Liz got her first day in since her accident in January. We drove with Garry to Snow Summit and arrived 8:30AM. On weekends and holidays all parking is paid and probably required in advance. Parking check-in was slow, but we were there early enough to get in the upper lot. At least the opening hour is backed up to 8:30AM during this time. Your pass is scanned at a single checkpoint between the ticket booths and the hill. All other access from the parking area is fenced off. Because of this they do not have to scan tickets at the lifts.
We brought snacks so we only went inside to use restrooms. About 10 spaced picnic tables were put out in the snow outside the dining deck at the base of chair 2. There were no benches at the top of lifts where snowboarders usually buckle in.
There was was actually a bit more open terrain than when I last checked Friday, Chair 9, Lower Log Chute and Lower Westridge all opened Saturday, so there must have been some favorable snowmaking weather when we were in Argentina. It's a big plus to have four top-to-bottom runs open instead of just two in terms of spreading people around. Both Snow Summit and Bear Mt. are about 50% open now, which is where they stalled out during the terrible 2013-14 and 2017-18 seasons. But a even a small storm plus several days of ensuing snowmaking will get both areas up to 80+%.
Yesterday was high about 50 with lows upper 20's. The next couple of days are supposed to get below 20F at night which should help. We skied here Dec. 18, 2013 with similar open terrain, but surface conditions were better this time due to ongoing overnight snowmaking. The manmade subsurface is evident but there's almost no frozen granular. Only the liftline areas at the bottom of the mountain got slushy midday. The newly opened runs are fairly thin though Snow Summit handpicks the rocks in summer so it skis just fine on an 18 inch base.
I forgot both camera and phone but Liz had her phone. Garry and I at the top of chair 7:
Snowmaking has not yet begun on Wall and Olympic.
The natural snow is what's left from November 9.
In addition to the top to bottom runs we skied several on chairs 7 and 3. Ego Trip is open on 3 as well as the Westridge park and Zzyzx. Only Log Chute and 7 Down are open on the east side of the mountain. The low intermediate chair 9 is open but we did not ski it as that chair runs extremely slow and only climbs 500 vertical. Garry and I skied 17,300 vertical and we left about 2:15PM.
We brought snacks so we only went inside to use restrooms. About 10 spaced picnic tables were put out in the snow outside the dining deck at the base of chair 2. There were no benches at the top of lifts where snowboarders usually buckle in.
There was was actually a bit more open terrain than when I last checked Friday, Chair 9, Lower Log Chute and Lower Westridge all opened Saturday, so there must have been some favorable snowmaking weather when we were in Argentina. It's a big plus to have four top-to-bottom runs open instead of just two in terms of spreading people around. Both Snow Summit and Bear Mt. are about 50% open now, which is where they stalled out during the terrible 2013-14 and 2017-18 seasons. But a even a small storm plus several days of ensuing snowmaking will get both areas up to 80+%.
Yesterday was high about 50 with lows upper 20's. The next couple of days are supposed to get below 20F at night which should help. We skied here Dec. 18, 2013 with similar open terrain, but surface conditions were better this time due to ongoing overnight snowmaking. The manmade subsurface is evident but there's almost no frozen granular. Only the liftline areas at the bottom of the mountain got slushy midday. The newly opened runs are fairly thin though Snow Summit handpicks the rocks in summer so it skis just fine on an 18 inch base.
I forgot both camera and phone but Liz had her phone. Garry and I at the top of chair 7:
Snowmaking has not yet begun on Wall and Olympic.
The natural snow is what's left from November 9.
In addition to the top to bottom runs we skied several on chairs 7 and 3. Ego Trip is open on 3 as well as the Westridge park and Zzyzx. Only Log Chute and 7 Down are open on the east side of the mountain. The low intermediate chair 9 is open but we did not ski it as that chair runs extremely slow and only climbs 500 vertical. Garry and I skied 17,300 vertical and we left about 2:15PM.
