A Good Night

Last night was a good night. We received 10 inches of new snow and had 12 guns running at Black River Basin from midnight on. I went out with the crew this morning and got the first guns of the season running at Jackson Creek Summit. Funny enough the first gun we fired up happened to be labeled gun #1. It feels great to be making snow across both mountains.

As I write, the crew is still working on getting the snowmaking system fully up and running. It will be a good run from now until mid-day tomorrow when we’ll need to shut the guns down for warmer temps. The forecast for the weekend looks very good for snowmaking. We should be able to make a significant amount of snow, getting more terrain closer to opening.

About Powder Thursday

The snow we received in the last 24 hours is fairly wet and heavy, not exactly the UP powder we know and love. While not the best for deep powder runs, this wet snow will help to create a solid base, especially in the glades and on our steeper terrain. We’ll likely have a few pockets of ungroomed snow here and there for Thursday but for the most part we’ll be packing it in with the snowcats. Track packing with the snowcats compacts the snow and pushes frost into the ground which has the benefit of preventing the snow from blowing away, helps capture drifting snow and stops it from melting from underneath. An all around win for skiing conditions a bit later in the season.

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