It was significantly warmer this morning, but a very stout wind was blowing keeping the chill factor low. Overcast skies predominated, but the early runs in Mineral Basin were illuminated by a short window of Sun before the lights turned out, making the details disappear into a white sheet. The Groomers were once again dry and chalky, even on the Southern exposures, with the corduroy was offering sweet edge control. Mineral Basin seemed like a private resort for the first hour, so taking advantage of the ground pounding pace was a given. The front of the hill was highlighted by an excellent job of buffage on the Big Smooth, where the consistency held up all morning and made the flat light situation a mute point. The traffic was light, but by Noon the attendance was building, but no hold up on the uphill attack. There is minimal rumble on the High North aspects, as the wind seemed to be filling in the troughs slightly, and there were nice lines developing especially close to the trees. Tomorrow, look for the warm temps of today to have set up the off trail quite a bit, with the North exposures still holding cold, but are becoming firmer by the day. The Groomers will still be very nice, but watch for the South and West facing shots to be a bit firm, though the tenderizing efforts will mitigate that issue no doubt. There may be more visibility if the Sun makes more of an appearance, but if it does, expect the consistency to get a bit pasty 
as the mat warms up. Here is a shot of the early morning Sun hitting the Canyon walls before the cloud deck cut off the detail. See you there for the ground pounding fun of the first hour of light traffic. Peace Out!