Superwoman

Today turned out to be a warm beautiful day. Temperatures rose into the high forties at the base and just below 40 atop Summit Chair. I would say it was a good day to be on runs that had been groomed overnight. We took a number of runs on the groomed trails from the top of Summit Chair in the morning. Some of the early morning turns were on slightly firm corduroy while other felt like winter snow under foot. Terry’s Return, Red Ridge, and Yellow Trail were the most enjoyable to me. One of our favorite Alpine skiers is Dottie.  We caught up with Dottie on Charity (Red-Green) where she was showing off her Super Woman Cape. Dottie is 90 years old heading to 91 in June. You can find her on the mountain on more days than you can count.  We all love Dottie and hope we can be on our skis at her age.

Superwoman of Alpine Meadows Dottie

I did not see a Marmot today, but I did spot a place on Rolls and Knolls where one had obviously emerged from a winter of sleep.

Dirty hole in the snow where a Marmot emerged from its winter of hibernation.  Marmots spend half their lives in hibernation.

I was a little late for Sherwood, but it was not too squishy around noon when I skied the main Sherwood Run. However, off-piste like Sherwood Face was very mushy and not all that much fun. I did traverse way out South Face just because it was open where I found some soft snow (snow that was left untracked by other skiers). Making turns in these patches of not very deep snow, and returning to the base of Sherwood on the groomed road that was smooth as silk, made the late trip to Sherwood tolerable.

A better choice for the afternoon was Scott Chair. Bobby’s and Ridge Run were almost turning to a corn condition late in the afternoon. Gentian was open so it seemed as if a tour down to Subway was inevitable. We made it to the bottom, but it took a lot of effort. Heavy wet snow that needed to be skied by many other people before we tried, fought us the entire way down. It was slow and not a run to be remembered for very long.

The worst run of the day, however, was Expert Shortcut. Unless you like deep mush I would stay away from this slope.
Perhaps the Palisades area and Lower Saddle would have been better choices. It sounds like I had a terrible day, but the groomed trails were pretty enjoyable. I think they saved the day for me.

Expert Shortcut does not look all that bad in the photo, but it was made up of deep slushy mush

Hopefully another day or two of cold nights will turn the surface to corn and we can have some real spring skiing.

Enjoy your day,

Andy