What does it take to open a run?

[Twisted]

Apparently resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood got 7-9" last night but how much does that actually help with opening up more runs? What's the minimum base required to open your average blue run and does anyone have any idea what might be open in the cottonwoods by this weekend?

I'm trying to gague if I want to spend the money on a lift ticket if I can only ski one or two lifts.

 

[Admin]

If that's what you're looking for save your $ for a week or two. that'll groom out to a couple of inches. We need a few feet.

 

[Marc_C]

Apparently resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood got 7-9" last night but how much does that actually help with opening up more runs? What's the minimum base required to open your average blue run and does anyone have any idea what might be open in the cottonwoods by this weekend?

Not much. Like Admin said, 7" of 5% grooms out to maybe a couple of inches or so, and, on anything other than snowmaking trails, it fell on either bare ground or a crusty surface to which it won't bond. Most of the terrain in the Cottonwoods needs a good 3 - 4 feet of settled base to be skiable - maybe only 18" on some of the blue runs that aren't a jumble of rocks beneath the snow. Solitude and Brighton have much more snow making than AltaBird, so they might get more terrain open sooner, but, in short, there's likely to be very little if any additional terrain open this weekend unless some weather magic happens.

 

[gwest]

Alta was pretty bold last year and opened the a lot of the mtn last year with only about 24" base. It's skied alright. They'll have low snow warning signs up till the base is like 100".

But yeah, 3-4ft is desireable