I am going to switch things up today and talk about the weather first and then ski conditions. My reasoning is that the ski conditions today will have little to do with how things will go through the weekend. Today was very spring-like again, and tomorrow we will make a very temporary return to winter.
With the incoming storm now only a day away, the models are starting to finally show some consistency – both model to model consistency and run to run consistency. This “last in the series” storm should bring 3-6 inches at Alpine Meadows elevations. The snow levels should run around 6000 feet for the storm for much of the day Saturday, before dropping to 4,000 feet overnight Saturday. By that time, there won’t be much moisture left, with only about an inch of snow forecast for Saturday night.
So Saturday will likely provide that cream cheese sort of experience again as opposed to light and dry powder that people want. It looked like things might hang into Sunday morning, but the forecast has compressed things into a one day event. Although the temperatures are supposed to stay below 40° on Sunday, the higher angle of the sun in the sky at this time of year will bake things pretty quickly. I would also expect that we will get the stickies on Sunday….and likely the next couple of days after that as mid mountain temperatures reach near 60°.
The winds are a huge question here. The Special Weather Statement calls for ridgetop winds to be in the 60-80mph on Saturday. That is right at the upper limit of what Summit can handle, depending on the exact wind direction. Nobody wants to see another day with Summit on hold and most of the upper mountain on hold over at Olympic Valley. The slightest amount of snow in the forecast seems to bring out the hordes…we shall see.
Taking A Closer Look At Current Conditions
Again it seems pointless to go into a detailed description of how things skied today. It was a typical spring day. The top of the mountain typically skis better than bottom of the mountain, as the lower elevations melt, then refreeze overnight. Timing is everything when it comes to heading to High T, Sherwood, Scott or Lakeview. “Follow the sun” is the typical advice. The time frame has shifted this week with return of Daylight Savings Time. Sunspot has not been at it’s best at 9am this week. I shudder to think about the stupid idea of making DST year round and starting to ski at sunrise in the midst of winter. I would not enjoy PST year round either. 80% of my clocks set themselves and my body clock adjusts to the time changes within a day or two. I don’t mind the change.
Today I spent some time looking at what runs around the mountain are basically done for the season, and which ones are getting closer to done. This is good info to have when there’s going to be another round of new snow tomorrow hiding obstacles like rocks and stumps. Below is a gallery of photos from today. Click on any picture to got to the gallery mode.
Dunzo
These runs are basically done for the season. Yes, you can ski parts of them, but you’re liking walking over dirt and rocks at some point either at the top or the bottom.
- Scotty’s Beam
- Upper Standard
- CB Chute
- Crag Chute
- Juniper Face
Going Soon
These runs are still quite skiable, but you probably want your rock skis. Some will require some careful navigation. These will be risky when covered by 4 inches of snow.
- Bobby’s
- Lower Standard
- Mountain View
- Outer Outer
- Powerline
- Arts Knob
- Expert Shortcut
- Sherwood Run
- Sherwood Face
- Left Sherwood Face
- Right Sherwood Face
- Chute Zero
- East Gully
- West Gully
- South Face
- Upper Saddle
- F-Tree
- Scott Chute
- Promised Land
- Ice Cliffs
- Yellow Chairline
- Sunday School (East Gods Knob)
- Rolls and Knolls
So noticing what is not there is most of the front side of the mountain. The snow pack is getting thin mostly at Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview. We’ve been lucky that we had some cooler days that stopped the rate of melt at those places. Next week…not so much. Between that and J1’s starting to leave, it won’t be long before we are only skiing the frontside of the mountain. It’s still looking darn good for the limited snowfall this season.