Royal Mountain Conditions

Jake posted a video on Facebook, said there's 6" fresh at the base, and they are leaving most of it untouched for tomorrow. They'll groom out the greens and part of the Prince. Queen, Challenge, Royal: come get the powder. Hope the wind didn't blow too much of it off. Royal is generally pretty sheltered from the winds out of the NW, so I'm hopeful it will be good.
 
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I didn't get there quite as early as I wanted but I was on the chair 10 minutes before posted opening time. Easily 8" of powder, probably more like 10". A run down Challenge was great, maybe the 10th tracks down. I was first into Duke, then first into the Gladed Wench (first time this season). Also hit Glasgow with only a few tracks (first time this season, this area will have fresh tracks all week), Jacksland, Princess Woods, Maiden Glades (pick of the morning, and Damsel Glades (nice). Definitely added some scratches to the bases but nothing too bad. By the time I made a run down Royal to head in, it was pretty chopped up but still a lot of fun. I only skied the main mountain before 10:30, as I ended up teaching 3 lessons that took up the rest of the day. Glad I got the fresh tracks early though.
 
Not much new to report today since I only made 5 runs off the top. All were great packed powder, with Captain Jack's and Royal being the best of what I skied. I arrived late and taught twice so no time to do much more. They did not groom Challenge, and I heard it was very much a challenge with mounds of packed powder between the scraped off areas. I believe the plan is to groom it tonight. Woods all remain open ("Enter at Your Own Risk" on the snow report) and people were in, I didn't get the chance to sample anything.

Busy week upcoming. Rail Jams tomorrow. I have to work my real job the next three days but plan to be back at Royal for Alpin Haus Demo Day on Thursday. Then there's a GS race fundraiser for the Johnstown ski team, open to all with multiple classes for prize purposes, on Friday.
 
Good day today, even though the rain started ahead of schedule. My first lesson was up on the main mountain with a more advanced skier, and all trails we took were in good shape. My second was on the practice slope. After lunch I had time to go take advantage of demo day. I only had time to try a few pairs of skis, took each down a cruiser then down the ungroomed side of Challenge. It's amazing how different they were, especially trying to go through the bumps. My skis are not too old, so I'm not in the market, but I really liked the Stöckli pair I tried. The rain came by around 2, with some ice pellets mixed in, and I was done for the day at 2:45. I don't expect to make it up on Friday, will be back on Saturday.
 
Jim said:
Good day today, ....After lunch I had time to go take advantage of demo day. I only had time to try a few pairs of skis, took each down a cruiser then down the ungroomed side of Challenge. It's amazing how different they were, especially trying to go through the bumps. My skis are not too old, so I'm not in the market, but I really liked the Stöckli pair I tried.
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Curious about details of yer demo experiences if ya wanna share.
More interested about performance on cruisers than bumps but others may be interested in bumps as well.
 
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Not sure I can be too helpful, but I can say the Stöckli Montero pair I liked were just really smooth and quiet on the blue groomers. The Blizzards I tried were chattering a lot at speed and I wasn't a fan of that. The K2s I tried were really light and very loud (though not a chatter, just loud on every little skid). I could get used to them. The only ones I liked better than my current Volkl Kendos were the Stöcklis. It would have been nice if I was only needed to teach once so I could have tried a bunch of others.
 
Jim said:
Not sure I can be too helpful, but I can say the Stöckli Montero pair I liked were just really smooth and quiet on the blue groomers. The Blizzards I tried were chattering a lot at speed and I wasn't a fan of that. The K2s I tried were really light and very loud (though not a chatter, just loud on every little skid). I could get used to them. The only ones I liked better than my current Volkl Kendos were the Stöcklis. It would have been nice if I was only needed to teach once so I could have tried a bunch of others.
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Thanks for the quick reply Jim.
Getting used to the Montero AR's going from the heavier RTM84’s.
Working on front of the boot turns & having fun with them.
They’re much better skis than I am a skier but every little bit helps.
Gonna look for some new boots next...
 
Frozen to loose granular today, softening just nicely in the sun. I was surprised it wasn't busier on such a nice day. Captain Jack's was especially nice every time I did it, but no complaints about the snow anywhere on the groomers. The bumps on the side of Challenge were too firm for me.
 
Royal didn't open yesterday with some ice in the morning and cold rain later in the day. Seems like it was a good call.

Back at it today, I was holding out hope that the sun would come out and waited until around noon to head up. After a quick snack on arrival I was on the snow at 1. Still cloudy, probably about 50 degrees. The snow was as expected: wet granular, mostly good cover on the main trails. One exception was Captain Jack's, which was very skiable but had some thin spots plus a spot with small pieces of branches left from where a larger branch apparently came down in this week's wind. Also Doc's Drop is getting bad. Other than that, it was just a few spots threatening to peek through on the Challenge top face. I made two "tours" plus an third down each of Prince and Challenge for 12 runs in 90 minutes.

We're all painfully aware that the forecasts are not promising for the coming week. I don't think it will be a problem to patch up and keep all the main trails open again for next weekend. Maybe we'll lose Doc's and Captain Jack's. There's plenty to be pushed around.

The goal is still to stay open until April 7. That will be tough if the weather doesn't turn colder.
 
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