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.

 

[Jim]

Royal picked up a few inches from the Friday evening storm, keeping the powder and packed powder streak going. The snow was not as fluffy as recent storms. Where it was ungroomed and untracked there was a bit of a crunchy layer. I can't say much about specific trails since ski school was slammed and I had lessons all day. Only of them went up on the main mountain and that was just on the greens (which were skiing very nicely).

 

[Jim]

Back at it today. My skiing was limited by wanting to see my daughter and nephew and their teammates in the high school race. I made 10 runs, mostly woods and steeps. There was enough new snow over the course of the week to get the woods to the point where I feel comfortable going pretty much anywhere. The warmer storm had some sleet as part of it which firmed up the base on and off the trails then there were some lighter snows on top in the last couple days. I really enjoyed the soft bumps on Red Carpet and did it three times. My favorite runs of the day were Princess->Maiden->Damsel and Duke->Doc's->no name cut through->Merchant.

Being race day, the last day of Saturday Trailblaisers 6-week program lessons, and it just being a really nice day for people to come out for a day of skiing meant another overflow day for the parking. A new lot was cleared just below the bottom of the practice slope, which filled along with all of the other lots.

Hoping the forecast for tonight is right and that I won't get called on for too much teaching tomorrow so I can take advantage of it.

 

[Harvey]

tomorrow

Should be off the hook-ish I'd guess.

 

[Jim]

Should be off the hook-ish I'd guess.

At Royal and a lot of others I hope.

 

[Jim]

Good: About 8" new, fantastic conditions everywhere and the sun was even out for a while. Less good: ski school was busy and I was called on to teach two lessons. They were enjoyable lessons but I wanted to be out there. After the lessons I hit as many glades as I could. Lots of really deep fresh tracks to be found all over, especially up in Glasgow (on the far side of Knight and Captain Jack's). I got in two places I hadn't yet this season. I stayed in further down Duke than I have this season (to the skiers right on Queen and Doc's) but I bailed out before the tightest and steepest part near the end. Also, between Challenge and the T-Bar line, there's a very steep and rocky clearing that very rarely has enough snow to be really skiable. It was plenty deep there today.

I'm going to do my best to keep my calendar clear and get somewhere on Thursday. An Indy day at Magic would likely be my first choice if I can make it work.

 

[Jim]

Royal picked up some snow but also some ice during the course of the week. Branches on the upper third or so were still encrusted by the results of some freezing rain. Ungroomed terrain had a crust you could break through with some fluff on top. That wasn't worth bothering with for me, so I decided to stick to the groomers. Groomed surfaces were really pleasant, though not the quiet packed powder we've been spoiled by for over a month. Challenge and Royal were good for letting the skis go and getting some speed or taking some nice carving turns. I had a couple lessons so I didn't get as many runs as I might have. When I left around 3, the snow was coming down pretty good and had put a fresh dusting everywhere. We'll see if Royal's location and elevation is enough to keep this event more snow than ice.

 

[Jim]

Royal's not going to open tomorrow to wait out the predicted high winds.

I don't know how the precipitation today turned out at Royal. Here in Amsterdam it was about 2" of sleet this morning, some freezing rain and plain rain during the afternoon, and good coating of snow since the temps dropped back down.

 

[Jim]

Today was my first and only chance to get to Royal during the school break week. It was Alpin Haus Demo Day, so it was a pretty good crowd. I was only called on to teach one lesson, allowing me to get in a good number of runs despite having to arrive a little late and leave a little early due to other commitments. I didn't try any demo skis this year. My daughter did and she wants all of them.

The snow is still great! The packed powder, even if a little louder than it was before the recent weather event, is really pleasant, good for speed and carving. As far as storm impacts, there's still some ice in the branches on the top half. In the woods, there are a lot of small branches down but if anything larger fell in the wind storm, it's been cleared from the trails and woods I skied. I started on the groomed runs, thinking the ungroomed terrain like Red Carpet and T-Bar Line and the woods would be in rough shape. I had nice runs down everything. I did try Red Carpet and was pleasantly surprised by how edgeable even the really loud patches were. After lunch, I ventured off the groomed runs, glad I did. The places where the crusty surface has been skied in are really nice. The cover in the woods is superb. I was into Princess Woods twice, Jacksland twice, Wench once, took another run down Red Carpet, and for my pick of the day, made two runs down the T-bar line. On the second, I checked out the steep clearing between Challenge and T-Bar that I mentioned in a recent post but found it was still pretty crusty and I cut out back to T-Bar after a couple turns.

I took a handful of pictures during the day: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EusJhz55v9eEUxqVA In the order they show up at that link:

- first two, looking from the top of Challenge down Red Carpet to the base of the lift where the demo day tents were set up
- middle section of T-Bar Line
- next two, Princess Woods (lots of small pine branches and needles down from the ice and wind)
- the summit Ski Patrol lodge under this season's deep snow cover
- entrance at the top of Wench from Royal
- looking down from the top of Royal

Back to regular work tomorrow, back to Royal on Saturday.