It’s a two part report today. Andy checks in on ski conditions and Mark details the increasing amounts of snow for the weekend.
There are clouds in the sky this afternoon, but it is mostly sunny. Warm air is traveling up from down south which continues to make it seem like late spring. However, colder weather and snow is on the way. This weekend may make everything look like winter again.
We picked our way down Sherwood again this morning where we found some nice spring snow, but opportunities on the main runs are dwindling quickly with this warm weather.
The snow did get sticky on our last run at Sherwood today, but it was still firm to corn on Lakeview at 11. Scotty’s Beam is more rock and bush then snow. In addition, the upper portion was pretty firm when we skied it today. The main runs on Lakeview and Scott are still just fine. They are Well groomed and acceptable coverage. Plenty of good skiing remains on the front side with good coverage.
We hit all the groomed runs early as well as Tower 19 and Wolverine off piste.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Maybe This Might Just Be The Biggest Storm Of The Season
The models rapidly came in to agreement today on bringing in more snow this weekend than we have seen since November. That’s quite a statement to be making after so many fizzles and flops. The National Weather Service went so far as to issue a Winter Storm Watch today.
…WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SATURDAY MORNING THROUGH
MONDAY MORNING ABOVE 2500 FEET…* WHAT…Heavy snow with low visibility possible at times.
Travel will be very difficult to impossible. Total snow
accumulations of 4 to 8 inches from 2500 to 3000 feet, and 15 to
30 inches, with localized amounts up to 40 inches possible over
higher elevations.* WHERE…West slope of the Northern Sierra Nevada, Southern
Cascade Mountain Range, and portions of the Sierra Foothills* WHEN…From Saturday morning through Monday morning.
* WIND…Wind gusts 40 to 60 mph over the Sierra crest.
Looking at the models runs throughout the day, the trend has been wetter and further north, with a bullseye in Tahoe. Depending on with model and which run you look at, there is as much as 5 inches of precipitable water in the system. The total accumulated snowfall on the last GFS run shows 48 inches or more by Tuesday.
We have to be careful what we wish for here. If the storm really is that big, it’s definitely going to have impacts on mountain operations. Expect some limited operations, or even a closure while staff work to get the mountain ready for the public. Those jobs include: digging out every lift top and bottom, avi control, moving snow around, resetting ropes and signage all over the mountain, digging out and resetting patrol sleds and moving tower pads up…and much more. I’m hoping we get a lot but not an overwhelming amount. For now, it does not look like this storm is one and done, there could be more down the pike.
It’s still three days away so things could still change… Mark
Gonna be interesting to see how mountains handle this, all J1s have headed back south by now leaving resorts even more short staffed than they already were. So much digging, so few people.