Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Conditions Report

Most of you know we've had some weird weather in the last 24 hours. Ski Patrol just gave me an updated report since we did not have groomers on the mountain last night (and subsequently no stake reading). We received 7" on top total out of this storm. Our base is at 46". There was no snowfall on the lower half of the mountain. Instead we got rained on.

This leads many people to believe that conditions are marginal at best. Well I'm heading out right now to debunk this myth! I'm going to go take honest photos of several different runs so you can see exactly what it looks like (past our webcam). I'll post the pics and soon as I get back inside.

UPDATE: It's great skiing out there! The snow is soft and really fun to carve. I didn't see any of what we call "cancer spots"- areas where dirt is showing and can quickly spread.
Peacemaker

Midway area
Harold's Way
Powderkeg

Bottom of Yoohoo

Bill's Run

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to disagree, with Sarah or whoever posted the blog about the conditions on 2/24/09. We skiied Tuesday afternoon and it was fine if you are from California and like Sierra Cement. Nothing got groomed because the temps were too warm Monday night so it was pretty grabby, sticky and not very consistant. We didn't ski the west end as we heard from other skiiers that it was icy and not as good as the front side. We tried most of the runs on the front side. Bill's and Mavericks were the best as they had the most skiiers doing the grooming, Racer's was the worst with large piles of frozen and partially frozen snow everywhere(Death Cookies) making the bumps challenging to say the least. I can only imagine what it's like this morning with frozen piles of ice on all the runs that were not groomed.It's too bad Powderhorn doesn't have the will or equipment to groom any of their black runs. Rolling the bumps, say once every 2 weeks or so keeps the bumps round, soft and consistant. Never doing so allows them to get shaved off, which makes them hard, angular and irregular. I think their is a fear of non bump skiiers that if they roll the bump runs that they won't be challenging enough or something. But skiiers formed the bumps in the first place and they will reform them if they roll it. So put some diesel in those cats and roll it all because with the conditions I saw yesterday, corderoy is going to be a whole lot better than the alternative. I'll have a chance to go up Thursday afternoon and I'll let you know what it's like. JP

Powderhorn Resort said...

Just one point- Equalizer and Upper Snowcloud have been getting groomed about every other week lately.

Powderhorn Resort said...
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Powderhorn Resort said...
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Anonymous said...

We wish that you would groom all the intermediate runs during the week (daily). You raised season pass prices and daily lift tickets but have groomed less than ever this year. We won't come up until you groom more. After the rain, it isn't safe to ski.

Anonymous said...

i was up on monday, and the skiing was really good. sure i was a little wet, but i had a smile on my face. hey, j.p., go ski vail or something so you can overanalyze the conditions with the yuppies.

n.j.

Anonymous said...

Hey NJ I am going to ski Vail, and Crested Butte, and Monarch and Copper and Loveland and Winter Park all yet this season, Why don't you stay at Powderhorn and ride some of the slowest lifts anywhere and enjoy the hard icy bumps. Actually I'm sure Monday probably was better than Tuesday's conditions, other than getting wet, it usually is softer when the rain and snow fall than it is a day later. I don't want them to groom that much more it's just that other than Equalizer and Snowcloud, none of the other blacks get groomed all year. Obviously the people who make the decision on what to groom are not bump skiiers. Don't get your small town Mesa Colorado undies in a wad. Some of us just like the conditions to be good instead of old School. JP

Powderhorn Resort said...

I'd like to address just a couple things-

Everyone is absolutely entitled to their own opinions. Everyone has different ski/ride styles and likes different terrain. But please try to treat each other with respect on here so we can keep posting the comments :)

The grooming schedule lately has been dictated by temperatures and weather. Obviously both are out of our control. When it's too soft and warm, the crew doesn't go out so that we can protect the snowpack.

It's hard to maintain a grooming schedule that makes everyone happy. For every comment we get asking us to groom more, we also get comments asking us to groom less. We try to maintain a balance for our guests and provide the best snowpack within our means.

Hope that helps explain a little! Comments, questions, etc are always welcome.

Anonymous said...

pretty crappy snow the whole season so far, and the park stunk too. I wish i could get my money back for my pass since they cost so much.

Anonymous said...

Friday-
Your grooming report said that Lower Dude was groomed today. NO way! We were cutting over to the west end, after leaving Mavrick and going down Dude to Lower Dude and seeing how terrible it was, we did not ski the west end. Lower Snowcloud needed grooming too, as did Tenderfoot. What a sad thing for a Friday with all the school kids and the rest of us! Hire a groomer. PM