Archives: December 2022

First a reminder; we will be delaying the opening of all lifts until 9 am tomorrow – New Year’s Day – and Monday.

Second; we will not be operating Highlands lift and Madonna II tomorrow due to the lack of snow.  We intend to try and scrape up enough to try and get them open on Monday after it freezes Sunday night.  Those lifts will then be closed Tuesday through Thursday with a planned reopening of next Friday or Saturday, pending snowmaking starting Thursday.

I want to thank our grooming staff for doing a great job this morning. We can not control the weather, but we can the most of what it gives us. To produce the best snow surface possible for our skiers and riders the groomers were out in force this morning. Laying down some fantastic corduroy on all 3 mountains before the lifts started turning. I skied all 3 mountains and really enjoyed the beautiful soft conditions! I would have to say that Smugglers’ Alley was my trail pick of the day. Today’s warmer weather brought out some Hawaiian skirts, tutus, and more. The best costume of the day goes to the one and only Adam Howard. He is the first photo in this blog post. My daughter Hayleigh and I spotted him skiing into the Sterling corral as we were about to get on the lift. I told Hayleigh that we would have to wait on top for him because I just had to get a picture of him. My original plan was to get a photo of him standing somewhere at the summit of Sterling. When Adam unloaded the Sterling Lift he took a left turn and headed for Smugglers’ Alley. Hayleigh and I quickly followed him and luckily he stopped on the side of the trail to talk to someone. This allowed us to get in front of him and get the action shot, which turned out to be so much better. The cape flying behind him was the icing on the cake! Thank you Adam for raising the bar!

Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for a chance of rain at lower elevations with temperatures starting off around 39 degrees at 9 am and falling through the day. At higher elevations, temperatures will start at 34 degrees at 9 am falling to around 26 degrees at 4 pm with mixed precipitation becoming sleet and then snow with less than an inch of accumulation possible. We plan to groom 14 trails for a grand total of 66 acres of freshly groomed terrain for Sunday. Please check the trail-by-trail snow report in the morning for the latest lift and trail information.

I would like to give a huge shout-out to ALL Smuggs Employees for going the extra mile this holiday week! They have worked extra hours and many working their day or even days off to give our guests a wonderful experience while they are here at Smuggs. You always Step It Up and it is really appreciated! THANK YOU!

That’s all for now, I’ll see you next year.

Morse Mountain lifts will open at 9 am this morning due to grooming. The Sterling Lift will open at 8:30 am and the Madonna II Lift will open at 9 am.

Due to the exceptionally warm and wet snow conditions, we will be limiting our grooming activity. With temperatures staying well above freezing at all elevations tonight, grooming can lead to greatly accelerated snow loss and we’re all about preserving sliding surfaces for your enjoyment. Saturday morning you can expect to find all of the open Morse Mt. trails groomed except Sam’s Run and Dixie’s Knoll. Sterling will have one way down groomed and we will stay off Madonna altogether. Of course, our grooming team will be monitoring snow conditions overnight and if surfaces start to harden, then we’ll get on it.

With liquid precipitation in the forecast for New Year’s Eve – there may be some snow up top early Sunday – we will probably avoid grooming Saturday night. We plan to delay opening Sunday morning until 9 am for all lifts to allow us some time to get trails checked out and patched up as necessary.  Sunday night it will go below freezing again so we plan to delay opening until 9 am on all lifts Monday morning to give us time to groom trails after temperatures drop below 32 degrees.

Tomorrow we plan to have the Sterling Lift, Village Lift, Morse Highlands Lift, Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift, Madonna II Lift, and Sir Henry’s Glider operating. We plan to have 27 trails open with terrain open for all ability levels. Surface conditions are machine groomed and variable with average base depths of 4 to 28 inches. Surface conditions may change throughout the day. 11 trails will be groomed tomorrow for a grand total of 47 acres of freshly groomed terrain. Currently, it is cloudy and 44 degrees at the summit of Sterling. Tomorrow’s forecast is cloudy with a chance of light rain after 3 pm, with a high of 45 degrees.

It was another fantastic day on the slopes. My daughter Hayleigh and I had a blast on Morse Mountain. We were on Garden Path, Sam’s Run, Dixie’s Knoll, Lower Morse Liftline, and the Sugar Woods. The groomers did a wonderful job last night and the corduroy was just fantastic. The day started out a little cloudy and then the sun came out in the afternoon. Tomorrow’s forecast is calling for mostly cloudy skies with a high of 47 degrees at the base and 44 degrees at higher elevations. Tomorrow we plan to have the Sterling Lift, Village Lift, Morse Highlands Lift, Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift, Madonna II Lift, and Sir Henry’s Glider all operating. We have 39 trails open with terrain for all ability levels. Surface conditions are machine groomed and variable with average base depths of 6 to 36 inches. 19 trails will be groomed for tomorrow, including Smugglers’ Alley for a grand total of 84 acres of freshly groomed terrain.

This week’s featured beer is Pabst Blue Ribbon in the Black Bear Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Don’t forget the easy way to purchase your lift ticket is online at smuggs.com/reload

Today we have the Madonna II Lift, Sterling Lift, Village Lift, Morse Highlands Lift, Mogul Mogul’s Magic Lift, and Sir Henry’s Glider operating. We have 39 trails open with terrain for all ability levels. Father Bob’s is open from the top of the Madonna II Lift down to Mulcahy’s Link. Dan’s Ford is open from Mulcahy’s Link down to Lower Chilcoot. Lower Waterfall is also open. Surface conditions are machine groomed and packed powder with average base depths of 6 to 36 inches. 19 trails have been groomed for today, including Smuggler’s Alley for a grand total of 84 acres of freshly groomed terrain. Today’s forecast is calling for cloudy skies early becoming sunny this afternoon with a high of 41 degrees.

3 Mountain lift tickets are sold out for today, but Morse Only tickets are still available at this time.

Thank you snowmakers, groomers, and ski patrol for all your efforts to get more terrain open for us! Tomorrow we plan to have the Madonna II Lift opening at 9 am. We also plan to have the Sterling Lift, Village Lift, Morse Highlands Lift, Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift, and Sir Henry’s Glider operating. We now have 37 trails open with terrain open for all ability levels. 19 trails will be groomed for tomorrow, including Smugglers’ Alley for a grand total of 84 acres of freshly groomed terrain. Surface conditions are machine groomed and packed powder with average base depths of 6 to 36 inches. Today we made snow on Lower Chilcoot and Mulcahy’s Link. We received 2 inches of new snow in the past 24 hours and 20 inches in the past 6 days. Currently, it is cloudy and 26 degrees at the summit of Sterling with winds of 10 to 15 mph. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies with a high of 41 degrees in the Village and 37 degrees at higher elevations. The Nordic Center is open with 9 km of trails.

Morse Mountain is now open for the season Friday through Wednesday from 5 pm to 10 pm. It is closed on Thursdays due to fireworks and Cat Trax Tours.

Madonna and Sterling are presently closed to uphill travel. Stay tuned for updates. Thank you for your patience.

We received an inch of new snow today and 19 inches in the past 6 days. Today’s forecast calls for snow showers with possible 1 to 2 inches of accumulation and a high of 30 degrees at the base and 28 degrees at the higher elevations. Currently, it is 16 degrees at the summit of Sterling with light snow and winds of 10 to 20 mph. Today we have the Village Lift, Sterling Lift, Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift, Morse Highlands Lift, and Sir Henry’s Glider operating. We have terrain open for all ability levels with 31 trails open. Surface conditions are packed powder and machine groomed with average base depths of 6 to 36 inches. 15 trails have been groomed for today, that’s a grand total of 70 acres of freshly groomed terrain. We are making snow on Lower Chilcoot, Mulcahy’s Link, and the Madonna base area. The Nordic Center is open with 9 km of trails.

We are sold out of 3 Mountain Lift Tickets and Morse Mountain Only Lift Tickets today.

Rockin’ Ron for Hugh. The Morse Highlands Lift is operating and Sam’s Run and Dixie’s Knoll trails are open! This brings our overall lift count to 5 and our overall trail count to 32. Two inches of new snow fell overnight – that makes 17 inches in the past 5 days. Snowmaking on Lower Chilcoot (could another lift be opening later this week?). Happy Holidays and Ski U later.