What's left

UPDATE, SATURDAY AFTERNOON:  Snow started falling just about as predicted at noon, and light snow has continued to fall as of 4 PM with an no sign of letting up. Only one inch so far, but if, as predicted, the snow continues to fall at this rate all night, we should end up with the "promised" 3-5 inches. With that much, at least the Whiteface Highway, the golf courses, and Newcomb Lake Road will be skiable starting tomorrow, Sunday 12/19.


The good news is that there is a good chance of new snow starting during the day on Saturday.  Predictions for accumulation range from 3-6 inches. The bad news is that there is only one route that still has any base for this new snow to fall on. Now, if all areas receive the full 6" quite a number of the smoother early-season favorites will be skiable; but we have known to be disappointed before with the forecasts.  

The one route that will be skiable with even minimal new snow is Newcomb Lake Road to Camp Santanoni as that road still has a continuous base of an inch or so of crust, sometimes thinning to less than an inch of gray ice.  Photo of the coverage at the gate at the top. Photo of the coverage at the open area at the Farm Complex below  These are the two least-covered sections of the road, although the south-facing hill just after the Farm Complex does not have perfect cover either,  Still both have continuous thin, icy base.







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Otherwise, all the other likely early-season skis have either brown leaves or bare gravel for a base. Maybe tomorrow's storm will pleasantly surprise us, but so far the forecast for next week leading up to Christmas does not show much chance of any additional new snow.

Finally, a big shout-out to all who went out and cleared the trails after last Saturday's high winds.  There was definitely much to clear. Thursday night also had high winds, but not as high as earlier.  We're so far hoping that not much new blowdown came down.  Let us know of you find otherwise.