Craig's Report - February 06, 2007Afternoon WisdomThe temperature soared on the mountain yesterday and everything became soft to above the top of Bear. After a couple of snowless weeks of skiing firm surfaces of crisp edge worthiness, but Teutonic immovability, my first reaction was the snow seemed irresolute and kind of wussy. However after just a couple of turns, the pleasures of skiing compliant snow returned and with even the South facing slopes once again friendly, a great day was had by all. However it was clear a price would have to be paid if the temperature fell without a generous fresh fall of snow. Sure enough a clear night of sub zero temperatures left the snow in my front yard hard as a rock. As is my custom, I hid inside until noon, by which time the temperature at the base was once again above freezing. From the Bear�s Den down it had melted enough to at least provide patches of scrapings on which one could navigate the still firm surface underneath, but farther up the hard polished tops of things like Cruiser suggested why morning skiers didn�t have any kind words about earlier conditions. As the afternoon progressed and the freezing level climbed further, things continued to improve. While the groomed cruisers did progress to the okay stage, some claimed good, the off groomed stuff, particularly farther up, struggled to just get out of the lethal stage. Late in the day I did manage runs on 1,2,3 and Concussion Chute that weren�t too bad despite the trepidation about possible long slides fed by natural cowardice and the many warning signs. They were firm and somewhat bumpy, but not rock hard or particularly hard to get an edge into. So all in all the afternoon turned out to be much better than I anticipated, but still a very long way from great. Unfortunately it sounds like tomorrow�s highs will be well below freezing with only minor new accumulations possible. At 16:30 it is +3 C at the house and overcast.
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