There was sunshine out in Mineral Basin to start out the day, with great Grooming that brought up that cold dry snow.   I was pulled into an East facing drop, on the way to the buffed, by a wind line that looked promising.  I did not listen to my own advice to avoid these aspects, only to find out that I was right about the Gnar, with the crust being very difficult.  I made a bee line back to the machine worked lines at the first chance I got.  Doh!!!  On the front of the hill, the clouds began to move in to obscure the morning light.  Here is a shot of the East Twin being covered with the approaching cloud deck.  This ended the best light of the day.  The new snow from yesterday began to pile up, leaving areas of hard pack in between the piles.  In the variable light this was a touch problematic, but staying with the trees and the known smooth helped to smooth the ride.  I had to dial back the attack to give my back a rest after that early morning tangent.  I won’t be doing that again any time soon.   Tomorrow, look for partly cloudy skies, great lines on the Groomed runs, and low traffic for the morning session.  The consistency will still prove to be tricky, but look for those lines that have been holding strong all week.  Off trail continues to be variable, and special attention should still be taken to aspect as I was soundly reminded.  See you there for the morning festivities.  Stay Frosty!!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2015 at 6:10 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.