The disruption roller was out on Mirkwood Bowl and Orcs today. This unit disrupts shear plane layers within the snow and creates bonding between individual snow grains. These snowpack elements, if left undisturbed, could contribute to a future avalanche. The machine breaks down these weak layers helping to create a more unified basal snowpack structure. Additionally, the roller roughs up…
The Tumbelina Lift (or Tumbo as we know it) opened today. As described in an earlier post, the Tumbelina Lift received a major upgrade this summer. A huge shout-out to our Lift Maintenance staff for pulling this project off in collaboration with the crew over at Skytrac Lifts. While getting the Tumbelina Lift does not necessarily open any additional terrain…
Our talented operators and guides have started the process of pushing out into our cat skiing terrain. They have established our over the snow roads up to the top of Mirkwood, out to Elation and across the Waterdog Ridge. The operators will continue to push roads and conduct roller operations along the Divide. The guides are beginning the process of…
Closing for the day on Wednesday was definitely the right call. We experienced some crazy wind and weather up here. All weather stations were knocked offline along with our solar array at the top of Pioneer. So, we don’t know exactly what the ridgetop wind speeds were. We had gusts of 60’s and 70’s at the top of the lifts…
The Mountain Ops team was quick to act on getting another lift and some more terrain open for day two. The Panorama lift (one of the best fixed grip double lift rides out there) with the Skywalker side of the ridge is now open! Patrol worked to get one more advanced trail open (Mirage) and more terrain openings are in…
We are watching things closely as the upcoming round of snow develops. So far we have only seen 4″ of snow in the last few days. We are really looking for double digits this week to make a positive change out there on some of our previously bare slopes and lift unload ramps. While there are some huge forecasts out…
I know everyone is chomping at the bit and excited for winter. We are too! We’re all hopeful that the snow in the forecast this week will enable Monarch to open soon. Once we do get snow, it will take a concerted effort by our staff to work towards getting the mountain open. With the incoming storm this week, we…
The Slope Maintenance crew was able to get a few snowcats out to start track packing this week. This process helps to consolidate our basal snow layers while creating a snow surface that can better capture future snowfall. For the last few weeks, we had left our thin snowpack intact to help cover the slopes, reflect the sun, and cool…
As mentioned in an earlier post, the mountain continues to hold snow on certain aspects. As we approach the winter solstice, the sun is tracking lower in the sky with each passing day. Combined with relatively cool temps at night, we have managed to hang onto much of the snow we received in October and November on the north and…
