Opening Day 2008
What a pleasure to have fresh powder for opening day! We got two inches of fresh snow overnight, bringing our total for the last 7 days to 33 inches.
Here are some photos of the Opening Day fun:
Knee-Deep Powder on Opening Day
Face Shots on Main Street
Next Generation of Powder Hounds
The Bear's Den offers a great place to warm up
Several of our visitors today were wondering why Main Street and Alpine were not groomed. You may not realize that a week ago, we had less than a foot of snow on the mountain. All of the snowfall we’ve had since then has been very light “champagne” powder, with extremely low moisture content. That snow doesn’t pack down very easily, and both Main Street and Alpine are very rocky slopes with many natural gullies in them. Grooming those runs would have merely kicked those rocks up to the surface of the snow, making them more hazardous to our visitors and their gear. We hope the storm that’s coming in Sunday and Sunday night (1-2 feet of new snow predicted) will give us the extra depth we need to pack and groom those runs.
We also encourage our visitors to pick up a new trail map each time they visit. Our new trail maps are printed daily with a list of groomed runs and other important messages for our skiers and riders. You can get those at the ticket window, OR check out our website’s grooming report. There’s a link to it on our popular Snow Report page. Thanks to everyone who joined us for opening day to track some snow and share some smiles!
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
I really like the blog idea, but it would be helpful if it was more interactive – something of a forum for people to discuss mountain conditions, ect.
My friends and I opened the season on Sunday. Very cold and ice kept chunking up on our goggles. the conditions were much better than we anticipated though. A lot of good powder turns. My quads were not ready for it. This weather front is exactly what was needed. Hope to see another epic year.
December 22nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
Hi John – our hope is that it will be exactly what you are asking for – an interactive forum! As a family-friendly resort, we are not comfortable allowing people to post unapproved comments. Unfortunately, not everyone is sensitive to our family-friendly orientation and we have received many posts with inappropriate language. We will do our best to check posts as often as possible, and you are ALWAYS invited to share your comments on the snow conditions.
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Was on the hill for opening day, I thought the snow was okay was dispappointed in thelack of groomed runs but understand the reason. The other disappointment was the lack of porta potties at the lower parking lot. Last year there were two in that area. We like to park there and ski off of bear chair and we also like to tail gate down there. Are you going to have the porta potties placed down there?
December 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Hi Bob –
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on opening day. We hope to groom Main Street tomorrow morning, we were waiting for this last storm to give us the depth we needed to be able to pack that slope. As for the porta potties in the lower lot, I have confirmed that we have at least one on order, and it should be here no later than Christmas Day. (Apparently, it’s on our Christmas List!)
December 22nd, 2008 at 7:02 pm
I cant wait to get up their. When will the tree runs be safe enough to go in?
December 23rd, 2008 at 7:04 am
Hi Twin Tip –
We have another sizable storm coming in Christmas Eve through Christmas morning, so there’s a good chance that will improve the conditions off-trail.