Royal Mountain Conditions

[Jim]

Royal has already made the call to stay closed on Saturday due to the expected weather. Should be back open Sunday, including a pond skim event that was announced today. As I understand, the plan is to be open April 8, closed Easter Sunday. Unclear if we'll make it past that.

 

[Jim]

Updated operating schedule announcement from Royal:

Saturday, April 1 CLOSED
Sunday, April 2 OPEN 9-4
Friday, April 7 OPEN 9-4
Saturday, April 8 OPEN 9-4
Sunday, April 9 CLOSED [IMG alt="

 

[Harvey]

So 4/8 tentative closing date?

 

[Jim]

Yes, with a chance of a couple days the school break week that follows Easter.

 

[Jim]

OK, another operating schedule update: with a break likely in the rain, Royal had decided to be open 10-4 on Saturday, 4/1. I'll make my decision on whether to head up or not after I see if it looks like this break in the rain will materialize.

 

[Jim]

Back to a post about an actual ski outing. I waited out the rain and went up for some runs after lunch. The snowpack has held up nicely so far. The woods are almost done, but the snow is deep on the snowmaking trails. Really soft, of course, with the strong spring sun and temps around 60. There was almost no one there given how bad the forecast was until it changed late yesterday and the fact that Royal had previously announced a Saturday closure.

I got to talk to Jake Tennis some (who was out on his snowboard for a while) and he was still happy he chose to reverse the decision and open to take advantage of the spring weather despite the small crowds. The plan continues to be what I posted earlier: Tomorrow 9-4 with a pond skim, open Friday 4/7 and Saturday 4/8, with decisions about weekdays over the Easter break week 4/10 and beyond made on a day-to-day basis when weather looks good and while the snow lasts. He also said the plan is to leave Challenge ungroomed from here on but groom everything else as needed.

 

[Jim]

I arrived at 1 today in time to watch the first-ever Royal Mountain pond skim, which was a lot of fun. About 90 entrants, most tried the skim across the 60-foot pond, others chose the jump. My personal favorite was the last entrant who went backwards down the hill and all the way across the pond. The event was a big success.

At 2:30, I booted up and went over to check out the skiing. The snow remains deep, no hint of bare spots on the main trails yet. With temps a little below 40, areas in the shade were fast, areas in the sun had softened up, and places that were sunny then moved into the shade firmed back up and were challenging.

 

[Jim]

Jake's announced the plan from here on. Open tomorrow and Saturday, closing Sunday for Easter, then open for one more day on Monday with all main trails expected to be open. I'll be there all three days manning the ski school desk, but since we don't anticipate a whole lot of lessons I should be able to get in plenty of runs to finish at least the Royal portion of my season.

 

[Jim]

For today, the cover was still great, with almost no brown peeking through yet (just a small spot on the top of the rock on the Challenge headwall, and the big rock on the skier's right edge near the top on Royal). All the main trails were open and groomed. The plan was to skip grooming on Challenge the rest of the way but I guess that plan changed. It was a fun day for speed with no crowds and fast but very edgeable snow, which softened nicely by mid-morning. It was cold enough, maybe low 40's, that nothing got too heavy even when I took my last run around 2:30. It was nice enough that I took more runs today than on any of my previous 28 days at Royal this season (not necessarily a fair stat, since I usually would teach a lesson or two most days in the peak season). Tomorrow should be the same, just a bit less wind and a couple degrees warmer. The forecast calls for a good freeze-up overnight with a high in the mid 40's with full sun. I'd say about 10 to 11 in the morning will see the optimal conditions.

 

[Jim]

Carbon copy of yesterday, just without the puffy clouds and a little less of a breeze. Everything was still skiing great, except that we lost Doc's Drop to the dirt and grass. Very few thin or bare spots elsewhere. Like yesterday, things got pretty soft in the afternoon making Challenge and Royal a little extra challenging. 20 more runs today put me at 272 to the top of Royal this season, and a milestone I've only reached once before: 500 runs overall (not counting those on Royal's practice slope).

Back for closing day with temps looking to push well into the 50's on Monday. I think all of today's trails should have no problem being open. Your mountain closed? Be here in Monday morning before things get too soft!