Grooming the Powder

I suppose it’s time to take back, at least partly, my complaint about ski areas grooming away the powder.

My preference for powder over groomers remains. But today I got a better appreciation for the value of stomping down the powder: It keeps the base around longer.

This fact is one of those things you know in your head, but have to experience to truly appreciate.

Last week, this is what I saw:

A golf course cart path. The path is not in this case part of the ski trail, and the ski trails themselves were not melting away. Still, the visible cart path and the visible grass were both bad signs for the snowboard and ski season.

Today, the path was not visible. Nor was the grass. Areas that had lost their snow were now good off-the-path places to catch some slight (about 4 inches) powder. And the groomed slopes had an addition applied to their base.

Was I disappointed to find that the only powder available was on the extreme outside edges of the trails? Certainly. On the other hand, the packed-and-groomed new snow should now make for a better rest of the season.