Yeah, today was awesome. Yes, Summit did open just before noon and that gives us more room to play…but before that happened it was an awesome bluebird powder day. Even though there were some delayed openings over the hill, it never got that crowded, being a non-holiday Tuesday.
First thing in the morning, 98% of the crowd was lined up at Roundhouse, so we headed directly to Hotter Wheels, having missed the opening to the top yesterday. There is a “love it, hate it” part to the new lift maintenance building. It makes it really tough to see Hotter Wheels. That worked to our advantage as people could not see that there were zero people lined up at Hotter Wheels this morning. Yeeewww!
I have plenty of experience with just how bony Expert Shortcut, Shuttle Cornice and Art’s Knob can be early in the season and even mid-season. It’s not my skis that I worry about as much as I worry about the potential for serious injury. Been there, done that. We went looking for leftovers in Sherwood Forest, and actually found it almost untracked. More importantly there was sparkly untouched snow on the upper part of Sherwood Run and Maid Marian just begging for some low angle pow turns to be made.
We were also treated to spectacular views of the Sherwood and Lakeview terrain. Coverage is looking excellent for December 6th, and Mother Nature is just getting started. The question isn’t whether there will be enough snow to open those areas any time soon – it’s a matter of how quickly the mountain ops team will be able to work to get those areas, along with the Scott chair online and open for skiing and riding. My money is that they will make it happen by the 17th as you can count on that weekend being very busy with new interest in the gondola.
We noted people lining up for the Summit chair around 10:30am. By 11:00 am the queue was filled and the line flowed out onto West Runout. If you know me, I prefer not to be a part of any powder stampede. I’m willing to take leftovers if it means I am not racing for first tracks. I’m old and slow anyways. So I did not take my first Summit ride until sometime around 12:30. The Summit corral platform is currently small, the line actually moved pretty fast once it was inside of the RFID gates. The snow on Sunspot was a bit heavy due to the sun exposure, but over toward the Palisades run, it was game on. Even the cutup pow was really fun. I know I am super grateful just to have more terrain to ski even if much of it were groomed tomorrow.
More Snow On The Way
The models have been going really really crazy over the last 36 hours. After first it looked like we would see just a string of weak storms. Now it looks like we’re going to see another round of big snow. The storm rolls in sometime late Thursday and will last into Sunday (or beyond). As of this afternoon, totals could reach into the 4-5 feet of snowfall at the crest again. That said, much depends on where snow levels end up. For a while it looked like we might see high snow levels. Now models are pushing the colder air into our area, which would keep this as an all snow event.
Travel in the Sierra will be a mess again this weekend. You can expect that Highway 80 will be closed at times due to poor visibility. It’s also safe to say that high winds will impact lift operations. While there may be some frustration with that, it should set us up for a fully open mountain for the big holiday period that is approaching.
There are a couple of systems possible the following week. But the general trend seems to want to dry things out toward the second half of the month. That is pretty typical for a La Niña season in Tahoe…super snowy periods followed by some longer dry periods.
The Mountaineer Service Has Expanded
The Mountaineer provides free on demand shuttle services within Alpine Meadows and Olympic Valley. New for this season is evening transportation between the two valleys and a doubling of days that the shuttle service is available. If you’re lucky enough to live in Alpine Meadows, or just staying there, the Mountaineer is a game changer for getting to and from the mountain. We’ve added a Mountaineer page with more information and a link to the required phone app.
In case anyone is interested, super day over at Sugar Bowl. Lincoln opened about 10:30 after avi control. I was one of the first up that lift and was rewarded. After that, I followed a different approach and found my secret low angle areas that do not get tracked right away. Super great day in Tahoe in general. Of course I miss Alpine. Summit is the best lift in Tahoe. I remember when the high speed chair was installed. That was a game changer. Happy to still be out there on a blue bird powder day. Sometimes you hit the big day.