edging slightly back to normal

Perhaps Furnace February/Februjune is on its way out ...?  Dare we hope?  Sunday was approximately 20 degrees colder than Saturday which is a step in the right direction - although the suddenly colder temperatures meant that Saturday afternoon's soft spring-like conditions hardened right up overnight. 

Despite it being day #2 of the holiday weekend, it still did not seem to be as busy as last weekend: there were no lines at all until 11 a.m., and after that we skied singles but still didn't wait for much more than 3-4 minutes; the corrals seemed to be moving well too (except for Sugarloaf). There was, however, a whole lot of flakiness in the lift lines and rampant obliviousness on the slopes: both H and I got pushed into the side of the Supreme cat track by people who didn't have a clue.  With the colder temperatures, the snow was firm and fast on the groomers, and really not so good off-piste; we could hear adventurers clattering over the rock-hard bumps on the Catherine's Area runout as we rode up the chair.  By the end of the day, the only spot that really softened was the bottom half of Challenger, which I skied twice.  And I hate Challenger!  We stuck to the groomers all day, skiing all three of the big lifts (Collins, Sugarloaf and Supreme, but mostly Supreme), and racking up 21 runs (only 20 for me) and 29,989 feet of vertical.

Boston has gotten more than seven feet of snow in the last three weeks while we are just days away from hitting an all-time historical low; the eastern half of the country is in the deep freeze while the western half has had springtime months too early.  We are trying to be patient and hopeful that the weather pattern will change, but 2014/2015 is turning into the winter that wasn't and it's starting to make us concerned about the water for the summer.  On the plus side, the skiing in the Cottonwoods is holding up way better than it seems it should be and we're still better off than California and the Pacific Northwest.  The local weather sites are getting cautiously optimistic about a pattern change at the start of March ... fingers crossed and stay tuned.