Little Taste Of Spring

Wow, skiing was fun today, with a little taste of delicious spring snow. Now that I have said that, it will change for the weekend as the forecast still includes a bit of snow over the next 24 hours.

It did not necessarily start out spring-like, with a stiff wind blowing at all elevations this morning. It was a good morning for the groomed slopes. Where the slopes were groomed, it was fast and fun. Unfortunately, grooming was a bit more minimalistic than we like to see 5 days out from the last big snowfall. At the top of the mountain, both Alpine Bowl and Sunspot were groomed smooth and wide, as was Terry’s and Wolverine. Only D8 remained ungroomed off the top. That left quite a bit of room for those that thought they were training for the World Cup to speed down the hill.

Lower down on the hill, things were a bit more constrained. Red Ridge, Ladies Slalom and Boomerang missed the grooming list last night. Kangaroo Ridge just had a cursory pass or two.  That meant that the fewer groomed routes back to Summit and Roundhouse were pretty busy this morning. While some of the off piste skiing was good, other areas had that sheen that said “don’t bother” this morning. A friend did mention that Palisades (at Alpine Meadows) was his run of the day today. That was not on my bucket list today.

To me, the star of the show was the the 90% ripe corn snow that appeared today at Sherwood, Scott and Lakeview. Before lunch we caught some excellent turns on the recently groomed Robin Hood as Sherwood Face was not there just yet. After lunch, Ridge Run, Bobby’s, Mountain View, Outer Limits and Twilight Zone all had super fun 90% corn snow that was just what my doctor ordered. Gone was the stickiness of yesterday and the clumps of the previous days. Today’s snow remained fast and smooth until I turned in at 2:30.

So I am a little bit salty about that new snow falling over the next 24 hours, as it will reset the corn cycle. It’s just enough snow for marketing departments and weather personalities to put powder dreams into people’s heads and send them zombie-like into another traffic filled weekend. Currently, the point forecast calls for 1 to 3 inches of snow overnight with another 1 to 2 inches possible tomorrow morning. At the low end, that makes for dust on crust. If we reach the upper end, it will be short-lived fun.

Temperatures are supposed to remain cold through the next week with chance of a few flakes for Valentines Day.

There’s been a lot of talk about traffic lately. Yesterday, representatives from various government agencies and Palisades Tahoe held a public meeting where the subject of traffic was on the agenda. As expected, there was a lot of self congratulatory talk about what a great job we’re are doing with traffic by adding a few cones and staging a CHP officer or two on Highway 89. While it may have prevented traffic from backing up on to Highway 80 last weekend, that is at the expense of anyone trying to arrive at Palisades or Alpine Meadows from anywhere else in Truckee or North Tahoe.

What is something concrete that Palisades Tahoe could do to help with traffic this season? Why not send the marketing team on vacation until things slow down again in late March or April? We don’t need any more promotion of powder days, the new shiny boxes, the World Cup event, or anything else that will bring more people to the area. It’s one thing to maximize your profits, it’s another thing to maximize your profits at the expense of the community where your business is based.

So, keeping expectations real for the weekend…expect some new snow but not an amazing powder day. Expect that traffic will be as bad as ever…unless people completely stay home for the Super Bowl on Sunday.