Temps in the high 30s and low 40s, bluebird weather most of the day. The snow was firm and fast in the morning, but softened up nicely throughout the day to almost ideal conditions. Skied Dobie, Eagle's Swoop (consistently the best snow all day long), Sunrise, Tequila, and upper Tyro. The Upper Cliffhanger - Lower Wild Turkey run in the Highlands opened after lunch and skied pretty well, but was bordering on mashed potatoes in spots. That would have been best in the morning, but a lift issue delayed opening. Crowds were moderate -- about 5X worse than the typical weekdays I like, but nowhere near as bad as the madhouse it would be on a mid-season Sunday. Overall great day.

I was chatting with the guy in the office when I picked up my season pass, and he told me they got 4" of rain last week, which clobbered the snowmaking that had taken place on the Highlands. They must have made a lot of snow Friday-Sat night to get those trails open today.

I saw ski patrol flag down two boarders at the top of the lift and really read them the riot act for poor behavior on the hill. And a liftie ejected a skier from the Big Acorn lift line after watching the guy ski down Eagle's Swoop totally out of control. I am glad to see them cracking down, and hope they keep it up.

Whats that - acorn, cliff, and turkey open ? good work wintergreen, that is progress. and they must have been reading our etiquette thread - don't you think ? i'm starting to feel better about life already. snowshoe on sunday, see you there ?

I might be able to swing that; I was supposed to ski there this week with my wife's little brother, but it looks like rain all week. If conditions improve heading into the weekend, I might shoot for Sunday or Monday instead. How many days are you up there for?

The clan will be there Dec 20-23. I'll need a rational presence, though I can tell you that with my kids you don't want the couch.
It is good to have Cupp run open at this time, and Silver Creek will be open. If the trend continues, Walker, on his fischer rx9, may pass me by on this trip.

tell you what, I'll buy a pint for anyone I recognize from the board.

Cool -- if I make it up there, I'll bring my RX-9s and see if I can keep up with Walker. I'll probably have firmer plans by the end of the week. Might even be able to talk my wife into a 2 day getaway if the conditions are good.

Hey Skier219

I was up there Sunday with the daughter. We enjoyed the conditions as well.

Glad they got the Highlands open for at least a few hours. They were pretty proud of it too. It was a shame they got so much rain on the base they put down...and they were really putting a lot of snow down prior to the rain.

Also noticed more assertive ski patrol as well. So far this year a lot more visible...I like it.

We left before the Highlands opened... Wish we could have made a couple of runs...

Interesting little tid bit about a ski patroller... My sons and I were coming down the right side of Eagle Swoop Saturday morning. Looked like they were doing some training on the side of the run. All of sudden a patroller took off, crossed the slope and cut over to the cross trail. Didn't look up hill once. Good thing I've beaten the importance of skiing responsibly into my sons. We all were able to avoid him. I paralelled him hoping that he might realize what had happened but he was in his own little world.

At least they were monitoring the slow ski area at the bottom...