Objectively speaking, the conditions are terrible.
But -- things aren't nearly as bad as I had feared.
And I had an absolute blast skiing this weekend, and was filled with hope for the rest of the season.
So here's the report:
I headed up to MRG on Friday morning, scared. It had snowed about 3-5" on Thurdsay but this didn't seem like a whole lot given that there apparently wasn't much before. The official trail report had, prior to the new snow, said that the conditions on the ungroomed were "horrific" -- and this from a source that calls skiing on a thin glaze in a rainstorm to be "slightly soft and scratchy." So I wasn't expecting much.
And of course MRG doesn't make snow, nor does it groom much to speak of -- but I love the place and didn't really consider going elsewhere. I hadn't been up there yet this year and it seemed like it was only going to get worse from here over the next week or two, so I figured it was worth trying it out.
The basic conditions were 4-5 inches of new snow on top of solid glare ice. It's possible that perhaps there are a few people in the world capable of edging on this ice, but I am not one of them. Nor did I see anyone who was. It was literally ice-cube consistency ice, in a solid sheet at least an inch thick laid on top of everything on the whole mountain. With the new snow on top.
On the groom, the new snow had been packed down enough on top of this stuff that you didn't really notice it that much -- other than a few sections of trail where the ice peeked through. But on the ungroomed trails, the new snow sat in a soft and fluffly layer that easily slid right off the ice. So it looked really inviting -- both initially when there was untracked, and also later when the new snow had been packed a bit and trails appeared to be covered in perfect-packed-powder moguls.
And the new snow WAS fantastic -- a good bit (I'd say closer to 5 than 3 inches), and of exactly the right consistency to make perfect packed powder. But in between the piles of new snow that formed after it packed a bit was the solid glare ice. Eventually what happened was that the uphill sides of the moguls were this perfect packed powder, and the downhill sides and troughs were the completely unedgeable glare ice.
Made it quite challenging to ski, to say the least! At first, I was sliding all over the place and cursing on practically every turn. But after a run or two I got the hang of skiing the stuff and had a blast. You had to ski loose and super-agressively, blasting across the ice without even attempting to edge and controlling speed by pounding into the packed-powder sides of the moguls. It was actually a good lesson and probably improved my skiing a bit. You had to be a pretty good skier to enjoy it at all though -- even an advanced intermediate would probably have been miserable. I saw a huge proportion of unbelievably good skiers on the hill both days (far far better than me!) -- certainly the conditions selected for the good skiers.
Cover on the mountain was actually much better than I expected. That's not to say that it was good -- there were rock bands and the the like in the usual places, and incompletely covered water bars in the usual lower-mountain spots. But on the whole the cover was entirely adequate -- it certainly didn't seem substantially below what it normally is this time of year. The problem was that new snow doesn't easily stick to glare ice...but if they get some that does, the mountain will actually be in pretty good shape.
On to the trail report:
When I got there on Friday, the only ungroomed things that were open were lower antelope, canyon, and quacky. So I started with Antelope -> LA. LA was fantastic all day -- glare ice in abundance, but enough soft snow moguls to have fun. Quacky was similar. Canyon was the worst of the lot -- big sections of pure ice that I had real trouble with. If you were a substantially better skier than I you might really enjoy it though.
As the trails got skied a bit, they improved. This was because the untracked was actually very treacherous -- it was often hard to tell how deep the snow was in a particular spot and thus when you would hit the glare ice. And if you hit it while trying to edge...down you went. But once it got packed down a bit and you could see the ice and trust the packed snow not to slide away too easily, it was fun to ski. Then towards the end of the day as these trails got skied more and more, bigger patches of ice started to open up and it got harder and nastier to ski.
By Saturday afternoon, I thought LA had gotten pretty nasty. But on Saturday the patrol opened beaver, liftline (most of it anyway) and glade. These were all a lot of fun and were still in good shape through closing, with the exception of the very top of liftline, which was some seriously nasty ice. They also groomed the middle of cat bowl. The headwall here was just brutal though: not much to do but point your skis straight down across the ice and rock and turn at the bottom. They left some moguls on the side of the run, but by the end of the day these were brutal piles of rock and ice -- simply gruesome.
It snowed steadily through the day on Saturday too, so skiing on Sunday should be pretty good as well...plus I hear that they opened chute, fall line, and paradise, as well as gazelle, slalom hill, etc.
Woods were supposedly closed through the weekend, but this didn't stop anyone. In general, there's actually enough snow in the woods to ski them -- at least if you're willing to accept a little risk. The problem again is the ice, which made the steep and tight tree chutes (particularly on the upper mountain) absolutely treacherous. I skied a couple of these that had been skied by others since the snow and they were sheet ice with often almost no place where it was possible to turn. But people skied them all day -- they weren't unskiable, just very tough. I didn't sample 20th, but there were many tracks into it made by people braver than me.
On the other hand, the lower-mountain woods in the shallower sections were terrific. Not as icy as the runs (though still icy patches!) and great snow all day. Enough cover to ski them comfortably. I had my best turns of the weekend in some of these spots.
So get it while it's good...and here's hoping that we avoid too much rain later this week. On the whole, though, I'm greatly encouraged...if this next bit of rain doesn't wash too much away, and we get even say 6" of wet snow that sticks to the ice, that'll be enough to open up the whole mountain including all the woods with pretty good skiing.
But -- things aren't nearly as bad as I had feared.
And I had an absolute blast skiing this weekend, and was filled with hope for the rest of the season.
So here's the report:
I headed up to MRG on Friday morning, scared. It had snowed about 3-5" on Thurdsay but this didn't seem like a whole lot given that there apparently wasn't much before. The official trail report had, prior to the new snow, said that the conditions on the ungroomed were "horrific" -- and this from a source that calls skiing on a thin glaze in a rainstorm to be "slightly soft and scratchy." So I wasn't expecting much.
And of course MRG doesn't make snow, nor does it groom much to speak of -- but I love the place and didn't really consider going elsewhere. I hadn't been up there yet this year and it seemed like it was only going to get worse from here over the next week or two, so I figured it was worth trying it out.
The basic conditions were 4-5 inches of new snow on top of solid glare ice. It's possible that perhaps there are a few people in the world capable of edging on this ice, but I am not one of them. Nor did I see anyone who was. It was literally ice-cube consistency ice, in a solid sheet at least an inch thick laid on top of everything on the whole mountain. With the new snow on top.
On the groom, the new snow had been packed down enough on top of this stuff that you didn't really notice it that much -- other than a few sections of trail where the ice peeked through. But on the ungroomed trails, the new snow sat in a soft and fluffly layer that easily slid right off the ice. So it looked really inviting -- both initially when there was untracked, and also later when the new snow had been packed a bit and trails appeared to be covered in perfect-packed-powder moguls.
And the new snow WAS fantastic -- a good bit (I'd say closer to 5 than 3 inches), and of exactly the right consistency to make perfect packed powder. But in between the piles of new snow that formed after it packed a bit was the solid glare ice. Eventually what happened was that the uphill sides of the moguls were this perfect packed powder, and the downhill sides and troughs were the completely unedgeable glare ice.
Made it quite challenging to ski, to say the least! At first, I was sliding all over the place and cursing on practically every turn. But after a run or two I got the hang of skiing the stuff and had a blast. You had to ski loose and super-agressively, blasting across the ice without even attempting to edge and controlling speed by pounding into the packed-powder sides of the moguls. It was actually a good lesson and probably improved my skiing a bit. You had to be a pretty good skier to enjoy it at all though -- even an advanced intermediate would probably have been miserable. I saw a huge proportion of unbelievably good skiers on the hill both days (far far better than me!) -- certainly the conditions selected for the good skiers.
Cover on the mountain was actually much better than I expected. That's not to say that it was good -- there were rock bands and the the like in the usual places, and incompletely covered water bars in the usual lower-mountain spots. But on the whole the cover was entirely adequate -- it certainly didn't seem substantially below what it normally is this time of year. The problem was that new snow doesn't easily stick to glare ice...but if they get some that does, the mountain will actually be in pretty good shape.
On to the trail report:
When I got there on Friday, the only ungroomed things that were open were lower antelope, canyon, and quacky. So I started with Antelope -> LA. LA was fantastic all day -- glare ice in abundance, but enough soft snow moguls to have fun. Quacky was similar. Canyon was the worst of the lot -- big sections of pure ice that I had real trouble with. If you were a substantially better skier than I you might really enjoy it though.
As the trails got skied a bit, they improved. This was because the untracked was actually very treacherous -- it was often hard to tell how deep the snow was in a particular spot and thus when you would hit the glare ice. And if you hit it while trying to edge...down you went. But once it got packed down a bit and you could see the ice and trust the packed snow not to slide away too easily, it was fun to ski. Then towards the end of the day as these trails got skied more and more, bigger patches of ice started to open up and it got harder and nastier to ski.
By Saturday afternoon, I thought LA had gotten pretty nasty. But on Saturday the patrol opened beaver, liftline (most of it anyway) and glade. These were all a lot of fun and were still in good shape through closing, with the exception of the very top of liftline, which was some seriously nasty ice. They also groomed the middle of cat bowl. The headwall here was just brutal though: not much to do but point your skis straight down across the ice and rock and turn at the bottom. They left some moguls on the side of the run, but by the end of the day these were brutal piles of rock and ice -- simply gruesome.
It snowed steadily through the day on Saturday too, so skiing on Sunday should be pretty good as well...plus I hear that they opened chute, fall line, and paradise, as well as gazelle, slalom hill, etc.
Woods were supposedly closed through the weekend, but this didn't stop anyone. In general, there's actually enough snow in the woods to ski them -- at least if you're willing to accept a little risk. The problem again is the ice, which made the steep and tight tree chutes (particularly on the upper mountain) absolutely treacherous. I skied a couple of these that had been skied by others since the snow and they were sheet ice with often almost no place where it was possible to turn. But people skied them all day -- they weren't unskiable, just very tough. I didn't sample 20th, but there were many tracks into it made by people braver than me.
On the other hand, the lower-mountain woods in the shallower sections were terrific. Not as icy as the runs (though still icy patches!) and great snow all day. Enough cover to ski them comfortably. I had my best turns of the weekend in some of these spots.
So get it while it's good...and here's hoping that we avoid too much rain later this week. On the whole, though, I'm greatly encouraged...if this next bit of rain doesn't wash too much away, and we get even say 6" of wet snow that sticks to the ice, that'll be enough to open up the whole mountain including all the woods with pretty good skiing.