It Was Great Until It Wasn’t

That’s the thing with spring snow storms. You have to deal with the aftermath as the weather warms again. Today actually started out very nice, with groomers that were buffed smooth and wide, and perfectly soft. It was hard to go wrong on any groomed run off Summit or Roundhouse for the first couple of hours. We did a lot of hot laps quickly, knowing that the stickies would arrive early today.

Eventually we started trying some off piste trails, with variable results. D7 was good, Tower 19 was okay and Solar Flare was pretty awful. Over to the south side we went to check on the state of things at Sherwood, hoping that the off piste terrain was skiable. The Sherwood groomed run, or what is left of it was mostly corn, until the runout at the bottom. Robin Hood was semi-corn but a tad sticky. In the name of science, I took a lap through Chute Zero. That’s going to need another day or two as it was like glue.

We also checked out the corn ripeness at Scott and Lakeview, again with variable results. Ridge and Bobby’s were almost there in the steeper sections, but pasty and slow in the flatter sections. Over at Lakeview, Outer Limits offered the most consistent spring snow of the day, skiing very well right around noon. Jorg’s was not as good, as it faces away from the sun and takes longer to transition.

By 1pm today, the frontside snow was getting really sticky. We’re starting to see some good corn transition there too with the sun now higher in the sky. But not quite yet. When you have to push to get down Tiegel, it’s time to go for a bike ride.

The question remains as to how long Sherwood will stay open. Will the corn ripen before things get too rocky over there? I hope so. Sherwood will often stay open for the return from High Traverse in the morning hours. High Traverse has not opened the last three days. I’m hoping that patrol lets it cook until it’s ready. We mentioned that Bobby’s is close to done and I noted more brush and brown spots on Ridge Run today.

Looking at the weather ahead, we have some very warm days ahead through Saturday. Tomorrow we still have a bit of north wind keeping us slightly cooler. Then we see true spring temperatures without a strong refreeze overnight. That leads to a quicker rate of snowmelt. There was a lot of talk about another storm cycle moving in Sunday, but that can is already being kicked down the road. There’s a couple of things happening in the model trends. The main trend is that the low splits off from the main jet and becomes a cutoff low in Southern California. The Canadian and Euro pretty much take it far enough off the coast to really limit snowfall at all. The GFS is still tracking it inland enough to provide for good snowfall in Mammoth. The second trend is that the ridge returns to strength later next week.

I highly recommend spending time at Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview this week as it’s down to the final count as temperatures heat up this week. According to a Reno NOAA social media post today, Tahoe is sitting at about 68% snowpack right now. The skiing is pretty good right now, all things considered.