12/30 update. All About snow

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Sky Tavern

12/30/2021

Going to try to update everyone quickly Snow has set us back. Not much has gotten done but dig out for a week, but there will be a season coming.

All right, that pretty much sums it up. Everywhere you look there is snow, lots of snow. I am going to put this together while being as worn out and exhausted as I have been in 21 years of Sky Tavern. This is a bunch of snow that got here over the last week and we have had to move it all.

Calendar as of today's date.

Friday 12/31. Race Team and Freestyle Team Practices. Ski Patrol will continue setting Sky Tavern up.

Sunday 1/2. PSIA & AASI Certified Instructors and candidate training. Race and Freestyle Team training.

And to be honest that is as far out as I can see now. Open Snow is calling for more storms with much moisture for next week. There is lots of debate on when and how much, so stand by. It looks like snow is just going to be in our future for a while. In 2017 we skied until May.

The next task is to get the adults up to speed running a ski area and instructing kids before we have everyone on the mountain. That is/was the plan for the 8th and 9th. Please watch for emails to see what we do. The snow should be around for a long, great season but right now we have to manage it to use it. That new snowboard will not be in the closet for long.

We are still working our way through gear rentals. Colin is setting up those that had appointments that were canceled and those with current appointments. Then we will see what else we can do. We need some clear weekend weather and a bunch of tune room help soon. I want every set of skis and boards we have on kids' feet, but that is going to take a little time. The storm pushed us back a week or more. If you purchased the rental online but not made an appointment please email info@skytavern.com.

The same goes for passes. They are coming. Closed roads kinda messed up the system of volunteer Moms and passes. We have a system if you don't have your pass opening day. No worries.

The HUGE " how we do it. Sign up for positions. How to live through the first day" email is next. It is long and involved. Please read it. Sorry, but there is some important stuff in there

Once again I apologize but taking pictures of snow with snow as the background stinks. Maybe you will get an idea or just grab a shovel (or metal detector. explanation below) and come up and help. The sled hill is there too.

Bill

Now the fun s@$%. Pictures below.

Just how much snow did Sky Tavern get?

Since we don't have a slick marketing department but just a yardstick, since Dec 15th, 153 inches. 100 of them dropped in this storm cycle. Go look at the top of your first story on your house where the roofline starts. That is 100 inches.

FYI. A year ago on this date, we were assembling the Webster carpet lift. Fifty volunteers with power tools.

There are five of us that get to go to work when the road is closed. The road closed last week and someone has plowed & groomed every day including Christmas. Sunday was the worse condition I have ever seen. The one-lane road base was packed and new powder. The truck was pushing snow and traveling just below the top of the guard rail in a total white-out. A little tense. Lots of snow.

Snow 101.

Snow out on the hill. We want to pack it down and turn it into an ice cube. That way it stays around for a long time. That is what the snowcats are for and why they are in motion all the time during a storm. There is a crew that work really long nights.

The opposite is true in the parking lot and the decks. If we don't stay ahead of snowfall by plowing and blowing, we get the same ice cube and it never goes away. Just the way we have to do things. It is all about farming snow.

Some new sights.

Tourists standing in the middle of the road in front of the Reindeer Lodge sign taking selfies. Cars sliding around them. I did my best impersonation of John Dunton with a grizzly in a field and yelled.

Snowboarders and skiers going down the middle of the closed highway not noticing two tired guys in a huge Toyota truck on their butts. They were skiing and riding poorly by the way.

An Amazon semi wins it all. Admittedly the road was open. A full-size semi-truck creeping down the road towards Reno right at the Tannenbaum Event Center. No chains on it, 200 cars behind it. The interesting part was he was aimed uphill in the downhill lane, backing his way to Reno. Guess he made it.

There is still a huge amount of clearing to do. Webster is out, Rocco is 4 feet under. The new blow-up building is so buried it looks like a ski jump. And does anyone have a metal detector? We lost a manhole cover while plowing. We sort of know where it is. HELP!

There are 1000 pictures more and 1000 that didn't get taken. Freestyle coaches digging out Webster for three hours would have been good! This is a pretty epic start to 2022. See you soon. We will get this party started. You can stop wearing PJ's inside out too.