Hidden Stash

Hello Skiers and Riders,

The sky was overcast today, but temperatures warmed up nicely (maybe a little too much).  Skiing remains good with winter snow on the north facing slopes. Of course, the bumps grow each day and groomed runs become shaved and firm as the day moves along. However, there is secret stash hiding on the mountain.

Today was the first day the Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows interconnect gate was open.  This is a backcountry trek leading from the top of Summit Chair to the KT22 Saddle just west of the top of KT22.  We decided to put on our backcountry skis and give it a try early this afternoon.  The first part of the tour leads from Summit to the north side of Estelle Bowl and to Bernie’s Bowl.  We are all familiar with these runs and the effort required to walk or ski to Estelle Bowl.  From the top of Bernie’s Bowl, or just prior to it, we skied down into the Five Lakes Basin.  This is a lovely treed undulating slope that offers up a good number of turns.  Today, the slope was free of ski tracks and covered with last weeks six to eight inches of dry powder.  Wahoo! This was good fun.  At the bottom of the slope we put on skins and walked across a couple of small frozen (snow covered) lakes.  Then it is a short skin up to the saddle.  We put skis back on at the top of KT22 Saddle and then skied down to the base of Squaw where we picked up the bus back to Alpine.  It is a good work out with some excellent turns in the middle.

There are signs along the way indicating closed areas and areas that are out-of-bounds, but we did not see any signs indicating the way to get to Squaw Valley.   A track has been groomed at the edge of the wilderness on private property that might make it easier to ski from Squaw to Alpine, but we did not use it today.  We did not break any speed records.  I think it took us about an hour and a half from the base of Summit to the base of Squaw.

On the bus ride back I had a chance to ask the driver how many people have been riding the shuttle.  He mentioned they were very busy with customers over the holiday period and offered that 18,000 people rode the shuttle (back and forth) during the month of December.  He also noted that many people seemed to only ride one way.

Enjoy your day,

Andy