We are busy wrapping up the summer projects while pushing into winter. With the early opening of the ski area, we have a bit of overlap going on and the weekdays have been great for catching up on these projects before we reopen to skiing/riding for the weekend.

We are taking advantage of the perfect weather window and snow cover to burn the remaining slash from the trees that were removed in September. We had moved all of the slash from the deck sites up on the mountain to the upper parking lot. This worked out well as these piles were not in our way for the early opening and out of the way for burning. The dispersal rates are also very good in this area and carried most of the smoke away from the ski area. We coordinate with State, local and USFS staff on these burns in addition to putting out our public notices.

Slope Maintenance has also been busy harvesting snow from our piles that we collected during the late October storms. They utilize a front end loader to gather the snow and deliver it to our snowcat equipped with a sled on skis. This rig was fabricated by our Vehicle Maintenance crew. The sled has hydraulics connected to the snowcat that allow it to more easily deliver the snow to areas that require additional coverage. Unusual weather cycles (huge early storm followed by extended high pressure) require unusual tactics. Adapt and overcome.