Happy Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day Skiers,

It was surprising to see how many skiers and boarders enjoyed a very short day this morning. When I looked out my window early this morning, I saw a clear sky at the top of Summit Chair. There was no wind to speak of, but the temperature was on the rather cool side.
After a few rides up Summit Chair winds picked up slightly, and clouds moved in dropping visibility into the flat light spectrum. Spoiled local skiers decided to pack it up and head home to do something else for the rest of the day.

The mountain was groomed to the max this morning. This included The Face. I believe this was the first grooming of The Face this season. Word on the slope was that the race department requested the grooming so they could use it for practice.

The Face looking good, but a little on the firm side

It should be noted that yesterday the sun was shining brightly, and temperatures reached into the high forties. Of course this created spring snow on many slopes that turned to a very firm service overnight as the temperatures dropped well below freezing. At 1pm today the temperature at the top of Summit Chair was 16 degrees with winds in the mid-thirties.

We skied the slopes of Roundhouse and Summit this morning and did not venture beyond to Scott, Lakeview, or Sherwood. I found the groomed areas to be rather firm, although they were not icy. We did notice a lot of skis chattering as they came down The Face indicating a firm steep surface.

Beautiful grooming from the top of Summit chair down Alpine Bowl and Terry’s Return

Off the groomed where it had been well skied over the past week, and small moguls lived peacefully, I found firm rough conditions, but not ice. The best snow that I found this morning existed in D5, D6, Pygmy Forest, and Palisades. In these areas wind has blown snow between moguls creating a level surface. There is nice smooth wind pack on these slopes.

Palisades was smooth from the wind that packed into between moguls

I have to imagine Sherwood and Lakeview were very firm, perhaps icy, this morning. My guess is that the surface did not change for the rest of the day.

We did see Alpine Bowl Chair moving this morning. A little investigation uncovered a rumor that the missing part arrived and has been installed. A load test has to be completed, scheduled for this Thursday, before it can be opened to the public. The rumor is that it will be accepting patrons this weekend.

I took two photos of ABC to show that it was moving this morning.  You can see the change in chair location in the two photos.

Some of you may be wondering what the large building is that blocks the view of TLC from the lodge. This is a maintenance building that is supposed to house the gondola cabins at night, or at least when snow is in the forecast. The infrastructure was not completed in time for the ski season, but crews may be showing up soon to finish the job with the addition of rails needed to move the cars into the building. Although one was not designed for the Olympic Valley side of the gondola, it appears one is going to be needed. Here is a link, if you are interested, to see the plans PT submitted to Placer County Planning for construction of a large building next to the PT side of the lift. Housing the cabins inside at night will help with the problem of snow accumulating on the cabins only to drop on to people or cars in the parking lot on the Alpine side and skiers or boarders on the Olympic Valley side of the lift.

https://www.placer.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/66577/PT-Parking-Building-Design-and-Description-OVDRC-PDF

Enjoy your day,

Andy