1/11/15 - Stevens

Three words: foggy, tilted ice-rink.

More words: Slow start meant we missed out on anything freshly groomed in the morning, but that was okay because apparently the fog had been pea-soup thick early and had just started to thin out when we arrived around 11. To use the Whitefish scale of visibility, our first trip up Skyline was a solid 2 chairs, "Good" by Northwest Montucky standards. The groomers had been heavily tilled overnight so the edges of the runs were mounds of soft, sugary snow while the middle was scraped down to smooth ice. Coverage on the groomed runs was on par with what it's been all-season, but off the groomers things are looking dismal. Major holes and mudpits are exposed on the Big Chief side, hence why it isn't open. On the drive up you can tell lots of snow below 4k was flushed, explaining why the backside is shuttered. The bike park features are re-emerging from the snowpack on Hogsback. We didn't ski 7th Heaven, due to the low-vis and general unpleasantness of the ungroomed snow, but it looked like coverage up top was holding (Rock Garden, however, looked pretty dang impassible, as did everything beneath Tye Mill incl. Tye Bowl). In summary, they're gonna need another good dump or two to get back to where they were a week ago. Fog thinned progressively throughout the afternoon, to the point where the sun graced the top of Skyline before setting. But then the fog thickened quickly again as the light faded and we pulled the plug an hour before closing bell.

Still better than sitting at home, though.

The bike park features are re-emerging from the snowpack on Hogsback.

Alas, a silver lining - it may take less work and be more fun to just reopen the bike park for now.