Current conditions - really good (I'm serious)!

Ok, I'll admit that I'm probably a bit biased, but conditions up on the mountain are really good right now, and with a bit more snow, I think that we'll be in a great position heading into the Holidays. In fact, I finally got organized to post a few pictures I took over the past couple of days.

Here's a photo that I took on Newport, just after it opened for the season this past Thursday (nice style Crowder!):

Here's another shot from a few minutes earlier of a lucky skier enjoying some fantastic powder (almost five days after the storm):

Here's a (rather poorly shot) photo of snowmaking "whales" on Muckers. This photo was also shot last Thursday and if you can believe it, our grooming department had these huge mounds of snow spread out and the run open for skiing and riding this past Saturday (it was good skiing too):

For those of you that are chomping at the bit for the Eagle Superpipe to get up, I took this shot yesterday of pipe construction in full swing. We're hoping to get the first true cut in on the pipe by mid-week so look for an opening date soon:

Finally, I came up yesterday to see the people who were taking an avalanche course, that was put on by our patrol this past weekend, in action. They were doing a simulated avalanche rescue on Lower Single Jack and I've got to say that I was impressed with all the effort and organization that goes into such an operation, there were dogs, beacons and probe lines all being used in the same area - it looked very impressive and I'm happy to say that all of the objects that were buried were found - good job everyone! Thanks Dave, Roy, Mark, and everyone else for letting me stop by to observe, take a few photos and shoot a bit of video.

Comments

[MoSno]

Did they find my iPod? :-)

Eric replies:
MoSno, check at the information desk - main level in Legacy Lodge.

[Parrish]

First off, thanks for all the helpful updates. I check this site regularly! I've been on the slopes the last couple days (Monday and Tuesday) and was curious about a couple things.
There is a fairly low percentage of groomed runs right now, is that because it's hard to regularly groom runs with the amount of snow the park has gotten so far this year? Or maybe because you guys are focusing on getting more terrain opened?
After the next snow will you guys try to pump out more groomed slopes?

Thanks again for all you guys do! See you on the slopes!

Eric replies:
Hi Parrish - good question. With the limited amount of snow that we have to work with right now, it is difficult to run a snowcat on many of the runs that we currently have open since we don't want to be pulling rocks and dirt onto the runs. As we (cross fingers) get more snow, we will definitely start grooming more runs and once we're all up and going we often times are grooming up to 50 runs nightly! See you on the slopes.

[Alex]

I just want to say thanks for all the updates and the pictures you posted are sweet. I was wondering if you guys are expecting any snow over the next week or before Christmas. Thanks again and see you on the 26th.

Eric replies:
Alex, thanks for the comment - personally I'm always hoping for snow and it does look like some is on the way... 1-3" today, 3-6" tonight and 1-3" tomorrow with a bigger storm potentially hitting us Thursday!