We lucked out with a bonus round of soft snow Thursday morning courtesy of a frigid air mass out of the North, preserving the goodness from yesterday.  3” of new covered the hill with just an angels breath of dust on the groomers for good measure.  This combination provided delightful runs wherever you chose to point ’em.  Single digit temps in the AM. refrigerated the product, keeping most aspects nice and soft.  The bottom crust was still in play, but had been buffered by the traffic from yesterday, making the overall ride sweet and fluffy.  Due to the soft density of the snow pack, the grooming did not hold up very long, beginning to deteriorate into a low chop that was not too difficult to slice through if you let the skis do the work.  Muscling through would just work your knees and wear you out.   Mineral Basin had been graced with some light wind, filling in some of the tracked areas with transported soft snow.  Nice touch!  Clouds moved in around 11:00 AM. creating visibility issues in some sections, but worked to mask the baking effect of the Sun’s radiant heat.  The direct exposures will have been affected, creating a crusty situation for tomorrow on those shots.  Take that into account as you plan your day.  The under laying bumps persist in the high traffic areas, however, good smooth lines are still to be had with a sharp eye and a bit of traversing to access the less traveled areas.  Take a second and scope out  the options from the Tram, chairs, or Peak to get a sense of best options.   Tomorrow look for continued groovaciousness on the prepared slopes with the North aspects still holding the softness due to the extra cold.  It looks like more snow is on the horizon for Saturday, so keep your fingers crossed for a dumper.  Ok! I’ll be resting my knees to be ready for the festivities in the AM.  I’ll see you there for the shred fest!   IBBY!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 2:26 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.