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It’s Like Magic!

Clouds and flat light over Alpine Bowl this morning

My expectations were really low for skiing today. I mean really low. There was a heavy cloud deck and a light layer of mixed precipitation coating my driveway as I headed for the mountain this morning. Even as I got to the parking lot, and it looked more like an inch of snow rather than frozen slush, I expected nothing more than a standard “dust on crust” experience. Still, I was motivated to go skiing because Wolverine was  reportedly groomed for the first time of the season, and that was something different.

As our smaller than normal crew took our first chair ride up Summit, we struggled to see whether or not Wolverine was actually groomed. A combination of factors, mostly the exceptionally flat light, made it nearly impossible to tell from the chair whether or not there was a groomer track. We exited the chair and hung a quick left to Wolverine Saddle for a closer inspection. There was a groomed trail in Wolverine Bowl, but the corduroy surface was covered by a smooth layer of new snow which was a bit deeper than an inch due to wind deposition.

There’s corduroy in there somewhere on Wolverine Bowl

It skied like velvet and making those first few turns, I could hear the angels sing. That said, I also skied the first half of the bowl with vertigo as there was no telling where the edge of the groomed snow ended and what was down and what was up. Having stopped to take a photo, I had no one to follow for guidance. The next few runs were not quite so velvety, but visibility improved immensely with a few tracks to guide you away from the large moguls to each side of the groomed portion.

Our ski group also noted how much better Werners skied with that new coating of snow rolled into the old surface. Only near Sandy’s Corner did things get scratchy again due to a wetter mix of snow from the fan guns in the area. All over the mountain, we noticed how a perfect combination of temperatures, humidity and one inch of new snow has all conspired to soften the underlying snow surface. Whether we were on Alpine Bowl, Weasel, Mountain View or Outer Limits – we kept coming back to the same “That’s the best that run has been all season” statements.

Photo by Unpossible

After a quick warmup, thanks to Melanie’s Chicken and Wild Rice soup, we headed back out and spent the afternoon checking out the off piste conditions around Roundhouse. That same weird phenomenon held true there. We had an absolute blast skiing. Just about everywhere on the lower mountain was really fun. As the hours ticked by there was more blue sky and sun…until the 2pm shadows set in on what is about the shortest day of the year.

The phrase of the day was “It’s like magic!” Snow surfaces that were not so pleasant the last few days were transformed by what we all thought would be a tiny nuisance storm. It was tough to tear myself away from the mountain today to take care of home responsibilities. We all left hoping that tomorrow will be just as fun. By the way, I also noted that Kangaroo was added to the schedule today. Never made it over there today…but hope to see it running when lines get longer in the next week.

Not The Weather You Were Looking For…

There will be slightly warmer temperatures over the next couple of days, and another little hit of snow Thursday night. Then we get a warmup for the weekend into Monday. Highs will possibly reach 50° for Christmas Day skiing, far different than last year!

A series of atmospheric river storms are in the pipeline for next week or maybe longer. They will bring the state much needed rainfall, but they are unlikely to bring much in the way of snow. The first of these AR’s is expected in the Tuesday-Thursday time frame. As of today, forecasters are thinking that snow levels will stay in the 8500 foot range for the whole system, with up to 3 inches of rain forecast. In a typical AR event, eventually the jet stream sags southward and we get snow for the second half of the event. The current event shows more of a zonal flow setup, where the jets stream drives moisture right into the west coast, but we don’t get the cold air part.

The good news is that they are not talking about the snow melting 10k 0r 11k snow levels we have seen with some AR events. The snowpack should be able to  absorb the water from the first event without major flood issues. Additional storms could be a problem for flooding after the New Year. Hopefully we’ll see the jet sag just a bit more south and get more snow into the forecast, otherwise skiing may not be so pleasant next week. Here’s the copy and past from the Reno Area Forecast Discussion (AFD):

The trajectory of the AR and the projected zonal (straight westerly) flow projected in
ensemble cluster analysis lean us toward warmer storms impacting the West for next week.
Initial snow level forecasts (7500-8500 ft) would result in a significant rain event
for much of the Sierra and all of western Nevada. 

Blended model guidance shows a 75% chance of 3+" of liquid in the Sierra from 
Alpine county northward, and a near zero chance for even 1" of snow outside
of the higher mountains from Tuesday into Thursday of next week.

5 thoughts on “It’s Like Magic!”

  1. Opted to visit the other valley today, experienced the same exact conditions you’re describing. Velvet. Velvet everywhere. Even in granite chief, where the moguls were the size of mini vans, the snow seemed immensely softer than expected. My expectations for the day were so low that I brought out my board instead of my skis, oh boy do I kinda regret it. Fun regardless, but completely unexpected conditions today.

    As far as those ARs are looking… wish I bought a rose pass this year. Looks like it could be a crap shoot for everyone.

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