Weekend Warmup

If you haven't checked in with us since last week, let me bring you up to speed...

Sunday-Monday: Snow - 6-8"
Tuesday: Cold
Wednesday: Super Cold
Thursday: Wow it's really cold!!
Friday: WILL THIS EVER END?!?!

Much like the rest of the state, we're ready for a brief warmup. Good news? We had over a foot of snow since last week, bluebird skies, perfect corduroy and we've more than doubled our trail count since last weekend. Make that 34 trails serviced by 4 lifts, which happens to be a season high for us. I bet you're sorry if you weren't paying attention now! But seriously, it's a completely different world up here since I wrote to you last Saturday. The mountain is skiing great, our groomers are some of the best in the east coast, the cold is gone and now it's snowing again. All is right with the world. Moving on!

Weather:

I thought I was done talking about the polar vortex...

We saw a fantastic bluebird day yesterday, but it sure was chilly in the morning hours. Thankfully, after pestering us for another week, Snow Miser is giving us a break, at least for the day. There's a chance of flurries off-and-on through the day today, and our weather guys say there's a chance for some accumulation by the end of the day. I tried to pressure them into giving me expected totals, but they weren't budging. I even offered up Oreos as a bribe, but, alas, no luck. Guess I'll have to get more creative.

So, if you're joining us today, expect cloudy skies and temperatures above zero. Hooray! It should top out around 20 at the base and somewhere in the mid-teens at the top of Vista. That's going to feel downright hot after a week in the freezer. There's only one caveat: we could see some gusty winds today, which might affect lifts. That'd be a bummer if it happens, but for now, everything is scheduled to spin as normal. I'll have updates on the official report if something goes down later.

How's the snow:

Honestly, when it's as cold as it's been for the past few days, I'm not so much worried about freezing out there as I am about what the snow surface will feel like. Typically, if it's below zero for more than a day or two, the corduroy freezes up, snow tightens and everything gets pretty hard and bulletproof. But I was really surprised to find that wasn't the case this week. All our cord remained pretty soft and easy to carve, the hill itself didn't feel too fast and I even saw some powder stashes out there yesterday. It's a testament to how hard our groomers work every night and we're really lucky to have them.

So, if you're worried about it being hard and fast up here this weekend, don't sweat it. With the temps warming up a bit today, it should keep everything in its preferred state. There's a few thin spots on natural snow trails like Fanny Hill and Coyote, but that's to be expected with the snowfall trends of the season so far. Spillway, Hard Luck, Butterscotch and Beech Seal were my preferred laps this week, so check those out and see if you can find my tracks.

Snowmaking: 

If you've never seen a groomer at work, let me assure you, it's a pretty awesome thing to behold. I have no idea how they push all that snow around, and I'm not going to strain myself thinking about it, but it's incredible. I took a field trip over to Timberline yesterday to watch our staff work on pushing out Sure Shot, and it's coming along pretty nicely. There's still a few days of work to be done, both on Sure Shot and Timberline Run, but so long as the temperatures cooperate, we're aiming for a February 1 opening.

We plan on running the guns on the Grom Park all day today and through the night before shutting down early tomorrow morning. Once that's finished, our park crews and groomers will push out and shape the new park, which will be skier's/rider's left of Butterscotch. It should be ready in time for Night Riders on Wednesday night.

As soon as that work is finished, it's back to hammering Timberline Run, and we hope to have that lift running by February 1.

What's going on:

Bolton After Dark: $19 night skiing from 4-8 p.m. TONIGHT, and we're screening "Head For the Hills" by Meathead Films.

PHAT Helmet Day: TODAY! You only get one brain, so protect your head and put a helmet on it. Stop by Guest Services for some info on head safety and some sweet stickers.

JMT Entertainment: The Woedoggies will take the stage live from 8-11 p.m. TONIGHT. We'll also show the Winter X Games on the big screen throughout the weekend.