A Weather Smorgasbord

The weather has pretty much happened right as forecast over the last three days. We saw some soggy weather Thursday, another powder day on Friday, and scattered showers for today. We saw it all today: heavy snow showers, bluebird blue skies, chilling winds and dense fog.

For the most part, skiing was much better than expected today. Initially, I though today would be a day of mostly groomed runs, as much of the powder terrain was hit pretty hard yesterday. But then another 3-5 inches of snow fell overnight, and the lumps from yesterday remained fairly soft. So the skiing was quite good in many places, as long as you could avoid the crowds.

It was a busy day for Alpine Meadows. The upper lots filled early, including Chalet Road and White Wolf. Deer Park was mostly full. That new snow is like a magnet. People see snow falling on the TV weather report and they are on their way to Tahoe. One thing we noted today was that there were new faces in the locker room, people that had not been around at all this season are now here. My best guess is that some people are feeling safer now that they are vaccinated.

Summit was the big draw today. I managed a few laps there during the lunch lull, but it was otherwise out of the corral for much of the day. Fortunately there was plenty of good terrain elsewhere with nice powder turns with very acceptable weekend lift lines. We had some areas of Scott completely to ourselves for several runs.

As the sun rose higher in the sky and clouds cleared, farther from the crest, the sun did some damage. We noticed the powder getting uncomfortably heavy in sunny areas around Scott and Yellow. I also heard similar reports from Sherwood. Over at Summit, the snow remained delightfully soft all of the way from the ABC barn over to South Peril. We never made it to Sherwood or Lakeview today!

As of now, we’re looking pretty dry for the next two weeks. There’s a hint of a passing shower here and there, but nothing significant showing on models. It’s the traditional “first day of spring”, and we have purple pansies, and daffodils starting to show in the sunny part of our yard. Tulips are also starting to sprout. I’m perfectly happy to welcome spring weather. Bring on that corn cycle!