New doings at The Bowl

Currently of course, Snowbowl is not yet open for the '09-'10 ski season, so rather than post conditions, I'll make mention of the latest expansion accomplished at The Bowl. Two new runs were cut up in the far NW corner of the area, accessed by the Lavelle chairlift. The first runs roughly parallel to Nutcracker in the area known by many as Sunshine meadows, which crosses LaVelle Creek and connecting at the bottom of Lower Hot Fudge. The other is further to the West, and drops in near where the path to "The Cornice" leaves the road, and will come out near the bottom of the LaVelle chair. Though each of these runs are to be designated as "blue square" intermediate runs, the pitch appears to be comparable to Whipped Cream, which is designated as a "black diamond". Regardless of the designation, these runs represent a considerable increase in acreage cleared for skiing on the LaVelle lift, and will present more variety for the intermediate skiers who don't feel ready to ski the bowls. It is Snowbowl's intention to groom these runs.

In addition to the new runs, there has been some thinning in the trees between them to create a gladed area, though it isn't cleared so much as to seem like a run.

This season's new runs makes five newly cut runs (not including the drastic improvement of West Ridge) in the last two seasons. In true Snowbowl management style, while all of them appear on the trail map on the Snowbowl website, four out of five remain unnamed, and the one that is named on the map, is spelled wrong. They'll get around to it eventually.