Royal Mountain Conditions

[Jim]

No, a new " Bunny Runner" carpet lift for about the middle third of the practice slope. Last I heard, it will be installed soon along the parking lot side of the slope.

 

[Jim]

Definitely not packed powder today, things got pretty slushy, but the cover is still good. A few thin spots near the bottom of Challenge and a bit of a brown patch near the top of Royal. With Challenge still ungroomed, the middle third has some bumps, much more so than we usually find anywhere on Royal's main trails. The woods are now completely out of play until we get some snow, even for those who don't care about their skis.

In other news, prep work is well underway for the Bunny Runner installation on the Practice Slope. It's going to be a great addition for teaching, spanning the middle third or so of the run, where it's just nice for those not ready for the "headwall" at the top just off the chair.

 

[Jim]

Closed out the holiday week with a really nice day today. I only taught one lesson, and that one was on the main mountain, so I got in more runs than I have recently. Wet granular everywhere, as you'd expect. There are some thin and even bare spots here and there. For the most part the cover is pretty good. Especially on Royal.

Challenge remains ungroomed, so more rocks and dirt are showing through than on others. But the trail is about as much fun as it gets outside of a true powder day with all of the soft snow and bumps. It's gotten a lot of skier traffic, showing that there's a demand for an extra-challenging version of Challenge like we've had all week.

Royal now gets onto the usual weekends-only schedule (plus MLKJr day) until Presidents Week.

And a quick update on the carpet lift: it's on site, permitting and prep work is progressing, and it's expected to be installed in the next couple of days. It won't be online next weekend, aiming for the 14th for its debut. Once lift ops staff is trained on it, it sounds like state inspection and approval will be the main item that could cause any delay in that plan.

 

[Harvey]

There are some thin and even bare spots here and there. For the most part the cover is pretty good. Especially on Royal.

That does look and sound solid.

 

[Mike]

I raced there in high school back in the day....I'm glad it's still around.

 

[Jim]

It was a great day on the practice slope where I spend much of my day teaching (and taking advantage of the new Bunny Runner), but not as great on the main mountain. On the plus side, coverage on all the main runs is solid and Challenge is back online (and now groomed out). Unfortunately, the rain did not end as snow as I thought it might. So it was whatever the groomers could do to make a decent surface after the rain and re-freeze on this cloudy, below-freezing day. Some areas were decent, but too many patches of chunky stuff to be too much fun. Things should improve tomorrow and Monday as snowmaking is underway tonight. Even without that, improvements should come with skier traffic and more groomer passes. The predicted sunshine won't hurt either.

 

[Jim]

It's amazing what a cold night and an all-out snowmaking effort can do. We went from some of the roughest conditions we've seen this season on Saturday to what had to be the best day of the season so far on Sunday. Freshly made snow almost everywhere. Queen was my top pick, with almost nothing skied off to the hard pack beneath even on my last run on it after 3. Royal was nice too but had a few more areas of hard pack coming through late in the day.

They're planning another snowmaking blast with a cold night on tap tonight to set up what should be a really nice MLK day.

Sadly, the natural snow depth remains a solid 0.

 

[Jim]

There was about 3" of dense natural snow from the recent storm, which gave us a pretty pleasant ski surface today on a busy day at Royal. Some areas might qualify as packed powder but I'd go more loose granular for the most part. Doc's Drop made its season debut after having some snow pushed down it by the groomers. There were more terrain park features than we've seen so far. My trail pick of the day was Royal but Prince was nice too. Some people decided there was enough snow to get off the trails but it's not enough cover yet for me.

Even with the big turnout, I never waited more than a few chairs on the main mountain with both A and B running all day.

Hope to get back up tomorrow afternoon for some more runs. It looks like the snow from the next storm is forecast to begin around closing time.

 

[mel]

I am an old 'Royal Mt brat, learned there 60yrs ago on the rope tow, Doc's Drop is my Dad's name sake, so glad I got his ski genes. Hopefully the lake effect machine and normal nightly snowfalls will start this week, we usually see well over 100" and some years over 200" I tracked 280 inches one year!! We are so thankful for man-made snow,and Jake and Brooke not afraid to turn the electric meter to make us a huge base! here's a cool video done by The Alba Family so you can see our woods when we have snow.

The Queen’s Secret – A Fairytale of Skiing in NY | Alba Adventures The Queen’s Secret - A Fairytale of Skiing in NY

Is it Clarent the sword of peace, meant for knighting and ceremonies, the sword in the stone which Arthur pulled free to become King of Britain (not to be mistaken with Excalibur) or is it this special site that is the Queen’s Secret? Whichever it is you will surely want to follow the queen’s...

www.albaadventures.com

 

[Jim]

I don't remember this happening before: Royal's opening up tomorrow on a non-holiday Friday so people can take advantage of this week's snow.