Royal Mountain Conditions

[Jim]

Royal is not going to open this weekend due to the rain, and plans the following to wrap up the season:

4/5: pond skim, night skiing, and fireworks
4/6 stumps and bumps competition (I believe on Red Carpet)
4/12: closing day

I hope the snow holds reasonably well through the weekend weather.

 

[Jim]

Latest word is that the snowpack is (obviously) taking bit hit after big hit but there's still snow to push around, and that the plan is to go ahead with the weekend's planned events. Can't we at least get one dry weekend day before the snow's all gone?!

 

[Harvey]

Hey @Jim any desire to write about closing day at Royal for the front page?

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nyskiblog.com

 

[Jim]

Hopefully there will be a closing day to write about. Royal has pulled the plug on this weekend with yet another rainy forecast. The plan is still to push stuff around to ski and have the pond skim on the 12th.

 

[Jim]

And the changes continue, finally one for the better. Royal will be open tomorrow with all main trails planned, 10-4, $30 tickets. I should be able to get up there for a few runs early.

 

[Jim]

I got up to Royal for an hour this morning. I can't believe how much snow is left. Edge to edge with pretty much no bare spots on all the main trails, and some places it's really deep. Some piles haven't yet been pushed around. Jake said he'll definitely need to be pushing some snow from the practice slope into the parking lot after Easter to get things dried up for dirt bike season.

This morning's snow was soft of course, really nice for carving turns. I made a run down each main trail plus one on Red Carpet and a second run down Challenge. I wish I could have stayed another hour or two. It wasn't busy when I was there but an unexpected ski day makes everyone happy so lots of big smiles kind of like an opening day or a surprise powder day.

This could be it. There will be plenty of snow left next weekend but as of this morning Jake said he'll probably only open up if the weather really cooperates (no rain, at least 50) to make it worthwhile. The long range forecast is not promising, so I left assuming my Royal season was ending today. I'll find a way up there for a while next Saturday if Royal opens. There are no plans to try to extend the season beyond that.

 

[Harvey]

I got up to Royal for an hour this morning. I can't believe how much snow is left. Edge to edge with pretty much no bare spots on all the main trails, and some places it's really deep. Some piles haven't yet been pushed around. Jake said he'll definitely need to be pushing some snow from the practice slope into the parking lot after Easter to get things dried up for dirt bike season.

This morning's snow was soft of course, really nice for carving turns. I made a run down each main trail plus one on Red Carpet and a second run down Challenge. I wish I could have stayed another hour or two. It wasn't busy when I was there but an unexpected ski day makes everyone happy so lots of big smiles kind of like an opening day or a surprise powder day.

This could be it. There will be plenty of snow left next weekend but as of this morning Jake said he'll probably only open up if the weather really cooperates (no rain, at least 50) to make it worthwhile. The long range forecast is not promising, so I left assuming my Royal season was ending today. I'll find a way up there for a while next Saturday if Royal opens. There are no plans to try to extend the season beyond that.

Nice Jim.

I'm shooting to be there if Jake goes for it.

 

[Jim]

As I posted in the closing dates thread, Royal is done. Sunday was the last day. It was kind of a sputtering and anticlimactic end to what was Royal's best snow season in a long time. There was so much snow left but weekend after weekend of lousy weather at the end didn't let us take advantage of it much into the spring. The pond skim and mogul challenge were delayed by weather multiple times and never got to happen. No deck party for closing day. But I'll sacrifice those fun events any year for multiple deep powder days, quiet packed powder on so many others, the woods skiing beautifully for weeks on end, and many great runs down the new Red Carpet trail. I am so fortunate to have this place just 20 miles from my house and to be able to spend many of my winter weekends teaching and skiing with a lot of great people.