Royal Mountain Conditions

[Jim]

Some squalls today, so my afternoon trip up to Royal was excellent. Red Carpet was really nice and I skied it a few times. All of the glades I hit were good with the exception of the steeper part of Princess Woods. It's thin in there. Jacksland has some thin spots too but they're easy enough to avoid.

I rarely ski Lodge Run between Lower Queen and the terrain park, so I don't know how long this new sign has been there:

I went that way specificially with the intent of trying out those glades for the first time this season. I don't know if it's a new name or I just never heard it before. It's fairly short with pretty low angle with a few good lines through. Fun in there today.

Local schools are out Wednesday for Lunar New Year so Royal will be open. I will be at Oak to help out with the B-P/Amsterdam ski team's home meet.

 

[Jim]

I ended up skiing Royal this afternoon. The snow cancelled the high school race at Oak, I had already changed my schedule to be there, and Royal was open on a Wednesday for the school holiday. This little storm treated Royal well, with 6" reported but clearly more than that in some areas. A lot of the snow fell after the groom so powder was everywhere, and deeper on Red Carpet, Challenge, and Royal. I was able to get in 16 runs all over the place. The main trails were well tracked and starting to mound up by the time I got out there at 12:30. All light enough to ski right through. I hit a few more places in the trees that I hadn't yet tried this season and a bunch more that have been skiing well and have only gotten better. Many fresh tracks still available at 3 PM. It's hard to pick a run of the day., as you could hardly make a bad choice. The only thin cover I found was one of the places I usually avoid for just that reason: the small patch in the pines between Queen and Doc's Drop.

Now we have to hope the mess in the Friday forecast stays mostly frozen, or at least ends with some fresh snow, since it's going to be a cold one on Saturday.

I can't recall a better month of conditions at Royal than what this January has given us.