Thursday morning was ON from the word GO. Heavy traffic in the canyon at 7:15 indicated a surge.  The faithful were on hand with super high energy and vision to match.  Conditions are on the upswing, with the crunchy bottom still in play overall.  The off trail sections offer more consistency, and edge-ability, whereas  the Man Made sections prove to be variable as you encounter the lower layers.  The very light snow was fully knee deep in places and really blower.  High Baldy opened for the first time drawing huge interest.  Mineral Basin had a delayed opening, but offered the deeper side of the hill.  The wind assisted in this regard, so go looking around and find those out side lines.  There are still numerous reefs and snags out in Mineral, so use a bit of caution.  Little Cloud had some very nice lines with lots of pressure on the early entrance.  West facing still looks thin with very narrow and sketchy entrance points.  The Lower Cirque is very bony getting in and this light density snow did not do much to cushion that.  Upper Great Scott and the  Upper Cirque were re closed this morning.  New snow and bare reef made that call a no brainer and a good call at that.  Regulator is still smooth down the middle, offering good off trail to the right and left.   Some surprises still exist at the break over points, be aware.  The full court press is on this week, so watch your back, expect unusual movement and watch all the uphill drops.  I get surprised all the time by what folks are dropping.  More snow overnight and a lot of hung over faithful may give the morning a quieter start. I know you have to start a lot earlier to get first Boat, so plan ahead!  See you all next year. Happy New Year!!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 31st, 2009 at 3:17 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.