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T360 Middle of The Night Shift Apres Ski Edit @ 1:33 A.M. EST.


The Delayed “Progressive” Opening Status early this morning was created by
the surprise Freezing Rain that was enough to coat surfaces with a thin
covering, but not enough to effect Trail Surfaces. The delays were mostly
due to Logistical Chores such as clearing Ice off Glass in Lift Control Booths,
inspecting Safety Systems, re-examining Trail Conditions, etc., etc.







The Skiing starts out very Smooth every morning and with the softness in
the recent deep accumulations, moguls start to appear in the steeper pitches
by mid-day. Depending on traffic and trail popularity, the mogul size tends
to grow and there’s no doubt that by Last Run, there’s a Work Out Value on
almost every descent and we feel totally justified in our recommendations to
strictly adhere to Skill Level Trail Ratings.







Some of the narrower, wind sheltered trails remained very smooth, as did some
of the wide open trails where the wind kept things moving. Nansen for example
was quite smooth, but it was the wind power keeping snow from building up so
there were no mogul formations there.

Speaking of “Wind Power”...





The Weather Forecast had included a “Sunny” component... You could see splashes
of Sunshine on surrounding hillsides and on Lac Tremblant, but the Summit remained
Overcast and very vigorous, sometimes Sideways driven snow moving from the
Gondola Side towards Lowell Thomas and Duncan.

The Benefit is currently falling to the North Side where the snow is being blown
over to, and especially just below the Summit, there are some areas where you
might say it’s dumping into.

Here’s a Macro Look at the Snow accumulating right now. It’s a very light crystalline
structure that has a more 3-dimensional “Particle-Like” shape than the typical flat
Snow Flake. The impressive part is the dryness which is very desirable due to the
lightness, and low resistance as you Ski through or across it.











Tomorrow should be a great day on this New Snow. Overnight Grooming will
keep Skill Level “Green’s" Green and “Blue’s” Blue, but it’s still going to be very
important to select Terrain matched to your actual abilities.





----------------------- 4:55 A.M. Orig. Post --------------------


92(*) Open Trails on the 4 Sides of #Tremblant...
Our Orig. Post @ 4:55 A.M, Our Update Now @ 7:45 A.M.:
With “PROGRESSIVE OPENING” Caveat:
From the Official Tremblant.ca 2/29/16 Trail Data:
"WARNING: Due to the weather conditions, first tracks are cancelled
and all of our operations and trails are in progressive opening."(**)


What’s Your Favourite Snowy Tremblant Trail?







Changing Open Trail Status, Changing Lift Notice, Changing Conditions...
Potentially by the minute on days like yesterday and today!
Just some of the reasons you want to consult with Mountain Info. Crews
who are in touch with all the latest updates by Radio Contact from Tremblant
Mountain Operations Management. Anytime you see these distinctive “?” uniforms,
you are within arm's reach of the answers to your questions.

((**)RE: Our Update at 7:45 A.M.
We think the unusual step of placing "all of our operations and trails
are in progressive opening” is due to a very pesky and unexpected shot
of last minute Freezing Rain. Typically, “Progressive” or Gradual Openings
are applied to individual Trails that require Ski Patrol Clearance/Verifications,
so there has to be something significant to warrant a “Blanket” declaration
covering 100% of all operations. We will attempt to add detail ASAP or Apres Ski.)


Getting an early start today @ 4:55 A.M., because it’s just going to take HOURS
to dig out...






All of the Tremblant Region got significantly Dumped on... again.

Roads ’n Hills Closed with Police blocking traffic off, accidents, cars in Snowbanks
Messy, Messy, Messy, BUT EXCELLENT NEWS FOR SKIING!

There are places in the bush right beside trails where Drift Lines are a metre and a half.







Really Genuine Experts... Rejoice! Your Dreams Are Becoming True!


Huge amounts of Accumulating Snow!





Weather Notes:









-------------- Winter Storm Warnings: ----------------








Conditions Notes:



Please Note: Review trail status icons/legend in graphic below
for individual trail detail.





---------------- Conditions Caveat -----------------

It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that Beginners and Intermediates Stay within
Appropriately Rated Green/Easy, Blue/Medium Difficulty Rated Terrain
due to the extra challenge that may be present in areas of Heavy Snow
Accumulations.

It is Possible that substantial Snowfall Depths May have occurred after
Grooming in some areas.

Pay Attention to Posted Signage and GO SLOW while exploring.

Unless you’re a Genuine, Legitimate, Actual, For Real EXPERT...

If you experience even the slightest sense of control failure,
you need to default to a 1 Step Down Difficulty for best results.

------------------- End Of Caveat ----------------







92(*) Open Trails on the Archival Copy of Official Open Trails, Grooming,
Snowmaking and Lift Status for February 29th, 2016, Courtesy of Tremblant.ca





Yesterdays New Snow during Open Hours made almost all the Open Terrain
improve in Grip due to additional depth over the previously thin top layers.
Indeed, the best indication of that was the Revised Open Trail List that went
from the initial early morning 80(*) to 92(*) at noon.

As you Skied around, you could just tell, sometimes on a run by run basis, that
Traction/Performance/Action was improving by the hour.

By Last Run, Trails like McCulloch that early morning still had some Icy mixed in,
were now almost “Pure Winter Snow” with dramatically increased Shred Depth.








Links and not-so-fine print:

http://www.tremblant.ca

What’s The Use? Research Benefits of this Archive: http://tinyurl.com/gp5vjps

(*) Understanding Trail Counts - http://alturl.com/n54py

http://www.tremblant.ca/mountain/trailmap-e.htm

http://www.tremblant.ca/galleries/webcams/index-e.htm

http://translate.google.com/translate_t ... =fr&tl=en#

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/CAQC0360

Forum Index: http://alturl.com/r4cco

Bring Back The Memories... Research Future Visits...
If you would like to look up dates you visited Tremblant, or you
want to research days/weeks/months to visit, you can sample what
they look like historically, month by month, year by year.

GoTo: Archive, Search Reports by Date: Index: http://tinyurl.com/yktelmu

When reviewing dates from any of the past, numbered, archived pages,
you can use the "Previous Topic" or "Next Topic" buttons, located
screen far right, in upper date/message bar to scroll through sequential
dates, or use your browsers "back" button to stay on the selected index
page for non-sequential date reviews in either forward or reverse order.

There are approximately 6, 25 day Index pages per season.

( If you "Bookmark" the link above, it will always take you to the
First index page with the latest posts. That gives you an immediate,
current to 25 day past, review scroll of Winter Alpine Conditions by
consecutive date.)

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Additional Apres Ski For Feb. 29th, and Partial Draft For March 1st 2016.


We’re including this additional Apres Ski/Draft because it represents a frequently occurring
Weather pattern that depending on wind direction can benefit the side Opposite the Wind
direction.

In this case, we have a Westerly based Wind.

The Summit is Overcast and even though there is Sun in the Forecast, the Summit never sees it.
Looking closer at the foreground though, you can see “Brightness” on the Lake Surface, and as you’ll
see below in the second pic., this “Brightness” is actually sunshine, however briefly it appears and
disappears.







Riding up the Porte du Soleil from P2, looking back over Lac Tremblant you can see the Fast Flying Sunny
patches moving across the Lake and Shoreline.







So, what happens is that the moist air being pushed up into the cooler elevations
causes the moisture to condense and then what happens over the Summit is...
Sideways Driven Snow...









Our understanding is that this phenomenon is “Orographic Precipitation”, as defined
by the principles of Warm Moist Air being pushed upwards into Cooler Upper Air
by Geographical Features acting as a ramp.

At the time, the South Base Level Temp was -1C, very close to the freezing mark.
Up at the Summit it was -5 C and that was certainly enough to cause condensation
in the cooler air masses aloft.

The Westerly direction was pushing the snow over the top to end up falling primarily
on the North Side Summit Sectors where it was accumulating quickly.








Using Ski Poles as Crude Measuring Devices... with one pole up, and one pole down,
it’s easy to see there’s a very big drift-in here. The important part though, is that
all this accumulated drifting has been integrated into the adjacent Trail Surfaces/Base,
with all the consequent benefits to quantity and quality.

Below:
Looking at the Mountain Fur Tree on Screen Left of the pic. above you can see
snow in the small needles. Looking at those needles under Macro Close-up you
can get a very good view of the Snow particle which is not so much a Snow Flake
as it is a more three dimensional Particle. It’s the dryness we like though. If it had
any dampness in it “Sticky” would have been a big factor, but that was not the case.
This is a fine, light and dry particle and it Skis like Satin Smooth with very little
foreword friction and excellent Glide.








The recent/current snowfall has been very large compared to usual. As a result
the normal compaction rate is not quite as quick to achieve, simply because there’s
so much to compress, so that has meant more in the way of Moguls by Last Run.

Every nights Grooming cycle helps so when things settle out after a few days
Post Blizzard... the real user friendly, all-day durable, smooth cruzin’ will come
to maturity in the next couple of days or so.

We see this Big, Natural, Snowfall Weather pattern here at Tremblant on average
we’d say, about 6 to 8 times per season and typically, those might also be the largest
individual snow events of the season.




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