It has been all or nothing this year. Deep snow or no snow. We couldn’t buy a snowflake early in the season. Ok…maybe we COULD buy a snowflake, but choose not to make snow at Monarch. It’s like the difference between a snow cone and soft serve ice cream. It may take a little longer sometimes, but it’s simply better…

Today turned out to be a sneaky good day! Anyone who was up at the mountain knows exactly what I am talking about. We reported 2″ new with 0″ overnight and then the skies opened up. It snowed throughout the day and Monday might be a day where you might consider calling in sick to work. It appears that we…

There is a string of prayer flags hanging at the top of Mirkwood. These flags are used to promote peace, compassion, strength, and wisdom. Prayer flags are found in sets of five. These colors represent the five elements. Blue symbolizes the sky and space, yellow symbolizes earth, green symbolizes water, red symbolizes fire and white symbolizes the air/wind. It is…

Much of our cat skiing terrain sits along the Continental Divide above the Waterdog Lakes drainage. Several of our zones along this eastern flank of the ridge have taken on some type of dog nomenclature. The particular bowl and chutes in this image are called Dog Heaven (left side of the bowl) and Bold Dog on the right. Other dog…

We just wrapped up our annual IFSA Junior Regional Event. This competition was held in Mirkwood Basin on Feb 24/25 and featured young riders from two age classifications. On Thursday it was the 12-14 age group going head to head and on Friday we hosted the U12 skiers/riders picking their lines down from the Mirk summit. This event sees teams…

Winter has returned! The much anticipated storm this week has brought back cold temps, wind and snow. We reported 5″ today and have had several more inches fall today. The storm will ramp up tonight, tomorrow and into Thursday. Grab the fat boards and head to the mountain. See you up here.

A-Basin has the beach. A classic slope-side spot. In that same spirit, our Base Services crew and our groomers have put together a pretty sweet spot for a lunch or a classic tailgate get together. The zone adjacent to the south lot located between the Ski Patrol tent and the Gunbarrel trail now has some additional acreage to spread out…

Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen just a few small storms. While these events have not led to a day of powder skiing, they have helped to soften the surface and give our operators some new flakes to work with. All in all, the coverage is still fantastic and the snow is soft and carvable. It was…

By the time most of us arrive at the mountain, our Slope Maintenance crew has already been hard at work all night. These guys show up around 11pm, fire up our fleet of snowcats and hit the slopes. There are the regular grooming missions that include the majority of our easiest trails, about half to two-thirds of our intermediate trails…

There are a lot of options to choose from after your Mirkwood hike. Most drop directly into Mirkwood Bowl or Orcs. Others choose the NE facing trees to be found in Mirkwood Trees or Staircase. The more adventurous find themselves poking through the cliff bands in East Trees. For skiers/riders wanting a return view to the ski area may pick…