Groomers Improved & a Chutes Warning

 Greetings all on Solstice Eve, 

The sun will finally stop its downward descent on the horizon and from tomorrow morning on will once again edge up higher on the horizon each day toward summer's zenith. Hope you celebrate the very middle of winter with a run or two in the days and weeks to come. According to the forecasts from our friends at tahoe weather blog it will be worth it. To keep up with storm forecasts go check out his Carson Range based forecasts at: www.tahoeweatherblog.com. As of now we are slated for between 4 to 5 feet by weeks end. 

Firstly though I wanted to comment on the numerous complaints about the lack of grooming of some of the slopes this weekend or poor quality of the grooming that was done on Ida's and others. After some investigation I have discovered three valid points that led us to this junction: 1) Dave Hahl, a 30 year grooming wizard at Mt. Rose, whose commitment to perfection and variety and number of slopes groomed is legendary across the Tahoe Basin has alas retired and can be found ironically skiing pow out where groomers and most skiers just can't get to; 2) Almost every department is minimally staffed on the mountain, although the rumor is that a couple more experienced groomers have just been hired; 3) that much new snow at once is difficult for groomers to get a handle on and several passes have to be made to keep cleaning the furrows and ridges up to make it smooth like a pool table. Have patience folks, although I missed skiing any groomers this weekend I got an earfull from other locals who did. However, today the grooming was much better both in terms of variety (Silver, Bruces, Bonanza, NW, Bullwhip, Aida's, Waterfall, Upper and Lower Lakeview as well as Lower Ramseys) as well as quality. Ok folks that is a LOT of groomed runs for Rose so no more complaints on that one. 

Secondly I wanted to once again comment on The Chutes conditions. Although there are many places in the chutes where there wasn't slide activity... there were others that went big. The worst of which is Jackpot. As I shared in my last post the 10' crown is just below the Jackpot Gate about 25' in. Beware as this crown is not marked and is a 10' vertical drop into steeps. Below the crown is more trouble. The amount of snow that slid left a lot of granite in its path (see pics below). So word to the wise is be extremely careful once we get a little snow in there to just cover the boulders... they will be waiting like sharks hungry for p'tex lurking just below the surface. 

-Sven



Comments

  1. Jackpot has not been opened other than a brief period when some customers opened it.

    ReplyDelete

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