this happens quite often I reckon it may be an area which they ckear with a snow plough which would explain the shape of the scrapes. Not sure though !!
er, its not exactly the nursery slope, that is further in the background of the shot, they might move the snow around onto the nursery slope I suppose, but why do you care, surely its snow up the hill that you want?
The pictures on this site are a lot more reliable than the one on Igluski ! It's the same picture every day (or the same people in the same position every day) !
The only time I've seen skiers on this side of the drag lift is when there has been loadsa snow !