Winter Park, CO Conditions Report: A Well Needed 6″ Powder Day

The majority of the 6″ reported fell late afternoon the previous day, so ended up being groomed in, but there was still a couple of inches fresh on top of the corduroy and plenty to be found on the bump runs and in the trees.

The day started really cold, not much above 0F and the upper mountain was still shrouded in a cloud. We couldn’t see the summit, but our guess was that the Panoramic chair and the bowl were closed. Could be wrong though…

The snow was the cold, sticky, squeaky stuff, but was so great for making turns. Consistent hardpack with a couple of inches of fresh on top made for some epic swooping turns down some of the easier slopes. Although there are still some thin patches, the mountain is starting to look in much better shape. The Winter Park side was great, really consistent and no crowds/lift lines.

Heading over to Vasquez Ridge late morning, we hit the bump run (Pioneer Express Trail) all the way under the chair. Top half the bumps were hard, deep and irregular. Further down though they were a joy to ski, soft and quick enough to elicit whoops from us. Buckaroo, always a favorite, was pretty good with plenty of fresh down either side along the treeline. And then Chuck Wagon (still loads of junk showing through!) to head towards our coffee break (it was cold!).

In the afternoon we hit more bump runs, Engledive was great fun although appeared to have been groomed recently so the bumps weren’t as big and fun as they can be. The final run of the day was Bradley’s Bash, to Hughes. Bradleys never disappoints, awesome, soft bumps that leave the quads burning towards the bottom. Even the groomed half (the run is named in honor of Steve Bradley, the inventor of the first grooming machine) had plenty of chopped up powder to ski. And Hughes was Hughes, steep, quick on a man-made hardpack.

With more snow to come, the skiing will only get even better. And we didn’t even cross to the Mary Jane side with her epic bump runs, or into some ‘real’ tree runs.