Spirit Mt 24-25

[bigwavedave]

Picked up my pass this afternoon. There's 1 inch of wet natural snow on the hill from last night and they just now fired up the snow machines for the first time this season. Looks like it will be good snowmaking weather for the next few weeks.

I was thinking this was later than normal, but it's not really. They just might be able to pull off a Thanksgiving weekend opening after all. Probably just top to bottom Bindlestiff and maybe the rope tow park.

Word is that Spirit will be open 7 days a week this season. 

[bigwavedave]

Spirit opens tomorrow, Saturday. Likely just one run--BindleStiff top to bottom with the Express lift. Snowmaking has already moved to ScissorBill and SkyHooker. And it looks like the rope tow park will be open to distract the youngsters.

I might go up early Sunday to make some turns if they get ScissorBill open. We've had perfect snow making weather, so the snow should be good.

Looks like the U.P is getting hammered with lake effect. 15" in Bessemer as of this morning. SnowRiver is scheduled to open next Friday, Dec 6th.

[bigwavedave]

Sunday

Still just 1 run open and no rope tow park to absorb the unpredictable tricksters. With overcast flat light conditions I wasn't motivated to get out, even for just one run. The Express chair looked full on the webcam and there was jibber hardware on lower Bindlestiff. 

I heard that they had problems with the Express chair yesterday morning and that it was very busy.

I'm gonna wait until they reopen on Friday with more runs.

They started grooming out Scissorbill and Skyhooker today. Snowmaking has started on 4pipe and is going full bore in the rope tow park and on the tubing hill.

btw, Giants Ridge has installed new permanent snowmaking towers and increased water supply on several slopes.

 

[bigwavedave]

Snowmaking progress....

 

Looks like Scissorbill and most of Skyhooker have had an initial grooming. Guns are blowing on 4pipe, tubing hill and Powder monkey. A good chance we'll have the 4 middle runs open by Friday. Looks like they're done blowing in the rope tow park, so hopefully the hardware will be removed from the bottom of Bindlstiff.

Looks like they have removed the chairs and from the old double D chair. Wire cable and towers still there.

[bigwavedave]

Wed

Lots of progress with good snowmaking weather. Snowmaking skipped over BlueRuin and moved to Gandy (maybe for an upcoming race?) and into the woods on lower XC trails. Still blowing on upper 4pipe and in the tubing park. Looks like they are done with Skyhooker and Scissorbill (both have been groomed). Gandy already has a thick base and is partially groomed, so it may be open for this weekend.

Just a dusting to an inch of natural snow here so far today. Sure looks like the U.P is getting buried in lake effect.  @Algunderfoot you still there?

I plan to go up to Spirit Friday morning. With these cold temps I expect the manmade stuff will be nicer than the typical icy/chunky early season stuff.