Friday morning was warm and balmy as I arrived in the parking lot.  The High North Groomers and Mineral Basin were very buffed and carvalicious for the  very few who made the first Tram of the day.  The lowest elevations had set up with the residual coldness of the snow, but the Cat crew had tenderized the sections adding tooth and traction to those shots.   The overall softening was going off 2 hours earlier today to give you an idea of the timing.  Tomorrow will go off along the same time line as today, so a prolonged dalliance is not necessary.  Low traffic will continue, though the Demo Teams are still working all over  the mountain, so be aware of that and give them plenty of room.  The off trail remains fairly free of bumps with the obvious crud factor that must be taken into account.  I watched some folks try to negotiate the East facing crud in Mineral Basin before any significant softening had developed, and they were getting really worked.  It was painful to watch from the chair while my knees were screaming on their behalf.  The thaw has not yet revealed any reefs on the hill, with the snow pack holding up to the thermal assault.  Tomorrow is my day off, so I will just say; follow the sun and work the aspects as they become ready to go.  Mineral Basin is still a good call for the early risers to get things going.  See you Sunday.   Ciao!!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 16th, 2010 at 3:12 pm and is filed under Snow Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.