Monday Leftovers

What a day it was yesterday! We skied bell to bell because it just kept getting better. From my perspective it was worth the long drive back to Truckee. I heard reports of 3 hours and 4 hours back into Truckee yesterday. We managed to do it in 100 minutes by taking the 267 route. Then there was the berm and another round of snow removal upon getting home. Needless to say, my energy level was not so high this morning.

I did not join the throngs at Summit, as the east wind was blowing pretty strong, almost to the point of wind hold. Instead  I headed to Roundhouse, and started the hunt for leftover pow scraps. As it turned out, I did not have to try very hard. That last portion of snow that fell yesterday was probably the lightest snow we have seen this season. Even the terrain that was cut up yesterday skied like fresh tracks. We found all sorts of fun.

By 11am, I noted that snow that had a southern or south eastern exposure suddenly had that heavy feeling. That caused me to be a bit more selective of my lines.

After lunch, the line on Summit was gone and we ventured higher. The question on your mind is likely whether or not the hikes opened…the upper bowls and High Traverse did not open. Lower Beaver did open and there was a lot of traverse action out toward the Buttress. While I didn’t do that myself, several people claimed it was “all time”. I heard the same said about Wolverine Bowl and the Gentian Gully terrain this morning. Alpine Bowl…not so much. The east wind did a lot of sculpting and packing of the snow. I tried a run down Terry’s and found it to be an interesting bouncy ride.

We did an around the world trip after that and found that the snow was rapidly changing at Sherwood, Lakeview and the sunny side of Scott. On the groomed surfaces, the snow was getting clumpy and bumpy. Off piste, it was rapidly getting manky.

Thus endeth this powder cycle. There’s some limited exceptions in north facing terrain, generally out of the ski area boundary. I will note that I saw a photo today of a ski triggered avalanche in the Munchkins zone. Do not take avalanche danger too lightly.

For the next 4 days the daytime temperatures are into the 40’s with solid freezes overnight. That is not ideal conditions for off piste skiing until we get some consolidation and maybe some corn formation. Until that time, I’m hoping that Jeremy is wrangling his team of groomers to smooth out the terrain again overnight.

Currently, the hope for the next storm cycle is pretty uncertain. We may see an inside slider over next weekend. The model runs are very inconsistent with numbers, with the most hopeful runs showing less than a foot of accumulation. Other than that, the models keep us dry until that big storm arrives around February 24th…the World Cup storm.