Yes, I can see you. Hallelujah! Sunshine all day with just a few clouds showing up this afternoon. The sky was clear this morning, but it was pretty chilly for the first couple of runs. 13 degrees at the Summit and 25 at the base at 11 am.. Obviously, it was even cooler earlier in the morning.
The good news is that the snow was generally in January condition. Lots of packed powder, and even some real powder, covered the surface. There were slopes that face south that were crispy, but generally skiing was good to better than good.
Not a photo from today, but this is pretty much what Medium Yellow and High Yellow Face looked like this morning
Pygmy Forest, Palisades, and Medium Yellow presented us with skier packed snow interspersed with soft pillows of powder from the pervious day snowfall. Surprise of the day was that Wolverine was groomed. Wolverine has not been groomed for a good long while.
Moguls have grown once again in Gentian Gully, but they were friendly. Lower down the trail I ran into some firm chunky snow, but it was not enough to dissuade me from doing it a second time. Wind, or too many skiers, shaved the softness from Sympathy Face leaving a few too many slick spots.
High Traverse was skied by many yesterday so we were a little hesitant to try it first thing this morning. We thought it might have been very well tracked up, but thankfully we were wrong. The view of Lake Tahoe and Twin Peaks from Upper Saddle was stunning, especially after so many days with limited visibility.
Looking at Twin Peaks from Upper Saddle
After taking in the view we looked down Sun Bowl and realized there were very few tracks. A smooth layer of soft powder, just a few inches deep, lay before us. The slope did not stay that way for very long. We enjoyed the thin layer of softness all the way down to the bottom of Sherwood Chair. It was good enough to do over. So we did!
Bob’s tracks coming down from Upper Saddle
I assume there is a staffing issue at Alpine. Perhaps I am wrong, but Lakeview and Yellow Chairs were not operating today making me think it is a staffing issue as they were turning over the weekend.
Enjoy your day,
Andy
It really was a stellar day. I did not make it to High T as I had family in tow that were not capable of that. Still, high quality skiing all over the mountain with winter like snow into the afternoon. Temperatures did warm up lower on the mountain, so we should see a transition to corn beginning for sunnier slopes. Shuttle Cornice, Tiegel Bowl and Palisades got top scores from me. Yellow chairline…awesome still untracked pow and never saw another person over four laps.
I believe those were my 2 sets of tracks after lapping HT. Surprising that no one had come down in between our 2 runs. Really a fun day today.
My buddy Mark 2.0 had the same experience 8ing his own tracks in CB thirty minutes apart