Cannon Mt., 2/08/03

[Lftgly]

Ski trails are pretty much same story as last week. Generally good cover on all the groomers. <BR> <BR>Thankfully Tuesday's storm remained all snow on the higher summits, however it changed over to mixed precip or light rain during the day in the valleys and on lower slopes, where ir hovered in the low 30s (F). It then changed back to snow that evening, leaving an inch or two on top of the wet snow. Luckily, it did not form an ice crust, but after the wet snow froze, it did leave a breakable crust. <BR> <BR>Of course, there was no sign of the crust on the groomers by Saturday. The natural snow trails, like Middle Hardscrabble, had been skied enough that it wasn't a big factor. <BR> <BR>Not bad cover on MH! new snow still decent in the bumps, not too icy betweeen, except in a few of the usual pitches. <BR> <BR>Didn't ski Paulies, but they're letting it bump up. Zoomer was groomed down the middle; skiers right amd the Zoomer Liftline hadn't realy started to bump up yet, though they will if they can restrain the non-bump-skiing snowcat operators. <BR> <BR>Mittersill is slowly recoveringfrom the grooming attack last weekend. The Taft Race Course from top of Mt. Jackson to the top of the old double chair still hasn't bumped up much. Barons Run was pretty scraped from skier traffic, so not much sign of the crust on it. <BR> <BR><IMG SRC="http://www.firsttracksonline.com/discus2/messages/8/1918.jpg" ALT="glades above 3000'"> <BR>I took a couple glade runs today, one on Mittersill, and another off Tuckerbrook, to gauge the crust before a planned backcountry adventure Sunday. In the glades above 3000' it was really nice. no sign of the rain event, just lots of new snow. Around 3200'-3000', a breakable crust started, hardly noticeable at first. Below 3000', and especially lower down, around 2000'-2500', it was really bad. It was all I could do to get down and out in one piece. <BR> <BR>The Thirteen Turns on upper Tuckerbrook were really nice, as they are above 3000', and there were still a few lines untracked at 11AM. The lower elevations <I>may</I> be OK if cut up enough by skier traffic. <BR> <BR>I'd recommend staying out of the woods at lower elevations for another week. The crust isn't bad, and it's buried under an inch or two of powder, so hopefully it will consolidate by next weekend. We postponed Sunday's adventure.