I should be ashamed of myself for not heading to the locker room at 8, or before 8, this morning. The reason I did not head to the ski area first thing this morning was that it rained at my house until about 10pm last night, and this morning there were only about 3 inches of snow on the deck. Winds were swirling around the house and trees were swaying back and forth with gusto.
The Palisades App indicated that Subway and Big Carpet, or something like that, were scheduled for 9am operation. Most of the other lifts were on wind hold, mechanical hold, or operational hold. I guessed that TLC and Roundhouse would operate, but I thought there was a chance that the other lifts would remain on hold most of the day. Based on the number of people that were at the resort Saturday I figured lines would be ridiculous. My assumption was based on the weather reports I browsed. I was wrong. Before 11am showed up on my watch, Sherwood, Scott, and Lakeview were taken off windhold and then Summit also opened. I missed some good powder turns. However, all was not lost. I put my skis on just before noon and jumped on Roundhouse followed by TLC, Sherwood, Lakeview, and Scott.
How was the skiing? Snow was falling very fast this afternoon and building up quickly.
Lakeview was opened last. I was able to find plenty of naked slopes for making powder turns
Tracks were erased every so often giving us a refreshed surface to cut up. Conditions were funny at times. Occasionally the sky lightened up giving the impression the storm was over only to be followed by snow dumping and blowing sideways. I was late so I had to do a little hunting to find truly untracked, or partially untracked snow. My other issue was the visibility. It was not great, in fact it was poor, especially on any open slope. However, it was not bad if you stayed in the trees. I love skiing in between trees, and so I slipped through trees at the top of TLC as I headed to Sherwood on my second run and followed it sneaking through trees on other slopes.
Winds were blowing across the slopes of Sherwood and visibility was not great on the open Sherwood Face
My best turns were in the trees to the skiers left of Reily’s Run where the snow was knee deep and untouched. I also found relatively untouched snow on the Powerline slope. There are some trees that are not spaced very far apart between Scott’s Beam and Mountain View that offered some sweet snow. Some of you may have guessed that one of my favorite runs are Gentian Gully and Lower Forty Face. The snow was still excellent in this area after 2 pm when Reese, Mark, Ann, and I made powder turns through the trees. The cover photo is of Reese, Mark, and Ann standing in front of Broccoli Tree with snow falling all around them as they got ready to enjoy turns down Gentian Gully and Lower Forty Face.
It turned out to be an epic day even with the crowds that filled all parking lots.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
Well Andy, I think your timing might have been better than showing up first thing. The line at Roundhouse was world class for a while until other lifts opened. Me?…well I just watched it from my ‘puter, and blew and shoveled snow at times when not doing taxes! Who had more fun????
Okay, I will admit that I was pretty salty around 9am when only TLC and Roundhouse were open and lines were to the moon…but then Sherwood and Summit opened and it was game on! Really a fantastic day with 16 inches of new snowfall during the day. Two points…how many days can you say that your last run was better than your first run? More important…how often have I said, “Damn the torpedos, we’re skiing bell to bell, even if it takes two hours to get back to Truckee”?
We were even later than Andy–hopped on Roundhouse right at 2pm–no lines, nobody on the runs. Alpine Bowl in this visibility with Nobody else around is a bit disconcerting even if you have been skiing it for 40+ years. Two hours of blind fun to the last chair was just right. Getting out of the parking lot on the shuttle (Mountaineer was 59 minutes) not so much. Here’s a thought: how about we keep two parking attendants around for the afternoon to manage the two merges? Let five go one way, five the other instead of everyone nosing their way ahead one at a time. Probably some retired CHP officer would do it for a lift ticket and a beer.