Snow, glorious snow! What wouldn't we give for That extra bit more --That's all that we live for Why can't we be fated to Do nothing but play On snow, Magical snow, Wonderful snow, Marvellous snow, Fabulous snow
A subtle adaptation from the lyrics of Lionel Bart’s song in the musical Oliver kind of sets the tone of how we’ve been feeling since Friday night. It’s a good job I delayed my blog post to today instead of writing it on Thursday last week I might have started it I regret to inform you I am still wearing shorts. And I was.But I was pontificating that this very act as well as informed opinion from my new favorite weather forecasting website would signal a change in the weather pattern and we would start to get snow. Not just a few flakes, but possibly over a foot. And so it turned out. We had a warm-up storm that started early Friday evening and continued into the night, and then another one on the back of it on Saturday. Combined, the official recording was 14 inches. It seemed like a lot more, but that was probably because we had been starved of snow (since the 2010-11season) and those magical flakes of crystalline water ice truly seemed like manna from heaven.I have to mention Joel Gratz’s website again, OpenSnow.com for giving everyone renewed hope if not for the season then at least very much improved early conditions.
Up until December 6th, it had been very bleak. Only 2 recorded inches had fallen since the ski area opened on November 14th, so only 4 trails of man-made snow were open. However, on Sunday December 2nd, aside from predicting the following weekend storms we’ve just had, Joel has forecasted a change in the storm track that should give much more favorable snow for Colorado. He’s predicting cold and snow from two storm tracks the one we’re in through December 15th, and then another one December 16-23rd possibly as this is a bit too far out to be 100% about.
The ski area is slowly opening up more terrain. As of today, we’re now at 19 trails, predominantly beginner, but also including the cruisers of Cranmer, White Rabbit and Jabberwocky. This should jump to at least 25 by tomorrow (Thursday 13th December) as the Resort is set to open 6 trails on the Mary Jane side. With more snow set to come in this weekend, I suspect that number will grow nicely in the days leading up to Christmas.