What a difference  1” can make overall.  Thursday morning looked a bit dubious if you were to go by looking out the window.   The trailer had a slight dusting on it, indicating something happened over night. The parking lot had a solid quarter inch, so I was not hoping for much.  Just goes to show you how wrong you can be.  That little 1 inch dusting made the grip so much better.  Staying with the lines from yesterday paid off and they held up all day as very light traffic did not put pressure on the buffed.  A cloud moved up the canyon reducing the visibility in various locations.  The top half of the hill tended to stay in the sun with the bottom whited out.  Mineral Basin stayed in the sun all the time with the North facing  exposures still holding up with smooth wind slab.  When conditions get this spotty great lines can still be found if you look for it and can find greatness in surfaces other than powder.  Good is good, it is just a mater of degree.  Back to back trams held up all day, as well, getting max vertical for those pushing that agenda.  I skied Shot 12 in the Upper Cirque for the first time this season.  The cover was pretty good with some reefage in the middle section.  The apron was smooth and chalky giving you the back country experience.  This section is certainly  doable now  with extreme caution required to stay out of the rocks.  I had fun there and I will go back, but this section is not a slam dunk yet, though worth the look.  Tomorrow will provide those same lines holding up early with deterioration a possibility if they get excessive pressure, but I don’t see it.  Mineral will be good again with the best sun illumination.  Traffic will still be light so get there early for the vacant Trams and open slopes.  See you  then.   Ciao!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 5:17 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.