Roundhouse Opens Up The Mid-Mountain

The Roundhouse lift spun for the first time of the 2016-17 season today, shortly after 9 AM. Suddenly the Kangaroo lift stood off to the side like a forgotten friend. But opening Roundhouse meant that suddenly it was possible to access much more of the mountain, all with not much time spent in line. It’s a moment that many have been waiting for to start their season.

Groomers had prepped Rock Garden, Dance Floor, Weasel and the runouts back to the lifts…as well as the now underutilized Kangaroo and Nick’s runs. Coverage on the groomed runs was great and Dance Floor and Weasel had those lovely little terrain variations that disappear as the snow deepens later in the season.

Off piste conditions were definitely variable. Coverage is still fairly minimal in most areas. Whether or not you hit obstacles depended a lot on where and how you were riding, and the width of your skis and boards. We heard descriptions of the snow as everything from “Powder!” to “a little bit heavy” to “Quikrete”. Skiing the fresh snow successfully required you to be willing to hold speed while making minimal turns – thereby foregoing any thoughts about obstacles under the snow. Myself, I did two runs down Yellow Run, and one on Skadi Hill before deciding that keeping my knees intact for the better part of the season was a priority.

The rest of my day was spent doing hot laps on Dance Floor and Weasel, where the crowds were light and the snow fast. Off piste conditions will improve for most people as things get skier packed and obstacles become more obvious.

• Snow cats were seen working in Alpine Bowl today, and coverage down the main bowl is looking good. We’ve heard opening dates as early as Wednesday for Summit, and as late as the weekend. There’s hopefully a long season ahead and we understand it takes time and a ton of work to get a mountain open.

• There was a Melanie spotting today and she said that Treats will be opening this Wednesday.

• Whatever was going on over at the upper mountain at Squaw has apparently been resolved. The Funitel, Big Blue, Gold Coast and Shirley will be open tomorrow. Top to bottom skiing will be possible via the Mountain Run.

• The weather can be summed up pretty simply for now. It’s time for another dry spell in Northern California. Talks about any sort of significant precipitation this week have literally evaporated over the last 2 days. Temperatures should remain colder, allowing snow making teams to expand coverage on the mountain. We’ll be sure to let you know if anything changes there. Remember that November started the same way and it turned out okay.

Coverage is looking good as you head up Roundhouse

Several days a go, there was creek flowing here.

Yellow offered almost enough speed to deal with the heaviness of the new snow.

The view toward Alpine Bowl is encouraging.

A stream of skiers and riders established a traverse to the lower parts of High Yellow