My wife and I headed up to WG today to pick up our season's passes (only $169!!) and get in a few hours of skiing. They had one trail open (Dobie, a green) and were making snow over on Eagle's Swoop and the terrain park to have them ready for the weekend. It was sunny, and temps hovered around 28F up on the mountain all day (about 12F lower than the valley below).
Based on the snow, you'd never know we had a heat wave earlier in the week. We were skiing on nice manmade snow, packed and loose powder, and it was about as good as it gets. The dowside was the near-blizzard conditions created by the snowguns, which spoiled a beautiful sunny December day. But hey, that snowmaking will hopefully pay dividends in the coming months so no big deal.
This was another reminder that WG has one of the best snowmaking systems in the south -- they can pretty much restore a trail back to ideal packed powder with only a day of cold weather. I look forward to seeing more trails open in coming weeks, and can't wait to try their new expert trail Outer Limits. Looks like a steep ride.
Craig
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p.s. I took a couple photos today before my camera battery crapped out: