Soooo, went to Snowshoe yesterday, my dad and I have season passes. So yeah, we got there and parked, and general parking was nearly full. Walked over to the top of Widowmaker, and took the groomed Widowmaker as our first run. (It's really a blue when it's groomed.) Wow. I have never seen such a long line for Widowmaker lift. It was enormous. Both sides. It took nearly 15 minutes to get on the lift. So we decided "enough of this" and took Flume over to Powdermonkey (which had a line stretching well out of the queue ropes) so as to go to the Western Territory.

Wow. The Western Territory is a life saver. Cupp Run was torn up from so many people taking it, and there were a lot of people on it, but there was never a line for the lift. I was shocked, until I thought of how probably 75% of people skiing at Snowshoe are pretty bad. By about 12 o'clock, Cupp Run was a mogul run, which actually made it really challenging and fun.

(Lower) Shay's Revenge was REALLY interesting. See, they had been making snow on it for like the last week -- and there were HUGE snowmaking whales on both side, with moguls in the middle, dividing the whales. The whales were really interesting. I had never seen Shay's Revenge like this. The whales made for a series of horizontal flats followed by nearly vertical drops! It's a very cool effect.

At about 2, we went back to the front side, and ate. Shaver's Center wasn't bad, but it was 2 o'clock, after all. It started to rain. We headed back onto the slopes, and were happy to find that the lines were much shorter now. At about 3, even the Ballhooter lift had almost no line, just because it rained for about 30 minutes. So rain kind of made the day better because it made people get off of the slopes.

So, all in all, it was actually a great day.

Thank God for the Western Territory.

Mack - I am heading up to the Shoe on Monday for the week. Do they have enough base to get through this warm rainy spell? Thanks

There was a bare spot at the top of Knot Bumper (I think that's always there), but that was the only trail I noticed one on.

I would say they do have enough base, as the rain has passed them, and today everything is open. They are expected to get snow today, and the temperatures are expected to drop below freezing at night.

Thanks for the report, Mack! I think I'll head up Saturday night for skiing Sunday and Monday.