Wind Buff, Snowdrifts and Windlips

First things first. If you live in the Tahoe area, the wind probably woke you up last night, likely around 3AM. I know I’m not the only one that picked up my phone and checked the Remote Data site to see how hard the wind was blowing over the crest. Here’s what was going on at Ward Peak just before sunrise:

Yeah, that was an intense night on the mountain. It wasn’t surprising to see that only Weasel On Speed was not on windhold this morning. Ultimately, Roundhouse did open right at 9, to the delight of a reasonable weekday powder crowd. The snow was certainly wind affected, with most areas offering a smooth dense surface, covering all but the largest of icy moguls. One of the unfortunate effects of the wind was to also create some pretty big snowdrifts and windlips. Those are great fun when you can see them, but I kept finding them accidentally in the flat light conditions.

I happened to catch Kangaroo quietly opening mid-morning, attracting little attention. So we headed there to pick up a few easy powder turns and ended up staying for about 10 runs.

We also finally took advantage of the higher drop-point of Chair 3.25 for storm day skiing. Some of the best snow of the day was found near Sherwood Cliffs, as well as Reily’s Run. Well, that would be until Summit Chair opened, just before 1 pm. Given the flat light conditions, and that I had already located my fair share of windlips and snow drifts, I skipped that for today. Someone else can tell me what a stupid mistake that was in the comments.

Last note about today, we noticed Hot Wheels Gully was finally filled in enough to open. Word on the street was that it’s still quite narrow and loaded with extra whoop-de-doos, in case you like that sort of thing. By Friday, it should be quite a bit more filled in.

Our modified forecast for this storm was for 6-8 inches, and that did pan out. I would guess there was actually more at the Summit. Tomorrow should bring better visibility, and a lot of wind. If we got a repeat of yesterday, I would be thrilled. The storm for Thursday is still on track too. I  am still very confident in my call for 18-24 inches out of that storm.