A beautify coating of the Essential substance covered the hill for the first Tram this morning. The medium density seemed to bond to the old layer on the low angle aspects, however, the steeper shots still was sporting the crust. With high winds pounding the peak the consistency was slabby up high, but lower down the frosting was feeling luxurious. It was such a treat to lay into a turn instead of drifting on the hard pack. Snow kept building up all day long, and there was fully boot top goodness happening when the Peruvian Gulch opened. The density cushioned the interference patterns as well as much of the gnar that had been exposed by the heavy traffic as of late. Tomorrow, look for additional accumulation to grace the hill, off trail sections to become much more reliable, and great sliding finally getting up and going for the season. This high density snow was exactly what we needed to build the base for the holiday rush. I was still hitting the tried and true, but I think it will be time to begin venturing into a wider spectrum of terrain without to much concern. Nice to have the hill shaping up. Check the road conditions and access in the AM as I think there may be some issues. We will have to wait and see. See you there for the morning freshies. Here is a shot a good friend of mine took the other day when the atmosphere was creating these very rare effects. Trippy. 
Peace Out!!
ESSENTIAL COATING
12-19-13 by dave
That’s a sun dog. Last Saturday at Park City it was like skiing in a surreal world, what with the rainbows and colors and lights in the sky. I’ve skiied for 47 years and have never seen such spectacular sun dogs.
What is a sun dog? It’s rather complicated but Wikipedia says: Sundogs are commonly made by the refraction of light from plate-shaped hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, these ice crystals are called diamond dust, and drift in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them with a minimum deflection of 22°. If the crystals are randomly oriented, a complete ring around the sun is seen — a halo. But often, as the crystals sink through the air, they become vertically aligned, so sunlight is refracted horizontally — in this case, sundogs are seen.
As the sun rises higher, the rays passing through the crystals are increasingly skewed from the horizontal plane. Their angle of deviation increases, and the sundogs move further from the sun.[4] However, they always stay at the same elevation as the sun.
The Creator was definitely watching over us that afternoon, deploying it’s lone massive eye over Gad Valley..