Jupiter Snow Stake, January 27, 2012

Now that Jupiter is open for the season this is the perfect opportunity to talk a bit about snow reporting.
 
There are two snow stakes at Park City Mountain Resort, one at the Summit Mountain Patrol and one at the top of Jupiter Lift. At the beginning of the season if Jupiter isn’t open, obviously we can’t access the Jupiter stake so we report from the Candy Erickson Memorial Summit stake.  Beginning Saturday January 21st our snow totals will be reported from Jupiter.

This has been standard operating procedure for over 30 years and our annual snow totals are recorded at the Jupiter stake.

One thing you might notice is that our snow base depth and season total will change from 43" base and 84" year to date total on Friday to 53" base and 117" year to date total on Saturday.  The difference obviously is reporting from Jupiter stake.

Another difference is the snow storm totals generally increase when reported from Jupiter stake because the elevation is about 800’ higher and 1½ miles farther southwest of the Summit stake.
 
If you’re interested in tracking the snowfall or maybe checking the accuracy of the numbers we report, there are several ways.  Please be tolerant of occasional human error.

1)      Our website snow stake page: http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/snow-report/index.html/@@stakes.html At the bottom of the snow stake page are two links to NOAA for our stake sites if you would like to see the data as it’s compiled.

2)      If you’re bored at home sometime and sipping a Crown Royal (like me) you might get a kick out of going to the following web sites:

Utah SnoTel site lists - http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/nwcc/sntlsites.jsp?state=UT
The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) installs, operates, and maintains an extensive, automated system (SNOwpack TELemetry or SNOTEL) designed to collect snowpack and related climatic data in the Western United States and Alaska.

In 1935, NRCS, then the Soil Conservation Service, established a formal cooperative Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SS-WSF) Program to conduct snow surveys and develop accurate and reliable water supply forecasts. The Program operates under technical guidance from the NRCS National Water and Climate Center (NWCC).

MesoWest Database Site Listing - http://mesowest.utah.edu/cgi-bin/droman/meso_station.cgi?sort=STATE
When you go there you might find it easier to sort by state or elevation because the number of sites is staggering.

Searching these weather reporting sites can be quite time consuming but I think those of you inclined to spend the time will find some fascinating information about snowfall totals, individual snowfall events, water content and temperature ranges along the Wasatch Mountains and beyond.

Happy sipping and searching.
 

I love teaching Park City Mountain Resort's 3-Day Ski Academy. I can go out with a group and after just a few chairlift rides we are often swapping stories and laughing. I am always surprised by the conversations. Maybe we ski a few runs and I see something with one of the skiers so I start talking about bending the ankles a bit more. Pretty soon the rest of group is talking about how they always knew about bending their ankles but had never really understood how it worked with the rest of their body or how it played out through a turn. In a conversation, the ideas have a space to develop and become clear. I love when we have that chance to chat something over and then comes the moment when someone realizes, “Oh! I see now.”

Ski Academy gives me 3 days with the same group of skiers. Having a group of skiers for a few days gives me the opportunity to learn about them and how they ski. We can go all around the mountain and take the time to explore and develop the small details of technique and then find out what we can do with it. Sometime that means we spend the morning working on my favorite mogul drill so that when we finally go back to a real bump run everyone makes a few turns and says, “Wow, I have never felt so in control in moguls!” Other times it means we explore the trees and I end up showing a better way to turn among tight trees.

Or maybe the discovery of the day is a small detail. I often take people along the walls and gullies to work on skills and discover that they have a always felt uncomfortable there. With just a few simple practical tips and some practice, they no longer have any problem following their children or grandchildren into their favorite parts of the hill.

In a few days the groups show great support for each other. Everyone has their strengths. The person who is the best with carving might find that someone else has great powder skills. These two make great partners, each encouraging the other. I often hear people say, “If I can do it, you can too!”

With a few days of skiing together, people seem much more likely to ask those questions that maybe seemed silly or they just couldn’t quite figure out how to ask. Sometimes it’s, “What kind of socks do you wear?” or, “When should I start my son skiing and how should he start?” Sometimes it’s more technical like, “When should I plant my pole?” These questions are great because inevitably they start a new conversation and then whole group learns about some aspect of skiing that they hadn’t necessary thought about, or thought they had figured out but maybe missed some detail. I cannot tell you how many times I have gathered a group a the top of a chair and said, “So I was chatting with Bob on the chairlift about this detail and thought we should all play with it for a run or two.”

So come on out and join the conversation. We will have a great time and learn to ski together. The next 3-Day Ski Academy is offered January 27-29. Call 1-800-227-2754 to make reservations.

I love to teach Never Ever skiers. Whenever I start a Never Ever lesson I like to ask, “What is the best thing about never having skied before?” My answer is, “No bad habits!” It is an old joke but I really believe that the opportunity to learn something new is special. Most people think that the cool thing about being a ski instructor is getting to ski the upper mountain with people. That is great and all, but skiing with a Never Ever skier is fun too and amazing. You can see their skills growing all the time. They can go from never having stood on a pair of skis before to gliding down a gentle hill in control and smiling in just a few hours.

While it is true that Mother Nature has been stingy so far this year, there has never been a better opportunity to be a beginner. The snowmakers, our heroes this year, have covered the First Time slopes and the beginner areas with plenty of white stuff. With the installation of the new conveyor lifts we have a perfect beginner space. We can begin with the gentlest of slopes building balance and control with plenty of mileage on the conveyors. It’s so simple to take your time establishing good fundamentals that you can make that move to the chair lift with confidence.

Then there is the First Time chair itself; a detachable quad as a beginner chair is something extraordinary in the industry. It makes that first lift ride that much easier by having the chair slow down to pick you up and slow down to drop you off. The old Warren Miller blooper reel of people crashing off the top of the lift is a thing of the past. I almost always have 100% success days at the off ramp.

Then we have Turtle Trail, even the name is friendly. The lap back to the chair is a great first stage to establish the wedge and wedge turn. Most people find that by the third time down Turtle Trail they are feeling comfortable, looking for a little more speed in places and maybe even hunting for the occasional bump to challenge their balance.

I love to see the smile on a new skier’s face when they realize that they just learned something new and they have a whole new world of fun ahead of them. I remember last year skiing with two brothers maybe 10 and 12 years old who were a little timid at first, feeling clumsy and uncertain in their new plastic boots. But after a few hours in an afternoon lesson, they were having a great time and I happened to see their mom dragging them off the slopes at 7:00 pm that night, still asking for one more run.

There's no doubt we just went through a significant storm cycle; over 2 feet at the summit and nearly 3 feet in Jupiter. More importantly, this snow contained 3 inches of water; a definite red flag in the avalanche forecasting world. And as you may know, we've seen some incredible avalanches around the resort over the last few days. Many of these slides were triggered remotely as our control teams were working. And most of these slides would have been unsurvivable.

Looking down on Pioneer Lift

At times like this it is most critical to emphasize the importance of our closures. While we try to get to everything eventually, we obviously concentrate on ensuring the safety of guests and team members in our open terrain. There were many avalanches throughout the western resorts over the weekend and tragically, 3 deaths in Colorado. All three of these incidents involved guests entering closed terrain or going just out of bounds. This link takes you to the accident investigations and news articles: http://avalanche.org/accidents.php. We feel a bit lucky to have escaped the cycle (so far) without a local incident. That's not saying we didn't come close; we caught several guests in closed areas that certainly could have avalanched.

Rhino Bowl
(slide was remotely triggered by the snowcat driving up the ridge)

In terms of terrain that we have yet to open, Jupiter Peak has slid to the point where there isn't enough snow left for safe skiing and riding and many of the areas serviced by Jupiter Lift are in similar shape. We are working the Jupiter area again today, but it may take awhile longer before we are able to safely open this terrain.

PLEASE spread the word; this snowpack, these conditions are nothing to screw around with. In my 25 years of patrolling and 6 years in the snow safety department I have never experienced activity like this. Tell your friends and family to honor our closures because our number one goal in this department is to see that each day everyone makes it home.

Seriously, no King’s Crown? We know it’s hard to hear. It wasn’t an easy decision, nor was it made lightly, but we wanted to give some insight on the decision-making process.

• Lower than normal natural snowfall means we've made snow on several runs where we typically don't. That has put us behind schedule on King's Crown snowmaking
• Building King's Crown to our standards means around 200 hours of additional snowmaking
• Looking at long-range forecasts, and the work remaining for our snowmakers, we could be into mid-February before we've made enough snow to start pushing on King's Crown
• After the snow is made, our cat guys would still need a couple more weeks to build the park. That puts us well into March before we're able to open up the terrain.

After looking at this for a while we’ve decided to go with Plan B: putting the snowmaking guns back on Quicksilver, pronto! 50 hours of additional snowmaking on Quicksilver will give us a larger jump line in just a few weeks - a fraction of the time King's Crown would require.

We know it’s not what you want to hear. We will do all we can to continue to knock it out of the park in 3 Kings. We look forward to bringing King’s Crown back next season, better than ever.

The previous days' powder turns were just a prelude to the incredible conditions to chase around the mountain today. 20 inches of new snow over the previous 24 hours meant knee-deep first tracks where it had been piling up all weekend, and super-soft turns to enjoy on the groomed runs.

Best of all, 95 runs and 15 lifts meant plenty of snow to go around for all the powderhounds in line when the chairs began turning this morning. Check out more pics from this morning here.

Click here for more photos from this morning!

With the recent snowfall, our mountain operations team has been working diligently to open terrain as soon as conditions permit. Here's a list of terrain openings over the past few days and what we're planning for tomorrow:

Thursday runs opened:
The Shaft
Waterfall

Today (Friday) runs opened:
Widowmaker
Belmont
Fools Gold
Gloryhole
Sunrise
Buckeye

Tomorrow (Saturday) Thaynes and Pioneer Lifts, runs opening:
Blueslip Bowl
Lucky Boy
Keystone
Hoist
Thaynes run
Double Jack
Single Jack

The skiing and riding truly is excellent, if you can't make it up, take a look at some photos and videos from the past two days:

http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/photos/january-20-powder
http://www.parkcitymountain.com/winter/conditions/photos/january-19-storms

Keep on doing your snow blessing ceremonies, think snow!

Ski Utah's Powderhound Matt Baydala getting some freshies. p. Andy Miller

Powderhounds rejoice, your day has arrived. Mother Nature heard our snow blessing and brought six inches of snow to kick off the storm cycle. Today marks the first official powder day of 2012 and more is on its way. In fact storms are stacked up through the beginning of next week.

It was a delight to wake up to a snow covered historic Park City. We can't wait to see how much snow these storms deliver. To see more photos from this morning, visit our Photo Gallery and watch the video below filmed this morning.

You don't have to race like this to compete in the Town Race Series. In fact, we'd prefer you didn't! Racer: Scotty Veenis

Drag out your old speed suit, point your tips downhill, and try to hold your tuck – the Town Race Series is speeding back to Park City Mountain Resort! Following last year’s successful return of the Town Races, we expect this year to be even more exciting. The series will consist of four races, held on Wednesday evenings from 4:00PM to 6:00PM in the Eagle Race Arena. The first race is January 18th, continues on February 1st and 15th, and then concludes on March 14th.

Our Town Race Series is a great opportunity for ski racing enthusiasts to get out and strut their stuff (compete with each other) – at any level of experience or commitment. Racers may compete in whichever races suit their schedule, and can register as individual competitors or in teams of four. Racing with a team is a great way to spend time on the slopes with friends or family. Town Race Series details and sign-up information can be found over on the Park City Ski Team’s website parkcityskiteam.org.   

All racers will compete on a handicap system to ensure fairness among all ages and levels. Due to the nature of the Town Race Series, points will be accumulated and tallied over multiple races. Winning teams receive prizes from our lovely sponsors: Cole Sport and The Corner Store.

Melissa Gibbs from 2News came up to produce a story on learn to ski and snowboard month, and spent the day following a group of never-ever snowboarders in a lesson here at Park City Mountain Resort. With StartNOW, we make it easy, accesible and affordable to learn to ski or snowboard with a packages starting at $40 per day, including lesson, rental and lift ticket.

If you missed Melissa's piece air, check it out now.

We think it's time for Mother Nature to start doing her job. She's made our snowmakers work really hard (they've made 36 percent more snow this year than last year) and they've done an amazing job of creating excellent skiing/riding conditions. But now it's time for you to do your job.

Hundreds of people who agree with us gathered in the Resort plaza today to watch members from the Northern Ute Tribe perform a snow blessing ceremony. According to the long-range weather forecast the blessing is already being heard. Snow is expected in Utah within the next week. We Believe!

Watch the video below and start to believe!

For more photos from the Snow Blessing Ceremony click here.

Willy’s Run opened up today, giving Park City Mountain Resort skiers and riders a fast and exciting black diamond run to conquer. But did you ever stop to think about where this Signature Run’s name came from before you dropped in?
 
Well, here is your Park City Mountain Resort history lesson for the day:

The Origin of Willy’s Run

Willy’s Run is affectionately named for Willy Schaeffler, the German-American skiing champion, coach and resort development expert. Throughout a career that spanned over 40 years, he was largely responsible for the evolution of alpine skiing course design, namely through his work as the Director of Ski Events at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games where he developed each of the alpine courses. He also coached several medal-winning ski teams, including serving as the head coach at the 1972 Winter Olympics for the U.S. team.
 
His career as “America’s Most Successful Ski Coach” inevitably changed the face of Park City Mountain Resort. In 1974, he moved the U.S. National Ski Team to Park City, where it remains located to this day. He also established the first national ski training center here in Park City, designing large parts of the ski training area at PCMR, known as the “Ski Team Ridge.” This ridge features not only Willy’s Run, but also several of Park City’s more famous ski racing runs, like Picabo’s.
 
So make sure you savor that little bit of history the next time you bomb down Willy’s Run, and try to find the commemorative plaque for Willy Schaeffler, located on Legacy Lodge.

To see more photos from Willy's Run opening today, click here.

If you were around this week, you may have heard and even seen activity from the Jupiter zone. As I mentioned in my last post, this snowpack has started to get a bit active. We had another natural release in the center of Scott's bowl on Tuesday. David took a closer look at the slide and determined a snow hair had bounced across the bowl and found the weak spot. Yes, sometimes all it takes is a rabbit to cause an avalanche. The following couple days we returned to Main Bowl and Scott's with explosives to attempt to clean out the remaining weak snow. Bruce Tremper, director of the Utah Avalanche Center joined us in Scott's on Thursday and shot some great video. Thanks again Bruce for helping out!

It's back! Our Town Lift that is. Our Lift Maintenance Team has spent countless hours working on the gearbox issues that have necessitated the lift being closed, and now our issues have been resolved.

Town Lift is an important connection from our Resort to Park City's Historic Main Street and we are committed to ensure that this link is running. Enjoy fantastic turns down Quit 'N Time to Town Runs and know that once you ride across the Town Bridge that our Town Lift will be turning from 8:50 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. (downloading until 4:30 p.m.) to take you back up the Mountain. See you on the slopes!

We all love snow. We all want snow. We would do anything for snow. Not just for snow, but for powder. That feeling of floating. The endless smiles. The face shots. The burning legs. The tumbles that end in laughter.

We're ready to get back in the white room and drop into our back bowls. That is why we have partnered with Northern Ute tribal members to perform a traditional blessing ceremony for snow. The ceremony will begin at high noon on Saturday, January 14, 2012 in the Resort Plaza. You are invited to participate in the Snow Blessing ceremony and are encouraged to commit to your part by fasting until after the ceremony.

For more information please visit the event listing here.

Learning Zone

January is a learn a Snow Sport month and here at Park City Mountain Resort we are dedicated to introducing both young and old to the sport of skiing and snowboarding. We now have a new dedicated learning zone and offer various programs to help you start sliding on the snow.

New Learning Zone

This past summer we created a dedicated beginner learning area with two conveyor lifts for beginning skiers and riders. The new beginner zone, located near the Resort Base Area, is reserved for students taking ski and snowboard lessons. This area is fenced off to give beginner skiers/riders a private, more comfortable learning area.

StartNOW

StartNOW is a unique program aimed at teaching Utah residents (ages 6 and up) how to ski or snowboard. It was designed to give those local never-evers an easily accessible and affordable introduction to snow sports. With StartNOW you get five sessions of instruction for first-time ski and snowboard students, that also includes lift access, equipment rentals and lessons, all for $199. That's less than $40 per session.

Telemark Tuesdays

Ever wanted to give telemark skiing a try? Tuesday nights from January 10, 2012 through March 20, 2012, from 5pm - 7pm, you can join us under the lights of Payday and First Time lifts. This lesson is designed for those who have never telemarked skied or are working on their stance.

"Learn to Telemark" Lesson includes a First Time lift ticket and is $30. Purchase at the Payday ticket windows by 5pm and meet at the bottom of the Payday Lift at 5pm. 1/2 price telemark rentals are available at White Pine Touring at 1790 Bonanza Dr. 435-649-8710.

Intermediate and Advanced Telemark Workshops also available.

Sunday morning controlled avalanche on Willy's. p. Bryan Thompson

We’ve been getting a little bit of snow lately. No huge storms to get excited about, but a few inches a week have certainly helped freshen things up. 

With such a weak snowpack on the ground in the backcountry and in closed terrain, those of us in the snow geek world have been wondering just what it will take to "set things off" so to speak. We've had a little taste of that with these last couple storms as even just a relatively small load has certainly started to tip the scale. Last week's 3 inches was wind loaded onto lee slopes over a rime and rain crust. A week ago today 3 significant slides were released along the Park City Ridgeline of the Wasatch. All three it appears were remote triggered; in other words, a traveler was on the ridge when the snowpack failed and collapsed, crushing the weak layers below and releasing the bowls in question. One of these was in our own Scott's Bowl (still closed) and you can still see the slide while riding Silverlode chair. I am happy to say that nobody was caught or injured in any of these slides.

Scott's bowl slide. p. Bryan Thompson

Over this last weekend we had another little (3 inch) storm with some moderate to strong winds. Again the scale was potentially tipped towards an increasing avalanche hazard. Indeed the Utah Avalanche Center posted an Avalanche Warning on Saturday morning. The UAC certainly is not the type of organization to cry wolf and the warning certainly seemed justified. If nothing else it helped to heighten the awareness of prospective backcountry travelers. This may have worked as we made it through the weekend without any avalanche incidents or accidents. That's not to say there wasn't avalanche activity. Some of the resorts (including PCMR) were able to release avalanches with control work.

Avalanche path and snowmaking gun on Willy's run. p. Bryan Thompson

In our case, we had an opportunity to see what will happen when a massive load is put on our weak snow. Thanks to the colder temps, our snowmakers have done an amazing job covering the old Ski Team Road and Willy's Run. In fact by Saturday morning the snow piles had grown large enough that the resort was concerned for their safety. The top of Willy's above the Silver King split is a perfect avalanche path; steep (near 40 degrees) and smooth. And of course it was covered with our weak natural snow. Many folks around town (and at our neighboring resorts) have been wondering why we've been blasting so much over the last 3 mornings when we only had 3 inches of snow. Well, now you (and they) know that we were shooting the snowmaking slabs before they overloaded the slope and failed on their own. Those of you here Sunday morning may have seen our results; a full depth slide up to 6 feet deep and 150 feet wide.  One of our senior patrollers, Bryan Thompson was with Colin, Dave, and I and took some great pictures. Notice the snowmaking guns near and tangled in the debris. For size reference, the sign bank in the picture near the toe of the debris is 10 feet tall. Slides of this size involving snow this dense and massive are what we generally describe as unsurvivable. As I mentioned, you could say this was a bit of a real-world simulation of what we could expect all over the Wasatch when it does start to snow.

On the subject of our snowmakers, holy crap they have a tough job. I worked snowmaking for a few months when I first moved back to town the fall of 1990, but time has erased those memories. Our time spent under the guns over this weekend has reminded me how loud, wet, cold and risky that job can be. On a year like this, those guys are the only reason we're working and you're enjoying our resort on your skis and boards. When you see them walking to or from the mountain at shift change, covered in snow and ice on a seemingly sunny day, be sure to say hello and thank them.

McConkey's 1/7/12

Today we opened Kings Crown to the public. We have moved the snowguns from Kings Crown to Willy’s. We don’t typically make snow on Willy’s but want to give our guests a variety of terrain to experience. Once we are done making snow on Willy’s, we will move the snowguns back to King’s Crown so that we can make snow for the terrain park. We are also currently making snow on Heckler.

How much natural snowfall do we need to open up additional terrain?
That varies: depending on several factors ranging from the run’s pitch to what direction it faces to the obstacles on that run to the water content of the snow. These obstacles could include: rocks, stumps, downed trees, springs and creeks; all things you find in any mountain environment. Some runs can be opened with less snow than others.
 
When is Town Lift going to open?
Town Lift has been on a maintenance hold due to an issue with the gearbox. Our lift maintenance team has been working very closely with the gearbox and lift manufacturers to get the lift up and running. We are hopeful we will have it open by next weekend, just in time for the Martin Luther King holiday weekend. In the meantime, the ticket windows at the Town Lift Plaza remain open for guests to purchase tickets and mountain hosts are directing guests to the city busses to transfer to the Base area.
 
Why isn’t the wind turbine working at the top of Silverlode lift?
On Dec 12 the brains of the turbine which consist of inverters and a wind controller, failed. The components have now been received by the local company that installed our system and they are in the process of programming the units. Hopefully, installation will be soon.  We’ve missed some great wind generating opportunities. According to Brent Giles, the solar system has continued to produce at a rate that exceeds his expectation. He was hoping for at least 80% efficiency but it has consistently produced around 88%.
 

Many have asked, but now it's here - introducing our new mobile app!

Park City Mountain Resort app start screen

At Park City Mountain Resort we're always looking for new ways to improve the experience of our guests and our new mobile app for iOS and Android mobile devices does just that. Our app allows you to:

• Plan: using our unique MyMountainPlanner personal mountain tours and real-time conditions
• Track: record live statistics including number of runs, total vertical, maximum speed and distance traveled
• Share: share on-mountain stats, photos and status updates from the Resort with your social network through Facebook and Twitter integration
• Reload: add additional days of mountain acceess to your lift ticket

You will find lots of great functionality in the app and we are thrilled that users who have a Park City Mountain Resort eStore account with an attached RFID (Radio Frequency Identificaiton) lift ticket can add additional ski days to their ticket directly via the app. This feature breaks new ground for ski resort app ecommerce and was made possible by the installation of RFID access gates at all lower mountain entry lifts as well as the conversion of all ticket and pass media to include RFID antenna. Learn more about our access gates and cards. 

We developed and tested our app in conjunction with our ticketing software partner RTP, and it is a project that will continue to evolve in the coming months and we hope will eventually expand into summer information.

To begin, you must be sure that you have created an account on our eStore and linked any tickets or passes to your account. Then click or scan the images below to install the appropriate app for your mobile device:

PCMR iOS app	PCMR Android app

We love our fans on Facebook and Twitter! Here's what some of those fans have to say about the conditions at our resort right now.

"Skier's Pick - 1st tracks on Assessment. Don't let the weather scare you away, it was white and creamy up top. Enjoy everyone!" - Deborah, Facebook

"I just spent a week skiing at your resort. I can't say enough about the great job you guys did, especially considering the snow conditions! I had a fantastic time, can't wait to come back!" - Lazar, Facebook

"Its Been a great last few days. And it was EPIC getting Prospector groomed today. Ya'll do a great job here." - @CROprostaff, Twitter

"Amazing spring conditions up in The Ridge @iridepc ...mmm goggle tan ;-)" - @LAshreds, Twitter

"You guys are doing such an awesome job on the mountain...we are having the best time out there, thank you." - Flusie, Facebook

"Just got off the mountain @PCski and it has definitely been an epic Christmas Eve!!" - @millersarahdawn, Twitter

"Kudos to @PCski staff! Runs great considering what little natural snow you've had! Snowmaking crew worked hard n it shows!" - @skibumPC, Twitter

"@iridepc might just be the greastest place on earth! and its not even all open! godly utah snow!" - @DMayell114