I got back to Royal today after being away last weekend. Thinking back to Wednesday night, a wind-driven r*** was eating away at the snowpack in my yard, and I knew it was doing the same all the way up into Quebec. I was figuring after the freeze up and a good groom, at least Royal's main trails would be skiable today but that the woods and other natural snow areas would probably not be in play at least for now. But this is the winter of 2025, and it continues to treat Royal well. We got a couple inches from an early morning, post-groom squall. I taught lessons all morning and figured things would be skied off and I'd just grab some lunch, do a "Royal tour," and go home. Turns out it was still really nice! After runs on Knight/Captain Jacks/Jacksland and then Prince, I met up with some of our other senior instructors and we did a little informal bumps and steeps clinic, mostly on Challenge and Red Carpet. Yes, there were skied off patches especially on the headwalls but what was exposed was still edgeable and soft stuff was not too hard to find. We stayed out longer than I was planning because it was still so good. We took a couple excellent runs down the T-bar line, and down through the Princess/Maiden/Damsel combination of trees. Fresh tracks there to be had at 3 PM, though some high traffic turns were down to hard pack or just about bare.
As long as I can get some work done tonight to get ready for Monday morning, I plan to spend a good chunk of Sunday back at it at Royal.
