The valley was clear this morning, but there was a thick cloud hanging on the range, slowly depositing a light dusting of essence all day long.  The visibility was fairly good, though at times it got a little sketchy, with the snow and an increase in  the wind.  The wind is the key for working the hill back into smoothness.  The harbor chop is firmly set up from the medium density installment over the weekend, and has been sending me back to the Groomers to give my knees relief from the pounding.  The  Groomers were the ticket this morning, providing some very consistent traction, and they were covered with the slight covering of essence that was falling continuously.  The wind has been brisk here at the Trailer all afternoon, so I will be looking for some transported goodness to  be on tap for tomorrow’s opening.  As the wind has been out of the South, look for the Northern aspects to be getting the accumulation, which will begin the smoothing process, eliminating the chop below.  This is what happened last time around, but there is also more weather predicted for later in the week, so we can expect improved softness.  The North facing is still the softest call, and  additional accumulation will only add to the fluffulecence.  It was cold today, preserving the overall quality, so South facing will only be marginally affected, and the rest of the aspects are holding up well.   As I said before, the rumble is the only issue for  me.  The holiday traffic has abated quite a bit, with very little wait for the lifts, but the slopes themselves are crowded with folks working their way down.  In the congested areas I was slowing way down to accommodate the clutter, but that is only an issue in the choke points.   Here is a shot of the Valley with the

View from the Peak

fresh frosting wall to wall, nice and clean!  See you there for the first Bucket.  Ciao!!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 at 3:29 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.