Today’s conditions were all-time with 20” of fresh deep cold blower pow. From KT22’s Rock Garden and Olympic Lady to Upper Mountain’s terrain in Solitude and Broken Arrow, the snow was some of the best all season, making an awesome celebration of +400” this season.
Report by Ryan Williams.
KT22
Walking over to the lift at 8:30, the storm was still coming down heavy. The temps were cold, the winds were mild, and the snow looked amazing; almost two feet of deep cold blower pow. The lift line crowd was decent for a Friday storm day. It was awesome having the lift open at 9 am – thanks, mountain ops and patrol. Heading up the chair, the visibility was a full storm day; however, it was awesome to see a few people send Main Air on the Fingers. The visibility had moments and pockets of great light, then back to full storm.
At the top of KT, we jammed out to the Olympic Lady zone for an amazing top to bottom untracked run. The snow was deep, fast, and all-time. We zipped down our favorite zone, ripping the steep chutes up top – awesome deep snow but a few icy spots on the ridges, Down the middle section, the glades and rollers were absolutely incredible today. Big open turns with huge roosters and slashes, blasting up walls of pow. The deep snow was all-time. Felt like we were in a dream. It was so good. The vibe on each run was chill, too, today, especially for a big pow day and a Friday.
After a few laps on the Olympic Lady side of KT22, we headed to Rock Garden to hit some great chutes and drops that have filled in so incredibly awesome this season. The features in this zone were amazing today, and the snow ripped from Portal to Rock Garden proper. Love it during a big season when the tiny featured chutes fill in. And with the +400” of snow this season, this zone is riding amazing, especially with today’s deep cold snow holding so well in the steeps. The conditions were so good we lapped this zone and KT all morning.
Upper Mountain
It was nice to see a few lifts spinning on the upper mountain with all the new snow. Even though they only had a few going today, it was awesome to spot-check the conditions and rip around. Options today were Big Blue, Gold Coast, and Shirly. We jammed up Big Blue and went on an adventure to the Solitude zone. Dropping into the bowl, the snow was deep and rad. However, after the first few untracked turns, we were laughing at how different the snow was compared to KT22. The new storm snow on the upper mountain wasn’t as cold blower pow as it was on Olympic Lady and Rock Garden. Seemed like it had a little more moisture on the top layer or had a wind-buff layer. It was still an absolute blast, ripping the fresh snow in the bowl and all through the trees, rollers, and drops.
Broken Arrow hike opened, and we headed out there for the goods. Love this zone. It’s kinda nice when the lift is closed and the hike open, helping keep the snow untracked longer. And today, it was awesome. The new snow filled in incredibly all across the Broken Arrow zone. We traversed out to one of our favorite chutes. Today’s conditions provided great takeoffs from the drops and amazing deep landings, and all the walls in the gullies were just loaded. The wind lips were a blast today too. This storm stacked in so well, holding the deep snow awesomely on the steeps and all around.
In the afternoon, we returned to KT22 and continued to ride deep pow on each run until 4 pm. Today’s conditions and vibe were all-time, deep cold blower pow day, bell to bell. A great kick-off to the weekend and the series of storms on the way, bringing more pow days.
