It was a bit brisk on the peak this morning, with the Sun shining in Mineral Basin wall to wall, illuminating a fresh grooming effort on the Lower Downhill course.  The natural snow there was as good as it gets, featuring dry chalky turns with zero ice patches.  Baldy Express was running but vacant, which made it seem like we had a private resort, featuring untracked corduroy, not another person anywhere in sight, and Gun Powder under the Guns that was untracked and blissfully  sumptuous.  We just kept making laps back there all morning, as the temps rose quickly with the solid sunshine and no wind.  The front side of the hill is firming up in a big way, however, there is still natural snow off to the sides and the wind filled gullies are holding the smooth despite the traffic, due to the serious firmness.   The off trail is developing some long frequency, low amplitude interference patterns in the most heavily traveled sections.  There are many lines, especially in Mineral Basin, and Little Cloud, which are work-ably smooth, stretching from the top to the bottom with some variation to follow as the wind deposited the lines as it will.   Upper North West Baldy opened today, with reports of variable conditions, thought the vibe was positive from the participants, who cautioned that the traverse was a bit tricky in places.  Tiger Tail opened as well, but I did not get over there to get a first hand look. Perhaps tomorrow I might find my way over there to check it out, so stay tuned.  Tomorrow, look for the firmness to continue, but extensive tenderization efforts give a very nice early morning ride.  The temps are warming up as the day progresses, making  the afternoon session a solid choice, with back to back Trams kicking the vertical dial way up.  See you there for the first  Boat.   Ciao!!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 3:57 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.