parking lot, put my boots on in the car, and hop on the Snowshed quad. Nice idea... but bad execution. When I go to the parking space, the area had been freshly plowed. I pulled in even with the car beside me, and proceeded to sink the front end of the car to the oil pan. The plow had pushed back the snow bank over a drainage ditch. Five feet on either side of me was solid ground... but the jeep was stuck. A quick call to the local towing company, Habro, and 30 minutes later with a slightly lighter wallet the car was back on solid ground. Instead of 90 minutes on the slopes, I got an hour. But, as they say, it's better than working! Tomorrow is another day. Let it snow!