Okay, got to say this will be a true no grain of salt marketing report. Sorry for so many words. I heard the “official” marketing morning report – partly cloudy, 20 something winds, very warm temps – checked the radar – rain bands way off the coast, so what the heck, drive up and check it out (lucky since JD would have been pissed if we hadn’t showed up). Had a slow morning so we didn’t drive into the A lot till sometime after 8am – back side of the front free row, conditions not to bad at that moment, but the Gondy buckets were not moving – at least not moving up and down the hill, but they did have some pretty good lateral motion. Hhhhmmm. Just before opening someone mentioned upper mountain closure – dang. It was howling. But the glass half full part was we skied the FQex runs for the first time in a month so now I know what they have been like recently – the glass half empty part was how bad they all were. More dirt, more stuff, more not so nice grooming, more ice, more…. Definitely not as nice as the upper mountain groomed runs. We poked around and tried everything that was available – getting colder as the morning progressed. A few small flakes of snow started spitting out of the clouds and by 10:30 it was pretty big dumping. Snow quality was improving. After an early long lunch we came out to wrap up the day, but the snow was still dumping the quality was getting better and lucky stars the winds diminished and the whole mountain opened up. By 12:30 everything was green. Deep pockets of snow could be found and it was pretty easy to find wind scoured sheet ice also, just had to figure out where to go. Vis improved big time just before we had to leave, but when we pulled out at 2pm it was a major big dump. 4+ new on my truck of nice damp sticky snow. Just checked the telemetry at 8:30pm, it was all wind direction that caused the morning problems, just a little shift and everything is happy. Looks like the dumpage was big after we left and is still going on. Had planned on tomorrow being an off day waiting for Super Tuesday…but….When we left the pay lot was emptier than normal and bigger, cars in B and C but not many. Pretty light Xmas crowd, tomorrow will bring the powder hounds out. ddk
