Snow Management and Spring Runoff

If you have been around The Basin in the Spring, you might have noticed that we push a lot of snow around. We do that for a couple reasons. One reason is to make snow last longer in a certain area. Pretty simply, deeper snow takes longer to melt. To preserve a key area, we may pile the snow deeper there so it is skiable longer. The other reason is to manage Spring runoff as the snow starts to melt. In the picture below you can see we have consolidated snow on the bottom of Wrangler. Once the snowmelt begins, the area in this picture captures a lot of water that melts from Wrangler, Sundance and High Noon. There are water bars on these trails that carry water off the trails. The snow work opens some of those water bars, keeps the water flowing which prevents water from pooling on the Lower Mountain and keeps the base area skiable for a longer time.

Dick and Gerry Are Retiring

Last night we celebrated the snowcat driving careers of Dick Dreyer and Gerry Dorsey, A-Basin longest serving employees - EVER. Both are retiring this Spring. Dick came up from Keystone in 1978 after Ralston Purina purchased The Basin. Gerry joined him the next year. A few years after that, Scott Buell joined them (he is not retiring). All three are know for their mastery of their machines, putting snow where it needs to be and leaving the most perfect corduroy. By nature, these gentlemen are creatures of the night and not always known to other employees and guests. A-Basin would not be the place it is today without them. Since 1978, no one has done more to impact the quality of the skiing than Dick, Gerry and Scott. It is an honor to have worked with them.

Gerry Dorsey, Bunny Terrill, Scott Buell, Francie Dreyer, Dick Dreyer

Gerry, Dick, Scott

Upper East Wall At Its Peak

The snow conditions andcoverage on the Upper East Wall are at their peak right now. We did a couple of hikes skiing East Vertical Cornice and Booger. Both were really soft with a bit of fresh stuff on top. With a little snow forecast for Thursday and Friday, it doesn't look like it really warms up until the weekend. I think we have at least several more days of peak ski conditions up there. If you have been waiting, now is the time.

Hiking to Little Lenawee Peak

At The Top of Booger
 

From The Dog Woods

I stumbled on this really nice viewpoint from an opening in the trees between Jetta and Jaeger. I was looking across Castor and the top of the Steep Gullies with the Continental Divide in the background. Skiing this afternoon, I had loads of fun in the Dog Woods and on the East Wall. I found a lot of good snow, but the best snow this afternoon was on Black Bear back in Montezuma Bowl. It has such a consistent and mellow pitch for a black trail. Way cool.

Spring Powder Skiing

The snow really came down this morning creating a lot of excitement. We had serious winter weather. Things lightened up in the afternoon and the sun tried to pop out. It was fun to watch the "Spring, Powder Skiers" having so much fun.

 

Spring Storm

Looks like we are in for a very good Spring storm. We reported 4" of new snow this morning. There is another inch or two on the stake already. We are forecast to see some nice snow tonight and tomorrow. I just came in from a 2 1/2 hour mountain ski tour riding all the lifts. There was lots of good snow out there. I found exceptionally good conditions on Loafer and Alex. Above timberline, the snow was a bit "drifty." Below timberline, in the glades, there were no wind effects. It was quite fun.

 

Electric Snowcat

For most of the rest of the season A-Basin is test driving a Prinoth Husky E-Motion electric snowcat. There are only a couple of these in the United States at this time. The other is at Taos. This cat isn't quite as big as our normal grooming machines, but we are checking it out and giving Prinoth some feedback as to how it operates. We are doing some grooming tasks and other on-hill snowcat tasks like supporting our on-hill restaurants. The transition to electric vehicles is a lengthy process and we are glad to partner with Prinoth to test new equipment. For more details check out the Prinoth website.

Prinoth Electric Snowcat

Weekend Is Looking Good