Snow at Paradise parking lot

Or afternoon.  > Stupid gate didn't open till 11 and by then the snow was a bit cooked. Still better than being at work.

Gate was forecast to open at 10:30 (never good news), but opened late because the LEO who was scheduled to open the gate had to respond to a toyota pickup accident (maybe you saw it at Kautz Creek) and that delayed him a bit.

I know the LEO and he made a point of stressing how important it is to communicate with the park in constructive correspondence about the need for early and dependable opening and to contrast current operations with those in the past that were definitely more successful. That, evidently, can make a difference in the number of personnel assigned to the opening tasks.

Yes, the snow was a bit cooked, wind-packed, sastrugi, multi-layered styrofoam, with sun crust, with wind crust. A first for me was heading down with a strong tail wind and the wind blowing ahead of me saucer-sized plates of crust broken loose by my skis (along with the spindrift from wind scour).

Somebody's going to have a good morning....

It turned out to be a good afternoon, with the 11AM gate opening. Amar's crew timed things perfectly, driving through the gate at Longmire 10 minutes after opening. The rest of us were sleep deprived, maybe Longmire could consider renting rooms by the hour in the AM?