Nightly Remodeling

I arrived to work last night after a totally harrowing drive up the hill...Black Ice everywhere, because it had been raining since we finished grooming New Years Morning.

The Dread set in immediately...there's no way we can make the whole mountain good if the forecast pans out. Off piste the conditions would be diabolical...breakable crust over goo...not a pretty picture.

Swing shift were upbeat surprisingly, saying the top half of the Mountain was fine, but the lower mountain was just OK...as long as you didn't try to do anything! They meant don't touch the snow with your blade...or else!

They didn't lie...I went to the bottom of the mountain to work my way uphill. The "flats" always get hard first because they're at the bottom of the mountain...where all the coldest air settles first. The Flats also suffer the greatest Skier Compaction, so the flats are always hardcore city.

I extended my circuits so I made the fewest possible turn ruts to repair. I edited the list to preclude leading our guests into poor off-piste areas. As bad as the conditions were, all was not miserable. My stereo played CD's without skipping even at full stick.

Higher was definitely better, but time allowed me to re-roll all the flats which then turned into butter! Things were lookin' up...to be sure! I even had a little time to play with my iPod...our Mountain's WiFi Networks are robust...to say the least! I had a solid connection at mid-Mountain! How cool is that!

I was fretting that someone might have to go home early because things were gong so swimmingly, but bless their hearts, the Snow Removal Crew made enough plow work for us, then we all got our full shifts in! I finished my shift right along our main entry road...our guests were blasting in at near 45MPH! They were pumped to ski and snowboard. We're having a great Christmas Holiday Period! The abundance of fresh snow, has people coming in droves...God bless 'em!

One more night and I get two nights off...that's going to be awesome. I need a couple of days just to do errands and clean the garage.

Did I mention last night's Full Blue Moon? Stunning peaking through the clouds and fog!