West Mountain: 01/12/2011

Some Wednesday nights are powder nights...  or at least skied-up powder, which was plentiful last night at West. With schools closed because of the snow, and plenty of adults staying home too, there weren't any untracked lines to be found, but the mountain was in super shape with ungroomed powder surfaces on all trails.  I would estimate around 8 inches of new snow had fallen, and fine, light snow continued to filter down for most of the evening.  This snow seems to have a higher moisture content and density than last Friday's snow, which is a good thing for skiers as it will form a much better base on the trails and in the woods than the fluff from the previous storm.

I've mentioned before that I've been impressed with West's ability and willingness to make snow.  Despite the two significant storms in less than a week, there were still roughly 20 fan guns blowing last night.  I suspect many of those have been blowing non-stop for the past 10 days, building up base depths.  Since last week, about 10 guns had been moved to Midway (the trail under the triple chair) and that trail now looks ready to open.  Midway is the only significant lighted trail that wasn't yet open as of last week and this week.

The only thing bad I can say about last night is that all of my pictures came out blurry.  I salvaged the one above.  Oh well, I had said from the start not to expect many photos from Wednesday nights.