Lower Superstar Headwall in the snow.

Lower Superstar Headwall in the snow.

Yesterday I showed you pictures from the base lodge areas. Today I had the good fortune of being able to actual get on the mountain for some skiing. I was really glad that I did!

The resort made a stunning recovery from the winter deluge that r@!ned down upon it Wednesday into Thursday. Just as temperatures abruptly went up on Tuesday evening, they came down during the day on Thursday. Soft and mushy snow locked up, which was actually a good thing because it allow the surfaces to support grooming machines. Combined with 4-6 inches of beautiful fluff, and there were parts of the resort today that were just plain outstanding.

As is usually the case this time of year, we spent our time playing on the trails around the Skye Peak, Needles Eye, and Superstar Quads. Depending upon when the trails were groomed yesterday, surfaces were firm to ice underfoot with 2 to 6 inches of fresh powder on top. A few spots still seemed damp underfoot. I say that, but other than normal streams we did not see any flowing water. However, carving turns that dug into the trail too deep did seem to throw up a lot of crust and soft snow in the process.

Our initial runs down Bear Claw were very good, considering the weather earlier this week. Bear Claw was well covered. The junction of Bear Claw and Skyeburst had several slick spots. Lower Skyeburst on the first run was beautifully covered with 2 inches of fluff. Subsequent runs saw it chunk up quite a bit as people carved into the surface.

Upper Skyeburst was slick at the very top, giving way to 3 to 4 inches of powder down both skiers right and left. The outlet to Dreammaker was also fully covered, although the opposite side of the outlet on Dreammaker deserves respect. Thin cover has exposed some ledge at the junction. If you take this route, hang tight on skiers right until you get into Dreammaker proper.

Lower Dreammaker was fantastic. 4-6 inches of freshies covering all of the features. Great powder day skiing, even if it was only for one run. I did it several times.

Cruise Control was groomed flat and fast. Thin cover on skiers right. Some ice flows visible in the center of the trail. Where the trail is relatively flat... point em down hill and let them rip!

Needles Eye was very good. Panic Button was groomed yet relatively soft. Easy to carve into the slope. Needles Eye was traffic sensitive. The first run down skiers left was "awesome". The second run down skiers left was a little chunky. I moved over to the middle, but beware of thin spots. Skiers right was too thin in spots to maintain a good line. A little snow and another round of grooming and Needles Eye should be great for the weekend.

Bittersweet was another story. Guns were going everywhere on Upper Bitter. And they needed to be. Windblown boiler plate and ice flows were the main feature of Upper Bitter. With limited skier traffic, the carnage was kept to a minimum. But the resort was obviously pulling out all stops to resurface the trail to get it ready for weekend crowds.

Lower Bittersweet was nice. A waterbar has broken open about 2/3rds of the way down the trail, but it was well marked. The trail was very receptive, allowing nice sweeping turns.

Skyelark was interesting. Guns were going on Upper and Middle Skylark to resurface the trail. Lower Skylark was "icy bumps" with a "thin cover" sign. My guess is that the groomer fleet did not have a lot of time to spend on it, but that is only conjecture.

Superstar was really nice. The snow making that the resort did last week is still impressive to look at with lift tower high snow whales down the length of the trail. Middle Superstar was fun riding up and down the whales. Lower Superstar was very receptive, allowing nice carving turns. It did not seem any "slicker" than normal, making me wonder what happened to all the water that fell on it.

All in all, the resort did a phenomenal job recovering from their weather event. Mother Nature was also providing a lot of help with snow falling the entire morning we were on the mountain. Winter is back!

Let it snow!